“...As the Father has sent me, so I am
sending you.” (John 20:21 NKJV)
The
first impression that comes to mind upon reading this text is that our Lord
desires us to see Him as our model. While on earth, He modelled how we ought to
live and minister. The way He related
with the Father was the way He expects us to relate with Him. The way the Father
treated Him is the way He wants us to expect the Father to treat us. Whatever
the Father made possible with Christ, we should expect the Father to make
possible with us in the name of Jesus. Following Jesus as our model with our
human ability would have been an utter impossibility. Therefore, He promised us – “as the Father sent me, I am sending you.” The key question for us to consider should
be this, how did the Father send Jesus? Let me share only four
possibilities.
He Sent Him With Power – “And you know that God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good
and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts
10:38 NLT). The Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power, which
enabled Him to proclaim the gospel with authority and to heal the sick and cast
out demons from people. Our Lord is sending us with similar power and anointing
to preach as He did, healing the sick and casting out demons. The Holy Spirit is upon us to empower us to
stand for Christ on earth with His authority and power.
He Sent Him With A Message – “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching
in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds
of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people” (Matthew 4:23 NKJV). The
Father sent Jesus with a message known as the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel
of the kingdom is the variety of the gospel that seeks to bring the governing
influence of God over the earth in line with the Our Lord’s prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.” In the gospel of the kingdom, God intends to impart
His will and values on people creating a culture and value system that manifest
His desires and nature on believers. Hence, the gospel becomes a vehicle
through which heaven invades the earth.
He Sent Him With His Presence – “You judge me by human standards, but I do
not judge anyone. 16And if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect
because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me” (John 8:15-16 NLT).
The Father did not leave Jesus on His own while He lived and worked on
earth. A possible exception would
probably be when He was on the Cross bearing our sins. Apart from that, the
Presence of the Father constantly overshadowed Jesus from conception until He
went back to heaven. “So Jesus explained,
I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he
sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does” (John 5:19
NLT). This level of abiding intimacy with the Father is what Jesus wants us
to experience in our relationship with Him. He promised to be with us always
until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
He Sent Him To Love And Save The World
– “For God loved the world so much that
he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not
perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the
world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17 NLT). The Father
sent Jesus into the world to serve as the means for its salvation. He planned
to save the world through the life, sacrifice, death and resurrection of
Christ. In the same way, Jesus sent us
into the world to serve as a means through which the world will experience the
love of the Father. “We are Christ’s
ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ
himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be
reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20 LB).
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