Succession – living your vision, mission and position

Jesus leads tho­se who fol­low him into a bet­ter world, the king­dom of God (John 14:2). It is a place of peace, joy, jus­ti­ce and love. As fol­lo­wers, we are given the task of taking as many peo­p­le as pos­si­ble with us into this bet­ter world. As his disci­ples, with our posi­ti­on in Jesus, we have the tools to make this king­dom of God a rea­li­ty in this world. He gives us a new heart, the Holy Spi­rit and his authority.

We long for a better country

On Satur­day, 30 May 1992, I was allo­wed to finish my recruit school. Two days later, on 1 June, I was alre­a­dy tra­vel­ling by pla­ne to my holi­day desti­na­ti­on. I was real­ly loo­king for­ward to dis­co­ve­ring a new coun­try and tra­vel­ling by pla­ne for the third time. I tra­vel­led from Zurich to Frank­furt. The tas­te of par­af­fin gave me a fee­ling of adven­ture and holi­days. In Frank­furt, I board­ed a huge Luft­han­sa air­craft bound for Cana­da. To my sur­pri­se, I was given a 1st class ticket and a win­dow seat. Very quick­ly I was fasci­na­ted by the natu­re, the huge forests, the moun­ta­ins and all the free­doms this coun­try had to offer. I imme­dia­te­ly rea­li­sed that I wan­ted to live in this coun­try one day. Back home, I drea­med of a bet­ter, freer, more beau­tiful country.

I’m not the only drea­mer who dreams of a bet­ter place. We Euro­peans tra­vel a lot to dis­co­ver some­thing new or to immer­se our­sel­ves for a short time in a more inte­res­t­ing and beau­tiful coun­try. Accor­ding to sta­tis­tics from the World Tou­rism Orga­ni­sa­ti­on, Euro­pe is the abso­lu­te lea­der in tra­vel. In 2010, Euro­peans tra­vel­led more than the rest of the world (Euro­pe 52.8%). We are not only the best when it comes to fly­ing, but also when it comes to tra­vel­ling by car. I don’t even want to know how long the Eas­ter traf­fic jam in front of the Gott­hard will be this year.

We all long for a per­fect coun­try that is burs­t­ing with beau­ty. It should be plea­sant­ly warm, a place whe­re peace, jus­ti­ce and love reign. We are loo­king for a more attrac­ti­ve place, a coun­try with more free­doms and a bet­ter govern­ment. We are not the only ones: 2000 years ago, it was the Israe­li­tes who lon­ged for a bet­ter coun­try. They hoped that they would have peace, free­dom and self-deter­mi­na­ti­on in their coun­try again. They lon­ged for a libera­tor who would dri­ve out the occu­py­ing power with the sword.

Today is Palm Sun­day, the day on which we remem­ber Jesus» tri­um­phal ent­ry into Jeru­sa­lem. The poor peo­p­le lon­ged for the king who would free them from Roman oppres­si­on with his sword. The Saviour pro­mi­sed by the Scrip­tures, who would rule them like King David. They lon­ged for a land of peace, free­dom and pro­spe­ri­ty. Tens of thou­sands made the pil­grimage to Jeru­sa­lem on this day to cele­bra­te the upco­ming Passover.

«And they brought the colt to Jesus and laid their clo­thes on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their clo­thes on the road, while others spread green bran­ches that they had cut down in the fields. And tho­se who went befo­re and tho­se who fol­lo­wed cried out: Hosan­na! Bles­sed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! (John 12:13: King of Isra­el.) Bles­sed be the king­dom of our father David that is coming! Hosan­na in the hig­hest!» (Mark 11:7–10 LUT).

The fol­lo­wers cele­bra­ted Jesus pro­per­ly, for they hono­u­red Him as the new King of the king­dom of our father David. The disci­ples had a visi­on of the future for Jesus; he was to beco­me the new king of the old king­dom of David. They drea­med of the glo­rious years they had in the days of King David.

