What makes Jesus the greatest missionary who walked the planet?
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To say that Jesus is the greatest missionary who walked the planet might seem like a statement of the obvious to anyone who is already a Christian.
You might ask ‘in a teaching series on great missionaries of the Bible, why didn’t we start with Jesus?’ and there is a good answer to that question.
We started with Isaiah because Jesus himself modelled his own ministry and mission on Isaiah – and today we’re going to see Jesus declaring himself – giving us his manifesto. And he is going to use Isaiah’s own words to do it.
You may also say “Well, this is all very interesting theology, but what has it got to do with us today?” and the answer to that question is also simple:
It matters because
Jesus mission is the church’s mission.
What he was sent to do, we have also been sent to do!
- Our mission is the same as his!
It would be very easy for us to read Luke 4 and say to ourselves “well, that was all right for Jesus in his day – after all he was the Son of God so he had every right to say ‘the spirit of the Lord is upon me’ – As for me in 2012 things are very different, and I’m not the Son of God!”
But while we may feel that way, the truth is that the church is here
As the father sent the son, so the son sends his disciples
In John 20 , after Jesus crucifixion, the disciples hid themselves away because they knew that the Jewish authorities were after them – possibly with murderous consequences – so they locked themselves in a room. Suddenly Jesus arrived, standing with them in the room and said “Peace be with you!”
They were overjoyed to see Jesus again and we can imagine the surging emotions that must have been ripped through their minds and they saw, in the flesh, a man they had seen publicly murdered, dead and buried. Joy, fear, amazement, mystification – you name it!
This was a seminal moment for Jesus and for the disciples, so the words Jesus uses at this moment are going to be crucial – what did he say to his gob-smacked friends?
20:21 “Peace be with you”
He wanted to bring some reassurance that they weren’t seeing things. But then one step further
“as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you!”
Do you realise the importance of this?
- As disciples of Jesus, we are the God-appointed extension of Jesus’ own ministry!
If Jesus was here thos morning and said that to you, probably lating his hands on you asa sign of being commissioned, I’m sure you would take that commission very seriously indeed.
Our mission as the church of Jesus Christ is to replicate the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus mission is the church’s mission.
Matthew 5:14-16
There’s another reason that we know that the ministry of Jesus is the ministry of us – his church …
as the father gives power to the son, so the son gives power to his disciples
It didn’t stop with Jesus sending them (and sending us by inference)
John 20:22 and he breathed on them and said “receive the Holy Spirit.[IW – does the definite article appear in Gk – no!] If you forgive sins they are forgiven, if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven.”
You cannot be a disciples of Jesus Christ without the power of the Holy Spirit! And the holy spirit is his gift to you if you are a believer.
Every christian believer is indwelled with God’s Holy Spirit!
Of course not every believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, But he lives in each one of us – it you’ve trusted Christ.
We have the same commission and access to the same power that Jesus had .
There’s another reason
the church is the body of Christ
Ephesians 1:22-23 God placed all things under Christ’s authority and appointed him to be the head and origin of the church – which is his body”
In the same way that your body is the physical representation of who you really are, so the church is the physical expression of what God is really like.
Our bodies put our wilful ideas into action. You can’t achieve anything just by thinking about it! You have to use your physical capacities to make anything happen.
So it is with the church. Jesus Christ’s will and purpose for the world can only be brought into being by us, the church! We are the physical part of the spiritual reality! We are his body!
1 Peter 2:21 says “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps”
Even suffering – and the way we face it in Christ is intended to be an example to the world outside the church that God is real and that we are Christ’s body.
SO if Jesus’ mission is the church’s mission, what was Jesus’ mission? How did he explain it?
To grasp this we need to look at Luke 4 – today’s Bible reading –
Let me give you the back-story, and then you’ll see how important this was.
Backstory
Jesus was baptised Luke 2:22 – and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
Then ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ he went into the desert and what happened? Fame, reputation? No! Temptation. Probably the fiercest temptation he ever faced
Luke 4:1-2
After this trauma was over he came back to Galilee
Luke 4:14. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit
Jesus became a very popular teacher – a man on a mission.
14b … news about him spread through the whole countryside.
15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
This man has really got something!
It’s no accident that Luke makes these two observations (about Jesus spiritual power and his personal popularity) as the headline for what he is about to happen
Nazareth was Jesus home town and he was well-known there
He went to synagogue – his regular custom – to worship
It was the Jewish custom to allow visiting men a chance to ‘give a word’
and when Jesus turned up no doubt the leaders were more than keen to have him speak
and he did what was expected of him – he read a portion of scripture and then expanded upon it.
What Luke wants us to observe if how Jesus words were received? they couldn’t refute them
Because he was reading from scripture.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Here is Jesus’ manifesto – is mission statement
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,
Whatever it was he said, there was no escaping the fact that something unique was happening here
someone of great power and authority had arrived
And using this quotation from Isaiah Jesus gave us the guts of the mission He was engaged in.
The building blocks of Jesus’ ministry
The Holy Spirit’s power and energy
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
preaching good news
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
The word ‘preach’ had a much wider meaning than it does today – it’s the idea of a ‘herald’ of God’s message – and that’s what Christ calls us to do – be heralds of his message
And who are we heralding the good news to? The poor.
