Teach the Nations is a ministry committed to the sound teaching and clear understanding of the word of God. Matthew 28:18-20, commonly referred to as The Great Commission, says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” The first instruction in those verses—teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—is a directive to preach the gospel to the world. In Mark’s account of The Great Commission, we are told, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Likewise, in Luke’s versions of The Great Commission, we see the same theme, that the disciples are being sent into the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ: “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47), and “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). First and foremost, The Great Commission is a call to Christians to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the nations of the world.
But Jesus didn’t stop there. He continued in his instruction to his disciples (and to us), saying that for everyone who will receive the gospel, teach them “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Teaching is such an important matter to God, he appointed one of the five major “offices” of the church to teaching. Ephesians 4:11 says, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Some might argue there are four major offices, that pastor-teacher is one role. But given the grammar of the verse—with the word pastors being plural—we can know that teacher is a distinct office within the church. And why did God set up the office of teacher, along with the other four offices? “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13).
There are many wonderful ministries that glorify God and are faithful to their calling. They can vary in focus from evangelism to biblical counseling to church governance and everything in between. Teach the Nations is a ministry called to teach the Word of God. In faithfulness to this calling, it is my hope that what was said about Paul in Acts 28:31 might also be used to describe the ministry of Teach the Nations: “Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”