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Tag: hebrews

  • Teach these new disciples…

    Teach these new disciples…

    The Great Commission

    Have we missed the point of the Great Commission?

    “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel;” that is what we all know (and have heard preached often). We’ll send a missionary and we’ll fund some missions. There: done, because our church has funded others to carry out the ‘great commission. ‘Lord be praised!

    But is this what Jesus instructed us to do in this final commission and grand conclusion to the Gospel of Matthew?

    [ctt title=”‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” tweet=”Matthew 28:19″ coverup=”8nBX8″]

    Go and make followers of all peoples (not just the Jews, or Samaritans or Europeans or Asians or Africans, all nations); therefore we send missionaries.

    The King James Version states: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”  We have been pretty faithful in this in centuries past.

    “Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit, as we say now).”

    We are quick to baptize new Christians, sometimes even as infants. Let’s check them off on our list of souls won to heaven. Yet keep in mind that “baptize” must include repentance and a permanent change of heart to bow down humbly to the will of God the Father. Through the ongoing guidance by the Holy Spirit, this commission of our Lord Jesus Christ implies a great personal responsibility for the believer – new believer and those accepted into the Kingdom long ago.

    A Command to the Church

    Jesus follows with the command most neglected by the church – your church, my church and nearly every church where the Great Commission has been preached:

    Matthew 28:20 NLT Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

    Do we do that?

    Jesus tells his disciples – those who believe – to go and make disciples. How? Preach the Gospel, Good News that Christ Jesus has come to all who believe, no matter what you may have done in your terrible, sinful past.

    Okay. I repented. I’m changed by my relationship with Christ and I’ve received the baptism – the permanent change that I want to do what God wants me to do (though by my sinful nature I continue to sin).

    I am a disciple of Jesus Christ – a Christian.

    Now what is that ‘great commission’ thing again? Send out a missionary?

    No. In fact, I am the missionary wherever any see the change Christ has made in me by his grace and love. I am changed. I must obey Christ as my LORD, not just read what He said as just more good advice. Jesus IS my Lord!

    He has commissioned me to do what?

    Since I obey Him, I must teach ALL that Jesus has commanded.

    Do we teach new believers ALL that Jesus has commanded, even in our own local congregations? Yet it is this overlooked part of the Great Commission to which we are all called. We are called to obey Jesus as our Lord within the body of the church, before we dare claim to know His mission to others.

    Set aside postcards from overseas missionaries momentarily and look to the souls of those who surround you within the walls of worship of your own church building.

    Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

    Are our own children doing this? Are they in church with us? Do they hear God’s word with us. Do they continue to worship the Lord after we have raised them up as teens in a distracted culture and young adults in an increasingly carnal group of worldly friends opposed to Christ?

    Are you, dear fellow disciple, teaching them to observe all that Jesus Christ has commanded you? (It’s no so easy as just sending a couple of bucks to a missionary somewhere, is it?)

    How do the  Sunday School classes and Bible studies look at your church?

    Are you making great progress on the great commission in your own community and in our own households?

    Teach them to observe all I have commanded you, Jesus tells us. The struggles of the church now and the struggles of the early church challenge us to obey Jesus and teach the Gospel. Continue to teach the Gospel to new believers and to some of us. Do we get it? (and teach the gospel…) We barely listen and learn within the walls of our own churches; yet listen to the writer of Hebrews dealing with the same issue:

    Hebrews 5: 11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.

    12 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.

    Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

    Returning to the great commission of our Lord:

    How can we go out and make disciples of others, when our pulpits nurse Gospel milk to grown infant christians, never grown into a Bible study?

    Teach others to observe all that Jesus has commanded? How, when WE do not take time or effort to grow in the permanence of the promise of our baptism?

    In consideration of our growth in scripture and prayerful consideration, we must set aside quiet time with the Lord.

    God willing, I pray to continue in living these commands of Christ Jesus, who by our baptism and profession of faith we call, Lord. Beloved believer, I invite you to also obey the great commission of Christ Jesus. Go!

    Due to continued devotion to my book on Christian growth, posts to this site will be limited. [2014 note]

    Your posts and comments on any posts are encouraged. May the Lord bless you this day and this week. 

    – Roger Harned, Author & Site Administrator

  • The Gospel: Preached by John

    The Gospel: Preached by John

    Behold our shield, O God;
    look on the face of your anointed! – Psalm 84:9

    John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)

    16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

    Speak: and your tongue does witness the word of your soul.

    I have a ‘word’ for you: “logos.” 

    John uses Logos for the Person of Jesus as God’s Very Word spoken in the Holy Flesh of Christ Jesus.

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

    He was in the beginning with God.

    Jesus IS the ‘I AM‘ in the flesh!

    Exodus 3:13-14 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

    John’s Gospel preaches that God the Father sent God the Son to the people of Israel (and to gentiles of the nations as well). When they ask, “What is his name?” the reply is that of Jesus.

    John 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

    The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

    Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

    Acts 2:37

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John:

    … His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

    16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

    17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

    But he laid his right hand on me, saying,

    “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one.

    I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

     

  • for our God is a consuming fire

    for our God is a consuming fire

    Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

    22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant…

    25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

    For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

    26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

    … thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

    How much reverence and awe do you have for God Almighty?

    Do you, dear believer, sometimes fail to remember in fear and trembling the Power of the risen Lord, Christ Jesus?

    (It is no wonder that Jesus greeted fearful Apostles with the assurance: “Peace.”)

    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. – Hebrews 10:21

    The Disciples finally realized that Jesus had not established God’s Kingdom in Jerusalem at the time He entered its gates prior to His crucifixion; yet the Apostles knew that Jesus will return on the clouds as Judge of the Heavens and earth!

    Prior to becoming Disciples of Jesus, some were disciples of John the Baptist who had preached:

    Matthew 3:

    10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

    12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

    If the burning fire of the conquering Christ was prepared by John; if the burning fire of the conquering Jesus was prepared by the Cross; if the Judgment and Kingdom were close at hand; then how much nearer now? You with ears to hear, hear.

    Jesus’ Disciples wanted to know when, but the Lord would not reveal it.  Never-the-less as Jesus rose into the clouds promising His return, the Disciples were filled with awe and reverence for the risen Son of Man.

    Well they knew all of what our Lord Jesus had warned and cautioned:

    John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

    Luke 24:51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.