"Joining God's Mission: Every Tribe, Nation, and Tongue"
by Rachel Bale
“Where are you?” God asks Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:9.
Despite their rebellion, God seeks them out. Mission begins with God; He is the first initiator, pursuing people from every tribe, nation, and tongue to reconcile the world back to Himself through Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation, the mission of God reverberates throughout the scriptures. At Wellspring, our heart is to join God in this mission:
Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the glory of God, both locally where we are and in the hardest to reach places of the world.
So, what does it look like for us to be part of the mission of God globally? In the scriptures we see the theme of all nations repeated in the mission of making more worshipers of God. One instance is in Jesus’ final words to his disciples in the book of Matthew, also known as the Great Commission.
He says: “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.” Matt. 28:18-20
Another instance is in John’s vision in Revelation.
He writes: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Rev. 5:9-10
In both uses of nation, the original Greek word is best translated as ethnos or ethne, meaning “tribe, ethnicity, or people group.” This shifts our thinking from missions as simply geographical to missions as people-groups or ethnically oriented.
When we look across the globe, the barriers to the spread of the Gospel are actually more language and culture related than geographical. This means that we need messengers willing to displace themselves from their own people group with their common values, culture, and language to be sent to another. They must take up the work of learning a new language and way of life, relating to and serving a people group in order to gain the trust and the resources to share the Gospel with them. At Wellspring, we consider it our missions calling to support the work that God is doing among the nations, particularly those who are doing this costly work to reach unreached people groups.
We consider it a privilege to support the work that God is doing among the nations.
In Northern Africa, we support missionaries who are teaching English classes and building relationships with students who may never hear the name of Jesus in their lifetime. Evangelism is happening across their city, proclaiming the Gospel and sharing that our good works can’t make us right with God, only Jesus can by grace through faith.
In the Middle East, we support missionaries who have moved their family to a place where evangelism is prohibited to learn Arabic, build relationships, and pray for a Christ-centered indigenous church to be planted among a historically Muslim people group.
Across various places in Europe, there are missionaries equipping and teaching believers to be sent to some of the spiritually darkest places of the world. And still, in Europe, Central Asia and South America, we support missionaries sharing the Gospel with those who have never heard, discipling new believers in the way of Jesus, equipping others to share Christ with their own people group, and working to see faithful churches planted where there are no churches.
These are just some of the ways we are joining the mission of God. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19). God is the leader, empowering His Church by the Holy Spirit to gather for Himself people from every tribe, nation, and tongue. He is doing what only He can do, bringing life to dead places and people so that when Christ comes back for his Church, it will be a beautiful, diverse body of worshippers from every nation. Do you perceive what He is doing now in the world? How are you joining in?
Rachel Bale is the Missions and Prayer Coordinator at Wellspring Church. Email Rachel