Expansion

Matthew 28:1-20

Jesus has come to announce His kingdom on earth.

It was in the most radical, attention-gaining way possible, that the most people possible would come into it. (God loves you so much, He would do anything to make certain you have the very best opportunity possible to know of His love for you, and that you may be with Him forever.)

The image of the cross is burned into the consciousness and across the history of mankind. There is no getting around the cross. While it may be possible to dismiss the cross, it is not possible to deny it.

With the cross now in the past, (the greatest event in human history,) something even more radical has happened. Jesus is alive! He is raised from the dead!

First, the work of salvation was necessary. Jesus had to die to make it possible for all to enter His kingdom. Now the work of expansion is here, to make it possible for the whole world to hear about the opportunity God has created by offering His Son – that ALL may now come into His kingdom.

With every means available to God to convey His message, how would God choose to communicate the most important news in the history of the world? He began by telling a small group of the women who followed Him. This would be an absurdity and an embarrassment to Christ if not true. (In those days, a woman was not permitted to be a witness in a court trial, and they were generally thought of as property.) It would be these women Jesus would trust to first share the news of His resurrection. There would be no supernatural parting of the skies, or volcanic demonstration, or anything of the sort – but the small voices of these women who had first witnessed the risen Savior.

That message of faith has been conducted across the centuries without corruption, but not without difficulty. God’s message is opposed by satanic forces everywhere it is delivered. How has God continued to choose to deliver this most important message in the history of mankind? It is by the small, faithful voice of those willing to share it.

-Pastor Bill