Remember this week we are looking back to our advent series. Yesterday we briefly looked at the theology of the incarnation. When we look at the incarnation we should, in some ways, see a model of how to do ministry. We are after all, Christians—that is little Christs. Like the old WWJD bracelets that reminded us to think of what Jesus would do in this or that ethical situation, when we think of how we should do ministry we should pause and think, "What would Jesus do?" or more accurately, "What did Jesus do?"
One of the things we see is that Jesus came to us. He changed his location to come to us. To come to sinful earth to rescue sinners.
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The astounding fact of the incarnation is that God chose to redeem the world by coming to dwell here in the God-man, Jesus Christ. He didn't remain on his throne in heaven expecting humans to reach his standards of holiness. No, he humbled himself, came to not only visit with us for a moment, but to dwell among us and live among us.
If that wasn't far enough that Jesus would leave the presence of the Father to come to dwell with us, in his ministry he also went to the spaces where sinners dwelt. One of the most famous examples is in Matthew 9.
Matthew 9:9–13
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Here we see a hallmark of Jesus' ministry. It wasn't primarily within the walls of the temple or within the walls of the synagogues. It was "out there", among the people. Jesus didn't just go and invite sinners to church. He didn't expect them to meet him on his turf. He went to where they were and talked to them there.
Much of the church's outreach in the last 20 years in American church culture has been focused on within the walls of the church—inviting friends to church or hosting massive events to invite your unsaved friends. Or they've revolved around doing church-y stuff in a different location—hosting church in a bar, or in a park, or holding a crusade that is pretty much a church service in a stadium. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with those approaches to outreach but we all must admit that those approaches don't look a lot like what Jesus did in his ministry. Jesus' ministry looked like having dinner with a tax collector and random run-ins on the street with a bleeding woman or a Roman centurion. Not that Jesus didn't go to church. He went to synagogue on Saturday and worshipped with the community, but his outreach was most notably among the sinners. So ours should be as well.
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Reflection
Think about your approach to sharing the gospel of Jesus. Do you expect them to come to your space or do you regularly visit them in their space? Do you view your neighborhood as a mission field? How about your workplace or the places you frequent throughout your week? (side note: there may be seasons of your life with Christ where you need to withdraw from the culture, especially if you sense yourself being more conformed by the culture than you are conforming the culture. If you're in one of those seasons, this is not meant to push out of it prematurely. Seek the Spirit's guidance for when you should reach out to the world and when you need to withdraw.)
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