How did Jesus fulfill God’s big dream? How did Jesus launch a rescue mission? By inviting people to follow Him and then sharing His life with them.
The Rescue Mission
“Missio what?” Before our family went overseas, we took a class on the Missio Dei, the mission of God. It was the first graduate level class I had taken and if Latin was required for advanced degrees, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to have what it takes to complete one. Good news was, this turned out to be the only Latin term in the course :-). In this class, Shellie and I learned about the Bible’s grand narrative. We learned how God means to fulfill His big dream of seeing every nation, tribe, people and language in heaven one day (Revelation 7:9-10).
The Mission of Jesus (Part 1)
What was the mission of Jesus? Why did He come to earth? Why did the people of Nazareth want to throw Jesus off a cliff?
We discover our answers from a passage in the New Testament book of Luke.
The Mission of Jesus (Part 2)
Jesus, the local boy, came to Nazareth as an itinerant rabbi and was given an opportunity to have his say. His audience, full of proud Nazarenes, understood Isaiah 61 to mean foreign neighbors would serve them and make them wealthy. With everyone listening intently Jesus read this familiar and deeply beloved passage. Yet to their shock and amazement he stops reading at the very point when judgment and servitude is pronounced on the Gentiles.