Jesus sends out the disciples to preach

I was studying Matthew 10 today and as I was going through the passage in context, I discovered something that I had never seen before and I wanted to share that with you in this article. By the time we get to Matthew 10, Jesus’ disciples had been following Him for a while. They heard the message of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. This calling was in the context of discipleship. Jesus taught them about repentance, and called them to follow Him as His disciple. The 12 answered the call. This calling was for any and everyone, but, the 12 were the ones who had answered the call. As they were walking with Jesus, He began to teach the crowds and at the same time, He was modeling ministry to His disciples. In chapter 10 of Matthew, Jesus is about to give the disciples a practical assignment. This is one of the things that makes Jesus’ teaching special. He not only taught theory (concepts), He also gave practical assignments so that the people could apply what they were learning. Jesus’ teaching was practical. This is extremely important. If teaching is not practical, people are not able to use it in their daily lives. Take a moment to read Matthew 10.

What are the deeds worthy of repentance?

This is an article written by my good friend and brother in Christ, Alexei Tentiuc. It was originally written in Romanian and I have translated it into English so that you may be just as blessed by it as I was.

The deeds of repentance do not come about from your own will power. The deeds of repentance come as a result of a changed mind. “Metanoia”, the Koine Greek word that is translated “repentance” in English simply means “a change of mind”. A person who has experienced genuine repentance has had a radical change in his way of thinking take place. The way that he views things also change as a result of the change in his way of thinking. As a result of a change in thinking and faith in Jesus Christ, a person who has repented will also see a change in his actions. This is what the Bible teaches on the subject of repentance, faith, and the deeds worthy of repentance. Let’s take a look for ourselves in the Word of God to discover these important truths.

How insistent should I be when calling people to repentance?

This is an article written by my good friend and brother in Christ, Alexei Tentiuc. It was originally written in Romanian and I have translated it into English so that you may be just as blessed by it as I was.

Question:

How insistent should I be in calling people to repent in order to accept Christ as Lord and Savior?

Concerning the Day of the Lord

I am preparing to teach the next lesson in our study of II Thessalonians. Previously, we have looked at the importance of communication from the Apostle Paul’s example in his second letter to the Thessalonian church. After that, we looked at how genuine faith endures persecution because of preaching the Gospel. This lesson deals with the coming of the Day of the Lord. This was part of the reason Paul had to write to the Thessalonians. Paul planted the church in Thessalonica when he was there with Timothy and Silas. He spent time teaching the new believers the Scriptures so that they could know God’s plan for the ages. Part of that teaching dealt with the coming of the Day of the Lord. After Paul left, he wrote his first letter to them to teach more concerning God’s plan for the ages. You can read about that in I Thessalonians. In between the first letter and the second one that he wrote to them, false teachers began to mislead people concerning God’s plan for the ages. There was a series of teachings and letters that taught that the Day of the Lord had already come and the Thessalonians had missed it. It shook the faith of some and they lost hope. They did not see a point in continuing to live out and spread the Gospel. Before Paul’s first letter, the Thessalonians were great about proclaiming the Gospel. They had filled Asia Minor with the Gospel and Paul praises them for it in his first letter. That had stopped because of the false teaching and shaken faith caused by the false teachings. This is where we pick up chapter 2 of II Thessalonians. Paul gives evidence that the Day of the Lord has not taken place yet because of some events that MUST take place first.

The Gospel spreads to the Gentiles

Another week means another Sunday is coming and I get another opportunity to invest the message of the Gospel in the lives of my 2nd grade Sunday School class. I love these kiddos and it is neat to see how God is working in their lives through His Word and how He is using them to get the message of the Gospel out to their generation.

So far, we have learned the following lessons since the beginning of the new year.

• Peter and John testify about Jesus
• Why is a prophet without honor? 
• Persecution: The fuel that furthers the Gospel
• Paul’s Conversion
• Paul’s Mission to the Gentiles
• Paul in Thessalonica and Berea

This coming week, we are going to see how the Gentiles receive the Gospel in Acts 10. 

What is sin?

If you were to ask 10 different people to define sin, you would probably get 20 different answers. Sin is a vague term but, if we take a look at the Scriptures, we will notice that God defines sin very specifically. I would like to examine some passages that deal with a definition of what sin is and how we see it play out in our daily lives. If and when we understand these verses, we will discover that we are actually worse than we ever imagined.

Genuine faith endures persecution

I am preparing to teach my class on II Thessalonians this coming week. I love teaching this short letter because there is so much truth packed into a small amount of space. During our first lesson, we covered the overview and learned that the Apostle Paul was a master communicator. From reading and studying Acts 17, we learn that the Thessalonian church was planted in the midst of heavy persecution. The Thessalonians were very familiar with persecution. The Apostle Paul was there working as a team with Silas and Timothy. They had a plan to enter the synagogue on the Sabbath and reason with the Jews living in Thessalonica from the Scriptures. Paul took the inductive Bible study approach which involves questions and answers from the Biblical text. The team was there for 3 weeks. While studying, several of the Jews came to Christ along with some God fearing Greeks and leading women. After these people accepted Christ, the rest of the Jews who rejected Christ became jealous of Paul and the team. They stirred the people up and after forming a mob, tried to attack Paul and the team. Paul escaped to Berea and continued teaching in the synagogue in Berea. While Paul was busy planting more churches by making disciples, the new beleivers in Thessalonica continued to grow in their faith amidst persecution. The Word of the Lord went out from them to all of Asia Minor. Paul continued to communicate with the Thessalonians. II Thessalonians is the second letter that we know of that Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians. Paul had to write this letter because the attacks shifted from the outside to the inside. False teaching had crept in to the church and people’s faith was in danger.

Claiming to be a Christian without being a disciple is like tasteless salt

I want to address the teaching that is popular today among many evangelical teachers, a teaching that I believe is incorrect, that is, a teaching that says a person can be a born again Christian without being a disciple. The idea, separate from the clear teachings of Scripture, is that salvation is a free gift, a statement with which I agree, and in God’s economy, He calls us to believe that Jesus Christ is God, and then, once we have believed, we are invited into the process of discipleship. I have previously written on the mark of a genuine disciple and in this article, I lay out the reasons why I believe that a person cannot be a Christian without being a disciple.

In this article, I would like to examine Luke 14 to demonstrate that Jesus teaches that a person cannot be a believer without being a disciple. Take a moment to read Luke 14 and then let’s think through this teaching that Luke records. Jesus is the teacher and He gives a call to follow Him in this passage. He gives a call to discipleship. He gives a call to enter into the kingdom of God.

Peter and John testifying about Christ

At Hoffmantown kids, we have been walking through the New Testament in detail in 2017. We began with the book of Acts and we are going to go through each book until we finish the book of Revelation. Let’s take a look at the commands given to the disciples by Jesus before He ascended into heaven in order to set the stage for Peter and John’s testimony.

Persecution: The fuel that furthers the Gospel

We are in Acts 8 as we continue to walk through the New Testament this year in our Connect Groups at Southern Calvert Baptist Church. To get us caught up in what we have learned, we need to take a look at the commands given to the disciples by Jesus before He ascended into heaven.

• you will receive power
• the power will be the Holy Spirit
• the Holy Spirit will allow you to be a witness for Christ to all
• you are to live a life of missions, seeking to make disciples of all nations and ethnic groups
• evangelize and equip/train those who believe
• teach/preach/proclaim/share the Word of God with all who will listen
• you are to make disciples starting in Jerusalem and moving out to the ends of the earth