The Privilege of Following Jesus in the Marketplace
A few years into my time on the fulltime faculty of Regent College, a pastor serving in the Silicon Valley of California, latched on to me, asking if I would serve him as a sort of mentor.
Given his heart for Jesus and His kingdom, given that he was and is, as disciples of Jesus are to be, very teachable, I agreed to walk with him. I have been doing so now for over 20 years. He is an eager student of the Scriptures, and an excellent preacher. It has been personally rewarding for me to interact with him, grappling with Biblical texts, wrestling with how to preach them in our time and in the place where he lives and serves.
Along the way, he has periodically shared with me his internal struggle over calling. Before entering pastoral ministry he was an engineer at Lockheed Martin, and very much enjoyed his work within that large corporation. After being called to serve as Pastor of the church
where he and his family worshipped, he found great joy in that work. Great joy. Yet, there was always this “tug” to be on the front lines of the marketplace, to be an engineer again.
Well, about a month ago now, he wrote to me to tell me that he has stepped down from the pastoral role and taken a position at Lockheed Martin again. He is on a steep learning curve, catching up on all the changes in his field that have taken place over the past decades.
In his email he asked two questions. One, could I point him to solid Biblical theological studies
on being a disciple in the marketplace. Two, is there one Biblical text in which he ought to live for a season so that he would live into the privilege of following Jesus in the marketplace.
So, no surprise to any of you … I pointed him to the works of Paul Stevens. From my perspective he has done more than anyone else in our time to help us understand the marketplace. And I told him that there are many texts of Scripture, wherein Jesus names and articulates the role of His disciples in the multiple spheres of life to which He calls us. I suggested that all of Jesus’ teaching is all about the privilege of following Him in the marketplace! I think we can get at that privilege through an affirmation and a question.
The affirmation? Jesus is there. The risen and living Jesus is there. In the Marketplace. He is there with us and for us. Just as real and available and engaged in the Marketplace as He is with us on Sundays as we gather in His name to worship the Triune God of grace. Jesus is there. Really there. This affirmation has many implications. Right off, this great fact of life, ends the divide … which actually was never there … ends the divide between secular and scared.
Wherever Jesus is, is sacred space. Agree? And where is there anywhere where He is not present? Long ago the Psalmist asks … Psalm 139 … “Where can I flee from Your Presence?” Heaven? You are there. The place of the dead? You are there. The remotest part of the sea? You are there. In darkness? Oh mercy, You are there. Through the Person of His Spirit, the Risen and Living Jesus is there. Anywhere where we are … He is there. And “in Him we live and move and have our being” … there. On Sunday. On Monday. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Making any space we live and move and have our being sacred space. Oh, the space may be influenced by secular values and agendas. But that does not change the fact.
He is there. And He being there makes the space sacred. Oh, to live aware of this great fact.
To be alert to and attentive to His Presence. In a Board meeting. In a conversation with an employee or client. In a Classroom. In a hospital ward. In those moments of agonizing over what next steps to take. In those moments when it feels like we are going to be crushed by the demands. There. Really there. “Look,” He says to us. “I am with you all the days.” Immanuel, God-with-us, is with us in the Marketplace. And another implication of this tremendous affirmation. Huge implication! We do not bring Jesus to the Marketplace. We join Jesus in the Marketplace. Big difference - not bring, but join. Lifting a huge burden off of our shoulders and souls. This, of course, is true of every sphere of life. We do not bring Jesus into the sphere. We join Jesus in the sphere. We join Him already there. And because we know that He is there we know a great secret. A great secret about everyone else who is there.
Found in that great hymn the apostle Paul builds up to in his prayer for those in Colossae who live their lives in the Marketplace. Colossians 1:15-20. A text that exploded in my mind and soul
while a Physics major in University. Wherein Paul sings the secret. Everyone has been created by Jesus. Everyone has been created for Jesus. Everyone is being held together in Jesus. Everyone has been reconciled to God through Jesus.
Imagine! Everyone we encounter and work with in the Marketplace was brought into being by the Son of God. They may not know that. And in some cases, some might resent the fact if they heard us say it. No one is an accident. No matter how they were conceived. Someone wants everyone we meet to be alive.
