LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
MATTHEW 28: 18-20 HBREWS 10:22-25
Key Verse
“Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful”.
Hebrews 10: 23
INTRODUCTION
This was a difficult time in the life of the disciples. They had looked forward to the coming of the Messiah that would redeem the nation of Israel and place it in a position of power. But instead of appreciating the work of Jesus in His ministry of healing and raising the dead and teaching what the Scriptures really meant the leaders of the nation rejected Him, conspired against Him, and finally arrested Him, beat Him, and crucified Him on the cross of Calvary.
The disciples were very disappointed for their image of Jesus as Messiah was very different from what God had planned and previously disclosed in the prophecies of Isaiah in chapters 52 and 53. Jesus died but as God the Father promised He was resurrected and He appeared about 10 times to the disciples. They therefore knew He was a victor over death and His resurrection body had amazing powers. Jesus had told them to meet Him on a mountain in northern Galilee and though they were fearful of the leadership of the nation that were looking for them to kill them as they had killed Jesus, they obeyed Jesus and went to meet Him.
Jesus met them and told them that all power and authority had been given to Him in heaven and in earth and on that basis He sent them out with a mandate which is called the Great Commission. They were soldiers of the Lord and they should go and make disciples of all nations, and in the disciple- making activities they would teach these people from all nations about the Lord Jesus Christ, they would be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they would be committed to following the Lord Jesus Christ and all the other brethren in the family of God.
Then the disciples and those who had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour would be in fellowship with these new disciples, they would worship together, care for each other, meet together, when they could pray together, approach the throne of God the Father with boldness asking Him to provide for their needs, and thanking Him for His mercies and blessings, and for bringing them into the family of God.
The disciples had been afraid of the people, of Israel and their leaders but Jesus told them that they had no need to fear. He had authority, all authority in heaven and in earth. Jesus gave them this divine authorization so they need not fear but could go and witness about the truths of the gospel to all nations and all peoples no matter who they were.
The followers of the Lord Jesus Christ operate as soldiers of the Lord under the Great Commission. Our task is to bring the truths of God to everyone we meet. Our task is to make disciples of all men so that they will be in fellowship with us and with worship and praise God with us. This would be a brand new relationship for there are people who have experienced the new birth, led by the Holy Spirit, filled with the hope of being changed totally and being with God the Father.
So let us take this task seriously. Let us not think that going to church and worshipping consists only of singing songs and being entertained. It involves that too and so we sing songs of praise to God but we also learn the word of God, learn to teach the Word of God learn to strengthen those that are disciples of the Lord. Our attitude to fellowship and worship therefore must be different, for our intention is to strengthen the brethren and make God happy with their spiritual progress.
We can do this because we have the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ behind us. We also have His promise that He will be with us at all times as we carry out the work He has assigned for us to do.
So let us change our priorities and spread the Good News of salvation to others. As we do that let us be kind and sensitive to the needs of people, listening to them, helping them to tackle the very difficult problems of life that they face.
Let us make them understand that God the Father is seeing everything that has happened to them and though He might not respond immediately to solve their problems He will eventually do so and they will be glad He waited for the appropriate time to help them. We have to get a across to people about the love of God for all men and the love that we have for all people no matter where in the world they are.
