‘Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, His disciples came to him privately.’ Matthew 24:3 NLT

It was important for the disciples to maintain their close fellowship with Christ. With so much coming and going, they sometimes didn’t have time to eat, and there must have been times when they didn’t have a chance to talk to Him either.

Things had changed since they were first called. Three years had passed, and large crowds had gathered around Christ. On occasions, the disciples must have felt more like servants than friends. Take, for example, the feeding of the five thousand. The disciples were told, ‘You feed them.’  The days and hours of being alone with Christ must have been limited now that He was so well known.

Yet, here He is, sitting on the Mount of Olives, perhaps resting or praying, but the disciples made the most of the opportunity and came to Him privately. Could nerves have been strained? There must have been misunderstandings and a need to be alone with Him.

The same thing can happen in a church when it begins to grow. Our church started as a house group of five or six people. We now have a church where, on a Sunday morning, you can have over 150 people in the building.  Many of those who began with us, are busy serving whether in the baby room, toddlers, Sunday school, bible class, ushering folks to their seats, door duty, serving communion, dealing with the sound system, organising words on the overhead, preparing slides on the screens in the foyer, need I go on? And all that is on a Sunday during the service, not to mention all the work that goes on after the service and during the week.

We must never lose our closeness, firstly to Christ, but also to each other. We began serving as a small community, and now there are people there on a Sunday morning that we do not know, when we used to know everyone!

There is always the danger that nerves can be strained, and misunderstandings occur, so we must do what the disciples did. We need to seek that time privately, and that can push us out of our comfort zone. We prefer to wait until we are invited.

We must never allow spiritual distancing between those who serve in the Kingdom. If we do, the enemy will sow seeds of discord. None of us is an island. We operate as a body of believers, and each team member needs to function as part of the body of Christ. 

Crowds are wonderful, but so are moments of aloneness. The body of Christ must have private times to operate with strength and unity. Don’t ignore the nagging doubt about your involvement. Never allow a distance between those who have been your friends in Christ for years. As the work grows, let your love, faith, and unity grow with it so we will not wake up one day to discover that tares have been sown in our field.