Don't Squander Your Gift - Part III

Jesus made a promise in Matthew 16:18. He said, "And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The way Jesus builds His church is through us, His followers. We are the tools He uses. We are His body left on earth - the church.

Our Mandate is the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20,

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

This is the way Jesus builds His church, through us, His disciples. He does so using our hands, our feet, our voices, our resources.

Let em tell you a story to illustrate this: In the courtyard of a quaint little church in a small village in France stood a beautiful marble statue of Jesus with His arms outstretched. It wasn't very big, and it wasn't made by a famous artist, but it held a special place in the heart of the village people. They loved that statue of Jesus.

But, one day during World War II, a bomb struck too close. the statue was mutilated. It was broken into lots of pieces. After the battle had passed, the townspeople decided to find the pieces of their beloved statue and reconstruct it. They patiently got to work gathering and piecing the statue back together. The cracks and scars left by the disaster almost seemed to give it more beauty.

But there was one major problem. They could never find the hands. "A Christ without hands is not Christ at all," someone said with sorrow. "Hands with scars, yes! But what is a Lord without hands? We need a new statue."

But someone else came up with another idea, and everyone liked it. A brqass plaque was attached to the base of the statue which said, "I have no hands but your hands." That's exactly the point I'm making. Christ uses our hands to do His work building His church.

years later, someone else was touched by the statue and wrote these lines:

"I have no hands but your hands to do my work today.
I have no feet but your feet to lead men on the way.
I have no tongue but your tongue to tell men how I died.
I have no help but your help to bring men to God's side."

That's not just flowery talk, it's good theology. The church is the body of Christ left on earth. Ephesians 1:22-23 says:

"And He (God the Father) put all things under His (Christ's) feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

That is us, the church. We are the body of Christ on earth. Jesus is the head directing the action, but we are the body carrying out the actions. We are His hands and feet and tongue. What gets done on earth is done through us. And what Christ is doing is building His church. He's given us the Great Commission to carry it out.

As Larry Gilbert wrote, "The Great Commission is the greatest command, given by the greatest general, to the greatest army, for the greatest task ever." We are that army commissioned for this greatest task. We are Christ's church commissioned to make disciples to build the church.

But, what so many of us have forgotten is that God who assigned us this task also assigned us the means of fulfilling this task. He gave us spiritual gifts - tools that the Holy Spirit uses to accomplish His work through us. He gives us the divine ability to do the task. He leaves us with no excuse for not getting the job done.