Matthew Summary: All nations.

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28: 19a)

 The Bible presents a theology of inclusion. From the beginning, all human beings are one in ancestry (beginning with Adam and Eve, made in the image of God), one in rebellion (for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God), one in adversity (all struggling between good and evil), and one in God’s care. 

 God’s care for all is seen in God’s promise to Noah never again to destroy the world by water (Genesis 9: 8-11). God also says, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, …: Nor will I destroy every living creature as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8: 21-22). This is God’s Creation Covenant. 

 God’s care for all is reflected later in God’s command to all of us who are descended from Noah and his wife (that’s all of us). “And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it” (Genesis 9: 7). In fact, God’s covenant is with every living creature, not just men and women (Genesis 9: 16-17). This is God’s Noahic Covenant. 

 God’s concern for the salvation of all who come to him began with a call to Abraham. 

 “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Genesis 12: 1-3). This is God’s Abrahamic Covenant.

 God made a covenant with the people through Moses. The Lord said, 

“Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites’. So Moses went, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. The people all answered as one, ‘Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do’. Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD” (Exodus 19: 5-8). This is the Mosaic Covenant.

 What does it mean that the Jews would be a ‘priestly kingdom’ and a ‘holy nation’. Through obedience to the law, a holy Israel would demonstrate God’s love and care for people who sought him and obeyed him. Then, the whole nation would be priests to the other nations leading them to the worship of the one true God. 

 But, the Israelites broke their covenant with God.

 “The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal” (Jeremiah 11: 17).

 However, God was long-term faithful to his word.

 “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31: 31).

  That covenant included Israel as a model nation and the people as priests to the nations. For example, 

 “The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing, so that they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them. On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. On that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth…”  (Isaiah 19:22-24).

 Yet, Israel and Judah were rebellious and had to endure conquest and exile which ended with most Jews living in Diaspora; only a few returned to Jerusalem (see Ezra and Nehemiah).

 The New Covenant (another way of saying the New Testament) had to await the arrival of Jesus. This covenant was established by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The New Commission to the Nations had to await Pentecost when the Holy Spirit inspired the disciples to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the world.  

 What will be the final result of the wider mission? 

“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7: 9-10).

 Think about it. There will be Haitians, Cubans, Guatemalans, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sudanese, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbekistanis, Afghanistanis, Pakistanis, Indians, Vietnamese, Mongolians, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Filipinos, Australians, Papua New Guineanians, Fijians, Tongans, Samoans, and Tahitians, among others. All children of God created in God’s image, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 

 That is why Peter told Christians that,  

 “... you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. …  Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the gentiles (that is, ‘the nations’), so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.” (I Peter 2: 9, 11-12; see also Hebrews 12: 22-29).

  Did the disciples understand it all the first time around? No. It would appear that some of them thought it meant to include the Jews who were living in Diaspora in the nations, not the Gentiles. Notice that all the nations listed in Acts 2 reflect only the Jews from those nations and some converts, called proselytes. 

 However, a study of the book of Acts shows that the disciples came to understand that Jesus meant to include the Samaritans who were half-Jews (Acts 8: 4-13). Next, they came to understand that Jesus meant them to include Jewish converts, even if they were Africans (Acts 8: 26-39). Next, the disciples came to understand that Jesus meant them to include all Gentiles (Acts 10: 1-48). Peter formulated the general practice for making disciples.

 “Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people (Greek ethnos ‘nation’) anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him” (Acts 10: 34). 

 It is worth reading Acts with this in mind. While Peter was preaching, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles just like at Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell on the Jews. ;'To all nations' means 'to all nations'. Period.