<p>24:47 <i>And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem</i>- See on Acts 10:35,36. The parallel record to the preaching commissions of Mk. 16 and Mt. 28 is found in Lk. 24:45-47. There we read how the Lord explained to the disciples that their preaching of the Gospel &quot;among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem&quot; was foretold in the Psalms and prophets. So the Bible student asks: <i>Where</i>&nbsp;in the Psalms and prophets? The Lord spoke as if the prophecies about this were copious. There do not seem to be any specific prophecies which speak of the twelve spreading the Gospel from Jerusalem in the first century. Instead we read of the Gospel being spread from Jerusalem <i>in the Kingdom</i>, and often the phrase &quot;all nations&quot; occurs in a Kingdom context, describing how &quot;all nations&quot; will come to worship Christ at Jerusalem (Ps. 22:27; 67:2; 72:11,17; 82:8; 86:9; 117:1; Is. 2:2; 66:18,20; Jer. 3:17; Dan. 7:14; Hag. 2:7; Zech. 8:23). This selection of &quot;Psalms and prophets&quot; is impressive. Yet the Lord Jesus clearly interpreted these future Kingdom passages as having relevance to the world-wide spreading of the Gospel. &quot;All nations&quot; also occurs in many passages exhorting us to praise Yahweh among all the nations of this world. The reason for this is that God's glory is so great it should be declared as far as possible by us. 1 Chron. 16:24,25 is typical of many such verses: &quot;Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. <i>For</i>&nbsp;great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised... for all the gods of the people are idols&quot;. World-wide preaching is therefore an aspect of our praise of Yahweh, and as such it is a spiritual work which is timeless. Because the Kingdom is to spread world-wide, we should therefore spread the Good News of this coming Kingdom world-wide. In prospect- and no more than that, let it be noted- the Kingdom has been established in that Christ has all power in Heaven and earth (Mt. 28:18). This is the language of Dan. 7:14 concerning the future Kingdom. The believer must live the Kingdom life now, as far as possible (Rom. 13:12,13). In the Kingdom, we will be spreading the Gospel throughout this planet. In this life too we should live in the spirit of the Kingdom in this regard.</p><p>The preaching of the Gospel was prophesied as <i>beginning</i>&nbsp;at Jerusalem, Jesus said. If this world-wide preaching abruptly finished at the end of the first century, to begin&nbsp;again at Jerusalem in the Kingdom, surely this would be prophesied in the Old Testament? The impression one gets from the Old Testament passages listed above is that the Gospel would begin to spread from Jerusalem, and would <i>go on&nbsp;spreading</i> until the full establishment of the Kingdom. This explains why Christ's command to get up and go world-wide with the Gospel stands for all time. The command to preach to &quot;all nations&quot; would ring bells in Jewish minds with the promises to Abraham, concerning the blessing of forgiveness to come upon &quot;all nations&quot; through Messiah (Gen. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4). Therefore God's people are to preach the Gospel of forgiveness in Christ to &quot;all nations&rdquo;. The offer of sharing in that blessing did not close at the end of the first century. Putting the &quot;all nations&quot; of the Abrahamic promises together with Christ's preaching commission leads to a simple conclusion: The Hope of Israel now applies to all nations; so go and tell this good news to all nations.