It was a very sad time… full of uncertainty… Jesus had been crucified… the Lord was gone… buried… many tears were shed.
They thought he was the Messiah… the Son of God… How could this have happened? They just didn’t understand!
Excruciatingly long, anxiety filled days pass. Then… early on the first day of the week… Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb…
Both an angel and our resurrected Lord instruct Mary to go tell the disciples that Jesus has been resurrected and he’ll meet them in Galilee.
Mary did as she was told. In the 28th chapter of Matthew’s gospel beginning with the 16th verse we read.
Matthew 28:16–20
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
This is the Great Commission—Jesus’ instructions to his disciples. Verse 19 is at its core:
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
But the 11 men who Jesus commissioned with carrying on his work had very little going for them:
- They were not educated…
- They were not influential…
- They had no money or wealth of any kind…
- They were not theologians…
- Most weren’t even very religious…
- They lacked power…
- They had no connections…
- They were from an inconsequential province on the eastern fringe of the Roman Empire…
How could this motley crew possibly fulfill the Great Commission?
As Michael Green wrote in his book, Evangelism in the Early Church, “It’s almost impossible to exaggerate the obstacles that lay in their way.”
Yet, less than 350 years later, more than half of the Roman Empire would be counted as Christians.
Henry Chadwick called the expansion of the early Christian church “an extraordinary chain of improbabilities.”
Let’s take a step back and look at the growth of the early Christian Church.
In the 1st chapter of Acts, after Jesus’ ascension… but before the day of Pentecost, in the 15th verse we read:
Acts 1:15
15 And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
Think about it. That’s about the number of people we have in church on a good Sunday… before the children leave!
Before the conversions on the day of Pentecost, there were only about 120 Christians.
By the start of the fourth century, 300 A.D., Rodney Stark estimates that there were 6.3 million Christians.
The population of the Roman Empire, at the time, was about 60 million people. So, about 10.5% of the population of the Roman Empire were Christians by 300 A.D.
That’s a growth rate of 2.1 million new Christians per century since the birth of Christ—not bad growth at all.
However, the next 50 years saw an explosion in the number of Christians.
By 350 A.D., Stark estimates that there were 33.9 million Christians—about 56.5% of the population of the Roman Empire.
Christians went from 10.5% of the population in 300 A.D. to 56.5% of the population just 50 years later.
The number of Christians increased by 27.7 million people in that 50-year stretch.
In other words, the growth rate swelled to about 55.4 million new Christians per century.
That means that the growth rate in those 50-years was more than 26 times the growth rate in the first 300 years after Christ’s birth.
As she often does, Polly reviewed my sermon.
At this point she said, “You’re a geeky quant guy… so this all makes sense to you, but most people need to see a chart to get their heads around it. Show them a chart.”
The obvious question is… how did this happen?
How did a tiny, insignificant Messianic movement, from the Eastern edge of the Roman Empire, overcome paganism and become the dominant faith of Western civilization?
The answer is that the growth occurred because God had been at work for nearly 1,000 years… a millennium.
God assembled a growth platform that enabled the extraordinary growth of Christianity in the first half of the fourth century, between 300 and 350 A.D.
This morning we’ll focus on four elements of the growth platform:
- Christianity was (and is) superior to all other religions.
- God empowered the right leaders.
- God established the ability for people to communicate across large distances.
- There were large numbers of people spread across the Roman Empire who were ready to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Let’s explore each of these four points.
Christianity is a Superior Religion
Perhaps the most important element of the growth platform was that Christianity was superior to all other religions.
(1) The God of Christianity was Superior to the Pagan Gods
The reason for this is that first and foremost, the God of Christianity was superior to the pagan gods.
In the first verse of the Bible, we read:
Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Christians worship the creator of the universe.
In the 10th and 11th verses of the 55th chapter of Isaiah we read that God is all powerful. God said:
Isaiah 55:10–11
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
God said, when I speak… things happen. My words will accomplish what I want them to accomplish. The Christian God is omnipotent, all powerful.
In the 139th Psalm, verses 7–10 point out that God is everywhere.
Psalm 139:7–10
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
David says, no matter where I go, God is there. Whether I go to heaven or to hell, God is there.
No matter where I go on the earth or in the sea, God is there. The Christian God is everywhere all at once. He is omnipresent.
