Representatives of the Gospel Colossians 3:17 / 1 Corinthians 10:33
“And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
Colossians 3:17
“I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:33
I watch and listen to lots of podcasts secular and Christian. I try to line them up with the bible and whether they are in line with scripture. I was listening to a secular podcast some months ago and someone said “what you worship, you imitate”.
When I was first born again and told my father that I was going to be baptised and insisted him to come he said “live the life of a Christian for a year and then decide. Grow more like Christ in that year”
I took the second part of that advice but I was baptised the following week. My father came to the service.
Those words have always resonated with me knowing that my Father in heaven was speaking to me through my Dad.
What made me start to change?
1. I was called by Him.
2. I knew He loved me.
3. I was baffled why he chose me but learnt that it was His grace, his unmerited favour that saved me.
4. This gave me a new purpose that still motivates and sustains me to try and convey that love to anyone around me that I can.
I am going to use a non Christian testimony but it draws parallels with how we should build our relationship with God and how that then reflects to the world and I hope brings glory to Him.
Ian Wright on Desert Island Discs.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CqooI8RCSEY&feature=share
This is just like the encounters with God in Daniel and Revelations, but also the accounts in the gospels.
1. Calling. He said “Come with me” and that changed my life. Jesus said to Peter and Andrew come follow me in Matthew 4 19. It certainly changed their lives.
2. Loved “I was so scared of him but I knew he loved me." The woman who anoints Jesus’ feet in Luke 7, the woman caught in adultery, Act 9 Paul’s conversion. The mixture of Holy fear that you are standing before the creator of the universe but deeply loved. We hear so much about the veil being torn in two and that we are invited in to the Holy of Holies but this is not an invitation to lean up against the wall with our hands in our pockets.
3. Grace “I don’t know why he loved me and I don’t know why he chose me” 1 Corinthians 15 v 9-10 “For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results.”
4. Purpose The results of these encounters “I felt important", he brought discipline, “I had the feeling I had some use”. Zacchaeus was a tax collector for the Romans’. Made himself important by siding with the Roman occupation but was despised by the Jews, his own people. Jesus called him down from the tree, said I’m coming to your home. That made him feel important and of use. Luke 19:8-9
Do you want to be a representative of Jesus?
Firstly have you heard his call. Worship is to imitate Him as well as stand before Him raising your hands in abandonment to Him?
We have 4 areas:
1. Calling. Have you heard Jesus call you?
2. Loved. Do you know how much Jesus loves you?
3. Grace. Have you stood before the cross? “There on a cross made for sinners”
4. Purpose. When you have experienced the first three has that given you a motivation? to love people, to show grace to others? Are you a representative of the Good news, the gospel?