Sermon - January 15, 2017
The Way of Jesus # 2 – “I Am being Sent By Jesus To Bless Others and to Invite Them to Follow Him” John 3:16-17; John 20:21
Last week we began this series on the Way of Jesus by looking at the first marker of the Way of Jesus: “I have begun following Jesus and I am Depending on the Spirit of Jesus for my journey”. We talked about the importance of, no matter how long we’ve been in the Lord, no matter how long we’ve been Christ-followers, the importance of circling back to this beginning marker - ‘I have begun and I am depending’. This keeps us humble and realistic. It keeps us open to the Holy Spirit and open to God and others, like children.
We were reminded that Jesus said that we must become like children in order to enter the kingdom of God. We are beginning. Because we acknowledge this, we also give ourselves permission to be nowhere close to perfecting the Christian walk, as if that were ever a thing. We are starting out. We are beginning.
I’m just starting out, in the last year, playing the violin. I don’t expect myself to be very good at it by now. Believe me, I’m not. That gives me lots of room to grow, to not feel bad about where I am. It keeps me open to learning, to studying to improve.
And God gives us gifts to encourage us. Artin, our dear brother, is an accomplished violinist, and we’ve had the great pleasure of having him join us in worship a number of times over the past few months. To all of us, he is a blessing. He is actually incredibly skilled and has an excellent ear. To me, because I listen intently to his playing and am slowly, by osmosis, learning how he approaches the violin, he is a particular blessing. He doesn’t know it, but he is my teacher, because I listen and I’m learning from him.
God gives us gifts in each other to encourage us along the way. When we know we have a lot to learn, when we have some humility, we are open to growth and learning.
And we also know that we’re dependant on the Holy Spirit for our walk with Jesus, our journey with Jesus in this difficult life that holds much anxiety and suffering for many of us.
We’re reminded through this marker that everything is from God and for God. Remove the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, and we’re literally dead in the water. Church minus the Holy Spirit is nothing.
With the Holy Spirit, there is life and joy. With the Holy Spirit all of the promises of God are being made effective in our lives, preparing us for a much better life now, and for an eternity that is too beautiful for words.
So this is last week’s Way of Jesus marker: “I have begun following Jesus and I am Depending on the Spirit of Jesus for my journey”.
And this is this week’s marker: “I Am being Sent By Jesus To Bless Others and to Invite Them to Follow Him”.
To begin to explore this, let’s look at our key Scriptures that were just read for us: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:16, 17 NLT)
This is a familiar and powerful Scripture. It declares God’s character and attitude toward us and toward the rest of humanity. God loves.
Why does God love? God loves because He is love: “God is love”. 1 John 4:8
What do we mean by God so loves the world? Let’s look at how the Bible describes love, and then we will see how God loves. Let’s go through this thoughtfully: (One phrase at a time on PPT) “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).
This is God's description of love, and because God is love (1 John 4:8), this is what He is like. (https://www.gotquestions.org/God-is-love.html)
I thought I would look up the Greek definition for the word for God’s love, Agape, that is used in John 3:16. The definition includes: “Agape: to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly”.
I was surprised by that definition, until I thought about it and realized that you can’t love someone dearly without welcoming them, without being willing to engage them, without having actual affection for them.
So, God loves. That means God loves you, God loves me, God loves the person sitting beside you. God loves all those out in our community that He has sent here from around the planet. God loves.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:16, 17 NLT)
God loves to such an extent that He gave His Only Son Jesus who willingly laid down His life on the cross to reconcile, to bring us back to God through believing in His sacrifice for us.
He loves us so much that all we have to do is trust - to believe in Jesus – Who He is and what He has done - and we will have eternal life in God’s holy presence, not perishing for eternity to a place where God does not dwell. That’s the worse thing about hell. God is not there.
The passage continues: “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it”.
The purpose of God’s sending Jesus was not about condemning it. It was only about saving it.
Jesus was sent BECAUSE God so LOVED the world. WE are being sent by Jesus, also, because God so loves the world.
