Doing What Jesus Did…How?
God’s Holy Spirit lives inside us, and he helps us carry out the work of Jesus in our world and context today, which is very difficult – more difficult than it was even 5 years ago. Think about it. We’ve got the internet, social media, and smartphones. Most of us are over-busy. Boredom is a thing of the past. Remember when we used to get bored? In 1985, that was a huge thing. I was 10 years old, and I would actually get bored. People used to say, “Idleness is the devil’s workshop.” Nobody’s ever idle anymore. Nobody’s bored anymore. We’re always on the go. And we’ve moved into a post-Christian culture. There seems to be a growing hostility toward Christianity.
So, how do we do what Jesus did in a hyperconnected, over-busy, anti-Jesus world?
What I want to do is lay out four brief thoughts that will hopefully move us from feeling overwhelmed to feeling empowered.
1. Mature into the kind of person who can join in Jesus’ Kingdom work.
We talked about this last week – intentional spiritual formation. It’ll take teaching – learning the truth about God by going to church regularly and reading the Bible. It’ll take practice – taking what we’ve learned and actually doing it. It’ll take being in community together because we can’t, nor should we, do it alone. And above all, it’ll take the Holy Spirit who’s right there at the center of everything we do.
2. Know your stage of discipleship and season of life.
Where are we in our stage of discipleship? Some of us may be in the beginning stages of being with Jesus. We’ve accepted the invitation to hang out with Jesus by practicing the spiritual disciplines. We’re reading our Bibles, praying, fasting, practicing Sabbath by resting and worshiping every weekend, and things like that. Others of us have been hanging out with Jesus for some time now, and we’re starting to become like Jesus. We’re being transformed from the inside out. We’re exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience…. And then some of us are doing what Jesus did. We’ve found our calling in the Kingdom of God, and we’re serving to the best of our ability.
Now, it’s a progression. The more you hang out with Jesus, the more you become like Jesus, and then you start to do some of the things that Jesus did. And you can’t jump ahead. But that doesn’t mean you need to follow Jesus for five or ten years before you do anything. It’s not like you can say, “Oh, sorry. I can’t volunteer at HCC right now. I’m focusing on hanging out with Jesus.” Why not hang out with the two-year-olds?
Every follower of Jesus ought to be involved in ministry. Every member/partner of the church ought to be in the action, and not on the sidelines watching like fans. Jesus calls us to this. So, if you’re not serving somewhere yet, I want to encourage you to get involved. Take some time to pray about where God could use you to serve. And then reach out to one of our ministry leaders to start serving. Know what it is that Jesus is doing in your life right now and say “yes” full on to that moment.
Know your stage of discipleship. And then know your season of life.
If you’re a mom or a dad with three kids under five, you probably don’t get a day off. Maybe you’re thinking, “What’s that list again? Ten things? Preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons…?” Unless the demon is your three-year-old, that’s just not where you’re at in your season of life. You’re just trying to survive until nap time so you can finally get a shower. What I’m trying to say is don’t feel guilty, ashamed, or pressured.
Maybe we could simply ask ourselves, “If Jesus were I, what would he do? If he were my age, my education, my experience, my upbringing, and my stage of life, what would Jesus do?”
We need to know our stage of discipleship and our season of life.
3. Start with the basics
For a lot of us, that list of 10 things is pretty overwhelming. So, let’s start somewhere really easy.
In Tim Chester’s book, A Meal with Jesus, he outlines two passages from the book of Luke. The first one is from Luke 19, where Jesus says, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” The other one is from Luke 7, where it says, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking.”
So, what did Jesus come to do? Seek and save the lost.
How did Jesus do it? Eating and drinking.
This was Jesus’ strategy for reaching the world with the Kingdom of God. How cool is that? He hung out and ate with sinners, people who were far from God, like little Zacchaeus, and transformed their lives for the better. That was his strategy. That’s pretty simple.
So, how do we reach the city of Hilliard? It’s not rocket science. “Hey, you’re my neighbor. What are you doing Thursday night? I’m having a barbecue, and you’re invited.” That’s it. Simply share a meal with someone who’s far from God.
So, start out small.
4. Live in the moment.
How many of you are obsessed with your schedule? I’m with you. If it’s not on my calendar, it’s not gonna happen. That list of 10 things is not a list we schedule. It’s not like we’re gonna schedule taking care of the sick every Thursday from 3:30 to 5:30. But these are things that can fall within the rhythm of our daily life. Most of the miracles Jesus performed happened as part of his daily life. A lot of them were interruptions while he was on the way to somewhere else, while he was teaching, while he was going about his normal routines… Jesus said in Matthew 28, “Go into all the world.” It can literally be translated, “As you are going.” As you’re taking little Frankie to the dog park tomorrow night to do his thing, and in that moment, you see someone that Jesus has set up for you to pay attention to, it’s amazing to see how God can move.
A beautiful prayer for all of us to say in the morning is, “God, help me to slow down today. Help me to live in the moment, not in the future, not in the past, but right now. Help me to have the eyes to see what you’re doing and then to join in.” And in those beautiful interruptions and moments of life, who knows what God is waiting to do in you and through you?