The mission is not complete until we make sure these newly baptized believers understand what Jesus expects of them and then help them to embrace a lifetime of obedience to Jesus along with us!
To Know Him and Make Him Known
Sermons on Matthew (Page 5)
The first part of Jesus’s simple strategy to make disciples is to intentionally engage the world on its turf, no matter the challenges, as Jesus did for us.
In the middle of the ongoing war between darkness and light, Jesus meets us where we are and invites us as the risen Lord of all to move through the whole world, leaving behind copies of Himself who have learned to LIVE as He lived.
When we look through the eyes of the first witnesses of Jesus’s resurrection, we can learn how God wants US to respond to Jesus’s resurrection today.
While it’s tempting to think of Jesus as simply a helpless victim of injustice, Scripture makes it clear that Jesus willingly chose to suffer and die for very specific reasons which we need to understand and properly respond to.
When deciding the question of who Jesus really was, it’s tempting to want to stay neutral and put it off until later. Pontius Pilate’s story shows us that you can’t maintain that neutrality forever – at some point you will have to make a decision, and that decision will have eternal consequences.
It’s natural to have a war raging within us between our will and God’s will. We can win this war as Jesus did, by running to God and struggling with Him in prayer. As we do so, we will remember who He is until we can surrender to Him and His plan.