The final instructions of Jesus, our Head and King.

Matthew 28: 18 – 20.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

There is a legend which tells of the return of Jesus to heaven after his time on earth. He bore the marks of his cruel cross and death. The angel Gabriel approached him and asked, "Master, do all the people know about how you loved them and what you did for them?"

"No," replied Jesus according to this legend, "not yet. Right now only a handful of people in Palestine know."

Gabriel was baffled. "Then what have you done to let everyone know about your love for them?"

Jesus said, "I've asked Peter, James, John, and a few others to tell people about me. Those who are told will tell others, and my story will be spread throughout the earth. Ultimately, all mankind will know about my love."

Gabriel frowned and looked rather sceptical. He said, "But what if Peter denies you again? What if they all run away again in the face of opposition? What if the people who come after them forget? What if way down in the twenty-first century people just don't tell others about you anymore? Do you have another plan if this one fails?"  

Jesus answered, "No. I have no other plan.  I'm counting on them."

It is now twenty centuries later and God still has no other plan. He is counting on people like you and me to tell others about his love for us in Christ. He wants you and me and everyone else to proclaim the Gospel. 

He is counting on us!

Jesus commissioned the church to go and make disciples of all nations.   He is speaking as the One who has all power and authority in heaven and on earth. He is speaking as the One who has the authority to give eternal life.

What Jesus chooses to do with his sovereign authority  and power is to count on his friends and his church to share the Good News of his love, redemption and victory with everyone and every nation. What Jesus wants is more reborn and passionate followers to, with a sense of urgency, tell of his love and resurrection that all may believe in him and become God’s children.   What incredible love and grace!

Christ chooses to be with us, guarding us, protecting us and sharing his power with us when we join the 2000 year old family of disciple making followers.  No matter where we go and no matter what we face, Christ is right there beside us saying:   "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."   (Mat 28:20)

The Next Generation: waiting to receive Jesus Christ!

Our challenge is to help the next generation find their true Christian identity and their spiritual dwelling.

Psalm 78: 4, 6, 7 - We will not hide the “things from of old” from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. So the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.

The next generation is waiting to be touched by the gospel.

The challenge for those of us in leadership is to set an example to be fully, totally committed to God.  Our challenge is to touch their lives and allegiances by receiving the Lord Jesus personally and being filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Imagine the youth waiting for us, the church, their parents and their grandparents, to be touched by God, to be touched by Jesus.

What will happen if  I am not introducing my children to what matters here and now, and eternally?

What will happen if I do not touch their lives, pray with them and they have to enter adult life having no one to show them how to receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord? 

There is a generation yet unborn, waiting for someone to touch their destiny with the love of God.   There is a generation waiting for someone to befriend them, and reach them with the Gospel.  What if we are the only ones they have who are able to reach them for Christ and the Kingdom of God? 

The psalmist says in Psalm 78 –   “So the next generation would know the hidden treasures of old, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.”

Believing like my mom and my granny!

2 Timothy 1:5-6  -  “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.  For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

The well known and respected Dr. Andrew Murray wrote the following profound truth about the importance of being a God-fearing family: 

“Oh, that the eyes of God’s people might be opened to the danger that threatens the church! It is not infidelity or superstition, it is the spirit of worldliness in the homes of Christian families, sacrificing the children to the ambitions of society, to the riches or the friendship of the world — that is the greatest danger of Christ’s church. If every home once won for Christ were a training school for His service, we would find in this a secret of spiritual strength no less than all that preaching can accomplish.”

Paul’s letter to Timothy emphasizes that this young Christian minister’s identity, that Paul commends, is rooted in the faith that his mother and grandmother had left him as a lasting legacy. They shared Christ with him and taught him as only mothers and grandmothers can!  Paul firmly placed the Christian faith and ministry within shared, family settings.

This makes Timothy anything but an independent operator advocating his own brand of Christianity!  No, his faith was rooted in the example and education of his Christian home. It enabled him to be a reliable preserver of the Truth of Christ and the preacher of a sound Gospel-message.

Our faith and calling, our authentic witness, is rooted in and grows from our Christian identity received from devoted, exemplary Christian parenting.

But if parents and grandparents sell out to “the spirit of worldliness and to sacrificing our children to the ambitions of society and the friendship of the world”,  as Dr. Murray puts it, false teachers and heresies and dangerous life styles will rob our children of the cherished gospel and the costly salvation it promises.

No, let the influence and example, the choices and the commitment of families to Jesus, lead our children to the place where they will fan into flame the gifts of God in their lives - and thrive when the church, in laying hands on them, send them into the world to both conserve and share the glorious legacy of our Christian faith – the lasting legacy of our precious Saviour, Jesus, our Lord.

Guiding seekers one-on-one and one-by-one to receive Christ!

Acts 8:  30 – 31:  Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the (Ethiopian) man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.  The Ethiopian official did not and he asked for help from this unknown preacher who appeared next to his chariot in the desert.

So Philip, beginning with the scripture the man was reading from Isaiah 53:7-8, shared with him the good news of Jesus.”