And God wants to do for EVERYONE what He has done for you – for all followers of Jesus Christ - He wants to save them. He wants to reach each each one.
How does He reach each one? He sends you and me to express His Agape love to people - to welcome, to entertain/engage, to be fond of, to love dearly”.
And again, this is this week’s marker: “I Am being Sent By Jesus To Bless Others and to Invite Them to Follow Him”.
So we’ve seen that God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. He was sent to bless, not to judge.
Jesus was sent, and in the gospel of John Jesus says to His disciples, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21 NLT)
As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus sends you and me. He sends His hands which are our hands, and His feet which are your feet, His body, which is this and every gathering of believers, the body of Christ. And He sends us to bless, not to judge.
I’m doing pastoral counselling with a young Muslim (Sikh) woman. There are a few (Muslims) I meet with.
The other day she said that compared to her own tradition, which takes a pretty judgemental view to people who are different, she finds the mission strange.
She sees all kinds of people walking around the Christian Community Centre freely and happily. P
eople of all faiths and creeds, people who are transgendered, what is now called non-binary. All kinds of people utilize the mission’s services and volunteer with us.
I’ve told her we welcome everyone, and we don’t judge anyone. That’s not our job. Why should I expect someone who is not a follower of Jesus to behave on any level like a follower of Jesus? That makes no sense.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
She is being drawn to Jesus because she’s seeing His love expressed. We have been sent as Jesus was sent, not to condemn the world, but to be a blessing. Jesus was sent “not to condemn but to save it”.
We know we can’t save the world. Jesus does that.
But we can and do put all of our energies at the Yonge Street Mission into being a blessing, to giving of ourselves, to loving; to welcoming, to engaging people where they’re at.
To getting to know and often becoming quite fond of people; to love people dearly.
This young Muslim (Sikh) woman is experiencing the love of God, and she may choose to follow Jesus. That’s always our prayer, because then the world opens up to people and life just becomes so much richer and fuller.
They enter into the abundant life that Jesus offers all of us, and that, hopefully, we take Him up on.
“I Am being Sent By Jesus To Bless Others and to Invite Them to Follow Him”.
My very dear friend Pastor Ron Farr, who is now serving with Forward Baptist Church, was originally going to be speaking today. He’s been not well and has been laid out sick.
So I didn’t have the usual amount of time to give earlier in the week to this message. That happens rarely - a scheduled speaker isn’t available. But it always makes me panic just a little bit.
But then I thought about the topic today and I realized I could spend the whole message talking about just how the people in this church operate every day as people who are sent by Jesus to bless others and invite them to follow Him.
So I’m going to embarrass some of you. Not all of you, because I don’t have time. And I’ll just touch on a little bit of the ways in which you bless others.
What’s lovely is that much or most of what you do to bless others is invisible to most people.
You do it because you love Jesus. And because you love Jesus you love the people he created, and you give of yourselves.
Helen and her visitation team visit people in hospital and in long-term care facilities.
I’ve been, years ago, before I came to the mission, in the hospital and spent the whole time there alone. I know what that feels like.
Helen and her visitation ministry team team makes sure that people don’t feel alone. They go and they reach out and they pray and they bless others, and they do it with love. It’s a beautiful thing.
Rob and Gary have had a ministry for years of serving meals at the Salvation Army, of giving out Bibles to people they meet on the street, of serving refreshments to us here after services.
That’s just what I know about. I know there’s more I don’t know about. And they do it with love. It’s a marvelous thing.
10 years ago I was the mission’s sound guy. On top of being the pastor, I had to do all kinds of stuff related to PA systems around the mission for various events, including at the church.
That took me away from pastoring and leading as I’m called to do, as I’m suppose to be doing.
But you know, William spends countless hours doing sound for us here on Sundays, for mission events, working on special sound installations recently, always eager and happy to step up and serve.
It relieves me of what would otherwise consume way too much of my time.
AND he prepares the Powerpoints each week, sends out music to the worship team, maintains the church’s online podcast presence, does video work for the mission. And he does it with love. It’s an amazing thing.
