This week at school we celebrated a quarterly Community Day where we shorten classes and use the extra time at the end of the school day to host a party. Everyone plays games and activities outside and we eat together. Community Day helps students and staff build connections with each other which fosters stronger relationships school-wide, contributes to social and mental wellness, and positively impacts learning. At the end of the event most students leave immediately, but some offer to help clean up. Those who do are are typically the first to volunteer in other areas of their education also. They take initiative, participate, and self direct. I appreciate how they recognize that giving first is better than taking first. Instead of seeking to serve themselves they serve others first by stepping up and doing what’s right, good, or kind. They benefit those around them and in the process they grow as a person more than if they pursued the popular path of “looking out for number one.” These students remind me of the greatest giver–God who sent his son, Jesus, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. By God’s grace and power I want to live like Jesus. I want to take the initiative and be the first to put others first. How about you?
Today is resurrection Sunday when followers of Jesus commemorate his rising from the dead to give victory over sin and new, abundant, everlasting life to anyone who trusts and obeys him. He is the first to love us even when we were hostile and rebellious toward him (Romans 5:8). Since he was the first to rise from the dead into a glorified body, anyone who trusts in him can conquer death and live forever with God. When Jesus returns his followers will be the first to receive their glorified bodies and to reign with him. The apostle Paul explained this to believers in Corinth, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:17-24) Wow. This is amazing grace and glorious truth! The death and resurrection of Jesus is the greatest and most influential event in the history of the world. It changes everything. God loves you and created you for more than you have experienced up to now. He wants you to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. Tragically, none of us initially choose God. We would rather live life on our own terms, as our own god. Yet this self-centered way separates us from God and results in our death. Only with God will you find deliverance and fulfillment. Jesus makes it possible to have a saving relationship with God and become all you are meant to be. If you have not come to trust Jesus as your savior, I pray that you do. Nothing is more important, for your acceptance or rejection of Jesus determines the quality of your life now, your impact on others, and your destiny forever.
Jesus is God the Son who became a man to live the life we should live and died the death we deserve. His perfect life of love expressed in humble, obedience to God the Father, in his gracious, sacrificial death for us, and in his resurrection triumph over death, sin, and Satan serves as the quintessential example of who each of us are meant to be and can be. He is calling you to love, trust, and obey God as he does. He is calling you to sacrifice and deny yourself in order to receive a better life serving God and others. He is calling you to rise above the selfish, harmful, broken, and vain ways of this world through the grace and power he secured for you at the cross and the empty tomb. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the firstfruit of God’s abundant blessing. Anyone who trusts and obeys him will follow in his pioneering footsteps. Through Jesus’ Spirit at work in you, you can share the truth and love people need in order to come to a saving relationship with God. Your greatest adventure is found seeking God and his kingdom first. Bear fruit by abiding in Jesus as a branch draws its life from the vine (John 15:1-17). What is this blessed fruit? It is bringing glory to God by prayerfully becoming like Jesus as you carry out his mission of reconciliation.
I recognize that living for God first rather than yourself is easier said than done. You need his help, because it runs counter to our culture and your innate tendency to gratify yourself. God’s kingdom is different than this fallen world. In the world people are under the delusion that life revolves around themselves and what they make of it. However, they couldn’t be more wrong. The reality is that life is only found outside of ourselves. True life is knowing God–the source of life (John 17:3). Jesus came to liberate you from slavery to self-indulgence and to enable you find your greatest joy in knowing and pleasing God. He taught that those who seek to be first in this world will be last in God’s kingdom and the last will be first (Matthew 19:16-30; Matthew 20:1-16). Those who believe in Jesus can and must resist trying to fulfill themselves in the ways of the world. To truly live you can and must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus (1 John 2:15-17; Luke 9:23-26).
The key to living the way Jesus does is love. The apostle John encouraged believers to love as God does. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:7-12). We are able to love because God first loved us. We should follow that same pattern of loving first. Go and bear the firstfruit of love where there has been little or no love. Reach out in grace and kindness even when there is little chance of love in return. Care for your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Repay good for evil. Encourage the disheartened. Give before receiving. Serve rather than being served. Take the initiative to forgive. Volunteer to sacrifice. Humbly value others above yourself, putting their interests before your own. Seek to save the lost, the last, the least, and the unlovable. This is how Jesus loves.
As situations arise, be the first to let Jesus love through you. It’s your greatest witness. Jesus told his disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). As you love like Jesus does, others will see that God is real, that he is good, that he is worthy of worship, and that he is knowable. In response, hopefully they will desire to know God through Jesus, the first and only resurrected savior.