SO SEND I YOU
The farewell words of a Christian leader are listened to with special attention. The Bible records the parting speeches of some of it’s great characters as they hand the torch of witness to a new generation, but the farewell speech that I would have most liked to have witnessed was that of Jesus as he addressed his disciples after his resurrection. What a privilege it must have been to be spoken to by the risen Christ. It was a bit too much at the time for the disciples as the meaning of it all didn’t really register until the day of Pentecost, when, as it were, the final pieces of the jigsaw of God’s revelation of himself and Jesus fell into place. The disciples then, perhaps for the first time, saw the whole picture of God’s redemptive plan, the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
It’s the final message of Jesus to his disciples that we’re going to consider: "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). This has been called "the charter of the church". Jesus is commissioning his little band of disciples to carry out his mission a lost world. He is telling them that, to understand the meaning of the Great Commission they are receiving from him, they must first understand the meaning of God the Father’s mission in sending his Son Jesus into the world: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." The model for the sending out the disciples is none other than the Father’s sending of Jesus. But of course, it isn’t only the first disciples who were being sent out; the commission extends to all who acknowledge him as Lord, right down to you and me.
Jesus says to his disciples, "I am sending you into the world to be my ambassadors, my representatives, so that people who have never seen me may discover what I am really like by observing your lives. In the same way," says Jesus, "in which my Father sent me so that people could get a picture of what he is really like, so you Christians, Christ’s followers, will reveal my nature to the world." “Anyone who has seen me has the Father” (John 14:9). This great missionary mandate is modelled on the Father’s sending of his Son. "So send I you," said Jesus. He used:
THE SAME METHOD
God’s method is people. Someone made the comment, "If God gave the command to angels to evangelise the world, heaven would be empty in five minutes!" But angels haven’t been given the joy of making known the Gospel. They have no experience of the grace of God. They have no personal knowledge of sins forgiven. Yes, God’s method is through people. "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
The Queen of Great Britain has many possessions, including the Island Dependencies, but she can’t possibly be in them all - she visits them perhaps every 10 years - but she has a personal representative there in the person of the Lieut. Governor. It’s not an exact illustration, but the similarity is there in the fact that before the Governor is installed to his office, he has an audience with the Queen and it is from that meeting and his documents of appointment that he derives his authority. What did Jesus say? : "I am sending" and who is he sending: "I am sending you." He was speaking to his disciples and it is to his followers that he has, in Paul’s words, "committed this ministry of reconciliation." He goes on, "we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors." (2 Cor 5:19,20).
Just as Jesus was his Father’s ambassador, so Jesus has appointed his followers to represent him in the world. We are to follow his great example. He could make time to listen to his disciples, to talk to the woman at the well, to weep with Mary and Martha, to attend social functions, to go to different homes for a meal. In a word, his vocation was to minister to people. By the quality of his life, by what he said and did and the way he treated people, he made them see and understand the nature of God and his concern for the individual. He placed the emphasis on relationships. He calls on us to do the same. "Christ has no hands but our hands."
Jesus issues the same call to all, but to different tasks. Someone put it rather quaintly: "to some, Christ calls ’leave boat and bay, and white-haired Zebedee.’" To some, the call is harder - "stay and mend the nets for me." How does the call come? Often it’s in the context of daily work, our responsibilities and opportunities. God’s call to one particular form of ministry shouldn’t be a threat to those called to another form of service. The call may be to full time Christian service, or it may be to serve in a lay capacity. It may be in a platform ministry or in behind-the-scenes activity.
In the years before the invention of electricity, organs had to be operated by two people - the organist who was upfront and also by a person who pumped the air. This person, often a young boy, was usually "out of sight and out of mind" but if he went to sleep, the organist could play with great skill but no sound would come! The call of Jesus is to co-operate with each other in his service. Each of us has our own calling. There’s work for all, and when all is said and done, we will at the end of the day, for all our striving, still be unprofitable servants, although we may hope to qualify for our Lord’s "Well done".
"As the Father has sent me," it was the same method, but not only that, it was:
THE SAME MOTIVATION
What motivates people to do things or not to do them? Motivation is the driving force, the incentive, behind our actions. A donkey is a stubborn animal. You’ll have seen cartoon pictures of how a donkey is made to work. It is by dangling a carrot in front of it and a stick to prod it. So with humans, the driving force may be a mixture of carrot and stick. We may be motivated by the desire for reward, recognition, financial gain, promotion or even pride. On the other hand, our motivation may be fear of punishment, failure, rejection or getting caught. Those are the lowest forms of motivation, but Jesus set a higher standard. His motivation was love.
"As the Father has sent me": here’s an expression of the love of God. The Father sent the Son - this reminds me of the words of Jesus that explain why he was sent: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son." Mary Slessor went as a missionary to Calabar in Africa in the 1800s when for a white person to venture in the tropics without modern medicine meant almost certain death. She wrote, "love equals to live for others" and that is what she did in bringing the Gospel to those in heathen darkness. Love, said another evangelist, is the giving of one’s all in self-sacrificing service.
I read the story of a missionary who preached the Gospel to a community of leprosy sufferers in a remote part of Zaire. The response was very slow. The people who heard the message were physically in a poor way, covered with sores and feeling rejected by their families. They felt bitter and unloved. Then the missionary started washing their feet although the task was often repulsive. While he worked he prayed that the love of God would reach out through his life to touch them. A thriving church bears witness to the fact that God’s love still transforms lives. "So send I you," said Jesus. Why did he come to the earth? It was only the love of God that brought him to a sin-stricken world.
