Teach all the nations

Sermon for Midweek of Holy Trinity

Ezekiel 18:30-32  +  2 Corinthians 13:14  +  Matthew 28:18-20

Long before Jesus gave the great commission to His apostles to go and make disciples of all nations, the LORD God gave the prophet Ezekiel a great commission, to preach a message from God to the rebellious and idolatrous house of Israel right in the middle of the devastation caused by the Babylonians and in the midst of the Babylonian captivity. You heard a part of his preaching in the First Lesson: I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways. And that judgment would be very strict, because the house of Israel had the very words of God handed down to them, had access to them for a thousand years. They were told what idolatry was, to fear someone or something more than God, to love someone or something more than God, to trust in someone or something more than God; and yet they turned to other gods for help in time of need. They were told how the name of their God was to be honored and not misused, and yet they took His name in vain by claiming that the Lord promised peace to the impenitent, when in reality He promised judgment. They were told about the Sabbath rest God intended to give them in the ministry of the Word that pointed ahead to the coming Messiah, and yet they broke the Sabbath and rejected that lesson that the Lord wanted to teach them. They were told to honor their father and mother, and yet they rebelled. They were told not to murder, and yet they committed murder, if not with their hands, then at least with their hearts. They were told not to commit adultery, but they engaged in sex outside of marriage and got divorces for unscriptural reasons. They were told not steal, and yet they stole. They were told not to give false testimony, and yet they engaged in deception and deceit. They were told not to covet their neighbor’s house or anything that belonged to their neighbor, and yet they allowed their sinful desires to consume them. And so God sent Ezekiel to tell them, Judgment is coming!

But judgment isn’t restricted to the house of Israel. It’s coming for the nations—for the Gentiles, too. Now at the time of Ezekiel, and at the time of Christ, the nations hadn’t been told right and wrong by God. The nations didn’t have His Word like the people of Israel did. And yet, as Paul writes to the Romans, the nations—the Gentiles—all had the Law of God written in their hearts. Yes, it’s obscured by sin, but mankind has always had a general sense of right and wrong, put there by God Himself, a basic understanding of virtue and of vice, and a strong sense that there is a God and that they are to seek Him, but not seek Him inside ourselves or in nature. No, we know by nature that the true God is above and outside of His creation. And yet, the nations didn’t worship Him in that way, and more often than not, they engaged in vice instead of virtue.

So judgment was coming for Israel, and judgment was coming for the Gentiles, for the nations, although Israel would receive a greater judgment, because they had been told explicitly from Holy Scripture about the true God and about His will, while the Gentiles hadn’t. The more opportunities a person is given to know the truth about sin and about the true God and about His requirements, the worse it will be for that person who continues in his or her sin.

Still, the nations must know, because knowing and repenting and believing is still the only way for anyone to escape the judgment that is coming, for “all have sinned,” both Jews and Gentiles.

And so the Lord Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, sent out the Eleven. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.

“Make disciples of” all the nations. The verb “make disciples of” is related to the noun for “disciple,” and a disciple is literally a “learner.” Other languages simply translate this verb as “teach.” “Teach all the nations.”

That teaching includes the call to repentance, just as Peter included it in his teaching on the Day of Pentecost as he taught the people of Jerusalem how they had sinned by being complicit in the crucifixion of Jesus. Ezekiel included that teaching, too. Turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. You can’t remain as you are! You can’t keep living as you are! Turn away from the things that God calls sins or transgressions, and get a new heart and a new spirit! In other words, repent!

But what good would it do to turn away from sin if the sins remained unatoned for? If you punch someone in the face and then stop punching them in the face, you still have deal with the fact that you punched someone in the face. So, too, with the Law of God. Even if you were to stop sinning against God, which no one is entirely able to do, you still have to deal with the sins you have committed.

That’s why Jesus came, why He had to come. The only way to atone for the sins of man was for the Son of God to become the Son of Man and to atone for all the wrongs that mankind has done with His perfect life and with His innocent death on the cross. No other atonement for sins can be made. Jesus paid for them all, paid the price God requires for sinners to be justified.

And so the prophets and apostles taught the Jews and the nations to repent, and then taught them to know that God would give (in the case of the prophets) or that God had given (in the case of the apostles) His own Son as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

And then the apostles were to teach people to believe in Christ and to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He who believes and is baptized will be saved! But whoever does not believe will be condemned. Teaching the nations included teaching them that, in Holy Baptism, the one God, who is three Persons, washes away their sins, places His name on them, clothes them with Christ, connects them to the death and resurrection of Christ, and makes them members of His beloved Bride, the Holy Christian Church.

And so we teach sin. We teach repentance. We teach Christ crucified and risen from the dead. We teach faith and Baptism. And then we baptize those who wish to be baptized, with the full authority that Christ has and has given to His ministers in the world to teach and to baptize anyone and everyone in all the nations.

But the teaching doesn’t stop with baptizing people. Jesus didn’t end the great commission there. He went on, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. No one who truly comes in faith to the Lord Jesus and receives His Baptism can then willingly walk away from His teaching, or intentionally go on living in sin. No, ministers are to teach the baptized, teach them God’s Word and God’s will, teach them to pray, teach them to keep turning away from sin and turning toward righteousness and holiness as God the Holy Spirit remakes the baptized children of God into the holy and pure image of Christ, teach them to observe the Lord’s Supper, where the Lord Jesus gives us His true body and blood to strengthen us all the way through this life.

Teaching the nations is still the work Christ has given His Church to carry out on earth, because judgment is still coming, and it’s coming even more powerfully now, because both Jews and Gentiles—all nations—have heard the Word of God, have been told right and wrong, have been commanded to repent and to believe in Christ for salvation, and most haven’t repented, haven’t turned away from their sins. Practically the whole world bears the guilt that Israel once bore, because practically the whole world has heard the teaching of Christ’s apostles and has turned it down. Still, as the Lord cried out through the prophet Ezekiel, so He still cries out, “Why should you die, O house of Israel? Why should you die, O you nations of the earth? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”

Turn and live! That’s what we teach all the nations. Turn and live! Repent and believe! Believe and be baptized! Be baptized and observe all the things that Christ has commanded. And we’re not alone as we teach, and we’re not alone as Christians in the world, because we also have that blessed promise of Jesus: Behold, I am with you always—literally, “all the days”—even to the end of the age. So turn and live! Repent and believe! Believe and be baptized! Be baptized and observe the teaching of Christ, who is still with His beloved Church, with all His grace and love and strength and help. Amen.