The Whole Job
Mark 16:14,15 Later, Jesus appeared to the eleven followers while they were eating. He criticized them because they had so little faith. They were stubborn and refused to believe the people who said Jesus had risen from death. He said to them, “Go everywhere in the world. Tell the Good News to everyone.”
With Christmas fast heading our way, many of us will be planning how we’ll be spending that special day. And for most of us, that’ll involve time with our loved ones, the most important people in our lives.
But those Christmas Day celebrations … well, they’re not always the most comfortable, the most pleasant times, are they? Because whilst you can choose your friends, you can’t choose your relatives. Almost inevitably there’ll be one or two there who are difficult – perhaps one or two who not only don’t believe in Jesus, but who are overtly anti all things Christian. Hmm, what to do?
The easiest thing of all is simply not to talk about the meaning of Christmas, the “reason for the season” as the cliché goes. And yet Christmas is a time when we almost have a license to talk of Christ, to share the Good News of His coming. And that’s not something we’re meant to leave to “the experts.” As Charles Spurgeon once said, It is the whole job of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.
If you believe in Jesus, then you’re part of His church. Indeed, Jesus put it even more bluntly to His disciples:
Mark 16:14,15 Later, Jesus appeared to the eleven followers while they were eating. He criticized them because they had so little faith. They were stubborn and refused to believe the people who said Jesus had risen from death. He said to them, “Go everywhere in the world. Tell the Good News to everyone.”
Everywhere and everyone. That includes the Christmas table. That includes those who’re perhaps unwilling to listen. Find a way. Tell them why you’re celebrating. Jesus.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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