After His resurrection, Jesus told His close followers, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). This raises the question of how the Father sent Jesus. What did God send Jesus to do? We often understand this passage as referring to witnessing, but that is not all that Jesus did. 

First, God sent Jesus in peace and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is what Jesus bestowed on His followers in this same passage, saying (twice): “Peace be with you!” Then “he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:19-22).

Second, Jesus spent the majority of His earthly life (about thirty years) in humble preparation and learning, becoming part of all that God had done up to that point.

Third, Jesus spent a lot of His ministry healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and meeting people’s other needs.

Fourth, Jesus preached the good news, offering forgiveness and life.

Fifth, Jesus confronted evil and exposed sin.

Sixth, Jesus spent a lot of time training His followers to carry on His work.

Seventh, Jesus came to be crucified, to be sacrificed to pay the penalty for human sin. In John 20, Jesus showed His followers the wounds of His crucifixion. This was a reminder to His followers that they would face opposition and suffering. The way of self-sacrificing love involves sacrifice. There is a price to be paid in following Jesus, and we need to be willing to pay it.

A specific example of the call of Jesus appears in the next chapter. In John 21:15-19, Jesus told the apostle Peter to “follow me” and “feed my sheep.” Then he indicated “the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”