SPECIAL NOTE
On 1^st March 2019, I will be beginning the ‘Joining Jesus’ Podcast and be launching a new ‘Joining Jesus’ discipleship process that will be available at The Rooftop Academy www.therooftop.org

As such, to avoid having too many, and possibly confusing ‘titles’ I thought it would be best for the weekly email that I send to have the same title. Therefore, ‘Stay On Mission’ from now onwards will be titled ‘Joining Jesus’.

If you are being helped by these emails, from 1^st March, please feel free to find out more about the podcast and discipleship process.

Here is this weeks article.

3.  It has to be ‘SUPERnatural”.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.  Matthew 16:21-24

Jesus laid down His life so that His mission could be completed, and this mission is at the very heart of God. Luke records Jesus’ words:

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”.  Luke 15:7

And a little later:

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  Luke 15:10

It is clear from these words of Jesus that God’s priority is that sinners will repent, is was for this reason that Jesus came to earth, leading sinners to repentance was His Mission:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”  Mark 1:14,15

In order for the ‘good news of God’ to reach the ends of the earth, Jesus calls people to follow Him.  In the New Testament, the word used to describe these followers is ‘disciples’ and it is really important to note that the word ‘disciple’ doesn’t just apply to a select group of followers who are ‘super-committed’ followers of Jesus.  If we are to truly follow Jesus and join Him in His Mission we must take serious note of the words that He spoke to His followers:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

These words are challenging to the very core because they speak of something that none of us can do on our own strength.  What Jesus requires of a disciple can only happen as a result of God’s supernatural intervention.  Left to our own devices we, like Peter, miss the point of what Jesus is calling His followers to do.  He is passionate about the mission that He came to complete and He wants people to follow Him, share in His passion and tell the ‘Good News of God’ to the world.

For this to happen, Jesus says that something miraculous needs to take place in “Whoever wants to be my disciple”.    The miracle will require that every disciple must “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”.

Self-denial and the willingness to suffer are contrary to our natural instincts and each of us will avoid these things if we can.  Self fulfilment and comfort are far more attractive to us!  Even as Christians, it is possible that we view Jesus as the one who blesses us and ‘makes our life better’.  However attractive this may seem, it is not what Jesus offered!  He knows that if we are to ‘Join Him in His Mission’ we will have to step outside of our comfort zone and, like Him, seek and save the lost.  This will require sacrifice and suffering.

The choice we face every day of our lives as we live among people who Jesus came to seek and to save is ‘will I put Jesus Mission before my desire for comfort?’  To be able to say yes to this we need a supernatural intervention, or, as the word of God says, we need the Holy Spirit.

This week, I encourage you to reflect on the verses below from Paul’s letter to The Romans.  As Christians we are not left to ‘do the impossible in our own strength’ but to recognize who we are in Christ and allow Him to do a supernatural work in us!

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  Romans 8:15

‘Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory’.  Romans 8:17

Dennis