IN JERUSALEM

When the Lord gave us the Great Commission in geographical form in Acts 1:8, He told his disciples to begin "in Jerusalem." What mercy! "Why," you say? Only a few weeks earlier, our Lord had wept over a Christ-rejecting Jerusalem. He had endured a Christ-killing Jerusalem. He had listened to the cries and disgusts of a Jerusalem mob shouting "Away with this man!" He had to contend with the superficial, fickle adoration of a Jerusalem crowd who would bless Him in the name of the Lord on a Sunday, and call for His crucifixion on Friday. And now this same Lord tells his disciples to begin their evangelism among these people. If that isn't mercy, what is? If the Lord would condescend to give inhabitants of this city, that crucified the Prince of Life, an invitation to life, who can believe themselves to be beyond his mercy?