Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART II: T HEOLOGICAL AND M ISSIOLOGICAL P RINCIPLES AND I NSIGHTS • 101

1 John 2.4-6 – The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. For Jesus the Messianic mission was defined primarily as preaching liberating news to the poor and oppressed. The Gospel was the good news that the Kingdom had come to those who had no hope. We serve as representatives of Christ only to the extent that our mission conforms to his.

A. Jesus identified himself with the poor.

2 Cor. 8.9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

1. Born to poor parents

Luke 2.22-24 – When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Levitical law provided that after the birth of a son a woman would be unclean for seven days leading up to the circumcision and that for a further thirty-three days she should keep away from all holy things . . . Then she should offer a lamb and a dove pigeon. If she was too poor for a lamb a second dove or pigeon sufficed instead. (Leviticus 12.6-13). Mary’s offering was thus that of the poor.

~ Leon Morris. The Gospel According to St. Luke. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries . Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1983. p. 87.

2. As a social outcast

a. Born in a stable, Luke 2.7

b. Under assumed illegitimacy, Luke 3.23