Imagine! Everyone we encounter and work with in the Marketplace was made for the Son of God. Meaning, we humans find our reason for being when we find Him. We were made for Him! For relationship with Him.
And imagine! Everyone we encounter and work with in the Marketplace is being held together in Jesus. He is the glue holding the whole cosmos together. And should we, or anyone we know, feel like falling apart, they, we, fall into His hands. And imagine! Everyone we encounter and work with in the Marketplace has been reconciled to God through Jesus. They may not know it yet. They may not think they need it yet. But the fact is, Jesus Who is present in the Marketplace has done everything that needs to be done in be in intimate relationship with the Triune God of grace.
Affirmation: Jesus is there, really there, where you and I work. Really there! So, to the question that helps us own the privilege of following Jesus in the Marketplace. What is Jesus doing in the Marketplace? If He there, already there, what is He doing there? Bottom line. He is working out His and the Father’s purposes and plans for the world. He is working out His desire to redeem and reconcile and restore and renew all things. And here we could spend hours exploring what all this means! Hours! Days! Years! As Paul Stevens has been doing . I will only mention five fundamental things He is doing in any sphere of the Marketplace.
As we go about the specific works to which He call us, five “workings” into which He is inviting us to join Him.
One, He is drawing people to Himself. In any situation we can count on this. In the mystery of His saving work, He is actively pursuing everyone in your, my, world. “Come,” He says. I saw a poster, years ago now, that said, “Jesus’ favorite word is ‘Come’.” In some mysterious way, He is saying that to everyone we meet in the Marketplace.
“Come.” “Come to Me.” “Come to Me all who are weary from a world in chaos, and have over-burdened yourselves trying to hold it together on your own, and I will rest you.” “Come to Me all who are thirsty, and drink of Me, and rivers of living water will flow from your inner being.” “Come to Me all who are hungry. I Am the Bread of Life. Eat of Me. And your soul will find satisfaction.” “Come to Me. I Am the Light of the of the world. If you follow Me you will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” On and on it goes. “Come.” Every day in every way, calling out, “Come!” Or, as I like to put it, in the mystery of things, “The living Jesus is having a conversation with every person we know.” The person may or may not be aware of it. We may not always be aware of it. But He is, through the Holy Spirit, engaging everyone around us at deep levels. And, I think, we as His disciples are to try to be attentive to this fact. We may or may not be asked to speak into the conversation. There are times when it may be too premature to speak. But the conversation is happening. Jesus is there, drawing everyone to Himself.
Here I have to tell you a Marketplace story. It happened one year ago today, September 27, 2024. I was riding in a taxi on my way to a nearby Life Lab. I mentioned to the taxi driver that I needed a blood test for a routine follow-up on a recent experience involving blood clots in my lungs. He said to me, “I am trusting my health to the Lord.”
I was delightfully surprised. In part because he was from India and not all Indian taxi drivers are Christians. He then shared his testimony with me. While living in Indian, once every week he would eat his lunch at the local cemetery. Located next to an Anglican church. He would sit by a grave, the grave stone engraved with the words, “Peace I leave with you. He did not know what the words meant. But the words pulled at his heart and soul. He was, as he put it, “haunted” by the words.
For 15 years! Once a week, having lunch by the words, “Peace I leave with you.” Wondering all those years who spoke them. One day, he heard in his mind the words, “Stop, turn around.” What did they mean? He was haunted by them for more years. Until one day, in the grave yard, Jesus made Himself known to him. And he has been following Jesus ever since.
When we arrived at the Life Lab, my now Indian friend and brother, pulled the cab over to the side of the street. Turned off the engine. And said, “I am going to pray for you.” And proceeded to pray for my healing, for my “full healing” as he emphasized. I then prayed for him, asking for the Lord’s full provision for his work and family. He then told me that when the taxi firm notified him about needing to pick me up, he did not want to take the call …he was too tired. But he felt he was supposed to take it! Jesus was calling . In the Marketplace, Jesus is having all kinds of conversations with all kinds of people about all kinds of concerns.