There’s Darlene who works all day with infants in Evergreen’s nursery and then comes to our Bridges program on Tuesday nights to lead the creative writing class.
I don’t have time but I could mention the loving work that Florence and Pastor Jan and Pastor Lee and Rodney do.
And...there’s just so many of you who, I think, have discovered something that sort of seems like a secret, though it shouldn’t be.
There is great, great, joy in giving.
There is great, great joy in serving Jesus. There is great pleasure in making yourself available to be a blessing to other people.
There’s great joy in realizing just how much God has done for us in Christ Jesus…and that He’s got things for us to do to be a blessing, things that, actually, are even part of His big picture:
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 3:10
We are sent by Jesus to love people into His presence. As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends you - everyone of you here today.
If you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, then know, if you don’t already, that He is sending you to be a blessing to others.
The Bible says, and this marker PPT reminds us, that we’re send by Jesus also to invite them to follow Him.
And the neat thing is...you don’t have to be great at sharing your faith. When you talk about Christian doing evangelism a lot of Christians kind of seize up and get petrified of having to somehow be something they are not to persuade people to follow Jesus. It has nothing to do with that.
When you go, sent by Jesus to bless others, you will spend time with others. You will spend time with people.
You will welcome, entertain and be engaged with people. You will grow fond of some of them even. You will grow to love, really love some of them dearly. And you’ll pray for people to come to know Jesus.
You will be yourself, and as yourself who is a Christian, the love you give, the blessing that you offer, will stand out and you will be leading people to Jesus just because your service is in His name.
When my father and mother were alive I was very concerned for their souls. I prayed a great deal for them.
They were both atheists, at best agnostic, and they had zero awareness of God. I prayed for the opportunity to share Jesus with them. I prayed that for years. Often in tears I prayed for their souls.
They were both very stubborn, very anti-God, very sure of their choices. I had no idea how I was to reach them.
I couldn’t become someone that I wasn’t in order to lead them to Jesus, and yet there were so few chances to do so. You know how it is with family.
After years of praying, God really gave me favour with them, so when they retired, they retired from up north of the city near Uxbridge to very close to where Barbara and I live.
I ended up doing worship services at the beautiful Retirement Home they lived at.
I’m leading them and others in songs of worship, I’m preaching the love of God to them, I’m serving them communion, of all things, after making it clear that communion is a powerful act of faith.
Then a few months before my father passes away, I’m with him at the hospital when he’s had some difficulty.
For 8 hours I’m with him, and to make a long story short, I share the gospel with him, he decides he wants to repent, and we pray together the sinner’s prayer. My father is redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
I had fretted because I couldn’t imagine how to break through the hard exterior of my father and lead him to Jesus.
We are sent by Jesus to bless others. We are sent to bless others and invite them to follow Jesus. We don’t have to change, to morph into someone that we’re not.
God uses us exactly as we are, and as we respond to the call to bless others, particularly when we make it a part of our lifestyle, part of our normal week, God creates opportunities to invite people to follow Jesus.
What an amazing God we serve. That He should reach out to us - send someone else at some point into our lives to be a blessing and to invite us to follow Jesus.
That his Holy Spirit should draw us to believe the gospel and to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord, our Saviour, our King.
That He should redeem our lives from death, from sin, from living apart from God, from the meaningless pain in our lives and fill us instead with purpose and give us a meaningful life.
And then that He should send us out, empowered by the same Holy Spirit to bless another, to bless others and invite them to follow Him. What an amazing God we serve.
Can you stand and say this with me, if you mean it: “I Am being Sent By Jesus To Bless Others and to Invite Them to Follow Him”.
Yes you are, dear Christian. Dear brother, dear sister. Don’t ever forget that your life is His, that He has saved you and redeemed you and called and equipped you to be and do far beyond what you could do on your own; and all this for His glory and for His Kingdom.
Let me pray for you as you stand, in the words of the Apostle Paul from the book of Colossians:
I pray that God will fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-13) Amen? Amen.
