Bulletin 07.26.26

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

– The Gospel According to St. John (Ch. 12)

The Great Commission as the divine mandate to the Church to be a witnessing Church, is not only a law similar to that which was promulgated at the beginning of human history, but it is its spiritual counterpart in the new creation. It is a statement of the task of the renewed humanity as the other is a statement of the task of the old
humanity. The urge to witness is inborn in the Church, it is given with her nature, with her very being. She cannot not-witness.

– Harry Boer, Pentecost and Missions

The gospel does not become public truth for a society by being propagated as a theory or as a worldview and certainly not as a religion. It can become public truth only insofar as it is embodied in a society (the church) which is both "abiding in" Christ and engaged in the life of the world.

– Leslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence