A Sunday Follow-up: Living & Speaking Priestly

This past Sunday, while examining Malachi 2: 1-9 in a sermon called Priesthood: Then & Now, I shared a story about a man who allowed Christ to so shine through his actions, that one cynic declare of him, "He was the only Jesus I ever knew." I argued that the story is simultaneously both encouraging and potentially dangerous. It is potentially dangerous when I start to adopt the attitude of: "I'm probably the only Jesus this person will ever know" and the subsequent conclusion: "If I don't help this person, no one will."

Consequently, we don't just serve as a bridge to Jesus with our actions but also with our words. We must always be holding out Christ with our words while we serve and tangibly love others. Otherwise people might see only the glory of what man can do -- while the reality being a Christian is something both intensely human and intensely divine. Human and divine: You may have met him...his name is Jesus.

Anywho, after the sermon, I had two persons share with me a testimony of the danger of man-glorification because of a lack of words. One brother, Ray, shared a little about his friendship with a Honduran co-worker. Ray is a hard-worker, a servant-leader, and a man of integrity. He was living out those traits at his place of work. One day, when Ray finally asked his co-worker about the Lord, his co-worker replied:

Oh, Ray, I don't believe in God. But I've watched you and I do believe in you, Ray.

Ray was floored. Now, he went on to share a bit with his co-worker about the Lord and this last week they even talked about what a "covenant" is. But Ray was describing exactly what can happen when we only share Christ's love with our actions -- we can become the only Jesus someone ever knows. And that's a problem.

This coming Sunday we'll take a more practical look at how being a priest for Jesus is a speaking role.