Immanuel "God with Us"- Part 7 - Worldwide Mission

I.    THE OLD TESTAMENT ANTICIPATION

For the past six weeks we have been exploring the scriptural concept expressed in the name from Isaiah 7:14 applied to Jesus by the angel Gabriel in his announcement: Immanuel, which means "God with us." As we have seen, the concept expressed here runs from Genesis 1 to the end of the New Testament, and in the process—like in a grand fugue—every possible variation on the themes "with" and "us" is explored.  As I explained a few weeks back, "with" (in both Hebrew and English) can express the idea of physical closeness—always a privilege of Old Testament Israel who unlike the other nations boasted a God "so near" (Deut. 4:7 "For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?"), and reaching a climax in the incarnation of God in a Jewish baby boy—and (equally important) the idea of alignment and solidarity: God is with us not our enemies; he is on our side.

Equally fascinating is the way that the Divine Composer develops the several senses of the pronoun "us". In all human languages the personal pronouns derive their meaning from their implied oppositions. The Jewish existentialist philosopher Martin Buber exploited this function in the title of his famous book I and Thou (German Ich und Du).

In the case of "we" or "us" we have to reckon with what is called the inclusive "we" and the exclusive. If I say "tomorrow we will go to the Arboretum," does that include you or only my family? Only context decides. Is God with us but not you, or is he with you and me but not with them, however the "them" is conceived? Or is he with all persons not himself—the most inclusive of all "us"-es?

We saw that God was with all humans potentially in the Garden of Eden, when he created the first humans and fellowshiped with them daily (Genesis 3:8-10), instructing them in the tasks of world-management. We saw that he was with "us" as Abraham's seed in the events of the Old Testament, focusing principally on Moses and David. There the "us" was Israel and through Israel to the nations. We saw in three weeks devoted to the gospels, the letters of Paul, and the general Epistles, that he is with an "us" that began as the "lost sheep of the people of Israel" and morphed into the Jews and Gentiles who accepted his claims and his salvation, becoming the Church of Jesus the Christ.

This week we shall see that a redeemed people of God has a mission like Israel of old to the nations, and that in this ever-expanding mission God is with an "us" that is worldwide, both (1) in the sense that he is present in believers who incarnate Jesus by his Holy Spirit and (2) in the sense of being "on our side" through the gracious offer of the love of God in the gospel.

Creation and Noah

Although as Evangelical Christians we tend to think of worldwide evangelism as something first intended by God after Jesus' resurrection and first really implemented by the Church in the early 19th century with the birth of Protestant missionary societies in Britain, the fact of the matter is that the saving of worldwide humanity from the effects of the Fall of Adam begins already in Genesis.

The chapters of Genesis immediately following the story of the first sin focus on the gradual spread of sin and its corruptive influence: from Cain down to the Universal Flood (Genesis 4-8). The Genesis text itself doesn't describe any witnessing by the earliest patriarchs, although intertestamental literature, reflected in some New Testament statements about Enoch (Jude 14) and Noah suggest that they were "proclaimers of righteousness" (Noah is called that in 2 Peter 2:5). The first indication that God is concerned to save and bless the nations appears in the covenant with Abraham.

Abraham

Although Abraham is the father of the Jewish people, and in the New Testament times is frequently referred to by Jews as "our Father Abraham" (Lk 1:73; Jn 8:53; Acts 7:2), he is also claimed by St. Paul and other New Testament writers as "the father of all believers," regardless of ethnicity (Rom. 4:12). In fact, on a wide variety of criteria Abraham is claimed as ancestor and prototype by many groups.

But Jews in both ancient times and modern ones realize that by his birth in pagan Mesopotamia, Abraham was in fact a "gentile" long before he became the first Jew. And in the story-line of Genesis, Abraham is just one in a long line of faithful and believing humans beginning with Adam and passing through Enoch and Noah and Noah's son Shem.

With the progress of the story-line of Genesis we see a progressive narrowing of the circle of faithful men, with each stage in the genealogy redefining that circle until it settles on Jacob and his sons. Only then does the narrowing stop. All twelve tribes continue to be God's chosen people.

