Being Jesus to Others by pastor Brent Lokker

A few weeks back while Suzanne and I were on vacation in Lake Tahoe, I attended a cooking demonstration just for fun (Yeah, I’m one of those who actually finds life in the kitchen and would willingly choose to do something like this for fun on my vacation). When the demonstration was over, I began talking with the chef, whose name was Tony. I was interested to discover that Tony grew up in Hawaii and by asking more questions I found out what dishes he learned to make in his culture. As the conversation continued, we kept going to deeper places. I think it was because I was genuinely interested in Tony as a person and he felt cared about and safe. After some time, he revealed to me the pain of a divorce and the subsequent deeper pain of not being with his two children as much as he wanted. I felt no need to fix his situation but I did feel compassion.  In his profession of serving others, he was clearly touched that someone would take the time to listen and to care. Much later in the conversation Tony mentioned a religious encounter from his past which left him frustrated at the whole ”church thing” even though he still believed in God. I never shared with him I was a pastor but instead I conveyed my own story about discovering the tender heart of God as my loving Father. Tony’s attention was riveted, longing to know more of the truth. I have to tell you, it really didn’t cross my mind to share about the love of God with Tony when I started talking with him. That wasn’t my motive. I was simply interested in another person’s story. When love is our motivation for why we connect with others, doors will often open up right before us even when we aren’t looking for it, and that’s exactly what happened with Tony. Because he felt cared about long before I shared with him my story of encountering God’s love, what I expressed was far more believable. By the time we finished, he was extremely thankful and his heart was wide open to encountering the love of his heavenly Father. I found myself in awe of how love once again was the key to opening up the heart of a man who I had only met an hour before. I didn’t have this conversation with Tony because I was a leader of a church or even because I authored a book about God’s love. I had this conversation because I’m a follower of Jesus and because Jesus has transformed my life with His love. I had this conversation because it was a natural result of Christ in me, the hope of glory! Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!   (Col 1:27, TPT)   Jesus wants all of His followers to release to others the treasure of who He has been for us everywhere we go. He also knows we need help to do so. Our greatest Helper is Holy Spirit—the very Spirit of Christ living within us—who we lean on and ask to help us as we learn to follow His brilliant leading! Yet another way Jesus decided to help us is to appoint certain people (widely known as five-fold ministers) to assist followers of Jesus to know who they are and to help them mature in the ways of love. In a nutshell, these appointed ones equip and empower all believers to grow in the ways of love so we can be Jesus to others. And he has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers.  And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do this they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ...All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church. For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love. (portions of Ephesians 4:11-16 TPT)   So there it is. Ministry (making Jesus real to people by being Jesus to them) was never delegated to a select few. Never! It has always been the designed role of every follower of Jesus. Or put another way, the moment you said yes to Jesus, you not only became one with him, but you instantly became his representative in his likeness to be Jesus to those who don’t know him yet. Don’t feel up to the task? No worries! He didn’t leave it up to you alone, remember? He put his own Spirit within you so that you would reflect who He is in greater and greater clarity! The pressure is off but the plan remains. Christ in you, the hope of glory! With Love, Brent Brent expanded on these scriptures and several more last Saturday in his message, “Grace gifts to restore all things”