Re:Verse passage – Colossians 1:1-8 (day six)
Here’s the truth: the Gospel always travels, because Jesus said so.
Jesus wasn’t joking or using hyperbole. He meant it when he said, “All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. So, go…” Jesus has the authority to both command and fulfill the great commission. Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae is evidence of that truth.
Colossae is 1000 miles from Jerusalem. By the time the Gospel had made its way there, almost all of Asia Minor had heard the good news about Jesus (Acts 19:10). What’s even more incredible is, it wasn’t Paul who delivered the news, but Epaphras. Epaphras heard the Gospel through Paul, believed, and then he took it home to Colossae, and a church sprung out of fertile ground.
That’s the great commission at work; that’s how the great commission works.
The following may be a little off of your specific point, but it does show (at least to me) that we may never know all the pathways that God uses to spread His messages. He is amazing!
Almost 50 years ago my small, high school & college age (Somerset Baptist) church group were interviewed by a San Antonio Christian radio station. The interviews were recorded for airing at a later time. Sometime later, I was walking on campus at SAC. I crossed paths with a fellow student that I had previously met through a mutual friend. He said he had heard me on the radio. I was slightly shocked; he didn’t appear to be the type that would ever be listening to a Christian radio station. I asked how. He said he was riding in the pickup with his uncle, and his uncle had the radio on. 🙂