Going Home

“And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.” (Mark 5:18-20)

Someone once coined the expression that, “You can never go home…” The idea is that things change, life moves forward, and things will never be “the way they used to be in the good old days”. While that is true, there still remain opportunities to “go back home” and revisit things from your past, while you relate them to life in the present. A few years back, I got the chance to preach in a church in Flint, Michigan in a discipleship conference. I went to college in Flint (although I use the term loosely). It was good to walk through the campus again after 25 years and “flash back” to the gym where I spent way too many hours playing basketball when I should have been in class, and to the many locations where I had done things I shouldn’t have as a lost young man. At my 30th High School reunion, I got the chance to lead a classmate to Christ who I had not seen for 30 years, who is now home with the Lord. God gives us a few chances in life like that to go back and “redeem the time” with connections from the past.

In three weeks, I am going to Cincinnati, Ohio and visit with a couple of my very best friends in the world who discipled me in my first days of Christianity. 30 years ago, I moved to Cincinnati. On a Sunday evening in February of 1980, a friend invited me to church, the Landmark Baptist Temple led by John Rawlings, the “godfather” of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. I had recently gotten saved, but I walked into the church that night knowing absolutely nothing about the Bible, and in fact had never owned one or read it in my life. That night was the beginning of a fabulous journey that is still ongoing. In a couple of Sundays, I will get the chance to preach in the church where I first attended after being saved over 30 years ago. I have not been in the building for probably about 25 years. I am certain that I will hardly even recognize it, and even more certain that there will be no more than a handful of people who I will know. But it will be a huge thrill to preach from the pulpit of the place where the seeds of what God has done in my life were sown.

In the passage above, the “maniac of Gadara” was gloriously delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ. He was so incredibly moved and thankful that he just wanted to hang out with Jesus for the rest of his life. While that is certainly a noble desire, there is more to the Christian life than just sitting on the mountain top basking in your own personal glory. Jesus told this man to, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” Our life in Christ is must always be governed by his presence. But it is not so much us “hangin’ with the master” as it is his promise to be, “…with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). Each individual believer in Jesus Christ has a “circle of influence” – a group of people that he or she knows who can be reached with the gospel through your life. Jesus told this man to go home to his friends and tell them about Him. 30 years ago, a couple of my friends took me under their wing, and even though they did not lead me to Christ because I was already saved, they pointed me to the truth of the word of God for my new life in Christ and put my spiritual feet on solid Biblical ground. Now I get the privilege of “going home” to minister again in that place.

As a believer, your ultimate “home” is in heaven. Right now, we are “just visiting this planet” with the mission of reaching as many people as we can with the gospel. Most will reject. But some will also heed the words of the witness of Christ who testifies to his “circle of influence” of the great things God has done. In grace and compassion, keep at it until the day when Jesus takes us home to be with him for eternity. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.