How Did Jesus Change The World?

How was one Man, Jesus Christ, able to change the entire world?

Dying to Saving

The Bible says that “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save” and “he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph 3:17) just “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5). The church represents the bride of Christ and He is the Bridegroom (Rev 22:17). Jesus Christ is the only way anyone can ever be saved (Acts 4:12). Either the Bible is wrong or all other religions are. They all cannot be right. You choice determines your destiny (John 3:36).

The Word of God

How did Jesus Christ change the world, particularly through this mostly uneducated group of men? Partly they changed the world through the Word of God. Because God’s Word has the power to change people, (Isaiah 55:11; Acts 4:12-13) and has the power of God in it (Rom 1:16), those around them can be changed. Those around them change the world in positive ways (Rom 12; 1st Cor 13). Through the spread of the Apostle’s writings, the Word of God spread beyond Judea and today, the gospel has gone to every continent on earth and nearly into every nation and people group.

Doing Good to our Enemies

Jesus’ teachings from the Beatitudes are about the inward thoughts, motives, and intents of the heart and where the Ten Commandments looked more to the external, the Beatitudes sought inward obedience and not just outward. Jesus tells His followers to “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (Luke 6:35) and to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). What better way to change the world than to do good, pray for, and love our enemies? Solomon even wrote that “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you” (Prov 25:21-22).

Praying and Loving our Enemies

Jesus also adds that we are to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:43-44). We’re to have regard even for our enemy’s property or animals (pets) (Ex 23:4-5). We’re to love our enemies, especially when they persecute us, but we should also be praying for them. When we do this, we’re revealing that we’re the sons and daughters of the Father.

Godliness with Contentment

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-13, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” He never asked for money for himself but only for other churches and only when there was severe famine and poverty. He wrote his “Joy Epistle” while being imprisoned, so Paul had no choice but to learn contentment “in any and every circumstance” and he learned the secret was that He “can do all things through him who strengthens me.” This is not Paul pulling himself up by his own bootstraps. This is him being strong while he is weak so that Christ may be most glorified. It is for Paul’s own sake? No, he writes that it was “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2nd Cor 12:10). Christians don’t determine their contentment purely by circumstances but by being strengthened in times of weakness. This we do “For the sake of Christ” and for His glory.

Education and Hospitals

Universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, and Harvard didn’t begin as secular institutions but they began as Jesus-inspired efforts to love God with all ones’ mind and our neighbor’s as ourselves because that’s what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments (Matt 22:37-39). The first American universities were actually seminaries and included such schools as Yale and Harvard. Of course they included other subjects like history, mathematics, and geography, but they primarily taught biblical theology. Likewise, hospitals were the result of Christian engineering and funding. They too were motivated out of a love for their neighbors but this love went beyond educating them. It fulfilled the Good Samaritan’s role to help those who no one else would and to do good to others. Nearly every hospital in the U.S. and most overseas were begun as a Christian missionary work underwritten by Christian philanthropists.

Conclusion

Jesus’ command to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20) was not just for His disciples as “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2nd Cor 5:20). Are we ashamed of the gospel (Rom 1:16)? Jesus said that “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:32-33).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.