Joining Jesus – 19th February 2019

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”  Mark 1:14,15

1.      GOOD NEWS.

If we are to join Jesus in His Mission, it is vital that we understand what His mission was and is.  I think this is so important because there is a great deal of misunderstanding about Jesus’ mission both inside and outside of the church.

Many people inside of the church see ‘mission’ as being focused on the ‘church building’, a place where we engage in activities and run programmes with the expectation that if people are going to hear the gospel, they will join in with what we are doing.  Put simply, we are ‘doing what we do and waiting for people to come to us!’

Many people outside of the church know nothing about why Jesus came.  All they have is a vague impression that the church is for ‘religious people’ who frequently consider themselves to be morally superior to those outside.   This leads many to believe that church is a place for people who think they are good. 

The tragic result of this misunderstanding on both sides is that in a world where less and less people are attending church, more and more people have no idea that Jesus came to the world to announce, and to be, GOOD NEWS!

The reality is that there are millions upon millions of people around the world who have no intention of attending church but, without even knowing it, they are waiting for us to go to them!  This is because God, the Holy Spirit, is active in the world and in the lives of people who are not coming to church.

As the scripture says:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

Please note the two simple words from this sentence ‘Jesus went’.  He did not ‘wait’ He ‘went’!

Over the next few sessions I will focus more on what this ‘Good News’ is and how we can Join Jesus in His Mission by imitating Him. But, as we begin this short series, I want to encourage you to consider a significant question:

‘In what ways are you bringing GOOD NEWS to people that are close to you but far from God?’

Take some time this week to think about people that you know who have not heard the GOOD NEWS and ask God to help you to be willing to go!