The Apostles had just seen their Rabbi executed in the most horrific way.  They lost their North Star, the entire point of their existence for the last three years.  The sorrow, the disappointment must have been unbearable.  But then out of the depths of their grief, He does indeed return to them resurrected, just as He promised!

 Finally all their hard work and pain was about to be rewarded with what His people deserved!  They would be justified, and the nation would be restored!

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Acts 1:6 NKJV 


Not so fast.

And He told them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem…”   Acts 1:7-8 NKJV


 Wow.  Not what they expected, but they had been asked to do hard things before.

 “…and in all Judea”

It would be challenging but they could probably do that too.

  “and Samaria”

Okay, that is really a tall order, Lord.  That is insanely difficult.

“and to the end of the earth.”   Acts 1:8 NKJV


Their heart must have sunk at the gravity of that request.  The danger, the math, the sheer impossibility.  What were they – just eleven remaining?  And tasked with spreading a message worldwide that was so revolutionary, it would likely cost each of them their lives?

Jesus called them, as He calls us, to this impossible job of growing His Church together, but he gave them a preview of how it would unfold. His message would begin like a trickle: eleven vulnerable, overwhelmed human beings sent to different parts of the world to moisten the ground.

And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. Ezekiel 47:3 NKJV


They would be persecuted, but through their movement and their sacrifice, God’s message would rise.

Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my knees.  Again, he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.”  Ezekiel 47:4


Waist deep!  That is commitment!  And there is continuity from those eleven men to us here today — in our circles, in the food bank, in our Bible studies, in our connections with each other, and our connections with the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond.  His word flows and tumbles like rivers through the world, and it flows through South Fellowship.

Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.”  Ezekiel 47:5


This is the life-giving power of God, expressed through community:  a community that began so long ago as something barely ankle-deep.

And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live.”  Ezekiel 47:9a


by Carie Grant

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