In Revelation 23:13, God says:
Revelation 23:13
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
The Christian God is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
In 1st John 4:14, the Apostle John portrays Jesus as the Savior:
1 John 4:14
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
The Christian God is the Savior of the world.
To summarize, the Christian God is
- The creator of the universe
- He is omnipotent
- He’s omnipresent
- He’s the alpha and the omega, and
- He’s the Savior of the world.
The Epistle to Diognetus (Dī-ŏg-nĕt-ŭs) is a late second century or early third century Christian apology.
In this context, the word “apology” doesn’t mean to say you’re sorry. It means “defense.” So, the Epistle to Diognetus (Dī-ŏg-nĕt-ŭs) is an early defense of Christianity.
It does a good job of describing the gods worshipped by the pagans.
“Is not one of them stone, like that which we tread under foot, and another bronze, no better than the vessels which are forged for our use, and another wood, which has already become rotten, and another silver, which needs a man to guard it lest it be stolen, and another iron, which is corroded with rust, and another earthenware, not a whit more comely than that which is supplied for the most dishonorable service?”
In other words, the pagans might as well have worshipped chamber pots!
For those of you not familiar with them, chamber pots were literally pots that people kept under their beds so that they could use the bathroom when they woke up in the middle of the night.
The first part of Jeremiah 10:10 describes the Christian God:
Jeremiah 10:10
10 But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God…
Christians worshipped the true and living God, while the pagans worshipped chamber pots… or, at best, powerless, soulless, lifeless, inanimate objects subject to decay.
The Christian God was superior to the pagan gods.
(2) Christianity became a Missionary Religion
In Mark 16:15, Jesus told the disciples to take the gospel to the whole world.
Mark 16:15
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
This was Jesus’ instruction to the 11 remaining Apostles. They responded. Christianity spread across the known world.
When the temple was destroyed, in 70 A.D., the very new Christian church was thrust beyond Jerusalem.
It became a missionary religion expanding throughout the Roman Empire.
The pagan religions were geographically constrained. When pagans lived in a city, they worshipped the gods of that city.
If the pagan moved to another city, he would worship the gods of the new city. Pagan gods didn’t travel between cities.
Unlike the geographically constrained pagan religions, Christian missionaries took the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people where they lived.
Why was Christianity superior to all other religions? So, far we have that:
- Christianity’s God was superior to the pagan gods
- Christianity became a missionary religion, reaching the people where they lived.
(3) Christianity was More Attractive than Judaism
Christianity was more attractive than Judaism. Michael Green wrote:
“This lofty monotheism, this worship of the one Creator God who will be the Judge of humankind, exercised a powerful appeal in the ancient world which was… for all its overt polytheism, moving in the direction of the worship of one supreme being.”
Pagan’s were moving from worshipping multiple gods to worshipping just one god.
In the ancient world, only Jews and Christians were monotheists.
Perhaps their insistence on worshipping only one God is the reason that Judaism and Christianity are the only religions from that civilization that are still practiced today.
Given that pagans were interested in monotheism and Judaism was monotheistic, it attracted many Gentiles. However, converting to Judaism was not easy.
One had to be born Jewish to truly be accepted by the Jews as a “son of Abraham.” Converts, while welcome, were marginalized.
Women and children too were marginalized as evidenced by the Jewish men who thanked God daily that they were not female.
As Michael Green put it, “In Christianity all men were brothers, and distinctions of race, gender, education, and wealth meant nothing.”
Genesis 1:27 demonstrates this:
Genesis 1:27
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
I’ll make two points based on this scripture. First, men and women are equally created in the image of God.
Second, God created humans only once. All of humanity came from that single creation. Therefore, all people are created equal.
To be sure, since this is an Old Testament scripture, it applied to the Jews as well, but at that time, they certainly didn’t live this way.
Redemption too, was available equally to all humans. As you well know, John 3:16 says:
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever that’s whosoever, anyone who believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
“Whosoever” is not the word that’s usually emphasized in this scripture.
However, it points out that redemption through belief in Jesus Christ is equally available to all humans, regardless of gender, race, nationality or anything else.
Neither Judaism nor the pagan religions made such promises.
Henry Chadwick pointed out that Christianity did not give political emancipation to women or slaves.
However, it did much to elevate their status by its doctrine that all people are created equally in God’s image, and all are equally redeemed in Christ.
