The Ministry of Missions | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from acts Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. I've been praying about what to share, especially

when it comes to the topic of missions, and somehow the Lord has led

me to two names. One is John the Baptists, and the other one,

of course, is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Somehow,

I guess you can run too far away when you mention the word missions,

what it really means and who are the people involved in missions in the Bible.

And so this has led me to the Book of Mark. Okay,

the Book of Mark, which is where I'm going to be preaching from and

sharing and teaching from also this morning. It's not well. We always tell

new believers, if you are new in the faith, read the Book of

Mark. It's a really exciting book to read. Is very fast paced,

it's very lively is it is the shortest and probably the earliest gospel written.

So well, Luke and matthe you actually use Mark as the reference because Mark

was written earlier. If you look and study through some of your biblical history

and you will realize that one of the words often used in Mark is this

word immediately, especially in the first few chapters. It occurs a few times

to immediately, immediately, immediately, Jesus went here. Immediately, he went

that, you know, as you're reading the Gospel, you'll get basically,

you'll get a sense of urgency. And I think that's really apt when it

comes to missions. You know, when I was walking through the office,

they are just a few days ago. As I was preparing this message.

Of course, Lowland Behold. Lying on our tables were the ANCF prayer booklet,

which the team for this year for NCS forty day prayer and fasting for

the nation is actually urgency. If you pick up the book later, you'll

see it in Bahasa it's called the second or you are really no, that's

that's really a hurry in your spirit, and so I think it's really apt.

Let's read you already to read the scripture. I'm going to read the

whole of Mark chapter one. Okay, Mark chapter one, it's going to

be on the screen. I'm going to read it really fast, and I'm

going to draw out truths from Mark chapter one. Is there gonna be Okay,

let's do this. Okay, Mark chapter one, I'm reading from the

n LT and he says, this is the good news about Jesus the Messiah,

the Son of God. And don't you love Mark. It just starts

straight. You know, if you read Lio, you read Matthew, they

go into the genealogy. Jesus is the son of this son of this son,

and this, and some people fall asleep. Really, Mark is so

fast paced, its just boom, And this is the good news about Jesus

the Messiah, the Son of God. It begins just as the prophet Isaiah

had written, looked, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and

he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness.

Prepare the way for the Lord's coming. Clear the road for him. This

messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people

should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to

God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem,

went out to see and hear John, And when they confess their sins,

he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from cause

camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For the

food. He ate locusts, and while honey. Verse seven. John announced

someone is coming soon who is greater than I am, so much greater that

I'm not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of

his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with

the Holy Spirit verset nine. One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee,

and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of

the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on

him like a derf, and a voice from heaven said, you are my

dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy. The Spirit then compelled

Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan. For

forty days. He was out among the wild, animals and angels took care

of him. Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee,

where he preached God's good news. The time promised by God has come

at last, he announced, the Kingdom of God is near. Repent of

your sins and believe the good news verse sixteen. One day, as Jesus

was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and

his brother Andrew throwing a gnat into the water, for they fish for a

living. Jesus called out to them, come follow me, and I will

show you how to fish for people. And they left their nets at once

and followed him. A little further up the shore, Jesus saw Zebede's sons

James and John in a board repairing their nets. He called them at once,

and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebede in the boat

with the hired men Verse twenty one. Jesus and his companions went to the

town of Capanome. When the seventh day came, he went into the synagogue

and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he

taught with real authority, quite unlike the teachers of religious law. Suddenly,

a man in the synagogue, who was possessed by an evil spirit, cried

out, why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you

come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of

God. But Jesus reprimanded him, be quiet, come out of the man.

He ordered, and then the evil spirit screamed, threw the men into

a convulsion, and then came out of him verse twenty seven. Amazement gripped

the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. What sort of

new teaching is this, they asked excitedly. It has such authority even evil

spirits obey his. The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of

Galilee verse twenty nine. After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John,

they went to Simon and Ruth's home. Now, Simon's mother in law was

sick in bait with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away,

so he went to her baitside, took her by the hand, and

helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a

meal for them. That evening, after sunset, many sick and demon possessed

people were brought to Jesus. The whole town gathered at the door to watch.

So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he

cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he

did not allow them to speak verse thirty five before they break. The next

morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.

Later, Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found

him, they said, everyone is looking for you, But Jesus replied,

we must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to

them too. That is why I came. So he traveled and throughout the

region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and custing out demons. Verse forty.

A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to

be healed. If you are willing, you can heal me and make me

clean, he said, moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him.

