A person's last words are often considered important when they know they are about to die. I say 'often' because there are some surprising last words recorded of men. They can give insight to the deep thoughts of a person who leaves their earthly existence to pass on forever. What is on their mind is what they utter.
There are last words in important roles, such as President, Pastor, Father to a bride to be, or groom to be. Things are said that the person completing their role in the life of another want to be sure to pass along to that person with the importance that the role they are completing will lend to those words. I can remember the last words I spoke as Pastor at Church at the Crossroads in New Hampshire. I remember the last words I spoke as a student at Melodyland High School. In both of these situations I spoke words of encouragement and exhortation based on the position of shepherd and as valedictorian of my class. Words, that could be heard because of the role I played or position I had attained.
I have been contemplating the last instructions Jesus gave His disciples before He left earth and before He left the role of full-time, present-in-the-flesh teacher. The words He spoke carried the weight of His deity, His position as Teacher, His relationship as trusted Leader, His reputation of righteousness and faithfulness, and the weight of being His deepest concern as He was leaving. It was annointed by the Holy Spirit and therefore carried the weight of the glory of God the Father!
What were His last instructions? When you piece together the last instructions found in the gospel accounts and in the first chapter of the Book of Acts you see that Jesus instructs the Disciples to wait upon God for the power of the Holy Spirit which would empower them to go and preach the gospel. He wants them to be sent out with the power of God to be witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which brings salvation to men and women everywhere. The emphasis here, is that we need power for evangelism.
At the end of the book of Matthew we have what we call the "Great Commission." This is the final work order from the boss. He states that He has all authority and gives it to the disciples for the express purpose of making disciples of all nations, baptizing them into a new life, and teaching them the commands of Christ and the importance of obedience to those commands. In other words, go witness to my life, death, and resurrection so that others might be saved, and then teach them how to live by my commands.
Hmmm...there we go. That's what we are supposed to do. God gives us tools and authority to spread the truth of the gospel. What is God after? He is after the souls of mankind. What has he sent us after? The souls of mankind. What is our message? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. What is our method? Proclaiming the story of Christ and His words. What is our engine or propulsion? The authority of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
What has your message been? What has my message been? What has the church's message been? What has our focus been? Time to check your focus? Time to place things in perspective given what Jesus has told us to do? I know I need my focus worked on continually and suspect we are all in the same boat.
I have many more thoughts to express on this but this is a blog not a thesis paper. I need to keep my thoughts on what is important. Life has a way of taking us along a long road of troubles and work, fun and friends, tasks and projects. The good, bad and the beautiful (I hate two negatives against one!) We are consumed with so much. But what are we to be doing?
Be Strong in the Lord! Do His work!