Therefore, each individual must be treated with sovereign respect.
Finally, Christianity did not require that its converts be circumcised or follow Jewish dietary laws.
The requirement that converts be baptized rather than circumcised gave Christianity a significant advantage vis-à-vis Judaism.
Why was Christianity superior to all other religions? So, far we have that:
- Christianity’s God was superior to the pagan gods.
- Christianity became a missionary religion.
- Christianity was more attractive than Judaism.
(4) Christianity Developed a Structure for Governance
The fourth point is that the early Christian church developed a governance structure that surpassed anything in pagan religions.
I know that talking about governance structure is about as exciting as watching paint dry, but it’s critically important to be clear about who is responsible for what.
Think about Joy. What would our church be without
- Pastor Edwin and Natalie’s leadership in hospitality,
- Pastor Jon’s wisdom and guidance,
- Spencer’s leadership with music and worship, or
- Bri’s work with our audio-visual technology?
Without these things… Joy wouldn’t function. The same was true of the early church.
Acts and the Pastoral Epistles (1st and 2nd Timothy, and Titus), reflect the situation in the mid-first century.
These books show the church organized under bishops, deacons, presiding officers, and elders.
As early as 112 A.D., Ignatius told Christians to follow the bishop as Jesus Christ followed the Father. So, the church was developing governance early in the second century.
By 200 A.D., there was a clear assignment of duties among the leadership of the church. So, in only about 200 years, a clear governance structure in place.
This structure for governance would be necessary to manage the massive number of new converts that Christianity would see in first half of the fourth century.
Why was Christianity superior to all other religions? So, far we have that:
- Christianity’s God was superior to the pagan gods.
- Christianity became a missionary religion.
- Christianity was more attractive than Judaism.
- Christianity developed a superior governance structure.
(5) Christianity Developed a Written Tradition
The final reason that Christianity was superior to all other religions is that Christianity established a written tradition of Scripture and Creeds. Creeds are just statements of faith.
These written traditions enabled Christianity to maintain a consistent doctrine over time and across a far-flung network of churches.
This is important because, without consistent doctrine, different groups of Christians would likely have started believing wildly different things.
Christianity would have collapsed under its own weight. Written traditions kept this from happening.
The Bible was canonized over centuries. Being canonized just means that the Bible was sanctioned by the church.
The books of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) were the first books to be canonized by the Jews between 350 and 300 B.C.
The first known copy of the New Testament surfaced in Rome in about 144 A.D.
By about 200 A.D., Christian writings existed that were substantially the same as, although not identical to, the New Testament books of today.
In his Easter letter in 367 A.D., Bishop Athanasius (Ă-thăn-ā-sŭs) of Alexandra named the twenty-seven canonized books of today’s New Testament.
So, in just a little over 300-years the Christian church was able to agree on the books that belonged in the New Testament—the Bible was complete.
Creeds were used to prepare converts for baptism, for addressing heresies, and in worship. Some Christian denominations still use them today.
For example, the Creed of Ignatius of Antioch (circa 110 A.D.) called out Christ’s linage, his human nature, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and salvation through belief in him.
The Old Roman Creed (circa 340 A.D.) was very similar to the final Apostles Creed.
The canonized Scripture and Creeds allowed for stability and formed a written tradition that most pagan religions lacked.
The first reason that Christianity experienced explosive growth in the early fourth century was that it was superior to all other religions. Christianity was superior because:
- Christianity’s God was superior to the pagan gods.
- Christianity became a missionary religion.
- Christianity was more attractive than Judaism.
- Christianity developed a superior governance structure.
- Christianity established a written tradition.
Christianity was superior to all other religions. Yet, God did more. He empowered the right leaders.
God Empowered the Right Leaders
There’s not enough time for an exhaustive study of the Christian leaders in the fourth century.
We could talk about leaders like:
- Lactantius (Lăc-tăn-tē-ŭs) (240–320 A.D.),
- Anthony of Egypt (circa 252–356 A.D.),
- Athanasius (Ă-thăn-ā-sŭs) (296–373 A.D.),
- Eusebius of Caesarea (263–339 A.D.), and
- Cyril of Jerusalem (315–386 A.D.),
Each of these people made significant contributions to the growth of Christianity. However, I’ll touch very briefly on just two.
