Have you ever heard the phrase, "You look like you've seen a ghost?"
It often follows a situation where someone looks disheveled from a tragedy or maybe they run into someone from their past. As we approach the end of this year and look for ways to reach our cities and communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I want folks who encounter Christians to leave the presence of Christians, thinking, "Did I just see a ghost?" I'm really saying, "be his presence." Let the Holy "Ghost" in you live in such a way that people see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven. I want our love and mercy to beg more questions from your community and when appropriate, give an account of the hope that you have.
I really boils down to 3 things just as it did with Jesus that showed
and proved he was the Messiah and show and prove we are his followers:
Life - Jesus lived in such a way as to explain and usher in a great redemption of Israel and ultimately the world. Jesus' life stood in opposition to the world view employed by both the church of his day and the government. He went to real, people with real needs, living in oppression and learning the status quo from their leaders and challenged them to be better, be redeemed, and ultimately be his church. (See John chapters 3 & 4).
Death - Substitutionary atonement teaches that Christ became our substitute. Sin, must die and so instead of us, it was Christ, who didn't know sin, became sin for the world. (See Galatians 3:13, Romans 3:23-26). When Jesus asks us to die, he is asking us to empty ourselves of everything representing the worldview of the broken system. In order to follow Jesus and ask others to do the same, we have to die to the system of this world and receive Christ and as we are emptied, we are filled with him. In the same way, we are the hands and feet of Jesus by emptying and giving of ourselves to this world. (See Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 5:1-5).
Resurrection - N.T. Wright wrote in Surprised by Hope (page 128-129), "The resurrection is the sign that death is defeated (I Corinthians 15). Many Christians talk about death in a way that suggests it isn’t actually so bad after all. But if Christians allow death to rule in the realm of physicality, then ultimately the doctrine of creation is in jeopardy -- the doctrine that God remains the good creator who loves the world that God has made and who is not going to abandon it. WOW! This is the resurrection, and when the world sees the resurrection in us, they are seeing the faith of people that have been resurrected from the old life to a new one (see 2 Corinthians 5:17) but they are also seeing that God hasn't abandoned them.
What a beautiful existence the Christian life is.
The life of Christ teaches us everything we need, to be his hands and feet for this world. What a gift, what grace and what promise from God that drives us everyday to his ask for his filling in our life. Once we die to self and receive Christ, this presence is the parousia right before us. We realize the most important truth of all; we can't do it, without his presence in our lives. Once we have this presence, there is nothing we can't do. We can't love outsiders or those who reject us, but he can. Don't pray that God would teach you to love as he loves. Pray that he would fill you so full of himself that his love would be your love, in and through you. Don't pray for peace. Pray that his peace would infill you. Don't imitate him in your own strength, otherwise we are nothing more than a miserable replica. But if it is his presence than it is him imitating himself and he is very good at being God.
A Couple Questions for further discussion:
1. Where in your life did the presence of the Holy Spirit actually frighten you (good or bad)?
2. Where have you seen the presence of God at work in your life these last 30 days?
3. Where has God used you to be the hands and feet of Jesus? How did your sacrifice and/or service teach you about the presence of God?
Further Reading:
Surprised by Hope, by N.T. Wright
Simply Jesus, by N.T. Wright
Resurrection Faith, article by N.T. Wright, The Christian Century, 12/18/02 pp. 28-31
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