Latest / Finding God at Work / 5: Eternal Life

Transcript

5: Eternal Life · Finding God at Work

• 0:06
  (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
• 0:07
  This is Finding God at Work.
• 0:13
  Our current series is Gentle Witnesses, sharing the
• 0:16
  good news at work in a way that
• 0:18
  actually makes sense.
• 0:24
  I want to tell the story of how
• 0:26
  I failed to introduce my cousin to her
• 0:28
  future husband.
• 0:30
  So rewind the clock to like 2016, 2017,
• 0:33
  2018, that time period.
• 0:36
  I was working on staff at a church
• 0:38
  and I went to Target and met a
• 0:42
  gentleman at Target who was shopping with a
• 0:45
  nonprofit form in his hand, the form that
• 0:48
  lets you buy stuff without having to pay
• 0:50
  sales tax on it.
• 0:51
  And I thought, oh, I recognize him from
• 0:53
  church.
• 0:54
  I haven't met him yet.
• 0:55
  I assumed he was buying something for the
• 0:56
  church.
• 0:56
  So I asked him, hey, you buying something
• 0:57
  for our church?
• 0:58
  He's like, oh, no, I'm buying it for
• 0:59
  a different ministry.
• 1:00
  He introduced himself.
• 1:01
  His name was Naftali.
• 1:02
  But he did go to my church and
• 1:03
  we ended up becoming friends.
• 1:04
  So our fateful meeting in the Isles of
• 1:07
  Target led to a growing friendship.
• 1:11
  He invited me to come do something at
• 1:12
  his ministry.
• 1:13
  He and I were involved in ministry together
• 1:14
  at our church.
• 1:16
  We saw a friend come to faith together
• 1:18
  and sort of was just involved in that
• 1:21
  whole process of that friend exploring faith and
• 1:23
  then getting baptized and the whole nine yards.
• 1:26
  And so really, Naft became one of my
• 1:28
  best friends.
• 1:30
  Meanwhile, my cousin, Allison, decided to move to
• 1:33
  our area from the Pacific Northwest where she
• 1:35
  had grown up.
• 1:36
  And this thought did occur to me in
• 1:38
  my mind, man, Nef is single.
• 1:41
  Allison is single.
• 1:42
  I know Nef's personality.
• 1:44
  I know Allison's personality.
• 1:46
  I know their goals in life.
• 1:47
  That could be some real synergy there.
• 1:50
  I'm like, well, but you know, I don't
• 1:52
  want to be a matchmaker.
• 1:52
  I don't know if I should.
• 1:54
  You want to be sensitive.
• 1:56
  OK, so this was in the back of
• 1:58
  my mind, but I didn't really do anything
• 1:59
  about it.
• 2:00
  And then several months go by.
• 2:01
  It's a Christmas event at church.
• 2:04
  And Allison is standing there with me and
• 2:05
  then Nef is standing there.
• 2:07
  And I just forget that they don't know
• 2:08
  each other like I know both of them
• 2:10
  really, really well.
• 2:11
  And so I just assume they've crossed paths
• 2:12
  already at church somewhere.
• 2:13
  And Nef finally is like, well, and hello,
• 2:15
  I am Nef Deli.
• 2:16
  And shakes Allison's hand.
• 2:17
  I'm like, oh, dang it.
• 2:18
  Sorry, guys.
• 2:20
  And so I failed to introduce my cousin
• 2:22
  to her future husband.
• 2:23
  But I was there to witness him introducing
• 2:26
  himself to her.
• 2:28
  And I think that something like this happens
• 2:31
  in a lot of our work relationships for
• 2:33
  those of us who love Jesus, who know
• 2:35
  Jesus and who know our friends at work.
• 2:38
  We think, oh, man, this this friend, I
• 2:40
  know this friend's personality.
• 2:41
  I know what they're like.
• 2:42
  Also, I know Jesus.
• 2:43
  I know what Jesus is like.
• 2:44
  Wouldn't it be great if this friend could
• 2:46
  become friends with Jesus?
• 2:47
  Wouldn't that wouldn't that be amazing?
