Sunday, April 29, 2018

The Great Commission

Sunset & field of grain



The Great Commission


Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  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.” - Matt. 28:16



We have been studying the period of time between the resurrection of Jesus and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. During this time Jesus appeared to his disciples, and he gave them this command, this commission. In the last post, we talked about being disciples, and this week we are talking about making disciples. This is the job of every Christian; disciples make disciples. 

The word Christian means “little Christ. We are supposed to be like him, and we are here to continue His mission. “Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." John 20:21. We are supposed to be doing the things that Jesus did when he was here. That is the great commission. We are supposed to go out like harvesters, and bring people to Jesus. God made it clear that this message is supposed to go out to every nation, every people group, everybody. The scripture says, all creation. This good news is for everybody. 

The gospel message is just relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. The word Gospel means “good news.” What is the good news? Jesus came to save us. The promised messiah has come. Our world has no other answer to its problems. Jesus is the only way. You want to make an impact on the world? Share the gospel. We will not solve social justice problems apart from Jesus. The world has a sin problem, and Jesus is the only answer. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father, except through me.” [John 14:6] Jesus is the only way to salvation. That is not the message our culture propagates, but it is the truth. 

This generation has the same needs as every other. We all need Jesus. Nothing else will satisfy. We all have a hole inside that only God will fill. We try to fill it with other things, drugs, alcohol, power, money, attention, relationships, entertainment, anything. It will not satisfy us. It may fill it for a moment. It may distract us. But it will leave us empty in the end. Only God can fill that hole, because he created it. He created us for communion with Him. 

So let's look at this passage in Matt. 28. 
"All authority has been given to me." Jesus won the war. Adam and Eve lost the authority that God gave them over the Earth. Jesus won it back at the cross. He defeated the spiritual forces of darkness.
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” [colossians 2:13-15]

He said because he had been given all authority, we were to go make disciples. We make disciples because he has authority. There are two kingdoms out there, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Jesus has the authority so we can bring his kingdom to earth. The enemy forces that have had power over the earth are defeated. Because Jesus has authority, we can preach the gospel, we can invade the kingdom of darkness. It is all about His power. We are his instruments. He delivers people, but he might use you to be the instrument of that deliverance. Because he has all authority, people can be saved, redeemed, forgiven. 

I have to remind you that this life is temporary. We will not live here forever. Life is short. The other day, my daughter was riding with me to school and she said, “Dad, you are going to die soon.” She is five. I was surprised, to say the least. I asked her why she said that, and she said, “Well, you are.” It opened the door to a good conversation about how life is short and we need to live for God. We need to be reminded that we are going to die. Can I tell you? You are going to die. And when you do, your eternity will be determined by what you did in this life. I don’t want to scare you. I am not trying to manipulate you here. But this is reality. Hell is a real place. The bible describes it as a place of eternal torment, a lake of burning fire. And there will be a lot of people who go there. The point I and trying to make is that, if our time on this earth is so short, we had best make good use of it. And we have the potential to impact someone’s eternity. I don’t like the idea of hell. It would be really nice if bad people simply ceased to exist or something like that. But that is not what the bible teaches. That is not reality. This should place a burden in our souls for the lost. People's eternal destiny is at stake. 

So I hope that I have impressed upon you the importance of this mission. But the question remains: How do we make disciples? Here a couple of thoughts.

One biblical model of evangelism is to witness to the people God has already put in your life. We all have a group of people who we are in contact with regularly. This could be family, friends, coworkers. In the New testament there was a word for this, it is called your oikos. It is usually translated as house or household. 

These are those people you have frequent contact with, usually around 8-15 people. These are people God has placed in our lives so that we can be a witness to them. Paul taught that if someone became a believer and they were married to an unbeliever, they should stay married, because they could be a witness to their spouse. “How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” 1 Cor. 7:16. He also taught slaves to live in such a way as to win over their masters. Parents are supposed to teach their children about the Lord. The point is, we can make disciples without meeting anyone new, there are already relationships that you have in your life that can be a way to make disciples. Your lifestyle is a huge witness to unbelievers. We are the light of the world. People should see us and see Jesus. I am not talking about putting on a show or a mask like we have no problems. I am talking about being real, loving people, just letting people see your faith, see what God is doing in you.

