Imagine what it was like to be one of the Apostles, called personally by Jesus, learning from Him and observing His miracles.
But then one day, He says to partner up and then He send you and your partner to another place to do the preaching yourself. You can read about Jesus doing this very thing in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Not only did Jesus tell them to go and preach, but their message was one of the toughest messages to preach, but also the message that even true followers of Jesus need reminded of most often. Mark 6:12 says simply,
They went out and preached that men should repent.
You may understand the implications of that message, but then again, you might think, what’s so hard about that?
To preach repentance is to look men and women in the eye and tell them that they need to change. It’s to tell them that the sin in their life is not okay with God and that they must turn away from that sin. Preaching repentance is telling people that they have a great problem and that great problem, sin, is separating them from a relationship with God in this life and will damn them for all eternity in the next life.
When repentance was preached, some cried out requesting a solution, some walked away believing that they didn’t have anything to repent from, and others reacted with violence. There were also some that pondered the message a while before drawing their own conclusion of what, if any action they should take.
The thing is, Jesus is still sending out His followers – you and me – to teach the same message. It’s an old message, but one that must be taught again and again and again. We all need to hear it over and again as well.
Living a life of constant repentance, a constant striving to be less like ourselves and more like Jesus is a hallmark of Christianity.
It is a message that bears repeating. Do so with humility and gentleness.
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
