ESTABLISHED: Sharing God
Notes
Transcript
THE CHANGE YOU OWE TO JESUS
John Wesley was a popular evangelist in early America and often rode from one church to another to preach. On one such journey, stopped by a highwayman who shouted, "Halt, your money or your life."
Wesley got down from his horse, emptied his pockets to reveal only a handful of coins. He even invited the robber to search his saddlebags - which only carried his books. In disgust, the thief was turning away when John Wesley cried "Stop, I have something more to give you."
Puzzled, the robber turned back. Wesley then leaned towards him and said "My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life in which you are engaged. If you ever do, I beseech you to remember this: ’The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.’"
The robber hurried silently away, but Wesley got back on his horse & rode on his way praying in his heart that the word might be fixed in the robber’s conscience.
Years later, at the close of a Sunday service, a stranger stepped forward and earnestly begged to speak with John Wesley. Wesley recognized him as the robber who had stolen from him so long before, but now he was a well to do tradesman and better still, a child of God. Raising Wesley’s hand to his lips he affectionately kissed it and said in deep emotion, "To you, dear sir, I owe it all."
Wesley replied softly, "Nay, nay, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin."
We owe all our change to our precious savior, who cleansed us, saved us and called us to a higher purpose. We are established in Him, made whole in His holiness.
Being Established means the following...
Knowing God - Not just knowing about God but truly knowing Him on a personal level
Hearing God - Through meditating on His revealed Word
Talking with God - Through Prayer
Walking with God - Through daily devotion and unbroken worship
Serving God - Through continued faith and obedience to our God, King and Master.
Sharing God - Through being a witness of the truth that changed our life from darkness to light, from death to life.
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Matthew 28:19–20 contains what has come to be called the Great Commission: “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.”
Jesus gave this command to the apostles shortly before He ascended into heaven, and it essentially outlines what Jesus expected the apostles and those who followed them to do in His absence.
It is interesting that, in the original Greek, the only direct command in Matthew 28:19–20 is “make disciples.”
The Great Commission instructs us to make disciples while we are going throughout the world.
The instructions to “go,” “baptize,” and “teach” are indirect commands—participles in the original.
How are we to make disciples? By baptizing them and teaching them all that Jesus commanded. “Make disciples” is the primary command of the Great Commission. “Going,” “baptizing,” and “teaching” are the means by which we fulfill the command to “make disciples.”
A disciple is someone who receives instruction from another person; a Christian disciple is a baptized follower of Christ, one who believes the teaching of Christ.
A disciple of Christ imitates Jesus’ example, clings to His sacrifice, believes in His resurrection, possesses the Holy Spirit, and lives to do His work.
The command in the Great Commission to “make disciples” means to teach or train people to follow and obey Christ.
Many understand Acts 1:8 as part of the Great Commission as well: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
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.”
The Great Commission is enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to be Christ’s witnesses, fulfilling the Great Commission in our cities (Jerusalem), in our states and countries (Judea and Samaria), and anywhere else God sends us (to the ends of the earth).
The Word Witness
“Our English word witness comes from an Old English word we do no use very much anymore. It is the word wit. ‘To wit’ means ‘to know’ A ‘wit’ is ‘a knowledgeable person.’ So a ‘witness’ is someone who knows something and testifies to it.”
Sharing is witnessing about what we have experienced through our own faith in Christ.
Throughout the book of Acts, we see how the apostles began to fulfill the Great Commission, as outlined in Acts 1:8.
First, Jerusalem is evangelized (Acts 1 — 7);
then the Spirit expands the church through Judea and Samaria (Acts 8 — 12);
finally, the gospel reaches into “the ends of the earth” (Acts 13 — 28).
James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
Paul considered himself Christ’s ambassador. What is an ambassador? He is an authorized representative of a sovereign. He speaks not in his own name but on behalf of the ruler whose deputy he is, and his whole duty and responsibility is to interpret that ruler’s mind faithfully to those to whom he is sent.
Paul used this "ambassador" image twice -- both in connection with his evangelistic work. Pray for me, he wrote from prison, "that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak" (Eph. 6:18-20). He wrote also that God "gave us the ministry of reconciliation...So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
Paul called himself an ambassador because he knew that when he proclaimed the gospel facts and promises and urged sinners to receive the reconciliation effected at Calvary, he was declaring Christ’s message to the world. The figure of ambassadorship highlights the authority Paul had, as representing his Lord, as long as he remained faithful to the terms of his commission and said neither less nor more than he had been given to say.
Today, we continue to act as ambassadors for Christ, and “we plead on Christ’s behalf: ‘Be reconciled to God’” (2 Corinthians 5:20, CSB).