I am willing, he said, be healed. Instantly, the leprosy

disappeared and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with

a stern warning, don't tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the

priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law

of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a

public testimony that you have been cleansed, but the man went and spread the

word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowd

soon surrendered, surrounded Jesus, and he couldn't publicly enter a town anywhere.

He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept

coming to him. The Lord blessed the reading of his word. I read

it fast. I read it quick, because I believe that's how Mark should

be read. And I'm going to go through the points. I'm going to

draw out as much points as we can just from the first chapter about for

the six verses there. Okay, so when you read something new, of

course, naturally, the first question you ask is what is it about?

Right? But when we read the Gospel, the question that actually begs to

be asked is not really what is it about? It's always who is it

about? And you know that the gospel is about a man called Jesus,

a historical human being. But if that was all you could say about him,

it would not really be a gospel. The gospel just means good news.

So many people actually believe that Jesus was a great man, a great

healer, a great teacher, a great leader. But they believe no more

than that Jesus was no ordinary human being, because here was God's own son

on earth. So this is not just any ordinary man. This is God's

own son, the Son of God. And he fought on our behalf and

he got the victory. And so this is the beginning of the gospel of

Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And this is an account of how

our religion actually begin, of how Christianity started. And from the very beginning,

one could write out in large bold letters, Christianity is Christ. You

can't run away from that. We are not preaching opinions, we are not

teaching new philosophies. We are not introducing a new system or even a way

of life. We have a person to preach about, and his name is

Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So history is basically his story,

everything that we talk about when it comes to missions, because what his missions

about is talking about Jesus ultimately, So the best way to learn about missions

is true the story of Jesus from the good News. After all, Jesus

was the one that commissioned all of us for the ministry. And so I've

entitled my message simply the ministry of missions. Okay, everyone, stay with

me, Stay with me. I'm going really quick. Let's see where we

can go with this. But let us start with the first character for us,

and the first character is John the Baptist. Okay, I'm just going

to be drawing out the truths from the first chapter that we rate. We

read shortly, John the Baptist. No, we can actually learn a thing

or two from John the Baptist because when you look at John the man,

first of all, he's quite an interesting person. And there's something quite different

about John because there were two things that he represented. John the Baptist represented

a fulfillment of prophecy, and he also represented a revival of prophecy. I

will explain why. I say that many centuries earlier, God actually made certain

predictions, especially in the Book of Isaiah, and he said that he will

first send someone to prepare the way for the Messiah. And Isaiah actually thought

about this six hundred years before Jesus came. And John the Baptist was that

messenger that Isaiah was talking about. He was the one of those great men

who his job basically is to play second fiddle. He wasn't the main character.

He was the second guy. So he was a humbleman and he was

the fulfillment of prophecy when he arrived. That was amazing. Right when John

the Baptist arrived, everyone knew a hang on the second This was someone that

Isaiah spoke about. But more than just a fulfillment of prophecy, John was

also a revival of prophecy. And why do I say that, Well,

if you realize, if you read your Bible, there's an intersection between the

All and a New Testament, about four hundred years in between. And so

for that period of time the people of Israel were actually wait thing for God

to say something. It was because there was no thus says the Lord.

During that period of time, the Lord was silent. And during that period

is when actually the people of Israel were just waiting and waiting and waiting.

And after this was after all the prophets know, from Moses to Malachai,

for so long a period of time, it was then silence until we read

Matthew. Then we read of John the Baptists again. And when John the

Baptists appeared, prophecy was revived. Amen, and once again there was a

man who could say, this is what God is saying to you. Now,

that was how John the Baptist spoke. He spoke with the authority of

being one of God's prophets, and everyone rushed out to listen to what he

had to say. And probably one of the first things that they noticed was

it this guy was wearing probably the same clothes as what Elijah was wearing,

and they could be able to identify. But more importantly they realize that God

was speaking again. What then was John's mission? Well, he came preaching.

He came to preach. It has been said sometimes when people say preaching

is are ways of time In today's day and age, it is all just

talk in stay, let's just feed the hungry, let's just grove the naked,

let's just care for the migrants. And this is the missions in which

God is telling us to do today. But there is a place for all

those things that I have just mentioned, and they ought to be done.

But what about the first thing that we are told to do, and that

is always preaching? No, I can put it in another way. What

is the biggest need of men and women today? Have you ever thought about

that? What is the biggest need of men and women today? Is it

food? For our bodies, I'm not sure. I don't think so.

