Way back in September, when we started Breakaway for the new school year we introduced our theme for the year as Jump! The whole idea was looking at the importance of jumping into a relationship with Christ. We picked this word for three main reasons.
First, we said that jump communicates no turning back! When someone jumps out of plane to skydive, there is no turning back. You are falling to the earth and there is no way to turn around and get back in the plane. You are all in, 100%, no turning back and that is how Christ wants us to be living in a relationship with Him.
Second, jump communicates excitement and fear. We compared this to a zip line on a ropes course. It takes guts to jump off the platform at first but once you have jumped you experience such excitement and joy. That is what it is like to follow Jesus. Sometimes it is hard to obey and follow but when we do, there is nothing like it!
The last thing we said was that, third, jump communicates something that stands out. As one person begins to jump in a crowded room, they are easily seen and look different from everyone else. They stand out and God uses their example to make a difference in the world around them.
We have spent the last four months going through the beginning of the book of Matthew. Specifically, we have been looking at some of the stories that involve the first disciples of Jesus, the very first ones to jump into a relationship with Him. As we have learned a lot from their examples and stories and how and why they followed this man named Jesus, tonight I want to turn the corner from focusing on those first disciples and look now at the disciples and potential disciples of Jesus that are in this room.
As we just stated, jumping in a relationship with Christ means that our lives should be standing out to others. We are called to live differently in the world than everyone else. What is supposed to be different about our lives as we jump into a relationship with Christ and how do we do that? As we will be answering that question slowly over the next few months, tonight I want to start at square one and think about why God want us to do something like that? At first glance, it doesn’t sound like it is a good thing.
I mean, just this morning, as I sat down to spend some personal time with Jesus, I began reading a new devotional I just got called Devotion (imagine that) by a guy named Mike Yaconelli. Would you believe it, the very first reading was all about how “disciples [of Jesus] are aliens in this world” and then the scripture reading was from the first letter that the disciple Peter wrote to the Jews living in the Roman Empire. In it he says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (NIV).”
What comes to your guys minds when thinking about being an alien? Maybe if you were seven, the thought of being an alien would be pretty cool when it was connected to Halloween or some kind of game. But to be asked to be an alien around your school, at your home (although I am sure that some of you would say your parents already think you are some kind of weird alien), or in the rest of the world doesn’t seem that attractive.
This term alien is especially a negative one nowadays with all of the political conversations going on about aliens and illegal aliens being in our country. There is a lot of oppression on people today just because they are a different ethnicity or originally from a different country. Again, doesn’t sound like much fun to me!
What about being a stranger? For most of us “stranger” is a very negative word as well. For most of our lives we are told to stay away from “strangers,” don’t get in the car with “strangers,” don’t take candy from “strangers” (thus making the concept of Halloween and very odd thing), and most of all, under no circumstances are we supposed to talk to “strangers.” With all of that being said, why would we want to be an alien or a stranger and even more so why would God ask us to do that?
To answer this question, I want to spend our remaining time together looking at a very simple put powerful passage in Paul’s letter to the church in a town called Ephesus. To help us get an idea of what Paul was saying, I have a video clip for us to watch first and then we will read Ephesians 5:1-2 all together.
***Play video clip***
***Read Ephesians 5:1-2 all together from the wall***
When Jesus began his ministry, he started gathering disciples by simply walking up to them and saying, “Follow me.” Different men, from many different backgrounds all dropped everything they were doing and followed Jesus wherever he went. They all watched and learned from this great teacher with both anticipation and frustration. They walked where He walked, listened to Him talk and teach firsthand, and they tried to mimic his attitude, abilities, and love.
Keep this in mind as we shift to the opposite end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Matthew tells us that Jesus gathered the disciples together on a mountain where He told them to go out into the world and teach people everything that He had taught them already. He tells them to go out and make more disciples and to baptize them into the family of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, He is telling them to go out and continue doing what He had already started. “I showed you the way, now you try.”
When God asks us to live as strangers and aliens in the world and when He challenges us with living differently in the world than others, He is simply asking us to “imitate God” and to “follow the example of Christ.” Think about the life of Jesus? Wasn’t Jesus always doing things that seemed to go against what everyone else was saying and doing? Wasn’t Jesus always going against the grain? Wasn’t Jesus living as a stranger and an alien compared to the way everyone else was living in the world? Jesus has been there done that and He is simply asking us to follow Him.
Furthermore, as we look at this passage, Paul charges us to imitate God because “you are his dear children.” Listen to that again - YOU are God’s DEAR children. First off, God has created us in His image. I know I have said this many times before but I feel like I can’t say it enough. Every single one of us in this room is not an accident that just simply arrived because of fate or chance. You are a planned, beautiful creation of God.
Secondly though, despite our sin and disobedience to His Word and Fatherly directions, He has loved and accepted us by taking the punishment that we deserved for us. Paul calls Jesus’ sacrifice of himself a beautiful aroma to God. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, he offers His hand to you as a son or a daughter, not just as a friend, as He has adopted you into His family! We are twofold, God’s dear children – by creation and by adoption. Just like in the video clip, we are to be like that little boy, happily following around his daddy, mimicking his every move.
As we jump into a relationship with Christ and work as hard as we can to imitate His love and work there is one last important thing to note. As we imitate God’s love here on earth and as we jump in situations where everyone else is standing, we will also imitate the change and the effects of Jesus’ life. In fact, John writes that Jesus claimed that “anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Even people who don’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God as He said he was or that he rose from the dead and preformed other miracles, most people you talk to would say that he was an amazing and wise teacher. Even the Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims consider Jesus to be a great teacher and example in their faiths. There are even some Jews who look at Jesus as a remarkable rabbi leader of His time. How would you like to do even greater things that Him during His time on earth?
God, as he adopted us into His family, has entrusted us to do His work in the world. Thus His words to the original disciples up on the mountain – “Go and make more disciples…and teach them to obey all the things I have taught you.” How amazing is that? That the God of the universe wants us to use our gifts, talents, and resources to be part of this cosmic story that has been going on since the beginning of time. He gives us a blank page and says, “Go for it! I have taught you how to hold the pen and how to draw – now imitate my format and make a masterpiece in My book.” Wow!
God calls us to live differently in the world because He did it first. As we are adopted into God’s family as dearly loved children and as we jump into a relationship with Christ we are casting off our old life and we are born again as a new creation in Christ. We are called to imitate God, exemplifying His amazing love in the world. As we do that, it won’t be easy as it is never easy to be different, but we can be sure that God will do great things through our lives. And in the end, when we are met by Christ’s loving embrace, we won’t have a single regret about following Him.
