John chapter 20 verse 25 informs us that Jesus taught a lot more than what was captured and recorded in our bibles. Nevertheless, there are enough of his words recorded that the depth and breadth cannot be exhausted in a lifetime of study. For the next few weeks I would like to write about some of the major things Jesus taught and how they apply to us as disciple-makers.

Willy, (not his real name) was an addict who lived in Thailand when we pastored there. A man in our church befriended Willy and over the course of more than one year of sharing the Gospel with Willy he decided to become a Jesus follower. The man who befriended Willy was not available to baptize him so I had the pleasure of being called in to perform the baptism. Willy was a bit shy but he sincerely wanted to follow Jesus. He asked that we not do the baptism at the church but rather in the Andaman Sea and that we not invite a lot of people. While church people were not invited it was impossible to avoid the attention of the sun bathers especially on the day we chose for the event.

Jesus has been crucified. The resurrection has taken place. The risen Jesus with a glorified body, unhindered by physical barriers like walls, occasionally shows up to meet with the disciples. One one of those occasions he instructs them to meet him in Galilee. When the disciples met up with Jesus their number had been reduced to 11. Judas is no longer alive because he succumbed to the temptation to earn money for himself and betrayed Jesus. This ultimately left him with such shame and remorse that he killed himself. At no time in history has any group of people experienced so many emotional highs and lows in such a short period of time. The disciples could rightly have wondered: what next?”

One of our national directors recently reported about a group of people who broke away from another church in their country. This group decided they would be Christians who consumed as much alcohol as they wanted and the men would allow themselves to have multiple wives. Fortunately, our director was able to step in and point out the difference between being Christians who make up their own rules and Jesus followers who are disciples.

When Darlene and I first became Jesus followers we found ourselves in a church where a revival had been happening for several months. Even though the fervor was dying down we saw many miracles. Marriages restored, adversaries reconciled, and new believers added to the church were the norm. Our eyes were certainly opened to aspects of being a Jesus follower that we had never known or previously experienced, even though we both grew up going to church regularly.

Foundations for Living founders, Dick and Susan Driedger, were also profoundly impacted by the same revival. In fact, Dick left his employment to lead a discipleship ministry for all the people who were becoming Jesus followers in the church they attended.

This statement was true when Jesus spoke it and it is still true today. The people in Jesus day were very ready for the coming of Messiah. Some 400 years had passed since a prophet had spoken. The people were living in the hope that some very old prophecies about Messiah would come true in their lifetime.

Why does Jesus call "Love One Another" a new command? Multiple times in the old testament and in multiple situations, prior to this event, in the new testament era, Jesus told his followers to love one another, to love their neighbors as themselves, to show love to the poor, etc.

I have come through the Easter weekend of 2024 profoundly touched by what Jesus did for me and for you and for everyone else as well by his death on a Roman cross.