In every case where Jesus is talking about send out the disciples, the great commission, he talks about the Holy Spirit. They are tied hand in hand. The Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfill the great commission. He told the disciples “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." [Luke 24:49] They could not start the mission until they had the Holy Spirit empowering them. Then it was easy. They were transformed. 

In my own wisdom, I don’t know what to say. I don’t have the power to save anybody. But the Holy Spirit can. We have to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish anything. The freeing thing is that it takes the pressure off of us. All we have to do is seek God and be willing vessels. He will teach us what to say, he will lead us to the right place and time. We must have the Holy Spirit leading us, or our work will be a failure. The only way to build the kingdom is through the power of the Holy Spirit. 
Be ready, for the Holy Spirit to use you. How can you be ready? Read the bible. Have to have the word in you. Pray, get used to listening to his voice. Look for opportunities. 
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matt. 9:37b-38

Monday, April 23, 2018

Being Disciples
Brown Wooden Dock Surrounded With Green Grass Near Mountain Under White Clouds and Blue Sky at Daytime
Over the last few weeks at Quarterlife, we have been looking at the time between Jesus’s resurrection and ascension. During this forty day period Jesus appeared many times to over 500 people. His appearances served as proof that he was indeed risen from the dead. There were not many things recorded in the scriptures that he taught us during this time. The majority he taught to the disciples during his three years of ministry prior to his crucifixion. However, there is one notable exception. In Matt. 28 we read one final command that Jesus gives to his followers. This is what we call the great commission. Let’s read it:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  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.” - Matt. 28:16

“Go and make disciples” This is the mission of every disciple of Jesus. Everyone who is a follower of Jesus is a part of this mission. This is Jesus’s command to us. 

But, what is a disciple? To be a disciple of Jesus means to follow him. It means to do what he said to do. I am afraid that there are many people today who consider themselves Christians, but have no intention of being disciples. At some point, what we are doing and what Jesus is doing part ways. We have to make a decision, are going to follow God or are we going to do it our way. God is asking for all of us. He wants our hearts, he wants our lives, he wants everything... because he is giving himself completely to us. Imagine going to a wedding, and the couple wrote their own vows, and they went something like this:

I take thee to be my lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and in health, unless you ask too much of me, then I’m out. I promise to love and cherish you, unless I have something better to do. I vow to give you 50% of my heart, which is pretty good, so you better be grateful. I promise to give you my life, until death do us part, unless you get in the way of my plans.

Do you think that the bride would like to hear that? Is that love? Of course not. Time and time again, the scripture uses the image of the church as the bride of Christ. The idea that God wants us to get a hold of is that this is a relationship of love. It is not all about religion. This is about a relationship with Jesus. He said, if you love me, you will keep my commands. [John 14:15] It is love that motivates us to follow him. 
I want to show you a story of some people who wanted to be disciples of Jesus: Matthew 8:14-22

 "When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
    and bore our diseases."
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Jesus avoided the crowd. This was his standard mode of operation. He sees them gather and decides it’s time to leave.  It seems backwards.  Isn’t Jesus trying to get a following? Look at what Jesus own family said: “So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing. For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”5 For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.” John 7:4

I feel like a lot of what we do in church is try to generate a crowd.  Send out invitations. We have parties. It’s the great commission, right? Get people in church. And all that stuff is good, it’s fine. But crowds are not the goal.  Jesus has a higher goal. He wants disciples.  His leaving prompts his followers to choose to follow him or not. 
Two “disciples”say they will come with him, but Jesus lays their heart bare. He exposes their true motives.

I will follow you wherever you go.  This guy was a scribe.  The amplified version calls him highly respected. Jesus reply cuts right to the heart of the matter.  We are given no indication that the scribe does follow him.  Jesus reply indicates that the scribes desire was for earthly status or comfort.  He no doubt saw the miracles or heard about them,  and now he wants to get on board.  Association with Jesus would increase his stature,  he supposed, we are led to believe.  Jesus answers always cut to the root of the matter.  Jesus doesn't even have a home. He has no earthly possessions. The scribe must decide what is truly important to him. Is it really about following Jesus, or is there another motive? It almost sounds like Jesus is turning his away. But he never says don’t follow me. He just makes it clear what the cost is. 

