What was it like to hang out with Jesus on a daily basis, constantly hearing Him refer to His being sent? It would have to rub off on those He was with during those three years. It did. Years later, the influence of Jesus can be heard through Peter’s words when he wrote:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
Peter did not always see things this way. In the beginning, when Jesus asked him to become a fisher of men, Peter’s response was to ask Jesus to get out of the boat. Now, here is Peter with that same inner sense of being sent by God to carry out a specific mission in life.
As Jesus lived out His life with a clear sense of being sent by the Father, He then sent not only Peter, but you and me and every church that bears His name into the world. In years past, the emphasis in the local church was placed more on supporting those missionaries who had been sent into the mission field. In a world that has changed and now resembles more the world of the first century, the vision needs to be raised up within each church that every member is a missionary.
Think of it in this way: Wherever you go in the day ahead—to the office or to the classroom or to the mall—go into the day as one who is sent. How would it change your routine to go with the sense of being sent? It was that sense of purpose that compelled Jesus each and every day. It is that sense of purpose that He now places before us when He says,
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).
This is the sense I get when I read these well known words of Ephesians 2:
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (vs. 10).
--
Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish