Have you ever wondered why you were created? What is your purpose or mission in life? God didn’t create you with nothing in mind for your life. The Bible tells us that He had a plan before you were born for every day of your life. Now just because God has a plan does not mean that we will automatically follow that plan. No, we need to discover God’s plan or mission for our lives and follow it.
Our current message series is entitled Following Jesus. When Jesus called His disciples, He simply told them to “Follow me.”
Matthew 4:19 (ESV) And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
To discover your purpose or mission in life, the most important thing is to follow Jesus. In this verse, Jesus said that if we follow Him, He will make us into fishers of men. So, what does it mean to follow Jesus?
John 14:15 (ESV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
To follow Jesus is to love Him and obey His instructions.
John 14:12 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
To follow Jesus is to believe in Him and to do the works that Jesus did. What are those works? They are the supernatural signs and wonders that Jesus did. Now many people believe that that is not possible for you and me. Why? They argue that Jesus was God and we are not, so we don’t have the same power. That argument is not true, because we just read in John 14:12 that Jesus said we could do the same works that He did. So, why can we do the same things that Jesus did?
John 5:19a (NIV2011) Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing,
You see, when Jesus came to this earth, He laid aside His divine power and walked in this world as a human being, just like you and me. He was still God, but choose to become a man with human limitations. How then could Jesus perform supernatural miracles? He did supernatural miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, who had anointed Him at His baptism. That same power of the Holy Spirit is available to every believer today.
Today, our message is entitled Jesus’ Mission, Our Mission. After Jesus was baptized by the Holy Spirit, He was empowered to begin His ministry. This morning, we’re going to study what Jesus said His mission was, to learn what our mission in life is.