We
live in a world dominated by technology. That has become even more true of the
last two months. The church is no exception. For the last 482 weeks I have been
doing this online devotion, for the last two months I have been doing a morning
Bible study on Face Book, and for those same two months we have done our
worship service on Face Book and You Tube and our church web site. And though
we are back meeting live together we will still be online also. So, the world
and the church are both centered in technology.
But
no matter the form we use to do ministry, it has to be done in the name of and
for the honor of Jesus. So, how did Jesus do ministry? I want to explore that
question.
I
want to begin our study of how Jesus did ministry by looking at the attitude of
Jesus.
Attitude
reveals our way of thinking about ourselves and others. As followers of Jesus,
effectiveness in doing ministry is greatly affected by our attitude.
Jesus’
Attitude
Jesus
Was Sure of His Calling.
Jesus
was supremely confident. He was confident because He was sure that the Father
has sent Him. Jesus began His ministry in Galilee. He preached in His home town
synagogue and spoke from Isaiah 61 which is a messianic passage. He began by
reading, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me.” He
ended the reading by saying, “In very hearing this text has come true.” Jesus
was claiming to be the Messiah sent by the Father.
Jesus
knew, with no doubts, that He had been sent by the Father with a specific
mission. In the same way that the Father sent Jesus, Jesus has sent us.
John
20:21
As
the Father has sent Me, so I send you.
We
as followers of Jesus can be sure, like Jesus was sure, that we have been sent
into the world. We stand in the world neither intimidated by its hostility nor
arrogantly scornful of it. This is not a self-confidence that borders on
brashness and pride. It is God-confidence of people who know that they belong
to God and that God has sent them into the world with a God-directed mission.
It is the confidence of one like Jesus who is sure of their calling.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing what our calling from God is in the
world.
Jesus
Really Loved People
The
love of Jesus for people was so different from love as humans usually
understand it that the New Testament writers used a little-known Greek word in
the world of their day to describe. It is a word free from anything sordid or
trivial. The word is agape. This is a word that is distinctively associated
with how Jesus loved people and is used for how we as followers of Jesus are to
love. It is a love without conditions or boundaries and a love that never ends.
John
13:1
Now
before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to
depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the
world, He loved them to the end.
Jesus
loved His disciples with a persistent love that survived their slowness to
learn and their tendency to let Him down.
John
11:3
So,
the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
Jesus
also loved others of His friends outside the twelve.
Mark
10:21
And
Jesus, looking at him loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing; go sell
all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven;
and come follow Me.”
Jesus
loved those who rejected His call to follow Him.
Luke
23:34
“Father,
forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”
Most
amazing of all is the love Jesus showed on the cross for those who put Him to
death. And that statement is not just for the Romans and Jews of that day but
for each of us also.
Matthew
5:44
But
I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
The
words that Jesus spoke about God’s love have the ring of truth because they are
consistent with the way He lived and the way He died.
So,
if we are to share in the mission of Jesus, we need an attitude of genuine
love.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving people, really loving people, like
Jesus did and does.
Jesus
Cared About Unwanted Individuals
We
can learn a great deal about people from their attitudes to the misfits of
society. Some bully them, some despise them, some laugh at them, some patronize
them, some ignore them with embarrassment. The attitude of Jesus to those no
one else bothered with was like none of those mentioned above. Jesus’ care for
unwanted individuals is one of the most gracious things about Him.
In
Mark 1:40-42 Jesus encounters a leper. The leper implores Jesus to heal him.
Most people would have gotten way from the leper for fear of getting leprosy or
from fear of becoming ceremonially unclean. But Jesus says that He wants to
make the man unclean and He reaches out and touches the man with leprosy and
heals him. Jesus didn’t have to touch the man to heal him. Jesus had healed
others by words and even words at great distances. Jesus knew that the man not
only needed to be healed but needed a human touch.
In
Mark 5 Jesus encounters a wild and scary man who was demon possessed. The man
was violent and dangerous to himself and others. Jesus met the man with so much
rage with calm and commanded the demon to come out of the man. Jesus was not put
off or intimidated by the man’s condition.
The
church needs to not only accept messy, hurting, troubled people, but the church
needs to specifically reach out to messy, hurting, troubled individuals. Jesus
did and, as His hands and feet, we need to.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving and accepting and reaching out to
unwanted individuals.
The
church is the Body of Christ. That means we are to be who Jesus is and do what
Jesus did.
In
the Likeness of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
No comments:
Post a Comment