SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/21/2016 10:38 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Gospel Truth Reaches the World
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians 1:6a
Message of the verse: “Which has come to you, just as in all the world.” This verse of part of verse six is in the middle of the second paragraph of the first chapter of Colossians chapter one, a chapter in which Paul was giving thanks for these people, and also reminding them of what the Gospel is all about as we have been looking at in our previous SD’s on Colossians chapter one.
When the gospel was first preached by Peter on the first day of the church era many of the Jews through that it was only for them, but as we progress to the tenth chapter of Acts we see that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only for the Jews, but for the Gentiles too, and it was the joy of Paul to spread it all around the Roman Empire as he and his partners in the faith went from country to country telling others of the saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Christianity turned the Roman world upside down and Paul was the major person who began this. John MacArthur writes of Christianity: “It was and is the good news for the whole world. The gospel transcends ethnic, geographic, cultural, and political boundaries.”
We will now give some quotes from different portions of the New Testament which show the universality of the gospel:
“"This gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end
will come (Matthew 24:14).
“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying,
"I am the Light of
the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will
have the Light of life" (John 8:12).
“First, I thank my God through Jesus
Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole
world. For I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:8, 16).
“For the word of the Lord has sounded forth
from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith
toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything (1 Thess.
1:8).
“9 After these things I looked, and behold,
a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes
and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry
out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb"(Rev. 7:9-10).”
When we come to the end of the book of Acts we see that Paul is left in Rome, the headquarters of the Roman Empire, and so the gospel spread throughout the entire Roman Empire with the aid of its good roads to help swiftly get the Word of Truth out, and from there is eventually spreads around the entire world in to all the different people groups and nations with the aid of missionaries and even the internet.
12/21/2016 10:55 PM
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