Ever since the tower of Babel, an overriding principle at work in fallen humanity has been to gather, enlarge, and increase our power, control, and influence, in order to make a name for ourselves without any acknowledgement of God. This principle is at work in governments, business, and religion, even the church. The Great Commission is also gathering people into a consolidated kingdom under Christ, but it works contrary to Babel. Christ commands his followers to leave the comfort and security of the known and go out into the unknown, where those who don’t know us live. He asks us to risk losing what we have in order to add new people into his family.

The Great Commission commands us to “go” make disciples, not stay put as safe and secure churchgoers.

The story of how God’s Spirit led the early disciples in fulfilling the Great Commission is found in the Book of Acts. God scattered the quickly centralizing church in Jerusalem through persecution, which caused the gospel to impact hitherto unreached areas. The church at Antioch, under the direction of God’s Spirit, chose to send out the best and brightest of its men to do apostolic (“sent out” missionary) work.

Antioch is our best model of how to do church.

God is still in the business of sending out his disciples to engage and impact those who do not yet know him.

Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21 (NLT)

As we obey the call of the Spirit and go out into our neighborhoods, cities, work places, schools, and other places where people gather, God is developing in us the same compassion that compelled Jesus to give away his life for others.

Being a “sent one” requires us to give away our lives. This means that, first of all, we must believe that God is worth the sacrifice and, secondly, that people are worth serving with our time, resources, and everything else.

This kind of compassion only comes via God’s Spirit. Where it is lacking, people will not serve as “sent ones.” They will take the easy way out and simply gather with other believers.

God wants us to do both – to go and to regularly gather with other sent ones in order to mutually encourage, equip, and strengthen one another for the 24/7 mission of working in God’s harvest field.

The Importance of Listening

If we have Jesus’ compassion, we will realize that every person has a story worth hearing and is a life worth saving.

Many who devote themselves to being God’s ambassadors here on earth are not good listeners. We imagine that others should listen to us since we have the message of life. We often try to skip relationship building in order to quickly inject them with the gospel.

Jesus, however, was a good listener who tailored his life giving words to fit the unique human being who had his attention.

Meditate on that thought for a moment. Many times we try to “can” the gospel message into something we can routinely share. That is not how Jesus operated. He was always listening to people and most importantly to his heavenly Father. If people discern that we are not interested in them or their stories, why should they be interested in us or our message? They most likely will not be too keen on what we may have to say either. Compassionate sent ones care about every person’s story. If we expect to become expert fishers of people, we must become excellent listeners… quick to hear and slow to speak.

Targeting People’s God-Fashioned Felt Needs

Every person has needs that only God can fulfill. Because we live so isolated from one another, we may imagine that other people’s lives are just fine, not realizing that behind every door in our neighborhood some sort of drama is playing out that is preparing hearts to receive the Lord.

Some have desperately asked God to show them a sign that he cares. Could it be that you are supposed to be the answer to their prayer? Others have given up, thinking that God does not love them after all. Some people are embittered at what life has brought their way. Others are despondent, listless, and hopeless. While it is true that wealthy people generally have less felt needs than the poor, it is not true that their lives are altogether rosy. Anyone with wealth knows that money is not the answer to life’s deepest questions nor does it satisfy our deepest needs. Many affluent homes are wracked by relational dysfunction and are reaping the whirlwind that comes as a result of putting other things ahead of God.

When we meet and relate to people, God wants to open our eyes to see them as he does – harassed and helpless sheep about whom he cares deeply. Unless we discern what those needs are, how can we fashion a presentation of the gospel that addresses their heart longings? God is personal. He told the adulterous woman that she was not condemned. He told the Samaritan woman that she was important by engaging her and revealing that he knew all about her sins but did not reject her. He called Zacchaeus out of the tree and offered to dine with him.

In each case, the way Jesus engaged these individuals gave them hope that God knew who they were and cared about them. He accurately represented Father God’s heart toward them. This allowed Jesus to minister at the deepest level with amazing results.

Jesus wants us to partner with him in the adventure of being his personal representatives to lost and hurting people.

We need the Spirit’s help to pull this off. It does not come naturally to us. We cannot do it by ourselves. Only God can reveal to us what lies beneath the cleverly erected exterior that people use as a self-defense. Only God knows the deep heart cries lurking beneath people’s often crusty facades. If we listen, he will tell us all we need to know. He will assist us to fashion gospel truth into a “smart bomb” that goes right to the heart.

Hope for the Hopeless

Every person has a hope, which only Jesus can fulfill. Many of the people who live around us have descended into some form of hopelessness, but deep inside every individual, no matter how dim it flickers, is the hope that God knows and cares about us personally.

People long for a Savior, whether or not they will admit it, since we instinctively know that we cannot save ourselves. We hope for a Shepherd to guide us because none of us knows where we are going at the deepest level of existence. Our eternal destinies are hidden from us when we do not know Jesus. As Thoreau once wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” We bluff our way through life, hoping for the best, but, deep down, we would like to know for sure.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only pathway to knowing the Father. He is the Good Shepherd, the Great Provider, our Protector, and the God of all hope. We can be sure that, unless a person is resolutely hardened against God, there is something in him or her that will resonate with the Good News that Jesus gave his life away to make us children of God. They will be attracted to the knowledge that Jesus will lead them safely on life’s journey, if only they will surrender to his benevolent Lordship.

Fishing for people the Jesus way requires us to learn to see, love, and engage people as Jesus’ representatives. We have been given the privilege to care, listen, love, and speak in his stead in order to lead them to the Great Shepherd. Nothing could be more exciting or rewarding!