A Passion to Imitate Jesus Christ
by Paul Borthwick"Passion is the zeal to be so intensely committed to something that we’d suffer or die for it."
What a week we have been experiencing! We have celebrated God's great story of redemption. We've been reminded that the almighty God, creator of the ends of the earth, loves us. And - in spite of our sins - He has redeemed us and adopted us as His own in Christ. As a result, we have worshipped and we have partied.
But God's story of redemption for the nations continues through us. Jesus Christ, the unique and exclusive provision of God for salvation for everyone who believes, now sends us out by the power of his Holy Spirit. Jesus says to us: "Be my witnesses, declare my glory, preach the Good News about salvation, invite others into worship - from your home to your community, across cultures, and to the ends of the earth! As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you."
Because God first loved us, we're on a mission from God. Each of us is called to go out in Jesus’ name, to "seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); to be agents of hope in a broken world; and to proclaim by life and by deed the good news of redemption and reconciliation and justice of God.
The mission of God includes you! Uniquely you. Specifically you. But even in this mission, God gives us choices. He allows us the freedom to choose how we will respond to His great love expressed to us through Jesus Christ. That's why tonight we have come to a point of decision.
Where do you and your story fit into God's story? What chapter will you contribute to the story of God? Will you choose to live out the global implications of the Gospel, by intentionally bringing your lifestyle, priorities, and prayers into alignment with God's worldwide purposes? And for some, will you be obedient to the Holy Spirit's call across cultures, by expressing tonight your desire, your sense of calling from God, that he wants you to cross a culture to bring the good news of Jesus Christ?
My wife, Christie, and I have attended almost every Urbana convention since 1973. At Urbana 73 - three years before met each other - we both stood in response to the invitation that I'll give to you tonight. We said, "Yes, Lord, we'll obey and go wherever you send us."
Our first steps of obedience involved serving as missions-minded youth leaders,
trying to engage young people in the global mission of God. Then we became
mission leaders in our church, directing others out in service, building partnerships
with the church around the world. Now we're into a new phase of life – we’re
training and equipping leaders in the under-resourced world. But we're here
at Urbana 2000 to listen to God, making ourselves available, desirous of being
obedient. We're here, just like you, to say, "Lord, where do you want
us in your worldwide story?"
Patrick Johnstone lays out the decision we face tonight this way: "The
question is not whether missions is for me or whether missions should have
a part in my ministry, but rather what is my part in missions because
I am a believer? There is a ‘you’-shaped hole in God's kingdom.
Find it and fit into it" (The Church is Bigger Than You Think, p.25).
This is the bottom line: God commands us to worship and mission - upward and outward - to celebrate His love and to express it to the world. God chooses to work through our lives to declare His glory - to tell His story - to the nations; to invite all peoples to true worship.
This is the amazing grace of God! For reasons known only to God, he has chosen to declare His good news to the world, to all nations, to all ethnicities, through us - weak, ordinary sinners that we are. If you're like I am, you easily feel overwhelmed or unqualified for the task, or you feel that the job is simply too big. You feel inadequate and inferior. But God, the creator of the ends of the earth, loves us, calls us, sends us, and promises to use our lives.
Elizabeth Elliot states it this way: "Next to the incarnation, I know of no more staggering and humbling truth than that a sovereign God has ordained my participation." (Discipline: The Glad Surrender, p. 34)
What is your participation in the mission of God? To shape our thinking, I’d like to have us look at a passage of scripture, from Philippians. Out of reverence for God’s word, please stand.
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus: who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God also highly exalted him to and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:5-11
Please be seated. As we consider our part in the great mission of God, my challenge tonight is than we would be passionate about imitating the servanthood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I want to focus on these three words: passion - servanthood - sacrifice.
Passion
What is passion? The dictionary defines passion as fervor, enthusiasm, zeal, an intense emotion compelling action. We use it to define romance, dedication to sports, even sexual drive. But the deeper meaning of passion is being absolutely dedicated to a task, to a vision, to a goal. The Greek word – pascho – literally means "to suffer." That's why the week between Palm Sunday and Easter - the week of Christ's suffering and death - is called "Passion Week." Combining the dictionary definition with the biblical word, I'd like to define passion this way: Passion is the zeal to be so intensely committed to something that we’d suffer or die for it.
Therefore, I have to warn you from the outset: there is no pain-free passion. There is no "passion-lite". There is no reduced-calorie passion. Half-hearted people will never take God's story of love to the difficult, hostile, dangerous places. To be passionate means saying, "I believe in this so intensely that suffering will not deter me," – as you've already heard through Ruth [Padilla De Borst]'s testimony or the testimony of the persecuted church. In this passage, Philippians 2:5-11, we see Jesus’ passion. He loved us so dearly, that he would give himself for us!
What’s your passion? What are you willing to live for, and even die for? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it this way: “No one knows what they’re living for until they know what they would die for.”
