Sunday, 26th July 2020
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)
1. Jesus Came
Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. (Mark 16:14)
The things and environment around us often discourage us and we forget the vows and promises we made with God and with each other. The disciples promised Jesus they would stay with Him but when Jesus went on the cross, they all ran away.
It’s easy to make promises when everything goes well, but when problems come, we would pray to God for help. Our prayers are mostly about filling our own desires, and when these desires are not fulfilled, we think God is mad at us. But have we really prayed and thought about what God really wants?
One thing we need to learn is that only true love can make us give up our own desires and choose God’s way. But with our sinful nature, we cannot do this by ourselves and we need God. Jesus taught us to be humble, get rid of our hardened heart, instead of choosing the messages and teachings we want to hear, ask God what He wants from us.
2. All Authority
“And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (I John 5:15)
Jesus holds all authorities in Heaven and on Earth, and by faith we also have the authority together with Jesus. We all know that as people living on this earth, we need to have abilities to survive and live. God gave us abilities and He would not take them away, but sometimes having abilities takes us further away from God.
Having abilities doesn’t mean having authorities. In order to have the authority and overcome darkness like Jesus did, we need to be born of Jesus, to be humble, and to treasure our relationship with Him. Jesus treasures the relationship He has with His disciples and followers. His love for Peter changed Peter’s life forever.
Having this relationship with Jesus gives us the authority, but this relationship has to come from a love without anything in return, and this love can only come with faith in God. God loves us, wants to have quality time with us, and desires to work in partnership with us.
3. I Am With You Always
Jesus promised that he will always be with us, when we observe and teach everything we learn from the Word of God. We need to unlock the Logos of God and turn them into our Rhema everyday. We must be teachable in order to receive teachings from the Heaven and carry out the Big Commission from Jesus.
“And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.” (Luke 24:52-53)
If Jesus is not with us then we cannot do anything even if we have all the abilities in the world. God wants us to bless Him with our everything and we we realize how low we are, then we can give up all our ability and praise Him in the high place – this is the power of worship!