Priority: All Peoples
All Peoples: Go, Send, Stay
Good morning, Main Street.
We’re going to go back to one of our Priorities from our series from this summer, to remind all of us that these aren’t things we just check off once and move on from. These are rhythms we keep coming back to again and again if we want to follow Jesus faithfully.
I want to start with something I think most of us can relate to
Have you ever walked into Costco just needing like two things?
You walk in thinking: Bread, maybe paper towels. In and out. Easy.
But the moment you get inside, everything changes. You’re surrounded by pallets of snacks you didn’t plan on buying, a TV that suddenly feels like a “need,” seasonal decorations you didn’t know existed, and somehow free samples you didn’t even ask for but now feel emotionally committed to.
No list. No real plan. Just confidence.
At least at first.
But about ten minutes in, that confidence starts to fade. Another ten minutes later, you’re questioning your entire life choices. And somehow you walk out with a 48-pack of something you definitely did not intend to buy and a cart that barely fits through the door.
“And you leave thinking: I came in for two things… and now I need a trailer to get home.”
But honestly, Costco isn’t even the worst part of modern life.
Netflix might be more dangerous.
You open it just to relax for a second. You tell yourself, “I’ll just find something quick.”
But then you scroll and scroll and scroll, nothing looks good enough to watch, 20 minutes go by, and somehow you end up doing the one thing you never planned on doing, watching nothing at all.
That might be how some of us feel in our day-to-day lives.
There’s so much around us. So many people. So many needs. So many opportunities to care, to serve, to share our faith. And yet it can feel overwhelming, like walking into Costco for the whole world, only to open Netflix and find out how to actually reach it.
We know we’re supposed to engage. We know we’re supposed to care. We know we’re supposed to go.
But instead, we often end up stuck, doing nothing.
So the question becomes really important: if everything feels overwhelming, where do you even start?
And Jesus actually answers that clearly in Acts 1:8, which is going to be our anchor passage for this morning, which says
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
We are going to go through and break down all the components of this passage:
The differences between
Jerusaelm
Judea & Samaria
Ends of the Earth
Power
Witnesses
Let's start with:
Stay – Jerusalem
When Jesus lays out His mission in Acts 1:8, He starts in a very specific place: Jerusalem.
And that matters because Jerusalem wasn’t randomly chosen. This was where the disciples already were when Jesus said it. In other words, Jesus doesn’t begin the mission by telling them to go somewhere else. He begins by telling them to pay attention to where they already are.
For us, Jerusalem is not a historic city, but rather a place of everyday life. It’s Boise. It’s your job. It’s your school. It’s your gym. It’s your neighborhood. It’s your family dinner table. That’s our Jerusalem.
So one of the most important truths in this passage is
Most people are called to stay.
That’s not the backup plan. That’s not the lesser-than option for people who didn’t get the adventurous assignment. Staying is not what you do when you don’t get called to missions. Staying is the starting point of the mission.
And if we miss that, we tend to assume that following Jesus only really counts when it’s dramatic, far away, or highly visible. We picture missions as something that happens somewhere else, across the world, across the country, or at least outside of our normal routine.
Meanwhile, we can easily overlook the people right in front of us.
The barista we see every morning. The coworker we pass in the hallway. The neighbor we wave to but never actually know. The friend we text but never really check in on. Even the people in our own home, whom we’ve learned to live around but not necessarily to truly see.
Being close doesn’t automatically lead to presence. You can live your whole life surrounded by people and still not really notice them.
And that’s where the danger creeps in of comfort, routine, and disengagement. We get used to our patterns. We move through days on autopilot. And slowly, without meaning to, people become background noise instead of being on mission.
And that’s the opposite of how Jesus moved through the world. In Matthew 9:36, it says,
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:36
He didn’t just pass by people. He saw them. He engaged.
Jesus starts in Jerusalem on purpose. Because the mission isn’t first about distance, it’s about awareness. It’s about opening your eyes to what God is already doing around you.
So the call here is surprisingly simple, but not always easy.
You don’t have to go far to start, but you do have to be aware of where you are, right now.
Paul says in Colossians 4:5–6:
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:5–6
That’s everyday life. That’s your Jerusalem.
