My friend from Chitungwiza was recently on a one-on-one evangelism outreach at Fife Avenue shopping centre in Harare. He approached some man as he was coming from a supermarket heading to his car. After introducing himself and his mission of preaching the Gospel of Christ, the man who happens to be a successful businessman asked my friend where he comes from, what he drives and does for a living. To cut a long story short, the businessman told my friend: “Until your Jesus takes you out of Zengeza 4, gives you a car and a better lifestyle, I don’t see any reason to follow Him.” Unfortunately my friend comes from a persuasion that measures and defines being born again and Christian growth by progress in material possession. I grew up in Zengeza 4 myself and there was Jesus and He is still there. We love you all in Chitungwiza. This led me to ask and answer the question: What did Jesus come for? Was His primary motive cars, houses or wealth in general?
Probably you became a Christian because of unemployment, sickness, divorce, barrenness or were in search of a spouse, car or house. Is the Gospel of Christ only for those that are lacking things of the tangible world? If someone is prospering in the things of this world, do they need Jesus? You may want to know that before Jesus came to earth in human form people were still being healed, such as Naaman, the dead were raised to life, eg the son of the Shunammite woman. All sorts of miracles were there including those of Moses. Prosperity was preached by such prophets as Elijah who was fed by the widow of Zarephath who lacked nothing thereafter. Prosperity has always been part of the Kingdom of God. Jesus had to come for something higher.
The coming of Jesus was God’s preordained plan to restore the fellowship and communion between God and man that was broken by sin after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. You would know that animal sacrifices were done, but that did not bring a lasting solution. Before Christ God sent prophets to mend the relationship between Him and His people, but that was not enough. He eventually settled on the plan that He knew before the foundation of the world, that is Himself coming in the form of the Son of Man Jesus Christ and the angel declares His purpose in Matthew 1:21 as: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” All the problems that had fallen on earth were a result of sin and 1 John 3:8 declares: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
Jesus came for the salvation of our soul because we had indeed died as He had stressed in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Therefore Jesus had to correct this and John 10:10 puts it this way: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Salvation therefore encompasses the whole spectrum of life; spirit, soul and body. All of us have sinned and we need Jesus to be connected to God for He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. All of us: the sick, the healed, the poor, the rich, black, coloured and white need Jesus. However, the Gospel of Christ comes with all your material needs. It is incidental that when His life begins to work in you, your needs will be met, husband, business, car or house.
Next time when you minister, don’t minister yourself or material possession, but Christ of whom John the Baptist says in John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John says that Jesus must increase and we must decrease. While some may want you to be richer or more learned than them, Paul simply says in 1 Corinthians 1:22-23: “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” No matter who you are or what your needs are, let us all meet under one common denominator — Jesus Christ — for forgiveness of sins and our well-being on earth and a place in heaven. We are going somewhere.
All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
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