Followers of Jesus Are His Representatives

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today we talk about being representatives of Christ and I had an experience a few weeks back that made an impression on me. I was standing in my driveway, just arrived home and, all of a sudden, this lady from across the street came walking up and she said, “You’re a pastor, right?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “Well, I have this walker that my mom used but we don’t need it anymore. Can you use it?” “Sure, I’ll find something to do with it.” And it’s going to Honduras, by the way, so that was kind of a neat thing. But I didn’t know this lady at all. I’d never met her before. She was new to our neighborhood. She lives just down the street and it was strange to me that she knew who I was and that I was a pastor. It made me think. It made me think about things I do in the neighborhood that people might see, how I drive down the street, how I talk to the neighbor kids, how I talk to my kids, how I talk to my dog. It made me think that people are watching. People are aware of who I am and they’re watching what I do.

The truth is they’re watching you, too, because we are representatives of Jesus. As Christians, whether we choose it or not, we are representatives of Him as followers of Him. We bear His likeness to the world around us. That’s kind of a heavy responsibility, isn’t it? You think about it and people are watching you and observing you and seeing how you act and react and things like that.

Today we’re going to talk about how to be good representatives of Jesus, how to excel, how to do a great job of this. And I thought it might be helpful if we use the idea like a job interview. When you represent yourself, you always put your best foot forward and all that kind of thing so imagine you’re about to apply for your dream job, good pay, good benefits, great opportunity to grow with the company, all those kinds of things, great location to raise your family. You’re about to apply. So what could you do to prepare for that job interview? What could you do to get yourself ready for it, to represent yourself? Well, you could do some research. You could research the company, find out their history, learn about the products they manufacture and find out what their niche is in the marketplace. Find out who their competition is and how their competition is beating them up and see what you could do, what you could bring to the table to help them with their struggles against the competition.

You could do some skills development, take some classes to try to get yourself ready for that position. You could network with people who already work for that company and see how it is to work there and learn what it is to be successful in that area. You could interview somebody who is successful in the job that you’re about to take and find out the keys to their success. You could learn something about the one who is going to interview you and who’s going to make the decision on whether or not you get the job.

Knowledge is power. Knowledge equips us and prepares us to represent ourselves in that setting. And it’s the same for being a representative of Christ, knowing Jesus, knowing Christ and all the things He gives us, equips us and prepares us to be His representative.

The apostle Paul talks about this in his letter to the Ephesians, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Knowledge, knowing, knowing Jesus, knowing the hope, those are the keys for us in preparing to represent Jesus.

Now my wife grew up in a church, not a Lutheran Church but she grew up in a church and she said that as she was growing up, Jesus was just a story. It wasn’t really a connection for her. Yeah, they went to church occasionally but she didn’t really know Him. And then one day, it all clicked. It all fell into place. And I tell you, she gets it now. She knows Jesus and it’s obvious in the way she does things, the way she speaks, the way she conducts herself, the priorities in her life. It’s obvious that she knows Jesus. And that’s what I think is authentic in Christianity, when we have a genuine relationship with Jesus, a living and breathing relationship with Him, when we communicate with Him, when we receive from Him, when we understand Him and how much he loves us, it’s obvious to people around us.

What are some things that we could do to prepare ourselves? What could we do to increase our knowledge of Jesus and what He’s given us? Well, we could do what Paul mentions. Paul prays for the Ephesians, for the church in Ephesus. He prays for them, for God to speak to their hearts, to really come alive in them. He prays for the eyes of their heart to be enlightened so they can know everything that Jesus has given them. So when we want to be representatives of Christ, we can pray, too. We can pray for the Holy Spirit to help us grow in our relationship with Jesus so that everyone who sees us will see Jesus in us. They will know that we have a connection with Him. We can pray for the Holy Spirit to help us understand the hope we have, that beyond this life and all its struggles and problems, there is a beautiful place that God has prepared for those who believe. That hope that we all share every time we lose a loved one, we gather together and encourage each other with that hope that one day we’ll stand together again in that beautiful place.

My favorite description of heaven is “Heaven is a long hello.” So much of our life we spend saying goodbye, temporary goodbyes and little bit longer goodbyes and then eventually, when a person dies, we say a goodbye that seems permanent. But heaven is a long hello where you never have to say goodbye and we’re never going to be separated by death or illness or distance or anything else again. We need to know what the hope is so we can share it and reflect it.

Another way you can prepare is to dig into God’s Word and allow Him to speak to you, speak His Word into your heart to strengthen you, to build you up, to comfort you, to encourage you, to guide you. Dig into God’s Word and let Him teach you.

Another way we can prepare ourselves is kind of like when you’re looking at that job opportunity. Find a mature Christian. Find somebody you know to be strong and solid in their faith and ask them how they got that way. How did they come to be so confident in their faith? How did they come to trust in Jesus? How did they get to the point where He is the number one priority in their life?

