Exodus 37:1-38:31
Matthew 28:1-20
Psalm 34:11-22
Proverbs 9:9-10
Matthew 28:19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
I have heard preaching on this passage many times. It is always about sharing the Gospel, but we are not to stop there. Everyone wants the experience of seeing someone that they shared the Gospel with to accept Jesus. The joy of seeing someone baptized whom you took part in their journey to get to that place is amazing. But our responsibility continues after that. We are to also to "Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands (He) has given (us)." Think about when you first accepted Christ. You may have never even opened a bible yet or if you did it wasn't much or wasn't understood. There would be no way to even know "all" (in some version) "everything" that Jesus commanded let alone how to obey those commands. Some people may feel that it is the leadership in the church that has this responsibility. But these words are for ALL believers that is why it is used to encourage people to evangelize. Every one of these things can and done by each individual member of the church as well as the body. If you know a young Christian (young in faith not necessarily in age) you have a responsibility to have regular conversations about God's word and Jesus teaching. We can invite people to join us in bibles study personally and corporately. We need to make sure that they know we are always available to answer questions and help them find answers together when we don't know the answer. Or seek a more mature Christian to help you both with answers. Then we need to actually do it. We should also live out that obedience and give the glory to God when it is recognized in us. I am so richly blessed to have many women in my life who live this out and I appreciate how we can encourage one another in living out the pattern that Jesus has given us. We are to be good disciples (students/followers) of Jesus making good disciples of Jesus who will hopefully make good disciples and so on and so on.
Proverbs 9:9 Instruct the wise,
and they will be even wiser.
Teach the righteous,
and they will learn even more.
10 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.
Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
To be wise we need to seek God and study His word. As believers we are never to stop learning. Just as there is always a "younger" Christian than we are there are also always more "mature" Christians than we are. That is why corporate bible study is such a great experience. There are usually people of all different places in their faith journey and the younger inspire the more mature to dig deeper and the more mature encourage the younger to ask questions and dig deeper as well. The younger should be encouraged to share their story with others as there is always someone younger then them as well. The more we learn to obey the wiser we become. The wiser we become the more our motives will be right which will be shown as righteousness. And the foundation of that learning starts with the fear of the Lord. I think we often do a good job teaching new believers about Jesus but we must also teach them about the Father and the Spirit. The fear of the Lord is a good place to start when we look at the Father.
Psalm 34:11 Come, my children, and listen to me,
and I will teach you to fear the Lord.
Wisdom - Jesus - God's Word will teach us to fear the Lord which the fear of the Lord is a difficult topic to understand for some. If someone has lived in fear of a person, people or situation and they read this it may make them want to run from the Lord and avoid Him. Others may think that their obedience to God should be out of fear for what might happen if they disobey. But as a good disciple making good disciples, we know that the fear of the Lord should be a reverence and respect for a loving Father. A Father that we don't want to disappoint because we know that His commands are there to protect us and provide something better for us. This broken world has distorted this picture so much that the biblical picture of our heavenly father needs to be learned to understand. If you have a young Christian who struggles with this concept, try talking to them about their earthy father and their relationship with him. These experiences often cloud our understanding of God. Then dig into scripture together to see what the bible says an earthly father should be and even more so who our Heavenly Father really is.
He is a Good Good Father!
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