To All the Nations

JESUS sent His followers to make disciples of “all the nations,” or as the Greek translates, peoples, (Matthew 28:19). That mandate may seem obvious to us today. After all, we live at the end of 2,000 years of Christian outreach. Christianity now is an overwhelmingly Gentile religion subscribed to by roughly one-third of the world’s population. With modern technology, it appears to be a relatively simple task to expand that outreach even further.

Yet in many ways we are just like Jesus’ original disciples. They wanted a local hero, a Messiah just for Israel, one who would follow their customs and confirm their prejudices. So they were no doubt stunned by the scope and far-reaching implications of the global, cross-cultural vision that Jesus now presented. He was turning out to be more than the King of the Jews; He was the international Christ, the Savior of the entire world.

Actually, Jesus had been showing them this since the beginning of His ministry. Matthew recorded His work among the Gentiles (Matthew 8:10; 15:24), and he cited Isaiah 42:1-4, that Jesus would “declare justice to the Gentiles . . . and in His name Gentiles will trust” (Matthew 12:14-21). Yet the disciples had a hard time believing it. Could their Lord really be interested in “all the nations”? They did not seem to be. It is easy to pay lip service to the idea that Jesus cares for the whole world. But isn’t it easier to follow a Christ that fits comfortably only into our own culture?

Culture, after all, is the key. Jesus told His Galilean followers to “make disciples,” and they did . . . Jewish disciples. But they experienced profound culture shock when the Holy Spirit brought new groups into the fellowship, including Hellenist disciples, Samaritan disciples, and eventually Gentile disciples of all kinds (Acts 6:1-7; 8:4-25; 10:1-11:18; 15:1-21).

Today the bulk of new disciples are non-white and non-Western. Not surprisingly, they bring different cultural perspectives into the church. So one of the greatest challenges believers will face in the coming years is the same one that the original disciples faced at the inauguration of the movement: not only to believe but also to accept that Jesus really is for “all the nations.” For God’s plan to make disciples of people throughout the world is part of His overall, long-term objective of making His name great among the nations (Malachi 1:11).

Courtesy of Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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