In this video, Jon Nelms, founder of Final Frontiers Foundation, explores the Great Commission and the diaspora, and why the early believers who went at once produced fruit that remains. Video length: 12 minutes 12 seconds.
The Great Commission and the Diaspora
Those who understood that the commission of Christ deserved and required their immediate and full attention decided not to wait but proceed as best they could, fulfilling the task and trusting God to make the best of their labors.
Since the Great Commission is about going into all the world, why do we talk about sending others rather than going ourselves? Especially consider other verses that adequately emphasize the “sending” aspect.
Some say Christ was speaking prophetically about the future sacking of Jerusalem. In other words, they feel He was telling them on that day some thirty years in the future when they will be scattered while fleeing the destruction of the Roman forces, they should be sure to witness everywhere they go. I doubt that interpretation, and so did Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and many others. After all, He did tell them to delay—not for thirty years, but for the Holy Spirit’s arrival, fifty days later.
The truth is Christ gave His devout Jewish followers a task that they failed to obey. Some say that the Jews needed to be dispersed before the disciples could spread out to reach them. That assumption is not true since they had already been dispersed for a thousand years.
In 562 BC, Jews living in Cochin, India, established a trading post there. They had settled there during Solomon’s reign to traffic in teakwood, ivory, spices, and peacocks. In 700 BC, Sennacherib seized some 200,000 Jews, forcibly moving them to southern Turkey and northern Iraq, and in 600 BC, Nebuchadnezzar enslaved tens of thousands, taking them to Iraq and Persia (Iran). In 200 BC, they were traveling the Silk Road and trading with the Han dynasty in China. A decade before Julius Caesar’s rule, Governor Lucius Valerius Flaccus stated that the Jewish population of Asia Minor numbered at least 180,000 persons. In 27 BC, over 8,000 Jews lived in Rome, and according to some historians, their number comprised as much as ten percent of the city’s population. Finally, Philo, who lived at that time in Alexandria, wrote that more than one million Jews lived in Egypt, one-eighth of the population.
Those who understood that the commission of Christ deserved and required their immediate and full attention decided not to wait but proceed as best they could, fulfilling the task and trusting God to make the best of their labors. The fruit that remains they produced includes both you and me. The others jumped on board later, but the old saying, “better late than never,” applies to both them and to us.
Points to Ponder
- The term diaspora does not define one particular dispersal of the Jews (AD 70) but any and every dispersal, including Jacob’s moving his family to Egypt and Moses leading them out to Canaan.
- What modern-day diasporas (i.e., refugees) have you witnessed? How have past diasporas influenced your community?
- Did you know when people arrive in their new homeland, they are most acceptable to hear the “good news” of Jesus Christ from a friendly citizen? How can you share the gospel with them?
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