How do you know if you are being sent? Are you being sent? Where are you being sent? To whom are you being sent? 

All disciples are called to go. We are a people who are being sent by God. Jesus is inviting us to join with him in his redemptive and restorative work in the world. 

Matthew tells us Jesus called his disciples and he sent them out. In his gospel account, Matthew writes, “And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 10:1-4, ESV). 

God called a diverse group of disciples for a diverse mission—to have authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. God wanted a people for himself who would do his redemptive and restorative work in the world. Jesus sent his disciples to make other disciples. 

What faith is required to follow God’s call on your life? What faith have you exercised to follow God’s call on your life? What faith is needed to follow the call of God on your life? 

God’s call on our lives requires faith and action on our part. We must hear and obey God’s call. It’s not enough to hear the call of God. We must also act on that call in obedience, in faith, and in action. 

We cannot stay where we are and follow Jesus. 

In Matthew’s gospel account, we see the call of Matthew the tax collector. Jesus called Matthew to follow him and Matthew left his tax booth and tax collecting business and he followed Jesus. Matthew left his old life for the new life Jesus had for him. 

In his gospel account Matthew tells his testimony, writing simply, “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him.” (Matthew 9:9, ESV). 

Matthew heard the call of Jesus and he obeyed the call of Jesus by rising up and following him. 

Like Matthew, may we have the faith to follow God’s call on our lives. 

A Collect for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, or the First Sunday after Trinity (Proper 5): “Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019). 

What is the significance of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, in our lives? If God is relational, and we are created in his image, what does this mean for us and for our relationship with God and others? 

Our God is a relational God. Our God has always been in relationship with himself in the Trinity. God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Because our God is a relational God, we are called into relationship with him and with others. God invites us to join him in the relationship of the Trinity. 

In the Great Commission, in Matthew’s gospel account, we see this invitation to join in this relationship of the Trinity, and we see the invitation to invite others into this relationship of God, when Jesus said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV). 

God invites us to be his disciples, together with him, and together with one another. We are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are baptized into the relationship of the Trinity. As the Church, we are in relationship with the body of Jesus, with one another, together with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Our God is relational and is calling us into the relationship of the Trinity and into the relationship of his body the church.

May we enter into the relational dance of the Trinity as we relate to God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and as we enter into relationship with one another as his disciples, as the body of Christ-God’s Church.

Do you often feel alone? Are there times where you need help? Do you long for the presence of someone who is with you and helping you? Who is your helper? Who is always present and always there for you?

We are living in a loneliness epidemic. We live lives of isolation and loneliness and we often do not have the connections, the presence, and the help we need to be safe, to be secure, and to flourish in life.

Attachment theory says we need a healthy attachment cycle, which often looks like this: we are seen, we are safe, we are soothed, and we develop a secure base. We need the presence and the security of a comforter and a helper.

In John’s gospel account, Jesus encouraged his disciples, saying, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17, ESV).

What is the significance of the Ascension of Jesus? What are the implications of the Ascension of Jesus? What does the Ascension of Jesus mean for us today? 

We see the Ascension of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, when Luke writes, “And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24:50-53, ESV).

Jesus’ Ascension to heaven is his ascending his Holy throne and resuming his place of honor and power and rule and reign. Jesus returns to heaven to prepare a place for us as he promised in John chapter fourteen. Jesus returned to heaven so that he could send the Holy Spirit to us and to make us temples of God by His Holy Spirit. Jesus ascended into heaven so that he could return again in glory to judge the living and the dead. 

Oswald Chambers, the author of the daily devotional classic My Utmost for His Highest, wrote, “At His Ascension our Lord entered Heaven, and He keeps the door open for humanity to enter."

What does it mean to abide? What does it look like to abide in Jesus? How are we to abide in Jesus?

In John’s gospel account, Jesus instructed his disciples to abide in him as a branch abides in a vine.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5, ESV).

We cannot do anything unless we abide in Jesus as a branch abides in a vine. When we abide in Jesus we bear fruit like a branch abiding in a vine bears fruit in a vineyard.

In their book Abiding in Christ, J. I.Packer and Carolyn Nystrom define abide this way: “Abide is an old English word for ‘remain,’ ‘stay steady’ and ‘keep your position.’ What it means to abide in Christ—that is, always to be resting on him, anchored to him, fixed in him, drawing from him, continually connected and in touch with him.”

Theologian and bishop Lesslie Newbigin said, “Abiding is the continually renewed decision that what has been done once for all by the action of Jesus shall be the basis, the starting point, the context for all my thinking and deciding and doing.”

As followers of Jesus we are called to abide in Jesus as a branch abides in a vine so that we may be fruitful followers of Jesus—like a fruitful vineyard.

May we abide in Jesus and produce much fruit for him as we remain in him and as he cultivates his fruitfulness in us.

How many ways are there? How many truths are there? How many ways are there to truly live? Is there your way and my way, or is it the way? Is it your truth and my truth, or is it the truth? Is it your life and my life, or is there a true life? 

