As a general rule, I don’t like to get my hands dirty but that doesn’t mean I avoid getting them dirty.
For example, I love chicken wings and ribs but I hate having the buffalo and barbecue sauce all over my hands; does that stop me from eating wings and ribs – no way! There are also times when I need to work on my lawnmower or SUV but I hate getting my hands filthy from the work. In those times, there is the additional apprehension of not being fully sure as to HOW to fix what’s broken and sometimes that uneasiness will cause me to stall for a little while but because I need to get them fixed, eventually, I jump in, get my hands dirty and give it my best shot.
The reason I mention a few of my quirks to you is not to give you a better understanding of who I am but of who we are; you see, sometimes we as Christians attempt to avoid getting our hands dirty when it comes to reaching the world around us for Jesus.
In a recent Barna research survey on the subject, polls indicated that because of peer pressure, Millennials in general believe that it is wrong to share their faith with those who believe something else. Be that as it may, it has been my experience that MOST believers – Elders, Boomers, Millennials and Gen X-ers are reluctant to share their faith no matter how important they believe sharing it is. Based on that observation, let me ask you what Paul asked his Roman audience in [Romans 10 :14-15]:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!””
The fact IS that every believer has been sent on mission to seek and save that which IS lost. Jesus said in [John 20:21]:
“Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
On the day of His resurrection, as the sun was going down and He appeared to His disciples (see John 20:19-23), their part in the ongoing redemptive mission of His Father was the only thing on the Lord’s mind.
The men were afraid when they saw Him so He declared peace to them and showed them the wounds that made perfect peace with God possible – wounds which the living Lord bore to prove His power over death. Those wounds, and His words, coupled with the great joy of His followers at the Lord’s appearing would make the formerly fearful followers of Christ some of the most courageous witnesses for the Lord that the world has ever known.
In the New Testament, on at least four occasions Jesus or someone speaking about Him made a do as I did statement to believers: In [John 13:34] the Lord Jesus told us to love others in the same way that He has loved us. In (John 13:15) after washing the apostles feet, the Lord instructed believers beginning with those disciples, to serve others as He has served us. In (Colossians 3:13) we are instructed to forgive others as the Lord Jesus Christ as forgiven us (Jesus said as much in Matthew 6:14-15); and in (John 20:21) as we just read above, Jesus sends His followers both in that day and in our own, in the same way and for the same purpose as He was sent by God.
In what ways are the ways that God sent His Son similar to the way His Son is sending us?
Donald McLeod suggested some similarities in his book titled, A Faith to Live By: Understanding Christian Doctrine; there he wrote:
“[Jesus] did not, as incarnate, live a life of detachment – He lived a life of involvement. He lived where he could see human sin, hear human swearing (cursing) and blasphemy, see human diseases and observe human mortality, poverty and squalor. His mission was fully incarnational (and intentional) because He taught men by coming alongside them, becoming one of them and sharing in their environment and their problems.”
Jesus was NOT afraid to get His hands dirty. His mission was to become like us, to live among us and to be involved with us ultimately dying for us so that those who would believe could find forgiveness from and be reconciled to God and so that those who believed on His name would live forever in the presence of God.
To be sent by Him as He Himself was sent is to be as involved in the lives of those around us as He was and is in ours.
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