Jesus and the Posture of Influence

The act of influence is a continual process involving giving and receiving which can’t help but inspire others toward God

Influence is a complicated matter. For some audiences, a leader is lauded for being brash. In other spaces that same leader is distrusted for the same behavior. Other leaders have influenced millions through their absence of strength. Our culture is confused about power, authority, and influence.

In the 80’s, I existed without video games or a billion TV channels. I had to find entertainment in other spaces. Model airplanes offered the opportunity to build something beautiful if I could simply follow the instructions. It was a practice of influence: clear vision, plastic pieces to orchestrate, glue to administer, etc. If you ever tried a model airplane then you know it was never that easy and the reality never matched the pretty picture on the box.

Influence, power, and authority in our 21st-century context remind me of building those model airplanes: I often struggle to balance all the pieces. The instructions I see in numerous conferences, podcasts, and books appear simple. Like the plane flying through the air on the box, I get a picture of what authority should look like and how to utilize it. If we simply follow these instructions certainly it will work and success is just around the corner.

The last few years I’ve walked through my own failures in leadership. I’m still learning alot but I’m through the woods enough to come alongside other struggling influencers. Hearing their stories, processing my own, and reading the news I’m convinced there is a leadership crisis inside and outside the church. Consider some of the data from Barna regarding the health of pastors. In 2022, nearly 60% said they seriously have thought about leaving the pastorate. A Duke Divinity study in 2008 found that depression rates among clergy were more than double the national average. These are merely symptoms. Dissecting the root cause is not my present goal.

My point, in this article, is to direct us to the hope of Jesus and his invitation to a particular model of influence. Our Lord and Savior, the greatest influencer of all time, used his authority in upside-down ways.

I came to faith at age twenty. I was an overly confident college student aiming to make a name for myself in the world. God met me in my dorm room with His Living Word. It was the gospel of John that gripped me in those early days. Later, it was the seventeenth chapter that became a lightning rod reverberating throughout my life. As I continue to aim at weaving this chapter into my daily life I recently spent time memorizing this incredible prayer of Jesus.

Leslie Newbigin said of John 17:

“The prayer leads us into the very heart of the ministry and message of Jesus, and no exposition can hope to do more than suggest some aspects of its meaning.”

“The Light Has Come” by Leslie Newbigin 1982

As I spent time with His prayer, new aspects came to life causing me to think about influence, power, and authority. Often, the ways present-day leaders utilize authority is misaligned with how Jesus gained and used power

I honed in on verse two:

For You (Father) granted Him(Jesus) authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.

Scripture is full of examples that teach us about God's use of power. The purpose of this brief study is to consider an overlooked formula for influence in this world: Jesus reveals how influence comes as a gift and is fulfilled by giving itself away.

Proper spiritual authority has a context. A formula if you will. The fundamental element of this formula is gift. I don’t mean formula in a cold automatic sense but rather a journey involving sequencing.

At the root of John 17, we see the relational aspect of giver and receiver. Authority comes from the Father as a gift to the Son. The word “give” is used 10 times in the first 9 verses of the prayer. The people, the authority, the glory; all gifts from Father to Son.

Jesus First Receives

To be an influencer Jesus what it looks like to be a receiver first. This is strikingly counter the posture of influence we see in politics, business, and, at times, in the American Church. Philippians chapter 2:6-11 is a spectacular complement to this point regarding the posture of reception and its authoritative outcomes.

The Father “granted authority” to Jesus as a gift. Think about how different your posture is when you receive something precious. Think of the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, or consider the profound statement of John the Baptist in John 3:27 - "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”

Jesus influences because he received a gift. That is fundamental to what he does next.

He was given authority “SO THAT He may give….”

The Father gives authority (power & influence) SO THAT the Son can give eternal life to all whom the Father has given Him.

Jesus receives to give.

Take a moment and let the words of verse two sink in. “Authority over all flesh” is a cosmic measure of influence. What should someone do with that kind of power? There is no pause, no scratching of the head, no debate: Jesus takes the gifted authority and gives eternal life to us.

Our temptation, when given authority, will always be to influence the crowd. Power naturally pursues the crowd. On the other hand, Jesus didn’t want a crowd, didn’t trust the crowd, and even sent the crowd away. He knew the purpose of His gifted influence was to give eternal life not build a mob.

Our American culture, yes even inside various corners of the Church, has a dangerously idol-like relationship with crowds and influence. Unfortunately, the sin is timeless. Kierkegaard wrote a convicting short document called “The Crowd is Untruth” in 1847. Consider a couple of his thoughts as he juxtaposed Jesus and people who pursue crowds for influence:

“To win a crowd is not so great a trick; one only needs some talent, a certain dose of untruth and a little acquaintance with the human passions.”

“It is clear that to love the neighbor is self-denial. To love the crowd…that is the way to truly gain power.”

“Crowd is Untruth”- Soren Kierkegaard

He wrote about Jesus’ influence through self-denial and His focus on individuals for salvation.

Without knowing it, often my leadership, your leadership, our leadership can be exercised to get rather than give.

Jesus was self-emptying in his use of authority. He influenced the cosmos through a humiliating death on a cross. Why do we suppose some other model of power will produce works of Kingdom value?

You could also dive deeper into this connection between receiving and giving by looking at Matthew 11:27-28. The formula is repeated: Jesus is given all authority and then invites us to Himself to give rest!

Finally, the equation continues with sending because God is a missional God. Jesus received a gift to give the gift of eternal life, and then he sent his followers out.

He desires that none would perish.

Jesus receives and gives to send.

Later in Jesus’ prayer (John 17:18) he states “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” Influence is founded upon the receiving and giving of gifts, but it is not stagnant. It moves outward. God is continually seeking and saving what was lost. He gives authority that it would be stewarded in ways that point back to Him as Lord and Savior.

Consider the end of Matthew's Gospel as another piece of supporting evidence. The Great Commission opens with the gift of authority from Father to Son:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Immediately it continues with Jesus sending the disciples out to make more disciples.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We might consider this a divine missional cycle.

The act of influence is a continual process involving giving and receiving which can’t help but inspire others toward and for God.

Its not like the model airplanes in the beginning of this piece. Regardless of the pressures of this world and the examples of leadership that cross our paths, we aren’t isolated experts with a step-by-step manual and a bottle of glue.

We are recipients of an incredible gift (salvation) which includes many other blessings to be utilized today for the glory of the Giver and the objects of His love.

To properly influence we must accept the gifts and humbly give them away to others. We are glorious surrendered instruments in a Kingdom of love, peace, truth, and justice.

This is how Jesus exercised authority. Why would we practice any other model?

We live at a point of potential convergence between a lonely confused world and the love of God. How we apply influence in our daily lives will impact greatly this historical meeting.