The first is Basil of Caesarea (329–379 A.D.) was a Cappadocian theologian who helped rebut various heresies.
His parents were wealthy Christians. This afforded him an outstanding education in Constantinople and Athens.
After completing his education, Basil spent time with a number of Christians who lived in total isolation spending most of their time in prayer, meditation, and worship.
He was attracted to their way of life, but famously asked, “If you continue to live alone, whose feet will you wash?”
The second person we’ll consider is Constantine I (288–337 A.D.) the first Emperor of the Roman Empire who was also a Christian. He was critical the growth of Christianity in the first half of the fourth century.
He prevailed against Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D. and became co-emperor of the Roman Empire with Licinius.
Constantine moved quickly. Working with Licinius, he issued a decree in 313 A.D. legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire.
It’s amusing that this decree was neither an edict, nor did it come from Milan, yet it was called the Edict of Milan.
For the most part, this ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
In 325 A.D., Constantine summoned about 318 bishops to Nicaea. The purpose of this council was to establish church doctrine regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ.
At the time, there were some who argued that Jesus was divine, but that he was subordinate to God the Father. Others thought that he was just a prophet.
Of course, others thought that Jesus was fully God and fully man.
The Nicene Creed resulted from the council. It remains at the core of evangelical Christianity today and declares that Jesus was fully God, a co-equal with God the Father.
Constantine was baptized shortly before his death in 337 A.D.
Christianity didn’t become the official state sponsored religion of the Roman Empire until late in the fourth century.
Nevertheless, Constantine’s actions did much to facilitate the exponential growth of Christianity in the first half of that century.
God put numerous Christian leaders in place. Each played a critical role in the establishment of church doctrine and enabled the dramatic growth of Christianity.
However, God did more than just put these men in place… he empowered them, inspired them, and gave them the wisdom they needed to grow the church.
In the 8th verse of the 1st chapter of Acts, Jesus says to the Apostles:
Acts 1:8
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
God empowered the fourth century Christian leaders in the same way.
We’ve seen that two of the elements of the growth platform which enabled the rapid expansion of Christianity in the fourth century were that:
- Christianity was a superior religion
- God empowered the right leaders
However, the ability to communicate across long distances was also an important element in the growth platform.
Long Distance Communication
The Roman Empire was vast, and the cities where Christianity sprung up were far-flung.
Without the ability to communicate across large distances, the rapid spread of Christianity would have been implausible because consistent doctrine could not have been maintained.
Fortunately, three factors enabled this communication:
- High quality roads and bridges made intercity transportation much easier.
- The pax Romana or Roman Peace made intercity transportation much safer.
- The existence of a lingua franca or common language made understanding communication much easier.
(1) High Quality Roads and Bridges
Augustus Ceaser was emperor from 27 B.C. through 14 A.D. During his 40-year reign, he focused on the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges.
A vast network of roads radiated outward from Rome to all parts of the empire. You may have heard the statement, “all roads lead to Rome.” At that time, it was for the most part, a true statement.
The network of roads enabled the rapid movement of troops for police activity or military operations.
It also facilitated the quick dispersion of news and other information through the official postal system Augustus established. It was called the cursus publicus.
Further, the roads benefited the Roman Empire economically by encouraging trade.
The early Christians took full advantage of this ease of travel in spreading the gospel throughout the Roman Empire.
Steven Collins and Joseph Holden in The Handbook of Bible Lands point out that both the New Testament and the literature of the second century take for granted journeys of enormous length which would have been almost impossible without the Roman infrastructure.
Polly and I learned the importance of having good roads when we were on a trip using one of the early GPS navigation systems.
We were on vacation going from one location to the next, but we didn’t know exactly where we were. The new navigation system empowered us. Polly entered the address and off we went.
The four-lane road on which we were riding became a two-lane road. The two-lane road changed from asphalt to gravel. The two-lane gravel road became a one-lane gravel road.
We were hoping not to meet someone coming the other way. Then, the gravel started to get thin. Soon, we were driving in a grassy field.
It was then that our navigation system announced, “A better route is available!” No kidding!
Good roadways are important!
(2) The pax Romana
Obviously, a network of roads and a postal service were extremely valuable for communicating over great distances.
However, without the assurance of safety while moving from one location to another, communication would have been severely limited.
The pax Romana or the Roman Peace, was a period of relative tranquility enforced by the Roman Empire.
