The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
( Matthew 20:28 & Mark 10:45 )
Why would a Ransom need to be paid for “MANY” ?
Why would Jesus make this statement in the context of serving others?
When a ransom payment is procured and accepted as payment, what does the Apostle Paul call it? See Hebrews 9:12-15 in the NIV.
R __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Where can anyone find it? (see Romans 3:24)
When will our redemption be fully realized and shown to be glorious? (see Ephesians 4:30)
Why do you believe Christ’s blood is so unique, valuable and empowered to actually procure our redemption? (see Eph. 1:7 & Col. 1:14)
According to 2nd Timothy 2:25-26, who has taken people captive?
What should we do about this kidnapping?
What did the Apostle Paul do about it? (See Romans 10:1)
How can Christ guarantee the price of his blood will be applied to your soul forever?
(see Ephesians 1:13-14)
When do you think you may get the opportunity to talk about “the Price” ?
…Unless you repent you will all perish…
Luke 13:3-5
Does Jesus teaching about people “perishing”, weaken our ability to speak about His rewards?
How can we talk about the good news when there is so much bad news surrounding it?
Read Matthew 3:2 & 4:17 and compare to find out what both John the immersionist and Jesus the Christ, focused on in their preaching.
It may surprise you to know that in the KJV Bible, the word “repent” or “repentance” only occurs 43 times in the entire Old Testament (39 books), but in just the 4 gospels, those words appear 26 times! 39 books don’t even have twice the amount of occurrences of repentance than just 4 books do. What does the gospel OBVIOUSLY emphasize?
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There are two points to learn about repentance from the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.
Firstly the repentant prodigal son saw God running towards him with forgiveness AFTER the Father saw him returning towards home. The Father didn’t even leave the house in search of the prodigal son during his demise, or after his “coming to himself” (v17) in the pig pen, it was only after the son showed repentance! See Luke 15:20.
Secondly we must learn from the elder brother that he was encouraged to repent by the Father, v28, of his old way of accusing the Father of injustice, into a new way of looking at his younger brother to rejoice with his Father. Our worship & gratitude for our forgiveness can truly be a form of repentance to restore our relationship with our heavenly Father, when we are sinning against Him in condemning the weaker brother in his feeble attempt to worship.
The older brother called the prodigal son, this son of “__ __ __ __ __”, v30
The Father called the prodigal son, “__ __ __ __” brother, v32
Do you see the need for repentance in the older brother?
If the older brother didn’t repent and join the party, could the family ever be functional?
Teaching this parable to people that want to become a Christian should show them that repentance isn’t always a negative loss in our life, it actually can be a positive gain!
Here are verses which will help people understand what true repentance is and why God demands repentance. Matthew 3:8, Acts 17:30, 2nd Peter 3:9 and 2nd Corinthians 7:10. If we emphasized repentance with people as much as we emphasized baptism, God would certainly change more lives than we see changed in the church today! A lack of repentance in our message is what encourages so much worldliness in the church today.
Epaggelia 