“As the Father Has Sent Me”: A Model and Mandate for Ministry
In Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17:9-19, He prayed several things for His followers:
- That they be protected, unified, and joyful (vv. 9-13).
- That they be in the world but not of the world (vv. 14-17).
- That they be sent into the world to minister, even as the Father sent Jesus (vv. 18-19).
In John 17:18, Jesus prayed to the Father: “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” [1] Later, after His death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and said something similar: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). This was accompanied by the promise of the Holy Spirit, similar to Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8 where the Spirit is promised to empower His followers to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
In both John 17:18 and 20:21, Jesus seems to make a correlation between the Father’s mission in sending Jesus and Jesus’ mission in sending out His followers into the world.
Now, let us be clear. There are aspects of Jesus’ incarnation and substitutionary atonement that are unrepeatable. We are not God incarnate, and we cannot die for the sins of the world. We are broken sinners in need of forgiveness and salvation that come through Christ’s work on the cross. Nevertheless, there is something Jesus wants us to learn about our mission in the world, and for us to recognize that it connects to His mission.
Occasionally in the Gospels, Jesus makes a declarative statement about His purposes for coming. Two stand out to me. Luke 19:10 says: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”[2] Mark 10:45 says: “ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life —a ransom for many.”[3]
The Father sent His Son into a broken and sinful world to seek out and save the lost, and to serve others – ultimately by giving His life for their salvation. What can we learn from this truth? We are ambassadors for Christ, Paul reminds us (2 Cor. 5:20). We represent Him to a lost and dying world. We don’t retreat from the world, but neither are we to be conformed to it (Romans 12:2). We are to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:14-17). We must be prepared to die to ourselves and our agendas (Luke 9:23) in order to show the love of Christ to others and serve them. We are all called to full-time ministry regardless of who pays our salary.
As the Father sent Jesus into the world, He now sends you. Can you imagine a world filled with Christ-sent people who pray for the world and show the love of Christ through their grace-filled, broken lives? Where is Jesus sending you? How will you go? What will you do?
[1] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Jn 17:18.
[2] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Lk 19:10.
[3] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Mk 10:45.