The Scriptures teach a simple prophetic framework that encourages us to fulfill the Great Commission: to make disciples of all nations in this age. We’re making incremental progress toward the goal of discovering that framework. Our starting point is the Olivet Discourse, where a simple, understandable conversation occurs. Jesus says that no stone in the temple would remain intact (Matt 24:1–2). In response, the disciples ask when this event would occur and the signs that would precede it.
The Lord answers the sign question first (Matt 24:4–31). I have divided his signs into three groups: (1) preliminary signs (Matt 24:4–14), (2) a later sign (Matt 24:15–26), and (3) immediate signs that pertain to the temple’s fall (Matt 24:27–31).
I call the first set of signs preliminary because Jesus said they would not mean the temple was about to fall, ending the Mosaic age. He said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matt 24:6).
Jesus makes an obvious progression as he gives these preliminary signs, first listing four general signs. I discussed these signs here and here. Now Jesus turns from general signs that might characterize any period to those that would affect the disciples and their work before the temple’s fall. Jesus reminds the disciples that their transition-period ministry would be “a witness to all the nations” (Matt 24:14). The three signs he gives relate to that mission: (1) persecution, (2) widespread apostasy, and (3) an accomplishment that must precede the end of the Mosaic age.
I discussed the first two of these here and here. Now I will consider the third sign in this group.
Preaching to the Nations
Jesus’ last ministry-related sign involved gospel preaching: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). This sign would point to the temple’s soon-coming fall and “the end” of the Mosaic age.1
This sign would involve preaching the gospel of the kingdom. In their sign question, the disciples associated the temple’s fall with the end of the Mosaic age and the start of the messianic age, which they often called the kingdom of God. They had heard John the Baptist and Jesus proclaim the kingdom and had themselves preached this message to Israel. So, the disciples were familiar with Jesus’ ministry sign: the proclamation that the long-promised age had arrived. The old Mosaic age would end when the temple fell; the kingdom of God would remain.
This preaching sign would be a witness to all nations. Jesus and his disciples had provided this witness to Israel for over three years (e.g., Matt 4:23; 9:35). And Jesus had said the disciples would continue to bear witness to Israel but would not complete the mission before the Son of Man would come (Matt 10:7, 23). During the period between the Olivet Discourse and the temple’s fall, the disciples’ preaching field would expand “to all nations.”
This broadened preaching would serve as a witness to the nations. In the Old Testament, God had used the prophets to call the nations to witness his previous judgments of apostate Israel. Micah provides one example:
The word of the Lord that came to Micah … which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.… Her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.… For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. (Mic 1:1–12 ESV)
God, through his prophet, provided a witness to the nations of his soon-coming judgment of apostate Israel.
The disciples’ preaching in the last days of the Mosaic age would serve the same purpose—the nations must know that God was about to judge Israel again. This judgment would be more significant than any previous one: it would signify the transition to the messianic kingdom age.
This witness-preaching is not equivalent to the Great Commission. There, the aim is different: “make disciples of all the nations … teaching them to observe all things that [Jesus] commanded” (Matt 28:19–20). Jesus’ future disciples could accomplish this mission in the messianic age because of God’s actions in the Mosaic age’s last days. The disciples must notify the nations that these things were happening; they must command “all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30), believe the gospel of the kingdom, and submit to King Jesus.
Jesus said the end would come when the disciples accomplished this preaching; not the end of the messianic age, the end of history, or the end of the kosmos, but the end of the Mosaic age connected with the temple’s fall (Matt 24:1–3, 6, 13).
By this point, it will not surprise you to learn that the New Testament also confirms the fulfillment of this sign. Paul confirmed it in his commendation of the Christians at Rome: “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom 1:8). This statement means the “whole world” was aware, to some extent, of God’s messianic-age temple. Later in the letter, Paul explains why most Jews had rejected the gospel of the kingdom. In his explanation, he refers to Psalm 19:4 as an accomplished fact: “But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’” (Rom 10:18). By the time Paul wrote Romans, the gospel had reached “the whole world.” Then, in his benediction, Paul says:
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. (Rom 16:25–27 NASB)
Paul told the Colossians that the kingdom announcement had come to them as it had “in all the world” (Col 1:6); the disciples had, by this time, “preached to every creature under heaven” (Col 1:23). Just before Paul’s execution around AD 65, he “explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God” to the Jews in Rome. By that time, those Jews could say Christianity was “spoken against everywhere” (Acts 28:22–23).
Conclusion
The disciples preached “the kingdom … in all the world for a witness unto all nations” (Matt 24:14). Then, as Jesus predicted, the temple fell, ending the Mosaic age.
Now, in the messianic age, we preach the gospel of the kingdom to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19). As a result, the time will come when “all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him” (Psa 72:11).
Hallelujah!
Footnotes
- The image in this post is Syro-Malabar icon of Throne of St. Thomas the Apostle by Rahul Payyappilly. This file (here) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. According to tradition, Thomas died on December 21, AD 72 in Tamil Nadu, India.