Is it freedom for their minds? I'm also not sure. I don't think

so. But I believe it's the forgiveness of sin. And I believe the

forgiveness of sin is still the greatest need or every man and women until today.

And I know of no other way to meet the forgiveness of sin apart

from preaching the Gospel. And that is why it's so important. The forgiveness

of sin is at the heart of Christian preaching. It is the greatest blessing

that you can offer to others, and it is a fundamental need of every

human You know, to live with a guilty conscience is the worst thing for

anyone to go through, and the forgiveness of sin is therefore the best and

the loveliest experience that anyone can go through a man. Don't you all believe

that as believers of Christ Jesus so two things were needed to express forgiveness of

sin. And you see that in John the Baptist ministry. That is repentance

and baptism. Okay again, I'm just drawing out truths. I'm just drawing

out truths. The message, this message actually goes straight through into the rest

of the New Testament. If you read the whole New Testament, you will

read about repentance. You read about baptism. If you are in need or

forgiveness of sin, this are the two things that you must say. I

repent and I want to be baptized. Now, what is repentance. Well,

it's not just feeling sorry, because sometimes feeling sorry can be remorse,

it can be regret. Both tantamount to some form of feeling sorry. But

repentance is more than an emotion. It is the mind saying it is wrong

and I do not want to do it again. But above all, it

is the will saying I turned away from it, and I turn to God.

That's why repentance. While sometimes it may be accompanied by feelings, it

will certainly involve thoughts, but you know, you know, true repentance is

when it can be seen, when it can be shown when you are sorry

enough to do something right, or when you're sorry enough to stop doing something

that is wrong. That is what true repentance is, and that is the

repentance that John the Baptist is teaching and talking about. Baptism is also an

act and the word actually just means to dip or to plunge, and so

basically, John the Baptist can also be called John the Dipper or John the

plunger because he's that was his role and that was his function. He was

actually communicating to people, do you want to be clean from hate to toe,

then this is how you do it. You wash yourselves, you express

your appeal to God for a clean conscience. And that was what John the

Baptist was teaching. It always did mean that. But you know, it's

quite significant that at that time, until John came, no Jew had ever

been baptized. You've got to put yourself in that current situation. No Jew

had ever been baptists. Only gentiles were baptists. This was because to the

Jew, it was the gentile who was unclean and who needed to wash himself.

It was the gentle who needed to get his past washed away. And

so the Jew was quite happy to baptize gentiles when they came to the synagogue.

But they will not baptize a fellow Jew, because why is there a

need to do that. As a Jew, we have been circumcised when we

were a baby, we have been through all the ceremonies we are belonged.

But the most startling thing about John the Baptist is that he is saying to

people who have been through all the religious ceremonies. He's talking to the Jews

themselves, know who outwardly belong to the people of God, that you need

to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sin is strong. And

this is what John was saying to the people, and he was. It

was very offensive, actually, especially to the Jews. It was absolutely offensive.

But that was his mission. That was John's mission. It was basic,

clear, a mission to those who are mature, those who are morally

responsible, but they were people who are guilty and in need of cleansing.

That's why I say the greatest need for everyone is still the forgiveness of sin.

Jazz from John the Baptist, we can learn so much about the ministry

of missions, but what is even more enreaching is not just what John the

Baptist mission was, but who is the central focus of his ministry of missions.

That is where we are going to get to. Okay, I'm only

at the first spot. Let's continue. Let's continue. I'm just going to

draw out I'm going to be drawing out truth after truth. John actually declared,

after me, will come one more powerful than I the tongues of those

whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. And here's quite

an enlightening insight. Right in the order of slaves, No, you think

about it. In the order of slaves, they actually had a grading system.

They are actually graded whereby is actually has got a fixed specific duty.

And the job of the second from the bottom is to actually untie the shoes

of people. That's the job of the second from the bottom, second last,

second last slave. Because after that the slave had untied the shoes,

basically is the bottom of the bottom. That means the lowers of the slave

is the one that washes the feet. Does that speak to you about the

humility of Jesus? Think about it. So, what John was essentially indicating

was that he was not even fit to be second from the bottom. But

when Jesus came, he came right to be at the bottom. And then

John said something else. No, this mighty one who was coming after John

was needed by man because he could give a baptism that John could not give.

That was what is stated in the scriptures. Because John said, I

baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

And this was a baptism. They will need as well, both water baptism

and the spirit baptism. There are two baptisms mentioned at the beginning of the

Gospel itself. One is a physical one, the other one is a spiritual

one. One is something that is outward and the other one is inward.