Jesus claimed there is one way, one truth, and one life, when he said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” 

In John’s gospel account, Jesus responded to Thomas, who said, “‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’” (John 14:5-7, ESV). 

When we know Jesus, we know the way. When we know Jesus, we know the truth. When we know Jesus, we have the life of Jesus. Because Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life”, we have the way, the truth, and the life when we have a relationship with Jesus. 

May we experience the way, the truth, and the life as we enjoy a relationship with Jesus, who is himself “the way, and the truth, and the life.”

I have had the privilege of benefitting from the biblical context teaching ministry of Preserving Bible Times since 2005 when I heard Doug Greenwold teach a Bible Alive Seminar at a Church in Virginia. I learned more about biblical context in that one weekend than I did in two years of Bible college. When I was a Bible teacher for 5 years at a Christian School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Preserving Bible Times and Doug's books and teachings were my go-to resources.

What does it mean that Jesus is our Good Shepherd? What are the implications that we are like sheep? What does it mean that God calls himself the Good Shepherd of the sheep?

The Bible is filled with sheep and shepherding images. Good leaders are often referred to as good shepherds. People are often equated with sheep in the Bible. Many of the Bible’s leaders, kings, and heroes were shepherds of sheep. The Bible often equates bad leadership with bad shepherds.

In the Book of Isaiah, God speaks through his prophet Isaiah saying, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6, ESV).

God compares his people to sheep who have gone astray in our brokenness and sin. God shows the coming messiah as a good shepherd who has taken on himself the wickedness of us all.

In John’s Gospel account, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11, ESV).

In considering the earth, where do we begin with our understanding and stewardship? How has God designed creation order and how is he calling us to understand creation and have dominion over it? How should we steward the earth as followers of Jesus?

In considering the earth and all of creation, we must begin with God. The scriptures begin with God and creation, saying, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, ESV). God is the origin and author of all of creation.

Creation begins with God and creation care must begin with God as well. When we honor God, begin with God, and seek to worship God, we naturally care for the world God created and gifted us to steward. The earth is the Lord’s and he has given it to us to steward and to care for as we exercise dominion over it.

The Psalmist tells us, “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” (Psalm 24:1-6, ESV).

Have you encountered the resurrected Jesus on the resurrection road of life? What does it look like to encounter the risen Lord Jesus on the resurrection road of Easter?

Two disheartened Jesus followers were leaving the city of Jerusalem on the Road to Emmaus after the crucifixion. These two Jesus followers assumed that Jesus had not raised from the dead and they were leaving Jerusalem in a state of confusion, hopelessness, and depression at the death of Christ.

Luke’s gospel account tells us, “That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” (Luke 24:13-16, ESV).

Jesus rose from the dead just as he had promised. The two people on the road had resurrection life walking the Emmaus Road with them, but they did not encounter resurrection life in their blind depression and despair.

Jesus questioned the two travelers about their sorrow and opened the entirety of the scriptures to them and taught them everything concerning himself, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets.

Is hope alive for us? What hope do we have? Where does our hope come from? What does our hope look like? Do we have a living hope?

We have hope in Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus ensures us that the hope we have is a living hope.

The Apostle Peter wrote of this living hope of the resurrection of Jesus, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5, ESV).

Jesus has given us true life and true hope in his resurrection. In Jesus we are born again to a living hope through his resurrection. Jesus has given us forgiveness of our sin. Jesus has given us an eternal inheritance of his everlasting life.

The resurrection of Jesus gives us a living hope. Because Jesus is alive, our hope is alive. Because Jesus lives, we live through Jesus. Our hope looks like life everlasting in Jesus. When we have a living Jesus, we have a living hope.

What does it mean for us that Jesus rose from the dead? What are the implications of Jesus’ resurrection? What does resurrection life look like for Jesus? What does resurrection life look like for the follower of Jesus? 

The resurrection of Jesus has implications for his life and for our life.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, he lives, he has defeated death, and he gives us his resurrection life as well. Because Jesus lives, we can live also, not only in this life, but forever with God and with one another in eternity.

In Colossians chapter three, the Apostle Paul wrote, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4, ESV). 

What is resurrection life? What does it mean when Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life”? What does resurrection life look like in our lives? How do we have resurrection life? What would it look like if we lived Jesus’ resurrection life today?

We all need God’s life for us. We are all called to live, to live eternally, and to live abundantly.

God has designed us for eternity and has gifted each of us eternal life in him, which begins now. We can go through life resigned to our sin dead lives, which leads to eternal death, or we can go through life seeking God’s life and living God’s eternal life for us now.

In the major prophet Ezekiel, God showed Ezekiel a valley of dry and dead bones. God asked the prophet Ezekiel this question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And Ezekiel answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3, ESV).

God then told Ezekiel to speak life over the dead bones so that they would live again. So Ezekiel prophesied to the dry bones as God commanded him, and “the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army” (Ezekiel 37:10, ESV).

God desires to bring life out of death. God desires to make the dead to come alive. God desires each of us to live resurrection life.

