Every Tribe and Nation

Jesus' eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had told them to meet him. ¹⁷ They saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted.

¹⁸ Jesus came to them and said:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! ¹⁹ Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.

“I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.”

What’s the end of the world? Is that when Jesus makes is second appearance and judges the living and the dead and the faithful are taken up with him?  That is so hard to wrap my mind around as a promise because the church has been in existence for 2000 years and it hasn’t happened yet.  The thing to say around religious folk is that it could happen any moment so we have to be ready. Preachers have used this idea to create a sense of urgency by proclaiming that the “Time is near.”

Every generation bemoans the one that follows it. For every generation the notion that the end is upon is a cyclical truth. The Biblical truth is that we cannot possibly know the time when the second coming will happen or even what it will really be like.

Yet Jesus says, Jesus promises, “I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.” Jesus promise is his presence with us. The end of the world is an emphasis on how thoroughly and completely he will be with us.

So what’s your end of the world? How far will you take Jesus? How far will you trust Jesus?  

When I was 11 I thought the end of the world meant a Soviet invasion of the United States after a massive nuclear strike. My friends and I discussed what we would do if there was a nuclear war.  My friend Jimmy said he was going to move to Canada. I didn’t have a plan because, in such a scenario, I saw no hope for survival.  I was such a happy child.

I thought deep thoughts as a kid.  I was quiet.  I liked to go back to the woods.  By woods I mean small group of trees that covered 10 or 15 acres in the field behind our house. Right through the middle of the woods was a small creek. The spring that fed this creek was just a mile down the road behind my friend Brandon’s house. By the time got to our woods it was wide enough that I couldn’t jump across it without getting my shoe wet and muddy. So mostly I stayed on this side of the creek.

So many things happened back in that patch of woods. I fought epic battles with the Russians; I explored the jungles of South America, and mapped the Martian landscape. We would sometimes pasture cattle in the woods so I would have to share space with them.  Aside from watching where I stepped there were advantages. They made a system of trails through the thick brush that gave me more options for exploration.

One day I went back to the woods and a tree had fallen across the creek.  The erosion of the soil from under the tree caused its collapse. I suddenly had a bridge to the other side! Not only could I explore mars but Pluto as well!

That creek was the end of my world. But now my world just got infinitely bigger.

I will be with you always, even to the end of YOUR world.

The end of your world may be different then the end of my world and neither one of them is as expansive as the end of THE world that Jesus was talking about.

So what does your world look like?

Defining you space spiritually. On the edge of that patch of woods there is an oak tree that is ancient. It is a huge beautiful tree.  It stands apart from the rest of the trees by several yards and is predominant in the view from my parents’ back yard.  All you have to say is “the tree” and my family knows what tree you are talking about.

An uncle of mine wanted to cut it down for firewood several years ago.  I don’t know that I have fully forgiven him yet for suggesting it.

There is nothing particularly spiritual or meaningful about that tree. But it made me realize that we can define our space that we live in, in spiritual terms.

When we lived in Gowen, Michigan we had a house that was on an acre of land that was just full of trees. In front of the house was a grouping of three trees that formed a nice equilateral triangle.  I took Alex out there and we stood in the small triangle of space that the trees created and there I explained to him about the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Several years later and not long ago he mentioned that to me.  “Remember those trees that were like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He was a little disappointed when I told him that was just something I made up. The trees were just trees. Now I regret taking that from him.

Jesus is with us wherever we take him. Even to the end of the world.

The disciples went to a place. Like “the tree,” for me, but was a mountain in Galilee. It was a place you could point to on a map. It’s a place you could go to today. In that place they met Jesus. They saw him. They worshipped him.

That place must have been very special in their hearts, the place where they were reunited with Jesus after his death and resurrection. They worshipped him in that special place. Worship is the natural response. Worship is appropriate and worship is easy.  Worship points to God and says to God I love you for being God. Worship is a means of connection between humanity and God.

Those disciples had that mountain; I have “the tree.” Do you know the last time I have been to the tree?  It was in the summer of 2011.

Are you hearing me?

I’m not spending all my time in the shade of that oak tree.

You can love the place where you found God but that doesn’t mean…

Let’s look at this passage.  If you could boil down, trim away and basically get down to one word of instruction from Jesus from this passage what would it be?

“Go”

Where did it ever say Jesus commanded his disciples to stay in one place and worship him?

“Go”

Maybe we need a little more, because he wasn’t telling them to leave him alone, get out of here or anything like that; he was giving instructions with a promise. 

Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples, and I’ll be with you to the end of the world.

But that was the disciples right. That was those guys in that moment in that place on the mountain.

The authority that Jesus had on earth he has in heaven.  The authority Jesus granted the disciples was ratified and expanded in heaven.

Revelation 5:

The Lamb went over and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. ⁸ After he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders knelt down before him. Each of them had a harp and a gold bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹ Then they sang a new song,

“You are worthy
    to receive the scroll
and open its seals,
    because you were killed.
And with your own blood
    you bought for God
people from every tribe,
    language, nation, and race.
¹⁰ You let them become kings
    and serve God as priests,
and they will rule on earth.”

And they will rule on earth.  Jesus promises he will be with us to the end of the world. We have only a narrow context of God’s creation.  We have been given authority by Jesus and it has been ratified in heaven to make disciples of all nations. And we do that right here in this holy place.  I don’t mean only in the walls of the church building but in the Holy Land that we have been called to, the holy land that we are to consecrate for God in this place.

What does the kingdom of heaven look like? What is the earth supposed to look like if we take seriously the Lord’s Prayer? That every tribe, language, nation and race is united under the God that loves them.

We may only have a narrow context of God’s creation but we have been called to a global family, a family that exists beyond borders and political loyalties.

We have a broad mandate to love the whole world and all of its peoples in the name of Jesus Christ. But we are called to this spot.

So how is it with you today? How broad is our love in this place.  Do we have the desire to demonstrate God’s love to people from every tribe, language, nation, and race?

We have barriers that we have avoided because we don’t want to get our shoes muddy and wet.  What if we didn’t mind getting our feet muddy and wet so see what’s beyond? What if we built bridges to communities of people that are not yet here?