HIS GRACE IS ENOUGH

For any other rabbi, the actions of the disciples of Jesus would have ended their positions as followers. They had totally failed their Master Teacher. Maybe they thought it was all over because John 21 tell us that the disciples had decided to go back to fishing. That was their occupation before Jesus called them out to follow Him.

But Jesus wasn't like other Rabbis. Instead of rebuke, He reinstated them. He encouraged them, and then He commissioned them. WHY?

GRACE--HIS GRACE

They certainly didn't deserve it. There was not one thing they could do to earn the favor of their teacher, and they knew it. So they did the only thing they knew to do, they went back to their old life. But Jesus had no intention of letting them go back to their old lifestyle, and He has no intention of letting us return to our old life either.

Why would He reinstate them? Because Jesus had faith in His disciples. He knew what they were capable of doing. When we see in the text Jesus becoming frustrated with the disciples, it isn't because of their failure, it is because of their greatness. They just didn't realize how capable they are. (Rob Bell)

Then He commissioned them to go and make disciples themselves. WHOA!!! Jesus wants this bunch of rejects to go out and find someone like them and make disciples of them? Yes!! Yes!!! (Do you realize that the future of the Church and the spread of the Gospel was in the hands of the 11 "not-good enoughs"?) But Jesus had done His work well. They would indeed become like their Rabbi, and in turn, would make disciples who would would be like them and in turn, like Jesus. And they did.

We don't have a record in the Bible of the 40 days between the resurrection and the day Jesus ascended, and oh, I wish we did!!! I would imagine those guys absorbed every word Jesus spoke. But before He left them, He told them to go into the world, to preach and make more disciples. And with the power of the Holy Sprit, they did, and the world hasn't been the same since. They turned this world upside down.

Because of their obedience, we are here today, 2000 years later. And the same commission is for us. We are to become like Jesus, and teach others to do the same.

Here is our problem. Just like the disciples, we have sinned--over and over. We have failed Him so many times, we think there is no way Jesus would ever want to use us. But He does. The same grace that extended to the disciples, is extended to us today. He has a plan for our lives, and it isn't to go back to the old way of life. He wants to restore us, and make us whole.

Here is what I want us to think about. If grace costs us nothing, and it doesn't, what is keeping us from accepting it? It really isn't an issue of enough or not enough grace. The Bible says that His grace is sufficient. It just requires the loving gift of our Heavenly Father who willingly gave it to us the day he gave His Son on the Cross. He gave it to everyone who would accept it. The issue is, do we believe this?

Our Rabbi thinks we can be like Him. (Do you realize that the future of the Church and the spread of the Gospel depends on us, the "not-good-enoughs"?) What is stopping us??????
-jl