Let the Nations Be Glad!

by John Piper

  The decisive text is Revelation 5:9–10. John is given a glimpse of the climax of redemption as redeemed people worship at the throne of God. The composition of that assembly is crucial.

  [The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders] sang a new song, saying, “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.”

  The missionary vision behind this scene is that the task of the church is to gather the ransomed from all peoples, languages, tribes, and nations.22 All peoples must be reached because God has appointed people to believe the gospel whom he has ransomed through the death of his Son. The design of the atonement prescribes the design of mission strategy. And the design of the atonement (Christ’s ransom, verse 9) is universal in the sense that it extends to all peoples and definite in that it effectually ransoms some from each of those peoples. Therefore, the missionary task is to gather the ransomed from all the peoples through preaching the gospel.

  Gathering the Scattered Children

  This understanding of John’s vision of missions is powerfully confirmed from his Gospel. In John 11:50–52, Caiaphas, the high priest, admonishes the irate Jewish council to get Jesus out of the way because “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” Then John comments on this word from Caiaphas. His words are crucial for understanding John’s missionary vision. John says:

  [Caiaphas] did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

  This ties in remarkably well with John’s conception of missions in Revelation 5:9. There it says that Christ’s death ransomed men “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Here in John 11:52 it says that Christ’s death gathers the children of God who are scattered among all those nations. In other words, both texts picture the missionary task as gathering in those who are ransomed by Christ. John calls them “the children of God.”

  Therefore, “scattered” (in John 11:52) is to be taken in its fullest sense: The “children of God” will be found as widely scattered as there are peoples of the earth. The missionary task is to reach them in every tribe, language, people, and nation. The way they are to be reached is by the preaching of missionaries. This is what Jesus implies when he says in John 17:20, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.” This parallels John 11:52, which says that Jesus did not die for the nation only but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. The saving power of his death will extend to people in all the nations of the world, but it will do so only through the word of those whom he sends.

  I Must Bring the Other Sheep Also!

  The same conception also lies behind the missionary text in John 10:16. Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” “This fold” refers to the people of Israel. The “other sheep” refers to the “children of God” who are scattered abroad (John 11:52). These are the “ransomed from every tribe” in Revelation 5:9. Therefore, the words “I must bring them also” are a very strong affirmation that the Lord will see his missionary purpose completed. He will gather his “sheep” or “the children of God” or the “ransomed” from all the peoples of the earth. As he says in Matthew 16:18, he will build his church.

  Thus, the Gospel of John lends tremendous force to the missionary purpose and missionary certainty implied in Revelation 5:9. Jesus has ransomed persons in all the peoples of the world. He died to gather these “children of God” who are scattered among all the peoples. Therefore, he must bring all these wandering sheep into his fold! And they will be brought in through the Word preached by his messengers.

  Again and Again: Nations, Tribes, Peoples, and Languages

  Four other passages from Revelation confirm that John understands the task of missions as reaching all the people groups of the world so that the redeemed can be gathered in.

  After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

  7:9–10

  Unless we restrict this multitude to the converts of the great tribulation and say that God’s missionary purpose at that time will be different from what it is now, the implication of God’s worldwide purpose is clear: He aims to be worshiped by converts from all the nations, tribes, peoples, and languages.

  Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation [pan ethnos] and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

  14:6–7

  Again the intention is that the gospel be proclaimed not just to more and more individuals but to “every nation, tribe, language, and people.”

  Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations [panta ta ethn] will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

  15:4

  In view of the Old Testament allusion here to Psalm 86:9,23 and in view of the context of Revelation with its repeated use of ethnos in reference to “nations” (at least ten times) and not persons, panta ta ethn in 15:4 no doubt refers to people groups and not merely to Gentile individuals. Therefore, what John foresees as the goal of missions is a worshiping multitude of saints from all the peoples of the world.

  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples [laoi], and God himself will be with them as their God.”

  21:3

  This is a surprising and remarkable glimpse of the new heavens and the new earth. It pictures peoples, not just people, in the age to come. It seems that laoi (“peoples”) and not laos (“people”) is the genuine, original reading.24 Therefore, John (recording the angelic voice) seems to make explicit (in distinction from Leviticus 26:12, laos) that the final goal of God in redemption is not to obliterate the distinctions of the peoples but to gather them all into one diverse but unified assembly of peoples.