Send – Judea and Samaria
When Jesus continues in Acts 1:8, He expands the mission beyond Jerusalem:
“You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria…”
Acts 1:8
This verse isn’t just a list of locations; it’s actually a roadmap for the entire book of Acts. You can see it unfold as the story progresses. The message starts in Jerusalem (Acts 1–7), moves into Judea and Samaria (Acts 8–12), and then spreads “to the end of the earth” (Acts 13–28).
In other words, Acts is the story of God’s grace moving outward, unstoppable, widening, and advancing through real people empowered by the Holy Spirit.
After His resurrection, the disciples are still thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom, restoring Israel, political power, visible authority (Acts 1:6). But Jesus redirects their focus. The kingdom will come, but not in the way they expect. First, they will receive something more important than political strength: power from the Holy Spirit. Not power to dominate, but power to witness.
It moves into Judea, familiar territory, nearby communities, people who share similar backgrounds and culture. Then it moves into Samaria, a place that was not only geographically close but also socially and ethnically divided. Jews and Samaritans had long-standing hostility. Many Jews avoided the Samaritians, yet Jesus deliberately included them.
This is not just geographic expansion; it is relational and cultural expansion. The gospel is not limited to people like us, near us, or comfortable to us.
I remember when I was about 12, my family hosted two boys from Ukraine for a couple of weeks over the summer. They were orphans, and honestly, those weeks were not always easy. There were language barriers, cultural differences, and just a lot of moments where we didn’t fully understand each other.
I remember one of the boys, who was younger, didn’t know how to swim, and we went to the pool one day, and the first thing he did was run as fast as he could, and he went straight to the deepest part and jumped in. I have a vivid memory of my dad in his clothes, jumping in after him to save him.
The other boy I remember would beg my mom every morning for ice cream for breakfast, and she didn’t let him until the last week they were there. When she finally did, I remember being so annoyed that he got ice cream for breakfast, but I didn’t.
But looking back, what it really taught me at a young age was that the world is a lot bigger and more diverse than I had ever realized. There were people with backgrounds, experiences, and stories completely different from anything I had personally seen up to that point.
And that expansion, of who God’s love reaches, and who we are called to see, begins almost immediately in Acts. Persecution scatters some believers from Jerusalem, and instead of stopping the message, it spreads; it actually says it really simply in Acts 8:4:
Those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
Acts 8:4
Ordinary people, telling about what they had seen.
Philip takes the gospel to Samaria (Acts 8:5–8), fulfilling what Jesus had already told the Samaritan woman in John 4: true worshipers would come from every background. Then the gospel reaches even further: an Ethiopian official hears the message (Acts 8:26–40), Gentile households come to faith (Acts 10:34–48), and churches begin forming far beyond Jewish borders.
This is what is described as a story of grace flooding outward, God’s salvation moving from Jerusalem to the nations, not by human strength, but by the Holy Spirit working through ordinary witnesses.
God is the one driving the expansion.
So when we talk about “sending,” we’re talking about joining that movement.
Sending includes supporting missionaries who take the gospel to places we cannot go ourselves. Investing in church planting to help new churches form in other cities and nations. Prayer that lifts our eyes beyond our immediate surroundings and into what God is doing globally. And this isn’t just a good idea, it’s actually how God designed it.
Romans 10:14–15 says,
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
Romans 10:14–15
In other words, sending isn’t optional. It’s part of how the gospel moves.
But it also includes something more personal.
It means recognizing that Judea and Samaria are not just faraway places; they are also the people near us who are different from us. People outside our usual circles. People who may not share our background, beliefs, or lifestyle.
And the question Jesus’ words press into us is simple but unavoidable:
Is your faith contained inside your comfort zone, or is it being sent outward with God’s mission?
Go – The Ends of the Earth
When Jesus finishes His statement in Acts 1:8, He doesn’t end with Samaria. He pushes the horizon even further:
“…and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
That phrase would have sounded massive to the disciples. At that time, “the ends of the earth” didn’t mean a vague idea of global reach like we might think of today. It meant the farthest edges of the known world, the outer limits of the Roman Empire, and beyond. Places they had never seen, cultures they didn’t understand, languages they couldn’t speak.
And yet Jesus includes it as part of the mission from the very beginning.
Acts doesn’t just tell the story of a local movement in Jerusalem. It traces the spread of the gospel outward, from a small group of believers in one city to communities forming across the world.