One deals with your past, the other one deals with your future. One

is connected with pardon and the other one is connected with power. There is

a difference between water baptism and spirit baptism. John is indicating that he can

only help to a certain point. You will need the one he says is

coming after him, and you will need the Holy Spirit. That is essentially

what John the Baptist was saying. And so John's work was to connect people

to God. He was baptizing them and getting hold of them. But now

the other thing that John needed was to get hold of this Christ. And

how was he going to do this. If John was going to connect Israel

with Israel's king, he needed to be in contact with both. But so

far he has only contacted Israel. And then low and behold one particular day,

John sees his cousin, and if you read the scripture, you realize

that Jesus is actually John's cousin, and Jesus came along the river bank walking,

and to John's amazement, Jesus asked to be baptized. The simple fact

is this Jesus was baptized. And if Jesus was and calls us to be

baptized, how can any one of us, as believers of Jesus Christ refuse

to be baptized again food for thought. There were, however, some unique

features of jesus baptism. I'm going to just pull out some truths. Okay.

The first thing about Jesus's baptism. Of course, Jesus saw heaven torn

open, which means that the clouds parted and then came a der Okay,

a white derf. Not the symbol of peace. Sometimes we think the who

is a symbol of peace, but it's actually the symbol of God's power because

the derth. Remember there was a derth that actually hovered over the chaos in

Jenesis chapter one, and basically, as it hovered over the chaos, a

broad order of the universe out of that chaos. This is the derth that

represents basically the Holy Spirit. So the derf is not a representation of peace

like sometimes it is in other parts of scripture. But here is actually talking

about the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is talking about power. And Jesus

did not preach a single sermon bad in mind, not a single sermon.

He did not perform any miracles prior to this very moment in which the derth

appeared and the anointing of the Holy Spirit came upon him. Why not because

being a real human being as well as the son of God, he could

not do without the Spirit's power, and Jesus needed an anointing of the Holy

Spirit wave power to do what he continued to do thereafter. Amen. Isn't

that amazing how the entire God hate works together? So that's the first thing

you can draw all of Jesus's baptism. The second thing is this, there

was a voice no, and he was obviously God speaking. Okay, I

don't know who else? Can it be? Like it can be a recording,

right, So it says you are my beloved son in whom I am

well pleased. Okay. Some of the translation says that here God actually quotes

the Old Testament twice. Yes, she quotes himself like God quotes the Old

Testament. Okay here yeah, because if you read the Old Testament, if

you read Psalms two, verse seven, and also Isaiah chapter forty two,

verse one, it will refer to the two things that is said right here,

but hundreds of years earlier, if you read Psalms two seven, it

actually says you are my son, go and refer to it. Okay,

but in the context of Psalms chapter two, please take note it was actually

in the context of a chro nations service. That means it's an appointment of

a king. That's what Salms two is talking about. You are my son.

But in Isaiah chapter forty two, you will see the words in whom

I am well pleased or in whom I am delighted refers not to a coronation

of a king, but it actually makes reference to a servant. Now this

is an interesting big bit, right because what's amazing is Psalms to seven concerns

the highest place that a man can have, a sovereign and then Isaiah forty

two concerns the lowers in whom I delight when Jesus was baptized. We see

that the Father wanted him to combine the highest and the lowers, the greatest

sovereign and the humblest servant into his ministry. It's amazing, and that is

what his baptism men to Jesus. It meant taking on the responsibility of being

king of kings and servant of servants. How do you combine the two?

I only know that when I look at the life of Jesus Christ, I

see the highest and the lowers perfectly combine. I see someone who can wash,

feed, and wear a crown with equal dignity. I see someone who

fits anywhere in the social skill. I see someone who is equally at home

with the highest and the lowers in the land, with the religious and the

political leaders, and with the women and the men on the street. His

name is Jesus Christ. And this is something that we need to establish.

John and Jesus were not rivals, okay, because some people actually try to

make them look like they were rivals. If you read the scripture, you

realize that. And they came to John the Baptist one day and pointed out,

now Jesus was getting getting a bigger congregation out and John's congregation wasn't small,

Okay, it used to be into the thousands actually, if you read

it, and the devil learns to set people off the people of God against

one another. But John's reply to such talk us along the lines of it

doesn't matter, because I came to get ready for him, And if I

get smaller and he gets bigger, that's as it should be. If I

become less and he becomes greater, that is right and proper. And what

a big man it is for John to actually say that, because he had

done all that he could have done to get people ready, and now it

was time for Jesus to stunt in the ministry of missions. We can never

be bigger than Jesus. Remember this, Make sure that that never happens.

