Last week as I spent time in my daily reading of God’s holy word (see EZ710.wordpress.com), I encountered a section of proclamation from the Apostle Peter. Consider an excerpt of that passage from Acts 10:
36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:36-38
I noted that God sent word of Jesus to Israel through the teachings of the apostles and prophets, but that God also sent Jesus, who is the Word of God (see John 1). What did these words, what did the Word, bring? They brought a message of good news of peace through Jesus Christ. Jesus brought a message of good news of peace through Himself. What is this peace? It is the peace of reconciliation with God, the peace of having eternal life, the peace of knowing we have eternal life, the peace of living life in the fullness of Christ, the peace of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, enabling us to understand this peace.
Jesus is both the Message and the Messenger. Likewise, we are to be both message and messenger. The message is our testimony, the way we live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the power of God in our lives. This is a message that the world needs to see, our world of family, friends, neighbors, fellow workers; the people in our lives.
As messengers, we carry the message in our words, freely sharing the hope that we have by the grace of God. This message is our verbal articulation of what we believe and why, and the movement of God in our lives. This is a message that the world needs to hear, again meaning the people in our lives.
Have you considered the message that you are sending to those who travel in your life – the message that you share by how you live and the message that you share in what you say? We, too, are sent. Jesus said:
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. John 20:21
Jesus is both the Message and the Messenger. We, too, are called to be both message and messenger for the cause of Christ, in the name of Christ, to the glory of God. Amen.
