Jesus spoke wild things over his eleven startled guys: “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.” Jerusalem, at the time, was a volatile place to be a follower of Jesus, much less a gossiper about him, so that was a chilling thought; Judea, apart from the towns and villages Jesus had spoken to, was a vast unknown, making them nervous, unsure of themselves ; Samaria was unknown to them, too, except for that revival in the village of Sychar, and Samaritans, as a people, were so distasteful to them; and the ends of the earth, well, what could that even mean for them?
The Holy Spirit’s global evangelism push, starting with the witness of the original disciples, has, so far, yielded over 2,600,000,000 (or 2.6 billion) believers in Jesus worldwide, as of 2025. That’s over 32% of the world’s population! Not bad for rookies. Of course, that leaves 68% pre-believers (5.6 billion) still out there somewhere. And these numbers are by no means static. They keep growing day by day.
I think these statistics bear out the efficacy of Jesus’ John 17 prayer for his disciples. And the second generation of disciples that followed them. And every generation of disciples since, including us, his 21st Century bunch. How amazing to know that God the Father still watches over our every effort, loving us, giving us joy, protecting us, inviting us to unity with each other and with Him.
It would be easy to fill up entire pages with the church’s litany of failures, her sinful inclinations, her rebellions, her splits and schisms, her bad players, and so on, to no good end. I think it’s of much greater benefit to look at the constant message from the Father to us, the one filling the pages of Scripture. He sees all and his never-ceasing flame of love comes near to burn away our, um, ‘stuff,’ sanctifying us and making us to be holy as He is holy. (Is this humbling for you, too?) “For He knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.” Psalm 103:14, NLT. The work to be done, then, from start to finish, is all His. We are just the lucky ones, privileged to be invited into such a majestic, life-giving, life-changing, mission. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.