A computer company came up with a slogan, trying to state its commitment to its customers by promising that they would serve them: "Whatever it takes." What a definition of passion! “Whatever it takes!” Philippians 2:5-11 defines Christ's passion: emptying himself of privileges, taking the nature of a servant, executed violently on the cross - whatever it takes to bring us back into right relationship with God. Passion means 100%. It means joining Paul when he articulates his passion:”I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10-11). What’s your passion?
Paul said his basic passion was to know Jesus Christ. I want to know Jesus Christ. I want to be absorbed in His love before I communicate that love to others. Paul understood that our mission flows from a relationship with Jesus Christ. If your first passion is to reach lost people, you will become overwhelmed. The task is simply too vast. You will be discouraged with the resistance. If your first passion is for a holy lifestyle, you will be overwhelmed with a lack of progress and your own sinfulness will discourage you. No, we start with a passion to know Christ. The knowing of Christ fuels our passion for lost people, and for a holy lifestyle. But it starts with knowing him. Philippians 3 it says, in knowing Christ there is the power of the resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.
It's not easy to stay passionate. Several years ago, after rupturing a disk in my lower back, I was living with greater physical pain than I had ever before experienced. I couldn't sleep, sit, or stand without constant pain. And just as a reflection of the struggle to be passionate, I remember praying, "Lord Jesus, if you want to use this pain to make me more like Christ, if you want to use this pain to make me into a deeper man, then, Lord, I pray for shallowness! I pray for superficiality. I don't want depth that badly. Take it away!" That’s the normal human response. We all want relief far more than we want depth. But Jesus didn't take away the pain, and as I grew, I began to pray, "OK Lord, then use this pain for your purposes. Use this pain to make me more compassionate. Use this pain to fuel my passion. Use this pain to take me to others in pain who need to know Your hope in the face of suffering."
Passion is tough because it's connected to pain. But God calls us to imitate Jesus Christ - even to the point of allowing our pain to be used for His kingdom. Are you willing to say tonight, "Lord Jesus, I invite You to use my dysfunctional past, my physical pain, my learning disabilities, my emotional pain, my brokenness - all to fuel passion for You and dedication to Your mission in the world."
Servanthood
The first word, passion, is implied in the Philippians 2:5-11 passage. This second word - servanthood - is specifically stated. Other translations use the word “slave”. Jesus emptied himself, intentionally giving up his heavenly comforts - to come to us as a servant, a slave – one whose life is given in service to someone else.
What does it mean for us to be passionate; to imitate the servanthood of Jesus; to follow Jesus who said, "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). It means giving to demonstrate the love of Christ to others. In imitation of Christ, I give my life so that someone else might benefit.
For some, it might mean servanthood in the legal world, advocating for issues of reconciliation, justice, or human rights. For some of you servanthood might mean using your economic and mathematical skills to help the poor establish micro-enterprise development, and helping them break out of the cycle of poverty in the name of Christ. For all of us servanthood is going to mean voluntary lifestyle cutbacks so that we have more to give: "To live more simply that others may simply live." For some of us, servanthood is going to mean raising the money (and giving up the opportunity to earn money) to go on a short-term mission, to explore where God would have us, and being willing to pay, in effect, to serve – just like Jesus.
On campus, servanthood might mean leaving the comfort zone of our own Christian fellowship and friends to go down the hall to reach out to a party-animal, or across campus to reach out to someone who is a lonely international student.
If you stand tonight as an expression of your commitment to become a cross-cultural missionary, a servant in another culture of the world, then servanthood is going to mean emptying yourself of your own cultural comfort zones: learning another language, learning different ways of doing things, learning to eat food that you never thought you would eat.
In this serving, we find ourselves. Jesus promised that if we lose our lives, we find them. If we give, we receive. Seth, a college junior, discovered this last summer. He emptied himself of summer opportunities and went to Calcutta, India, to work with street children. He writes these words:
"In the middle of one of the worst prostitution districts in Calcutta, I sat in a shack packed wall to wall with children. I looked into the eyes of these kids who were enslaved in prostitution or soon would be, and I listened to them sing of God's goodness and protection. I felt like I heard the voice of God whisper, ‘How much louder must I cry before you see these children are worthy of investing your life in? How much louder must I cry than the shouts of their singing?' Tears fell from my cheeks as it became clear l could think of nothing better to invest my life in. Seeing the faces of these children has changed my life."
That's what servanthood does. It changes us.
Sacrifice
Being passionate to follow Jesus' example of servanthood is one thing, but following His example of sacrifice is quite another, because sacrifice takes passion to a higher level. Jesus' passion cost Him His life: "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death - even death on a cross!”
This is where our culture’s values and Jesus’ values absolutely collide.
Our culture says, "True life means self-protection."
Jesus says, "True life means risks of faith, danger, and trusting me."
Our culture says, "True life means acquisition and material things."
Jesus says, "True life means generosity and a life given away to others."
Our culture says, "Make as much as you can."
Jesus says, "Follow my example. Give as much as you can whatever it takes."
Paul the apostle caught this when he wrote to the Romans:
None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord (Romans 14:7-8).
Paul's life basically stated that because Jesus did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, I will not cling to my desire for security.,Because Jesus emptied himself and became a servant, I will serve each person - even my persecutors - in the name of Christ. Because Jesus became obedient unto death, I will be obedient - whatever it takes!"
