Vineyard Church | Weekly Update January 10, 2024

As we begin this new series together, our Wednesday blog will often feel like a clearing house for all of the thoughts that surround our Sunday messages, as well as an invitation for discussion and discernment. In many respects, the process we are engaged in as the Body of Christ is similar to the process Jesus initiated after he was baptized and spent time in the wilderness. 

The wilderness is a good place to begin because it answers or lays the foundation for answers to many of the questions we might have about the why, how, when, and where of what God is calling us as a church family into. Consider the implications and applications of this scripture:

9 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” 12 The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, 13 where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. Mark 1:9-13

First, we have a “how.” Everything that Jesus would do and, by extension, all that we are called to do through Him is accomplished through the knowledge of the final victory. In this passage, the final victory is indirectly presented through the reality that the first thing God the Father does after Jesus is baptized is to make a declaration of identity…. YOU are MINE. 

Insecurity in this point makes the missional work of the Kingdom of God dangerous. This is where the behavior, religion, opinions, postures, and orientations of others become a threat that tempts us into self-protection. Knowledge of our identity leads to faith in God’s plan, faith in the final victory. With this faith, we see the behavior, religion, opinions, postures, and orientations of others not as a threat but as a starting place of their own faith journey. If we truly believe that God is at work in everyone, no matter how problematic a person’s starting place is, we can trust God to be faithful to His final victory, which negates the threat they pose on us. 

This posture leads us to an engagement strategy that we will see Jesus teach us as the Gospel of Mark unfolds… hospitality. The ministry of hospitality for the Body of Christ is more than Sammich Sunday and hot coffee in the café; it is an uncomfortable posture towards the lost and seeking. Henri Nouwen, in his book Reaching Out, provides one of the most complete and uncomfortable definitions of hospitality… making space for another to be themselves. 

This posture flips the script on making someone behave in order to belong and demonstrates the imperative that differences (including the very definition of sin) are not barriers to relationships. This is nothing less than an act of defiance of cultural norms. It was for Jesus, and it is for us. We will see the turmoil that Jesus brought to the religious (and to his own family!) as he made space for the most debauched, sinful, lost, and culturally unacceptable people that he could find. If we, like Jesus, are grounded in our identity and have faith in the final victory, engaging sinful people with the same hospitality as Jesus did is not a threat but an offensive attack against the powers of hell.

Next, we remember from the passage above where Jesus was compelled to go and where He came out of to begin his ministry: the wilderness.

Old Testament imagery presents the wilderness as the place of God’s curse--desolate, lonely, and dangerous. The reminder of wild animals reminds us of the hostility of the wilderness as the domain of the enemy. Mark does not go into detail (as Matthew and Luke do) about the work of the enemy trying to tempt Jesus; he just reports two things: The Father was with Jesus evidenced by the angels that attended Jesus, and Jesus wins. 

Because Jesus accepted his identity, he faced a confrontation with the powers of hell. We will (do) too. Jesus won. We are His, so we will too. The foundation for defiance and the beginning of hospitality are found in having faith in the final victory. Scripture does not teach defensive tactics; we are on the offensive, and now the battle is joined. 

Adam Greenwell
Pastor  |  Billings Vineyard Church
www.BillingsVineyard.org