Luke 24:48-49: Empowered Witnesses
When I say the word witness what comes to mind? Maybe at first it is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Or maybe you think of evangelism and witnessing. Perhaps you think of the Great Commission and recognize the call to be witnesses to all nations. I am sure that some of you even think of the legal aspect of being a witness, as bearing testimony to historical realities. Some with a little Greek might even know that the Greek word for ‘witness’ is martureo from which we get our English word martyr. Today as we continue looking at Jesus Great Commission...
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Luke 24:44-49: Commissioned as Witnesses
Each of the four gospels end with the great commission, and it is reissued again in Acts. 5 times in all we have Christ appearing to His disciples and telling them what to do now that He has died and been raised from the dead. What is expected of us now that Jesus has risen from the dead? This is the question that is answered by our portion today in Luke 24:44-49. Our purpose, our identity, our mission it is all summed up in this one idea of being witnesses. A witness is a legal witness who bears testimony...
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Luke 10:1-16: Preparation for Ministry: The Message we Preach
We are continuing our look at Jesus sending out the 72 to go preach in Israel. We have seen how Christ has called the disciples and us to exercise trust in the area of prayer, persecution and provision, but central in Christ’s sending out the disciples is their message, what they are to say. We are here reminded of our primary identity and purpose. We are heralds, ambassadors, and witnesses. We are to preach, proclaim, and teach. We are looking at Jesus send out His disciples into the ripe harvest field of Israel, but there are many similarities that...
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Luke 10:1-16: Preparation for ministry: The trust we exercise
Phillip Ryken tells the story of ‘The China Gospel Fellowship—also known as Tanghe—is a large network of Chinese house churches. Early in 1994 the fellowship began collecting donations for a special missionary trip. Since most of the group’s members live in poverty, their giving was sacrificial. People sold their chickens or gave up money they had been saving for marriage. No matter what the cost, they wanted God to be glorified in China. When sufficient funds had been raised, the fellowship held a worship service at which they commissioned seventy young evangelists to go out two-by-two and preach the...
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The Church and Covid-19
The recent pandemic has raised questions over the nature of the church. All over the world governments asked churches to close and many have taken to streaming church, essentially replicating the church service but having online versions of it. There have been some bold statements like, Church will never be the same again, if things like the hug and the handshake have to go, so do various forms of worship like sharing a communion cup, or too much singing because of how much of our germs we are pushing out into the air around us. Some have relished the...
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Romans 15:9: Paul The Church Planter
Introduction: How do you see the Great Commission being fulfilled? Some think that it is not our job but it was the job of the original apostles, this cannot be the case because the command to preach to all nations lasts as long as the promise of Christ’s presence does, till the end of the age. Some have a picture of mass evangelism in their minds where Billy Graham style crusades are done all over the world until millions of Christians are saved. Some see every Christian being a missionary and if each one reaches one then the world can...
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