Embracing Christ's Humanity: Engaging in Relationships and Community

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Mark in the third chapter about the 14th verse it says that when Jesus called the twelve and the phrase has always struck me it says and he chose 12. to be with him. Did you ever notice that Mark 3 14 why did he choose 12. he chose the 12 first of all to be with him, then to go for him but they didn't go for him until they'd been with him. [00:02:06]

And why did he want them to be with him because he wanted their company, because he liked hanging out with them, because he knew he had a job to do and he was glad of their companionship, and even in the midst of The Twelve he picked within the 12th and he picked Peter James and John with regularity they got to go places that the other nine didn't get to go. [00:02:42]

In John chapter 6 where John tells that after Jesus discourse on the nature of the bread of life a great crowd of people began to turn back John chapter 6 verse 66 from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him, and so Jesus says well who cares you know what do I care, let them go, let the whole lot of you go what do I care go on take off. [00:05:02]

He turns to the 12 and he says you're not planning on going as well are you. See when you think about that in terms of human affection it reads totally differently, when you think about it in terms of his Humanity here is Christ who is come bearing this great news and proclaiming this wonderful salvation and the crowds have begun to follow in his wake. [00:05:26]

Was it not affection that had him weep over Jerusalem, what is not was it not human affection that says that when the Rich Young Ruler came to him and he fell down on his knees and he says good Master what must I do to inherit eternal life the gospel writer records and the and Jesus looked on him and loved him. [00:06:58]

Jesus provides us with absolutely no basis for a detached non-relational Christianity. He provides us with no basis for a detached non-relational Christianity the kind that fears involvement and that fears vulnerability he builds his church upon a rock he does not build his church with rocks, there is no legitimacy in the notion that we are the Frozen chosen. [00:09:06]

He did not simply take our nature and then live in a sanitized spiritual environment, he did not live in a big Palace somewhere that only a few people could get into and once they had gone through the process they got in to see the great Messiah and he gave information and then sent it back out and he remained removed from all of his creation. [00:12:27]

The point is simply this that his life was not one of Detachment but it was one of involvement, he lived in the absolute middle of human sin, where he would hear the curses of men, where he would wince at their blasphemy, the same place that you men live your lives, in the midst of those business discussions in the after business discussions. [00:13:08]

His impact was directly related to coming alongside people sharing their environment and facing their problems, now doesn't that make sense of his prayer in John 17. when he prays to his father and he says my prayer father is not that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. [00:15:36]

How can we effectively minister to a world that is lost if we're not in the world, how can we be Salt and Light in the darkened ghettos of our cities if we have no effective context and no relationships with the people who live in those dark encoders, and how let me ask you, are you planning to reach a non-Christian Society. [00:16:19]

An incarnational mission established by Christ himself to be carried on by us there are radical implications for this loved ones, if we're prepared to take this on board as an as individuals and as families, it's going to mean actually sitting down and targeting the way in which we are planning to go into the world. [00:17:46]

What a tragedy that in a relatively short period of time, as we've said before places that began as Lifeboat rescue houses became marinas for people to ride around in their craft with their own little friends, playing their own kind of music, talking their own little jargon, and talking themselves into Oblivion. [00:18:28]

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