Over the past five weeks, we’ve been talking about the message and mission of Jesus - what he said and what he did. As we look at Jesus’ message and mission, we also find the message and mission he has for us as a community. This week, we looked at Jesus’ mission to establish “the new people of God.”
In the centuries before and during the time of Jesus, God’s people were literally a nation. The nation of Israel. First as a people under God’s leadership through prophets and judges, then as a nation with a king. When the people obeyed and honored God, he blessed them. When they disobeyed and worshiped other gods, he allowed other nations to conquer them. This is a pattern repeated over and over throughout history. Yet throughout this recurring disobedience, the prophets talked about a time coming when the people would return to God and live in obedience. At this time, he will truly be their God, and they will truly be his people. That’s what we’re talking about here.
As you can see on the map, at the time of Jesus, the nation of Israel had been reduced to a province of the Roman Empire - and a relatively unimportant province at that. Many of the people lived in expectation of a new king coming who would break the shackles of Roman domination and restore the glory of God’s kingdom - Israel.
But this was not God’s plan. He planned to establish a new people of God, but not a geographical kingdom with boundaries, taxes, and an army. The new People of God is the church. It is a community, a family, a fellowship; made up of people from all nations and ethnicities, all walks of life; not bound by time or space; including people from around the globe and across the millennia; the community of those who have submitted themselves to Jesus’ leadership and committed themselves to living in Jesus’ community.
When we commit ourselves to Jesus, we join the New People of God. We can’t help it. God adds us to the community. He makes us one, he unites us.
He doesn’t fix us. We’re still all messed up, even though we’re God’s people. But we’re a community. We’re God’s community of broken-yet-healing people that provides love, support and accountability for each other as we share our spiritual journey.
Want to journey with us? Give us a shout or just come by our meeting this Sunday.
Part of the mission of Jesus was to turn the world upside down. He came to tear down power structures and reshape values. Political, religous, and social systems had run wild in his day. People were valued for what they could do and how much money they had and for which religious party they favored. Religious leaders cared less about the spiritual life than they cared about holding on to their positions of power and prestige. The regular folks weren’t even in the picture. Jesus was intent on saying “That’s not how things work in MY community.”
Jesus’ closest followers had a hard time grasping this. Jesus had to call them down and explain this to them very clearly (Mark 10.42-45, New Living Translation of the Bible):
So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Unfortunately, in our culture, we share those same values that Jesus confronted in his day. We value people because of what they offer us rather than because of who they are. We respect people because they’re powerful in business or because they have money. For some of us, this is accidental. We try not to. For others, there’s no question, it never occurs to us to think otherwise.
At The Well, we work hard to respect people for who they are. Our leaders work as hard as everyone else. There’s no task that any of us is “too good” to do. We are committed to these upside down values and to this idea of servant leaders. And we invite you to hold us accountable for this - call us on it when we fail.
Many centuries ago, God’s people had turned away from him. They began to go their own way, worshiping other gods, abusing the poor, and generally rejecting God’s path for them. Finally, God allowed them to go their own way. He allowed their enemies to conquer them and, as was the custom then, to carry them off as slaves. Yet, even as God let them experience the consequences of their actions, he still loved them deeply and longed for their return. In the midst of their captivity, he sent this tender message by one of the prophets, a man named Ezekiel.
I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel once again.
When the people return to their homeland, they will remove every trace of their vile images and detestable idols. And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.
Part of the mission of Jesus was to take those hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh, and this is still his mission in our lives today.
I can relate to those people. I need a new heart. It seems that I’m constantly wrestling with my stony, stubborn heart. Sometimes I feel like God has called me to do things too big for me - things I just don’t want to do. I’d rather sit at home. I’d rather withdraw into myself and my own space. I’ve got my own problems, I don’t need to tack on anyone else’s!
I wonder if Jesus ever felt that way? Jesus exemplifies the life of service. A tender heart. Responsive to God’s call and to the needs of those around him. Giving up his own rights and desires to carry out the mission set before him.
God, please take my stony, stubborn heart away and give me a heart like his.
The message of Jesus is a message of freedom from bondage to sin. The Bible tells a story from early in Jesus’ work that illustrates this side of his teaching:
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” (Luke 4.16-21)
I love this story. I picture Jesus unrolling this scroll, and taking a while to find his place in the scroll, then reading the passage. Then he takes a while to roll it back up and give it back, then finds his seat. Everyone is watching. Everyone is waiting. Then Jesus delivers one sentence - “this is it!” I imagine it going off like a bomb. “What is he saying? Who does he think he is? What is happening?”
Some people say Jesus came to judge or condemn. Jesus says he came with a message of release, sight, good news, favor, and freedom. He knows that people are sinful. He knows that people struggle with addictions, relationships, broken promises, and broken people. I don’t know about you, but I know what it’s like to feel bound up in problems, most of them of my own making. I know what it’s like to feel oppressed by life, trapped in sin, feeling unable and unworthy to connect to God or to his community. In this context, Jesus offers a message of freedom from bondage.
Do you feel trapped? Come share the freedom of Jesus with us.
The message of Jesus is a message of forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness of sin means that our guilt is taken away. Reconciliation with God means that we have a new relationship with God. Forgiveness is great, but when reconciliation is added to forgiveness, that’s incredible. God doesn’t just offer forgiveness - a sort of pardon for crime, saying “I won’t give you the punishment you deserve.” He goes way beyond forgiveness in adopting us as his children and giving us full status as members of his household. I love how this is expressed in the Bible, in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Rome: (Romans 5.6-11)
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Maybe your relationship with God isn’t very good right now. Maybe you’ve made him promises that you haven’t kept. Maybe you want to follow Jesus, but can’t seem to break the grip of sin and guilt in your life. Whatever the case, let me encourage you to take heart. God paid a high price for you. He values you. He’s not looking to dump you at the first sign of trouble. God is in it with you for the long haul. It’s not just forgiveness, it’s reconciliation - a new and lasting relationship.
Keep fighting the good fight because you are a friend of God, not because you’re afraid he’ll dump you. God will stick with you through good times and bad, and so will I.
Many centuries ago, God’s people had turned away from him. They began to go their own way, worshiping other gods, abusing the poor, and generally rejecting God’s path for them. Finally, God allowed them to go their own way. He allowed their enemies to conquer them and, as was the custom then, to carry them off as slaves. Yet, even as God let them experience the consequences of their actions, he still loved them deeply and longed for their return. In the midst of their captivity, he sent this tender message by one of the prophets, a man named Ezekiel.