A Huge Responsibility
I did not give an update on our Monday Morning Men's Bible study yesterday, since I was so focused on why people connect with a church. I am glad to say that we had a great study of the end of John 20. There were several men away for various reasons, but we still had 11 men for Thanksgiving week. It was a privilege to lead such a group to examine God's Word closely and to apply it in our lives.
We began by discussing verse 23, which is a challenging verse. Even though it might appear that Jesus was giving them the authority to forgive sins, when we studied it in depth, we realized that He had another purpose. Jesus was trying to impress on the disciples and on us the urgency of our mission to take the gospel to the world. He had already said that He was sending them, as the Father had sent Him. Now, He clarifies that it is a life or death mission. If we fail to share the gospel so that a person can hear and believe, that person will not have his sins forgiven. We can't actually forgive the sins, but without us delivering the message, they can't be forgiven. That is a huge responsibility.
Then, we considered Thomas, who needed to see Jesus before he believed in Him as Lord and Savior. We decided we should not be too hard on Thomas, since it just took him one week to come to put his faith in Christ, while it took some of us years. Also, Christ knows what He needs to do to reveal Himself to each of us in a way that will speak to us. That is what He does, because He loves us. Just like He came straight to Thomas and urged Him to believe, He does the same for each of us. That is a great love.
I Pray that we will all be very conscientious about our huge responsibility to share how people can have their sins forgiven through knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 27-29 and I Peter 3.
We began by discussing verse 23, which is a challenging verse. Even though it might appear that Jesus was giving them the authority to forgive sins, when we studied it in depth, we realized that He had another purpose. Jesus was trying to impress on the disciples and on us the urgency of our mission to take the gospel to the world. He had already said that He was sending them, as the Father had sent Him. Now, He clarifies that it is a life or death mission. If we fail to share the gospel so that a person can hear and believe, that person will not have his sins forgiven. We can't actually forgive the sins, but without us delivering the message, they can't be forgiven. That is a huge responsibility.
Then, we considered Thomas, who needed to see Jesus before he believed in Him as Lord and Savior. We decided we should not be too hard on Thomas, since it just took him one week to come to put his faith in Christ, while it took some of us years. Also, Christ knows what He needs to do to reveal Himself to each of us in a way that will speak to us. That is what He does, because He loves us. Just like He came straight to Thomas and urged Him to believe, He does the same for each of us. That is a great love.
I Pray that we will all be very conscientious about our huge responsibility to share how people can have their sins forgiven through knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 27-29 and I Peter 3.