Missio Dei: WK4 - TUE
SENT OUTWARD IN CIRCLES
Acts 1:8 (NLT) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere , in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
A few years ago, a friend of mine confessed something incredibly honest. He said, "I realized it’s a lot easier for me to love 'the world' than it is to love the guy who shares my driveway."
He had just signed up for a short-term mission trip to a country halfway across the globe. He was excited, raising funds, and packing bags. But that exact same week, his next-door neighbor’s lawnmower broke, and the man spent three hours sweating in the heat trying to fix it. My friend watched through the window, felt a momentary ping of conviction to go offer a hand, but hesitated. It felt awkward. They had a polite but distant relationship, and crossing the grass felt like a risk.
It hits a raw nerve, doesn't it? It is always easier to care about the ends of the earth than to love your actual neighbor. A distant need rarely requires you to be personally vulnerable; it can often be addressed with a financial transaction and kept at a comfortable remove. Sponsoring a child overseas feels noble—and it is—but it doesn't require you to have a difficult, messy conversation with a coworker or a person in your own apartment building.
When Jesus gives the disciples a final geography lesson before He ascends, He structures it intentionally:
The mission expands in concentric circles, moving from the immediate to the distant. Notice the order. Jesus does not let us escape into the horizon. Jerusalem is always first. The mission begins with the people you see every day, the neighborhood your church is physically located in, and the city with its specific, local brokenness.
But the circles don't stop there. They keep expanding through Samaria—which required crossing cultural lines the disciples would have preferred to avoid—and outward to peoples who don't look or act anything like home.
The Holy Spirit doesn't give us the luxury of choosing between the local and the global. We are called to be fully engaged in our Jerusalem while keeping our hearts wide open to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8 (NLT) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere , in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
A few years ago, a friend of mine confessed something incredibly honest. He said, "I realized it’s a lot easier for me to love 'the world' than it is to love the guy who shares my driveway."
He had just signed up for a short-term mission trip to a country halfway across the globe. He was excited, raising funds, and packing bags. But that exact same week, his next-door neighbor’s lawnmower broke, and the man spent three hours sweating in the heat trying to fix it. My friend watched through the window, felt a momentary ping of conviction to go offer a hand, but hesitated. It felt awkward. They had a polite but distant relationship, and crossing the grass felt like a risk.
It hits a raw nerve, doesn't it? It is always easier to care about the ends of the earth than to love your actual neighbor. A distant need rarely requires you to be personally vulnerable; it can often be addressed with a financial transaction and kept at a comfortable remove. Sponsoring a child overseas feels noble—and it is—but it doesn't require you to have a difficult, messy conversation with a coworker or a person in your own apartment building.
When Jesus gives the disciples a final geography lesson before He ascends, He structures it intentionally:
- Jerusalem: The city they are standing in.
- Judea: The surrounding region.
- Samaria: The neighboring territory, steeped in centuries of cultural and ethnic hostility.
- The Ends of the Earth: The distant, unfamiliar unknown.
The mission expands in concentric circles, moving from the immediate to the distant. Notice the order. Jesus does not let us escape into the horizon. Jerusalem is always first. The mission begins with the people you see every day, the neighborhood your church is physically located in, and the city with its specific, local brokenness.
But the circles don't stop there. They keep expanding through Samaria—which required crossing cultural lines the disciples would have preferred to avoid—and outward to peoples who don't look or act anything like home.
The Holy Spirit doesn't give us the luxury of choosing between the local and the global. We are called to be fully engaged in our Jerusalem while keeping our hearts wide open to the ends of the earth.
- Who is your “Jerusalem” right now — the people closest to you?
- Are there distant causes that feel easier to care about than nearby relationships?
- What would it look like to engage both your local community and the wider world faithfully?
No Comments