God's Heart For People Groups

Revelation 5:9

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”

Revelation 7:9

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

We see God’s heart for all the peoples of the earth from the beginning in Genesis 12:3 when He tells Abraham that He will bless all the families (people groups as divided by family clans) through Christ. Our Lord commands that we make disciples of all the nations (people groups as defined by common culture, kinship and culture) in Matthew 28:19. We see in Revelation 5 and 7 that there will be people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (again, people group really is a better translation for this word ethnos that is translated nation). Romans 11:25 says that after the “fullness of the Gentiles (people groups)” have come in God will again turn to Israel. Matthew 24:14 says that the gospel of the kingdom must go to all the people groups, and then the end will come.

We can have absolute confidence that God’s mission to save people from every people group will be accomplished! He has given us the privilege of being part of that task as we proclaim the gospel, translate the Bible, plant churches and train church leaders.

Unengaged People Groups

According to Finishing the Task (finishingthetask.com) there are 1,535 unengaged, unreached people groups. These are people groups that have no known workers engaged in evangelism and church planting. We long to see these precious people, made in God’s image, receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is worthy! He deserves to be proclaimed among each of these 1,535 people groups.

The Commitment

The Church's Commitment

We are committed to sending out workers to bring the gospel to these unengaged people groups. We will continue doing the kind of work that Paul told Titus to do in Titus 1:5 as well, training church leaders in places where that is needed (currently we are engaged in this church leader training work in Czechia, Tenerife & Peru). But we also want to be getting the gospel to some of these 1,535 people groups (millions of people are in these people groups). This was Paul’s heart in Romans 15:20 and is our heart as we contemplate the passages already mentioned in this article.

The Individual Commitment

Will you commit to pray for these unengaged people groups that God would send laborers to them?

• You can start by praying for the Pineapple and Fire peoples that our global partners in Southeast Asia are seeking to reach.
• Pray for our global partners doing Bible translation work among these peoples in South Asia.
• Pray for the Ruscios as they prepare to go support this kind of work through aviation.
• Pray for open doors for us as a church to proclaim the gospel to other unengaged people groups by sending more missionaries.
• Pray for the church in the Global South as they send more missionaries to unengaged people groups.

The Nations Here

Will you pray for these people groups as some of them come as refugees to Spokane? Lord willing we will have opportunities very soon to serve refugee families here in Spokane. Stay tuned for more information!