• 2:49
  That would be so amazing.
• 2:50
  But then we're just standing there and we're
• 2:52
  talking with our friend.
• 2:53
  And Jesus is also standing there, right?
• 2:55
  Like we know Jesus is present everywhere.
• 2:57
  And if we're a disciple of Jesus, he's
• 2:59
  present with us.
• 3:00
  And so Jesus is standing there with our
• 3:01
  friend and we're just forgetting.
• 3:02
  We're just like, oh, yeah, I don't I
• 3:04
  don't want to be maturing.
• 3:05
  I don't want to be awkward.
• 3:06
  But like, what if what if something could
• 3:08
  really happen there?
• 3:09
  And here's the thing.
• 3:10
  Our friend, unlike Nef Deli, is probably not
• 3:12
  going to reach out and be like, Jesus,
• 3:13
  hi, I'm I'm so and so his friend.
• 3:15
  Right.
• 3:15
  Like we got if we want to make
• 3:17
  that introduction, we got to take some some
• 3:19
  initiative.
• 3:20
  That's what I want to talk about today
• 3:22
  is how do we think about this idea
• 3:24
  of knowing Jesus as part of sharing the
• 3:28
  good news?
• 3:29
  And I want to go to the classic
• 3:31
  evangelical verse, John 3 16.
• 3:34
  So I just use the word evangelical, which
• 3:37
  I occasionally use, but tend not to because
• 3:40
  it has a lot of different connotations.
• 3:41
  Now it's been a politicized term.
• 3:42
  It's not as useful as it used to
• 3:44
  be, unfortunately.
• 3:45
  But this is a good time because of
• 3:47
  that word to think about what is the
• 3:49
  actual word in the Bible that's translated as
• 3:52
  good news or as gospel?
• 3:54
  And it's a Greek term.
• 3:55
  It's you and jelly on is actually a
• 3:56
  term used for announcements.
• 3:58
  Like if the emperor had an announcement and
• 4:00
  somebody had to write out and give an
• 4:01
  announcement, they would be giving the good news
• 4:03
  of the emperor, the young jelly on.
• 4:05
  And so then out of that came the
• 4:07
  word you and at least days or evangelist,
• 4:11
  somebody who does that, somebody who proclaims the
• 4:14
  good news.
• 4:14
  And so there are passages in the Bible,
• 4:16
  for example, that says do the work of
• 4:17
  the of an evangelist.
• 4:19
  And so it's basically doing do the work
• 4:20
  of someone who shares the good news, do
• 4:22
  the work of someone who proclaims this announcement.
• 4:26
  And then out of that, we're turning the
• 4:28
  word evangelist into a noun.
• 4:30
  Again, we get evangelism, which is the act
• 4:33
  or the pattern, the habit of sharing the
• 4:36
  good news.
• 4:38
  And then over time, there was a movement
• 4:41
  within Christianity called evangelicalism, which was a group
• 4:45
  of Christians across denominations, across nationalities, across languages,
• 4:51
  but who all shared an emphasis on sharing
• 4:54
  the good news really actively.
• 4:56
  That was one of their core emphases.
• 4:58
  And there's more evangelicalism than that.
• 5:00
  But that's not what this podcast is about.
• 5:02
  And so if you ever wondered, like, where
• 5:03
  do we even get the word evangelical?
• 5:04
  That's where it came from.
• 5:05
  That's that's like the good, the good story
• 5:07
  of where we got the word evangelical is
• 5:09
  it was followers of Jesus who were passionate
• 5:12
  about sharing the evangel, the gospel.
• 5:15
  And so that's where the word came from.
• 5:17
  We got to nuance it now because people
• 5:19
  have misunderstandings and connotations and the word's been
• 5:22
  kind of mangled sometimes to the point of
• 5:24
  uselessness.
• 5:26
  But I'm still holding out for, hey, when
• 5:28
  I say I'm an evangelical, what I mean
• 5:30
  is I'm a good news Christian.