Eventually, we see Paul in Rome, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
Acts 28:31
Rome, the center of the known world, becomes a launching point.
But Jesus is also telling us here that not everyone physically goes to the ends of the earth.
The command is not that every follower of Jesus must relocate to another country. But the calling is for every follower of Jesus to participate in the mission that goes there.
There is a difference between going and being part of sending, but there is no difference in responsibility. The church is a sending people. We are all invited into the spread of the gospel.
That means some people are called to stay and strengthen the church where they are, while many are called to send, support, pray, give, and actively partner in what God is doing around the world.
But for some people in the room, this may be more than participation from a distance. This may actually be a personal calling. God may be stirring something deeper.
For some, it begins with short-term mission trips, stepping into another context to serve, learn, and see firsthand what God is doing beyond your normal world. Some of the most influential moments of my walk with the Lord came from short-term mission trips, learning what it's like to just go to church in another country or hear the struggles that brothers and sisters face on the other side of the world, which is very impactful.
For others, it becomes long-term missions, moving into another culture with the intent of living, serving, and sharing the gospel over years of investment.
And for others still, it might look like using your skills in business, education, medicine, technology, or other fields to open doors for the gospel in places that are otherwise hard to reach.
The methods might vary, but the mission is the same.
But we assume, often without even thinking about it, “That’s for someone else.” Someone more bold. Someone more qualified.
But Jesus doesn’t present global mission as a calling for a select few. He presents it as part of the identity of His people. “You will be my witnesses… to the end of the earth.” Not you might be. Not a few of you will be. You will be.
So ask yourself
Have you ever seriously asked God:
“Would you send me?”
Because that’s been the response of God’s people throughout Scripture.
In Isaiah 6:8, Isaiah simply says,
“Here I am. Send me.”
Isaiah 6:8
Not fully prepared. But available.
Because before anyone ever goes, there is always a moment of surrender. A moment where comfort, control, and assumptions are placed back into God’s hands.
And sometimes, the most faithful response isn’t immediately going, but it is being willing.
Willing to stay if He says stay.
Willing to send if He calls you to send others.
And willing to go if He opens the door.
At the heart of Acts 1:8 is not just geography; it is willingness and availability.
“Here I am. Send me.”
Why this can feel heavy
If we stop here, this can start to feel like pressure. Like a checklist we’re supposed to measure ourselves against. Stay more faithfully. Send more intentionally. Go more boldly. And suddenly it can feel like three more ways we’re falling short or three more areas where we’re not doing enough.
But that’s not how Jesus begins this conversation.
He doesn’t start with locations. He doesn’t start with strategies. He doesn’t even start with responsibility.
Before Acts 1:8 ever talks about Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the ends of the earth, Jesus says this:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…”
Acts 1:8
And that order matters.
Because the mission of Jesus was never meant to be powered by human effort, human guilt, or human ambition. It begins with God Himself at work in His people through the Holy Spirit.
In other words, Jesus is not first asking us to do something for Him. He is first doing something in us.
The disciples were still thinking in terms of strength, control, and visible success, restoring a kingdom, shaping outcomes, and making things happen. But Jesus shifts their attention from what they can accomplish to what God will empower them to do.
Because witnesses are not defined by how impressive they are, but by what they have experienced and been given. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just send them out with a task; He fills them with a new identity. They become people who carry the reality of Jesus with them wherever they go.
Our mission to reach all peoples doesn’t move forward because we are strong, disciplined, or organized enough. It moves forward because God is present and the Holy Spirit is active in His people.
This has always been how God works. In Zechariah 4:6, it says,
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.”
Zechariah 4:6
Meaning this was never about what we can do. It’s about what God does through us.
That means the weight of Acts 1:8 is not ultimately on our shoulders; it is on God’s promise.
So as we move forward, we’re not stepping into a burden we have to carry.
We’re stepping into a power we’re invited to receive.
We are not responsible for saving people. We are not responsible for producing results. We are not responsible for having perfect words in every conversation or a perfect strategy in every situation.
Our responsibility is obedience, and God carries the weight of transformation.
And that’s why Acts is so clear: the disciples themselves were not impressive people. They were ordinary, often confused, sometimes fearful followers of Jesus. But when the Holy Spirit came, they became empowered people. Not because they changed into someone else, but because God’s power began working through them.