They had cor­rect­ly reco­g­nis­ed that Jesus was a king, but he had a dif­fe­rent visi­on of the future. He was the king of the king­dom of God. Alt­hough he explai­ned his goals many times, they had dif­fi­cul­ty under­stan­ding them. It was­n’t just the disci­ples who could­n’t grasp it, Pila­te also had a pro­blem under­stan­ding. He asked Jesus if he was the new king, who repli­ed as fol­lows: «If I were a secu­lar ruler, my peo­p­le would have fought for me so that I would not fall into the hands of the Jews. But my realm is of a com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent kind. Then Pila­te asked him, «Then you are a King? Jesus repli­ed: YesYou’­re right. I am a king. And that is why I beca­me man and came into this world, to bear wit­ness to the truth. Tho­se who allow them­sel­ves to be deter­mi­ned by the truth will lis­ten to me.» (John 18:36–37 HFA). Jesus made it clear that he is not a world­ly ruler who brings his king­dom with wea­pons, but that God has cho­sen a dif­fe­rent way to estab­lish his kingdom.

A successor has the Vision of the Kingdom of God

Jesus taught a lot about the new King­dom of God. Many of his para­bles refer to the king­dom of hea­ven. He explai­ned to the disci­ples whe­re he was going and whe­re they would go if they fol­lo­wed him. «The­re are many flats in my father’s house. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going ahead now to prepa­re a place for you the­re» (John 14:2 New Tes­ta­ment). Jesus has pre­pared a place in the Father’s king­dom for his fol­lo­wers. He calls them and us: «Fol­low me and I will lead you into the lon­ged-for king­dom of hea­ven.»

 The land we all long for so much is the King­dom of God. It is the won­derful place whe­re peace, jus­ti­ce and love reign. The Bible says that the­re will be no more tears, pain and death (Reve­la­ti­on 21:4). What a won­derful pro­mi­se, what a future. Fol­lo­wing Jesus is not in vain. Our gre­at goal is to fol­low Jesus into the king­dom of hea­ven. We need this futurevisi­onbecau­se it is an encou­ra­ge­ment in dif­fi­cult times.

A successor has a Mission

Jesus has cal­led belie­vers to pass on the hope and rea­li­ty of the new king­dom of hea­ven. «Then Jesus asked them: Come, fol­low me! I will make you peo­p­le who will win others for God (and his king­dom)» (Matthew 4:19 HFA). The Luther Bible trans­la­tes this as: «I will make you fishers of men.» We are cal­led to win others as fol­lo­wers. We are to take as many peo­p­le as pos­si­ble with us on the way to hea­ven. We can look for­ward to the future, but the best thing is that this new king­dom of God can alre­a­dy be a rea­li­ty on earth today (Luke 11:20; 17:21 Matthew 12:28). In disci­ple­ship, we are chan­ged into peo­p­le who car­ry the values of the pro­mi­sed king­dom of hea­ven within them. Through peace, joy, jus­ti­ce and love, we bring a pie­ce of hea­ven into this world. We win peo­p­le who long for this new world.

A successor is a new person with a new Position

How do we mana­ge to ful­fil our visi­on and mis­si­on? Jesus pla­ced very high demands on his fol­lo­wers. They should all have the good qua­li­ties of cha­ri­ty, hones­ty, jus­ti­ce and gene­ro­si­ty for the poor in order to be saved. The disci­ples were honest with them­sel­ves and knew that they could never live up to this. That is why they asked: «Who then can be saved?» they asked. Jesus loo­ked at them and said: «With man this is impos­si­ble, but with God all things are pos­si­ble» (Matthew 19:25–26 New Tes­ta­ment). Jesus» ans­wer was clear that they could never reach their goal on their own. «I am the door; if anyo­ne enters through me, he will be saved» (John 10:9 ELB). We can only reach the king­dom of hea­ven and the mis­si­on given to us through Jesus. Becau­se He is in our place, we are righ­teous befo­re God. Through Jesus we have a new posi­ti­on. Through Him we can achie­ve what no other per­son has ever achie­ved befo­re. Jesus lives in us, which is why the apost­le Paul wro­te the fol­lo­wing Bible text: «I live, but I am no lon­ger mys­elf, Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earth­ly body in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and sacri­fi­ced hims­elf for me» (Gala­ti­ans 2:20 NLB).

