Are you familiar with the “Where’s Wally?” books? If not, Google it to get a good idea of what the books are. The artist has created a character called Wally, (Waldo in the US) and drawn him in red and white striped clothes always with glasses and a pom pom hat, and then set him in intricate drawings crowded with hundreds or thousands of people in similar multicolour clothing. The object is to find Wally in the crowd, and it’s difficult because of the amount of detail and colour in the picture. At first glance there are lots of bits of the picture that catch the eye because they look like they could be Wally.
It can be a similar story with Church. We look. Where’s Jesus? We can see all sorts of bits of church life that are about Jesus, or remind us of Jesus, or talk about Jesus or sing or teach about Jesus. There is lots of stuff to do with Jesus, lots of church stuff about Jesus, but where is Jesus? Is He present because we talk about Him a lot, talk to Him, sing to Him and about Him, base what we do on what He said? Is He present because of the sum of lots of parts that are about Him and His kingdom? Is looking for Jesus in the Church a bit like looking for Wally? You think you’ve found Him and then realise, no, that’s just something connected with Him. Before I go any further I need to say this is not an attempt to be critical of the Church. Rather than pulling down, I want to raise us up to a higher level.
Nick Vasiliades wrote this: “If you pursue Christ together, you will get the Church thrown in. If you pursue the Church, not so much…”
What he means is that if we pursue Jesus together we will get Church as a by-product; but if we pursue Church, we may not get Jesus. There is a subtle difference. We can pursue Jesus, or we can sink our time, energy and efforts into Church, thinking that is the way to pursue Jesus, and end up doing and knowing lots about Jesus without actually knowing Him more. Jesus is central. Church is to be a group of people on an adventure pursuing Jesus.
There is more…..Where is Jesus? Ask the outsider to come and look. They should be able to see Him clearly among us as He lives in us. They should be able to look at us as a group and see Jesus in us. It’s not because of what we say and do in our meetings, it’s because we have put Him first in our lives, and we are pursuing Him and that has changed our lives from the inside out.
Why are we putting Him first? Why do we pursue Him? I used to think it was because of what He has done for us in saving us, and yes, there is an element of that in it. But there is more….
Jesus is First. That’s the fact of the matter. He is “before all things” – Colossians 1 v 17. If we honour Him just because of the Cross and our salvation, we are making it all centre around us. ‘My Saviour’ ‘My salvation’, ‘My deliverer’. These are all true, they are all amazing, and we are so grateful for what He has done, but there is a deeper reason to worship and follow Him. Revelation 5 says “He is worthy”.
I used to think that God’s purposes started with Creation, Adam and Eve etc. But that’s making it into our story, all about us. It’s not. It’s Jesus’ story. It’s all about Him and somewhere before time began the Godhead, that is Father, Son and Spirit concluded that Jesus should have all the honour. Maybe that was just the Father’s heart’s desire. So all creation was made for Jesus.
“Everything was created through Him and for Him” Colossians 1 v 16.
All this is about Jesus first and foremost, not about us. But there is more….. The Father always planned to honour Jesus, to display His majesty and glory. And yet Jesus has chosen to be united with us! He doesn’t just live in you, like in a “let’s see how this works out” kind of way. Ephesians 1 tells us that He is united to us. This is permanent.
Father’s plan is that Jesus’ full glory and majesty is displayed in us. That’s why Romans 8 v 29 tells us that Father chose us to “become like His Son”. He is forming Jesus-like character in us so that we display the glory of Jesus to the heavens and the earth. Father wants to put Jesus on a pedestal. That pedestal is us!
Next time that life seems tough or challenging, we need to remember that Father is using the situation to form more of Jesus in us, that we might display His glory from our little pedestal to the heavens and the earth for all eternity.
Church is out there 