That same power is what fuels staying, sending, and going today.
What We Do with What We’ve Seen
“You will be my witnesses…”
Acts 1:8
This is where everything from Stay, Send, and Go comes together.
Because Jesus doesn’t say:
Be experts in Jerusalem.
Be perfect in Judea and Samaria.
Be fully prepared for the ends of the earth.
He says: Be witnesses.
And that connects directly back to all three movements.
In Jerusalem, your everyday life, you are a witness to what God is doing right where you already are. Not performing, not impressing, just noticing and speaking honestly about His work in ordinary places.
In Judea and Samaria, you are a witness as you step beyond your comfort zone and engage people who are different from you, supporting gospel work, and building bridges into places and relationships you wouldn’t naturally choose on your own.
And to the ends of the earth, you are a witness even if you never physically go, because your prayers, your support, your encouragement, and your participation are part of what God is doing globally. And for some, that witness becomes a literal calling to go and carry the message across cultures.
But at the center of all of it is the same identity, witness.
A witness is someone who has seen something and tells what they’ve seen.
It means you don’t need to have all the answers to participate in God’s mission. You don’t need to be an expert in theology, or have a perfect explanation for every question, or be the most articulate person in the room.
You just need to be honest about what you’ve seen Jesus do.
I love how well it fits with Stay, Send, and Go:
We can stay as witnesses in your everyday world.
We can be sent as witnesses into places and people beyond your comfort zone.
We go as witnesses or send witnesses to the ends of the earth,
And no matter the context, it’s all about what Jesus has done.
We can think of witnessing to others simply like this:
Here’s who I was.
Here’s what Jesus did.
Here’s what’s changed.
Faithful witness, spoken from real experience, empowered by the Spirit, and used by God to reach others.
That’s exactly what we see in 1 Peter 3:15, it says,
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
1 Peter 3:15
Not having everything figured out, just being ready to talk about what Jesus has done.
Connecting It All – Power + Witness in Every Sphere (Stay, Send, Go)
Acts 1:8 is not three separate assignments. Jesus gives one unified mission that moves in three directions, Stay, Send, and Go, but is powered by the same reality in every direction: the Holy Spirit and the call to be witnesses.
Without that connection, it can feel like separate burdens: do better here, give more there, go further somewhere else. But Jesus ties it all together under one promise:
“You will receive power… and you will be my witnesses.”
Stay (Jerusalem)
Your everyday life, home, school, and work are not a waiting room for a mission. It is a mission. The Spirit helps you see ordinary people and places as meaningful. Coworkers, neighbors, and family are not random; they are part of your witness. Mission starts with awareness right where you already are.
Send (Judea & Samaria)
This is where the Spirit expands your concern beyond your immediate world. You may not go everywhere, but you are called to care beyond your circle. Through prayer, generosity, encouragement, and supporting gospel work, your life participates in what God is doing elsewhere.
Go (Ends of the Earth)
This is the global movement of the gospel into other cultures and places. And even here, the foundation doesn’t change; you go in God’s power, not your own. Witnesses carry testimony about Jesus, not personal authority.
Across every direction, the pattern is the same: the Spirit empowers, and ordinary people bear witness. One mission, one power, one witness, moving through Stay, Send, and Go.
Why does this matter?
Why do we do any of this? Why stay faithful in the ordinary, unseen places of life? Why send people beyond what feels safe or familiar? Why even consider going to the ends of the earth with the message of Jesus?
Acts 1:8, “You will be my witnesses…”, only makes sense when it is anchored in something far deeper than strategy, personality, or obligation. It only makes sense in light of the gospel itself.
The reason we move outward is that Jesus moved toward us first.
We were not climbing toward God. We were not searching with clarity or sincerity until we found Him. We were not slowly drifting in His direction like ships finding shore. Scripture doesn’t flatter us with that story. It tells the truth about our condition: we were far, we were lost, we were blind, and we were unwilling.
And yet, into that reality, Jesus did not remain distant.
He came.
He stepped into the world He created. Not as an observer, but as one entering fully into the weight of human life. Real places. Real suffering. Real temptation. Real rejection. He moved toward people who were not moving toward Him. He loved enemies who did not recognize Him. He touched the unclean. He ate with the outcast. He carried the burden of sin that was not His own. And in the most costly expression of love, He gave His life to bring us back to God.