The next man heard this exchange.  He is not turned away by Jesus low estate. Or by his not having a home. I will follow you,  he says. But first…  there can be no but after the words “I will follow”.  If we come to Jesus with conditions, we simply cannot follow him. That goes for everything.  We must obey his whole word.  We cannot say,  I will follow you but I am going to still do this.  Anything we hold back from him,  hold us back. The man wants bury his father. At first glance,  it seems honorable. Honor thy Father and mother. He has a responsibility to his family, it seems. Who could blame him? So Jesus’s answer comes as a surprise. “Follow me, let the dead bury their own dead.” He says no. Some insight to this passage comes when we understand that burying that father likely meant that there was an inheritance involved. The amplified version states this. The man is concerned about earthly things and he needs to be concerned about eternal things. He is afraid that is he just gets in the boat and follows Jesus, then he will lose out on his inheritance, but that inheritance will pass away, he gave up an eternal inheritance. There is a cost to discipleship. It is going to cost you something. Maybe not the same thing as someone else. But God does not allow rivals for his affection. It is costly following Jesus, but it is worth it. 

A similar story goes like this: Mark 10: “As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  But at these words [a]he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who 
owned much property.

The thing that was holding the man back was his attachment to earthly things. It is not that Jesus is teaching everyone to sell everything, and a Christian cannot own anything. But for this man, his possessions owned him.

Now, back to the two disciples that came to Jesus. We really don’t know if these men followed Jesus and gave up these things, or if they turned away disappointed. The scripture doesn’t say. And it does matter. The next verse clears it up. 

Matt. 8:23: Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 

Who followed him? The disciples. Who were the disciples? The ones who got in the boat. This is discipleship in a nutshell. Jesus is getting into the boat, are you in or out? That is what determines whether you are a disciple or not. Did you get into the boat? Are you going where Jesus is going? Are you doing what Jesus is doing? Or are you doing your own thing? Because if you come to God and say, I will follow you, but… I’ve got something else going on. You are going to be left behind. I'm sorry if that is harsh, but we have got to get real with God. 

Let give you another verse: "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Matt. 10:32-33

"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matt. 10:37-39

Whoever finds his life will lose it. What do you think that means? Have you ever heard someone say that they are trying to find themselves? That is a typical college student statement. We try to find our place in the world. What are we good at? What career should we have? What defines us? What is important to us? Who am I going to hang out with? 

It is really easy to lose yourself in this search. Your life is not about you. You were made for a purpose. You were made to know and love and serve and enjoy God. You were made for his pleasure. Finding your life apart from God is to lose the life you were created for. It is to trade your true life for a fake. A hollow empty life that will end in futility. 

It is important for us to take an eternal perspective. Everything in this life will fade. All accomplishments, all riches. When we die we don’t take anything with us. Jesus said, Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” So what does life consist of? 

One thing that is eternal are relationships. So if life does not consist of the abundance of possessions, then it consist of relationships. The relationships we have with God and other believers will still be there in eternity. The measure of a life is its relationships. First of all, its relationship with God, and then relationships with others. Does anyone know what the most important law in the bible is?
Jesus said that it was love the Lord your God with all your heart, all you mind, all your soul and all your strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. These two laws deal with relationships. Possessions will pass away, but relationships will last into eternity. So we need to take an eternal perspective. Consider this, will anything I am doing in my life right now matter in a thousand years? What are you living for? 

So many times, we get our priorities all out of order. We spend all our time and energy trying to get things that will pass away and not matter. This attitude is especially prevalent in college. The point of college is to get into a good career, and your professors, advisers, and classmates, can make you think that there is nothing more important than your education and career.  You have to make sacrifices to succeed. It is really easy to buy into this attitude. Your future is all about your career and church falls to the wayside. This can happen in high school too. If you are an athlete, maybe you have heard your coach tell you that there is nothing more important than basketball, or football, or whatever. There is nothing wrong with pursuing a career, or being an athlete, but we need to keep things in order. When earthly things become more important that spiritual things, our lives become unbalanced. You will come to the end of your life and realize that everything you have built is stubble, ready to be burned up in the fire. You could be the greatest in your field, the best there ever was, and you will still be empty. 

Humans are like sheep. We tend to follow the herd. What people around you consider important, you will likely too. That is why you have to choose who you spend time with so carefully. The bible says, do not forsake the gathering of the saints, as some are in the habit of doing. (heb 10:25). It is so easy to make that a habit, forsaking the gathering of the saints. I am not saying that if you ever miss a Sunday you are going to hell. That’s not what this is about. But if you are consistently giving other things a higher place than God in your life, who are you living for? 

