Jesus’ 5 Invitations Pt. 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. It’s been great all this week at this time of day, opening God’s Word, the Bible and seeing five invitations that Jesus makes to people as they journey through discipleship with Him. It starts off when they don’t even know Him. They hear about Him. They encounter someone who knows Him, and they’re curious.

And they ask Him where He’s staying, and He gives his first invitation. Well, just come and see, and that’s your first thing if you’re at that place in your life. Just find out more. Go to church. Ask the person who speaks after church. I want to find out more about God. They will talk to you about God. They’ll set up a meeting with you and help you find God.

The second invitation is to repent and believe in the gospel. Recognize you’re going the wrong way in your life, that nothing you’re trying is making your life whole, and that you need God in your life. And turn to God. Put your faith in Jesus and what He’s done for you to open a way to a relationship with God. The next invitation comes to people who are believers who have put their trust in God and turned to God through what Jesus has done for them.

And Jesus says, now follow me, build your life around me.

As they build their life around Him and grow in that relationship, He comes to them again, and He says, now follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. I’m going to teach you how to lead other people into this beautiful relationship with me in different situations.

They go on that journey then for about a year. And He comes to them then late in His time. In fact, it’s not long before he goes to the cross, and he says, I want to pray for you guys. And here’s what he prays in John chapter 17.

He says to the Father, I don’t ask you to take these guys out of the world. But that you keep them from the evil one while they’re in the world. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world, so sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Father, just as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

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Then Jesus goes from there and immediately is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane.

Has that horrible trial, torture, and then crucifixion. He dies on the cross. He rises again on Sunday. And then over the next few weeks He spends time meeting with the disciples before He ascends to be with the Father.

And during that time He meets with them and in John chapter 20.

This is what it says verse 20 and 21.

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, and Jesus said to them, Again, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me. Even so, I am sending you.

This is the next invitation from Jesus as you mature in your relationship with Him is to recognize that He is specifically sending you into the world to do just what He has done. To invite people to come and see.

To then challenge them to repent and believe in the gospel, to stop chasing the other things in their lives.

To then invite people who are already trusting in Jesus, who have already started a relationship with God, to challenge them. It’s not just about sitting in church, it’s about following Jesus. It’s about building your whole life around Him.

And then to say, look, I’ve learned to be a fisher of men. I’ve learned to share about Jesus and lead other people into that relationship with Him. Can I help you learn that as well and to take them on the journey of learning to be fishers of men.

That’s what Jesus is sending you into the world for as you mature, as you grow in Him, He wants you to be inviting other people into that journey, and that can start as soon as you have turned to God and found Jesus in your life. You can start inviting your family and friends, and then, as you learn to be an effective witness in other spheres of life, teach other people to do the same. Jesus’ 5 invitations are a map for you of journeying towards God.

Jesus wants you to be inviting other people into that journey with Him.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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