Is Jesus’ investment in you growing?

The greatest investment ever made was when God spent the life of His Son to redeem us and reconcile us to Himself.

While providing for our salvation was a free gift from God — there’s nothing we could do to reconcile our broken relationship with God, or to gain our salvation from sin and its consequences of death — there’s a bigger picture here. In saving us, God wasn’t just acting as a benevolent lifeguard who rescued us and then sent us on our way; He redeemed us for Himself and reconciled us to Himself …

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross,” Colossians 1:19-20.

“He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds,” Titus 2:14.

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them,” 2 Corinthians 5:18-19.

No greater investment has ever been made, and yes, Jesus is looking for a return on His investment! He was very descriptive about the fact He expects His investment in us to produce fruit for Him, as He describes in the telling of a parable about three servants. Take the time to read it thoroughly …

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last — dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

“The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

“After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

“The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

“The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

“The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

“Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

“But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

“Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,’” Matthew 25:14-30.

So, if Jesus wants something from His investment, what is He looking for?

Let’s look briefly at four ways our lives, through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, can yield fruit from the investment Jesus has made …

LOVING
More than anything else, God wants us to love Him, and then to love others. This is important enough that Jesus said this:

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?’ Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments,” Matthew 22:34-40.

And He also said this: “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you,” John 15:12.

Our relationship with God, as well as with others, is to be entirely oriented on love! Yet, we so easily become distracted with other interests, as Andrew Murray once described this way …

There is such a danger of our being so occupied with the things that are coming more than with Him who is to come; there is such scope in the study of coming events for imagination and reason and human ingenuity, that nothing but deeply humble waiting on God can save us from mistaking the interest and pleasure of intellectual study for the true love of Him and His appearing

Is Jesus’ immeasurable investment of love in you getting a return of love for Him and for others?

MATURING
It is true that God receives us just as we are, warts and all, but He loves us too much to leave us this way. God wants to see us mature …

“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters,” Romans 8:29.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ,” Ephesians 4:11-13.

Pat Sage addresses spiritual maturity by using a snippet from the story of Peter Pan …

Wendy, whose fallen in love with Peter Pan, confronts him about his feelings:

“Peter, what are your real feelings?”

“Feelings?” he asks.

“What do you feel? Happiness? Sadness? Jealousy? Anger? Love?”

“Love? I have never heard of it.”

“I think you have, Peter. I daresay you’ve felt it yourself … for something, or someone.”

“Never. Even the sound of it offends me.”

Wendy reaches for Peter in a loving gesture, and suddenly he runs away, shouting, “Why do you spoil everything? We have fun, don’t we? I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?”

“There is so much more,” she answers.

“What? What else is there?”

“I don’t know. I think it becomes clearer when you grow up.”

“Well, I will not grow up! You cannot make me! Go home and grow up. And take your feelings with you.”

Sage concludes with this:

There are a couple of interesting parallels between Peter Pan and the first-century believers in Corinth. First, like Peter Pan, the Corinthians refused to grow up. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 Paul wrote, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.” Despite the fact that most of them had been believers for many years, they failed to mature.

What was the cause of their arrested development? Just like Peter Pan, they resisted acting in love. The Apostle Paul, in an effort to jump-start their spiritual lives, points the Corinthians to the “most excellent way,” an introductory reference to the famous “Love Chapter,” 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.

Love is central to the process of maturity because it causes us to shift our focus from ourselves to others.

What about you? Are you a Peter Pan Christian? Or is Jesus seeing spiritual maturing from His investment in you?

OBEYING
Jesus is very concise about what He expects: “If you love me, obey my commandments,” John 14:15.

Jesus wants our obedience.

Seems like a reasonable expectation!

Actually, obeying Jesus not only is a demonstration of love for Him, but it also has great benefit for us, as He illustrates here …

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.” Luke 6:46-49.

Is Jesus seeing the fruit of obedience from His investment in your life?

SERVING
God ties His redemption of humanity, and His reconciling us to Himself, to being appointed by Him to serve. Look at how both are mentioned together …

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

Jesus, again, was concise about His expectations when He commissioned His church for service …

“Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Matthew 28:18-20.

Long ago, the Salvation Army was holding an international convention and their founder, General William Booth, could not attend because of physical weakness. He cabled his convention message to them. It was one word: “OTHERS.”

Jesus’ message to us, His Commission to His church, and our appointment as ambassadors for Christ is the same message: OTHERS. As Jesus came and served us, now He wants us to serve Him by serving others. Is a faithful ambassadorship the kind of fruit springing forth from your life from the investment Jesus has made in it?

So let’s ask the initial question again here – is Jesus’ investment in you growing? Are you responding to His investment with love for God and others, with a life that shows the fruit of spiritual maturing, with obedience, and with the service of an ambassador? If not, what do you think Jesus expects from His investment in you?

Scotty