THEY WENT THAT WAY

     And after the day of Pentecost, the disciples and apostles of Christ made plans to begin their journeys to tell people about those things which they had seen and heard:  the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
    Their mission would not be easy.  They would travel hundreds and thousands of miles from Jerusalem.  The only clothes they had were the clothes they were wearing.  They had one pair of shoes.  They had little to no money in their pockets.
     The followers of Christ had no Bibles, no training manuals, no pamphlets.   Not one of them had been to a Bible college, nor to a seminary.  All they had, to be honest, was faith:  the faith to believe that if they would tell others about Christ, people would believe in Him.
     As the disciples and apostles departed on their journeys, most of them would never see Jerusalem or their homes again.  They would never meet together and pray as one body.  And they would never see the land of Israel again.
     In all of their journeys and from all of their teaching and preaching, thousands and thousands of people were converted to Christ and churches were established in nations and continents wherever they went:  throughout the Mediterranean to Rome and even in Rome churches were founded; in the Middle East; in Africa; in India; in Britain; to Western Europe; and to the north country of the Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia.
     These men and women of Jerusalem were the bravest and boldest people of people on the face of the earth, and their mission was to do something the world had never seen before:  to tell others about the love of God.  They were the pioneers of a belief system that would become known by the name of Christianity.  And even today, two thousand years later, we hear of Christ by the same method:  word of mouth.
     After leaving Jerusalem, most of these men and women were murdered for their convictions.  Other converts were also murdered for speaking about Christ.  We should be thankful for their accomplishments and for their sacrifices.
     It is said that Emperor Nero of the Roman Empire collected the heads of the martyrs of Christ, dipped them in oil, mounted them on poles, and lit them with torches to provide lights for his driveway.