The Perfect Missionary

Jesus is the Perfect Missionary.  No other person in history crossed such a wide divide on such a mission of love.  The Son of God left behind the unimaginable riches of heaven to travel to the landfill of sin we call Earth.  

Any mission trip we might take to a third world country pales in comparison to His radical journey.  Here in these verses, Paul describes the Perfect Missionary.  

He describes the timing of His trip.  He describes the One who sent Him.  He describes conditions of His mission.  

We can't forget the big picture here.  Paul is firing off a quick and blunt letter to the Galatian church network after he receives the horrible news that these new believers have fallen prey to a counterfeit gospel (Gal 1:6).  

He has just returned from Galatia after telling them how Jesus has thrown the door of salvation wide to not only Jews but the entire world (Acts 13:13-14:23).  

Spiritual snake oil salesmen rolled into town just as he left.  They told these new disciples that Jesus may have gotten them into His kingdom but they must keep themselves in by following the law (Gal 1:7; 3:1-3, 11).  

The apostle walks through the pages of the OT to explain that the way of salvation has always been simply trusting in God.  Theologians call this justification by faith.  

We're not self-saved by meticulous rule following.  We simply place ourselves into God's hand like Abraham, who "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Gal 3:6; Gen 15:6).  

The man from Tarsus tells the Galatians that all of the covenant promises God made to Abe found fulfillment in Jesus (Gal 3:16-17).

All of the OT points to the day when the long awaited Promised One will arrive.  Page after page.  Prophecy after prophecy.  Promise after promise.  

Never forget that Jesus is THE Hero of the story.  Everything in the Law and the Prophets points us to and prepares for His arrival.  Jesus said so Himself (Jn 5:39, 46).  

We read the Torah and wonder when our Hero will arrive on the scene.  How much worse could it get?  How much longer will He wait?  When will Messiah get here?  

But we don't see the river of time from God's perspective.  Timing is everything.  And His timing is perfect.

Just when things are at their darkest, the Light of the World shines His brightest (Jn 8:12; 9:5).  "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son" (v4).  

At just the perfect time, God the Father sent His Son out the door of heaven on the most radical and revolutionary mission trip history has ever seen.  

Paul uses the Greek verb εξαποστελλω/exapostello.  This is a compound term meaning away, out of or from (εξ/ex-) to send as an official representative, ambassador or apostle (-αποστελλω/-apostello).  

This mission was so critical, so important, so urgent that the Father sent His one and only Son as His hand-picked representative.  

The holy Son of God is the only One for the job.  Because of His love for His Father, the Son submits to His request.  He willingly accepts His divine assignment.  

Jesus is the Perfect Missionary because He is perfectly God.

But the conditions of this mission are brutal.  The Second Person of the Trinity leaves the perfect and palatial opulence of heaven for a trip to the sin-sick third planet from the sun.  He is to be fully human, in other words, "born of a woman" (v4).  

Just like you and me, Jesus had a mom.  This means that the God Man didn't exchange His godliness for humanity.  He added humanness to divinity.  He is 100% God.  He is 100% human.  

People much smarter than me call this the Hypostatic Union.  Fully God.  Fully man.   How is that possible?  Add it to the list of things we can never fully understand on this side of heaven.

Being born to a human mother is an important fulfillment of God's prophetic promise about Messiah.  Back in the opening days of human history, God warned Satan that one day this long-awaited Son "shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal" (Gen 3:15).  

And it wouldn't be just any woman who would give birth.  "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Is 7:14).  

And "when the fullness of time had come," God handpicked a teenager named Mary as the mother of His Son.  

Jesus is the Perfect Missionary because He is perfectly human.

But the conditions of His mission don't just stop with His humanity.  He is "born under the law" (v4).  The law.  God's law that He hand-delivered to Moses on a mountain called Sinai.  Not just the Ten Commandments but 613 commandments.  

God didn't give these to His people as a means of salvation.  He gave them to His people to make it blatantly obvious that they needed a Savior.  

The law was back breaking.  The law was impossible.  To miss on any one part of it meant disobedience to all of it (Dt 27:26; Gal 3:10).

