Who was Jesus referring to when he said "Go make disciples of all the nations"?

Just Christian leaders or all Christians





Matt 28:19 Darby Bible Translation


Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;|||To ALL his faithful followers/disciples.





The COMMAND is binding on ANYONE (young or old) who professes to be Christian.





For those who for whatever reason DO NOT obey and ARE NOT obeying the Son of God's COMMAND found out Matthew 28:19, his words at Luke 6:46 apply to them in full force:





"Why, then, do YOU call me ‘Lord! Lord!’ but do not do the things I say?"


~Luke 6:46





Every last one of the members (yound and old) belonging to the worldwide CHRISTIAN congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses fully OBEY the Son of God's COMMAND found at Matthew 28:19 in accordance with Matthew 24:3, 14 and every other COMMAND of God through Jesus Christ.








Ciao|||The "ethnos".





1) a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together





a) a company, troop, swarm





2) a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus





a) the human family





3) a tribe, nation, people group





4) in the OT, foreign nations not worshipping the true God, pagans, Gentiles





5) Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians|||Although he was speaking directly to his 11 apostles at the time, he didn't expect that those 11 would spread the good news and make disciples of all nations. A little later, at Pentecost, he had holy spirit poured out on many Christians who began spreading the good news of Gods kingdom and 3,000 then were baptized.





Also Jesus said that he was the leader of the congregation, not any man, so all followers would take their instructions from their Leader, Christ.|||While this was specifically expressed to his immediate apostles, there is enough evidence in other places that this was intended to be generic to all his followers. For example, in 2 Cor. 5 referring to all believers Paul said we are all given the ministry of reconciliation and that we are all ambassadors for Christ.|||To all of his true followers. To them, he said at Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This commission was obviously given to all true Christians because it was physically impossible for only Jesus' 11 faithful apostles to cover the earth with the Christian message.





Most professed Christians today prefer to go to church on occasion and let a professional minister do the preaching for them while they go about their daily cares of life. They can hardly be called true Christians.|||In verse 20, you can see he told the disciples then to teach their disciples ALL the things he taught them...that included the door to door preaching work for all of them.





Verse 18 shows that Jesus would be with them in this work and their lives all the days until the end of this system. Rev. 3:20 briefly refers to this work again also...saying Jesus is knocking at people's doors (Matthew 10:40, 10-15).





This was to be for all Christians all the way until Armageddon left no one for them to preach to. Hebrews 5:12, Romans 10:10-17, 1 Peter 3:15, 16.





Debbie|||All of those sheep like ones who would listen and be baptized to show their outward dedication to God. Up till this point Jews were Gods chosen Nation, and they lost that privilege. Now with the new covenant it was open to all the nations.|||He was commanding the sheep to do His bidding. Actually, it was those who would pretend to speak for Him that were doing the commanding. But, it seems to make little difference to the sheep.|||Seeing as the congregation kept growing in the first Century its obvious that the followers also shared in the ministry!|||He was telling his followers to go out and preach the good news and, well, make disciples.|||Jesus told his followers to spread the news what Jehovah wants.


Then people tell others people.


Then followers tell other people.|||It is a call to all Christians to the evangelism of the world [see Gen.12:1-3].|||All Christians.|||He was telling all Christians to go out and do so.|||Clearly it was restrictive in some sense. For example: we can be pretty certain that it was not a command to all people.





He was speaking to his apostles, so we know that at a minimum it included them. The fact that he is recorded speaking it ONLY to them and not to the rest of his many disciples can be viewed as significant.





Paul clarifies the issue:


http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea…


http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea…


and others. Clearly not all people have the gift of evangelization, apostleship or preaching. It would seem that attempting to evangelize without that gift would result in much the same sort of catastrophe as attempting to prophesy without THAT gift (though to a lesser degree, as prophecy is the greatest gift).





Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.com