Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” John 20:21 The power of these words is incredible, especially when you consider their timing. With the trauma of the sights and sounds of their Lord, Savior, and friend being crucified still fresh in their recall, the disciples are now face-to-face with the risen Christ. “Peace be with you.” Yes, please! “As the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you.” Let’s just say I have some questions.
It would be priceless to be able to read the minds and discern the hearts of the disciples at this moment. Their past thoughts and actions haunt them. Are you sure you want me? Jesus, I ran at the first sign of trouble. Jesus, I denied you. Jesus, I am not sure if I believe. Unless I see the scars, I can’t – I won’t believe. What does this mean, Jesus?
In the emotional overload of the moment, a few things are clear. This was not easy to hear. We are sent, and if we are to obey the command of being sent, we need to understand what the Father sent Jesus to do. The beauty and wisdom of Scripture is that we don’t have to wonder what Jesus meant. There are at least four occasions when Jesus tells us what he came to do.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
By far, one of my favorite verses is Luke 19:10. “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” I came to saving faith in Christ at twenty years old. To say I was lost feels like an understatement compared to the way I was living. I wasn’t searching. I rejected all pleas and invites to come. Yet God and His people were persistent. The extent of this pursuit hits deep when you study the meaning of the word lost. The Greek word for lost in this verse means to have something dearly loved ripped apart in front of your eyes. God, motivated by love for His creation, seeks and saves the lost.
He calls us to do the same. Do you love the lost around you as God loves them? Does your heart truly break as you watch sin tear them apart? Does that call you to action? Are you motivated to seek after them? They are lost, invaluable, and cherished by our Father. They need the truth of God’s Word, the Gospel that will save them by faith in God’s grace. As the Father sent Jesus to seek after them, He sends us to do the same.
Jesus came to serve and not be served.
In a culture obsessed with posturing, positioning, and projecting one’s persona, Jesus spoke these words, “For even the Son of Man came to serve and not be served and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45.) God the Father sent His Son to redeem the nations, to pay the ransom to set us free from sin. This reveals to us another way Jesus came to fulfill the Father’s mission. He came to serve and not be served. Serving is a powerful gesture. Maybe it goes unobserved at first. Maybe it is abused at times. In time, at the right time, it gets the attention of even the hardest of hearts, even the hearts of those who receive the act of service. Yeah, let that sink in for a moment.
Think about Jesus’ example for a moment. The LORD of the universe took the posture of a servant, often caring about and caring for the needs of those who could have cared less. Our culture’s sinful ideals and comforts provide no real care or relief in life. When we serve in the way of Christ, with the motivation to provide a tangible example of the ransom He paid to set us free, a clear picture of the gospel in Word and deed becomes an undeniable apologetic of the Gospel of God’s grace. Just as in Jesus’s time, the hardest hearts of our civic leaders, influencers, self-righteous, and blatant sinners can crumble at a compassionate witness that shows how the gospel of God’s grace heals all our wounds and satisfies all our needs.
Jesus befriended sinners.
Due to algorithms, the internet has become a great place to scroll our way to affirmation of opinion, even if it is not based on God’s truth. Try having an honest dialogue, and you’ll quickly face the wrath of the narrative gatekeepers. Christianity is guilty of this too. The internet is not a safe place to ask questions in the search for truth. How many of us have someone we can trust to ask the most difficult or challenging questions we may have? That’s what this next principle sets to accomplish.
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:19.) “They say” Jesus hung out with sinners to be like them. Yet scripture teaches us that He befriended them and called them out of sin. The wisdom of Jesus’ deeds was that people need someone to help them discern truth from the information and misinformation that flooded their minds every day. Jesus spent time with sinners not to communicate He was the “cool” Messiah, but to become a trusted person to ask the most difficult questions. Wisdom says, how can they have faith without hearing? How can they hear unless someone is sent?
One of the hardest lessons I learned as a church planter in one of Denver’s top ten unreached urban neighborhoods is that the lost culture would not attend church because I held the microphone. The portrayal of Christians on the internet, and perhaps their past experiences with believers, led them to believe that they would be verbally accosted if they came to church, and their only escape would be to be rude and leave in the middle of the service. I know this because I sat at the table of those who protested our church’s existence and listened. In return, they asked me more questions, and I got to consistently share the gospel with them without trying to find an awkward start to the subject. I won’t lie. The temptation to hide in these situations is real, but if you resist, you will see some enter faith in Christ. It worked for Jesus.
Jesus bore witness to the truth.
This one is probably the most important, and hopefully, you will receive the previous point in this context. Jesus revealed this one as He was standing before Pilate, who was about to sentence Him to be flogged and then crucified. “For this purpose, I was born, and for this purpose I came into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” John 18:37. To bear witness means to give evidence. That is exactly what Jesus did. Every word, every action, every thought, every motive perfectly aligned with the holiness of God. God in the flesh, and no sin in the flesh. The perfect, the only, credible witness to the truth that humanity is hopelessly self-condemned in its sin, fortified by its putrid and perverted version of the knowledge of good and evil.
Pilate’s response, “What is truth”? In short, all of humanity has rebelled and sinned against God. We are so blinded by our sin and our version of truth that we couldn’t see God if He was right in front of us, and given the opportunity, apart from grace, we would just assume to exalt ourselves and eliminate God entirely. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”.
On the grace side of the cross, we bear witness, not by being perfect but by being repentant. Do our actions match our words? Do our motives align with God’s desires? Does our life reflect our mission? Does our life reflect the redemptive work of God that humanity so desperately needs?
As the Father has sent me, so I send you. I think one question remains and is worth an answer: Will what happened to Jesus happen to me? If you are wondering if you must die to yourself, lose your life to find it, and take your last breath telling of the Gospel of God’s grace, the answer is yes, yes, and YES! Whatever it is going to take, is what it is going to take to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth.
That passion captures the heart of Mrs. Nicy Murphy, a faithful Colorado Baptist who lived as the Father sent Jesus. In her honor and in with her missional passion, we give to the Colorado Missions Offering. For decades, this annual offering has fueled the disciple-making efforts of our churches. So many disciples have been made as a result. There are still so many more to reach. So, we continue to give, partner, and commit to fulfilling the great commission together because “We Are Sent.”
Rick Ackerman is the Director of Convention Strategies of the Colorado Baptists.
