We are continuing our series today entitled: “Can I Get a Witness?” Jesus is looking for you and for me to be a “witness” - a witness of who He is; a witness of the Kingdom that is here now spiritually, and that will arrive in physical form when Jesus returns not long from now.

 

Today I want to start to break down Luke 10, which gives a model of how we are to be a witness and the first way is to be a “forerunner”. Jesus said that the 70 witnesses needed to “go before Him”, where He was about to go. The church has a “forerunner” ministry, that is we are called to go before Christ and proclaim the truth of the Gospel… and also inherent in that is to address sin and judgement to come.

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William Booth back around the turn of the 20th century, the late 1800s he started the Salvation Army and he had these prophetic words to say: “The chief dangers of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

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Booth was right; he understood that the church would give way to cultural temptations and be lured into comfort and satisfaction and preach a soft, watered-down message. But John the Baptist as the first forerunner understood that if he was to be carrying the gospel in advance of Jesus, to declare the way of Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven that he would have to call out sin. No wonder Jesus said:

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Luke 7:28 “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John, yet even the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

If you are willing to humble yourself and live as a “forerunner” - you too can be great in the Kingdom. Live as a standard of truth in dark times; boldly preach repentance, be unashamed to speak about the blood of Christ as the only way to receive forgiveness. There are people in your world who need to hear the gospel message.

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Join us in person on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. or via livestream by going to https://www.firstbaptistsudbury.com and clicking on livestream for “The Wilderness Way.”

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Blessings,

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Kevin