Mark 16:15
Go Forth and Spread the Good News
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acts 14:19-22
Beaten and Left for Dead
19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
The Return to Antioch in Syria
21 They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. 23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
26 From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27 On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
John 15:18-25
The World Hates the Disciples
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
The purpose of our lives on earth might be to spread the Good News...After He resurrected, Jesus told His Disciples in St. Mark's Gospel to go to all the world and preach the Good News to all creation...He told His disciples in the Gospel According to St. Matthew to go and make disciples of all nations...His disciples knew that they would be persecuted, because He told them they would be persecuted and have troubles doing this...Jesus told His disciples that the world would hate His disciples, because they hated Him first...They would soon follow His teachings after His resurrection and they chose Him and believed in the eternities that He taught...Because they would do this very thing, they were teaching things of another world, so to speak, and not of the earth or of this world...Jesus put it this way, as it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you...
Teaching the world about Someone different like Jesus, would not be an easy task, and would take many, many years and great perseverance...His followers would face many hard times and hardships -as well as death...
If one today, would go out to a busy corner or local mall and try to spread the Good News about our LORD, some might think we were at best over zealous about our LORD and their beliefs...Many would not listen...And if we got closer to the people we were trying to spread the gospel to they might think of us as a little bit touched...How much effort would we put in for Him...Jesus expected His followers to have troubles and be persecuted, and knew the things that would happen to them...It took bold followers, tough and thick-skinned apostles to do this very thing...St. Paul was one of those bold men who went out and did what Jesus ask -to spread the good news to all creation...He was beaten several times...Specifically, one time when he was preaching the good news some Jews came came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over to their side...They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead....They had thought they had killed the Apostle Paul...How sad that would have been, if that had happened...But God did not let this happen...Paul and Barnabas, who was with him, got up collected themselves and the next day they left for Derbe...In that city, after being almost killed for preaching the gospel just a short time earlier, preached the gospel in Derbe and won a large number of disciples...Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch and continued with their preaching of the Good News about Jesus...It is like nothing happened to these bold men as they continued to preach the gospel...And they were almost killed -and this was not uncommon...
The Twelve Disciples and St. Paul and the other teachers of Jesus were brave, tough, and bold (and so was Jesus)...They had courage...They were spreading the news about a Man who was arrested and tried, convicted (of blasphemy), and then crucified...They were telling a true story about this Teacher, who died on a cross...A Man that His personal disciples, personally knew and were eyewitnesses of His Majesty...And St. Paul who met Jesus, after His death, on the road to Damascus and then got to know Him better through the meeting with some of the original disciples that Jesus had recruited, as well as Jesus' brother James...Nonetheless, One who many Jews considered a criminal...And His followers were trying to keep His teachings alive and ongoing...His followers had continued opposition and many of His followers would die and did die for Him...
The Apostles were not out selling a product or service...The were not giving advice about something -they were sharing the story of an arrested, convicted, and crucified Man and His teachings, that they had seen be resurrected after His death...They were sharing the story of the Messiah of the Old Testament Scriptures...He was the root of Jesse, a Great Grandson of David, who some called the Son of David...He was the One to come...He came and did many great things...He came and healed many...He came and did miracles of nature -like walk on water, turn water into wine, and calm raging storms...He taught and He loved and He died and then He came back to life...And after He came back from His death, His followers seemed to gain great energy and courage...These early bold, brave, courageous apostles, and followers were instrumental in spreading the Good News of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ...Many of the early followers would be persecuted and die...But things went as the LORD expected...The spread of His teachings and news that were originally illegal were finally were being listened to by the majority...The Roman Empire in 313 a.d. finally accepted Christianity and the teachings of this One Remarkable Man and it became a legalized religion of the Roman Empire...Twelve fishermen, taxpayers, and uneducated men, with the help of a strict Pharisee, had made great and tremendous inroads for Christianity...These men changed the world...Twelve men changed the world...