All of these are great ideas for how you can prepare to be a representative of Jesus. Once we figured out a strategy for preparing ourselves, we need to move on to another aspect of the representative’s role, that is, our appearance. Now you’ve heard it said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, that’s a very nice thing to say, isn’t it? Unfortunately, most people do judge by the cover, right? Most people do look at the outside and what’s obvious and make a decision, make a judgment.

If you were interviewing for this dream job, what would you wear? You’d wear your best, wouldn’t you? You’d wear the best that you had. You’d make sure it was clean and in good taste and appropriate for the position that you’re applying for and maybe even a little notch above that. You’d wear your best because you’d want to make a good impression. How would you conduct yourself in that interview? How would you act? Would you be kind of laid back in the chair, “Well, whatever.” No, you’d be into it. You’d be passionate. You’d be focused. You’d show them what kind of person you are.

I recently heard about a teenager who wants to be a NASCAR driver. Ever since he was a little guy, he’s been driving and driving and driving, bigger and bigger and bigger. Now he’s driving the full size cars. He is focused. He’s like 16, 17 years old. He was on TV the other night. And he is so intent on being successful in that career that he took a class, a Dale Carnegie class, in public relations so he could excel when he’s working with the public, when he’s being interviewed, when he’s signing and all that. He wants to be successful and that’s just one thing that he’s doing to get where he wants to go.

As you’re approaching that interview for the dream job, you’re going to grab for everything you can to go in there and make a good impression. Maybe you know somebody who has really got a flare for dressing well. Then you ask them for some pointers and find out where they shop and ask them to help you put together an outfit or something like that. If they are going to judge you by your cover, you want them to like what they see.

All of these thoughts can be applied to our strategy as representatives of Jesus. Think about the impression you want to make. Think about the people that are watching you. Can they see your faith when they see you? Can they see Jesus in you?

A challenging question you may have heard before goes like this: If it were a crime to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Hmm. Would there be enough evidence? The apostle Peter talks about how important it is for us to live in a way that reflects well of Christ. This is Peter in his first letter, “Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.” You see what it’s all about? You see what Peter is talking about? People who completely are godless and don’t believe at all see you. And at first, it irritates them. But then, as you consistently act in a godly way, in a way with integrity in the morals and things like that, they begin to value the way you live and they’re drawn to Jesus through you. Peter makes it clear, “The way we live communicates a message.” Because we are Christians, we represent Christ. And the way we live communicates the gospel. People become Christians as they see Jesus in us. Whew, that is a heavy responsibility.

I know you’re already thinking of the times when you didn’t do so good reflecting Jesus, representing Jesus. But God is greater than our failures and He can equip us to be successful. God chooses to bring others to Christ through us.

We’ve talked about preparation. We’ve talked about our appearance and now let’s focus on speech. What will you say when you’re interviewing for that dream job? Well, if you’ve done a good job with your research, you have a few things to say. You can talk about the company’s history and how that is impressive to you. You can talk about the products they produce with knowledge and awareness to show that you know what you’re talking about. And if you study their competition and the struggles they have against their competition, you can present your plan for how you’re going to defeat those struggles and beat the competition. You can show that you would bring value to that company.

Now the same is true for representing Jesus. If you do your research, you look around you and you see what’s going on in the lives of people in our communities, in our country, what’s on their mind, what are the questions they’re asking, what are they struggling with? Think about people at different ages. What are college kids wrestling with? What’s challenging for them when they’re graduating and entering out into their first job? What’s challenging for young mothers? What’s challenging for people raising teenagers? What’s challenging for people facing retirement? What’s challenging for people in retirement facing a lifestyle change as they downsize? Do your research. Find out what’s going on in people around you. And then you’ll have something to say. You’ll know how God has helped you through those various points in life and you’ll know the words that were spoken to you and the people who encouraged you and strengthened you and those very words will be the same words to strengthen another person.

Paul points out the importance of God’s Word, studying it and speaking it in the life of a Christian, as he writes to young Timothy, he was a preacher and pastor of a small church and he’s facing a lot of challenges and struggling with it, this is what Paul says to him, “As for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it,” in this case it was his grandmother and mother, “and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

As representatives of Christ, those who dug into the Word and had God speak His Word to our hearts, we have that Word to offer others and, through it, we can bring truth, comfort and salvation.

Preparation, appearance and speech, the three aspects of having a successful job interview, serve as a great framework for representing Christ as well. But now I want you to think about those who are in your sphere of influence, those you come in contact with at work or at play and the activities of your kids and grandkids at the school, at the community center, think of those people who you come in contact with. Think of those people who are watching you and imagine God has chosen you to reach out to them and bring them into His family. And pray for the Holy Spirit to equip you to be God’s representative. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2009 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church