Jesus to the World!
Terry R. Baughman

“Your lives are like salt among the people. But if you, like salt, become bland, how can your ‘saltiness’ be restored? Flavorless salt is good for nothing and will be thrown out and trampled on by others” (Matthew 5:13 TPT).

The effectiveness of salt as a seasoning is unmatched. Just the right amount of this basic staple in cooking brings a bland dish to life. With just a dash of salt, flavors bloom like flowers in springtime. Jesus taught, “Your lives are like salt among the people.” We are to affect our surroundings with an awareness of life previously unnoticed. The impact of Christianity should be a positive revelation of new possibilities. 

While many seasonings grow less effective over time, salt is a stable seasoning that does not support microbial life and therefore does not lose effectiveness. There is no expiration date to salt. When Jesus spoke about salt losing its saltiness, it was really a warning to the Christian that ceases to be salt any longer. If salt is not salt, it’s just sand, or an abrasive element! Christians who cease to be like Christ, have ceased to have a positive effect on those around. They become abrasive and will be discarded from relevance like so much sand or dust. 

The saltiness of a Christian is to bring an awareness of life and flavor to others’ existence. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 NKJ). We are to be agents of change in our culture. There must be a different taste when the Christian appears. If we fail to make a difference in our world, we have lost our effectiveness. We are no longer salt.

In the context of the Beatitudes, Jesus warned His followers of persecution. However, He pronounced blessings on those who suffer for His sake. The unexpected result of opposition is that we can be joyful in adversity, even rejoicing in times of persecution. The Passion Translation said, “How ecstatic you can be when people insult and persecute you and speak all kinds of cruel lies about you because of your love for me! So leap for joy—since your heavenly reward is great. For you are being rejected the same way the prophets were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12 TPT). Rather than experiencing despair over adversity, we are encouraged to “leap for joy” because of our identity with the prophets who suffered persecution before us. 

Jesus immediately identifies His followers as salt among the people. While this metaphor is often taken in isolation, in the context it is associated with the persecution and adversity we will experience as a Christian in the world. Maybe our saltiness should be measured by the amount of adversity we have experienced. Can we be salt if no one notices we are different? How will they know the Savior if they have not tasted the savory salty seasoning?

There is a difference in being salt and being abrasive. Although salt is an abrasive when used in cleaning, it can also be healing to the wounds and a prevention of infection. Some seem to believe their Christianity is proven by their abrasion, however, Jesus emphasized the flavor of the seasoning rather than abrasive properties. If our salt causes unbelievers to ridicule us because of our Christlikeness, we can rejoice in that. True joy comes in an indistinguishable identity with Jesus! 

Theme passage:
“We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Turn back to God and be reconciled to him’” (2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT).

Jesus to the World!
Terry R. Baughman

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NKJ).

The last thing Jesus said before ascending into heaven, was this promise of power through the Spirit’s infilling, and the confirmation of the commission of His purpose. Emphatically, Jesus stated, “You shall receive power…,” and, “You shall be witnesses!” He would not send us out without first equipping us for the task. Actually, He commanded all to wait for the promise of the Father, before anything else. Jesus said, “Stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven” (Luke 24:49 NLT).

All along, as Jesus taught His followers what was to come, there were assurances of His additional empowerment. Jesus said He would not leave us as orphans, but promised, “I will come to you” (John 14:18 NKJ). He declared, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38-39 NIV). Jesus promised His Spirit would be within them a source of life and of power. 

During the ministry of Jesus everything pointed ahead to a baptism of power. Jesus said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20 NIV). What Jesus promises is not just a spirit, but His Holy Spirit! God lives in us to fulfill His purpose in a powerful way. 

The Passion Translation makes the text even more explicit, “But I promise you this—the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be seized with power” (Acts 1:8 TPT). It is footnoted that the understanding is, “You will seize power!” Christ’s authority rests in His Spirit that is available to every born-again believer. We must not be content to just receive the Spirit, but encouraged to seize the power of the Spirit!

After receiving the power of the Spirit, Jesus taught His followers that, “Signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18 NIV). The final verse reveals the result, “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it” (Mark 16:20 NIV).

The Spirit made the difference. As they waited in Jerusalem for the promise to be fulfilled, the celebration of the feast of Pentecost arrived. During this notable Jewish feast God chose to pour out the gift of His Spirit. This new baptism of power, which they received on the Day of Pentecost, was the source of strength that had been promised. Normal tradesmen and fishermen now spoke with authority from the Scripture with a Spiritual anointing. The people who heard them were amazed. It was stated, “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13 NKJ). 

This was just the beginning. After they were filled with the Spirit they launched into their appointed ministry, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all” (Acts 4:33 NIV). The Spirit enabled them to testify of the resurrection. They prayed for the sick and, “Through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people” (Acts 5:12 NKJ).

They taught publicly and from house to house (Acts 20:20). They prayed powerfully, and the place was shaken, “and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NKJ). They prayed for multitudes of sick and tormented people and saw them all healed (Acts 5:16). Today, let us be filled with the Spirit, but more importantly, let us be seized with power to fulfill the purpose of Christ!

​Theme passage:
“We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Turn back to God and be reconciled to him’” (2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT).

Becoming One
Jesus to the World!
Terry R. Baughman

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23 NKJ).

