What Jesus Delights In, part 2

Did Jesus have a mission statement?

There's a well known story of Jesus standing in his hometown synagogue, reading the opening verses of Isaiah 61. 

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”        Or this.

"...The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” -Lk.19:10

John 17 is more of a "Mission Accomplished!" Statement.

      John 17:4    "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do."

      John 17:6    “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world."

      John 17:14    "I have given them your word"

      John 17:18    "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world"

      John 17:22   "The glory that you gave me, I've given them, that they may be one, as we are one        .      . . . . . .  so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me."

That one-heart agreement is the basis of every prayer He prays:  every moment He lives. His delight in one-heart agreement is what we call seeking fellowship.  Him with the Father, us with Him, then those who will yet know fellowship with Him by believing His (and our) word. Jesus enjoys this--and knows we will too. This is what He longs  to recreate in us.

Now how is any of this applicable to us? 

1. We must be committed to calling others into this fellowship with the Father in which Jesus delights. Bank on this, and teach others to do it too: God is both committed and capable of making His Son and His salvation known.

2. New churches quickly embrace the call to fellowship, but let's rethink the way we will teach them the heart of what fellowship is: the common life we're called to will include good times around the table, but the essence of it is that "one-heart agreement" with the Father and the Son, Jesus our Lord. 

3. To glorify the Father--and see that work through-- is to lift up His identity, His claims, His works made visible through His Church, like Jesus taught us, "Let your light shine before others--let them see lives of virtue, compassion, spiritual beauty--in the good you do, so that they glorify the Father in heaven."  

I've always wondered about that word "glorify."

 It means to acknowledge God: so others welcome God, 

SO THEIR LIVES can SHINE for GOD TOO. 

Jesus delights in this.