1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple...8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1,8)
One of the themes we see in the Old Testament is God’s
search for a messenger. In Isaiah 6, we
are invited into a heavenly scene where God asks: “Who can we send? Who will go for us?” In Ezekiel, God is looking for someone who
would “stand in the gap” but couldn’t find one person. After reading the Old Testament, we are left
with a feeling of unfulfilled potential.
We are left with a feeling that God made an invitation and very few
responded.
In the New Testament the Gospels seem to follow the same pattern
of God’s open invitation. The book of Matthew closes with Jesus’ invitation to
his followers: “go and make disciples.”
At the end of Mark, the women are invited to share the truth of the
empty tomb. In Luke, Jesus invites his
followers to wait in Jerusalem for the arrival of Holy Spirit to empower them
to serve as his witnesses. Finally, in
the gospel of John, Jesus invites us into a dynamic relationship with the Father
“as the Father has sent me (Jesus), now I send you.” If we just to read the Gospels (and not the
rest of the New Testament), we would be left wondering if anyone ultimately responded
to God’s invitations.
How the Pandemic Spread -
This is why the book of Acts is so important for us
today. The book of Acts tells us how the
first Christians responded to Jesus’ invitation. In Acts we see ordinary people living extraordinary lives because they
were infected with God’s love. These
first Christians followed Jesus as their king, learned from him
as teacher, and experienced him as savior.
Once they were thoroughly infected with God’s love, they would then
in turn infect others. They would become the host for which God has been searching.
The early Christians traveled from town to town, city to city, and from
people-group to people-group, infecting every willing host with God’s love. The movement was just too contagious to
contain (no matter how much the authorities tried). And the world was
transformed….it was turned upside down, by a small group of contagious Christians,
thoroughly infected with God’s love. Do you think God’s love is as contagious today as it was 2,000 years ago? If it is, what is getting in the way of its infectious spread to those around us?
Would love to hear your thoughts,
-
Pastor Rey
1 comment:
How can the infectious love of Jesus not spread? I feel so stongly in my heart that this is the time...the time to step up and do something of significance in the name of Jesus Christ. No matter how big or how small - this infection will spread - if we want it to.
Post a Comment