GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES
The last words of Matthew's Gospel are a mission for every believer. Here is what Jesus commanded, the power He promised, and why a man named Lazarus, four days dead, is at the heart of everything we do.
MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS
Jesus gave His disciples a command, and it belongs to every believer today.
YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES
The Holy Spirit empowers us to speak of Jesus, from our own street to the ends of the earth.
FROM DEATH TO LIFE
Just as Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave, He is calling the spiritually dead to life today.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
After His resurrection, Jesus met the eleven on a mountain in Galilee. “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17). Then He gave them a mission.
A disciple is not a casual admirer of Jesus Christ. A disciple is a follower of Jesus who lives to learn from Him, live like Him, and lead others to Him.
It starts with conversion. By God's grace, through faith in Christ alone, we turn from our sin, He forgives us, and the Holy Spirit gives us new life. And it continues with a commitment to His mission.
FIVE THINGS JESUS SHOWS US
From Mike's teaching through the closing verses of Matthew, after three and a half years in the book.
THE MANDATE
“Go therefore and make disciples.” Jesus said it to disciples, and it is a command, not a suggestion. You can't reproduce what you aren't: first be a disciple, then make one.
THE MEANS
Worship, even when we hesitate or doubt, as some of the eleven did. Time with Jesus, who “came and spoke to them.” And His Word, heard in order to obey it.
THE MONARCH
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” No place lies outside His authority. The mission is His before it is ours.
THE MOVEMENT
The mission is active, and it belongs to every disciple, not only to pastors. Coming to faith isn't the finish line. Baptizing, and “teaching them to observe all things,” is the work.
HIS PRESENCE
“Lo, I am with you always.” As a missionary, I've felt alone at times, far from my country, my people and my food. I keep coming back to this promise. He is with me, and He is with you.
THREE PEOPLE.
THREE MONTHS.
If three people imitated you for three months (how you pray, how you read the Word, how you treat your family, how you work when no one is watching), would they come out a better disciple, or a worse one?
FROM A MANDATE TO A MOVEMENT
Matthew ends with a mandate. Acts begins with the power to carry it out.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The power is the Holy Spirit's, not ours. Its purpose is to make us witnesses: people who tell the truth about what Jesus has done. And it always moves outward.
On our own we have no power for this. I once spent fifteen minutes, during a power outage, trying to blow up an air mattress whose pump needed electricity. Tired, sweating and dizzy, I got nowhere. That's us without His Spirit.
WHY WE'RE CALLED LAZARUS MISSION
We didn't come up with the name. We received it, and it holds the heart of everything we do.
For a long season we prayed, prepared and waited, asking God for two things before we started: a name and the means to begin. During that time, a friend received a vision from the Lord of legal documents with the name Lazarus on them. At the same time, my dad was hearing “Lazarus” from the Lord. In 2025 God gave us both the name and the funds in the same week.
It fit, because we had already watched Jesus do in a broken church what He did at Lazarus's tomb: call the dead to life. Read how that church came back to life.
“Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
THE ROAD FROM DEATH TO LIFE
Lazarus had been in the tomb four days, with nothing he could do to help himself. Then Jesus called his name. The same voice still reaches the spiritually dead.
DEAD
“Dead in trespasses and sins.”
CALLED
“The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”
ALIVE
Whoever believes “has passed from death into life.”
UNBOUND
“Loose him, and let him go.”
A WITNESS
“On account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.”
Three believers were baptized. Years of prayer and faithful sowing, and God gave the increase. Read the latest news from the field.
READ THE STORY →WE CARRY HIS CALL
Just as Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave, He is calling people everywhere to new life in Him. The spiritually dead are all around us: in our neighborhoods and workplaces, in our own families, and in nations that have never heard. They are dead, but not beyond the reach of His voice.
We can't raise anyone. Only God gives life, through Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). But He has made His people part of His resurrecting mission, so that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). After all, “how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).
And when someone comes alive, the work goes on. In “Loose him, and let him go,” we see a picture of discipleship: helping the newly alive get free and learn to walk with Jesus. That is the Great Commission.
Jesus “did what only God could do, and then He looked for man's cooperation.”
ONE MISSION. NEW LIFE IN CHRIST.
Lazarus Mission is an international missions organization. We unite churches and individuals behind the work of the gospel, so that believers are equipped, churches are established, and the name of Jesus is made known.
EQUIP BELIEVERS
Teaching the Word verse by verse and training local leaders who will teach others also.
THE BIBLE COLLEGE →ESTABLISH CHURCHES
Coming alongside local churches with pastors, teachers, and the resources to grow.
THE CHURCH →MAKE HIS NAME KNOWN
Taking the gospel to people others overlook, from the classroom to the skate park.
THE SCHOOL AND SKATE →WHERE IT STARTS, NOT WHERE IT STOPS
Today our work is rooted in Central America, where God has already built a church, a Christian school and a Bible college. That's where we first saw Him call a lifeless church back to life.
Our heart is to keep reaching outward, to our Judea and Samaria and “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8), as the Lord leads: sending and supporting more missionaries, and carrying His call to life wherever He opens the door.
BE PART OF THE MISSION
Once a month, a short update from the field: what God is doing, answered prayer and the real needs.
Scripture quotations taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
SEE WHAT GOD IS DOING NOW
The same mission is at work this year: believers baptized, a school growing, and local leaders being trained to teach God's Word.
It's never too late to come to Jesus
Three believers were baptized this month, and God gave the increase.
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Two Teachers. Sixty Children. One Year.
Next year we’re adding sixth grade and expanding preschool, growing from 48 to about 60 children.
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Meet Pastor Josue and Karina
Pastor Josue and Karina serve in the church, the school, and so much more.
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