{"id":5877,"date":"2023-06-25T15:16:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&#038;p=5877"},"modified":"2023-06-25T15:16:16","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T19:16:16","slug":"be-disciples-be-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/en\/sermons\/be-disciples-be-witnesses","title":{"rendered":"Be Disciples, Be Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+28%3A16-20&amp;version=NIV\">Matthew 28:16-20<\/a>]<\/strong> <sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.\u00a0<sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.\u00a0<sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jesus came to them and said,\u00a0\u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.\u00a0<sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,\u00a0baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,\u00a0<sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>and teaching\u00a0them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you\u00a0always, to the very end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Acts+1%3A6-9&amp;version=NIV\">Acts 1:6-9<\/a>]<\/strong> <sup>6\u00a0<\/sup>Then they gathered around him and asked him, \u201cLord, are you at this time going to restore\u00a0the kingdom to Israel?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>7&nbsp;<\/sup>He said to them:&nbsp;\u201cIt is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.&nbsp;<sup>8&nbsp;<\/sup>But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;&nbsp;and you will be my witnesses&nbsp;in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,&nbsp;and to the ends of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>9&nbsp;<\/sup>After he said this, he was taken up&nbsp;before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Abstract]<\/strong> The salvation of God is not merely for the individual, though it started individually, but it is also for building up the church. God intends that we should have a full abundance of life and restore the original order of creation. This chief intent is manifested through and by the church simultaneously. That is, the church is simultaneously the restored fallen man and the witness to the unsaved. Despite that our individual witness might not be complete. The collective church on the whole is sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to bear good witness, we need to mature to disciples. A disciple is not a mere student. But he mirrors the character and the likeness of his teacher. This teacher is Jesus for the Christians. To this end, discipleship starts with salvation at first. Salvation brings a relationship with God. Relationship with God brings growth and, thus, maturity. This brings us full circle back to Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/WkMessage\/2023456\/20230625%20Hui%20Song.MP3\">Audio download<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Matthew 28:16-20] 16\u00a0Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.\u00a017\u00a0When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.\u00a018\u00a0Then Jesus came to them and said,\u00a0\u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.\u00a019\u00a0Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,\u00a0baptizing them in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":5884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[199],"ctc_sermon_series":[],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[435],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"class_list":["post-5877","ctc_sermon","type-ctc_sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ctc_sermon_book-mat","ctc_sermon_speaker-huisong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/5877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5877"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/5877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5885,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/5877\/revisions\/5885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=5877"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfnj.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=5877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}