But although the narrowing was necessary for the selection of a people to be the keepers and exemplifiers of God's revelation, the widest possible goal was never forgotten, and shows itself periodically in the Old Testament. The best way to locate these glimpses is by following the occurrences of the word "nations" in a Bible concordance. An important passage in the Abrahamic covenant that offers a salvation for all peoples on earth is:

Gen. 22:15-18 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I  swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Here what is promised to all nations through Abraham's offspring is "blessing." Although "blessing" seems like an ill-defined concept, Peter, preaching in Acts 3(:25-26) to a Jewish audience in Jerusalem quoting this very promise, defines it as deliverance from sin:

"And you [Jews] are heirs of the prophets," Peter said, "and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant [Jesus the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 52:13 and following], he sent him first to you [the Jews in Peter's audience] to 'bless' you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

The word "first" implies that there was a "next" stage also in God's plan. Peter does not explain what the next phase was, since it did not concern the needs of his Jerusalem audience. But we know what the next phase was: this "blessing" of forgiveness of sins was to be passed one next through the Messiah's Jewish followers to the Gentiles of the entire Roman Empire (Acts chapters 9-26).

Moses and the Sinai Covenant

With Moses the focus has already narrowed considerably to a covenant people consisting of the physical descendants of Jacob, but also including persons attracted to Israel and her faith, such as the "mixed multitude" of Egyptians. And in the days following the exodus such outsiders would have included Caleb (Num. 32:12 says he was a Kenizzite [non-Israelite], Josh. 15:13 indicates he was adopted into the tribe of Judah and given land in Judah's territory), Moses' wife Zipporah, Rahab the harlot, Ruth the Moabitess, and Uriah the Hittite.

Passages in the laws of Moses that relate to the goal of a universal offer of grace and salvation are: Deut. 4:5-8 and 29:22-28. These verses refer to a kind of witness that Israel's national life with all the gracious gifts of God's revelation to them was to have on the surrounding nations. It is of a twofold kind. On the one hand, Deut. 4:5-8 tells how the nations will be favorably impressed with how Yahweh their God is near at hand to help, defend, guide and teach them, not only through priests but through wise laws given at Mt. Sinai.

Deut. 4:5-8 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

It is generally not noticed, but Deuteronomy 4 with its picture of the impressed pagans, envious of Israel's blessings, is the model for St. Paul's strategy of witness to his fellow Jews who do not believe in Y'shua (Jesus) the Messiah: to "make Israel envious" (Romans 11:11) of what God was doing in the community of believers in the Messiah Jesus.

On the other hand, even when Israel failed, and God had to discipline them with oppression by neighboring and eventually distant conquerors, these disasters witnessed to the same nations that Israel's God cared enough to punish his chosen people and eventually restore them.

Deut. 29:22-28 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. 23 The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing  planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger. 24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?” 25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the LORD’S anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. 28 In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

The Prophets

By the time of Isaiah and the great prophets of the two centuries (c. 800-600 BC) before the Babylonian captivity of the Kingdom of Judah, the vision for the nations had become even clearer and more precise. In some passages the emphasis is on God's vindication of Israel and the subordination of the nations to the rule of Israel's messianic king:

Isaiah 11:10-12 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. 12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.

But in other passages the desire of the nations to share in the worship of Israel's God and to learn from his wisdom and laws is made quite clear:

Isaiah 2:2-4 In the last days the mountain of the LORD’S temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. 3 Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Isaiah 56:6-8 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Sovereign LORD declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

The "light" that Yahweh's Servant Messiah will bring to the nations will also be God's salvation:

Isaiah 49:5-6 And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength— 6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore  the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

That salvation which the nations will receive will abolish death, the last great enemy of Earth's people:

Isaiah. 25:7-9  On this mountain [God] will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people [Israel] from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. 9 In that day they [repentant Israel] will say, “Surely this [the Messiah?] is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

In the ancient Canaanite myths death—personified as the god Môt—was said to swallow up its prey. Here God turns the tables and himself swallows up death!

In our first week's lesson I pointed out that with the creation of humans God was "with us" in at least two ways: (1) through making humans in his own image to reveal his own nature, and (2) through his verbal communication with them in his daily meetings with them in the "cool of the day" to instruct them. With Moses, the words of God were put into writing for the first time, to be a source of instruction in righteousness.

