GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
COLOSSIANS 1:6
6 which has now come to you. It is bearing fruit in the whole world and growing, as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in all its truth.
How has the gospel been growing throughout the world? During his ministry, Jesus did not leave Judea or Galilee except for one journey to the region of Tyre in Lebanon (Mark 7:24-31). But the message of the gospel traveled rapidly, and it traveled far. Within twenty years, it had gone west and south, all the way through Asia Minor, Europe, and Africa. Paul even planned to visit Spain (Rom. 15:28). Travelers from the east—Babylon or Persia—were among the first to visit the Christ-child in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:11), and from there the word traveled north and east. Jesus said, “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).
A fascinating testimony as to the distance to which the gospel went out is recounted by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo. He found that the Christian Church was in China already in the 13th Century. While traveling in China and Mongolia in the 1290s, he encountered a community of secret Christians. He and his uncle Matteo translated some of the books they possessed and discovered that they were using their own copy of the Book of Psalms. “Then [we] inquired from what source they had received their faith and their rule,” Polo wrote, “and [they] replied: ‘From our forefathers.’ It came out that in a certain temple of theirs they had three pictures representing three apostles of the seventy who went through the world preaching (Luke 10:1). And they declared that it was these three who had instructed their ancestors in this faith years ago, and that it had been preserved among them (that is, in a form of writing) for 700 years. But for a long time they had been without teaching, so that they were ignorant of the cardinal doctrines” (Marco Polo: The Travels Penguin edition, p. 235-236).
Two earlier witnesses about the early and rapid spread of the gospel include Justin Martyr and Tertullian of Carthage, both writing in the second century AD. “There is no people,” Justin wrote, “Greek or barbarian, or of any other race, by whatever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things.” Tertullian said: “We are but of yesterday, and yet we already fill your cities, islands, camps, your palace, senate and forum. We have left you only your temples.”
These are only a couple stories out of many. But the gospel message always, always has an effect. God compared his word to the rain and snow that nourish the earth. Everything good that comes from the soil is fed by the rain, and that’s how the gospel works: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).
A good joke might travel around town, but it stops. A good recipe is cherished by a few generations, but only within a small family circle. A great song is a hit for a while, but after climbing the charts, even that will fade. But the gospel! The gospel of Christ our Savior! That’s a message that will travel and be cherished and will never fade away. It points us to Jesus, sets our hearts on fire, and gives us eternal life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota