One of my greatest joys in life is the close relationships and love I have for those I work with. Twelve years ago, I was introduced to a young man who had recently begun walking with Jesus. Today Chris Bryant is the Community Pastor at LifePoint Church. He not only leads our community ministries but is first a fruit of God’s work among our community. This post is the second part of an introduction into the fellowship of LifePoint Church through our community group ministry. You can read the first part here.
Pastor Lane
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Just before Jesus was crucified, the apostle John records the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in John 17, known as the high priestly prayer. He prayed, “Father, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” I love what he’s saying. “Father, I did what you sent me to do. Now, I’m ready to come home. I’m ready to be back in the presence of your glory. Father, bring me home.”
Can you imagine? If the Lord gives you the ability to see the final moments before you draw your last breath, will these thoughts fill your heart and mind? Will you look to the heavens and confidently claim with our Lord, “Father, I did what you created me to do. Now, bring me home. Bring me into your glorious presence.” Friend, I pray that you would have this confidence, and I believe God’s Word shows us that you can. My hope in writing this is to encourage you by pointing toward three truths from Scripture.
- Christ is your confidence
- Mission is your work
- Community is your context
Christ is your confidence
If I’m honest it almost seems arrogant to pray with the confidence that Jesus did in John 17. After all, look at me. I’m just a sinful, broken man. I can’t go a day of my life without defaming the glory of God by my sin. So why would I think that I, at the end of my life, would be able to have this confidence toward God?
First, because this is what Jesus showed us in his final moments on the cross. A man simply known as a criminal asked Jesus in his final minutes to “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus responded, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Was it because the man was sinless or because his good works had ultimately outweighed his bad? No. It was because he had shifted his hopes to no longer being about what he could do or had done but to what Christ could do and who Christ was, a righteous King about to enter into his Kingdom. He believed Jesus and Jesus saved him.
Second, because this is what the word of God [who is Jesus] says. In Acts 16 a prison guard who was ready to commit suicide desperately fell at the feet of Paul and Silas and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” They responded, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” Paul wrote to the Romans, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Jesus himself said, “Whoever believes in me [Jesus] will not perish, but will have eternal life” (John 3:16).
I can be confident to pray as Jesus did, not because of what I have or haven’t done, but because I believe in what he has done. Just like the crook on a cross.
We always tend toward justifying ourselves by our works but Scripture says by works of the law, no one will be saved. You can’t earn your way into God’s presence. All you can do is trust and believe in the one who has accomplished it on your behalf, Jesus Christ. And when you believe on Christ with all your life, not only are you saved, but God is glorified as the life-giving Savior.
Mission is your work
When Jesus alone is our confidence, living as a missioner is no longer a burden but a joy. It is the overflow of our trust and worship of the one true God. And God wills that we would confess this not just to him but to the world around us. Jesus didn’t want to take us out of the world. Instead he wanted to send us back into the world to proclaim him. He said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).
When we trust our own works to save us this is only more work for us to do and it seems laborious. Like a job that we can’t wait to clock out of or be off the hook for. When we trust in the finished work of Christ, mission is something we long to do because it is where we declare how good and glorious our God is. We complete our joy by sharing the light of Jesus with the world around us (1 John 1:4).
Christian, this is your work! To believe on the one whom he has sent and to declare the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light (John 6:29; 1 Peter 2:9).
Together is your context
As Jesus ends his prayer to the Father, he makes an astounding statement. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21).
Christian, these are amazing truths for your life! First, Jesus asks the Father for those he is sending us to, that they will believe the word that we speak about him! Remember this when you pray and pursue someone in the Lord.
Second, God uses our oneness. He uses our togetherness in Christ-exalting unity that brings glory to the Father to persuade men to believe the gospel. The truth is we do not have the opportunity to demonstrate our heart’s new allegiances to Christ in isolation. You’ve heard the old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In a similar way, if a man has been made new in Christ, how else will he or anyone else know if not to one another? It is quite easy to love others in my quiet time when I’m alone. It is all together different to act loving toward sinful, broken people when I’m sharing daily life with them.
It is together that we see who we are inside, help others see who they are, and all mature as disciples. It is together that the confession, “Christ is glorious and good and worthy of life,” is made visible. Community isn’t just a gift from God for us. It is a gift from God for our brothers and sisters who will one day believe. Together, we trust in Christ, declare his greatness, and say to a needy and watching world that he truly is glorious and worthy of all of life.