We may have various motives for serving him, but the only one that will prevail against all discouragement and setbacks is the love of God. General Booth’s daughter was sent to Paris to establish a Salvation Army work. She found it extremely hard going and wrote a discouraging account to her father. William Booth sent her a two-word telegram "Try tears". Tears of love and sacrifice in Christian service are the very heart of God. The Apostle Paul expressed it so well in his poem on love to the Corinthian church: "Love is patient … is not self-seeking … it always perseveres. Love never fails." Jesus calls on us to have the same motivation in our service - perhaps as a Sunday School teacher, church worker and in living out our daily lives.
"As the father has sent me, I am sending you": it was the same method, the same motivation, but what is more, it was by:
THE SAME MEANS
What were the resources that Jesus used? In recent years we’ve witnessed the invasion of countries oppressed by dictators but was only achieved by the huge use or resources. A decision is made a top level followed by the sending of the Forces. There’s a build-up of supplies, the support services and constant communication and direction from the operations centre. This is a picture of the mission that Jesus undertook at his Father’s bidding. He realised that his Father had sent him to save the world, to put down all hostile rule, authority and power, and to deliver back the kingdom to God the Father, so that God might be all in all. Jesus was God’s "task force" and we’re part of it.
He was utterly absorbed in this commission. He had no thought of himself, of his own glory, or what his family, friends or even enemies might think. It was total commitment to his Father’s business, even as a boy of 12. Jesus grounded himself in the Scriptures and used them to defend himself against the attacks of Satan. He drew on the Scriptures to measure his actions against the revelation of God to the prophets so that there could be no doubt that he was the promised Messiah. What an example to follow. If we want to be his "sent-ones" we have to be people of the Word. That is our source of intelligence, in knowing the ways of the enemy; that is our means of direction in fighting the good fight of faith.
Jesus drew his strength through communion with his Father. The Gospels show the close relationship that they enjoyed through regular prayer. He brought his aspirations, challenges and needs to God in prayer in that quiet place, so that his resources could be replenished. We read how that he prayed for himself and for others, and encouraged his disciples to pray. Jesus believed that his Father had called him and would equip him for the work. We know that the Holy Spirit descended on him at his baptism and time and time again in his ministry it was the power of God in him that enabled him to perform signs and wonders, bringing healing and deliverance to needy people.
Ah, but we say, that was Jesus. But didn’t Jesus say, "as the Father has sent me, I am sending you?" God never sends us to do a work for which he does not equip and enable us. In doing his work it is folly to rely on anything but his resources. The same means that Jesus had are there for our use. We have access to the Word of God. We have the ability and privilege to pray with the assurance that he hears and answers. He has given us the Holy Spirit to be our constant companion; to lead us to all truth, to give us victory over the evil one, and power to be his witnesses. God hasn’t merely left us with a load of tips and techniques. He leaves us with a person who is far more powerful than any situation we may find ourselves. As Christians, we are his "sent-ones" and if we are where God would have us be, and faithfully engaged in his service, his resources are ours too.
"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you": the same methods, the same motivation, the same means, and last but not least:
THE SAME MESSAGE
The Gospel is the message of good news. It’s the message of hope to all people. The angel that appeared to the shepherds on the first Christmas said, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people" (Luke 2:10). Jesus came with a message of deliverance. He said his Father had sent him "to proclaim freedom for the prisoners" (4:16). The deliverance he brought was from whatever was binding the people. To some it was from the grosser sins of the flesh; to others it was from the sin of pride of place, of face and of grace. And yet others were struggling to find meaning and fulfilment in life.
The tragedy was that there were many not willing to receive his message of hope - they preferred to cling to the wreckage of their lives. I read that years after the end of the war with Japan, there were soldiers in remote jungles living in fear and in desperate circumstances of squalor who would or could not believe that the war was over. Do we still cling to some past wreckage of disappointment or failure? It’s time to move on and to enter into the fullness of the message of the Gospel.
Jesus has come with a message of deliverance. The message that he brought has been handed down to his followers to make known to all humanity that there is liberty from guilt, sin, fear and death. Jesus made it possible by his crucifixion and resurrection. It is because of his saving power that we can proclaim a message of deliverance.
"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." The action word in this sentence is "sent". I wonder if we find life monotonous, going through the same routine each day - work, leisure, sleep, work, leisure, sleep … so it goes on day by day. We may think that we don’t have exciting lives. But supposing we realise that it is Jesus who has placed us in our particular situation of life. No, it’s even stronger than being "placed" - we are "sent". Sent by Jesus into our work place to live for him, to reveal Christ in our personality. Sent into our leisure time to reveal the glory of God. Life will take on a new dimension, a new meaning, because we are living according to the Great Commission given to Jesus by the Father, and given by Jesus to his followers. We shall then have obeyed the call of Jesus to his disciples. Let’s hear and follow the word of Jesus: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
There is a prayer of response to the Great Commission that I want to make, that you may want to make - in the words of a prayer by Mother Teresa of Calcutta:
"Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with your Spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that my life may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through me, and be so in me, that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence. Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus. Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you, none of it will be mine; it will be you shining on others through me."
