Go Teach All Nations
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and worship that would have in it nothing of caste or country, a faith
that would be adapted to all peoples, all nations, all classes of men.
Before leaving His disciples, Christ plainly stated the nature of His
kingdom. He called to their minds what He had previously told them
concerning it. He declared that it was not His purpose to establish in
this world a temporal, but a spiritual kingdom. He was not to reign
as an earthly king on David’s throne. Again He opened to them the
Scriptures, showing that all He had passed through had been ordained
in heaven, in the councils between the Father and Himself. All had
been foretold by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. He said, You see
that all I have revealed to you concerning My rejection as the Messiah
has come to pass. All I have said in regard to the humiliation I should
endure and the death I should die, has been verified. On the third day
I rose again. Search the Scriptures more diligently, and you will see
that in all these things the specifications of prophecy concerning Me
have been fulfilled.
Christ commissioned His disciples to do the work He had left in
their hands, beginning at Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been the scene
of His amazing condescension for the human race. There He had
suffered, been rejected and condemned. The land of Judea was His
birthplace. There, clad in the garb of humanity, He had walked with
men, and few had discerned how near heaven came to the earth when
Jesus was among them. At Jerusalem the work of the disciples must
begin.
In view of all that Christ had suffered there, and the unappreciated
labor He had put forth, the disciples might have pleaded for a more
promising field; but they made no such plea. The very ground where
He had scattered the seed of truth was to be cultivated by the disciples,
and the seed would spring up and yield an abundant harvest. In their
work the disciples would have to meet persecution through the jealousy
and hatred of the Jews; but this had been endured by their Master, and
they were not to flee from it. The first offers of mercy must be made
to the murderers of the Saviour.
And there were in Jerusalem many who had secretly believed on
Jesus, and many who had been deceived by the priests and rulers. To
these also the gospel was to be presented. They were to be called to
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repentance. The wonderful truth that through Christ alone could re-
mission of sins be obtained was to be made plain. While all Jerusalem