In Matthew 28:19-20a the resurrected Christ said to His disciples, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you.” “Nations” refers to the Gentiles. The disciples were charged to disciple the Gentiles by baptizing them into the Triune God. The Lord’s charge to the disciples in Matthew 28:19 is very emphatic.
According to Mark 16:15, the Lord, after His resurrection and before His ascension, charged the eleven, saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the creation.” In this verse “creation” mainly denotes different peoples, although it includes more than this. As in Matthew 28:19, here the Lord commands the disciples to preach the gospel to all peoples, to all nations.
After His resurrection and before His ascension, the Lord Jesus spoke yet another word to the disciples to indicate that the gospel should be preached to all nations. In Luke 24:47 He told them that “repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” If we consider these three charges at the end of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we shall see how strong, definite, emphatic, and absolute they are.
Regarding the situation of mixture in Jerusalem, Peter and John were silent. There is no record that they did anything to diminish this mixture. Rather, according to Luke’s account in Acts, only Paul bore the burden of this matter. It seems that Peter and John were not concerned about it. If they had been concerned, they should have spoken strongly to James and said, “James, before you were saved, we heard the word and saw the vision about the passing away of the Old Testament economy.”
According to the record of the New Testament, the James in Acts 21 was a brother of the Lord Jesus in the flesh. Along with the other brothers of the Lord, James was saved right after His resurrection, if not a little before that time. Therefore, it is possible that James was present when one or more of the charges recorded at the end of Matthew, Mark, and Luke was given. He must have known that the Lord had commanded the disciples to preach the gospel to all the nations.
Why did the disciples, including James, seemingly disregard the Lord’s word about preaching the gospel to all the nations and pay so much attention to the Old Testament? Both the revelation given to the disciples and the Lord’s charge were clear, definite, emphatic, and absolute. All the disciples, therefore, should have been clear concerning God’s economy. But in the midst of the situation in Jerusalem, none of them cared for the Lord’s charge. Instead, they were in favor of a mixture of the Old Testament dispensation with God’s New Testament economy.
Acts 21:19 says that Paul, after greeting James and all the elders “related one by one the things which God did among the Gentiles through his ministry.” When they heard this, they glorified God (v. 20). Then James took the lead to say to Paul, “You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed, and all are zealous for the law” (v. 20). It was a shame to James that he spoke such a word. If I had been Peter listening to this word, I would have had a deep sense of shame.
In the early chapters of Acts Peter was bold. He and John were strong when they faced the opposition of the Sanhedrin. However, in chapters fifteen through twenty-one Peter seems to have lost his boldness. According to Paul’s word in Galatians 2, Peter even practiced hypocrisy concerning this mixture. How pitiful was the situation in Jerusalem in Acts 21! We all need to be impressed with the picture of this situation. However, we should not blame Peter, for, in principle, we are in the same kind of situation today.
It is correct to say that from the time of Acts 15 Paul was troubled deeply in his spirit about the situation in Jerusalem. Because of his heavy burden concerning this, during the course of his third journey of ministry, he was not able to forget Jerusalem. In 19:21 he purposed in his spirit to go to Jerusalem. His purpose was not only to carry out a loving concern for the need of the poor saints in Jerusalem, but also to have fellowship with James and the others concerning the mixture there. Apparently, Paul purposed to go to Jerusalem in order to bring financial help from the Gentile believers to those in Judea. Actually, in Paul’s spirit and heart was the concern for the dreadful situation in Jerusalem, which was the source of the Lord’s move on earth. According to Paul’s understanding, that source had been polluted. Therefore, he did not have peace to proceed further with the Lord’s move. He knew that no matter how much work he accomplished in the Gentile world, the polluted stream from Jerusalem would flow there. Realizing this, Paul purposed in his spirit to return to the source with the intention of trying to clear up the situation, to get rid of the pollution. It was also his desire to go on from there to Rome and even to Spain for the furtherance of the gospel to carry out God’s New Testament economy.