It lasted for more than 200 years, from 27 B.C. through 180 A.D. It made transportation, both by road and by water, relatively safe.
The iron hand of Rome kept roads, highways, and the seas safe. Everyone lived (or died) under the protection (or condemnation) of Roman law.
Robert Spivey and Moody Smith wrote, “Although it’s true that Jesus died on a Roman cross and that Christians were persecuted by Romans, it’s equally true, and probably just as important, that early Christianity benefited considerably from the peaceful and lawful conditions of Roman rule.
The pax Romana enabled the growth of Christianity.
(3) Lingua Franca
Nothing is more important for human history and culture than language and nothing promotes communication and understanding like a common language.
Alexander the Great began his well-known military conquest in 332 B.C. The result was that he conquered and controlled most of the ancient world.
Alexander’s military conquest was important, but perhaps even more significant, and certainly more enduring, was the revolution of language and culture he brought to the conquered people.
Alexander brought them the Greek language, but not the Greek of Plato or Sophocles. It was a simpler dialect, a common Greek, known as koine Greek.
This Greek became the lingua franca, or the common language, of the ancient world 300 years before the time of Christ.
Of course, there were many different primary languages throughout the ancient world as evidenced by the disciples’ experience on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1–12.
Kione Greek was a common language that many, if not most, people in the ancient world could speak and understand. They were fluent enough to communicate with each other.
Perhaps they weren’t able to construct complex Greek sentences with perfect syntax and inflection, but they could make themselves understood.
Because Alexander the Great infused the Greek language into the ancient world, the rapid spread of Christianity in the early fourth century was enabled.
The Roman Empire unwittingly enabled the rapid expansion of Christianity through a major network of roads and sea routes kept safe by the pax Romana.
A common language, koine Greek, made communication much easier.
The rapid expansion of Christianity in the early fourth century was facilitated by the fact that:
- Christianity was a superior religion
- God empowered the right leaders
- Communication over long distances was possible
The final element needed for the exponential growth of Christianity in the early fourth century was the groups of people spread throughout the Roman Empire who were ready to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.
People Ready for the Good News
Outside of Jerusalem, there were two groups of people who were ready to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ:
- Jews living in the diaspora (which just means they lived outside of Jerusalem) and
- Their Gentile neighbors who were attracted to monotheism.
As a result of the Babylonian Exile in 597 B.C., by the end of the first century, there were approximately 5 million Jews living in the Roman Empire, but outside of Jerusalem.
This equated to approximately 8% of the population of the Roman Empire.
These Jews were not clustered together in one city but were spread throughout the empire and where they settled… they built synagogues.
By 70 A.D., when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, Jewish synagogues were scattered throughout the Mediterranean.
They provided the main vehicles for Christian outreach. They served as a base of operations for Christian missionaries, who were, of course, predominantly Jewish.
As stated earlier, the Gentiles were becoming disenchanted with polytheism and were tending toward monotheism.
Accordingly, the Jews were able to persuade many of their neighbors that worshipping the Jewish God was a good idea.
However, only a small minority were willing to submit to circumcision. Therefore, most could not become full-fledged Jews.
However, many became “God-fearers” worshipping and receiving instruction in the synagogues.
Further, the Septuagint, which was the Old Testament translated into koine Greek, had been produced to meet the needs of Greek speaking Jews living in Alexandra.
This text was available to the “God-fearers.”
This meant that in addition to developing a pattern of regular worship, the Gentile “God-fearers” also developed a knowledge of Old Testament Scripture, most importantly the Messianic prophesy.
As John Wand observed, it’s difficult to overstate the importance of the Jews being spread throughout the Roman Empire for the development of Christianity.
This meant that the earliest Christian preachers found in practically every town they visited a religious community whose background was the same as their own.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we’ve seen that Christianity experienced explosive growth in the first half of the fourth century.
We’ve also seen that this explosive growth was enabled by the work that God did over many centuries. Christianity was able to spread so quickly in those 50-years because:
- Christianity was (and is) superior to all other religions.
- God empowered the right leaders.
- God established the ability for people to communicate across large distances using;
- Roman infrastructure—the roads and bridges made travel easier.
- Pax Romana—the Roman peace, made travel relatively safe.
- The lingua franca—the common language, koine Greek, meant that people could understand one another.