So it was that with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, both Israel and Judah were dispersed to the nations and the great Diaspora began. Jews now lived among the nations in large numbers. And with their presence went scripture. Now for the first time that scripture was translated out of Hebrew into the language of the other nations. The first translations that we know of are those into Aramaic for the Babylonian Diaspora in the East—the Targums—and the translation into Greek made in Egypt in the 4th century BC for the Diaspora of the West—the Septuagint.

The Greek Septuagint not only served to train Greek-speaking Jews in righteous living, but provided a basis for the use of scripture in the Greek language to reach out to persons who could not read Hebrew. It became an evangelistic tool, and continued to facilitate evangelism by Christians after the resurrection. Although he was fluent in Hebrew, St. Paul used the Septuagint to make his case to Greek-speakers in the Diaspora.

I.    ANTICIPATION AND TRAINING IN THE GOSPELS

So it was that, by the time Jesus was born there was a rich teaching in all the canonical Hebrew scripture that God's purpose through his covenant people was to spread the knowledge and worship of the God of Israel and the obedience to his laws to all the nations of the world, which for most Jews was the world surrounding the Mediterranean Sea—southern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. And just as six centuries later Arab merchant sailors would spread Islam as far east as the East Indies and as far west as Spain, and as far south as sub-Saharan Africa, so in the centuries before the birth of Jesus, Jewish merchants and Jewish settlers spread the knowledge of Israel's God and Israel's scriptures throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.

Already at the birth of Jesus God was telling his parents and relatives, the witnessing shepherds, and other holy people, that he was born to be the Savior of the nations, as well as of Israel.

In the announcement to Mary and Joseph of the conception and birth of Jesus, there is little indication that his saving work would be for nations outside of Israel. To Mary the angel Gabriel said:

Lk 1:31-35  You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus [Y'shua]. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” … “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

From these words it appears that his mission will be limited to occupying David's throne and ruling over the "House of Jacob" (that is, Israel).

To Joseph Gabriel said:

"[Mary] will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus [Y'shua], for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). 

Here the mission is not ruling, but saving from sins, and those saved are to be "his people," that is, Israel.

It is only with the appearance of Simeon to Jesus' parents in the temple, when they went to have Jesus circumcised on the 8th day after his birth that his mission to the nations is first hinted:

Luke 2:25-33 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” 33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

The Christian Church focuses every January on this passage and others like it to celebrate what is called the Epiphany, a Greek word meaning "manifestation", which means God's first revelation of Christ to the Gentiles.

In this passage, Simeon, a man waiting for "the consolation of Israel," prophesied that Jesus when he was full-grown would be God's "salvation", "a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory to your people Israel." Notice how beautiful is the balance here: Most of the italicized words in the passage quoted above show how the incident was rooted in Israel's religious life. Yet one of the goals is to extend this salvation to the nations as a "light for revelation". 

In the Old Testament God's light was evidence of his glorious presence. It could blind the ungodly as well as show the way through darkness to the faithful. But in Simeon's inspired prophecy the light to the Gentiles brings salvation.

Anticipation

Jewish outreach to the gentiles in Jesus' day was active. In a word of rebuke to some Pharisees who opposed him, Jesus said:

Matt. 23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

Such was the zeal of some Jews in Jesus' day to bring the light of God's word to the nations. His rebuke quoted above was not aimed at their zealous evangelism, for clearly Jesus also was zealous to win converts to his gospel, because he had come to "seek and to save the lost." It was a rebuke to hypocrisy. The hypocrisy Jesus refers to is not the Pharisees' zeal to win a convert to Judaism, but the subsequent brainwashing of the convert to make him able to dodge the true demands of the law, as some Pharisees were doing who opposed Jesus and earned his criticism.

God's eventual intention was to give light to the gentiles. But Jesus' personal mission before he was crucified—in contrast to that which he gave to his followers after his resurrection—was almost entirely confined to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel".

Matt. 10:5-7 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

Matt. 15:23-25 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

As the continuation of Matthew 15 shows, Jesus never turned an earnest and desperate Gentile seeker away, but his active initiative prior to the resurrection was to seek and save the "lost sheep of the house of Israel", and he would not be deterred from that focus.

