Disciples IndeedThe great commission of the church could be summed up as calling the world, meaning all of it’s inhabitants, to become “disciples” of Jesus Christ. Jesus Said:
Mat 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Listen and learn as Pastor: Landis teaches how this plan to disciple the world is really not a new idea, but has it’s roots in the older testement, and how we should anylize our own selves as to whether we are “Disciples Indeed”.
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Isaiah 28:9 – 18 (NASB)
Isa 28:9 “To whom would He teach knowledge? And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?
Isa 28:10 “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.'”
Isa 28:11 Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,
Isa 28:12 He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.
Isa 28:13 So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.
Isa 28:14 Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
Isa 28:15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”
Isa 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
Isa 28:17 “And I will make justice the measuring line, And righteousness the level; Then hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters shall overflow the secret place.
Isa 28:18 “And your covenant with death shall be canceled, And your pact with Sheol shall not stand; When the overwhelming scourge passes through, Then you become its trampling place.
New Testament Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:1 – 10 (NASB)
1 Pet 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 1 Pet 2:2 like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 1 Pet 2:3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. 1 Pet 2:4 And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, 1 Pet 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Pet 2:6 For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 1 Pet 2:7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” 1 Pet 2:8 and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. 1 Pet 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 1 Pet 2:10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.
Transforming Power Statements:
#1) Matthew Henry commenting on 1 Peter 2:1 says that based on what the Spirit has revealed in the previous verses of the first chapter the Christian should learn to nurture: “A temper suitable to the Christian character as born again”
#2) The hearing of the gospel, conviction of personal sin and accountability to God, and the transmission of faith from the Holy Spirit is merely the initial transaction of the life-changing phenomenon of “Salvation” yet it reveals the evidence of transformation and the source of everything else required for the attainment of continual dynamic spiritual progress to all sincere seekers of righteousness. #3) Faith in the Word of God has always been the “only means” by which sinners could attain justification in the sight of God, and sanctification therefore by the gradual learning of precept upon precept and line upon line.
