Make Disciples of All Nations

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “A Word of Encouragement for Village Church Planters.”  

As a student in the New Village Church Planting Program, you have learned to tell God’s big story from start to finish.  A critical point in that story comes when God calls Abram. You can read about it in Genesis 12.  God says some amazing things to Abram.  He says, “I will bless you Abram, I will make your name great. You will be a blessing.”  Then God says the most amazing thing of all.  He says to Abram, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Wow!  God loves the whole world. He wants to bless all peoples on earth. And He has a plan to bless them, starting with Abram.

Abram was a man just like us.  He was loyal to his immediate family and He was loyal to his clan. But it seems quite clear that Abram was as surprised as anyone else to learn that God wanted to bless all peoples on earth.  

God loves people from every tribe.  Every tribe.  He loves people who speak every language. Every language. He loves people from every country.  Every country.  And he wants them to be saved.  He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So it should not have been very surprising to the 11 disciples when Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”  They heard what he said. They remembered his words. But they spent most all of their time evangelizing Jews and only Jews for the first years after Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Why didn’t they take the Good News to people of other tribes and other languages?  We don’t know. But we do know that it’s just easier to tell the Good News to people who look like us and talk like us and who eat the same kind of food we eat.

But Jesus says, “Make disciples of all nations.”  Remember that command. And take action. Who are the people in your village who are different?  Maybe they are members of different tribe or maybe they speak a different language or come from a different part of the country.  Pray for them. Ask God to save them.  Ask him to show you how to find persons of peace among those people who are different.

  Remember, God wants to use you to make disciples of all nations.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.  

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