Let’s get to our passage. Turn over to Matthew 28. This passage might be pretty familiar to you, but that’s ok. When you get to Matthew 28, we’ll read verses 19-20. Pay attention to this passage…as it lays the foundation for what we’re studying today. Let’s read our passage for today…again, it’s Matthew 28:19-20.
It says: 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
So we’ve been talking about disciple making for several weeks now. It started with making sure we’re disciples ourselves…because if we’re not then we’re going to struggle with Jesus’ command to make disciples. Then we looked at how they made disciples in the bible based on how we do it now…and what our motivation is for making disciples. And the last two weeks have focused on how we make disciples within the church and as the church. Today…we’re talking about who we should be making into disciples.
Jesus says right there in those verses who. He tells his disciples… he tells us…to go and make disciples…of all nations. Last week we finished up the message with the example of Abraham…who God had told he would bless so that Abraham could be a blessing to others…so that God could bless others through Abraham.
Actually…listen to God’s exact words from Genesis 12:2-3: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; (now listen to these next few words…) and all peoples on earth…will be blessed through you.”
*Does “all peoples on earth” leave anyone out? No, it doesn’t. Just like when Jesus says “Go and make disciples of all nations” that doesn’t exclude anyone either. Like Abraham was going to be a blessing to all nations…we, Christians, the church…need to go and be a blessing…go and make disciples…of all nations.
**So what’s that going to look like? And what will be the results? That’s some of what we’re going to look at this morning. We’re going to start by getting more into what making disciples “of all nations” looks like. For us today, it means reaching the unreached.
Last week we talked about how we, as the church, make disciples in our local community because that’s part of our calling as a local congregation. But the call to make disciples is much farther reaching than just the people we normally encounter…or might encounter…from our day to day lives.
I mean…Jesus says it, right? Make disciples of…all…nations. We as the church…and we as individual Christians…are to be a blessing to all peoples of the earth. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, in Acts 1:8, he tells his disciples to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria, and…to the ends of the earth.
He told them to make disciples locally…right where they always had lived to the people they had always known. But then he told them to get out of their comfort zone…to stretch beyond everything and everyone they had always known. Because there were a lot of people not in Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria who needed to bear witness to the gospel through the disciples.
The first one who really grasped this wasn’t an original disciple, but one who at first persecuted Christians…Paul. Turn over to Romans 15. Look at what he writes there in verses 20-21: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel…where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’”
Now, Paul is quoting Isaiah 52:15 here. And at first it sounds like he’s saying people will see even if they’re not told…they’ll understand even though they haven’t heard. But when you look back at Isaiah, he’s saying that the kings will understand who “the servant”…who Jesus is…when they see his humiliation.
So with that context in mind, Paul isn’t saying people who never hear will be saved. He’s saying that someday, everyone will understand. But by then it’ll be too late, because then they’ll see Jesus and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. So he doesn’t want them to know when it’s too late. His ambition is to preach where the gospel isn’t known.
*Is that our ambition today? To share the good news of Jesus with people who haven’t heard it? Where we live today, you’ll be hard pressed to meet someone who’s never heard the name of Jesus. But there are a lot of people who are part of the “all nations” who never have. Do you desire…is your ambition to preach or reach out to where the gospel isn’t known?
Let’s look at a little more of Isaiah 52. First let’s read verse 7. It says: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” We’ll actually read an adaptation of this verse in a few minutes, so we’ll come back to it.
But then look at verse 10: “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” God is going to make himself known. And he’s called us to be the ones to make him known to all the ends of the earth.
Paul puts it this way, back again in Romans, this time in 10:12-15: “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
*We are called to reach the unreached…to make disciples of all nations. How are all of the nations going to believe in Jesus if they’ve not heard him…because we haven’t preached and reached? We need to have that desire to reach them…so that they will know and believe.
**But that’s not the only reason why we should step up to reach the unreached. I mean, to follow Jesus’ command to us to go and make disciples of all nations is critical. To want people who’ve never heard of Jesus in the farthest reaches of this earth is good motivation. But there’s another reason why we should want to…personally…make disciples of all nations. That reason…is that our making disciples of all nations…is linked to the end.
What end? The end. The end of days. The Day of the Lord. Armageddon, the Millennium, eternity, heaven…it’s all riding on how well the church…how well we…are making disciples of all nations. Turn to Matthew 24.
