Doing the Works of Jesus

Relationship with your mum

Today is Mother’s Day.

Now, I want you to imagine a scenario… So let’s imagine a young adult in his 20’s. We’ll call him Tom.

Tom has had a pretty good childhood. His family life was stable and his Mum and Dad provided the love and support as he grew up.

He now lives about an hours drive away from his Mum. He’s always got intentions of visiting his Mum, but you know, life can get very busy, so it’s been quite a while since he’s spent any time with her.

But it’s Mother’s day, and being a good son, he remembered to write a beautifully written card which he sent to his Mum in the post, which she received on the Friday before Mother’s Day. He expressed his thanks to his Mum in a heartfelt way, and even recalled and listed some of the things he has most appreciated about his Mum.

Now, this scenario is probably easy to imagine for most people. And while we might criticise Tom for not visiting his Mum more throughout the year, but he seems to doing alright.

But let’s look at Tom in a bit more detail.

What if I told you that Tom’s Mum was known for her kindness. She volunteered at a local charity. She cooked meals when people were doing it tough. She was known for being very generous.

Tom, on the other hand, well, he’s just entered the business world. He knows it’s going to be hard to survive, and so he’s developed a tough exterior so he can make the tough calls. He’s learnt that to get ahead, he has to play hardball with others. In Tom’s world, there is no room for kindness.

Now, for the record, Tom is made up, but it’s not exactly hard to imagine.

But let’s think about Tom’s mum. What is she going to think?

I’m sure she’ll love the card with the lovely message that her son sent her. But I suspect there will be part of her that feels that something has gone missing. I suspect there will be a bit of sadness that he has essentially rejected the values that were so important to her.

Now, has Tom been a bad son to his Mum?

Well let me just leave that question for the moment. Let’s shift from Tom’s relationship with his mum, to your relationship with Jesus.

On the surface, it can look like you’ve got a great relationship with him. You know the right words to say. Maybe you don’t pray quite as often as you like, but when you do, you know that it is with heartfelt emotions.

Now, look at the values of Jesus, and think about your values. How well do they compare? Are they a bit like Tom and his mum?

Today we are in the second week of May Mission Month where we’re looking at the idea of being more like Jesus.

Last week we heard Scott Pilgrim talk about that call of Jesus. He gave us four words starting with “i”. It was a call for immediacy, it was a call that was inclusive, it was a call to imitate and finally a call to interdependance.

But today, I want to push this the next step further. Because our call is not just to get to the point where we say, “I’m with Jesus”, it’s meant to be a call that says, “I’m not just standing with Jesus, I’m allowing him to transform me so that I live a life more like his”.

You see, unfortunately, we sometimes get this idea that Christianity is about getting people over the line. We sometimes talk about the sinners prayer. If we just get them to say that prayer, then we can tick them off as another convert.

Now on one level, people are either saved or they’re not. They’ve either accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour or they haven’t. So in one respect, there is an importance to bringing people to a point of commitment. But this is just the start of one of the greatest journeys someone can ever make.

Last week we considered the call of Jesus from Mark 1:16-20. It was a call accepted by Peter, Andrew, James and John.

What follows next starts to show what is at the heart of Jesus and what he sees as his mission.

So let’s look at that now.

Teaching with Authority

So verse 21 of Mark chapter 1 finds Jesus going with his new disciples to Capernaum.

It’s a Sabbath day and when Jesus takes them into the synagogue, he begins to teach.

This teaching, however… it’s different. You see, when people teach, generally speaking, they will explain concepts… they’ll possibly give a new perspective on a new topic.

But if you look how Mark’s gospel describes this… it says that the people were amazed because this teaching came with authority.

It’s not an exact parallel, but you might imagine someone who is talking about their own invention that they worked on and perfected and know inside out, compared with someone else who is talking about an invention that someone else made but they have just began to explore what it can do. The first is going to speak with authority on the matter, while the other will just be describing what they’ve explored.

You might imagine Jesus now speaking as the one who is the author of creation. He’s not speaking as someone who has made a few observations in the way the world works.

But maybe you might think - yeah, but I’ve met some pretty arrogant people that think they’re an authority on all sorts of matters, and sometimes they can even sound pretty convincing because of their confidence. So how do we know Jesus wasn’t one of these arrogant and confident people that just fooled people.

The answer comes in what happens next. A man comes into the synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit. Interestingly, this spirit inside this man recognised who Jesus was.

But, with a word, Jesus commands the spirit to come out. At the word of Jesus, the impure spirit shook the man violently and came out.

You know, it’s easy to fool someone with words, but when you’re words are matched with your actions, as they were for Jesus on this occasion, you can be much more sure about a person.

Now, what we start to see with all of this is that this authority is actually the authority to transform lives.

You see, this person with an impure spirit is essentially having their life trashed. How that man became to be that way, well, we can only speculate. What is clear, however, is that he goes from a point of hopelessness, to a point of complete transformation… where his life is restored.

Perhaps it might seem like a an extreme example - but if Jesus has authority to change this persons life - he can transform your life, and all those you are friends with.

Here’s the thing - when you accept the call to be a follower of Jesus, you are following someone who has the desire to transform the lives who so desperately need it. You are following someone who wants to invite people into a new reality under the rule of God - quite literally, to enter God’s Kingdom.

The invitation we give

And while the authority to allow people to accept that invitation and have their lives transformed belongs to Jesus and him alone, here’s the amazing thing… Jesus wants to act through your invitation.

When Jesus says: “Follow me”, he’s inviting us into a ministry of bringing others into the kingdom.

Because we have Jesus in our lives, we are equipped to show people the kingdom of God. To tell people, there is hope beyond the ways of this world.

Are you doing that?

You know, sometimes I think we fail to see the true power of Jesus. We’re too worried about what others might think, when the reality is, through our invitations, power transformations can take place… all because Jesus has the authority.

Compassion through healing

Now with this, I want to consider another aspect of the character of Jesus which is important for what we’re talking about this morning.

That is, the compassion of Jesus.

In one regard, we see that in the story we just saw. A man was in need, and Jesus healed him - but you could argue that Jesus did that because the man was causing a scene during the synagogue.

But as we move to verse 29, we see his compassion really shining clearly.

They go to Simon’s house, and there we find Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever.

Mother’s are important - and yes, even for those who struggle with their in-laws, mother-in-laws are also important.

Jesus looks at this special woman, and he has compassion. He heals her.

But that’s not all, that very night, after the sun had set, people start bringing all sorts of people who are ill and demon-possessed.

Now, here’s the interesting thing. Conventional wisdom at this point in time might suggest that Jesus should be careful here. If he starts healing too many people, he’ll start to get swamped. It will make his life more difficult. So, you might think the best strategy is to turn them away, and Jesus can heal when he wants to, without the pressure of people constantly asking him.

But, Jesus doesn’t always follow what we might think of as conventional wisdom.

These people who are brought to Jesus - you know what? They are actually people made in the image of God. These people matter. Jesus looks at these people, many of whom would have been shunned by society, and he has compassion on them, and he heals them.

Now, this compassion is because Jesus knows that the way people are living in this world is not the way it should be.

When you suffer in all the variety of ways in which you find yourself suffering in, it’s actually not as it should be. Jesus sees you, and he cares.

Developing compassion

Likewise, for us as people who have been called to follow Jesus, we need to develop the compassion that Jesus has shown.

We we see people struggle in any sort of way, whether it’s illness, mental health struggles, addictions, people in bad relationships, people in financial hardship, or whatever… we need to recognise that this is not the way God intended it.

We need to work with people to help them get out of these difficult times.

The best way to do this is to show them to God’s kingdom. But here’s the thing - if we are to have the mind of Christ, then this can’t just mean to get them to say the sinners prayer and think our job is done. If we care about them like Jesus does, then we care about the whole person. To separate their soul and their body would be to do something that Jesus doesn’t do.

He wanted to bring them into his kingdom, but he also healed their ailments and various illnesses.

So how do we care for the whole person?

This is where the importance of hospitality comes in. This is where simple acts of service comes in. Use your giftings to serve the person in need.

When we look at overseas mission, we find it is at it’s best when the missionary cares about the entire community.

We had the privilege of going up to PNG, to visit Faith Mission last year. This is a mission that cares about the village which they exist in. They look after the children in need. They have previously run literacy classes for the women who were illiterate.

When we follow Jesus, we need to have the compassion of Jesus.

Dependence on prayer

So, we’ve seen first, the authority in which Jesus acts, and how we too can invite people knowing the power of Jesus.

Second, we’ve seen the compassion Jesus showed, and how we too, need to be people of compassion.

But the third aspect I want to consider this morning, is the way in which Jesus was dependent on prayer.

Now, even though Jesus is the second person of the God head, in this sense, he is God, yet he communicates through prayer. In fact, he makes this a priority in his life.

In verse 35, it tells us that early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

He needs this time with his Father.

Developing a prayer dependence

Prayer can sometimes be an after thought. Sure, when crisis hits we might be thrust into a time of prayer, but often in better times, we can be lulled into a false sense of security when prayer becomes less of a priority.

When we see the priority Jesus placed on prayer, and this while he is a part of the God head himself, then we too need to be reminded to get on our knees, whether in good times or bad.

Prayer is more than just asking God for things.

Yes, we are encouraged to bring our requests to him. When you are in need, God wants to you to bring those needs to him. But prayer is so much more.

Prayer is about connecting us with the very source of all life. Prayer is not an escape from reality - it is our reality.

If you have accepted the call to follow Jesus, then how do you expect to do so without actually talking to the one who has called you? You need to pray.

Prayer is what drives mission. Because mission is at the centre of God’s heart, when we pray, we are naturally drawn to mission.

Through prayer, we start to see the in-breaking of God’s kingdom.

We strongholds of this world start to crumble.

This is what mission is. Mission is the kingdom of God expanding so that more and more lives can be touched. As those stronghold crumble, people can access the kingdom, and lives change.

This can only happen through prayer. Jesus demonstrated this for us, and he has called us to follow him in this example.

It’s interesting how the disciples have to find Jesus in this act of prayer, and when they do find him, Jesus first words are, right, we need to go to the nearby village, because that’s where I need to preach.

He is being guided by his prayer.

Are we people of prayer?

Conclusion

We have been called to follow Jesus but this is so much more than just saying a sinners prayer and thinking that we’re there. This is about taking the mind of Christ, and following him in the way he operates.

It means knowing the authority he carries and that when we invite people, their is real power in it.

It means having the compassion of Jesus, and caring when we see people in need.

And it means being people of prayer.

I started by giving the example of Tom who said how much he loved his mum, but his life showed that he was living such a different life. Of course, you could put that down to personality, but yet, we can honour people by allowing them to shape our lives.

How much more with Jesus. We need to honour him by allowing him to transform us into his likeness.

Let me pray...