Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20)
Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit added over five thousand people to the Church during the Feast of Pentecost when Jews from across the Roman Empire and beyond had gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast; many of the new believers returning to their homes in Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, Arabia and Ethiopia, to name a few (Acts 2:9-11 and 8.27).
How many of the places can you find on the map? You would need a bigger map to find Ethiopia!
The explosive growth following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, could have set the world ablaze with the good news of Jesus Christ!
Imagine!
Imagine what could have happened if the apostles, as well as those men and women, “who have accompanied us during the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us” (Acts 1:21-22), had left Jerusalem after the Feast of Pentecost, and travelled with those new converts as they returned to their homes.
Just look at all the trade routes God had prepared for the disciples! The trade routes were open all the way from Spain in the west to China in the east.
That was what should have happened! That is exactly what Jesus intended to happen.
Unfortunately, the apostles and disciples didn’t “Go”!
What a ‘missed opportunity’!
Instead of going to the ends of the earth as the Lord Jesus had instructed, the apostles and disciples chose to remain in Jerusalem and focus on evangelising the Jews and, worst of all, trying to control the churches.
Church growth stalled and then took on a far more pedestrian pace as Paul and his posse walked and sailed their way around the eastern Mediterranean. By 100AD there were probably fewer than 10,000 Christians in the entire Roman Empire; that's only double the number of those baptised during the Feast of Pentecost!
The consequences would turn out to be disastrous for the Church of Jesus Christ as Christianity eventually morphed into the fifth kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; the divided kingdom represented by the feet and toes, partly of clay (the laity) and partly of iron (the clergy).
Every time a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit brings in a new harvest, people, usually power-hungry men, eventually shut it down! Evangelists and prophets incorporate 'their ministries' into human organisations and professional priests and pastors, the hireling shepherds, drive new converts into their old, sectarian wineskins, the 'local church'.
No! The local church is the Spirit-filled family, not a sectarian congregation!
The Holy Spirit is in charge of the Church and people have no business creating human organisations, no matter how practical such steps may appear to be.
A new opportunity.
Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ have a new opportunity, TODAY!
There has never been a better time to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
There has never been a better time to “Go and make disciples in all nations”.
There has never been a better time to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”.
There has never been a better time to revive the Family of God, one family at a time.
Get ready for a new harvest and get ready for the fresh wineskins that God, the Holy Spirit, will supply.
TODAY, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion! (Hebrews 3:15)