Here, Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives, on the other side of a valley that overlooks Jerusalem. And his disciples ask him about the signs of the end of the age. Now, throughout his answer, Jesus warns his disciples and he tells them that no one…not even he…knows when the end will be. Only God knows that.
But listen to what Jesus says to them starting in verse 9, after he’s told them about kingdom going against kingdom, and famines and earthquakes that are the beginning of birth pains: “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” So we have all of that…now really pay attention to what Jesus says in verse 14, because it has the most to do with what we’re talking about today: “And this gospel of the kingdom…will be preached…in the whole world…as a testimony to all nations…and then the end will come.”
When does Jesus say the end will come? When the gospel is preached in the whole world. Yeah, there’ll be all kinds of problems. People will hate each other. Some…actually, Jesus says many…will turn away from their faith. Nations will fight. Natural disasters. All signs of the end of the age. But it won’t actually come to an end…until the gospel has been preached in the whole world. That is why you and I should have a desire to reach the unreached nations and people.
If you ever wonder why God hasn’t ended everything yet…there’s an answer right there. The gospel hasn’t been reached to all of the unreached. It’s linked to the end.
Speaking of which, let’s turn to Revelation 7. Here, John is blessed to witness what will take place at the end. And listen to what he sees in 7:9-10: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count…from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”
*Does that leave anyone out? No it doesn’t. Every nation, every tribe from every nation, every people from every tribe of every nation, and every language used by every people from every tribe of every nation is represented at the end. Again…no one is left out. There isn’t one nation or tribe or people or language that doesn’t have at least one person in the end praising out to God and the Lamb.
**Are we motivated at this point? You want the end to come? Then step up and take an active part in making disciples of all nations. We need to…and this is our last point for this morning…we need to take on a role.
We all have a role to play. We all have our gifts, we all have our talents. We all have a specific way that God has planned for us to help in making disciples of all nations. For some, it’s actually going to those far-reaching nations to help make disciples and baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded. For others, it’s going on short-term mission trips and sharing the gospel with the nations in that capacity. Or maybe it’s supporting missions in some way, whether through prayer or finances or providing materials that are doing the going and disciple-making and baptizing and teaching.
Yes, even supporting missions is a way for people in the church… for Christians…to fulfill Jesus’ commission to us as his disciples. John commended the believer, Gaius, who he was addressing in his third letter in verses 5-8. He says: “Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together in the truth.”
We need to take on a role in disciple-making so that we may all be working together in the truth. Again, for a few it’s actually going full-time to the nations who haven’t heard. For others it’s a short term trip. For some it’s supporting other missions and missionaries.
But we’re all-too-quick to assume or decide that our role is that last one. To simply send some money somewhere. Not that simply donating is bad. It’s needed…as we just ready. But we can’t simply settle on that as being the only way we go about making disciples.
Each and every one of us…no matter how young or old we are… no matter how long we’ve lived where we’ve lived…no matter how many disciples we’ve had a hand in making…needs to seriously ask God what he wants for us to do. We need to prayerfully go to him and listen for him to respond. Because, let’s be honest…most of us would probably say: “Dear God, you don’t want me to go to all nations, right? I’m ok just donating and staying in my comfort zone, right? Ok, thanks. Amen.” But that might not be what he’s calling you to do today!
I know of a couple who was doing very well for themselves. They were involved in the corporate world. They were able to take trips at least once a year. They had a nice home, 3 kids, one of which turned out ok. They were very active in the church, gave more than a tithe when the plate was passed. But then their company closed. What were they to do? They could’ve chosen to find a new job that would help them maintain their cozy lifestyle and not upend everything they’d known.
But instead…mom and dad sought God’s will for what to do next. And now, as Paul Harvey would’ve said…now you know the rest of the story. God is using them in one of those “all nations”…despite that being the last thing they would’ve expected 6 years ago.
*Now, are you sitting there thinking to yourself: “Well that’s not going to happen to me. My time has passed. I’m set here. I can just make disciples here.” Is that what God has called you to do? Is that what he expects of you right now? You’ll never know if you just choose your own role for yourself.
****That’s why we need to take on our role. The one that God has planned for us. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you’re supposed to take part in bringing about the end…but you’re worried about yourself and fine with your current circumstances? Or…do the words of Isaiah and Paul apply to your life: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news”?
If God is calling you to go and make disciples of all nations… remember the words of Jesus. He will be with you to the very end of the age. Let’s reach the unreached…which is linked to the very end of the age. Take on the role God has. And make disciples for him…with him…in your life today.
Invitation