In Jesus we are a new per­son and this per­son has a new posi­ti­on. In this posi­ti­on, we are empowered to ful­fil our mis­si­on. Through Jesus we have a new heart. «When the Lord (Jesus) saw the woman, he was moved with com­pas­si­on. «Don’t cry,» he said to her. He step­ped clo­ser and touch­ed the bier. The bea­rers stop­ped and Jesus said to the dead man: «Young man, I com­mand you to get up!» Then the dead man got up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother» (Luke 7:13–15 New Tes­ta­ment). In this text we read that Jesus was so moved in His heart that He wan­ted to do some­thing. It is not enough for us to see some­thing bad on tele­vi­si­on and want to help. Wan­ting is not enough, it moves not­hing. Only When we are moved in our inner­most heart, some­thing is set in moti­on. Jesus pro­mi­ses us this new heart, a heart not of stone, but a living, loving heart. The apost­le Paul descri­bed this truth in his let­ter to the Romans: «A true Jew is the one who is inward­ly, and the true cir­cumcis­i­on is the one that hap­pens at the heart. It does not come about through «exact obser­van­ce of the» rule, but through «God’s» Spi­rit. Such a per­son does not recei­ve prai­se from peo­p­le, but from God» (Romans 2:29 New Testament).

Fol­lo­wers of Jesus learn that all the strength we need comes from him. It is a gift of grace – the Holy Spi­rit – a gift from God. Ever­y­thing we are and can do comes from this new posi­ti­on in Jesus. Our new posi­ti­on chan­ges our moti­va­ti­on. Fol­lo­wing Jesus is radi­cal­ly dif­fe­rent from the reli­gi­ons in the world. In most reli­gi­ons, the moti­va­ti­on is to gain accep­tance with God through works righ­teous­ness and to achie­ve this through our own efforts. A fol­lower of Jesus, on the other hand, is alre­a­dy accept­ed, so the moti­va­ti­on comes from the new heart that has been given to us. The­re are basi­cal­ly two dif­fe­rent moti­va­tions. Zig Ziglar, one of the grea­test moti­va­tio­nal spea­k­ers in Ame­ri­ca, explai­ned this as fol­lows: «The­re is a huge dif­fe­rence bet­ween a work­aho­lic and a peak per­for­mer. The work­aho­lic is dri­ven by fear and greed. The peak per­for­mer is dri­ven by love and pas­si­on.» This is how it is with peo­p­le who want to fol­low Jesus. They are not dri­ven by fear and greed. Our moti­va­ti­on is not anxious work and self-righ­teous­ness in order to plea­se God. We plea­se God and are loved by Him. Becau­se Jesus lives in us, we ful­fil our mis­si­on with love and passion.

Our posi­ti­on in Jesus gives us aut­ho­ri­ty. When we accept Jesus, ever­y­thing in the invi­si­ble world chan­ges. We belong to God’s fami­ly. Satan no lon­ger has a cla­im on us and he loses aut­ho­ri­ty over us. We are free to choo­se God’s aut­ho­ri­ty. We are freed from the shack­les of cap­ti­vi­ty and are now free to fol­low the right paths. We may and should car­ry out our mis­si­on in the aut­ho­ri­ty of Jesus.

In order to fol­low Jesus, we are allo­wed to Visi­on never lose sight of them. «Becau­se Jesus knew, what joy awai­ted himHe took the death of the cross upon hims­elf, and even the shame asso­cia­ted with it could not deter him. That is why he now sits on the thro­ne in hea­ven at God’s right hand. So if you are in dan­ger of beco­ming wea­ry, remem­ber Jesus!» (Hebrews 12:2–3 New Tes­ta­ment). Jesus had a visi­on of what would hap­pen if He went the hard way. Jesus never lost sight of the visi­on that we will be saved. This gave Him the strength to per­se­ve­re. We all long for the new land, the king­dom of God. It is our Mis­si­onto take as many peo­p­le as pos­si­ble with him on his way to hea­ven. When his disci­ples and thus the Posi­ti­on In Jesus, we have the tools to make the king­dom of God a rea­li­ty today. Jesus gives us the new heart, the power of the Holy Spi­rit and the aut­ho­ri­ty of the visi­ble and invi­si­ble world. With the visi­on, mis­si­on and posi­ti­on befo­re our eyes, we now start this new week. 

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: Mark 11:7–10; John 12:12–19

1. Can you under­stand why Jesus was cele­bra­ted when he ente­red Jerusalem?
2. How do you under­stand Jesus as King?
3. To what ext­ent can we alre­a­dy bring hea­ven to earth?
4. What kind of «cul­tu­re» pre­vails in the king­dom of heaven?
5. What is your moti­va­ti­on in life? Are you a work­aho­lic, a peak per­for­mer or are you curr­ent­ly lack­ing motivation?
6. What is your moti­va­ti­on to fol­low Jesus?
7. What is your new posi­ti­on as a fol­lower of Jesus?
8. How do you under­stand the new aut­ho­ri­ty in Jesus?