Let us Go Make Disciples!

There is a big difference between the way one does evangelism and the way one preaches within a body of believers.  The doctrine that I love most is justification; Propitiation or Penal Substitutionary Atonement.  When a believer understands what God did for us on the cross in Christ Jesus, it causes the believer to give thanksgiving and glory to God all the more.

These things are not for the immature, but for the mature.  They are for the spiritual man, and not for the man of flesh.  The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

He then tells the Corinthians in 3:1-3

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.  I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,  for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

Men who are walking in the flesh cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually appraised.   The unbeliever needs milk not solid food.

When I began preaching in open-air the message that I was preaching modeled what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:9-28, sometimes I would even recite that passage.  I did this, because it is a doctrine that I love, and my understanding of it caused me to give thanksgiving and glory to God in Christ Jesus all the more.  It is the reason that I started doing and am presently doing evangelism.

I love this truth, so why wouldn't the world?  Besides that, it was the way that I had been taught to do evangelism.  Use the law to bring the knowledge of sin, warn of hell, tell of Christ Jesus propitiation on the cross, and then call the unbeliever to repent and believe in the gospel.  It never occurred to me that a carnal man could not understand this.

Through memorizing and repeatedly reciting the Gospel According to John I realized something.  The doctrine of justification is found in the gospel accounts of our Lord, but they are not explained until you read the epistles.  Jesus said to His apostles in John 14:25-26

"These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."

It wasn't until the Spirit came that the apostles understood the cross, and then they passed that knowledge onto the church through the epistles.  Who was Paul writing to when he wrote Romans?  He was writing to the church.

Romans 1:7, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

How then should we do evangelism?  The fleshy man understands both life and death.  He knows that men die.  People today are not as aware of death as they once were.  When men were riding on horseback, are in a covered wagon, they would come across the dead and the dying.   Today the dying are institutionalized in hospitals, hospice, and nursing homes.  Nevertheless, everyone still knows someone who has died.

With that knowledge, I plan, Lord willing, to continue to talk with men about Jesus through the eye witness account of the apostle John.   How He promised eternal life to everyone who believes in Him.  How He was crucified, dead and buried, and then on the third day rose from the dead.  Telling men that they can trust in Jesus, because He died, and rose from the dead; demonstrating that He can, and will do, what He promised to do.

Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

There is an order to the great commission:

1. We first go make disciples.
2. We then the baptize the disciples in the church.
3. We then teach them to observe all things that Jesus commanded us.

Let us Go Make Disciples!

In Christ alone,

Mike Peek

Salvation from the wrath of God that we all deserve for our sin is a gift, by His grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Think About This

During our outreach to Tyler Junior college on 11/11/15 it appeared that no one was listening and no one was willing to stop and have conversation.  Each week while on campus at 10 minutes to the hour I preach a short gospel message.  It is a 7 minute message that you can read yourself by clicking on, What do I Preach?   I do this because the students are changing classes during the 10 minute period before the hour.  We then pass out Gospel's of John, and other tracts while availing ourselves to talk with both faculty and students.

On this day no one had stopped for the preaching or to have conversation, and we had passed out very few tracts.  At 10 minutes until 12 it was the last time that I would preach before departing for lunch. Two young ladies stopped and were listening as I preached the gospel.  They then saw my ministry partner Jason McMurray who was passing out tracts.  They began talking with him.  As it turns out they were two young christian women and they rejoiced that the gospel was being preached.  They also wanted to know what made us so fearless.

Why would an intelligent, well educated, professional man do something that makes him look and sound like a fool to other men?  I preach the gospel publicly for two reasons:

1. Out of love and thanksgiving towards God, for the grace and kindness He has demonstrated towards me in Christ Jesus my Lord.  I am a wretched sinner deserving of the eternal wrath of almighty God, but He has given me eternal life in His Son.
2. Out of love and compassion for my neighbor.  By profession I am a Critical Care Registered Nurse; which means that I help people, who, because of an illness or an injury cannot sustain life without help.  I help them until their body recovers to the point that it can sustain life without my help.  Many people do recover, but often times they do not, and I am powerless to sustain their lives.  Suffice it to say, I SEE A LOT OF DEATH.

Jesus said that He is the Christ, which means that He is the anointed One of God.  Jesus said that He is the Son of God.  The Jews understood, that by His saying, "I am the Son of God", He was making Himself equal with God.  Jesus told the Jews on several occasions, "The works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me."

Jesus promised eternal life to everyone who believes in Him.  He was brutally beaten, marched through the streets of Jerusalem, nailed to a cross of wood, on which He suffered and died a gruesome public death.  He was buried, and then on the third day He defeated death and rose from the dead.

            

Thank about this for a minute: Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God.  He demonstrated by His works that He is in truth who He claimed to be.  Jesus promised eternal life to everyone who believes in Him.  He demonstrated His power over death by dying and then rising from the dead.  What are you waiting for?   "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

In Christ alone,

Mike Peek

Salvation from the wrath of God that we all deserve for our sin is a gift, by His grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Black Rhinoceros

There is nothing like having a rhinoceros stair at you.  What is he thinking?  I have no fear of this particular rhinoceros charging, because between he an I there is a great chasm and if that were not enough there is also a fence.  As I look at the fence I don't think that it was designed to keep the rhinoceros in, but rather to keep people out.

This picture was taken at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, Texas.  I have a secret place that I like to go to, I use the Caldwell Zoo like a local park to get outside to sit and read on a nice day.  My secret reading spot is off the beaten path.  It is a wooden deck with wooden benches facing this Black Rhinoceros and behind me are caged Cheetahs.  People will often come to the edge of this oasis to look at the rhinoceros, but rarely come all the way in, because it would take them off the path leading around the park.

I have been a Registered Nurse for 18 years, I graduated with an Associates Degree in nursing in December of 1997.  I started back to school with the intent of obtaining a Bachelors of Science in Nursing, Lord willing, I will graduate on December 17th.  I have pushed all the way through with very little breaks, I had this past week off from school and the weather was nice so I took the opportunity to visit my favorite reading place.

The book that I was reading on this particular occasion was (On The Incarnation, written by Athanasius of Alexandria).  You won't find this book on the NY Times best seller list.  Athanasius was Bishop of Alexandria, he was born in 296 AD in Alexandria, Egypt and departed to be with the Lord in 373 AD.

The book was very short, but I found to be fantastic.  The way that he describes the Lord and continually refers to Him as being the word causes one to see these things in the mind vividly.  I began following the Lord in May of 2003 and have been reading His word ever since.  I have read a few Christian books, but only a few, almost everything that I know about the Lord comes directly out of scripture.

I have decided that I would like to read some other books, but where to begin.  Should I read the many modern books that can be found on the shelf at Lifeway ? I have tried a few of those in the past, but something seemed to be missing, mainly a deep understanding of the Lord.  Oh they use scripture that's for sure, but something wasn't there.

Should I read someone like C. H. Spurgeon who wrote and preached in the 19th century?  Should I go back to the Reformulation period and read Luther and Calvin?  Then I thought, before doing that why not go back to the beginning of the church and read those who followed in the foot steps of the apostles.  My pastor at Sylvania Church, Phillip Dancey, just so happens to have a Doctorate in Patristics.   Patristics is the study of early Christian writers.

So post graduation, a plan, Lord willing, to begin reading what our brothers in Christ wrote down through the ages, starting in 100 AD.  I would like to begin as close to the apostolic period as possible and read primary writings rather than read about the period alone.  There were many heresies dealt with during the Patristic period.  It is excepted that the patristic period began in 100 AD and ended in 590 AD when Gregory the great became Bishop of Rome starting the Papacy.





In Christ alone,

Mike Peek

www.aslaveofjesuschrist.com

Salvation from the wrath of God that we all deserve for our sin is a gift, by His grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.