Vol. 16 No. 04 | January 28, 2013
In Luke 4 Jesus announces the coming of the Kingdom of God:
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:14-19, NIV1984)
In Luke 5 He had this conversation with the Pharisees:
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:30-32, NIV1984)
The message seems clear. The Kingdom of God is about unhealthy people accepting God’s healing and turning around and helping other unhealthy people do the same thing. Sick people getting help, then helping other sick people.
How does that work?
It starts with the realization that at one time we were all helpless and hopeless (Romans 5) and without hope. In that condition we were far from God, foreigners, and weak.
As we accepted that truth we are all saved by grace the grace of God (Ephesians 2). By God’s grace we have moved from being foreigners to being brought close. We were aliens in a foreign land, and then brought near to God. Being saved we are brought into the body as new creations to do good works that God has prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Part of doing those good works involves moving out from our sickness, and leaving our limitations behind, relying on the Spirit of God as our new source of strength to look around us to others who are just as sick and unhealthy and bring them along the path toward healing and renewal.
How is this for a recruitment notice?
Wanted: Men and women who have admitted they have a helpless and sick nature, and want to walk with other men and women (who are equally helpless and sick) to a new life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Otherwise known as the abundant life. Perfect people need not apply.
That is our task. It is possible. May it begin with me.
Tom
© Copyright 2013 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.