Jesus gave his disciples the challenge to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mk. 16:15). After the Day of Pentecost, the gospel message spread like wildfire across “Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth” (Ac. 1:8). As the 12 Apostles spread out, and the early Christians “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4), it wasn’t long before Christ’s message of Salvation had “turned the world upside down” (Ac. 17:6).
Thirty years after Jesus gave His Great Commission, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians and stated that the gospel had come to “all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing.” He went on to say that the gospel which they had heard, “was proclaimed in all creation under heaven” (Col. 1:6, 23).
With no mass media, with no planes or trains, and under resistance and persecution, they changed the world. They never wavered, never became discouraged, and never gave up. They lived for, and died for, their faith in Jesus and His resurrection. I can say that post-World War 2, the Lord’s church again spread the gospel across the world, from India, Singapore, and Korea, from Canada, Mexico, and yes, even in America, the Gospel message is “bearing fruit and increasing.”
-Dennis Doughty