</p><p>Luke uses the same word translated &lsquo;preach&rsquo; in both Luke and the Acts although the other Gospels use it only once. In Luke we find the word in 1:19; 2:10; 3:18; 4:18,43; 7:22; 8:1; 9:6; 16:16; 20:1; and in Acts, in 5:42; 8:4,12,25,35,40; 10:36; 11:20; 13:32; 14:7,15,21; 15:35; 16:10; 17:18. Luke clearly saw the early ecclesia as preaching the same message as Jesus and the apostles; they continued what was essentially a shared witness. This means that we too are to see in the Lord and the twelve as they walked around Galilee the basis for our witness; we are continuing their work, with just the same message and range of responses to it. Lk. 24:47 concludes the Gospel with the command to go and preach remission of sins, continuing the work of the Lord Himself, who began His ministry with the proclamation of remission (Lk. 4:18 cp. 1:77). Acts stresses that the believers did just this; they preached remission of sins s.w. in Jesus&rsquo; Name, whose representatives they were: Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18. &nbsp;See on Acts 1:1.</p><p>As the Lord appeals to all nations, so should we. The prophecies which He interpreted as referring to the church spreading the Gospel world-wide are specifically described as prophecies about Him personally (Lk. 24:44,47: &quot;All things which were written in the prophets and in the psalms, concerning <i>me</i> ... that repentance and remission of sins should be preached...&quot;). Thus the preachers of the Gospel would personally manifest Christ; which accounts for the special sense of His presence which they experience as they do this work (Mt. 28:20).</p><p>Such is the power of our preaching, the possibility which our words of witness give to our hearers. We have such power invested in us If we are slack to use it, the Lord&rsquo;s glory is limited, and the salvation of others disabled. As if to bring this home, the New Testament quotes several passages evidently prophetic of the future Kingdom as having their fulfilment in the preaching of the Gospel today:<br />- Is. 2:2-4 (the word of Yahweh <i>will</i> go out from Jerusalem) = the ecclesia&rsquo;s witness to the world today, &ldquo;beginning at Jerusalem&rdquo; (Lk. 24:47). This, the Lord said, was in fulfilment of the OT prophets- and He could only be referring to those like Isaiah.<br />- Am. 9:11,12 had its fulfilment in the work of preaching to the Gentiles (Acts 15:13-18; 26:16-18).<br />- Likewise Is. 54:12 = Gal. 4:27; we extend the joy of the Kingdom to our hearers.<br />- Is. 52:7 = Rom. 10:15.<br />- Is. 11:10 = Rom. 15:12.<br />The apparent inappropriacy or lack of context of these quotations need not worry us. It is not that they have no future fulfilment They evidently will have, at the Lord&rsquo;s second coming. But God sees that which shall be as already happening; His perspective is outside of our kind of time. The ecclesia&rsquo;s preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world is effectively a spreading of the Kingdom to them; in that those who respond properly will ultimately be in God&rsquo;s Kingdom. But God sees through that gap between their response and the final establishment of the Kingdom; He invites us to see it as if we have spread the Kingdom to them. As we present the Gospel to men and women of all races, we are enabling the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham. The more we preach, the more glorious is their fulfilment This is the power of our Gospel and the preaching of it. Let&rsquo;s not treat it as something ordinary or optional or to be fitted in to our spare time.</p><p>Luke records how the Angel summarised the Lord&rsquo;s work as good news of great joy for <i>all men </i>(Lk. 2:10). The Gospel concludes by asking <i>us</i> to take that message to <i>all men</i>. Straight away we are challenged to analyse our preaching of the Gospel: is it a telling of &ldquo;great joy&rdquo; to others, or merely a glum &lsquo;witness&rsquo; or a seeking to educate them &lsquo;how to read the Bible more effectively&rsquo;, or a sharing with them the conclusions of our somewhat phlegmatic Biblical researches? Whatever we teach, it must be a joyful passing on of <i>good</i> news of &ldquo;great joy&rdquo;. The Lord began His ministry by proclaiming a freedom from burdens through Him (Lk. 4). And He concludes it by telling the disciples to proclaim the same deliverance (Lk. 24:47). Consider how He brings together various passages from Isaiah in His opening declaration in Lk. 4:18:<br /><i>&ldquo;The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach proclaim Heb. &lsquo;call out to a man&rsquo; the acceptable year of the Lord&rdquo;. </i>This combines allusions to Is. 61:1&nbsp;(Lev. 25:10); Is. 58:6 LXX&nbsp;and&nbsp;Is. 61:2.<i>&nbsp; </i><br />Is. 58:6 AV: &ldquo;To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free (cp. Dt. 15:12 re freedom of slaves, s.w.), and that you break every yoke&rdquo; is in the context of an insincerely kept year of Jubilee in Hezekiah&rsquo;s time, after the Sennacherib invasion. Is. 58 has many Day of Atonement allusions- the year of Jubilee began on this feast. We are as the High Priest declaring the reality of forgiveness to the crowd. Hence Lk. 24:47 asks us to proclaim a Jubilee of atonement. The Greek for &ldquo;preach&rdquo; in Lk. 24:47 and for &ldquo;preach / proclaim the acceptable year&rdquo; in Lk. 4:19 are the same, and the word is used in the LXX for proclaiming the Jubilee. And the LXX word used for &lsquo;jubilee&rsquo; means remission, release, forgiveness, and it is the word used to describe our preaching / proclaiming forgiveness in Lk. 24:47. It could be that we are to see the cross as the day of atonement, and from then on the Jubilee should be proclaimed in the lives of those who accept it. It&rsquo;s as if we are running round telling people that their mortgages have been cancelled, hire purchase payments written off...and yet we are treated as telling them something unreal, when it is in fact so real and pertinent to them. And the very fact that <i>Yahweh</i> has released others means that we likewise ought to live in a spirit of releasing others from their debts to us: &ldquo;The creditor shall release that which he hath lent&hellip;<i> because</i> the Lord&rsquo;s release hath been proclaimed&rdquo; (Dt. 15:2 RV).</p><p>We can&rsquo;t have a spirit of meanness in our personal lives if we are proclaiming Yahweh&rsquo;s release. This is one of many instances where the process of preaching the Gospel benefits the preacher. The jubilee offered release from the effects of past misfortune and even past foolishness in decisions; and our offer of jubilee offers this same message in ultimate term. Incidentally, the Lord had implied that we are in a permanent Jubilee year situation when He said that we should &ldquo;take no thought what you shall eat&hellip; Sow not nor gather into barns&rdquo; and not think &ldquo;What shall we eat?&rdquo; (Mt. 6:26,31 = Lev. 25:20).There must be a spirit of telling this good news to absolutely <i>all</i>. And yet according to Luke&rsquo;s own emphasis, it is the poor who are especially attracted to the Jubilee message of freedom (Lk. 6:20-23; 7:1,22,23; 13:10-17). There are several links between Is. 58 and Neh. 5, where we read of poor Jews who had to mortgage their vineyards and even sell their children in order to pay their debts. The &ldquo;oppressed&rdquo; or &ldquo;broken victim&rdquo; of Is. 58, to whom we are invited to proclaim deliverance, were therefore in the very first instance those under the throttling grip of poverty, who had become bondslaves because of their debts and now had no hope of freedom, apart from the frank forgiveness of a year of Jubilee. We take a like message to Westerners overburdened with mortgage payments, to those suffering from absolute poverty in the developing world, and to all those with a sense of debt and being trapped within their life situation. We pronounce to them a year of Jubilee, a frank forgiveness, a way of real escape and freedom.<i>&nbsp; </i></p><p>To preach <b>proclaim</b> the <b>acceptable year</b> of the Lord (Lk. 4:19) is thus parallel with &ldquo;You shall <b>proclaim</b> liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants&rdquo; (Lev. 25:10). Likewise there are to be found other such allusions to the proclamation of Jubilee: &ldquo;We as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive&hellip; the grace of God&hellip; a time accepted&hellip; in the day of salvation the Jubilee have I succoured you: behold, now is the <b>accepted time</b>&rdquo; (2 Cor. 6:1,2) &ldquo;Repentance and remission of sins should be preached <b>proclaimed</b>, s.w. 4:19 in his name among all nations&rdquo; (Lk. 24:47).</p><div align=center><hr size=3 width=100% align=center /></div>