sharing the gospel from the place of community
The gospel of Matthew ends beautifully with Jesus entrusting his closest friends with one of the world’s greatest assignments ever, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” It is from the place of friendship with Jesus that this group of eleven men receive the greatest commission ever.
We could gather that from the last words of Jesus to his disciples before his ascension, that these men understood that they were in need of two things in order for this assignment to be fulfilled. First, that they needed the power of the Holy Spirit, and second, that they. needed the fellowship and community of believers in order to see this come to pass.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
If we were to take a closer look at the assignment of “:..in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." We could see that on a map these locations start in the center (Jerusalem) and move outward (Samaria) unto the ends of the earth, It was almost as if to say that we are to be his witnesses, and share the Gospel in our home (Jerusalem), to our friends (Judea), to our neighborhoods (Samaria), to the ends of the earth.
Today we have the Gospel accessible to us because of the faithfulness of this early church community and their obedience to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. The challenge we are faced with is that some of us may be slow to obey in going to our family member, our neighbor to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. How could we ever imagine we could go across the globe to share the Gospel if we have a hard time going across the street?
These men and women that we find in the book of Acts are normal everyday believers, there was nothing fancy about them. However, they did possess the two things, the power of the Holy Spirit as well as a God-centered community. It was to close friends, disciples, and a community of believers to whom Jesus entrusted one of his greatest assignments to.
We want to urge you that as you are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and walking in faithfulness with the spiritual family and community of believers you are a part of, do not neglect to obey the commission of Jesus to share the Gospel, and make disciples. His promise to us is that as we do this. he will be with us to the. end of the age.
A few questions for reflection:
At what point in sharing the gospel do I need the help of my spiritual community: sharing with my family, friends, neighbors, or beyond?
How well am I at asking my spiritual community for help in being faithful to sharing the Gospel? What more can I do to help others be involved in my journey of sharing the Gospel?
