What did Jesus offer His followers

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Be and Become Podcast, featuring Francois Carr, a hard form and connected life ministry. Francois's international ministry equips and encourages pastors, ministry leaders, and fellow Christians as they discover what it means to truly be and become the followers they were meant to be. Thank you for joining Francois today as he offers a few words of encouragement from God's Word.

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Thank you for listening, and I trust that the Lord will speak to you through his word and to be a great encouragement to you. Now we have just remembered and celebrated the crucifixion and especially the resurrection of the risen Christ. It is clear from the Bible that Jesus appeared and spoke to his disciples and other people over a period of forty days since the resurrection. In Acts chapter 1, verses 1 through 4 we can read about that. And so what did they talk about? And the Bible tells us he talked to them about his Father's kingdom in verse 3, and he asked them specific things and offered them things to do. And so the question I was asking myself, what did Jesus offer his disciples? Where was the places that he appeared to them, and to whom did he appear in the resurrection? But what did he offer them? And as I look at the scriptures, first of all I believe that he offered them a commission. The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Mark chapter 16, verse 15, and he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So he offered them a commission, and the commission of the risen Jesus Christ is to go out and to make the kingdom of this world and change it into the kingdom of God, is to go and to make disciples and to teach them all the things that we have learned from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Secondly, I believe He offered them a task. The task of all of us is to be the Word and the life as a witness of Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter one, the Bible says, But you shall receive power when the Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It's to be a witness. The word witness means to tell something that we have seen and heard and experienced for ourselves, even to the point of becoming a martyr. And then Jesus offered them a specific message. They were to preach repentance and the remission of sins. They were to awaken men to realize the urgency of their need and to point and to lead them to the one in whom that need could be met. In Luke chapter 24, the Bible tells us, and repentance of remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. So we see that Jesus gave them a commission, Jesus gave them a specific task, Jesus gave them a message that they would need to preach for the rest of the world. Then he offered them an explanation. He opened the scriptures to them and showed them these scriptures, how it points to himself. There was an open grave, then he opened their eyes to see, their hearts to understand, and eventually would open their lips to go and to tell. The Bible tells us in Luke chapter 24, then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. And so he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then he said to them, Thus it is written, it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And then Jesus offered them power, but they had to wait on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in Luke chapter 24 and also in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. The Bible says, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth. And then lastly, Jesus offered them a promise. And so Jesus wants us to continue what he started, to impact and to change our own known world, and to take his presence into a dark and a needy world, and to teach them all the things as we make disciples of the things that we have learned from Jesus Christ. And so the question is, what about you and I today? Is it not time for us to join the mission of Jesus Christ and to finish those assignments that He has for all of us? And so the question today is where do we start? We start right where we are. They say that the light that will shine the furthest and the brightest is usually shining the brightest at home, right where we are. We need to start where we are, to make an impact upon our loved ones and the family, right where God has uniquely placed every one of us. He has given us a commission, he has a task, he has given us a message, he has explained what has happened, what we need to do, he has given us the promise that he will be with us, and he gives us the power of the Holy Spirit that will enable us to do so. And so the question is when do we start and where do we start? We start right now and we start where we are because Jesus is offering us something so special, an invitation to become part of what Jesus started so many years ago. May God bless you.

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Thank you for listening to this Be and Become episode with Francois Carr. For more information about the ministry, visit the website at ConnectedLifeministries.com. We hope you'll join Francois next time as he continues the conversation on what it means to be and become the follower you are meant to be.