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Why Did Jesus Stay So Long?
10/10/2004
"Here is a trustworthy
saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners..."
1 Timothy 1:15
"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved
and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
1 Timothy 2:3-4
Why did Jesus stay so long? If
His death and resurrection were all that were needed for the world to be saved,
then why die after 33 long years? John tells us God became one of us: "And
the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us..." (John
1:14) Why did God become flesh? Yes, to see in "flesh and blood" what
God was really like because of all the distorted views of God on earth. Yes, so
we could be sure that God can "sympathize with our weaknesses."
(Hebrews 4:15) Yes, He became man so He could shed His blood, immortal blood to
save us. But there was more, much more.
Jesus came to make disciples, so individuals such as Peter, James and John could
see and imitate this "flesh and blood" example. It took a long time
(Jesus took three years) to truly "make a disciple... and teach them
to obey everything God commands" (Matthew 28:19-20) including
making other disciples. This was His plan, His only plan to get the message of
salvation out to the entire world in a generation. Discipling is more than
transferring information, it takes so long because it is a heart transfer which
comes from spending time together.
Today there exists a
"super-spiritual" attitude that Jesus is our leader and no one else.
True, but not true. We should never idolize a preacher or any of God's leaders.
However, God needs men and women to "step-up" to live and lead like
Jesus. This takes incredible faith and sacrifice. Paul himself implores the
church, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." (1 Corinthians
11:1) Paul realized flesh and blood examples were needed after Jesus ascended to
heaven. They are equally essential today. Disciples, especially those of us whom
God has called to lead, must keep our youthful idealism that "for me
to live is Christ." (Philippians 1:21)
On a recent trip, a committed but
confused disciple came to me and asked, "In the past, during the early
years of the ICOC, did we expect too much of people to be baptized?" And I
said, "What do you mean?" He responded, "At my church it is said
we were 'baptizing apostles.' In other words, we expected too much commitment.
Kip, what do you think?" I paused and said, "To expect the commitment
of an apostle at baptism is wrong." The misguided Christian replied,
"Yeah, that's what my preacher said." I then responded, "You see
brother, God expects us to baptize people with more than the apostles
commitment, but with the heart of Jesus - totally sold out to God and willing to
die for the cause!" I then shared the words to Steve Johnson's song "Upsidedown"
where Steve crystallizes this concept in this song verse about the first days of
God's church in Acts 2:
"Only
a few weeks earlier, the Lord was crucified.
Now on every corner of Jerusalem, seems the Lord is
multiplied.
The Word scattered to hungry souls, the seeds scattered
on breezes.
Now there's not just one to kill, there's three thousand
Jesus's!"
In the Portland Church, we
believe that God wants us to expect anyone who is baptized, restored or placed
membership to have the commitment of Christ! This past week Hugo Carreto came
before the church and expressed his gratitude for God and the disciples who
helped his heart regain his "first love" for God after
falling away years ago. (Revelation 2:4) Many years ago when I was the campus
minister for Eastern Illinois University, in the campus ministry we had a young
disciple named Mark Mancini. When Mark finished studying and then baptized his
very first friend to become a disciple, he said, "Whew, I'm glad that's
over! That was so much work!" I put my arm around him, smiled and
responded, "Mark, baptism is just the beginning. Now the real work begins
to daily walk with and train our new brother!" Mark wearily smiled back, I
think remembering his own early months as a Christian.
You see the reason God does not
take us up to heaven right out of the baptistery is because He has a mission for
us. That's why we stay on earth and yes, that's why Jesus stayed so long.
Kip McKean
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