THE PATH BEFORE US! Our Lord’s Template for Ministry Matthew 4:23-25.

THE PATH BEFORE US!Our Lord’s Template for Ministry

Matthew 4:23-25

One Solitary Life

“Let us turn now to the story. A child is born in an

obscure village. He is brought up in another

obscure village. He works in a carpenter shop until he is thirty, and then for three brief years is an itinerant preacher, proclaiming a

message and living a life. He never writes a book. He

never holds an…

…office. He never raises an army. He never has a family of his own. He never owns a

home. He never goes to college. He never travels two

hundred miles from the place where he was born. He

gathers a little group of friends about him and

teaches them his way of life. While still a young man, the tide of popular feeling turns

against him. One denies him; another…

…betrays him. He is turned over to his enemies. He goes

through the mockery of a trial; he is nailed to a cross between two thieves, and

when dead is laid in a borrowed grave by the

kindness of a friend. Those are the facts of his human

life. He rises from the dead. Today we look back across

nineteen hundred years and ask, What kind of trail has he

left…

…across the centuries? When we try to sum up his

influence, all the armies that ever marched, all the

parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned are absolutely picayune in their influence on mankind compared with that of this

one solitary life…”

(Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” 1926)

The Path Before Us!

The Lord Jesus had a clear understanding of what Faith, the noun,

should look like!

He calls Us as a Church to follow in that

template!

Matthew 4:23-25

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their

synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness

and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His

fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to

Him all sick people who were afflicted with…

Matthew 4:23-25

…various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed,

epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. Great multitudes followed Him—

from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea,

and beyond the Jordan.”

Specific In His Efforts

Teaching!

“You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I

am” John 13:13

Specific In His Efforts

Preaching!

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to

say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is

at hand.”Matthew 4:17

Specific In His Efforts

Healing!

“And he healed all the sick.” Matthew 8:16

Strategic In His Ministry

His Message!

Extended God’s Love & Grace by Faith

Strategic In His Ministry

His Message!

“And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly

abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ

Jesus.”1 Timothy 1:14

Strategic In His Ministry

His Method!

Engaged People at their Point of Need

Strategic In His Ministry

His Method!

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was

moved with compassion for them, because they

were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”

Matthew 9:36

Significant In His Impact

Local Presence; Global Vision!

“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a

man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds…

Significant In His Impact

Local Presence; Global Vision!

…but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air

come and nest in its branches.’”

Matthew 13:31-32

Significant In His Impact

Universal Appeal;Personal Touch!

“And laying his hands on each one, he healed

them.”Luke 4:40

So…

On this Labor Day Weekend will you

join me in committing

ourselves to His great work?

THE PATH BEFORE US!Our Lord’s Template for Ministry

Matthew 4:23-25