  We may conclude from this inquiry into John’s writings that his conception of the unique task of missions is to reach more and more people groups until there are converts from “every tribe and language and people and nation.” It is a task that he is utterly certain will be accomplished, for he sees it as already complete in the Lord’s vision of the age to come.

  Did Paul and John Get This Focus on Peoples from Jesus?

  Was this focus on peoples the intention of Jesus as he gave his apostles their final commission? Paul’s conception of his own missionary task, which he received from the risen Lord, would certainly suggest that this is what the Lord commanded, not only to him but to all the apostles as the special missionary task of the church.

  The Great Commission: It Was Written!

  But there is also evidence of this intention in the context of Luke’s record of the Lord’s words in Luke 24:45–47:

  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations [panta ta ethn], beginning from Jerusalem.”

  The context here is crucial. First, Jesus “opens their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Then
he says, “Thus it is written” (in the Old Testament), followed (in the original Greek) by three coordinate infinitive clauses that make explicit what is written in the Old Testament: first, that the Christ is to suffer; second, that he is to rise on the third day; and third, that repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be preached in his name to “all nations.”

  So Jesus is saying that his commission to take the message of repentance and forgiveness to all nations “is written” in the Old Testament “Scriptures.” This is one of the things he opened their minds to understand. But what is the Old Testament conception of the worldwide purpose of God (which we saw above)? It is just what Paul saw: a purpose to bless all the families of the earth and win a worshiping people from “all nations.”25

  Therefore, we have strong evidence that the panta ta ethn in Luke 24:47 was understood by Jesus not merely as Gentile individuals but also as an array of world peoples who must hear the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

  Luke’s other account of Jesus’ commission in Acts 1:8 points in the same direction. Jesus says to his apostles just before his ascension, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This commission suggests that getting to all the unreached areas (if not explicitly people groups) is the special task of missions. There is a pressure to keep moving, not just to unconverted individuals nearby but also to places beyond, even to the end of the world. Not only that, but the phrase “end of the earth” is sometimes in the Old Testament closely associated with all the peoples of the earth. For example, Psalm 22:27: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”

  This parallel shows that “end of the earth” sometimes carried the association of distant peoples.26 The apostles would probably not have heard the commission of Acts 1:8 as significantly different from the commission of Luke 24:47.

  A House of Prayer for All Nations

  Another pointer to the way Jesus thought about the worldwide missionary purposes of God comes from Mark 11:17. When Jesus cleanses the temple, he quotes Isaiah 56:7: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations [pasin tois ethnesin]’”?

  This is important because it shows Jesus reaching back to the Old Testament (just as he does in Luke 24:45–47) to interpret the worldwide purposes of God. He quotes Isaiah 56:7, which in Hebrew explicitly says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples [kol ha‘ammim].”

  The people-group meaning is unmistakable. Isaiah’s point is not that every individual Gentile will have a right to dwell in the presence of God but that there will be converts from “all peoples” who will enter the temple to worship. The fact that Jesus was familiar with this Old Testament hope, and that he based his worldwide expectations on references to it (Mark 11:17; Luke 24:45–47), suggests that we should interpret his Great Commission along this line—the very same line found in the writings of Paul and John.

  Back to the Great Commission in Matthew

  We come back now to our earlier effort to understand what Jesus meant in Matthew 28:19 when he said, “Go and make disciples of panta ta ethn.” This command has its corresponding promise of success in Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations [pasin tois ethnesin], and then the end will come.” The scope of the command and the scope of the promise hang on the meaning of panta ta ethn.

  My conclusion from what we have seen in this chapter is that one would have to go against the flow of the evidence to interpret the phrase panta ta ethn as “all Gentile individuals” (or “all countries”). Rather, the focus of the command is the discipling of all the people groups of the world. This conclusion comes from the following summary of our biblical investigation:

  1. In the New Testament, the singular use of ethnos never means Gentile individuals but always people group or nation.

  2. The plural ethn can mean either Gentile individuals or people groups. Sometimes the context demands that it mean one or the other, but in most instances it could carry either meaning.

  3. The phrase panta ta ethn occurs eighteen times in the New Testament. Only once must it mean Gentile individuals. Nine times it must mean people groups. The other eight times are ambiguous.

