30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 24 36-49 COMMISSIONED TO BE HIS WITNESSES 23 09May2022 Luke 24 47 The message of God’s reconciliation with man
📖 Luke 24:36-49
23 – 09May2022 – The message of God’s reconciliation with man - Luke 24:36-49 - COMMISSIONED TO BE HIS WITNESSES - Bible reading: Colossians 1:19-20
“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You are commissioning us and sending us out into the world to be Your witnesses. Father, often we do not look at our lives as those who are commissioned but we are too busy caught up with running the day-to-day affairs of our lives. Lord, we need a total reorientation to know and accomplish the commission that You have given us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.”
We have considered repentance and remission of sin. We will now consider the matter that this message should be preached, in the name of Jesus, to all nations.
Luke 24:47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
This is the great commission that the Lord Jesus has given to His church.
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Till the end of the age, we have a commission that has been assigned to us, and we ought to be completely given to fulfil the charge. All of us are commissioned and none of us, in the church, can excuse ourselves from this task.
The content of the commission has been given to us, which in its essence is about the remission of sins in the name of Jesus.
Jesus has accounted for the sins of man, in His body, on the cross. What hindered man from coming into the presence of the Lord has been taken out of the way. Man, now has access to God’s fellowship. This message, that God has reconciled man to Himself, must be made known to the nations of the earth.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. This is the mandate of the church.
God is reconciling all things to Himself.
Colossians 1:19-20 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, (20) and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
This is the heart of God. Man and all of creation have been alienated from God because of the sin of man. God has made the way, through Christ, for man and all of creation to be reconciled back to Him. This message of God’s reconciliation with man is the substance of the commission that has been entrusted to the church.
Ephesians 1:9-10 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, (10) that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
God longs for people, nations and all of creation to be reconciled with Him. God is commissioning us to be His ambassadors to reconcile all things back to God.
II Corinthians 5:18-20 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, (19) that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (20) Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
God is not imputing or accounting for the trespasses of man, to him. Man’s sin has been accounted for and settled before God by Jesus. This is the reason why man can now be reconciled with God. The legal impediment which was in the way, between man and God has been put aside by Jesus’ death on the cross.
This heart of God, which is to reconcile man to Himself, is not a New Testament understanding but this was the very pain of God’s heart, even as the Lord called Abraham. Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
We are to carry forward the Abrahamic blessing that all of the families of the earth should be blessed. We are not living in this world only to meet our own ends, we are to see that all the families of the earth are blessed.
Isaiah 49:6 Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.' "
Jesus is the light to the Gentiles. He is the salvation to the ends of the earth. This is why we are here on earth. We are commissioned by God to be His witnesses. We are sent to reconcile man and creation back to God.
Thought to ponder
Is being an ambassador of Christ, your frame of reference, as you look at your life?