As John the Baptist did that, if at all your mission, your ministry

in missions, causes you to be elevated and the Lord to be degenerated,

something is absolutely not right. Okay, okay, that was just about John

the Baptist. Are you okay? You're with me. I'm going to go

to to train, Okay, to train. As we read on just now

we read the whole of Mark chapter one, you will realize, and I'm

going to talk about Jesus. Now, you realize that there are three features

of Jesus' ministry of missions that we can clean from this versus. Okay,

I hope that the slides will help you'all to understand it a little bit better.

Okay, So the three features that you can clean from is this.

You will first realize that there is a remarkable pattern of jesus ministry. I

say from the start that we can learn from Jesus, we can learn from

John the Baptist what it is about, what missions is all about. So

there are some remarkable patterns of Jesus' ministry. What did he actually do?

And the answer is actually very simple. In his grace and power, he

met the three full needs of men. Basically, he met men's physical needs,

he met men's mental needs, and he met man's spiritual needs. So

the ministry of our Lord was to the whole man is to the whole being,

and he was for the whole world. We find this balance. No,

he preached to meet all three kinds of needs. And when you go

out for missions, remember these points. Remember why is it you are going

out for missions for? So let's take the first thing. Okay, the

first thing is this, it's preaching. Jesus believed in preaching. No matter

what people tell you. Now they don't preach, waste timon or preaching.

No, this was the fundamental priority of Jesus' ministry. He did not begin

with healing. He did not begin with teaching. He began with preaching.

And the church in the days when it spread so rapidly, especially in the

first three hundred years, always had this as priority. There was healing,

that was teaching, definitely, But they begin with preaching. They did not

begin by opening a school or opening a hospital. They begin with preaching,

and then other things followed. And this is the emphasis of our Lord's ministry

because this is the way in which God meets the deepest need of man.

And as we saw earlier, what is the deepest need of man the forgiveness

of sin. And that is what our spirit and that is what our soul

needs. It needs the forgiveness of sin. Why did Jesus begin with preaching

Because the world is in the grip of satan, and Jesus came to set

men free from that grip. The world is full until today, back then,

until today, is still full of vice, full of crime, full

of disease, full of death, full of pain, full of suffering.

But all these things were caused by one thing only, and that was the

grip of evil on this world. And that's why Jesus was going to tackle

that. He came preaching about this, and he came preaching the Gospel and

then me means the good news of freedom to those who have been bound by

an enemy. That is what he's trying to tell people. Jesus came to

preach that God is doing something for you. He has come to set you

free. You see, when you read the Old Testament, for centuries and

centuries, people are praying and longing for God to do something because everything around

them is so bad, and they prayed for him to come and set them

free from different things they were That's what they were constantly looking for. They

were constantly looking for immencipation to be set free. And Jesus came at the

right time to fulfill the things that people have longed for centuries. There is

an urgency in his message, and this is because the world is not the

kingdom of God. According to Jesus, it is the kingdom of Satan.

If you read the scriptures carefully, you realize that is what Jesus teach us.

And this is why our newspaper is constantly full with last, filled with

cruelty, filled with all the things blood, shared, suspicion, hatred,

pride, you name it. Because this world is not the Kingdom of God.

But wherever someone comes under the power of God and the evil things are

put out of his life by God's power, that person has entered the kingdom

and is living within the reign of God. That means God is reigning over

each and every one of our individual lives. Amen. So the good news

that Jesus preached was that the Kingdom of God is breaking into the world right

now it has come, it has entered. Now you can live under God's

power. Now you can have God's power conquering the enemies in your life.

Now that is the good news, the tremendous news, and that is what

the gospel is all about. So Jesus came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom

of God, which is a hand. How can we hope to be in

the Kingdom of God and ask God to deal with our enemies if we do

not want him to first deal with our sin. How can I ask God

to get this disease out of my body if I don't want to have victory

over that short tempered, short tempered nous within me. In other words,

you cannot have God help you with one enemy if you want to hang on

to another enemy. All the enemies of God and all the enemies of men

must be dealt with at the same time. How then do I get ready

for the power of God to break into my life and give me the victory?

The answer again is repent. That is what repentance mean, is calling

people to repent. Jesus was saying what John the Baptists said before. He's

preaching the same thing. In other words, when God comes, he comes

to put everything right, not just what we want to put right. So

the need is to pen which is to change our minds and to hate the

things we have done before that was wrong. That is what repentance is.

