Monday December 30
The Greatest Fulfillment in Life
Luke 9:1-62
1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.
4 Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them." 6 So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
The New Year is just around the corner! It is an exciting time as we prepared to face the challenges of life and ministry the next couple of days. Again, I want to encourage you to make part of this preparation by planning on reading or listening through the entire Bible from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22. To help and assist you I have posted on my website (https://www.pmiministries.org/), two monthly calendar plans. Plan A will take only 15 plus minutes of time each day, and Plan B will take only 10 plus minutes.
Today, we also begin a new chapter in Luke! What is interesting is that in this chapter we see the Lord preparing His disciples to carry out the task of taking the Gospel to all the nations after He has ascended into heaven. We also need preparation to continue to be a part of completing this task before our Lord comes again! We will notice several things in Luke 9 that should help us understand what is involved in our preparation to be on mission with Jesus to reach a lost world with His Good News of salvation!
First, I want to remind you that the greatest joy and fulfillment in your life will not come from making a lot of money and having a nice house or car to drive to impress people you don’t even know. It does not come from our earthly relationship, as important as they are, being married to a wonderful spouse, having children, and grandchildren one day. Or having a lot of friends and success (Read Solomon’s testimony in Ecclesiastes).
No, the greatest fulfillment in life will come when you have surrendered your life to do the will of God. Later in Luke 9:23-26 we read: “Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.”
The greatest fulfillment in life takes place when you live to glorify the Father! Jesus tells us in John 15:7-8: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
You might want to read that again and think about it! Bearing fruit that comes from God’s Word abiding in you, and you abiding in Christ, is what pleases God and most glorifies Him! This fruit will be evidenced by a Spirit filled life that radiates His love, His peace, His joy, His patience, His kindness, His goodness, His faithfulness, His gentleness, and His self-control (Galatians 5:22). And then we will experience the great joy of seeing others come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior as we share the message of His grace, mercy and love with the world around us!
In Luke 9:1-6, Jesus sends out the Twelve. In Jesus first year of ministry in the region of Galilee, He had called the Twelve to be with Him. He took them on two tours of ministry during these first two years. Now He was going to send them out in pairs (Matthew 10; Mark 6:7) to have their own ministry and to put into practice what they had learned. This was their "solo flight."
But before He sent them out, He gave them the equipment needed to get the job done, as well as the instructions to follow. Jesus “gave them power and authority…”. Power is the ability to accomplish a task, and authority is the right to do it, and Jesus gave both to His Apostles. They were able to cast out demons and heal the sick, but the most important ministry He gave them was that of preaching the Gospel. The word preach in Luke 9:6 describes a herald proclaiming a message from the king, and in Luke 9:6 it means "to preach the Good News." They were heralds of the Good News!
Today, we are to be His disciples, called to complete this great task telling the world about Jesus. Are you willing to surrender, obey, and do your part?
God bless!
Comments