As the Father sent me so I send you. John 20:19-30 April 19th. Duncan Leake
Jesus didn’t waste much time really did he?
Here he is on the day of the resurrection letting the disciples know that he has a job for them to do.
As the father has sent me so I am sending you.
Just that one sentence started me thinking…
How did the Father send Jesus?
It says in the bible that
when the right time came, God sent his Son
(Galatians 4:4)
1. The birth life, death and resurrection of Jesus took place at the right time, in the right place… in accordance with everything that had been spoken about him through the prophets.
The birth of Jesus, the time and place of his life was not an accident.
The birth of the disciples, the time and place of the life of each of them was no accident. Each one of them was born at the right time for them to meet and know Jesus.
Your life, my life is not an accident.
We know that – don’t we?
You may have come as a surprise to your parents… but not to God. That’s what the bible says…
Psalm 139…
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
Right from the start of your life you were good news to God. You are here today because GOD has placed you here. You are part of his plan and purpose.
Each one of us is here in this generation at this time for a purpose and a reason.
As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
So maybe the first thing to remember is that
The Father sent Jesus to live at the right time
And just as the Father had a plan and a purpose for Jesus… know that Jesus has a plan and a purpose for you. He can accomplish something unique through your life.
2. And a second thing to notice is that
The Father sent Jesus to live in humility
Again as the bible says…
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave… (Philippians 2)
Jesus left all the glory and riches of heaven and humbled himself to live among us.
I wonder if sometimes we want affirmation and recognition by others much more that we are willing to admit.
How much do you want people to admire you or recognise you or take notice of you?
Many years ago I was a teacher in a secondary school and one of my colleagues, an English teacher had pinned up on the wall in his room, some lines from the play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. Some of you may know the play it tells the story of the trial and execution of Sir Thomas More during the reign of Henry VIII. A key player in the events is the character of RICH, a young, ambitious man.
And in the lines that my friend had pinned up,
Thomas More says to RICH. "
Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher. Perhaps even a great one.
And Rich says
And if I was, who would know it?
And Thomas More replies
You, your pupils, your friends, God.
Not a bad public, that…
But Rich was eager for recognition from the people who mattered to him, the rich and the powerful, ... Rich was so eager that he perjured himself at the trial of Thomas More, and as a reward for his services he was promoted and given a job in King Henry's government. Put in charge of Wales – the country not the fish!
We only have to turn on the TV to see that we live in an age where success and celebrity status is valued much much more than humility and service to others…
A celebrity like Jonathan Ross earns quite a bit more than say the men and women who empty bedpans and lovingly care for people who are ill in hospital.
so maybe there is a message for us in the life and example of Jesus who, as the bible says, humbled himself…
Jesus lived thirty years of his life in total obscurity.
He grew up in a small town, earned a living with his hands… people knew him as “Joseph the carpenter’s son.”
Yet on the day of his baptism as he came up out of the water God announced
“this is my beloved son I am well pleased with him. Matthew 3:17
(or if you read the NLT You are my dearly loved son and you bring me great joy”) Its in Mark 1 as well.
Before his first sermon preached.
Before his first miracle
Before the crowds had gathered around him.
God was “well-pleased” with Jesus.
In his ordinary everyday life…
Jesus had brought joy to his heavenly Father.
And he says to his friends…
As the father sent me… even so I send you.
3. Sometimes I can meet Christians who feel dissatisfied… their gifts are not being used, or they feel they are not exercising a ministry. Sometimes that is exactly what is happening and they need help and encouragement to step out in faith and do what they know it is that God is asking them to do. But sometimes what they are doing is complaining… it is just a way of saying “I don’t think I am being appreciated enough.”
The point is… Jesus didn’t just please his father when he preached the Sermon on the Mount.
He pleased his heavenly father as he lived in a home in Nazareth. He didn’t have to wait until he started a public ministry of preaching and healing.
The bible says that even as a child Jesus grew in favour with God. (Luke 4)
In just the same way we are called to live a life that is pleasing to God in our ordinary everyday situation,
in our ordinary everyday relationships with the people around us.
What do you want most… do you want God to be “well-pleased” with you… or like Rich do you crave approval, affirmation, recognition from others.
Jesus said…
As the father sent me… even so I send you.
At the right time, in the right place.. the life of Jesus was part of God’s plan… and so is your life.
And Jesus humbled himself…
living a life of obedience and humility before God… long before he ever entered into a public ministry… he brought great joy to his heavenly father who was well-pleased with him.
And one more thing…
(although you could probably think of lots of lessons that we can learn from the way that the Father sent Jesus to live among us…)
4. The Father sent Jesus to show his love
Jesus did just that when he healed, when he taught, when he offered forgiveness, when he invited people into relationship with God.
But on the night before he died… there is an amazing description from his friend John, of what happened in the upper room… listen to this from John chapter 12…
Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him
Jesus knelt down to wash the disciples feet…
he even washed the feet of Judas, the one who would betray him !!
As the father sent me… even so I send you.
Isn’t this the way that we are called to live?
Isn’t this the Love that Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 13 … the love that never gives up,
the love without which nothing that we do has any value or worth?
Have you ever heard anybody say
“I’ll never forgive her for what she did to me.”
“I’ll never forgive what he said.”
Can that attitude be part of the life of anyone who claims to live in friendship with Jesus who knelt down to wash the feet of Judas who he knew was going to betray him?
The answer is it can…
but when we find that sort of attitude in our lives.. then we can’t be content to leave it there…
if we do it will only fester and spoil our relationship with Jesus and with others.
Because that sort of attitude was not seen in Jesus.. and the bible says in that passage in Philippians 2 which speaks about how Jesus humbled himself … your attitude must be the same as Jesus Christ had…
The love that Jesus showed as he knelt down to wash the feet of his disciples as he faced death on the cross for our forgiveness…
…that sort of love just can’t set it’s face against other people.
…that sort of love can’t be “hard-hearted”,
…that sort of love can’t just write people off and say “That’s it I’m having nothing more to do with them!”.
As the father sent me, so I am sending you….
And Jesus breathed on them and said
“receive the Holy Spirit.
Paul says God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who he has given to us.(Romans 5:5)
That love has been breathed into us by the Holy Spirit…
That love is the love of God seen in Jesus.. the love of God that Jesus says is to be seen in our lives now.
5. So…
As the father sent me, so I am sending you…
Today, tomorrow this week…
Jesus is sending us to live knowing
That we are part of God’s purpose and plan here and now in this place.
Jesus is sending us
to live in humility before God, living a life that is well pleasing to him, making it our aim to earn the approval of our heavenly father rather than to crave recognition and approval from others.
And Jesus is sending us
To live a life that shows the Father’s love …
the love that Jesus revealed in the upper room and he knelt down to wash the feet of both his friends and his enemy, the love that he showed on the cross,
the love that is a sign of the presence of his Holy Spirit with all who belong to him.