And Jesus was first preaching to our soul, our spirit, because that's what

we need. Exactly, Does that make sense? That's the first pattern.

The second pattern we see in Jesus's ministry of missions is he meets the need

of our mind and one of men's greatest needs is to get the truth,

to know the difference between true and false, right and wrong. And that's

why subsequently you see Jesus teaches. Man needs teaching. See that synagogue was

actually a place of teaching, and Jesus got that one day in the synagogue

not to teach. And we are told the congregation was so astonished because he

did not quote anybody else. No, he just told them what was right

and what was wrong in his own authority. And when Jesus thought, he

not only thought as having the authority of one who knew, not just someone

who had knowledge, who did not need to look up books and quote scripture.

He actually spoke and things happened. He had quite a remarkably unique authority,

and that is the authority of power as well as the authority of knowledge.

Jesus had both this authority, and the people knew this because in the

middle of the synagogue, surbace, actually you read the scriptures. Suddenly someone

challenged him. No, someone who was demon possessed, no, challenge him?

And God up and yell, no, what do you want with us,

Jesus of Nazareth, Have you come to destroyers? I know who you

are the Holy One of God. Wow. And Jesus said, be quiet,

come out of him. And the man fell down and came round and

was perfectly normal. And this was jesus authority. He said it, and

it was done. And they were so amazed. They had never had teaching

like this before. And so he came to preach. He came to teach.

And then the third pattern of Jesus's ministry of missions is that he came

heal our bodies. All of us face sickness, sooner or later. I

told you that's one of the inevitability of life. You will die. If

you haven't noticed that, let me tell you it will happen. You will

die physically. And we find that whatever sickness Jesus encountered, sometimes acute conditions,

sometimes fevers, sometimes chronic diseases, no, some incurable diseases, Jesus

was able to deal with it. Usually he did something physical, He might

touch the sufferer. There was no situation that was beyond his control. And

just imagine what would happen if a man arrives in your town, in your

city, and he can kill every known disease. Those who think health is

everything would do all in their power to get near this person, right,

and that's why people actually flocked to Jesus. But that was ultimately the pattern

of his ministry. It was wonderfully balanced because he met the needs of mankind

physical, mental, and spiritual. It came within his reach. And therefore

our ministry of missions following his must be balanced and must seek to meet all

the needs of men as well in His mighty name. That's why when we

go out for missions, what do you think we do? Have you ever

wanted just buy a plane ticket goal and he ha ha, No, we

actually go, and of course we have to preach. That's what most of

our missionaries, whether how young, how old they are, wherever they are,

they have to preach, and then they have to teach. No,

they are teaching one another. As we fellowship with different ones, or where

we organize classes, we teach. And all those rallies that we go for,

we have to lay hands and believe that God can heal. We continue

this pattern of Jesus ministry. Amen, Okay, I'm getting there. I'm

getting there. Stay with me, Stay with me. Okay. The second

of the three features of Jesus ministry. Okay, remember I said the first

one was the pattern. There was a pattern in which we can glean from

and learn something from. The second of the three features is this Jesus had

partners in his ministry. He was a unique individual, yes, but he

was definitely not an individualist. And we shall think of it in two sides

of it. He had human partners. He had divine partners as well,

So let's consider his human partners first. To further his ministry, Jesus called

other people to share it hallelujah. This would mean expanding it in space while

he was still on Earth, and then extending it also in time after he

had left Earth. Does that make sense, because when he was on Earth

he had physical limitations. In order to expand the space and reach, he

had to have human partners then, and then when he left, human partners

continue to work with the Holy Spirit in the extension of time. It is

because this took place that today we are where we are Amen. So he

called men to be his disciples and apostles. I do not know whether you

realize the excitement of this, but when you read the story of how he

was just walking along the shores of Galilee and then he called some fisherman's come

come follow me. It was actually the beginning of the church, every group

of believers calling themselves the church begin that morning when Jesus walked by the sea

or the river, and he called the four fishermen, and he said,

come follow me. It was such a simple beginning, but such an amazing

outcome where we are today and he is remarkable that the church should have started

in that way, right, just four fishermen and Jesus walking along the seashore.

Now we must take knowne of who they were and what Jesus said to

them. Let's take none of some things. They were young, and most

of them were not experienced. They were not mature. They were probably in

their late teens their early twenties. They had not much education such as some

of us actually have lots and lots of degrees today. They were ordinary people

who worked with their hands. And from the world's point of view, they

were actually no bodies. So technically God chose no bodies and said follow me.

