Witness and mission

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

²³ Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Proclaim His salvation day after day.

²⁴ Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all peoples.

Finally, they said to one another, “We are not doing what is right. Today is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until morning light, our sin will overtake us. Now, therefore, let us go and tell the king’s household.”

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.

³⁶ Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.

³⁷ For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”

¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

¹⁹ For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

²⁰ I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message,

²¹ that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

²² I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one—

²³ I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

² And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.

³ Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

¹⁹ 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,

²⁰ and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

² Sing to the LORD, bless His name; proclaim His salvation day after day.

³ Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all peoples.

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

²⁰ Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

¹⁶ Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

¹⁷ If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility.

¹⁸ What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.

¹⁹ Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), to win those under the law.

²¹ To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of Christ), to win those without the law.

²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

¹⁵ But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect,

¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ.

³² And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,

³³ then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.

She said to her mistress, “If only my master would go to the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.”

Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.”

⁴⁶ And He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,

⁴⁷ and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.

³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.”

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁰ Paul stayed there two full years in his own rented house, welcoming all who came to visit him.

³¹ Boldly and freely he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And I said: “Here am I. Send me!”

⁵⁹ And may these words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near to the LORD our God day and night, so that He may uphold the cause of His servant and of His people Israel as each day requires,

⁶⁰ so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God. There is no other!

For they went out on behalf of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

³¹ After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

³² The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned.

³³ With great power the apostles continued to give their testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all.

Every day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

⁴ Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.

²⁰ Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, “He is the Son of God.”

²¹ All who heard him were astounded and asked, “Isn’t this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem on those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?”

²² But Saul was empowered all the more, and he confounded the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

¹⁹ Meanwhile those scattered by the persecution that began with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message only to Jews.

²⁰ But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.

⁴⁶ Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷ For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

⁴⁹ And the word of the Lord spread throughout that region.

You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

Then He said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel,

²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people,

²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.

“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

After they had seen the Child, they spread the message they had received about Him.

So the man went away and began to proclaim throughout the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.