From Moment to Mission • What to do After You Believe | What Comes After Salvation? | Yeshua Sermon

The Importance of the Initial Decision

The teaching begins by acknowledging the vital significance of the moment when someone decides to follow Jesus. This decision can be described in various ways, such as accepting Jesus, following Him, or asking Him into one’s heart. Regardless of the terminology used, this choice to follow Yeshua Jesus, the good news presented in the Gospels, is highlighted as the most crucial decision a person will ever make. The speaker shares their own experience of making this decision at a young age and getting baptized. While recognizing the importance of this initial moment of salvation, the teaching emphasizes that it is not the complete picture.

Beyond the Moment: Understanding the Gospel and the Kingdom

The core of the teaching shifts to exploring what comes after this initial moment of belief. The speaker reflects on their own past struggle to fully grasp the implications of that decision for their life, what it truly means to follow their King, and the essence of the Gospel. It’s pointed out that simply understanding the steps to salvation, such as confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in His resurrection, while foundational, may not fully translate into a transformed life. This leads to the central question of what believers are truly supposed to do with the knowledge of saving grace and how it should govern their lives and actions.

To gain deeper understanding, the teaching delves into the concept of the Kingdom of Heaven as presented by Yeshua. Jesus’s public ministry began with the message to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Understanding the historical context is crucial here. In the first century, the people of God were familiar with human kingdoms characterized by military might and control. Therefore, when Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, it carried significant weight and implied a different kind of rule. Unlike earthly kingdoms, Jesus’s concept of heaven doesn’t primarily focus on believers going somewhere after death, but rather on God’s reign coming here to earth.

The idea of God’s kingdom is traced back to the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, where God, as the ultimate King, installs humans to rule on His behalf. The conflict arises when humanity chooses to define good and evil for themselves, leading to God’s plan to reassert His rule. This plan involves choosing Abraham’s family to represent His kingdom and ultimately culminates in Yeshua’s arrival. Jesus’s claim to be king was the reason for his public execution by human rulers who saw it as a threat. As a king bringing a kingdom, Jesus calls people to follow Him, demanding a decision that goes beyond a mere intellectual acceptance.

Living Under the King’s Reign: Teaching and Action

Living under Jesus’s reign involves both teaching and action. Jesus traveled, preaching the good news of the kingdom and teaching in synagogues, while simultaneously healing every disease and sickness. His kingdom operates on principles that are a total reversal of earthly power structures. In Yahweh’s kingdom, greatness is found in weakness, in loving enemies, and in serving outsiders. Jesus’s ultimate act of sacrifice brings about Yahweh’s kingdom and conquers sin and death, aiming to transform human nature. The crucial question for believers then becomes: will we follow Him and work to bring about His kingdom on earth by defining good and evil as He does? Will we transform our moment of salvation into our ongoing mission? Yahweh’s response to humanity’s self-definition of good and evil is to reassert Himself through us, His people. His kingdom is characterized by loving enemies and caring for the poor and oppressed.

The Hardest Teaching: Loving Your Enemies

The teaching highlights one of the most challenging aspects of living as an image-bearer of King Yeshua: loving your enemies. Drawing from the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 5:38-48, the concept of responding to humiliation and shame is explored. The traditional interpretation of “turn the other cheek” is challenged, suggesting that a disciple of Jesus responds with something more profound, an agape love.

The Greek word agape is explained as an attitude, a mindset, and an action that flows from it, rather than just a feeling. It involves choosing to view others as Yahweh sees them – as human beings made in His image, who are beloved. This decision to show kindness and generosity needs to be made proactively, even towards those who treat us poorly. The command to “love your neighbor” from Leviticus 19:18 is discussed in its historical context, including the debate in Jesus’s time about who qualified as a neighbor. Jesus expands this concept to a love without boundaries, encompassing even enemies. This kind of love reflects the nature of God, who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on both the evil and the good, the righteous and the unrighteous. This divine generosity should be mirrored by the people of the kingdom.

The teaching concludes by emphasizing that the goal is to be “perfect” or, more accurately, complete, as the heavenly Father is complete. The Greek word teleos suggests completeness in knowing how to act in all situations, choosing agape regardless of who one encounters. This mission of choosing kindness, despite our natural selfish tendencies, is the true heart of God. When humanity rules by its own definition of good and evil, violence ensues. God’s upside-down kingdom offers a different way, a challenging path of love and kindness. The speaker reflects on personal experiences, including grief, as moments that deepened their understanding of what it means to be an image-bearer of their King. Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the teaching underscores the futility of violence and the transformative power of love and light. The ultimate goal is to spend one’s life learning to look like the King, a difficult but worthwhile endeavor.

For more Bible Teachings, click here.

Application for Everyday Life

• Actively choose to show kindness and generosity to everyone, regardless of how they treat you.
• Seek to understand others as beings created in God’s image, who are loved by Him.
• Respond to conflict and humiliation not with retaliation, but with a proactive, agape love.
• Challenge your own definitions of “neighbor” and “enemy,” recognizing God’s love extends to all.
• Strive for completeness (teleos) in your actions, reflecting the character of your heavenly Father in all situations.
• Focus on the ongoing mission of the kingdom, not just the initial moment of belief, by actively working for God’s will on earth.
• Recognize that true strength lies in love and service, not in worldly power and dominance.
• Cultivate a “God-saturated” view of the world, recognizing His generosity in all things.

References

Bible Verses:

• Genesis 1
• Matthew 5:38-48
• Romans 10:9

Books and Resources Mentioned:

• The Bible
• Bearing God’s Name by Carmen Joy Himes
• Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community by Martin Luther King Jr.