With Him Not For Him

John 16:7

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

 1 – the Holy Spirit is with us

As we seek to join Jesus in His Mission and make Him known to people who are beyond the walls of the church many of us immediately feel inadequate.  Fear, uncertainty, embarrassment at not doing or saying the right things all conspire in our heart and mind to make us feel that joining Jesus in His Mission is beyond our ability and make each of us feel that ‘I could never do that!’

You are absolutely right, this is something that you can’t do! The good news is that God doesn’t expect you to do it for Him.  He wants to do it through you.  Joining Jesus in His Mission is not something that we do FOR Him it is something that we do WITH Him.

In John 16 Jesus has told his disciples that he will soon be leaving them and, as a consequence, they were filled with grief.  They thought that they were going to be left on their own and expected to achieve things that are beyond their ability.  Jesus had told them:

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. (John16:1-2)

For the first disciples, as for many disciples living across the world today, joining in Jesus’ mission was at best a risky enterprise and at worst a threat to their very lives.  Who would ever agree to an assignment like that?

Then Jesus said to them the same thing that he says to you and I!  That you are not alone!!  He will send the advocate, who is the Holy Spirit so that Jesus will be with us in every situation and consequently we will never be expected to do this on our own.

Four chapters later, in John 20 following his death and resurrection, Jesus appeared again to his disciples.  They were locked in a room because they were afraid of what the Jewish leaders would do to them.  They felt alone and afraid.  Then Jesus appeared came and stood among them and said:

 “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:21-22)

This week – as you consider how you may join Jesus in His mission ask Him to give you the Holy Spirit – you are not alone!