ONE SPIRIT, ONE BODY

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

The Bible tells us that when we believe in Jesus we become his sons and daughters—which means we don’t just get a new heavenly Father, but lots of new brothers and sisters! We as this body of believers are united in Jesus, through the work of his blood on the cross, to serve—not our own missions—but Jesus’ mission collectively, as a family.

FEAR NOT, STAND FIRM

“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today.”

–Moses, to the Israelites, as they are about to cross the Red Sea (Exodus 14:13)

“Fear not” and “stand firm” are two of the most frequent commands in the Bible for the people of God. Why? Frankly, because we need to be reminded of them. Often. Our natural reaction, when looking out at a world, one that we are not a part of, is to fear and to cower. And the truth is that if we were just standing on our own strength, we would indeed fail and we would be defeated. But when we stand in Christ and in his death and for his gospel, we live—more than that, we’re fighting in a war we cannot lose.

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

–Jesus, at the Ascension (Acts 1:8, NLT)

All of us like to build up our own spot of land, to pursue the things that make us happy—we’ve even enshrined them as rights in some cases. But the life of a Christian is the opposite of this: he gives up his own life for the sake of the mission of Jesus. And it is not an easy life. The Christian is called to leave her life of comfort for the sake of Jesus’ mission, to walk by faith when things are dark, to go out in the face of opposition—all so that all people in all places can know the name of Jesus Christ and hear of the hope and truth of his gospel.

PREACH THE WORD

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.”

–Paul, to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:1–2) 

Billy Graham didn’t preach because he liked to talk. He didn’t preach because he thought he had a lot of good, smart things people should hear. He definitely did not preach so that he himself could be glorified. Billy Graham preached because Jesus has come and died for our sin and rose and conquered death and is coming again. He preached because this is the most glorious, urgent, compelling news in the world—and he would have had to hate people to keep this news to himself and not share it with them. We preach today so that God might be glorified by all people in all places.