Dave spoke tonight from Matt 4:19 which says ‘Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Throughout 2015, God has been working in the lives of people in the church, but as we enter 2016, there is a renewed sense that God wants us to see people saved; this is the day of salvation! (2 Cor 6:2) How does God work through us, however, in bringing people to Himself?
Jesus models for us how to make disciples. Initially, there is a call to follow Jesus: we need first of all to be in right relationship with God. Then, His disciples watched Him at work, before Jesus then sent them out in pairs to do the work themselves. We have to step out in faith to do the things God calls us to do – which inevitably means leaving our comfort zone behind, for Jesus worked through healings and miracles, even though His primary mission was to seek and to save the lost.
Our first ‘mission field’ is our friends and relatives, but the fact remains that after the resurrection, Jesus issued the Great Commission to His disciples (Matt 28:18-20), a command to make disciples of all nations. Evangelism is not an optional extra, but the primary purpose of the church, and we need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to fulfil this purpose.
Success depends on our following God’s direction and instruction; we need to make this our core mission. Nothing else will do; we are not saved simply to receive God’s blessing but (as Bryn Haworth puts it) to pass it on!