On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.... Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
Acts 8:1, 4
Did you notice who was scattered? It wasn’t the apostles. It was everyone else. It was the regular, everyday Christians who were scattered by this persecution. And what did they do as they packed up and left Jerusalem? It says they, “preached the word wherever they went.”
The first major spread of the gospel in church history was the result of these normal, everyday Christians taking the gospel with them wherever they moved to avoid persecution. God ordained, that it wouldn’t be the few apostles, but the thousands of everyday Christians who would begin taking the word out with them beyond the walls of Jerusalem to the edges of the earth.
Why? Because the job of taking the gospel to the nations was never intended to be accomplished by the 12 apostles alone. It's too big a job for that! And you know what? It was never intended to be accomplished by preachers and missionaries alone either. It's too big a job even for that.
Sharing Jesus with lost people is a job God has given to all Christians in all times. And as we see in these verses above, often it isn't preachers or missionaries whose lives make the difference in bringing people to Jesus but normal everyday Christians. You can take the gospel to places that no pastor and no missionary will ever get an invitation to. And you will probably be more successful than we ever would be anyway. So, share Jesus everywhere you go. If the believers in the early church could do it, then you can too!
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