“Busy” and “tired.” That’s how so many people describe themselves. We live in a world where so often our value is tied to our productivity. That’s not just true in the world, it’s so often true in the church. We may know that we’re not saved by our works, but we often live as if we will be saved by our work. In the midst of a world that is filled with tiredness and busyness, the invitation of Jesus is like an oasis in the midst of a desert: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
When Jesus was asked what the greatest command is, He replied: ““Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command.” If being a disciple of Jesus is learning to obey all that He commands, then it would seem being a disciple has to start with growing our love for God. The question then is how? How do we grow our love for God? In 1 John 4:10 the apostle John gives us the secret, by growing in our knowledge and understanding of just how much God has loved us! If we are going to grow as disciples who love God, we are going to have to grow in our knowledge of the God who loves us. Most particularly we are going to need to keep our eyes fixed on the cross as the ultimate testament to God’s overwhelming love for us. Application:
Are you participating in spiritual disciplines that are drawing you into the presence and love of God?
Are you daily spending time in God’s word and in prayer?
Invite people to understand God’s love for them more clearly and deeply by taking the NT from 30,000 ft class or if they are a young adult the practicing Sabbath class.
When Jesus departed the earth to return to the Father he gave tasked His disciples with a mission: “make disciples.” Accomplishing this task would require a few things:
1. It would require going, in fact it would require going to the whole world. Disciple making couldn’t be accomplished through passivity it would require initiative and activity. They would need to go out into the world to invite others to follow Jesus.
2. Once people had received the invitation to follow Jesus it would require initiation. A physical washing that would represent the way that through Jesus, His followers have already been washed and made clean.
3. It would require instruction, specifically it would require them teaching to others everything Jesus had taught to them. This teaching was more than just theoretical instruction, it was a call to imitation, a call to step by step learn what it means to walk in the way of Jesus.
4. Finally, it would require the power and presence of Jesus. Jesus knew the task He was leaving them with would only be possible with his help and so He reminded them that His help would be more than enough to accomplish the mission and that His help would always be available to them until the mission was accomplished. The mission He gave His first disciples continues to be our mission today and the promise He made to them continues forward to all those who call themselves His disciples. Application:
Have you made choice to follow Jesus?
If you are a disciple, have you been baptized?
If you’re a baptized disciple, where do you most need to grow this year in walking in the way of Jesus?
Are you a disciple who is making disciples?
Generosity is both a means by which we grow and a marker of our growth. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” This means that when we give it not only demonstrates what we love but also that it grows our love for what we are giving to. Ultimately generosity, whether with our money, our time, or even our forgiveness, is rooted in two things: 1. Our faith in God’s willingness and ability to provide. 2. Our awareness of what we have already received from Him.
Imagine the scene, 15-20,000 hungry men, women, and children in need of something to eat. Many of us struggle with the idea of hosting and feeding 15-20 people with plenty of advance notice and an almost limitless number of places to get food from. In this story Jesus tasks his disciples to figure out how to feed all these people with next to no resources. No grocery stores, no restaurants, and no money, nothing but five loaves and two fishes they get from a small boy who had packed a lunch. But when you have Jesus, it isn’t about the resources you bring to the table. All Jesus needs is for us to be obedient. When we give him whatever we have, he’s able to shatter our pint-sized expectations, overcome our seemingly insurmountable challenges and make the little we have to offer more than enough to accomplish all he wants to do.
When Jesus first called His disciples, He was clear they were being called to something more than listening to Jesus teach. The vision of Jesus was always to make disciples who would make disciples. A church with Jesus as the head is a church committed to multiplying and making more disciples of Jesus. At Forward, this means we will intentionally build bridges with our neighbours by serving them and seeking their good. We will be unashamed in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus as the hope for every person. And we are committed to planting other churches and being a multi-site church.
When Jesus first called His disciples, He was clear they were being called to something more than listening to Jesus teach. The vision of Jesus was always to make disciples who would make disciples. A church with Jesus as the head is a church committed to multiplying and making more disciples of Jesus. At Forward, this means we will intentionally build bridges with our neighbours by serving them and seeking their good. We will be unashamed in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus as the hope for every person. And we are committed to planting other churches and being a multi-site church.
Every house is built on a foundation and so is every life. The question is not whether you will have a foundation but what that foundation is and whether it’s worth building your life upon. The only life that will withstand the storms and troubles of this world and be left standing at the end is the life that is built on the firm foundation of Jesus. If we build our lives on anything else our lives will end up in death and destruction
In these verses Jesus nears the end of his sermon by offering some ominous warnings. Not every teacher who claims to speak for God does and not every person who claims to be a child of God is. How can we recognize false teachers and how can we know if we’re a true follower?
Most of us are so familiar with the golden rule we don’t consider how radically transformative it is. What would it truly look like for us to treat others in the way we wish others would treat us? How radically would that transform our homes, workplaces and churches? How on earth could anyone actually live this way?