The prophecy about Jesus that he read was one of the most important passages for early Christians. It is part of Isaiah's fourth Servant Song, describing the mysterious figure who was slaughtered and humiliated and whose life was "taken away from the earth," as Luke gives the text to us in Acts 8.

So, to the official's question about whom this servant is, Philip can eagerly reply that it is no one else but the resurrected Jesus. And like Jesus before him on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24), Philip proceeds to speak, "and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus" (8:35).

In joyful response, the Ethiopian asked Philip to baptize him into this faith of Jesus. And in verse 38, "both of them, Philip and the official went down into the water, and he (Philip) baptized him."

Then we read that the official “went on his way rejoicing.” (Verse 39)

The good news of Jesus always calls for a response: one of gratitude, public profession of faith, receiving baptism and experiencing great joy. This is exactly what the Ethiopian did. He had been in Jerusalem to worship God - but without understanding the Gospel. Now he understood and believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as Lord and Saviour.

How much more should we who have heard the gospel our whole lives and were baptised as infants, confess our faith, proclaim the gospel, live new lives, and rejoice in the goodness of God? How much more should we carry the good news of Jesus back to our families, friends, neighbours, schools and workplaces, for all to know and to believe?

We too should ask the seekers that cross our path:

 “Do you understand what you are reading?”

And “do you believe the good news of Jesus?”

The right to be a child of God!

John 1: 10-14 - He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.   Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name,  he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth

The true Light of God, the eternal, one and only Son of God, came from his Father’s heavenly home to bring the message of the grace and truth of God to those who were God’s own.  Sadly Jesus was not recognised and he was not received by God’s own people, the leaders of Israel. They chose to rather reject his message and spread lies about his resurrection.

Those who continued to reject him and persecuted his followers would never find the Light, because their darkness remained undefeated.

But the Father sent his Spirit to us and we were, through the Spirit’s gracious work, transformed and made into new creations as we were born of God.  God’s Spirit changed us from enemies into those touched by grace and changed into God’s children.  And as children of the Father our eyes were opened to recognise Jesus, to believe in his Name and receive the right to walk in the eternal light.

We are given this right when we are adopted by the Father in Christ and are given the privilege to call the almighty Creator “Abba” which means “my Daddy”. We are given the power to claim our divine heritage to be children of God. 

And we claim this right after we recognise Jesus and are shown his glory. We share in the wonder of childship even as Jesus claimed to be God’s Son.  One by one the Spirit grants us the faith to know Jesus as the Truth and receive the Light!

Celebrate the right to be a child of God today.

Celebrate the gracious life of Jesus that brought you truth and light.

Celebrate the calling to be the instrument used by the Sprit to open the eyes of the blind and call those who are dead, to live.

Celebrate that you have been changed to become the visible and audible Word of God who shares this message with people who stumble in darkness:

You too have the right be a child of God.

You too can know Jesus and walk in the Light.

You too can see and share the glory of Jesus - now, and forevermore!

The Gospel is about becoming new people!

We do not have to wait till the last day, the day of the resurrection when Jesus returns, to become a new creation. It all starts here and now. It starts on the day God reconciles us with Godself. On that day we celebrate by singing and shouting: The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5: 17 – 20 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 

God does this. The Holy Spirit recreates me into someone new. I was born again.

The new creation within me does not hide or run away from God anymore. The new creation within me does not oppose the Kingdom or the values, the dream and the vision our Lord has for us and for the Church.

No, the new creation in me thirsts for friendship with my God. It longs to walk with God. It prays to work for God. It celebrates that my sins do not count against me anymore. It begs the Lord to be a change agent for our Lord’s sake. It urges me on to seek the glory and honour of my God in every aspect of life.

The new creation within me turns me into an ambassador of God. We represent the eternal King on the Father’s right hand. We teach what he taught, we bring the message he brought, we testify about his resurrection and his victory. We promise the forgiveness of sin. We live for our King and invite the world to enter and celebrate the everlasting Kingdom of life and love.

Through us God makes the appeal to all who live as enemies of Truth, to make peace with their Creator. Through us God implores all to through Christ’s atonement and in Christ’s conquering power, become new people – transformed by being reconciled with God, filled with the Spirit and creating a new community of love, promoting true life.

Ambassador of God, the new person you became is a militant agent of transformation. You are light, salt and yeast. Communities opposing God, and suffer the painful consequences, can change to live as Gods friends, walking with the Father, working for Christ, seeking his glory in everything and celebrating true life and healing through becoming alive in Jesus by the Spirit’s work in us.

The new people we become beg everyone on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.” 

The gospel is about Service

The blessed ones in the Kingdom of God are those who have seen a King who is not like the kings of this world. They are blessed because they know a King who brings real peace, who sees the needy, and who hears the cries of the suffering and the oppressed.

In God's kingdom, no one should be hungry, naked or alone. To bear witness to Christ as our Saviour and King, is to be a messenger of this Kingdom -- to serve others and thereby profess the invasion of God's glorious grace and mercy in our world.

We do this when we understand that being a follower of Christ does not mean to be served, but to be a servant!

- The gospel is about Service.

Therefore living in the Kingdom of God is about being a servant!