“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us.”
God incarnate. God in human form came to be with us. Crying with us. Teaching us. Touching us. Jesus is God in 3D.
How would your view of God be altered if Jesus had not come to be with us? In what ways would your perspective be changed? To what degree would “no Jesus” impact your understanding of God’s grace?
Because of Christmas, we don’t have to answer those questions. Jesus did come. He lived with us, He died for us, and He rose again to justify us and give us hope. Jesus left the comfort of home to make a way to the Father, to bring us into a life-changing relationship with Him.
“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
By His death, we are redeemed and reconciled, forgiven and restored. Our lives on this earth and our eternity in Heaven have been radically altered because Jesus came to us. Through Him, we have eternal life. We are grafted into a new family. We are brought into the Kingdom of God. This whole process started with the incarnation, Jesus’s entering our world. God wants us to do what Jesus did.
Missions used to be a concept, a theory, a nice idea we could support from a distance. It was something that happened “over there.” It didn’t infringe on our space or require an emotional investment. We were proud of what we gave to missions and celebrated those with the courage to give up the American dream to reach pagans around the world. It allowed us to do missions without the stress of stepping out of our comfort zone. We had it all figured out until God reversed the flow.
The mission field is here. Thousands of unreached people now live in our neighborhoods and work in our cities. Some have migrated in search of a better life. Others fled pain and suffering and life-threatening circumstances. Whatever the reason, more than 600 people groups now live in North America. Dozens of those people groups are unreached, coming from closed or limited-access countries. We couldn’t get to them there, so God brought them here. Now what?
Will we embrace missions when it costs us more than money? Will we celebrate our opportunity to leave our comfort zone to meet a neighbor across the street with the same enthusiasm we had when we sent missionaries across the seas? This is the great question of our day.
A few years ago, I booked an Uber from Nashville’s airport to a conference location on the other side of the city. It was a 30-minute ride. As soon as I settled into the back seat, my driver, a Muslim from North Sudan, began asking me questions about my work and my life. By simply answering his questions, I shared the Gospel with him.
Here’s what really grabbed my attention. I had no way to get into North Sudan. If I did, I couldn’t speak the language, and I would have to violate the law to share the Gospel with this man. But God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereign timing, brought this man to me. Because he was here in the United States, he understood enough English for us to communicate, and nothing was hindering us from discussing Jesus and how He could change this Muslim’s life. I was tired. I just wanted to take a nap. But God had other plans. He loves this Uber driver every bit as much as He loves me. So, He forced me out of my comfort zone so this Muslim could hear about Jesus – maybe for the first time in his life.
It’s not easy to leave our comfort zone. We like to hang out with people who believe what we believe, who share our values, who see life the way we do. It’s simple. It’s reassuring. To engage with people NOT like us, we must push ourselves out of our comfort zone and seek to build relationships by serving and loving them, as Jesus served and loved us.
Will you do that? Will you personally leave your comfort zone to reach people who are very different than you? Will you sacrifice the time and energy it takes to build a trusting relationship with a person trying to find their way a long way from home?
Will you lead your church out of its comfort zone? When it comes to immigrant ministry opportunities and reaching international students, many churches are opting for a nap. Somebody needs to set an alarm and rouse the church from its slumber. Someone needs to equip followers of Jesus to be with people who are not like them. It’s the only way we can truly honor the real meaning of Christmas.
Jesus came to be with us. He is calling us to be with them. It’s not just a whimsical holiday idea; it’s the crux of the church’s mission.
For more information on how you or your church can engage effectively with immigrants and international students, check out our website at everyethne.org or email me at cjewell@abwe.org.