And in reality everything that they would be was because of him. They

would therefore give glory to God and not to themselves. They were nothing,

and Jesus chose them for what they were not, rather than for what they

were, ordinary, practical, down to earth, uneducated men. He told

them to follow him and he would make them vicious of men. It's amazing

when give some thought. Notice, no, Jesus actually made a demand and

an offer. Again, I'm just drawing truths out from what we read just

now. He made a demand and an offer simultaneously. He never makes a

demand without making an offer, and he never makes an offer without making a

demand. Somehow the two goals hand in hand. The demand was this,

follow me, and he was unconditional. It was going to be the kind

of slavery, you know, it's like slavery, follow me, but yet

slavery with perfect freedom. That's how I look at it. And the offer

was also a wonderful one. If they followed him, he would make them

fishes of men. They were pretty good at handling those nets, no catching

fishes, but he was going to help them handle people. And Jesus sure

did not call them to an easy life, because as long as we need

to handle people, that ain't going to be easy. Right. So the

message was this, follow me and I will make you work. Follow me

and you won't get out of fishing. Your fishing will be more demanding.

He does not call us to a life of ease of comfort. And if

they followed him, they could do a job that they had not been doing

before. That was the offer. And so these were Jesus's human partners in

the ministry. Amen, and we turn now to the divine partner. And

it's very easy to get so involved with people that you lose touch with your

divine partner. Jesus never lost touch with his divine partner because prayer was more

important to him than slip. So he would get up very early in the

morning again read the scripture, read Mark chapter one, and he would get

alone with the Father, who was his other partner. And he had human

partners, he had a divine partner. He was down to earth with the

man he chose, and he was also up in heaven with his heavenly Father.

This is the secret of ministry of missions. To get right among the

ordinary folk and love them as God loves them, and then get right away

away from them and love God. It is this combination of getting into society

and out again that marks the life of Jesus. And we must learn the

balance of our Lord's ministry. It's an amazing balance. Note it's so much

easier to get unbalanced in ministry, to go for one man's needs instead of

all of them, to spend too much time helping people at the expense of

prayer, or too much time alone in the expense of people. But Jesus

kept everything in perfect balance. And this also comes out in the third feature

of Jesus's ministry of missions. And I've come to the last point that we

need to look at, and that is his problems. So there were treatings.

Uh, there was a pattern of his ministry that were the partners of

his ministry problems. I find it reassuring to know that in his ministry Jesus

a big problems. Because the interesting thing is that every time it is mentioned

that Jesus prayed, we find it is big because there was a big problem

at hand or on hand, and that is actually the right time to pray.

So let us look at the problems. No, what crisis is mentioned

here, you'll be undering a problem. Just not I read all forty six

verses. Well, the clue actually lies in the fact that three times in

that short passage here she told people to shut up. I know that's the

literal translation. Actually he said shut up. No, but some of your

bibles a bit more polite when he will say be quiet. So why did

Jesus say that? Surely he wanted the world to know, right, Why

why be quiet about me and you won't tell the world. Didn't Jesus want

us to talk about him? Then why did he tell them to be quiet?

Well, there are two interlinked problems here, one supernatural and the other

one natural. One was concerned with the demons, the other one is concerned

with disease, and on both occasions Jesus actually told them to be quiet.

Let's see why. First of all, let's take the demon possessed. So

demon possession. Of course, we know it's a spiritual problem, supernatural problem.

He was Jesus, and he was up against a clairvoyant in the synagoue.

Clairvoyan someone who has the ability to see the future. And this man

say, no, I know who you are. You know, a clairvoyan

is also someone who has the ability to have certain knowledge which was definitely not

revealed to him by God. And he said this, I know who you

are, the Holy One of God. This is someone who was demon possessed.

Nobody had told him, but the demons knew. Of course, the

spirits knew who Jesus was, and Jesus told them to shut up. He

said, come out of him. Why do you think he said that.