Training by Jesus

Still, long before his death and resurrection, as he trained his disciples to spread the news of the kingdom of God among the villages of Galilee, he was training them in advance for their future ministry to Samaritans, Greeks, Syrians, Ethiopians, and Romans. Evangelism is evangelism. Personal work is personal work. The principles are the same. Only the language and customs in which the message is expressed change. One could assume a good deal of valuable background knowledge among the Palestinian Jews, that one could not among Diaspora Jews and "god-fearers", and even less among raw pagans.

Mark 13:9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

II.    THE RESURRECTION COMMISSION

After his resurrection, Jesus revealed his program for the present age: a worldwide mission to the nations, the gospel for the whole world of Adam's descendants.

Matt. 28:16-20 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always [Immanuel!!], to the very end of the age.”
Luke 24:46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

Acts 1:4-8 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus' primary mission was completed with the crucifixion and resurrection. He had sought the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Many had accepted him, and a group of eleven were trained to continue the mission to the nations of the world. He now could tell them of how the training they had received from him during the period of focus on Israel would be put to use in making disciples worldwide.

If you saw the movie "the Karate Kid," you remember how the Okinawan-born instructor gave his teenaged American student training with tasks that seemed unrelated to the eventual goal of winning a karate tournament. At his instructor's request, he waxed a car ("wax on … wax off"), painted a fence, and sanded the floor. Eventually the boy became angry that he was not being taught karate. What to his surprise he eventually learned was that these apparently unrelated skills came together in the end to enable him to win the karate tournament.

So it was with the disciples of Jesus. Skills learned in Palestine proved invaluable in carrying the gospel to the nations.

The preparation through instruction and field training, begun before the Cross, was finished with the forty days of post-resurrection teaching (Acts 1:3, cf. Lk 24:27). Now the disciples' final resource is given: the "Immanuel" presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, of whom Jesus said, "he will be with you forever" (John 14:16). The abiding presence of the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit guarantees to the world-discipling Church the same authority and convincing power in presenting the truth of God that Jesus himself had during his earthly ministry (Matt 7:29; 8:9; 9:6, 8; 10:1; 20:25; 21:23-24, 27; 28:18).

III.    TO JEWS AND GENTILES IN PALESTINE AND THE DIASPORA

Public speaking and bold confrontation

Throughout the Book of Acts, Luke stresses that all the disciples spoke out in public boldly—Peter and John in the Jerusalem temple (Acts 4),  Paul in his first return to Jerusalem as a new Christian (Acts 9),  Paul and Barnabas confronting the Jews who opposed their preaching in Pisidian Antioch (Asia Minor) (Acts 13),  and Apollos in the synagogue at Ephesus testifying that Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 18).  Early on, in the first Jerusalem gatherings for prayer by the believers, confronted by sharp opposition from the authorities, they prayed to be able to speak boldly without fear (Acts 4:29-31).  And so on! 

And these are just the places where Luke uses the specific word "bold" to describe the witness. In many other places where the word isn't used, the situation and the recorded speech show boldness: Philip to the non-Jews of Samaria (Acts 8), and running up to the carriage of the Ethiopian eunuch to explain to him the meaning of Isaiah 53. Boldness is what characterized the witness of the earliest Christians, as it should ours.

Healing and Acts of Mercy

Gospel witness always joins bold speaking of the truth to compassionate meeting of human physical needs. It began with Jesus himself, whose miracles of healing and exorcism were not just to showcase his credentials as the Son of God, but were genuine compassion in action. This kind of practical concern seems to have been shared by him with his cousin and beloved friend John, the son of Zebedee, who later wrote:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. … 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence" (1 John 3:16). 

And so it was that, in the earliest days after Jesus resurrection and ascension, when Peter, John and the other disciples were boldly charging the religious leaders of Jerusalem in public of rejecting and crucifying their own Messiah, they did not allow this main mission to deter them from using God's power to miraculously heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, and even raise the dead. These hallmarks of the Messiah's ministry, shown by Jesus while he was on earth, continued to follow the disciples as they preached the gospel.

As Peter himself characterized Jesus' earthly mission to Cornelius in Acts 10:38-39.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

By the time he uttered these words to the Roman centurion Cornelius, Peter himself had been doing just that throughout Jerusalem, Judea and the Palestinian coast, as Luke makes very clear in Acts 2-8. to borrow a phrase from 1 Timothy 6:18, Peter was "rich in good deeds."

