16 Nov Vaccine – Reaching “Heard” Immunity-Part 3
The Bible tells us in I Peter 1:1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” And in I Peter 2:11, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
In I Peter 1:1 the Greek word translated “stranger” and in I Peter 2:11 the Greek word translated “pilgrim” are both the same Greek word “parepidemos.” As you study that powerful word, you can see that our English word “epidemic” comes from this. When you put “par” (from the Greek “para”) in front of it, the word literally denotes “one who comes from a foreign land and sits side by side with a native of this land and infects him.”
As we saw last time, it is our heavenly assignment to come alongside the people of earth and infect them with the cure. We want them to swallow the “gos-pill”!
Last month we began to discuss “Four Vaccine Verifications”:
- We must reach “heard” immunity (Rom. 10:13-15)
Here the Bible tells us, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
2. No more lockdowns (Mark 16:15)
Here the Scripture tells us, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
This week we continue with…
3. No more “social distancing” (John 4:1-39)
In John chapter four, you find Jesus going out of His way to connect with a Samaritan woman with very questionable morals. At the time in which this was written, the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Racism is not a new thing. The Jews would literally walk around Samaria, even though it meant a much longer journey, because of their hatred of the Samaritans. Jesus, however, went right through Samaria and came to Jacob’s well.
This was very powerful because the Jews and Samaritans agreed on only one thing…the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Old Testament. The Jews and Samaritans both accepted these five books of the Bible as inspired canon (the Samaritans did not accept the rest of the Old Testament as God’s Word). Jacob was a key figure in the Pentateuch and therefore Jesus connecting with that Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well showed Jesus’ desire to connect at a point of commonality and to build a bridge, not burn a bridge.
In our culture today, it has become easy to simply stay on our side of our social media bridge and simply lob our talking points at the person on the other side of the bridge.
Remember this: God has not created you to make a point. God has created you to make a difference!
In life I have discovered that very few problems are solved from the “extremes” but many of life’s problems are solved in the “messy middle.” I certainly don’t mean compromise, but Jesus did anything He could to love the unlovable. He was determined to reach the lost and would do everything He could to reach them… except compromise!
Think about it… He went into Samaria, a place where the Jews refused to go. From there most would have expected Him to connect with a noble Samaritan man… but instead He connected with an immoral Samaritan woman!
The Bible tells us in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The Greek word for “lost” literally denotes people who have been corrupted by the world system and it is in context of Jesus connecting with Zaccheus (see Luke 19:1-10). Zaccheus was a rich chief tax collector and was one of the most hated individuals in all of Jericho. The Jews and Romans both despised him because he was a tax collector, thief and traitor! Yet Jesus came from heaven to earth, to Jericho, to a tree, to Zaccheus’ house! What most considered an enemy… Jesus considered ministry!
Join us next week as we continue our series…