Sunday happened! Now what?
We’re going through the Great Commission. Today we look at, “teach my commandments.”
What are these commandments exactly? How do we teach them?
When the disciples and others are in the upper room, as we see in Acts 1, waiting for the promise of the Father (the Holy Spirit), after being told they will GO and be eye witnesses, I imagine they think back to the last supper. It was then that Jesus also told them…
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:15
Find peace in the above scripture before you read the commandments!
Also, before you download the PDF, remember what I told my friend Alejandro. Instead of getting overwhelmed, these 5 things will help you get EXCITED.
The main point: Love for Jesus will result in a disciple’s obedience to his commands.
“KEEP”-Greek-5083 tēréō (from tēros, “a guard”) – properly, maintain (preserve); (figuratively) spiritually guard (watch), keep intact.
#1. We are sinners, and alone we can’t.
This understanding humbles us. What do we recognize? With man it’s impossible, but with God all things are possible. It’s not I who can do this, but Christ in me. We are insufficient, but he is sufficient. We thank you Lord that we have awareness of this, and now instruction how to walk out of this.
#2. It’s not about pressure. It’s motivation.
Love for Jesus will motivate us as believers to obey him. It was by his obedience that Jesus showed his love to God, and it is by our obedience that we must show our love to Jesus. We do NOT conform to the patterns of this world because we do not love the world. For if we do the love of the father is not in us. Because we love God, we conform to all that He has revealed.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. 1 Thess 2:13
#3. Before we set out with our to do list, we must first ABIDE in him. (John 15)
Yes, we must know what to do, but we as Christian’s LEAD with…we must know Him.
He is the word we must keep. He is our Shepherd and we hear His voice.
Apart from him we can do nothing because he is the Vine and we are the branches.
We abide, stay constantly connected, pursue relentlessly with the utmost importance, crave first and foremost, our Savior because he is also our Lord whom we serve.
Our love for him results in joyful surrender and submission, and the outflowing of the indwelling = obedience to his commands. In other words, when we love, keep, pursue, abide in Him, the commandments happen.
“He equips you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.” Hebrews 13:21
Matthew Henry’s commentary
“Love will be a commanding, constraining principle; and where love is, duty follows from a principle of gratitude. God will not only love obedient believers, but he will take pleasure in loving them, will rest in love to them. He will be with them as his home. These privileges are confined to those whose faith worketh by love, and whose love to Jesus leads them to keep his commandments. Such are partakers of the Holy Spirit’s new-creating grace.”
#4. Don’t forget, we have a helper.
It’s not us but He who is in us. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38
Look what Jesus assured us in John 14-17, “I will not leave you as orphans.” I live in you. I send an advocate, helper, counselor, Paraclete.
#5. We press on.
It’s not about perfection. It’s like what Paul says…
“But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12
Take all thoughts captive…1 Cor 10:5
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind…(Romans 12:2)
Make your entire life a Holy and living sacrifice…(Romans 12:1)
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11
Lest we never forget…
The way to become a greater lover of Jesus is by learning to appreciate the greatness of his love for us; what he did on the cross and resurrection and sending his HS. 1 John 4:19, “we love him because he first loved us.”
We know so we can GO!
And then we help others know so they can GO too!
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