I am not saying this is easy. We instinctively resist the idea of suffering. If you don’t, you’re sick. None of us want to just go out and lay down our lives. Several years ago, my wife and I were visiting in Namibia (southwest Africa), with the Youth for Christ director from Namibia. We were driving north into Angola, a country ripped apart by years of civil war. We were going there to encourage some Christians working in a hospital in the city of Lubango, and we were going to help establish the work of Youth for Christ in that country. Two days before we left, four British tourists were machine-gunned to death on the road we'd be traveling. We sat back in Namibia and evaluated whether we should still go. And our Youth for Christ partner said in a decisive, powerful, Paul-the-apostle-like way, "I say let's go! What's the worst that could happen? We'll be killed for Christ and go to Glory."
I know I should have agreed, but sometimes I'm a pessimist. I imagined the worst. I replied, "No, that’s not the worst that could happen. The worst that could happen is that we could be captured and tortured for a really, really, really long time - and then we'd die and go to Glory." But that day we decided to make the trip, because out lives are not our own. We’ve given them to Jesus. On the first night of our trip, the three of us camped out in an Angolan police compound, surrounded by twelve policemen, two hundred slightly inebriated revolutionary soldiers, under the Cuban flag. I prayed Psalm 23 about a hundred times that night. God brought us through it and deepened our faith, but we had to be willing to put our own lives and each other's - at risk.
Everyone shudders a little at the idea of sacrifice. But passion to imitate Jesus always involves dying - to our selves, to our selfish purposes, to our securities. If the fear of sacrifice paralyzes us, we will never embark into the poor places, the violent places, and the dangerous places on earth - the places which are most often lacking in the knowledge of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Without sacrificial, obedient, risk-takers for Jesus, who will reach the gang members of the cities? Who will reach the impoverished? Who will reach those dying of HIV/AIDS? Who is going to go and serve and reach out to the terrorists of our world? Without a sense of passion to imitate Jesus, how are we going to make the economic sacrifices necessary to expand the Kingdom of Christ?
Passion – to imitate the servanthood and sacrifice of Christ.
Sacrifice and passion are not just emotional things. All of this also means
perseverance. An emotional response tonight or tomorrow, at the end of Urbana,
is not enough. Tomorrow night, after our wonderful concluding worship service,
there will be no space shuttles outside [this building] waiting to take you
to some faraway place.
Between the time you make a decision to become a follower of Christ, into even the hard places of the world – it will involve perseverance, which means sticking with it, not being swayed by the voices of comfort or convenience, and not being distracted from the process God is leading us on.
Tomorrow morning, Ken Fong's Bible study will focus on the great, multicultural, multi-ethnic worship service described in the book of Revelation. Here John expands the picture which is foreshadowed in our Philippians 2 passage, when "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Between today and that great heavenly worship service, the great story of God's redemption must be proclaimed to all nations, all peoples, inviting every lost sinner to find redemption through Jesus Christ.
Between today and that great heavenly worship service, we will be called to passionate lives of Christ-imitation, living out the realities of servanthood.
Between today and that great heavenly worship service, all of us will be called to sacrifice - some even our very lives - so that people might come to worship in response to the love of God expressed through Jesus Christ.
How do you respond? What is God saying you to you tonight?
Being involved in God's global purposes is not an issue of guidance or calling. It's an issue of obedience. It’s an issue of a basic biblical worldview, and basic discipleship. You shouldn't be asking if you should be involved in God’s mission, but how! Not to be involved is to be out of the will of God. These last two days of the convention, you can affirm your own role in God’s worldwide mission, through our [follow-up program] and the "Decision Cards."
But my specific challenge tonight is to those who are sensing God is directing you to say, “Yes, Lord, I sense you are calling me into cross-cultural mission. I sense that you are telling me to go across cultures to take the good news of Jesus Christ to someone, who has never experienced it, or never heard it.”
In a few moments, I will ask you to stand, as an expression of your obedience to God's guidance, where you're saying, "Yes, Lord, I hear you guiding me into missions, into tent making, across cultures, into bringing the love of Christ to those who have never heard it.
Tonight, if you stand, you’re saying, “Lord, I sense you’re calling me to go across cultures. You’re calling me to go into something way outside of my comfort zone.
Tonight you're saying, "Yes, Lord, whatever it takes to bring your love to those who have never heard."
Tonight you're saying, "Yes, Lord, I have heard your Spirit say to me, 'I want to set you apart to go to take the Gospel to those who have never heard it, or never experienced it.’”
Tonight you're saying, "Yes, Lord, I am planning to go - now please direct my steps."
Tonight you're standing to say, "Body of Christ, please come alongside me. Help me be obedient to the call of God on my life."
Is God directing you into cross-cultural missions? Whether it’s cross-cultural in the city you live in or cross-cultural to the ends of the earth, will you respond by saying tonight, "Yes, Lord. Here I am. Send me. I'm yours. I'm available. Whatever it takes."
Would you stand right now?
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register