  4. Virtually all of the nearly one hundred uses of panta ta ethn in the Greek Old Testament refer to nations in distinction from the nation of Israel. See note 15.

  5. The promise made to Abraham that in him “all the families of the earth” would be blessed and that he would be “the father of many nations” is taken up in the New Testament and gives the mission of the church a people-group focus because of this Old Testament emphasis.

  6. The Old Testament missionary hope is expressed repeatedly as exhortations, promises, prayers, and plans for God’s glory to be declared among the peoples and his salvation to be known by all the nations.

  7. Paul understood his specifically missionary task in terms of this Old Testament hope and made the promises concerning peoples the foundation of his mission. He was devoted to reaching more and more people groups, not simply more and more individuals. He interpreted Christ’s commission to him in these terms.

  8. The apostle John envisioned the task of missions as the ingathering of “the children of God” or the “other sheep” out of “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.”

  9. The Old Testament context of Jesus’ missionary commission in Luke 24:46–47 shows that panta ta ethn would most naturally mean all the peoples or nations.

  10. Mark 11:17 shows that Jesus probably thinks in terms of people groups when he envisions the worldwide purpose of God.

  Therefore, in all likelihood, Jesus did not send his apostles out with a general mission merely to win as many individuals as they could but rather to reach all the peoples of the world and thus to gather the “sons of God” who are scattered (John 11:52) and to call all the “ransomed from every tongue and tribe and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9), until redeemed persons from “all the peoples praise him” (Rom. 15:11).

  Thus, when Jesus says in Mark 13:10 that “the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations [panta ta ethn],” there is no good reason for construing this to mean anything other than that the gospel must reach all the peoples of the world before the end comes. And when Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all the nations [panta ta ethn],” there is no good reason for construing this to mean anything other than that the missionary task of the church is to press on to all the unreached peoples until the Lord comes. Jesus commands it, and he assures us that it will be done before he comes again. He can make that promise because he himself is building his church from all the peoples. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him for this very thing (Matt. 28:18).

  What Is a People Group?

  We have tried to establish that the special missionary task of the New Testament is to reach all the people groups of the world. But we have not defined precisely what a people group is. What we have found, in fact, is that a precise definition is probably not possible to give on the basis of what God has chosen to reveal in the Bible. God probably did not intend for us to use a precise definition of people groups. That way we can never stop doing pioneer missionary work just because we conclude that all the groups with our definition have been reached.

  For example, the point of Matthew 24:14 (“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”) is not that we should reach all the nations as we understand them and then stop. The point rather is that as long as the Lord has not returned, there must be more people groups to reach, and we should keep on reaching them.

  There are biblical pointers to the nature of a people group. For example, Revelation 5:9 uses four terms to describe the people groups that wi
ll be represented at the throne of God: “By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” To these four the promise to Abraham adds another: “In you all the families27 of the earth shall be blessed.”

  What Is a Language?

  From this we can say, for example, that at least every language group (“language” in Rev. 5:9) should be sought out in the missionary task. But when does a dialect become so distinct that it is a different language? Questions such as this show why there is such difficulty and disagreement concerning the definition of a people group. For years, Ralph Winter put forward the number twenty-four thousand as the total number of people groups in the world. However, Patrick Johnstone observes in the 2001 edition of Operation World: “It was only during the 1990s that a reasonably complete listing of the world’s peoples and languages was developed. For the first time in history we have a reasonably clear picture of the remaining task for us to disciple the nations.”28 He refers to a total of “the world’s twelve thousand ethnolinguistic peoples.”

  In harmony with Johnstone, David Barrett, in his 2001 revision of the World Christian Encyclopedia, defines an ethnolinguistic people as follows: “A distinct homogenous ethnic or racial group within a single country, speaking its own language (one single mother tongue). A large people spread across two, three, four, or several countries is treated here as being two, three, four, or several distinct ethnolinguistic peoples.”29 The total number of ethnolinguistic peoples, as Barrett reckons it, is 12,600.30

  There is good reason for the discrepancy between the Winter number and the Barrett/Johnstone number, and this reason highlights the difficulty of defining precisely the biblical meaning of “language” in Revelation 5:9. Winter illustrates the problem. He observes the difference between his 24,000 estimate and Barrett’s earlier estimate of 8,990 peoples in the 1982 edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. Then he says: