I’m a simple lay guy – hence the name of my blog. But that’s cool. Jesus called like-minded people to be included in His core group of disciples.
For example, there’s one guy who made a living catching fish. This guy was also a simple guy and he loved fish. I mean this guy lived fish, dreamt fish, smelt like fish and yet Jesus built His church on the very words coming out of his mouth. What set him apart from the rest of his fellow simple folk was his answer to the question Jesus asked him…
“But who do you say I am?â€
When this fisherman answered, Jesus looked into his heart and realised that this man had finally understood the reason He was here on earth.
This fisherman didn’t come to this realisation himself. Neither did he go to seminary or earn enough letters after his name to sink the Titanic. Jesus looked him square in the eye and told him that the Father had taught him this.
So this guy went from being a fisherman having a shocking day out on the lake to declaring the words on which Jesus has been building His Church for the last 2000 years.
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.â€
Here is the Creator entering the creation He made and lived as a man. Like a painter jumping into his canvas and living like a speck of paint. Or like a music composer shedding everything and existing like a single note.
The painting sucked and the music stunk and the speck and the note were blamed for the mess even though it was the speck that was perfect and it was the note that held the whole song together.
This speck and note were despised and hated and rejected – they stood out like a sore thumb and were ultimately rejected and thrown out. And murdered. Once gone the picture and melody felt vindicated – although some parts started to see the connection of it all..and wondered…what if?
All of a sudden the speck was back and the note was back. But not like before. This time it was a more radiant speck and a more beautiful note. This time the adjoining specks and the connecting notes were given an understanding as to why things were the way they were. And the surrounding specks and surrounding notes started to align themselves to it.
In due course, the picture and melody of life started to centre on this pivotal moment. Mankind has never been the same.
Jesus. This man was a historical figure. Even secular texts allude to His reality. They allude to His life, His death, His resurrection. His miracles. This guy was a man on a mission and He was driven with a conviction you and I have major difficulties trying to understand.
Two thousand years after the stinky fisherman uttered the words, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,†we are still blown away by this man’s existence, His life and His passion.
Why was He so passionate? Why was He so driven? Apart from the many Christian answers so many of us hear, I declare to you that He knew the truth.
On this planet, no-one has ever seen God. I don’t care what the whacko’s say. I have no respect what some crazy Pentecostals say. No-one has ever seen God. Except for Jesus.
How many times did He say that He speaks only what the Father tells Him. That He and the Father are one? Out of all the human beings that have walked this planet, only Jesus can ever declare that they have seen God. He, in His glory, is one with the Father and knows Him intimately.
His knowledge of the Father and His knowledge of the truth drove Him while He was on earth. Here He was stripped of all His glory and all His attributes and looked like you and me. The ultimate Speck and Note made common.
And yet He was sinless. Why? Again apart from all the cliché answers, it was because He knew the Father so intimately. Imagine someone trying to convince you otherwise of a reality you know is so untrue.
As Jesus walked around Israel, he would’ve seen so many “teachers” of the Law trying to explain the things of God. Imagine what Jesus would have been thinking…”You guys are a pack of lunatics and have no idea how far you’re off the mark.” It’s little wonder He had His harshest critics for such people.
Imagine you knew something so intimately and then you come across people who miss the point - completely. You know the truth because you have touched it, felt it, known it - and yet here are people living a reality in complete denial of what you know. Such was the broken heart of the Man of Sorrows. Talk about a “culture shock.”
He was perfect because He knew the Father. He was the ultimate human being. And He accomplished what the Father had sent Him down to do. And when He accomplished this, He passed on the baton to mankind to continue to do what He had started.
When the fisherman uttered those words, Jesus started to build His Church. And it has been built for 2000 years. Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not destroy it. But He also gives many examples of how what He started becomes corrupt and wrong and ugly because people like you and I are now working in what He started.
And that’s what this blog is all about. I am not a fisherman. But like Peter, I stink in my sin and I have foot in mouth disease. But like Peter, I also declare that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Before Jesus left earth to return and be exalted to the awfully glorious position He had before he entered the pathetic reality of mankind, he uttered…
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.â€
Fast-forward 2000 years and it’s you and me who read the words of Jesus. He is still with us cause He promised He would be. The nation I live is Australia. Your nation may be different. Point is, Jesus says all nations and so you and I have many things in common.
So let’s go make disciples ok? You do it in your culture and I’ll do it in mine. Umm, that makes us missional. And this is the flavour of this blog.
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