• 5:31
  I'm somebody that believes that there is good
• 5:33
  news to share and that that good news
• 5:35
  is about Jesus's death and resurrection that whoever
• 5:39
  puts their faith in Jesus as Messiah can
• 5:41
  be forgiven of their sins and enter into
• 5:43
  life in the kingdom of God because of
• 5:46
  Jesus' death and resurrection.
• 5:49
  OK, so evangelicals have been excited about this
• 5:52
  for a long time and they became known
• 5:53
  at a certain time in US history for
• 5:56
  holding up signs at football games and other
• 5:57
  sporting events that said John 3 16 on
• 6:00
  them.
• 6:00
  Again, we might question the methodology, like, is
• 6:02
  it that helpful to put a Bible reference
• 6:04
  on a poster board at a sporting event?
• 6:06
  Is that the best way to create opportunities
• 6:08
  for people to share their stories and to
• 6:10
  come to know Jesus?
• 6:11
  But you got to love the earnestness, right?
• 6:13
  And I share that earnestness.
• 6:14
  So let's read John 3 16, that verse.
• 6:17
  What does it say?
• 6:18
  What is it that people were trying to
• 6:19
  get people to understand?
• 6:21
  It says, for God so loved the world
• 6:24
  that he gave his only son that whoever
• 6:27
  believes in him should not perish but have
• 6:31
  eternal life.
• 6:33
  And continuing to verse 17.
• 6:36
  For God did not send his son into
• 6:37
  the world to condemn the world, but in
• 6:40
  order that the world might be saved through
• 6:43
  him.
• 6:45
  So this is a good news verse.
• 6:47
  This is a proclamation of God sending his
• 6:51
  son Jesus.
• 6:53
  And what's involved in that?
• 6:55
  Well, it means that those who believe in
• 6:58
  him, right, who trust in him, who put
• 7:00
  their confidence in him, who put their faith
• 7:01
  in him, as we've been talking about, will
• 7:03
  not perish but have eternal life.
• 7:08
  For God did not send his son into
• 7:09
  the world to condemn the world, but in
• 7:10
  order that the world might be saved through
• 7:13
  him.
• 7:13
  So what does it mean to be saved?
• 7:15
  If you're part of that world that Jesus
• 7:17
  is coming into in order to save it.
• 7:20
  Oh, it means to not perish but have
• 7:24
  eternal life.
• 7:26
  Now, what is a flat two dimensional barcode
• 7:30
  way of thinking about eternal life that would
• 7:32
  be thinking about a life that simply just
• 7:34
  keeps on going?
• 7:36
  Energizer bunny life, a life without terminus.
• 7:40
  And many poetic poetic thinkers and other commentators
• 7:44
  have noted that by itself, a life that
• 7:46
  just keeps on going forever is not necessarily
• 7:48
  a good thing.
• 7:50
  Like if your life is awful and then
• 7:51
  it just keeps on being awful forever.
• 7:53
  Like, how is that a bonus?
• 7:55
  It's really not.
• 7:56
  So so if we conceptualize eternal life in
• 7:59
  that kind of two dimensional way of like,
• 8:00
  just, oh, it just means that you live
• 8:01
  forever.
• 8:02
  That's not helpful.
• 8:03
  Thankfully, that's not actually what the term means.
• 8:06
  Jesus, hopefully in this same gospel, the gospel
• 8:09
  of John gives us a definition of eternal
• 8:11
  life.
• 8:12
  It's actually much more dynamic.
• 8:13
  So this is later in John chapter 17.
• 8:16
  Jesus prays this prayer to his father on
• 8:18
  the night before he is arrested, leading right
• 8:21
  into his death and resurrection and the days
• 8:23
  that follow.
• 8:24
  And he says this in his prayer to
• 8:26
  his father.
• 8:27
  And this is eternal life, that they know
• 8:31
  you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
• 8:35
  whom you have sent.
• 8:37
  I'm skipping ahead a few verses.
• 8:39
  I have manifested your name to the people
• 8:41
  whom you gave me out of the world.
• 8:44
  Yours they were, and you gave them to
• 8:46
  me, and they have kept your word.
• 8:49
  Now they know that everything that you have
• 8:51
  given me is from you.