- Finally, there were large numbers of people spread across the Roman Empire who were ready to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The Jews were first disbursed into the diaspora at the time of the Babylonian Exile in 597 B.C.
So, God was working to make this great harvest happen from at least 597 B.C. through 350 A.D. That’s almost a thousand years, a millennium.
The magnitude of this work is astounding. Causing all of this to come together at just the right time was a staggering task from a human perspective.
Of course, Jesus came to earth to do his work at just the right moment in history—when everything had been prepared for him.
As Colonel "Hannibal" Smith from the 1980s TV show, The A-Team was famous for saying, “I love it when a plan comes together!”
Now, I can imagine that some of you are thinking, “Okay, Pastor Doug, this is an interesting history lesson, but what relevance does it have for us today?”
That’s a fair question… The answer lies in the massive number of moving parts that God coordinated over the millennium to enable the exponential growth of Christianity in the first half of the fourth century.
The fact is that very few of the people God used actually saw the great harvest or understood how their work fit into God’s plan. I’ll mention just a few examples:
- The scholars who translated the Septuagint from Hebrew into Greek would not have dreamed that it would be used to prepare the hearts of Greek speaking Gentiles to receive the Messiah.
- Alexander the Great could not possibly have known that the koine Greek he introduced to the people he conquered would become the lingua franca, the common language, that enabled the spread of Christianity.
- Agustus Ceaser could not have known that the roads and bridges he built for military and economic reasons would enable communication between the far-flung Christian churches spread across the Roman Empire.
- When the Jews were scattered into the diaspora during the Babylonian Exile, between 597 B.C. and 538 B.C., they could not have known that the synagogues they built would become launching pads for Christian missionaries.
- These Jews in the diaspora who introduced their Gentile neighbors to monotheism and taught them in the synagogues did not understand that they were preparing them to receive the Messiah.
- The various Christian leaders who worked on everything from establishing church doctrine to canonizing the New Testament certainly believed that their work was important, but they could not have understood how it would enable the explosive growth of Christianity in the early fourth century.
There are many more examples, but I’ll stop here.
God used each of these people, many of whom were not believers, to enable the great harvest in the first half of the fourth century.
Yet, very few, if any, of them understood how God would use their work.
God’s plan was too large and too complex for human beings to be able to comprehend it, except in retrospect… except when looking back after it happened.
During the millennium when this plan was unfurling, humans couldn’t comprehend what was going on. God’s plan was simply too big and too complex to grasp.
In 1st Corinthians 3:6, Paul says:
1st Corinthians 3:6
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
As we labor in the harvest of souls, there are different roles. Some plant, some water, some work in the field harvesting.
But, just like all those people God used to create the great harvest in the first half of the fourth century, some people who are doing very important work, may not see the harvest themselves.
They may not even understand how what they are doing will directly contribute to the harvest.
This does not make their work unimportant.
What I hope you’ll remember from this message is to sincerely seek God’s will for your life. Ask what work he would have you do.
Some may say, “Pastor Doug, what if I don’t know what God wants me to do?” My response… ask him.
In the 1st chapter of James, verses 5 through 8, we are told that God will answer that prayer, if we believe.
James 1:5–8
5 If any of you lack wisdom, (if you don’t know what God wants you to do, if you lack wisdom) let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him you (God will give you the wisdom for which you ask).
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
When God leads, follow his leading to the best of your ability and let God provide the increase.
As the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the church at Colossae, beginning in the 3rd chapter and the 23rd verse.
Colossians 3:23–24
23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
Whatever you do, do it as though you are working directly for the Lord.
“Take Aways” from the Message:
- Ask God how he would like to use you in ministry
- Work in that role as though you are working directly for the Lord.
- Don’t worry if you don’t understand all of God’s plan.
You may or may not see the harvest… That’s not important. God will give the increase in the fullness of time.
Just because you can’t see the harvest… is no sign that there won’t be one… in God’s perfect time.
Just because you aren’t seeing the results you dreamed about… is no sign that you aren’t doing exactly what God wants you to be doing.
Just because you can’t decipher God’s plan… is no sign that he doesn’t have one.
Just because you can’t discern how what God has called you to do fits into his grand design… is no sign that your work is not important to God.
Ask God what he would have you do to advance his kingdom… then, throw yourself into doing the best job you possibly can… and trust God for the increase in his time. Amen