John 20.21 observes, just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.
Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples has Him restating His purpose for not taking them with Him immediately into heaven. This purpose is lost to most of the Church. Every Christian should ask themselves why they are not immediately transferred to heaven upon their adoption as children of God. After all, parents adopting children don’t really feel they have adopted the child until that child is officially delivered into their arms as their own.
So too, God Whom we call Father, is in heaven while we remain on earth awaiting either His return or our death. Why? The answer is because the children of God are the means of God through whom He adopts the estranged from God to Himself.
Christians are left on earth for one purpose: to share with people God’s love for them through Jesus the Savior and announce their opportunity to become children of God through repentance and faith in God, the Lord Jesus, Who is the Christ. Failure to give our best and most effort to this mission is to fail at obeying God’s will for our lives. This work is the vocation of some but is to be the occupation of all who claim to be children of God.
When we live self-absorbed, self-seeking, self-promoting lives we demonstrate our disobedience to God and our apparent similar need to repent and have faith in Jesus the Savior because He is sending His people to do His work as He was sent from His throne in heaven. How did Jesus do His work?
First, it was the Father’s will not His. Jesus did not come to do His own will but the will of Him Who sent Him. Absolute adherence to the will of God was the way in which Jesus accomplished His work. The will of God, the salvation of the world, must be our primary work as well.
Second, Jesus came to save sinners. Jesus was a friend of sinners. Most Christians separate themselves from sinners failing to realize they are sinning when they do this. Christians see so little fruit among sinners because they place no seed in the midst of sinners. Christians must stop seeking isolation and begin to develop real relationships with people so that they can start winning people into God’s Kingdom.
Finally, the way Jesus became a friend of sinners was through serving people’s needs. Jesus came not to be served, though He is God, but to serve culminating in the surrender of His own life. Christians are to be the servants of all. The greatest Christian is the greatest servant. As we serve people we demonstrate love for people thus drawing people to the love of God.
Christians are to serve at their own expense and inconvenience so that people experience genuine love from God. This is how Jesus served and so we must do the same.
The Christian mission is clear, the example has been set, who will obey?
