“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Jesus came to bring salvation to the entire world. He came as a Jew to the nation of Israel, but He had the world in mind. He revealed to Nicodemus that the scope of heaven’s mission was the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

For the thirty-three years prior to His crucifixion, He was limited by His humanity. Had we been living then we would have had to travel to the Holy Land to hear Him and see Him. However, He had a much greater plan for His world. He would send His disciples to cover the globe and share the good news of salvation. Jesus’ last command challenged us to reach the world with the liberating truth that God loves us so much He sent His Son to redeem us.

He told us the essential resource we would have in fulfilling His mission. He said that He would be with us until the end of this age. We can’t fulfill His desire by ourselves but we are not alone.

David Livingstone carried the good news to the heart of Africa. In 1896 he returned to Edinburgh University to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

His left arm hung uselessly at his side, the result of being mauled by a lion. He was thin and gaunt from his years in Africa. This is what he said: “Would you like me to tell you what supported me through all the years of exile among a people whose language I did not understand and whose attitude toward me was often uncertain and often hostile? It was this, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.’ On these words I staked everything and they never failed.”

Those words will never fail us, either.