The Last Words of Jesus
Go
The One who has all authority in heaven and on earth has
commanded us to “Go.” We are to go to the nations with the
good news of Jesus Christ. Maybe you’ve thought that was
someone else’s responsibility. The purpose of a missionary.
But, as a child of God, you have been called into ministry.
You are God’s handiwork created to do good works that He
has prepared in advance for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). You
have been given the ministry of reconciliation by the One
who has reconciled you to God (2 Corinthians 5:18). You are
Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through you (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Where is the Lord asking you to go? Usually, it is not far.
Our families, our neighborhoods, our co-workers…the international students in our school. I’m so encouraged by the
women and men who are stepping into their “neighborhoods” with an invitation to a simple Bible study. The creativity is endless: several have begun Bible studies in senior
living facilities, men and women are meeting in their workplaces over lunch, some are journeying with others from
their Sunday class to reach out to friends, many are meeting
in their neighborhoods, and some are hanging out in coffee
houses.
Jesus commands us to get up from our comfortable chairs
and step into the opportunities He has already arranged for
us. You can stay put but you will miss out on the journey of
faith that Jesus has prepared for you!
Make Disciples
A disciple follows and learns from his master. As a disciple
of Christ, we are to attach ourselves to our Master and absorb His very character and behavior. Our heart is to beat
like Jesus who “came to seek and to save what was lost”
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(Luke 19:10). He commanded us to go and make disciples.
As we step into the opportunities God gives, people will
come to salvation. We then come alongside of them just
as Jesus came alongside of the early disciples and helped
them grow.
Sadly, we live in a world of stunted growth. Many are taking
in more of the world and less of Christ. The Apostle Paul
admonished the Corinthians because they were still worldly, mere infants in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1). They were not
growing up as they should have. Just as we would never
leave a baby or a child unattended, we should never leave
a young Christian without the help they need to grow. We
need to always be growing as a disciple of Christ, eager
to learn from those ahead of us and pouring our lives into
younger disciples of Christ coming behind.
Baptize
We are to go and make disciples by, first of all, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Baptism is a beautiful picture of our inward
transformation when we are born anew into the Kingdom of
God. Just like Jesus, we die to self, Satan and this world and
we are raised to new life in Christ.
On Easter Sunday, a number of people were baptized.
Months before, Pastor Tom stepped out in faith to study
the Bible with some men from his community. Tom had the
privilege of baptizing one man who had come to faith in that
study. There is no greater joy!
Baptism is an act but it is also an ongoing identification with
Christ. I recently read a blog by Margaret Lai Chan that explained it well: “The word ‘baptize’ in Greek has the meaning of being immersed into the things it’s baptized into. It’s
not strictly a spiritual word. Cucumbers are baptized into
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