Jesus wants you here!
At Morning Church last week I asked the congregation of adults and children whether they thought it was getting harder to be a Christian in the world. The answer was unanimous - everyone raised their hand to say yes.
In my mind, the complexity and difficulty for Christians lies increasingly in the fact that the world is strongly affirming ideas and ideologies that are clearly anti-God and anti-biblical. There has for years been an opaque “yes” to certain sexual ethics and ecological visions accompanied by a slow change in the understanding of what is good and what is evil. But in recent years, what God calls good is now seen in many quarters as evil.
So now, when you turn up to work and declare that you are a Christian there is no longer an expectation that you will be seen as a virtuous person, honest and filled with integrity, but rather, you are part of a religion that tells lies and demeans people by denying their freedom to express themselves and identify in the way they choose. Anyone who thought the same-sex marriage vote would have little impact on our society is wrong.
Someone said to me last week, “Stop the world, I want to get off!” I understand the sentiment but Jesus actually wants something different from you.
In my bible reading this week I got to John 17:15 and was arrested by how profound Jesus’ prayer is at this point. He prays: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
Put simply, Jesus wants you here. Earlier in John, Jesus said, If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first! (John 15:18) Jesus not only wants you here, but he knows that this world is a place where Christians will be hated because we follow Jesus who was hated first. So all you are experiencing is not unexpected to God and yet Jesus still wants you here.
So he prays for you, before you were born, not that God would stop the world so you can get off, but that God would protect you and hold you fast from the wiles and temptations of the devil. The temptation to give up on the Gospel. The temptation to believe untruths. The temptation to excuse sin. The temptation to distort the Gospel. The temptation to live a quiet life with your mouth closed, never declaring the praises of him who brought you out of darkness into this wonderful light.
Jesus prayed that you might stand firm and win life. So friends, let’s do that. Even when it is hard.
As we study 2 Timothy, we will see Paul embodying this prayer and this command as he speaks to Timothy and us. We are not called to shrink back but to live for Jesus, to speak up, share the Gospel and pray for God to bring people to faith. We all know that following Jesus isn’t popular, but it is right. Likewise, the Gospel is not popular but it is true.
So get excited for our study of 2 Timothy because Jesus wants you here and 2 Timothy is going to help us live wisely in a world that hated Jesus first.
