God’s People – The Church
God’s desire has always been to bring His blessing to the nations of the earth. This was a pivotal part of the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:3) and was reinforced by the prophets (Isaiah 42:6-8; 49:3,6) to Israel. But God’s people failed to reach out. They became selfish, sectarian and self-satisfied.
The nation of Israel, those who looked after God’s vineyard, rejected Him as the true owner and killed His Son (Matthew 21:33-39). As the crowd rightly concluded, the vineyard would be ‘rented to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time’ (Matthew 21:41). Jesus concluded ‘I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit’ (Matthew 21:43). Notice the issue was fruitfulness and harvest.
Jesus’ first disciples were all Jews. Their first converts were all Jews. The issue was not Jew versus Gentile, but a new wineskin – ‘a people who will produce … fruit’ (Matthew 21:43). God was looking for a people who would share His heart, and His heart was for the nations. This was the fruit He was looking for.
The Great Commission was into nations beyond Israel – ‘into all the world’ (Mark 16:15); ‘Go and make disciples of all the nations’ Jesus said. (Matthew 28:19). The Holy Spirit would empower this new band ‘to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). Jesus told His disciples ‘repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached … to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’ (Luke 24:47).
Israel failed to give God the fruit He wanted from them. The baton is now in the hand of the church. Let’s not make the same mistake. God is still looking for fruit – among the nations.
To listen to this message, download in MP3 here