ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 272 - Matthew 1-6 (Jesus' First Message of His Ministry)
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"From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:17-19)
A person's first words bears a lot of weight. For example, the first words of the inaugural address of a new president would reveal a lot about his agenda and leadership. If I had only one minute to address a very important person such as the monarch or the Pope, the first words that would come out of my mouth would largely determine the outcome of our meeting.
As I read the Sripture passage for today, I became curious and did a quick research on whether or not the message of Jesus in our text above was indeed His very first in His officlal ministry as the Messiah. I was rewarded to find out that I was right about my thought regarding the first message of our Lord's ministry.
So, what is the first message of the Lord as the Messiah? The very first public appearance of Christ as an adult was at His baptism by His cousin John the Baptist. The Bible records that immediately after His baptism, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days and nights. Our text above begins by saying, "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
The first message of Jesus to the world, therefore, is "Repent." We have already established that the first message bears the most weight in most cases especially when the situation matters deeply. The wisest thing any person could ever do would be to take heed of Jesus message of repentance in order for him or her to inherent the kingdom of God.
To repent simply means to make an about face on sin; it means to acknowlege that you are a sinner as God says and to ask God for His forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ. The result of repentance is salvation for God promised, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out... (Acts 3:19)" Conversely, not repenting of your sins would mean that your sins remain to condemn you to everlasting punishment in hell.
As an added blessing of revelation from the Bible, I discovered the second message of Jesus in His official ministy. Actually, it is more of the same message but with two-fold nature much like a coin with two sides. If the one side of Jesus' message is repentance, the flip side is discipleship: "Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:19)."
Jesus not only called all people to repentance but also to follow Him. To follow Jesus is what discipleship is all about. A disciple is someone who follows Jesus in everything. Are you a disciple of Jesus? It is not enough for us to repent of our sins; we must also obey Jesus in all of His teachings and commandments if we are to be His disciples.
Why is it important to be a disciple? For one, Jesus commanded all Christians to make disciples: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19)." You cannot fulfill Jesus' command for you to make disciples unless you are one yourself - makes sense?
Another reason why it is very important for us to become disciples or followers of Jesus is His grave warning regarding the fate of those who are not His followers or those who are not His disciples. Consider very carefully the words of our Lord:
"Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' " (Matthew 7:21-23)
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