Preach It!

Preach It!

Mark 16:15 AMPC

[15] And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the good news (the Gospel) to every creature [of the whole human race].

The One who was sent as a solution to the problem of sin had paid the full price of our salvation. His blood had been offered as the perfect offering for the full pardon that God wanted to offer all of man. It did not matter what the weight of the past sin was, what the present load of sin was, or what the pressure of future sin would be; the blood of Jesus covered them all. There was nothing in my past, present or future that the blood could not deal with, and now, I have been given a new lease of life. Even though my past fully deserved punishment, the sacrifice for sin has made a new way for me. Now I have access to unprecedented grace and mercy. The above lays the foundation for the verse above. When you consider all that Jesus has done and given, would you not want to know the best way to fully appreciate His sacrifice?  What does He want from us? 

Before we make assumptions, we also consider who the verse above was addressed to. This was after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Many had seen Him; He had even performed miracles, and many had testified to seeing Him. However, as He prepared to return to God in heaven, there was a mission and assignment He had to leave for those who had come to believe in Him. It has to be noted that the term 'disciple' had changed for many of them, between the time Jesus went to the cross and by the time this verse was pronounced. Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus and had killed himself. Peter had also denied Jesus but had been restored to faith. Thomas had doubted the truth of resurrection but all His fears had been put to rest by Jesus Himself. All of them had come to the reality of His Sonship, Power and Authority, and they could press on with the message about Jesus to the world. That is the message in the verse above: it is for people who have had a personal encounter with the One who went to the cross. 

Have you met this Jesus? It is not about hearing about Him, or being in church while He is spoken about. This is a personal relationship with Jesus that you just cannot keep to yourself. It is a specific message about a specific Saviour; it is a specific assignment given to specific people, and there is a specific audience mandated to receive this specific message. Jesus does not leave us in doubt as to who should hear the good news about Him. As we the bearers of the message now once needed to hear the good news of Jesus, so does the world need to hear about Him today. This good news is just about the love that we now have. I am not asked to speak about what I do not know; it is about who I have living inside me. This is why it was only the disciples that this verse was addressed to at the time, and to whom it is also addressed today. The world is waiting for disciples who will take what they have and impact the world with it. Do you have Him? Do you know Him? The world is waiting for the proof of that knowledge and relationship. God's time of favour is here.