Enough to Change the World

Why Jesus Thought Ordinary People Were His Best Plan

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. - Acts 1:8-9 NIV

Don Johnson, the 80s television and movie star, was once interviewed by a Michigan radio talk show. In that interview, he said, "I can do whatever I want — I'm rich, I'm famous, and I'm bigger than you.” There are people who think they are bigger than you, and there are people who are involved in something bigger than themselves. I want to be the latter kind of person, and I want to be around those people.

Part of why I've always loved the book of Acts in the New Testament is because it’s the story of people getting caught up in something bigger than themselves. Something bigger than any of us.

The followers of Jesus Christ are countless, but he never started an organization¹. No one knew more, but he never wrote down his thoughts. No person experienced more pain, but he never inked a memoir of how it all felt.

Jesus didn’t leave behind what most anyone else might have: No popular song to sing or epic poem to recite. You can’t find any monuments to visit or rules to memorize. No buildings, no books, no big company. There’s no high-rise headquarters to visit in New York or Tokyo.

Theologian Lesslie Newbigin echoes this thought, saying Jesus did not leave behind a book or a creed, a system of thought or philosophy, or an organization. So what was the legacy of Jesus Christ? What did he leave behind? There are two main answers.

Them

First, he left them. Jesus left fewer than a dozen of his closest disciples, along with a small core of other straggling followers, most of whose names we don’t know. That’s all he left behind: people. People who loved him and were ready to do what he asked. People who loved and supported one another. People who shared their stories and compiled their letters and accounts of what Jesus did (which became the New Testament). People ready to wait for the Holy Spirit he promised to send.

Our Lord must have thought people who loved God and loved each other were enough to change the world, because that’s the main thing he left behind: a community.