And that means the entire shape of Acts 1:8 is rooted in what Jesus has already done. The mission of the church is not the starting point of God’s plan. It is the overflow of God’s heart already revealed in Christ.
So when we talk about staying, sending, and going, we are not talking about initiating something new for God. We are participating in what God has already initiated for us.
We are not trying to convince God to care about the nations. We are responding to the God who already proved, once and for all, that He does.
We stay faithfully in the places God has put us, not because they are always easy, but because people there are not accidents; they are image-bearers of God, worth the cost of love.
We send generously, not as an optional extra for the especially passionate, but because the mission of Jesus was never local, small, or contained. It was always global, expansive, and unstoppable.
We go willingly, not because we are trying to prove ourselves, but because Jesus is a message worth keeping close. He is worth the cost of our comfort, our plans, and our control.
And luckily for us, everything flows from what He has already done.
We don’t move first. We move because He moved.
We don’t love first. We love because He loved.
We don’t send first. We are sent people because we belong to a sending God.
The mission of God is not our effort to reach Him.
It is our response to the God who already came all the way to us.
Application
So what do we do with all of this?
It starts with honest reflection.
Am I staying intentionally, or just comfortably?
There’s a difference between faithfully engaging the people and places God has already put in front of you and simply living on autopilot. Staying doesn’t mean coasting; it means being present on purpose.
Am I helping send, or just watching?
It’s easy to observe missions from a distance without participating. But Acts 1:8 calls the whole church into partnership, through prayer, generosity, encouragement, and support of gospel work beyond our immediate world.
Have I ever seriously considered going?
Not every believer is called to relocate across cultures, but every believer should at least be willing to ask the question. Because availability is part of discipleship. Sometimes God confirms to stay. Sometimes he stirs. Sometimes he opens the door to go. But the posture matters either way.
Conclusion
Acts 1:8 is still unfolding today.
This isn’t just their story, it’s ours. Jesus didn’t give this as a temporary assignment for a small group of early believers. He gave it as the ongoing shape of the church. The same Spirit who empowered them is at work in us. And the same mission that moved from Jerusalem outward is still moving today through every generation of believers.
That means every believer has a role.
Stay. Send. Go.
Different expressions, same mission. Ordinary people, empowered by the Holy Spirit, bear witness to Jesus in every direction of life.
But before we land there, it’s worth remembering where we started.
We started with Costco and Netflix.
Walking into Costco for two things and walking out overwhelmed, distracted, and carrying far more than we intended. Or opening Netflix just to relax and ending up scrolling, stuck, unable to even decide what to watch. Both pictures point to the same reality: it’s easy to be overwhelmed by options and end up doing nothing meaningful.
That can happen in our walk with the Lord, too.
There are so many needs in the world. So many opportunities. So many directions we could go. Stay here. Send there. Go somewhere else. And if we’re not careful, we can end up “scrolling”, aware of everything, but engaged in nothing.
But Jesus doesn’t leave His church in confusion or paralysis.
He gives clarity. He gives direction. And He gives power.
“You will receive power… and you will be my witnesses…”
That’s why this matters for us as a church.
Acts 1:8 is not just a framework for missions; it’s a priority for who we are. It shapes how we see our city, the nations, and our role in what God is doing in the world. We are not a church that exists to consume content or maintain routines. We are a church called to participate in God’s mission.
That means we don’t just gather, we are sent.
We don’t just receive, we give. We don’t just stay, we move when God calls. And we do all of it together.
Some of us will stay faithfully where God has placed us, being witnesses in our everyday world. Some of us will send, support, pray, and invest in gospel work beyond our reach. And some of us will go, stepping into places and cultures where the name of Jesus is not yet known.
But none of it is accidental. All of it is a mission to reach and care for all people.
So as a church, this isn’t a side emphasis. It’s not a category for a few people. It is who we are.
A Spirit-empowered people.
A witnessing people.
A sent people.
And that brings us back to the question Jesus leaves us with:
Where is God calling you right now, stay, send, or go?
I am going to have the band come up here and play our first song but while we do that I hope we can all reflect on where God is calling us right now not so that we feel guilty or like we are adding to our to do list, but because we have been filled with the power of his holy spirit and want to share the good news about what he has done in our lives.
