Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:14-15, Luke 4:14-15
Priorities are one of the hardest and yet most important
things that we need to determine. The things that we do and the things that we
say are key factors in identifying what our priorities have become. As Jesus proceeded from Judea to Samaria and
then reached Galilee; we begin to see a pattern develop that shows us His
priorities. His life was marked by
spending time serving people and telling them the truth about themselves and
God. There are many things that call for
our time and attention and we can be pulled in many different directions at the
same time. When this happens it is
important to know what our purpose and our priorities are. It is easy for us to become enamored with
projects and planning events that look impressive but often end up using all of
our time and energies on things that are not of utmost importance. As we look at how Jesus lived His life we can
begin to identify what His priorities were which should help us to be able to
identify what our priorities should be.
THE MINISTRY OF JESUS: If there is one word that we could
choose to describe the ministry of Jesus I think that word would be:
people. Everywhere that He went we see
that His priority was almost always spending time with people. There were times where He purposefully sought
out solitude and He lived in constant communion with the Father and the Holy
Spirit but many of those moments were interrupted or cut short by people. Certainly our relationship with God must be
our ultimate priority in life, but it seems clear from the example of Christ
and the teachings of Scripture that a vibrant relationship with Christ will
inevitably lead us to spending time and developing relationships with people. God made people in His own image and equipped
them to worship and glorify Him in a unique manner that is distinct from the
rest of creation. That means that our
lives can either be extremely honoring to God or offensive to Him. Building projects and programs are important
in the sense that they help to serve people but they can also have a tendency
to become a distraction from that purpose.
Projects and programs must always be focused on people. Many times our ministries are marked by
trying to get people to focus on our programs and projects. I think that it is worthwhile to observe that
Jesus didn’t build any building or start any programs during His time of
ministry on earth. He was in complete
communion with the Father and Spirit which led Him to focus His ministry on
people. All of our buildings will one
day be burned up. All of our programs
will eventually end. But the soul of
every single person on this planet will live for all of eternity. We would do well in ministry to focus on that
which is eternal.
THE MESSAGE OF JESUS: As Jesus spend time with and
ministered to people we see that He engaged in many different activities with
those people. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. But without a doubt the greatest majority of
His time was spent teaching people what they needed to know about God, His Word
and themselves. His message was the main
focus of His ministry to people. The
basic content of His message was a call to repent of sin and believe the
Gospel. These basic truths are the key
ingredients that should be the key content of our teaching. The primary attribute of God is
holiness. The basic description of every
man is sinfulness. God’s holiness
coupled by our sinfulness has created a wide gap between that which God created
us to do: worship Him, and what we actually practice: infinite forms of
idolatry. God does not want this to be
the eternal realities of people.
Instead, He wants man to be reconciled to Himself so that we might have
the joy of worshiping Him and sharing in His glory. The only means by which that reconciliation
can take place is through repentance from sin and believing the Gospel. Sin seeks to distract all attention from God
onto the desires of the flesh. Sin
enslaves man to a life of living for one’s self instead of living for God’s
glory. When we put ourselves in the
place of God we become frustrated, irritated and depressed because we were
never created to occupy that position and striving to do so ends up being a
futile pursuit. When we repent we
recognize our idolatry as wrong and offensive to God and we turn from it to
embrace a new priority of worshiping God. When we believe the Gospel we place our trust
on the death and resurrection of Jesus as the only means by which our sins can
be forgiven. We stop trusting ourselves
and our works and start trusting Jesus as our only hope for salvation. This is the message the Jesus proclaimed and
this must be the message that we proclaim to all the nations of the earth. There is no other message that can take the
place of or have a greater impact on people than the message of the Gospel. It is the message that Jesus preached and it
is the message that we have been called to preach. It may not be a popular message and it may
not make people feel good but it is the only message that can reconcile man to
God and bring about our eternal salvation.
We must proclaim it every chance we get.
APPLICATION: Make people the focus of our ministries. Be careful not to allow project and programs
to become priorities that distract us from our relationships with people or
lead us down a path of manipulating and using people. Live for that which is eternal. Recognize the seriousness of sin in our own
lives and repent. Trust and call others
to trust in Jesus as the only way we can be saved from sin.
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