Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
2 Timothy 4:9-13
Bring My Parchment and Scrolls
9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
St. Paul told a friend to bring my scrolls, especially my parchments...Parchments are untanned skins of animals, especially of the sheep, calf, and goat, prepared for use as a writing material...Back in Jesus and Paul's time people would process the animal skins for writing materials...This took time to make, dry and prepare them for there use as a writing material...You could not just go to an animal one minute and have something to write on the next...Papyrus is a writing material of ancient times and the plant from which it comes...The papyrus plant normally used was Cyperus papyrus, which is a tall, aquatic plant, that took sometime also to process it into a writing material...A scroll is a roll or this parchment or papyrus...These were the common writing materials during Jesus and Paul's time...Parchment and papyrus took time to get, to process, and to get into writing form...Wanting to write something down for others to read (and not everyone could read in Jesus' time) or for your own personal use on parchment or papyrus was not like going to a store and buying a ream of paper or a notebook of paper...The printing press would not be invented until fourteen hundred years later after Jesus death in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg...Books and scrolls were hand written, and were one at a time...There was no mass communication in Paul's time or in the time of Jesus...Yet, we know the Word of Jesus...
My point is the Great Commission, when Jesus resurrected and in His time was much more difficult than it would be had that all happened today...Paul, Peter, James, and John the early apostles and early church leaders had no mass communications...They had no no way to mass produce a book or books about Jesus, no newspapers, no cell phones, no radio, no TVs, no e-mail, no texting, and no internet...They had a lot of work to do to get His Word out to the world...
You wonder why Jesus did not come at a later date...If He came today the message would be out in the wink of an eye...He could instantly get His message out to the whole world by the hitting of a "enter key", a "transmit key", a "send key", or a "green go key" on some device that would get His instant message out -well that instant...He could Tweet us, and He would have many followers...He could text us and we could all read His message...He could have His own Web Site and have many followers, and we would see His written word, and it would be there for years and years...He would probably has His own app...
God could have sent His Son out anytime...Sometimes when you read the Bible, seem better than others...But instead of sending Jesus out in our time, why didn't God send Him out right after the Eve and Adam ate the forbidden fruit, or why didn't God send Him out at the time of Noah, when man was getting so corrupt...Why not send Him to Babylon, after most of God's people were exiled there?...Would have today been the best time?...Would this made more sense today than how and when God did it, in His Plan?...Today you could have seen His death on the cross on the nightly or internet news...Then He could have tweeted the world after His resurrection...
God loves us, and He wants what is best for all of His children...Jesus would die on the cross to save us...What was or is or would be the best time for this?...
God works at Godspeed...God's timing is perfect...There is a reason that God sent His Son at the time He did...Maybe Adam and Eve did not have enough people in the world (yet) , or Noah's time would not have reached the people God wanted to reach...Today might have seemed too odd...But Jesus did come at the right time, if you trust in the LORD...The four gospels on the New Testament were all hand written, and would have been the most important document for those who read the original words off the original manuscripts and believed...Paul traveled to many parts of the Roman Empire spreading the word and the Good News about Jesus...As he traveled he wrote the new churches and the new followers of Christ...His original written words, would offer encouragement and advice...The letters he wrote were about Jesus and the teachings of Jesus...Nothing that Paul wrote or the early apostles that went out on the Great Commission could be produced in mass or in large quantities...Most of the spreading of the word, was done by mouth, and the few letters they wrote to believers...The early apostles would meet with people and they would learn about Jesus through Peter, one of the Twelve, James, brother of Jesus, John, another one of the Twelve, as well as Paul and the other disciples...They would do most of their communications by meeting people and the spoken word...There were no translations, at the start of Christianity, because the early apostles were the ones spreading the word...The first and original manuscripts, as well as the first teachings were in a person to person fashion...That was how it was done...
The Bible authors, both of the Old Testament and New Testament were followers of God and Jesus...These authors were influenced by the desert, their culture, their families, their environment and the other people around them...They painstakingly put all the things about God and Jesus in their original writings and manuscripts...They did not tweet or text...God knew how long this would take then (and He knew that messages and information would be almost instant two thousand years later)...God, in His Plan, wanted the disciples to go out and as personal as they could make disciples of all nations...This is the time plan God had for spreading the gospel of His Son...When it happened is when God wanted it done...The New Testament was written in the time God wanted it written...And all these things are how God wanted them done...