Uttermost

SCRIPTURE: Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

OBSERVATION: "To the ends of the earth." Or, as in the King James Version, "to the uttermost part." What did Jesus mean when He said that? Since the other words are all locations, was He talking about geography only, or something else?
The word here is 'eschatos,' from which we get our word 'eschatology," the study of the last things. We see it in reference to the last days just before the final judgement. Is that what Jesus means, be witnesses even until the eschatos, the last days?
If Jesus was speaking strictly geographically, that leaves other questions. If He was telling the disciples, "Preach the gospel emanating here from Jerusalem until it reaches the farthest and most distant points," then I am in the uttermost right now. I think Salem, Oregon, when considered alongside of Judea and Samaria, is uttermost from Jerusalem. Certainly it would have been in the minds of the disciples. Then, is the job finished and, instead of looking for an uttermost, I recognize that I am the uttermost?

APPLICATION: What is my uttermost? It may not be geographic, because I already am that. It may be some other distinction that is beyond my imagination, just as Oregon was beyond the disciples' imagination. I think the spirit of what Jesus was saying is, "Whoever is far off and distant from me, go to them." It can be geography that distances people. It can be culture or experiences or ignorance or anything else. Be creative. Be imaginative. Go to the uttermost.

PRAYER: Jesus, I need to receive Your Holy Spirit, not just to minister to the uttermost, but even to know what that is. Fill me today. Amen.