In 2017 our sermon series was entitled “Following in the Footsteps of Jesus”. We traced the story of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus using the Gospel of Matthew as our guide.
For centuries at the end of the Old Testament, the people of Israel had been waiting for God to answer their prayers. They were feeling oppressed, bewildered, alone and rejected. They had started to wonder if God was hearing their cries.
Suddenly, the time of waiting was at an end. The one who had been prophesied about was about to burst onto the scene. The Messiah, the Saviour had come into the world and it was God’s own son, Jesus. He had come to rescue and redeem. He had come to open blind eyes and deaf ears. He had come to free the captive. He had come to reveal his Father and draw people towards himself for salvation. And ultimately he had come to die on the cross for the sins of the world.
Jesus’ ministry on earth had started with a call to his disciples to “Come and follow me.” In the end, his challenge to his disciples was revealed to be “Go and make disciples of all nations”. Jesus is inviting us into relationship with him. We are to be his disciples… his apprentices. We are to watch him and follow in his ways. And his challenge to us is to go and make. To be creators rather than just consumers of the culture around us.