SERMON: The Gospel Cycle: We Can Do This!
Every Christian needs to keep afresh in their minds Jesus’ words recorded at Matthew 24: 35-51. We must all remain in a steady state of expecting and looking for the return of Jesus Christ to rapture His church at any time. As such, we must all actively serve as laborers in the Lord’s harvest by preaching the gospel to the lost and winning souls to Christ. We must all ask ourselves when the Lord returns, what will He find us doing? As reapers we have no time for sitting around in church pews with our hands clasped together, or holding church programs and funeral fans, nor sitting around pointing our fingers at one another with the spirit of accusation or offense.
So many people around the world, and in the United States where we live are lost. Literally millions of people in our country have not yet heard and/or believed on the name of Jesus Christ, and received Him as Lord. Moreover, the majority of people in this country who say they are Christians, infrequently or almost never even attend church services. They deceive themselves greatly thinking that because God is love and is omnipresent that they can worship God in their own way—bypassing weekly worship and fellowship with the saints in the local church. Their lack of attendance and service in church is a rejection of the Lord. For the church is the body of the Lord and Jesus is the head of the church. (Colossians 1: 18) Moreover, likely unbeknownst to the millions of people who claim Christianity as their religion, but refuse to attend church services regularly, they are breakers of the New Covenant that we have with God. (Hebrews 10: 25)
Given that our Lord, could return at any time, the faithful in Christ, must rise up from church pews and chairs and go out into the highways and streets and preach the gospel to sinners and admonish and encourage drifting Christians to return to church. This week, I heard the Lord say “tell my disciples—my reapers—that they can do it! For I have poured into them the gift of God—the unfeigned faith my son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost! Stir-up the gift with remembrances of the finished works of Jesus, and go forth and preach the gospel, miracles will follow along afterwards!” God also said “my people should have full assurance that Jesus Christ is in them, and God said prove it to yourselves by going out and preaching the gospel.” (II Corinthians 13:5) The Christian just needs to tell the sinner man or drifter about Jesus, invite them to receive Jesus as Lord, and then ask about any troublesome situations they have in their lives, and then offer up prayer in the name of Jesus. God told me that “He will release the power of salvation on everyone who believes on Jesus.” God says just do it and you will see the lives of many people and transformed and your growth in Christ will be exponential.
Sadly, most Christians when they read the Bible and the accounts of the miracles that Jesus and the Apostles performed, they view it from only an historical perspective. Many Christians no longer believe in miracles, signs and wonders, casting out of devils, and raising the dead. In many churches, the preaching of the gospel and miracle working is thought of as being confined to Jesus, the Apostles, and early church. But Jesus and His word never changes. (Matthew 24: 35, Hebrews 13: 8) Jesus said anyone who believes in me shall be able to do the same miracles He did and greater works because of His ascension to the Father. (John 14:12) In this regard, we must understand that God is not a respecter of persons, rather a respecter of faith. (Hebrews 11:6) Any person who has faith in the finished works of Jesus Christ on His cross, can perform miracles, after the gospel is preached and believed upon! The Bible provides us with countless examples of believers in Jesus being used to preach the gospel and perform miracles, both before and after Jesus died on the cross.
*Luke 10: 1-9, 17-21 (70 disciples sent forth by Christ into cities, returned saying devils were subject to them through the name of Jesus.)
*Acts 6: 1-5,8 (Steven one of seven men chosen for the business of caring for Christian Grecian widows, did great wonders and miracles before the people.)
*Act 8:5-8 (Phillip the evangelist, also chosen to handle the affairs of the widows, preached Christ and performed miracles, as unclean spirits were casted out of many people.)
*Acts 9:10-18 (Aninias, a disciple in Damascus, laid hands on Saul (Apostle Paul), and he was healed of blindness and filled with the Holy Ghost.
*Acts 14:19-20 (After the Apostle Paul was stoned to death and dragged out of the city of Lyconia by the Jews and other unbelievers, disciples of Jesus stood around Paul and prayed and Paul was raised from the dead!)
Jesus Christ did not keep it a secret regarding how He performed miracles, He shared the secret even with people who were following Him for the wrong reasons. He told them that in order to do the works of God, they had to believe on Him. (John 6:28-29) As believers, that is all we have to do is preach the gospel and make our demands known for healing in Jesus name and then depend on Jesus to do the work. We Can Do This Saints—now go out and preach the gospel!