Missio CrossWay: Conviction 9 - God's Mission is to All Nations

Monday, March 1, 2010

Conviction 9 - God's Mission is to All Nations

Even though all of humanity has rebelled against God, His mission is to redeem – purchase, rescue – a people for the praise of His glory. The redeemed people of God are not limited to ethnic Israel, but are comprised of people from all nations. God’s mission to rescue people from all nations and He sends the church with the Gospel to all ethnicities all over the world.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

bring an offering, and come into his courts!

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;

tremble before him, all the earth!

Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns!

-Psalm 96:3-10

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations
-Matthew 28:18-19

All Nations

When Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of all nations, He is not just commanding us to go to all lands geographically and politically defined. He is commanding us to go and preach the Gospel to all peoples from every tongue, tribe, nation, and language. Jesus is commanding is to go and preach the Gospel to all ethnolinguisitic groups of people.

Ethnolinguisitic People Groups

The word ethnolinguistic captures the two primary features of people groups: ethno for common ethnicity and linguistic for a common language. So in Japan, for example, there are 18 people groups identified by a common ethnicity and language. When you move to places like India or China there are hundreds of people groups. We are to go and preach the Gospel to all people groups defined by common ethnicity and language. As far as the Gospel is concerned,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28

The early church preached the Gospel to ever-expanding people groups. Jesus commanded the first disciples to be His witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The disciples preached in the temple, after Stephen was martyred the church spread out from Jerusalem, Philip preached in Samaria, the Ethiopian eunuch to the Gospel to east Africa, Peter went to the Gentiles with Cornelius, and Paul and Barnabas took the Gospel to Asia.

CrossWay Exists

CrossWay exists for the mission of God. Just like the early church, we are commanded to preach the Gospel to all people groups. Starting in Bristol, we see our responsibility to reach all ethnolinguistic peoples. Our mission field starts locally and expands regionally, nationally, and globally to all ethnolinguisitic people groups.