There was no way anyone could ever keep such a perfect, mind-numbing standard.  Oh wait.  Yes there is.  His name is Jesus.  Only His complete obedience to God's law on our behalf could do what we could never do (Rom 8:3; 2Cor 5:21).  

Being "born under the law," Christ was obligated to fully obey the law.  And He did.  Every bit of it.  That's what He means when He says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Mt 5:17).  The Spirit-filled Son of God is sinless and perfect.

Jesus is the Perfect Missionary because He is perfectly obedient.

And because of what He has done to save me, how can I not serve Him as a missionary of the gracious Gospel to those around me?

©2012

Jay Jennings

The New Neighbor

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish” (Jn 1:14 The Message).

Who Are They?

A moving van rumbles past your house and down the cul-de-sac. It pulls up in front of the house that sold last month. Yup, you’ve got new neighbors. 

What will they be like? Noisy? Nosey? Kind? Quiet? Do they have kids? Are they teenagers? Do they own a dog? Can you trust them? 

These are just a few of the questions that run through your head. New neighbors can change everything in the neighborhood.

A Big Change in the 'Hood

A couple of thousand years ago, a Galilean fisherman named John remembers the day he got a new Neighbor. This new Neighbor changed everything in the ‘hood. In a good way. A VERY good way. 

And when he says “neighborhood,” he means the entire world. Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to this neck of the woods.

So what exactly did John say? Here it is as we find it in The Message, a paraphrase of the Bible. “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish” (v14).

The Why of Christmas

Believe it or not, John is writing about Christmas. You’ve probably heard the other more popular versions of Jesus’ birth as told by a former tax collector (Mt 1:1-25) and a first century physician (Lk 2:1-20). 

These guys tell us the play-by-play of how God uses a young carpenter and his pregnant teenage fiancee to bring His one and only Son into the world. John backs up and explains the story. Matthew and Luke give us the what. John gives us the why.

Before the Big Move 

First of all, we read about what our new Neighbor was doing before the big move. “The Word became flesh and blood” (v14). John’s referring back to what he had to say at the very beginning of this document we’ve come to call the Gospel of John. “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word, in readiness for God from day one” (Jn 1:1). 

This is his way of saying the Son of God was hanging out at the heavenly palace with God the Father from the very beginning. God’s mansion is so upscale that it makes Beverly Hills and Palm Beach look like the projects.

Packing for the Move

But Jesus is about to pack up and move. Instead of packing boxes and calling the movers, something else happens. Something amazing! “The Word became flesh and blood” (v14). The Second Person of the Trinity took on human form. 

The One who was already 100% God also became 100% human. The math doesn’t make sense, but as one of God’s spokespersons told Jesus’ mom, “Nothing, you see, is impossible with God” (Lk 1:38).

Putting on His Earth Suit

In order to make the move, the Son of God puts on His Earth suit. He becomes the God-Man. Theologians, preachers, and a long list of smart folks have been trying to wrap their brains around this one for several hundred years. 

Some like to call it the Incarnation. That basically means God with meat. Don’t believe me? Ever have chili con carne or chili with meat?

Hypostatic What?

Another term we’ve cooked up to describe this divine/human combo is hypostatic union. It’s a high fallutin’ way of saying nobody can really figure out how Jesus did this. 

The writer of Hebrews points out how this gave God the opportunity to fully experience what it’s like to be mortal with one important exception. “He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin” (Heb 4:15). Let’s break down the divine math this way: 100% God + 100% Man = 100% Savior.

The Ultimate Missionary

After the Son of God packed Himself in a human box, it was time to hit the road from Heaven to Earth. That’s when He “moved into the neighborhood” (v14). It’s because Jesus is the ultimate Missionary. 

Just like missionaries move right into the heart of the communities they will serve, so did our Savior. He buy a McMansion in a gated community and swing by to slum with us a couple of times a year. Jesus moved in.

One-of-a-Kind Glory

Because the Son of God lived just down the street, He gave folks a a glimpse of who He really was. “We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son” (v14). 

John’s not talking about Jesus’ baby pictures. He’s probably describing the time on a mountain when Christ let us Godness shine to John, his brother James, and their buddy Peter (Mt 17:1-8; Mr 9:2-8; Lk 9:28-36).

Like Father, Like Son

Just to make sure these three are sure of what they’re seeing firsthand, Jesus’ Heavenly Dad connects the dots for them. “This is My Son, marked by My love, focus of My delight. Listen to Him” (Mt 17:5). That’s why the apostle likes to say, “Like Father, like Son.” (v14). 

Want to know what God the Father looks like? Take a long look at the radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Galilee. They share a glory you don’t see anywhere else. “Like Father, like Son” (v14).

Generous Inside and Out

John says our new Neighbor is the kind of person you hope moves in just down the street. He’s “generous inside and out” (v14). Jesus isn’t the stingy guy on the block who never loans any of His tools, keeps a death grip on His wallet, or is too busy to talk. 

He’s generous with everything He has whether we deserve it or not. ESPECIALLY when we don’t deserve it. That’s the definition of grace. He gives. And it’s not phony. Need anything, just ask. Our new Neighbor’s “generous inside and out” (v14).

A Straight Shooter

Jesus is also “true from start to finish” (v14). He’s the one guy in the neighborhood we can always trust. Christ didn’t move in and immediately start complaining to the HoA. He’s true to His word. 

If He says, He does it. He’s a straight shooter and not afraid to say what needs to be said. No hidden agenda. Our new Neighbor has been that way ever since He rolled into town. There’s no reason to think He’ll ever change.

John wants us to know there’s no reason to worry. You’re going to love our new Neighbor. Why don’t you go say “hello”?

©2016
Jay Jennings

Stuck in the Middle FOR You

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Tim 2:5).

Have you ever worked hard to get something but suddenly realize you’re talking to somebody who didn’t have the power or authority to give it to you? Maybe it was a job. Maybe it was money. Maybe it was tickets. Maybe it was getting you OUT of a ticket! Somehow, someway you came to believe they held the keys and could give you what you want. At the moment of truth, they can’t deliver the goods.

Here in his first letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul tells his spiritual son that only God can deliver salvation and there’s only one Man who can deliver your request. “For there is one god, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (v5). Don’t make the mistake of hoping anyone or anything else can come to the rescue. Don’t make the mistake of asking anyone or anything else to make it happen. Only God saves. Only Christ is in the position to help. Jesus is the God-Man in the middle.

This is a big deal because Paul has just instructed Pastor Tim to have the Ephesian megachurch pray for everyone they know using every kind of prayer imaginable (1Tim 2:1). Specifically, lift up all of the governmental leaders to the Lord (1Tim 2:2). Remember, we’re talking about praying for a ruthless dictator named Nero! So I don’t want to hear any complaints from Democrats about praying for Republicans and vice versa. There’s a two-pronged goal for these prayers. One, so we can be free to be good citizens. Two, so the Lord might save our leaders. God “desires all people to be saved” (1Tim 2:4). Amazingly, that includes politicians!

When it comes to salvation, there’s only One who can pull it off. God. Take a quick look around. Who do you see? How many of them can save you from your sin and yourself? None. Zip. Zilch. Zero. God and only God. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Dt 6:4). When it comes to creating, running, ruling, reigning, sustaining, and saving, there’s only One qualified. The list is short. God. Party of One. 

The authors of Scripture don’t want us to miss the fact that “there is one God” (v5). Don’t be fooled my imitators. Don’t fall for fakes or phonies. “The LORD is God; there is no other besides Him” (Dt 4:35). He’s the only One worthy of our worship. He wired us to worship Him. But the problem is we end up putting other stuff on the throne instead of God. For some of us, it’s a substance, a chemical, or a destructive habit. While incredibly hard to kick, it’s pretty obvious shooting black tar heroin is not exactly worshiping God. You do realize that, don’t you? Whew. 

Too often, it’s not the blatant sin that takes us down. We repeatedly make the mistake of turning the good things God gives us and making them objects of worship. Our spouse. Our kids. Our job. Our income. Our home. This is all good stuff that comes from our very good God. It’s been said that anytime we take a good thing and make it a god thing that’s a bad thing. That’s a simple explanation of idolatry. That’s why God put this in the pole position of His Top Ten. “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex 20:3; Dt 5:7). 

He’s the only One qualified to receive our worship. He’s the only One powerful enough to come to our rescue. God uses the prophet Isaiah to drive the point home. “I, I am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior” (Is 43:11). “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Is 46:22). “And there is no other god besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Is 45:21-22). Nobody else can save you or me. Period.

There’s only one way access our one and only God. “There is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (v5). Paul uses a Greek word here (Gr. mesites) describing an intermediary, someone who intervenes to restore peace, a friendship, or ratify a covenant. This is a communicator between two parties who are communicating. An arbitrator. A peacemaker. The term literally means someone in the middle. Someone in between. He’s the God-Man in the middle. To paraphrase Stealer’s Wheel, Jesus is stuck in the middle FOR you.

Jesus mediates our relationship by living the perfect life God demanded which we failed to live. He steps in to die the death we deserve which we should have died. He rises to a new life for us which we don’t deserve. He does for us what we could never dream of doing for ourselves. We desperately need someone to step into our situation. And that’s Jesus. He’s the God-Man in the middle.

The writer of Hebrews throws this word around as he explains the connection between the Old and New Testaments. Jesus oversees the new ministry which is WAY better “than the old as the covenant He mediates (Gr. mesites) is better, since it is enacted on better promises” (Heb 8:6). Christ is our arbitrator and “the mediator (Gr. mesites) of a new covenant” (Heb 9:15; 12:25). Jesus Himself left no doubt when He said He’s the only route to God. “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14:6). If you’re keeping score at home, absolutely nobody finds God the Father without going through God the Son. Goose egg.

But the radical Rabbi/Carpenter wasn’t done mediating once He headed home to heaven. At this very moment, He’s doing what He does best. Reconciling. Mediating. Paul gives a peak inside the heavenly throne room where Christ is sitting right next to His Heavenly Dad “interceding for us” (Rom 8:34). There He is again. Smack dab between you and Yahweh. Stuck in the middle FOR you.

Paul leaves no doubt about the identity of our Middle Man. “The Man Christ Jesus” (v5). As a baseball fan, it reminds me of Stan the Man Musial. But the apostle isn’t sitting in the bleachers pulling for his favorite ballplayer. Curiously, there’s no article “the” before “Man” in the original language. So a good way to read this is probably “Christ Jesus, Himself a man.” 

The big idea is to remind us that Jesus is still fully man even after His ascension. He didn’t drop off His humanity at the coat check table just before lifting off. He’s 100% God while at the same 100% man. That adds up to 100% Savior. No 50-50, but 100-100. Bad math but GREAT theology! To help wrap their heads around it, smart dudes call this the Hypostatic Union. Yeah, I don’t get it either.

By taking on humanity, the Son of God became the perfect Savior. The perfect Mediator. The perfect High Priest. According the the author of Hebrews, the God-Man in the Middle is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He resisted every kind of temptation you and I would ever face. Unlike you and me, Jesus never stumbled, never slipped, never sinned (Heb 4:15). Because of that we confidently “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). All because Jesus was stuck in the middle FOR you. 

Oh, the Humanity!

“And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

“Oh, the humanity!” Herbert Morrison shouted these words into his radio microphone as the Hindenburg crashed and burned on May 6, 1937. He struggled to find the words to describe the disaster which killed 37 people in Elmhurst, NY. From his prison cell in Rome, Paul uses his pent to paint a picture of the earthly life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. The Rabbi/Carpenter from Galilee sure looked like every other person. Yet there was something VERY different about Him. He was incredibly humble. He was obedient to His Father. And He paid the price for that obedience with the most humiliating form of execution the world has ever known. Oh, the humanity!

The Apostle Paul is writing to his friends in Philippi. Despite being behind bars, you can’t wipe the smile off his face. He’s stoked about what God is doing in and through the goofy little church he planted back in Macedonia. He has incredible joy in the joint! In the middle of his excitement, Paul breaks out into song. Yeah, you read that right. A song. A boatload of really smart folks believe Philippians 2:6-11 are the lyrics to a popular worship song in the early church. It’s a modern day preacher quoting a line from “The Stand” in his message. Since Hillsong United wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye, the apostle drops these lyrics to make his point. 

In the previous verses, Paul pulls back the curtains of heaven and gives us a picture of what folks call the preincarnate Christ (Phil 2:6-7). We learn that the Second Person of the Trinity has been around forever. The Son of God is seriously old school. Before anyone on earth ever laid eyes on Him, He was in heaven, just as much God as His Dad and the Spirit. But there was a crisis in God’s Creation. We rebelled. We broke His perfection. Something had to be done. Somebody had to come to the rescue. That Someone is our Savior Jesus. He dropped all the rights and privileges of being Almighty God and came to serve and save us. That’s what happened in eternity before Christ jumped into the river of time in a place called Palestine.

Here Paul uses one line of lyrics to sum up Jesus’ earthly life. “And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v8). One sentence to sum up a sinless, selfless life of sacrifice. If you squint really hard, you can see teenage girl named Mary and her husband Joe the Carpenter giving birth to their first Child in a cave behind the Motel 6. He would grow up to be known as Jesus. Humble. Obedient to His heavenly Dad. But eventually crucified as criminal. If you’re looking for a thumbnail summary of Christ’s life on earth, you’ve found it here in verse 8. Oh, the humanity!

The first thing we see about the Son of God is He was “found in human form” (v8). Paul uses a Greek word (Gr. schema) that means outward appearance. The ESV translators have already talked about Jesus in the “form of God” (Phil 2:8) and “taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). But this is a different term that describes what can be known about a person by just looking at them. At first glance, you’d think Joe’s Son is just like every other young Jewish man in Israel at the time. Can we stuff a sock in the picture of Jesus as with blonde hair and blue eyes in the middle of a brown world? There’s absolutely no basis to believe He looked any different than any other Jewish guy at the time. He was “found in human form” (v8). That would be Middle Eastern form. Jewish form. Oh, the humanity!

Jesus may have looked like every other man but He was so much more. “He humbled Himself” (v8). The original language (Gr. tapeino’o) describes how the Second Person of the Trinity readily and willingly got low. Nobody forced Him. Nobody tricked Him. He didn’t draw the short straw. He WANTED the assignment to come to our rescue. Paul’s point is that the One who is 100% God has done something miraculous. He’s now become 100% Man at the same time. The math makes my head hurt. The truth makes my heart soft. Picture the one and only Son of God leaving the heavenly palace and making a swan dive into the dumpster fire of our sin and rebellion here on Earth. It’s almost impossible to wrap our minds around what He left to where He went. Christ willingly left a perfect paradise to walk with us here in our broken world. To save us, He became one of us. “He humbled Himself” (v8). Oh, the humanity!

Jesus added humanity to His divinity in order to live for you and me. The apostle talks about how our Savior was “obedient” (v8). The Greek word here is hupekoos, which means to listen for and respond to a command when called. Picture a butler waiting for the knock at the door. The Son is happily obedient to His Father. As a result, He lives the life of obedience and sinless perfection that you and I couldn’t. Jesus is turning around all the crap that started in Eden when Adam bought the lie of a satanic snake. “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one Man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19). But His obedience didn’t stop there. Jesus was “obedient to the point of death” (v8). He died the death for our sin that we should have died. In the hours before His own murder, the Lord pleaded with His Dad. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Mt 26:39). If there’s no other way, He’s ready and willing. There was one and only one way. And that road ran right to Skull Hill. Oh, the humanity!

Jesus added humanity to His divinity in order to die for you and me. The radical Rabbi/Carpenter died the most humiliating death our planet has ever seen, “death on a cross” (v8). The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion but they certainly perfected it. It was horribly painful. It’s where we get our word “excruciating.” It was hours if not days of torture. Bloody. Suffocating. If that’s not bad enough, it was meant to embarrass and shame the victim. Romans saved this form of execution for the worst of the worst. Rebels. Revolutionaries. Terrorists. It was a very public deterrent to anyone who got the bright idea of trying to overthrow the empire. One look at the dead Messiah from Galilee would certainly send a chill up the spine. 

But the Bible doesn’t stop after Philippians 2:8. Sunday’s coming. Something crazy is about to happen. Somebody is about to come walking out of the graveyard. Oh, the humanity!