The scene of one of Jesus’ greatest mandates is one of the most breathtaking in all of God's word. Standing 1150 feet above sea level, the massive rock outcropping is the largest I’ve ever seen, gray with streaks of metallic brown, flat and imposing. And towering above it is a gigantic cliff, dwarfing the valley below in every direction.

High up on that cliff our tour group could see a cave, the famous "Gates of Hades." This cave leads to a shaft which bores down through the mountain and this rocky plateau on which it stands, deep into the earth. That shaft is so deep that its bottom has never been found. Even the most sophisticated measuring devices have not been able to determine its complete depth. I will never forget standing on that rock, looking up at that cave, as long as I live.

As I looked in awe, my mind traveled back to a time when another man stood where I was this day. As he looked around himself he could feel the religious significance of the place. Just a short distance away stood the brilliant white marble temple built by Herod the Great as an altar to the worship of the Roman Caesar, hence the name of the place, "Caesarea." He knew the emperor was worshiped here. Beneath his feet was that cavern where the Greeks said Pan, their god of nature, was born. He knew the Greek and Roman gods were worshiped here.

Scattered around the place were fourteen temples to Baal, the Canaanite fertility god, where the pagan Syrians worshiped. Somewhere below was the origin of the Jordan River, the holiest river in all the Jewish faith, the water Joshua and the people walked through to inherit the Promised Land, and he thought of his own Jewish traditions and worship.

On this gigantic rock, standing in the midst of temples to every kind of god known to their culture, this man hears a Galilean carpenter ask, "Who do you say that I am?" And that man, standing where I stood, says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And he hears the Galilean say, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and"--pointing to the cave towering above them, dwarfing this small group of peasants gathered below--"even the gates of hell will not withstand your assault" (Matthew 16:16, 18).

We are to assault the gates of hell. We are under mandate to take the gospel to all the world, to "Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Yet many of us do not. It has been calculated that less than 2 percent of all "born-again Christians" have ever led anyone else to faith in Christ. What will it take for more believers to obey God's mandate for our churches and our lives?