What work is God doing in the middle of suffering and hardship? Is all suffering due to sin, or is God doing a greater work? What are the works of God? How can we be open to, and participate in, the works of God in the middle of suffering and hardship?

In the gospel of John, chapter nine, Jesus’ disciples inquired about a man who was born blind and the cause of his blindness. They attributed the man’s predicament to his sin or to his parent’s sin. The disciples assumed God was judging this man with blindness because he or his parents had offended God with some kind of grievous sin and that God had made him blind.

The gospel of John tells us, “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:1-5, ESV).

Sometimes suffering and hardship happen because God is doing a work in us, and because God is doing a work in those around us. We must be open to God and we must be open to the works of God in the middle of suffering and hardship, recognizing God is always at work around us.

Are you thirsty? Are you spiritually thirsty? Do you look for water to quench your thirst when you are thirsty? Where do you go to drink when you are spiritually thirsty? When you drink deeply in your thirst, what is it like to be quenched of our thirst?

We all thirst and desire to be hydrated to live. Just like there is physical water that quenches our thirst, there is also spiritual water that quenches our thirst for the life God intends for us.

When the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, and were wandering in the desert toward the promised land, they thirsted and “the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?’ But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’” (Exodus 17:2-3, ESV).

The people thirsted for water and life. They doubted Moses and they doubted God’s plan and they assumed their needs would not be met. The people grumbled and complained and cried out. God heard the people’s cry and instructed Moses to take his staff and to take the elders with him and strike the rock at Horeb with his staff and provide water for the people from the rock.

God said to Moses, “‘Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Exodus 17:6, ESV).

God provided water for his people in the wilderness. God quenched the people’s thirst and sustained their lives.

In the Prophet Isaiah God told his people not to fear. God made a promise to Israel, saying, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3).

Later in the scriptures, in the Gospel of John, Jesus would tell a Samaritan woman at the well “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10, ESV).

In his Epistle to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul linked the water from the rock in the wilderness with Jesus, the living water found in John 4, saying, “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:2-4, ESV).

What does it mean to have been born? What does it mean to be born again? Have you been born again? What was your role in your birth? What was your role in being born again?

Just like we were born physically into this world, we must be born spiritually if we are going to see God and his kingdom.

In John’s gospel account, Jesus said to a man named Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, ESV).

Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:4-8, ESV).

Like in our natural birth, we are to be born of water, our baptismal waters. Just as we took our first breath after being born into this physical world, we must breathe the Spirit of God into our lives as we are born of the Spirit. As we were born physically, we must be born by the Spirit of God, we must be born spiritually.

What temptations do you experience? What tempts you? When does repentance begin? Does repentance begin before, during, or after temptation? Can you repent before you actively commit sin? Can you repent in your sin? Can you repent after you sin? When are you tempted and when do you repent?

What we do in preparation, before we are tempted, determines if we are able to resist temptation.

We can repent from our sin before we are tempted to sin. Temptation itself is not sin. It is not a sin to be tempted.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, said it this way, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15, ESV).

In the fourth chapter of the gospel of Matthew, we see that Jesus was tempted by the devil to sin against God. We know Jesus is the Son of God and is without sin, but in his humanity he could be tempted to sin, just as we are tempted. It was not a sin for Jesus to be tempted to sin, because temptation to sin is not sin.

Jesus was first baptized and then he heard from heaven from God the Father that he was God’s beloved. Jesus resolved before temptation not to fall into temptation and he prepared himself accordingly as he led by the Spirit into the wilderness prepared, and in prayer and in fasting.

Like Jesus, we can resolve before temptation comes not to fall into temptation. We can repent of our sin before the temptation to sin arises within us. We can prepare in fasting and in prayer. We can determine not be “lured and enticed by our own desire” recognizing that “desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15, ESV).

What are the circumstances where you encounter God? What are the places where you encounter God? Can you encounter God in both good and bad circumstances? Can you encounter God in both high and low places?

Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James, and John encountered God on the mount of transfiguration. Like these disciples, we encounter God in mountaintop experiences.

We also encounter God in the valleys of life. The mountaintop encounters with God which we experience prepare us for the valleys we experience in life.

God meets us in every circumstance and in every place where we find ourselves.

The gospel of Matthew tells us, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:1-2, ESV).

The disciples encountered God on the mountain. As Jesus was transfigured before the disciples they heard from God the Father.

Matthew tells us, “And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” (Matthew 17:3-8, ESV).

What does the mission field look like? Where is the mission field? Are you being called to the mission field? Where is the mission field God is calling you to? What does God’s mission look like in your life?

Every believer is called to mission. Our immediate surrounding is our mission field.

At his ascension, when the disciples were gathered together in Jerusalem, Jesus said to his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV).

Our mission field begins with where we are. Our immediate surroundings, our “Jerusalem”, comes before we reach out in mission to “all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” If we are not faithful and effective to the mission in our own neighborhoods, we will not be faithful or effective in mission in the rest of the world.

Mission is essential for every follower of Jesus and the need for mission is great.