The last evening before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus prayed. It was not like the short sample prayer that He gave the disciples, “Our Father which art in heaven,” but the serious and intense prayer of one who knows His time is short and the betrayer is on his way to the Garden type of prayer. It was a whole chapter in the Gospel of John prayer, and it was recorded in John 17. One of the most important things He prayed for was that His followers might become one!

Becoming one is a process, not a one-and-done event. Unity develops and character forms in the process of shared experience, during seasons of close association. It took three and a half years for Jesus to teach His disciples what it means to be a follower of Christ. Even then, His last evening of prayer focused on this crucial fact, they still needed prayer!

Christ desire for His people to come into the unity of oneness stems from the very essence of God. He is One, and the greatest testimony of God’s presence in the world is that His followers may also be one in Him. 

The more we can become one with Christ, the more effectively we will represent Jesus to the world. When we become fragmented, disjointed, or self-serving in our Christianity, we no longer reflect the character of God. We fail to display the oneness of God, or the unity of the faith. Paul wrote about the gifts of ministry which were, “to prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry.” He said, “These grace ministries will function until we all attain oneness into the faith, until we all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of God, and finally we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully developed into the abundance of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12–13 TPT). In another place, Paul said, “We, being many, are one body in Christ” (Romans 12:5 NKJ).

Unity was the catalyst of a powerful response. When unity was present the power of God was manifested. On the Day of Pentecost there were about 120 gathered in an upper room. It was noted that, “They were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1 NKJ). The Holy Spirit was poured out with great witness. All were filled with the Spirit, and when they spilled out onto Solomon’s porch many more came from everywhere to see what the commotion was about. After Peter’s sermon about 3,000 more received the Spirit. 

Not only were the disciples in that group of those who were baptized by the Spirit, but Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other women were in the room and received the Spirit. Jesus’ mother, and every mother has the opportunity to be in unity with Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was promised to “sons and daughters” to prophesy. God’s servants, “both men and women,” were promised the same gift. The prophet said, “I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18 NIV).

Not long after Pentecost believers gathered for a prayer meeting. The Scripture said, “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31 NKJ). Powerful things happen when we get together for prayer, and join together in a common faith. God’s Spirit is still being poured out whenever people join together in unity. 

There was a unified message after Pentecost. They preached faith in Jesus, and declared His death, burial, and resurrection. The way we personally identify with the Gospel message is through repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus, and the sign of the indwelling Spirit when the born-again speak in other tongues. This become the unified message of the early church. Paul declared, “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body … and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13 NKJ). Through the Spirit we become one in Christ Jesus!
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Theme passage:
“We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Turn back to God and be reconciled to him’” (2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT).

Becoming Weak
Jesus to the World!
Terry R. Baughman

“He answered me, 'My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.’ So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 TPT). 

In the Scripture we often find expressions that seem to be a paradox, an apparent contradiction that ultimately proves to be true. Statements like, “He who is greatest among you shall be your servant,” or “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11 and Luke 14:11 NKJ). Another prominent paradox is expressed by the Apostle Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NKJ).

Weakness and strength seem to be in opposition; it is one or the other. However, the teaching of Scripture shows another view, that both can be present at the same time. The tension of polar opposites reveal a greater truth, weakness is not the absence of strength, but the source of greater power. In our utter dependence on God we can tap into the miraculous resource of supernatural strength. 

As we learn to rely on God for our strength, He becomes our sustainer, provider, and the strong foundation upon whom we can build our lives. In a parable of contrast Jesus taught the value of having the right foundation. One man built upon the sand, while another built upon the rock. Both construction projects may have looked pretty much the same from every appearance. However, when the windstorms and torrential rains came and battered the houses, only one survived the storm. Obviously, it was the one build upon the strong rock. Regardless of our careful construction and how much effort goes into assuring its durability, our foundation in Christ is the most critical element to remaining faithful throughout the storms of life.

Faith in Jesus and dependence on Him is essential to a victorious Christ-life. The more we recognize our own inability, the more assurance we have that we can stand strong in Him. In Hebrews chapter eleven, we read a long list of people of faith throughout Scripture. Then, the chapter turns and speaks of those who suffered and died. Some seemed to be defeated by the opposition. However, the writer saw them as victorious, even in their struggles. He said, “… Although weak, their faith imparted power to make them strong! Faith sparked courage within them and they became mighty warriors in battle, pulling armies from another realm into battle array” (Hebrews 11:24 TPT). There is a powerful source of incredible reserves, “pulling armies from another realm,” available through faith, even at our weakest point.

Paul tapped into this great truth. He wrote from his own observation, “So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power” (2 Corinthians 12:10 TPT). A contemporary worship song by Ellysa Smith and UpperRoom reminds us, “It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by You!”  The more overwhelmed our situation appears to be, the greater the opportunity to see God’s power at work in our lives. 

How is it possible to celebrate weaknesses and delight in disappointment? It is only possible when we recognize Jesus is our source of strength, and His unlimited power enables even greater victories as the Lord fights the battle in our behalf. When we recognize our limitations we begin to draw strength from the One who knows no limits. When we follow Him in humility and repentance, we will find Jesus to be more than sufficient for every challenge. Perhaps our greatest strength is in our ability to become weak before Him!

Theme passage:
“We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Turn back to God and be reconciled to him’” (2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT).