All Nations

A Witness Unto All Nations

And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

There are about 200 nations in the world today, and there are Christians in every nation. But in Matthew 24:14 Jesus was not talking about today’s political entities, nor was he talking about the kingdoms of his day, most of which no longer exist.

The Greek word for nations in this verse is ethnesin, derived from ethne, which is the root of the English word “ethnic.” This word means more than simply “nations” in the political sense. It refers to ethnic and cultural groups – groups of people who share a distinct ethnicity, language, and/or culture. Anthropologists call these groups “people groups.”

Anthropologists estimate there are 11,000 distinct people groups in the world today. If we define a people group as “reached with the gospel” if only 2% or more of its individuals have heard the gospel message, missionaries estimate that 6,000 different people groups are still unreached.

We don’t know exactly how closely the ethne groups that Jesus spoke of match the people groups defined by modern anthropology. But in light of Matthew 24:14, the fact that the end of the age has not yet come seems to suggest that not every ethne has been reached with the gospel message yet.

No one knows when Jesus will return, but according to Matthew 24:14, he will not return until every ethne – every people group – has been reached with the gospel message. This is not surprising when we consider the character of God, who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23) but “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). For the sake of those who have not yet heard the gospel, God is holding back the coming wrath for a little while so they will have a chance to hear the gospel and repent before it is too late.

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. (2 Peter 3:9)

It has always been God’s plan to reach every people group in the world with the gospel message, and bring people of every ethnicity, nationality, language, and culture into his Kingdom. This is such an essential part of God’s plan of salvation that the end of the age will not come until every people group has been reached (Matthew 24:14).

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

The Great Commission

Jesus commands us to reach every people group in The Great Commission:

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations (ethne) baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

Why does God want us to reach “all nations” with the gospel message? Because God’s plan for salvation extends to all people of the earth. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ paid the price for all sins of all people for all time, thus tearing down the division between Jew and Gentile. In Christ, all believers form one new humanity, in which all ethnic, class, and gender divisions are eradicated.

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. (1 John 2:2)

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

This is very unusual for a religious faith. Most religions are proudly rooted in a specific culture – for example, Hinduism is deeply rooted in India and Shintoism in Japan. As a result, these mono-cultural religions rarely gain any ground outside of their native culture. But Christianity is a truly global faith not tied down to any one specific culture or country. There are Christians in the big cities of China who worship quite differently than Christians in a rural African village. Nevertheless, both are Christians by faith in Jesus Christ, both are on equal footing before the Lord, and both will be our brothers and sisters for eternity in the Kingdom of God. Through obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ, disciples in all parts of the world are carrying out Christ’s redemptive work in the world today.

It has always been God’s plan to redeem not just some cultures but ALL cultures into his Kingdom for his glory. Our Heavenly Father is the God of diversity – proof of this is clearly manifested in the vast diversity of his Creation!

Satan’s Policy of Containment

Each culture in the world faces its own unique challenges for evangelism. We are engaged in a spiritual war, but Christ has already guaranteed us the victory. Regardless of the circumstances, when Christians led by the Holy Spirit step out in faith to do the work Christ has called them to do, there is nothing that can stop them. History attests to the fact that even the worst persecution of Christianity ultimately results in the message spreading further and faster. Satan knows that he is not powerful enough to stop the gospel message from spreading. He can’t stop it from spreading, but he can at least distract us from moving it into new territory.

As long as the gospel message stays within areas already saturated with Christianity, the unreached nations will remain unreached, and the end of the age will not come. Satan knows that once every people group has been reached with the gospel, this present evil age will come to an end, and he will be annihilated at the final judgement. He is fighting this tooth and nail.

I’m certainly not suggesting that it is wrong to share the gospel message with people from our own culture, in our own local communities, in our own people groups. After all, if you don’t reach the people God has placed in your life, who will?

Jesus commands us to preach the gospel to “all nations,” and that includes our own nation. Evangelism must begin wherever we are currently planted. It must begin there, but it must not end there.

Churches should act counter-culturally and cross-culturally to intentionally reach unreached people groups with the gospel message. There are a myriad of ways to go about doing this. But the first step is to recognize that it needs to be done.

What can we do to reach those who have never heard of Christ?