This vision of, and invitation to, the work of global missions challenges Christians everywhere to cultivate a holy ambition to preach Christ where he has not yet been named.

The apostle Paul had a holy ambition: to preach the gospel to peoples who had never heard. He ached to proclaim Jesus where he had not yet been named. So today, missionaries cross cultures, learn languages, and pour out their lives in word and deed to break through thousands of years of darkness and the reign of Satan over a people who do not know the King of kings and the Savior of the world. Missionaries go to, and minister among, peoples who otherwise have little to no access to the saving news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

And since Jesus’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations is still in effect—and since there are thousands of peoples today who have never heard of him—every church should pray that God would not only make all of us evangelists among our own people, but also that he would raise up from among us missionaries to take the gospel where it has never gone before.

Note to the Second Revised Edition: This book was first released in 2011. Since then, John Piper has continued to preach and write about missions. So, to prepare this Second Revised Edition, Desiring God added four chapters of new material, removed about a third of the original, and freshly edited and organized the remainder.