Vineyard Church of Knox County
God’s Worldwide Drama
Sermon Audio from Sunday, February 5, 2006 — The Creator of the world has a plan for the world, a story whose current chapter began 2000 years ago when Jesus announced, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near," a chapter whose ending will come when Jesus returns to usher in the fullness of God's Kingdom. God has a plan for this world. Jesus' disciples were asking him about the end times, when and how they would occur. Jesus told them he didn't know exactly when, but he did know when it would not occur. He said, "And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). "Ethne" is the Greek word translated here as "nations." It means peoples or tribes rather than countries.) The end will not come until every ethnic group has been reached. John's revelation of the future bares this truth out, "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" (Rev. 7:9).
From Jesus' time until today, men and women have been invited to take part in this cosmic drama of spreading the gospel of the kingdom to every corner of the globe. Jesus' invitation in the form of a command is this: "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20). And, so we are invited to join Jesus in his mission to spread his good news of the gospel to every kind of person on the planet in hopes that when every ethnic group is reached, he will return soon.