We must be careful not to limit the ‘poor and captives and blind and oppressed’ to physical and social states.
Jesus said in Revelation 3:17, to the church of Laodicea, “You say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing’; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
The arrogant, self-satisfied, wealthy England is utterly poverty-stricken and miserable in God’s eyes, and ought to be in our eyes. Many of us work with those people and your heart should go out to them just like Jesus’ did to Zacchaeus.
bringing freedom and release
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
>>>
bringing sight and insight
recovery of sight for the blind,
When Isaiah used these words he had, not long before, said this
See darkness covers the earth, thick darkness the peoples but the Lord rises on you and his glory appears over you! (Isaiah 60:2)
SO his reasoning is very simple – the darkness that is a consequence of abandoning God in your lives is going to be dispelled by the Lord – and I am his agent here!
That was Jesus manifesto – an the mission of Jesus is the mission of the church!
lifting oppression
to release the oppressed,
proclaiming God’s favour
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Every 50 years in ancient Israel there was a year of Jubilee.
ON the year of Jubilee, debts were written off, land was returned to its original owners and great celebrations took place to glorify God for his abundant goodness ot the people.
That, at least, was the theory. And here is Jesus saying “I’ve come to bring the reality”
God is for you, not against you!
When we see the words ‘he sat down’ we think of him returning to his seat in the audience. Actually Luke intends us to notice something very different. Sitting down was the position a rabbi would use to teach from. So here is Jesus sitting down, on the platform, adopting the pose and the place place of the rabbi to teach everyone. He’s asserting his authority by doing this.
V21 and he began by saying “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”
22 and everyone spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
But not everyone liked what he was saying
“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus preaching put them on the spot! they had to decide what they thought of this man!
- on the one hand he was gracious, Spirit empowered and well educated
- on the other – wasn’t he old Joseph’s son?
- Jesus preaching put them on the horns of a dilemma
They had to choose between the gracious and powerful teaching
- or the prejudice they harboured against the humble working-class background that was Jesus origin
What did they choose?
- Prejudice!
- Their prejudice had clouded their thinking!
- and more importantly had presented God with an almost impenetrable barrier in their hearts
Unbelief
Jesus was well aware that the Jews he was facing in this synagogue refused to believe the reports they’d heard of his healing people in Capernaum
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: `Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your home town what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ”
They had clearly heard about Jesus healing people in Capernaum and now they wanted him to do the same
“Come on – give us a floor show”
- If they didn’t believe what they’d heard what chance would there be of them believing what they saw?
- the issue here is one of taking to heart the message God is giving through the miraculous events, not a matter of which of the five human senses are used in order that evidence is received
- seeing or hearing? it makes little difference! You’re not going to believe me anyway!
Their scepticism was a flimsy mask for their unbelief – and Jesus saw right through it
- it’s not that they couldn’t believe, it is simply that they wouldn’t.
When scepticism is linked with a genuine desire to know God’s truth then God takes the sceptic very seriously indeed
- Doubting Thomas is a classic example.
But this is different >>>
- And the behaviour of these Jews was about to prove Jesus right.
they couldn’t accept them
- The tragedy of the synagogue believers was their minds had become closed to God.
Two stories
We saw last week how Isaiah was commissioned to preach God’s word, but warned that he wouldn’t be heard.
Now Jesus, God’s Son is experiencing the same!
24 “I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his home town.
Jesus wasn’t ranting, he wasn’t being verbally aggressive in his presentation –
- After all, Luke makes it very clear that the people listening to Jesus were amazed at how gracious his preaching was.
- how tactful, how honest
- But they couldn’t escape the impact of the message coming from Jesus lips. To them it was a clear as daylight!
- God has passed you by!
And Jesus did this by two skilfully chosen illustrations
- both of which would have been well-known to virtually every Jew present in the building
Elijah
God knew there were many widows in Israel
- But to whom did He send Elijah? – to one in Sidon!
Now they all knew the geography of Israel well enough to know that Sidon was not part of the promised land!
- The people of Israel had rejected God to such an extent that – in spite of the need within the land – God sent Elijah to bring healing to someone outside!
- … and that was a shocking truth for them.
Elisha – same logic
many lepers in the land
- but whom did God choose to heal through his servant?
- Naaman! – a Syrian general
The people of Israel had rejected God to such an extent that – in spite of the need within the land – God sent Elisha to bring healing to someone outside!
- and not just anyone – this was God healing a General from an opposing army!
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
You bet they were!
It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to understand why there was such a violent reaction to Jesus mission when he used these two carefully chosen illustrations.
- He was compelling these bible reading, Sabbath keeping Jewish people to face their own rejection of him – and thus their rejection of God
Who is it that parallels the people of Israel in their rejection of Elijah?
- Why, you do! Sitting here in the synagogue!
Who is it who has rejected God to such an extent that he is pouring out his spirit elsewhere?
- you are!
And at that moment the worshipping group turned into a viscous mob
29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff.
It’s not too hard to see the implications for 2012
When we become too familiar with either the message or the messenger there is a real danger that
we can reject
- because it is uncomfortable
- because it catapults me out of my comfort zone
- or because it comes from someone I have rejected out of prejudice.
- a younger person,. perhaps
- or someone who doesn’t have the spiritual pedigree that I’m so proud of
Beware! God chooses his own messengers!
