Series: Tough Questions; Life-Changing Answers Week 5: What is the Purpose of my life?
The Christian life is not me living for Jesus … but Jesus living His life in and through me. Jesus’ life revolved around 3 specific relationships.
#1. Jesus’ Relationship with His Father.
Jesus prioritized spending time with the Father above all else. Everything Jesus accomplished flowed from His intimate fellowship with the Father. NOTE: When Jesus described His ability apart from the Father, He chose the word nothing. Twice. Jesus modeled what it looks like to live in complete dependence on the Holy Spirit through intimacy with the Father.
#2. Jesus’ Relationship with the Disciples.
Jesus poured His life into the disciples. He lived His life in an intimate, personal relationship with the Father that spilled into an intentional relationship of fellowship with them.
#3. Jesus’ Relationship with the World.
One of the key patterns in Jesus’ life was building intentional, engaging, loving relationships with people who were far from God so they could come to know God through Him.
“What is the purpose of my life?” Mark Twain – “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why.”
- John 15:1-8: ABIDE.
Jesus summed up the whole dynamic of being His disciple with one little word: Abide (or Remain).
What good is a branch without the vine?
Fruit is the life of the vine pressed out through the branches.
Our spiritual fruit is the life of Jesus in us being lived through us as we abide in Him. The invitation to follow Jesus isn’t an invitation to live for Jesus; it’s an invitation to abide in Jesus and let Him, out of the overflow of that relationship, live His life in and through us in a way that produces fruit for His kingdom.
As a Christ-follower, your identity is not in what you do. Your identity is in who you are in Christ—a loved, accepted child of the Father enjoying a fellowship with Him.
- John 15:9-12: CONNECT.
When I take time to abide in Christ, my relationship with God spills into my relationship with other Christ-followers.
We were made for relationships from the beginning of creation. God’s design was for our relationship with Him to be enjoyed in the context of relationship with other people.
We do have a personal relationship with God, but it was never designed to be private. It’s a relationship He’s given us to be lived out in the context of community—the church.
In the first 11 verses of John 15, Jesus describes the simplicity of abiding in Him. But then in verse 12, He gives an example of what it looks like when our abiding in Him overflows into the rest of our lives. “My command is this: Love each other …” If that was all He said, that alone would be a significant statement. But then He adds, “as I have loved you.”
Jesus was teaching us that the first defining mark of abiding in Him and living out of the overflow of intimacy with God is developing a loving, relationship with other Christ-followers. Going to a Sunday service and offering a few casual greetings isn’t living out this principle. Jesus set a much higher standard: “as I have loved you.”
- John 17:15-23: SHARE.
Not only did Jesus have a love relationship with the Father that spilled into a fellowship relationship with His disciples, but those connections also overflowed into relationships with people who didn’t know God at all.
Jesus said the Father sent Him into the world on mission and now He’s sent us into the world on mission.
“Sharing the Gospel”—isn’t just a religious activity. It’s the life of Jesus in us being lived through us. Because it’s who He is, its who we are as His followers.
Jesus came to restore humanity’s relationship with God, to make it right again. Humanity was separated from God because of sin, but Jesus came to bring reconciliation.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:18-20. He doesn’t say you will be an ambassador. He doesn’t even ask if you want to be an ambassador. He says you are an ambassador. And it’s the role of an ambassador to actively and intentionally make connections with others in the world.
If there’s a deficiency in your life in the area of sharing the Gospel with others, it ultimately reveals a deficiency in your personal love relationship with Jesus.
Just as Christ came into the world on mission from the Father, He has now sent us into the world on mission. For that reason, mission isn’t what we do as Jesus followers; being on mission is who we are as Jesus followers.
- CONCLUSION
Abide, Connect, and Share. Jesus describes this in JOHN 13:34-35.
It’s out of the overflow of our love relationship with Jesus that God manifests through us the kind of love He desires us to have for one another. Then those relationships become the greatest platform we have to authenticate the Gospel to this world. It takes all 3 to faithfully follow Jesus.
In Jesus’ day, the defining mark of disciples was the relationship they enjoyed with the one they were following. The same is true in our day.
TRUTH – God fills Your Life with His Purpose and Fuels Your Life with His Passion