Sunday Recap for 5/14/17: How does Christ send the church out?
Sunday, 5/14, we looked at this Big Picture Question:
How does Jesus send the church out?
We looked at John 20:30-31 to answer that question:
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
And we found these 3 answers to our question:
Big Picture Question: How does Jesus send the church out?
- He works even when we don’t see it.
- He gives us the scriptures.
- We have life by His name.
He works even when we don’t see it.
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
John is winding down, and he reminds us that Jesus did so much more than what was written in this book. Jesus was at work speaking, teaching, healing, and performing miracles, and many of them, we will not know until heaven. The underlying principle is that Jesus is always at work. Often we don’t see it, many times, we don’t know it, but He is at work.
That is a truth we must remind ourselves of. When we work for God, when we are married, when we raise our kids, and when we go to work, we hope Jesus at work. But when those things don’t go well, we ask, “Jesus, are you working?” This passage reminds us that He is. He is always at work whether we know it or see it.
He gives us the scriptures.
31a but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
But we do have the scriptures, and they are written so that we might have life. We often wonder what God is doing and what we should do, but we are gifted with the scriptures to assure our hearts of God’s love and so that we might believe. When we worry about the future, we should refresh our hearts with what we know about God from the scriptures.
We have life in His name.
31b and that by believing you may have life in his name.
By believing we have life. There is a sweet story in John 21 when the disciples are hungry in the middle of the night. They push off shore and go fishing and don’t catch anything. They fish all night, but get nothing. Jesus calls from the shore and invites them to cast their nets on the other side, and they catch so many fish. When Peter realizes that it is Jesus, he jumps in the water to ge with him. There Jesus and the disciples enjoy a meal together.
This is life in Jesus’ name. We work, we fish, we commute…and it can be frustrating. But our hearts must long to be with Jesus just as Peter’s was. Then we can enjoy life in His name and we go out as the church in the world.
Big Picture Question: How does Jesus send the church out?
Truth: Even when we can’t see it, Jesus sends the church out, empowered by the scriptures and life in His name.
Application: Live knowing that Jesus continually sends you, by His name, into your day as part of the scripture empowered church to proclaim the Gospel.
Action: Refuse to see any part of your life as separate from either Jesus’ power or the advancement of the church.