The Antioch Movement is all about multiplication and discipleship. It’s who we are. Our identity as a people is wrapped up those two things. If we are not about discipleship and multiplication then we may as well fold up and go home.
Those four sentences are easy to write, easy to say, but really hard to live. For us to become a people who lives this out we need a perspective shift.
Shift 1
Luke 10:16 – “The on who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” – Jesus
Did you catch what Jesus said there? He is saying simply and succinctly that when you are proclaiming his excellencies people are not hearing you, they are hearing him. Conversely, if they reject the message they are rejecting the Father and not you. It may feel like they are rejecting you. It may appear that the rejection is pointed at you, but you are simply the messenger. The message you bear is not yours it is Jesus’ message. We must take heart in the reality that as we go out as ambassadors that rejection is not personal. This means that we can share freely and realize that if and when rejection comes it is not directed at us. This also drives us to our knees in heartbroken prayer for those who reject the gospel because they are indeed rejecting God the Father.
Shift 2
Luke 10:20 – “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” – Jesus
In the verses before this comment the seventy-two disciples have returned from mission. They are celebrating all the amazing things that they saw God do through them. Jesus shifts their perspective. Our joy, our celebration, comes not from what we do but from what God has done. We celebrate and rejoice because the triune God has written our names in heaven. We rejoice because we can’t hardly get over the fact that we get to participate in what God is doing in the world. This perspective shift forces us to keep an “eternal perspective”. We don’t look at the here and now, the moment, we get caught up in the things that are above, as Paul says in Colossians 3.
Shift 3
Luke 10:22 – “All things have been over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” – Jesus
Our final shift frees us even more to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus (1 Peter 2:9). We are not responsible for revealing the Father to anyone. He is revealed to people by Jesus and Jesus alone. Our responsibility is to proclaim how excellent Jesus is. That’s it. We get to tell people that Jesus is excellent. Everything else is in Jesus hands to reveal the Father to someone.
Three perspective shifts. Of these three which one is hardest for you to wrap your heart around? Of these three which is most encouraging? Let us know in the comments…
