Have you heard of The Great Commission? It was Jesus’ last directive to His disciples.
This
assignment had three parts: (1) Go into every nation and make disciples,
(2) baptize them (in water) in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, and (3) teach them to obey all that I have
commanded you (Matthew 28:18-20).
Mark
said that after Jesus had spoken to them, He ascended into heaven and was
seated at the right hand of the Father. He also said that the disciples went
out to follow instructions, and that the Lord was with them, just as He had
promised (Mark 16:19-20, Matthew 28:20).
Let’s
not forget that God also promised to send the Holy Spirit to empower them to be
witnesses. This happened on the Day of Pentecost in a
very special way. Immediately, Peter was a great example (Acts
2).
Remember
that after soldiers had arrested Jesus in Gethsemane, Peter had denied knowing
Jesus three times (Matthew 26:69-75).
Yet, after the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost, he stood up and
preached to a great multitude of people (Acts 2).
We
know from reading the New Testament that disciples follow a master
teacher. They adhere to his teachings and share them
with others. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”
(John 14:15).
We
learn to do that by reading our Bibles, the Holy Scriptures given by God (2
Timothy 3:16-17). A good place to start might be in
Matthew. The first four books of the New Testament are the Gospels, or
the good news about Jesus and His teachings.
Sunday
sermons, Bible classes, small group studies, and devotionals are all good, but
not enough. We need both physical food and spiritual
food every day.
It’s
never too late and never too soon to start a daily reading of our Bible verse
by verse, and book by book!
Next week, we’ll close with Part Three of
being a Christian.
Pixabay: Did you know, Speech, Balloon; Imageforyou.
