By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
Na ka karangatia e ia te tekau ma rua, ka hoatu ki a ratou he kaha, he mana, e peia ai nga rewera katoa, e ora ai nga mate.
Ua faapotopotoina e ia ona soo e toasefulu ma le toalua, ua tuu atu ia te i latou le mana ma le pule i temoni uma, ma ia faamalolo i ma‘i.
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,
Luke 9:1
Jesus’ disciples were ordinary men. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were commercial fishermen. Matthew worked on the shady side of the ordinary, as a tax collector. There was very little to distinguish them from any of their neighbours. They were genuinely ordinary.
They were young, they were prideful, they were arrogant and brainless at times. Like a pack of young men in any era, they would fight and argue amongst themselves. They were ordinary.
But God himself, in the person of his Son places the mission of God into the hands of ordinary people. Jesus called them together, he gave them power and authority together, and he sent them out together.
The disciples were given “power and authority”. Power is the ability to accomplish a task and authority is the right to do it. Authority is like a police officer who directs traffic after an accident. By simply raising his hand, he can bring hundreds of tons of moving traffic to a complete halt. Does the officer have the power to stop the car? No! But the authority of the uniform does.
It is mind-boggling to me that after millennia of Jewish history and learning, with powerful and knowledgeable groups of leaders at the top of Jewish society, God chose to place his mission into the hands of these ordinary people.
He’s still doing it. As a movement of churches—and the regional campsites and national ministries that support them—we believe this deeply. I read about the values of Heretaunga Christian Centre in Wellington recently. One of the values is “Everyone serves!” Why? Because God places his mission into the hands of ordinary people.
God is still putting his mission into the hands of ordinary people, but just like the disciples, he gives us power to carry out his mission. He gives us his Holy Spirit. Before he left, Jesus promised that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This is our vision at CCCNZ—we are led by the Spirit, working together to point people to Jesus, through the gospel, from the Scriptures, to the ends of the earth.