• 8:53
  For I have given them the words that
• 8:55
  you gave me.
• 8:56
  And they have received them and come to
• 8:59
  know in truth that I came from you.
• 9:02
  And they have believed that you sent me.
• 9:06
  So you see how the same themes we've
• 9:08
  been talking about, these good news themes of
• 9:11
  faith, of salvation, of the kingdom of God,
• 9:14
  how they're coming together again in this passage,
• 9:17
  right?
• 9:17
  Jesus is saying that God has given him
• 9:20
  certain people.
• 9:22
  And who are those people?
• 9:22
  We're the ones who have believed that the
• 9:26
  father sent Jesus.
• 9:27
  So again, it's how do people come into
• 9:29
  this connection with God?
• 9:30
  How are they included?
• 9:32
  Oh, it's through faith.
• 9:33
  It's because they believe in Jesus.
• 9:35
  They put their confidence in him.
• 9:38
  And then it says, all mine are yours
• 9:41
  and yours are mine.
• 9:42
  And I am glorified in them.
• 9:45
  There's a, there's a mutuality between the father
• 9:47
  and the son.
• 9:49
  Everyone who belongs to the father belongs to
• 9:51
  the son.
• 9:51
  Everyone who belongs to the son belongs to
• 9:53
  the father.
• 9:54
  This is language of family.
• 9:56
  It's language of inclusion.
• 9:58
  It's language of communion.
• 10:01
  And it's also the language of knowledge, right?
• 10:03
  What's that initial definition of eternal life?
• 10:06
  This is eternal life that they know you,
• 10:09
  the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
• 10:13
  you have sent.
• 10:15
  That's what it means to have eternal life
• 10:17
  is to know the only true God and
• 10:20
  Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
• 10:22
  It's interactive relational knowledge of God through Jesus.
• 10:29
  That's what eternal life means.
• 10:32
  It's a certain kind of life.
• 10:34
  It's a life where you're alive to God
• 10:35
  and you see how God is alive to
• 10:37
  you.
• 10:38
  And you dwell in him as he dwells
• 10:40
  in you.
• 10:41
  And that's all through Jesus, through putting our
• 10:42
  confidence in Jesus, a life of communion with
• 10:46
  God.
• 10:48
  So when we think about what it means
• 10:50
  to share the good news, we can also
• 10:54
  think of it very fairly and biblically as
• 10:56
  introducing people to Jesus Christ, helping people come
• 11:01
  to know Jesus personally.
• 11:05
  That's what it means to share the good
• 11:07
  news with someone, to make that introduction, to
• 11:09
  help them enter into that eternal life, which
• 11:12
  is to know the father and Jesus Christ
• 11:15
  whom he has sent.
• 11:17
  So what does that mean for how we
• 11:18
  share the good news?
• 11:19
  How do we make that introduction with our
• 11:21
  co-workers?
• 11:23
  Well, in our last episode, we talked about
• 11:25
  how important it is for people to have
• 11:27
  room to share their story.
• 11:29
  So I think that that's the starting place
• 11:31
  is we're, we're building trust.
• 11:32
  We're creating space so that people can listen.
• 11:35
  But then hopefully in a genuine friendship, there's
• 11:37
  some mutuality there.
• 11:38
  Somebody might also have room for you to
• 11:41
  share your story.
• 11:42
  And we'll talk a little bit more about
• 11:44
  how we can share our story.
• 11:46
  In the coming episodes, but I just want
• 11:48
  to start by saying Jesus is part of
• 11:50
  your story.
• 11:51
  If you're a follower of Jesus, you have
• 11:53
  had a personal encounter with him and that
• 11:56
  shapes you.
• 11:57
  That shapes who you are and how you
• 11:59
  live.
• 12:00
  And so to talk about Jesus with your
• 12:03
  co-workers can be as simple as sharing
• 12:05
  that part of your story when there are
• 12:07
  natural opportunities to do so.
• 12:09
  So sometimes this can be, you know, funny.
• 12:12
  It can be doing something, something that that's
• 12:14
  just sort of like a self-referential and
• 12:17
  self-deprecating.
