“Jesus stepped into history to introduce something new.”

A thought by Andy Stanley from his book, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World (p. 20). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

He was the greatest entrepreneur that this world has ever seen.

Andy says, “He didn’t come to Jerusalem offering a new version of an old thing or an update to an existing thing. He didn’t come to make something better. Jesus was sent by the Father to introduce something entirely new. People gathered by the thousands to listen. To see. To experience.”

He goes on, “But it wasn’t just his new message that made Jesus irresistible. It was Jesus himself. People who were nothing like him liked him. And Jesus liked people who were nothing like him. Jesus invited unbelieving, misbehaving, troublemaking men and women to follow him and to embrace something new—and they accepted his invitation.

“As followers of Jesus, we should be known as people who like people who are nothing like us. When we invite unbelieving, misbehaving troublemakers to join us, they should be intrigued—if not inclined—to accept our invitation.

Later Andy says, “But new brands rarely sit well with those whose fortunes are tied to the old ones. Those who profit most from the status quo are least inclined to let it go.”

He says, “Fast-forward to the sixteenth century and reformers would dedicate, and on occasion forfeit, their lives to free the church of the values, culture, and tone of empire and temple. For many, the birth of Protestantism signaled a revival of the new Jesus introduced. But the struggle would not end there. The temptation to pour the new wine Jesus offers into the old wineskins of temple and empire is with us today. Every generation needs imperfect reformers—men and women who, like the apostle Paul, become apoplectic when they see a trace of the old ways creeping into the new Jesus introduced. I’m convinced it’s the mixing, blending, and integration of the old with the new that makes the modern church so resistible. It’s the mixing, blending, and integration of the old with the new that make our faith indefensible in this misinformation age.”

And Jesus through his people is still introducing something new.  Through him we can if we ask, become new creatures.  That is why we are here and that is why he came.  Have you become a new creature through Jesus Christ?  Would you like to?

Yes, yes!