The Cost of the KingdomНамуна

MISUNDERSTOOD, REJECTED AND PERSECUTED

MAIN IDEAS

• This temporary commission is intended for the disciples to put into practice all they had learned up to now. Before He goes to heaven, JESUS tells them to wait to be filled with the HOLY SPIRIT, after which they will travel across the entire world to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom.

• JESUS tells His disciples the price they will pay for preaching the Kingdom. Even though the people will receive this good news from them, they will also reject and persecute them.

• However, JESUS encourages them to continue, without fear of those who can kill the body, but have no power over their souls, which are eternal. God is in control of their lives and nothing can happen to them without His approval.

• JESUS promises that if they confess to JESUS before people, He will confess them before God, Who will provide for them in any way necessary.

Sending His disciples out before Him, JESUS instructs them to apply all the teachings they have thus far received, thus preparing them for the time He will leave their midst. JESUS wants to strengthen their dependence on God, and He wants them to be aware of the price they are going to pay for spreading the Gospel throughout the world. In fact, JESUS warns them that those who bring the good news of the KINGDOM OF GOD into the world will not be well received, and in order to fulfill this mission they must risk everything – family
relations, reproach, humiliation, and misunderstanding from by those around them, but also giving up their own life, if necessary. JESUS makes the disciples aware that God is in control of the life of every true disciple, to the extent that He even knows the number of the hairs on their head; therefore, no one should worry about anything when they decide to obey God with all their heart, and those who support and appreciate those who proclaim the Gospel proclaimed and lived by JESUS will be very well rewarded.

If nothing else in the Bible can convince the preachers of the prosperity gospel of the wrong path they have taken, then this message that comes directly from JESUS should frighten them and bring them to true repentance. We should not just take some bits of the Bible or combinations of the Old and the New Covenant. The Spirit of God will enlighten all those who humble themselves and wholeheartedly wish to serve God; He will reveal Himself to them in due course and will not let them go down the wrong road.