David Platt, the pastor of McLean Bible Church outside Washington DC used Matthew 28:18-20, in his address to the Together for the Gospel Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
The passage, known as the Great Commission, recounts Jesus telling his His disciples to “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.”
Platt defined the “unreached” as not simply an unbeliever, but rather a community where the people have no access to the Gospel.
Platt explained – “People are just as lost in Kentucky and the places where most all of us live as they are in Yemen.”
He went on to claim – “The difference is there are churches in Kentucky and all the places where most of us live. Gospel-preaching churches.”
“There are more Christians in this room right now than in all of Yemen. And Yemen has 30 million people … which means that if you’re one of those 30 million Yemenis, suffering and starving right now in the middle of civil war, the likelihood is you will be born, you will live, and you will die without ever even meeting a Christian or hearing the Gospel.”
He called on churches to commit more resources to missions that go to unreached populations, declaring that “the number of unreached people is higher today than ever before and will continue to increase until the church decides to change.”