To Serve and to Save
I’m struck by the fact that
Jesus talks about his ministry in two ways.
In Luke 4:18, he says, “The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.” He goes on to talk
about preaching the good news to the poor and the captive.
In fact, this type of ministry
was a sign that he was the Messiah. Prophecy was being fulfilled as he showed
kindness to those who were hurting. Throughout Scripture we see the work of
Christ among the widows, the blind, the broken—whoever had a need.
Jesus came to save.
In Luke 19:10 he says he came to
seek and save the lost. And the same Jesus who came to serve and to save then
says to us in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
We have been sent by Jesus to
join him in his mission. We are to serve others in his name, and we are to
share the good news of salvation so that people might trust in Jesus’ work on
the cross—his death in our place, for our sin.
Serving and saving were marks of
Christ’s life on earth. They should be marks of his people as well. But to do
that, we must engage the broken and hurting people around us.
That’s hard. But a church without the broken is a broken
church.
How does your church engage the
hurting? What have you done in your own life to avoid insulating yourself from
brokenness around you?
Exerpts
from Ed Stetzer's Article on Loving the lost.
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