You see, Jesus was the promised king of the Jews, and he would

have been really devastating and then dangerous that truth came out right at that point,

because his friends would have wanted him to be made kings straight away,

and they wanted him to be a political king actually, and his enemies would

have wanted him straight away, because if you read the scriptures, you will

realize that is what that's what Israel were waiting for. They weren't waiting for

the Messiah. They were actually waiting for a political king to come and ease

and alleviate all their problems and their burdens. So the time was not right,

and that was one of the reasons why he told the demon to shut

up. Furthermore, it is not right that such revelations actually comes from a

demon. Such things have to be revealed by the holy ghosts, by the

Holy Spirit, not by evil spirits. So Jesus commanded silence and all true

the treeers. He had the problem that the demons knew who he was,

and he did not want people to know right at that point of time,

because it was not the right time. Ian. You see that the other

problem was concerned with disease, and this was the danger of men's physical needs

sometimes dominating our spiritual needs. If a man who could cure any disease came

to your town, like I said, just now, you have a full

time job. Now nothing else you can do except just to have healing ministry

and healing services. And Jesus had only been Capanom one day or one and

a half days, and the main street was packed with people. And our

Lord could have spent the rest of his life just doing nothing but healing people.

And this was his problem. So before the sun rose, he climb

up the hills behind Caperom and prayed, and he asked the Father what should

he do? Go and read the scripture. It's in there. He actually

asked God, God, what should I do? And the Father told him

what the Father told him, you must preach, So he must go somewhere

else and leave those sick people. Disciples found him on the hills and they

told him that everybody is looking for him, but he told them that they

were going to go to other towns to preach. And this is the constant

battle Christians had ever since, and which the Church is still having today.

To a certain degree, we are so aware of the physical needs of men

of mankind. It's very apparent. It's very obvious that's food needed, that's

medicine needed, Doctors and nurses and hospitals are required. We could be completely

overwhelmed just with the physical needs of men. And people say health is the

most important thing in life, but we forget that there is one thing that's

more important, especially in God's eyes, and that is holiness. It's not

just physical health that is all important, it is also holiness. You see

Jesus facing this, Christ is realized that he had to decide now that preaching

was going to come first and then healing will follow. So that's why they

left Capitome and left a street full of sick people, and Jesus went on

to preach. Of course, the tragedy was that he met a lapper,

and this was a lapper with astounding faith. No, he says, if

you're willing, you can make me clean. Amazing faith. And Jesus know

for someone who are an incurable disease, and Jesus had so much compassion within

him touch him and said, I'm willing be clean, and he was.

But the tragedy was that this man's needs was so obvious. His faith is

obvious, but this obedience was also quite obvious, because Jesus says, told

him, see that you don't go and tell anyone about what just happened.

And he gave them this clear order because he was trying to preach. He

told him to just go to Jerusalem, where you will be inspected, get

a medical certificate, and go back into society. But what did the man

do. He did not do any of that. He ran down the road

and said that he had been healed by Jesus. And then after that Jesus

could not even get into the towns. He had to keep away from the

towns. And we see this problem again and again. But yet he is

striking that wonderful balance in his ministry of missions. Amen. So while he

had deep compassion for people in physical pain and suffering, he had a deeper

confession for people in sin, people who were facing a suffering in the next

world that those living in this world never dreamed of. That's why he went

on preaching because he saw beyond and he knew beyond what the greatest need of

man is, and it is the forgiveness of sin. And so here is

the ministry of Jesus. Again is missions emphasisment? What do we do?

How do we understand missions? Well, let's look to the ministry of Jesus,

and I pray you will have a clearer understanding of what missions is.

Because as far as the pattern goes, he balanced their physical, their mental,

and their spiritual needs. When you go out for missions, and all

of us are called to do it because we are commissioned to go and make

disciples of every nation, tongue, and tribe, baptizing them in the name

of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them

the ways of the Lord. The pattern is as such, meet their physical,

mental, and spiritual needs. As far as partners go, Jesus balance

between human and divine partners, the earthly and the heavenly. And what an

amazing balance that is. That's why when we are out at missions, we

don't go alone. We go together. We partner with one another. We

partner with those who are on the around. Even that is the strength of

partnership in mission, and definitely we don't go by ourselves with doubt, partnering

the Holy Spirit and even with the third p problems. The balance is this.

We must always weigh out what is eternal and what is temporary. That

is what having a mission's mind is all about. Weigh out what is eternal

and what is temporary. If not, you will be overwhelmed with the physical

needs of men. But remember, health is not everything. Holiness is everything.

A lot of times we always like to save holiness for when we go

to heaven, and happiness for when we are here on earth. But that

is not the gospel. The Gospel tells us that we are to be holy

here on earth so that we can be happy in eternity. It's arts where

we are, and that is what we are preaching. Ultimately, that is

what we are teaching, and that is why we are healing. And all

we have considered and all that we have just talked about is just three days

out of three years of Jesus' entire ministry here on earth. It is just

the beginning of his ministry. But yet there is so much that we can

already learn. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information

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good week ahead for you. God bless