Before we can make disciples, we have to be disciples, and disciples are those people who follow Jesus. 
If you want to truly be a disciple, you’ve got to get into the boat. You got to follow him, you’ve got to keep him commands, you got to make him a priority. 


Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Post-resurrection appearences of Jesus

Passion, Three Crosses, Cross, Good Friday, Easter




Post-resurrection appearances of Jesus
4-10-18
Skylar Farrill


This week at Quarterlife we are looking at the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. The book of Acts tells us that Jesus appeared to the disciples over a 40 day period after his resurrection, then he ascended to heaven. What do these appearances teach us?

The scriptures say that Jesus appeared with many infallible proofs in Acts 1:3. What does Luke mean by there were infallible proofs? Can you prove that Jesus is God? Isn’t belief in God all about faith?

As Christians, we do have faith, but it is not a blind faith. It is important to understand that the historical evidence for the resurrection is powerful, and extensive. Our faith in God is built on the strong foundation of history. I want to give you three historical proofs of the resurrection. 

# 1 - number of witness
1 Corinthians 15:3-7 says,”For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.”

This testimony is important because it establishes that there were a sufficient number of witness to the resurrection. If there were just one or two people who say the resurrection, then we might think that they were making it up. In fact, even the disciples doubted the first reports of the resurrection. But 515 witnesses? That is a different story. Imagine that they were giving testimony in a court of law. If each person was given 15 minutes to describe what they saw then there would 128 hours of non stop testimony confirming the resurrection. It would take weeks to get through it. The point is that when the gospel was being spread, and the new testament was being written, you could go and ask people what they saw.

Not only that, many of those believers were martyred. They died confessing that Jesus rose from the dead. Why could they die for something they knew was a lie? There is no motive for them to do such a thing. Clearly they believed what they said.

#2 - The women found the tomb
All four gospel account include the detail that it was the women who found the tomb. They were the first witness to the resurrection. This is important for a couple of reasons. For one, it elevates the position of women. At the this time in history, women were considered unreliable witness. In fact, they could not even testify in courts. They had a lesser status than a man. But Jesus, in choosing to appear first to women, is raising their status. They they were honored to be the very first people to proclaim the resurrection. Jesus honored women to be the first witness of his resurrection. Everywhere the gospel of Jesus is brought the position of women in a culture is raised. The second reason this detail is important is that In the Jewish culture of the time, women were considered unreliable witness. They were not allowed to testify in court. Extrabiblical documents testify to this fact. So the fact that the first witnesses of the resurrection are women, is not something that someone would make up. If you were making up a story like this that you wanted people to believe, then you would make the first witness someone would be considered more reliable. It makes sense, however, if the disciples are simply reporting the facts. The gospels are full things like this, details that ring of truth. They are full of stories that are embarrassing or make the leaders of the early church look bad. These only make sense if the story is true.

#3 - Prophecy
FInally, prophecy supports the narrative of the resurrection. Scholars believe there are over 300 old testament prophecies that relate to Jesus. Some of these go into great detail like Isaiah chapter 53. We are told that he was “despised and rejected by mankind” (verse 3), he was “pierced for our transgression” (verse 5), “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (verse 7). Remember, Jesus did not answer his accusers? In verse 9 we are told, he was assigned a grave with the wicked” and verse 11 says, “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.” How can this savior both “pour his life out unto death” (verse 11) and also have his “days prolonged”? Only if he dies and is raised again. (On a side note, in case you are thinking that this lines up so perfectly, that someone must have written it about Jesus after the fact, the prophecy of Isaiah was found complete in the dead sea scrolls. These documents have been scientifically dated several hundred years before the time of Christ.)

There are literally hundreds of other prophecies about Jesus. Peter Stoner gives this illustration to help us understand what the odds of someone fulfilling those prophecies by chance is.

“Suppose that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far s he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.” (1)

These are just a few of the piece of evidence that support the reality of the resurrection. All of Christianity hinges on the fact of the resurrection. The Apostle Paul said, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” 1 Cor. 15:17. But if Christ has been resurrected, then that means that we have to take seriously his claims. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the father except through me.” John 14:6. 


Stoner, Don. “Who Designed God? the Paradox of Existence.” Science Speaks by Peter W. Stoner, Chapter 3, The Christ of Prophecy, sciencespeaks.dstoner.net/Christ_of_Prophecy.html.