One-on-one explanation of Scripture (Acts 8)

The earliest Christians followed the example of Jesus, who often engaged people in private talks. You can easily remember his talks with Nicodemus about being born again (John 3) and with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). But there were many such talks recorded also in the synoptic gospels. People related well to Jesus and often sought him out for private confidential talks about their deepest and most intimate needs. His merciful and understanding attitude drew people to him. This is obviously what any disciple of his needs to exhibit.

The Book of Acts is also full of examples of Peter, John, Barnabas, and Paul engaging individuals in private talks which led either to a conversion or to a deepening of the other person’s understanding of God’s will. The story of the Ethiopian eunuch is a particularly good example. Philip was a man unshackled from the prejudices of other Jews toward the Samaritans, which was why it was he rather than someone else who first began to reap the harvest of souls in Samaria (Acts 8:1-25), the seeds for which Jesus himself sowed in John 4. Knowing what kind of a man Philip was, as shown by that ministry, it is easy to see why the Holy Spirit chose him to approach the chariot of the Ethiopian man (Acts 8:26-40), and hearing him reading aloud from the great Isaiah 53 prophecy, to ask if he could help him to understand it.

Letter-writing

Paul's many letters written to his churches, eventually had a much broader reading than just the Christian congregations.

Today's equivalent opportunites for long-distance ministry are email and blogging —keeping in touch with others for purposes of mutual edification, and as an evangelistic tool. I recently read on Pastor Todd Wilson's blog how he grudgingly came to the conclusion that the time-consuming task of blogging was indeed what God wanted him to add to his other pastoral duties (see http://www.toddawilson.com/tag/blogging/). He came to this conclusion very reluctantly and not just in order to conform to some modern trend.

Paul may never have thought that hundreds of years in the future individuals would be coming to faith in Jesus through his letters. And he wasn't the only Christian in his day who wrote letters to spread the gospel and encourage those who believed. What we have in the New Testament is only a selection from a much larger corpus, a selection made by the Holy Spirit and recognized as one intended by God to be a part of the God-breathed revelation which is the New Testament.

IV.    THE TASK FULFILLED

In Old Testament times God held out to Israel visions of fulfillment of his plan and of her task, in order to encourage her and to spur her on. The New Testament too gives us such visions. Not all of them are found in the Book of the Revelation, but many are.

Quite apart from how these visions inform us about how God will be with us in the eternal state—which is our subject next week—they show that the goal of saving believers in all nations will be realized.

Rev. 5:9-10 And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Rev. 7:9-12 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. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

This prediction that God's goal in redeeming members of every nation, tribe and ethnic group is not to make us complacent—"Oh well, why should I work? God will do it all eventually!"— but to give us hope and challenge us to engagement.

I sometimes record a sports event on TIVO and watch it after I know who won. I know that this takes the fun out of it for some people. But for me it often reinforces a spiritual lesson. When you know who eventually won, it is interesting to see how unnecessary is all the agony and despair shown in the course of the game by those rooting for the eventual winners.

We live in a world where most of the people are not rooting for the Lord Jesus or the cause of the gospel. And there are constant incidents either on the local or global scene that seem to us as his disciples like huge setbacks. It is proper that we grieve over our own moral and spiritual failures, but we should not despair over apparent setbacks that have no cause in a moral failure by believers. We know that Jesus will win. We know that God's plan will prevail, that the gospel will win. This for me is the joy of reading a book like the Revelation. And it challenges me not to overlook any individual or ethnic group in my prayers, my giving, and my personal witness.

Jesus came so that God can be with any person regardless of his nationality, if he will only accept the gift of salvation through Jesus—the Jewish Messiah and Savior.

I once was the teaching leader of a large inter-faith Bible study class for men. I had an African-American friend in the class who came to me privately, concerned that he felt alienated from Jesus because he was not black. I told him that Jesus was also not Caucasian like me: he was a Middle Eastern Jew. But I told him that I had come to the conclusion that skin color and ethnicity had nothing to do with my relationship to Jesus, for he was not only a Near Eastern Jew by birth, he was also the Son of God long before his birth. This seemed to help my friend.

Our God will be Immanuel "God with us" to all the nations. Let us rejoice in that.