Living

Sharing in Excitement

Scriptures: 2 Timothy 2:8-10
by Jacob Abshire on April 3, 2015

The disciples moved inward from the shore of Galilee and gathered around Jesus once more. He taught them again, opening their understanding. Confidence chased away all their remaining doubt. Courage took over. This was their last moment with God in the flesh.

What a journey it had been! These eleven ordinary men were extraordinarily touched and intimately trained by the Lord of heaven and earth. Unlikely men were bound together to an unlikely Lord—fishermen from Galilee and a servant from Nazareth. Although it felt like a lifetime, they had only been together for three short years.

Stretching out His hands, Jesus blessed the disciples. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Then, He was lifted up into heaven.

The disciples stood there in wonder, looking upward. They had nothing to say. It was as if they were expecting more. Jesus had ascended to heaven. Now what? The cry of the wind and the racket of the waves were all they heard, until an angel asked, “Why do you stand looking into heaven?”

He told them one day Jesus would return. They came to their senses, responded with joy, and returned to Jerusalem as they were instructed. They were no longer fishermen, but fishers of men—mission driven and courage infused.

In a similar way, all followers of Christ are commissioned to be fishers of men in the world. We are all charged to proclaim God’s truth to make disciples. And yet, many of us are still looking up to the heavens waiting on more.

Friends, Jesus has finished the work. The sins of His elect have been paid in full, and now you are to go out, preach the gospel, and watch God make extraordinary disciples out of ordinary people.

What are you waiting to see? What’s holding you back? Men and women of today, why are you still waiting? Go and make disciples.

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

2 Timoth 2:8-10
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