• 12:18
  So, you know, like we'll be talking about
• 12:20
  some subject like, oh, man, you know, we're
• 12:22
  so anxious about everything going on in the
• 12:23
  news right now and anxiety.
• 12:25
  And you can just say something like, yeah,
• 12:26
  you know, I struggle with anxiety, too.
• 12:28
  But, you know, what really helps me with
• 12:29
  that is Jesus.
• 12:31
  And, you know, you can say it almost
• 12:32
  in that right kind of way.
• 12:33
  People laugh, right?
• 12:34
  They'll be like, oh, right.
• 12:35
  Yeah.
• 12:35
  Yeah, that's because you're a Christian.
• 12:37
  But I've found, at least in my personality,
• 12:39
  that like just being up front like that,
• 12:41
  being like, you know, speaking the name of
• 12:43
  Jesus in the middle of conversations like that,
• 12:45
  you know, for me, part of how I
• 12:46
  deal with anxiety is walking with Jesus and
• 12:49
  just being up front about it.
• 12:50
  People get to know that that as part
• 12:52
  of my personality.
• 12:52
  People are really open to that.
• 12:53
  They're accepting about it.
• 12:54
  They're like, that's Chris's story.
• 12:55
  That's who he is.
• 12:56
  That's part of his journey.
• 12:57
  Great.
• 12:58
  And so I just normalize speaking the name
• 13:00
  of Jesus again, not awkwardly shoehorning it in
• 13:03
  when it doesn't belong, but kind of in
• 13:05
  a humorous way, even inserting it.
• 13:07
  Uh, I've actually done this sometimes, uh, every
• 13:10
  once in a while with somebody I don't
• 13:12
  know very well.
• 13:13
  So I recently saw a movie in theaters
• 13:14
  and, uh, I was leaving the theater and,
• 13:17
  uh, there was this, uh, young woman next
• 13:19
  to me who, uh, you know, read a
• 13:21
  text and then just said, Jesus Christ.
• 13:24
  And I thought this is a great moment.
• 13:25
  And so I just said, do you know
• 13:27
  him?
• 13:27
  And she's like, Hey, what?
• 13:28
  I'm like, Jesus Christ.
• 13:29
  And she's like, yeah, no, I really don't.
• 13:32
  And I'm like, he's worth getting to know.
• 13:33
  And then I just kept walking, you know,
• 13:35
  now I get it.
• 13:36
  If, if that's not your personality, if you're
• 13:38
  never going to say, do you know him
• 13:39
  after somebody says Jesus Christ, it's okay, I'm
• 13:42
  not saying you have to do that.
• 13:43
  What I'm saying is, you know, Jesus, Jesus
• 13:46
  is with you.
• 13:48
  And so there are going to be opportunities
• 13:49
  where in your personality, in a way that
• 13:51
  makes sense to you, you don't need to
• 13:53
  be afraid to speak the name of Jesus.
• 13:55
  That can be a first step towards making
• 13:57
  an introduction to a coworker saying, Hey, this
• 14:00
  is my friend.
• 14:01
  Would you like to get to know him?
• 14:06
  Jesus, thank you for being our friend.
• 14:08
  Thank you for being the one who gives
• 14:10
  us eternal life.
• 14:12
  That knowledge of you and of your father,
• 14:14
  the only true God.
• 14:16
  Teach us how to enter more deeply into
• 14:18
  that life and give us confidence to speak
• 14:20
  your name to the people who we want
• 14:23
  to introduce to you.
• 14:25
  Do your work in us as we do
• 14:26
  our work with you.
• 14:28
  Amen.
• 14:33
  Thanks for listening.
• 14:34
  Finding God at Work is a production of
• 14:36
  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
• 14:39
  dedicated to forming Christians for mission and everyday
• 14:41
  life.
• 14:42
  You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
• 14:44
  listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
• 14:46
  of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
• 14:48
  and Thursday.
• 14:49
  To get resources to go deeper with each
• 14:51
  podcast series, read our blog, and get info
• 14:54
  about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace.
• 14:56
  Go to our website, missioncentral.church.