Two, Jesus is therefore, drawing those with whom we work into the inner life of God as Trinity. At the centre of the universe is a relationship. An eternal relationship. Before God created anything, God was there as a relationship. As Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Out of that relationship we were called into being. For that relationship we were called into being. For that relationship we are being redeemed. God so loves the world, that God sent the Son into the world, to bring us into that relationship at the centre of the universe. Imagine that! For all eternity, God the Son has enjoyed intimate, joyful relationship with God the Father.
And in His love for the world, the Father sends the Son, who then brings us into His eternal, intimate, joyful relationship with the Father. That, I think, is the essence of salvation. Jesus does everything that needs to be done for us to enter into and live in that relationship at the centre of the universe. We become children of God. “Adopted” into the family that is the Triune God.
God the Father now “feels” toward us what He has always “felt” toward God the Son. The Father loves us with the love He has for His Son! And in the midst of all the activity of Marketplace life, somehow Jesus is drawing people into that love!
Third, He is drawing us into His kingdom. But of course. That relationship at the centre is the kingdom. Jesus wants everyone in every sphere of life to enter into and enjoy the radically different quality of life that is His kingdom. As the apostle Paul puts it in his letter to the Colossians: “The Father has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” It is the kingdom Jesus describes in His Sermon on the Mount. It is the kingdom Jesus describes in most of His Parables. It is the kingdom which He calls us to “seek first.”
In the midst of all the busyness and energy and anxiety of life in the Marketplace, He calls us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” “Kingdom” and “righteousness.” Not two different realities. For the “kingdom” is all about “righteousness.”
“Righteousness.” It simply means “right-relatedness.” The kingdom is all about “right-relatedness.” Right relationship with God. Right relationship with the self. Right relationship with others. Right relationship with the earth. The kingdom Jesus brings into the world, is all about a full-orbed “right-relatedness.” And into that wholistic relationality, Jesus is calling us and everyone else we interact with in the Marketplace. And, I think, that we who know this mystery, are to be the ones who lead the way, or, at least, point out the way. Into the way Jesus opens up for us in His sermons and parables.
Which are all about “the other six days,” as Paul Stevens puts it. The privilege of following Jesus in the Marketplace: as we go about our various work, helping people live in right relationship with God, in right relationship with the self, in right relationship with others, in right relationship with the earth. What a calling!
So, fourth, Jesus is actively sharing with us to His creativity. His inexhaustible creativity. The creativity of the relationship out of which we were created. The creativity of the dynamic kingdom. I have lately found myself in awe of all that Jesus enables us to do. Even when we do not know or forget that He is the one enabling us! The capacity to invent and innovate and re-invent. The capacity to dream and design, and dream again and re-design. How He helped us get throw the upheaval of Covid-19. Coming up with new ways to do business; new ways of working we never imagined.
And He will do the same as we make our way through the chaos of tariffs. And He will help us use AI for the good of society. In all expressions of the Marketplace, making divine creativity available for the full flourishing of humanity. It is awesome to witness. It is, after all, the same creativity that turned water into wine. The same creativity that fed 5,000 people from five little loaves of bread … with left-overs in super abundance. The same creativity that heals
broken bodies and broken hearts. The same creativity that breaks strongholds of evil. The same creativity that raises the dead! Jesus is there in the Marketplace, willing to share it all with us.
So, fifth. As a result of it all, He is bringing salt to the earth, and light to the world. Salt prevents decay. And salt gives flavour. In every part of the Marketplace, Jesus is spreading salt. And, it turns out, that you and I are the salt! We, joining Jesus in the Marketplace, preventing decay and bringing flavour. Light drives back the darkness. And light illumines the way into life.
In every part of the Marketplace, Jesus is shining light. And, it turns out, that you and I are the light! We, joining Jesus in the Marketplace, driving back the darkness, and illumining the way into the life He wills for the whole creation.
Affirmation. The risen, living Jesus is there. He is really there.
Which are all about “the other six days,” as Paul Stevens puts it. The privilege of following Jesus in the Marketplace: as we go about our various work, helping people live in right relationship with God, in right relationship with the self, in right relationship with others, in right relationship with the earth. What a calling!
So, fourth, Jesus is actively sharing with us to His creativity. His inexhaustible creativity. The creativity of the relationship out of which we were created. The creativity of the dynamic kingdom. I have lately found myself in awe of all that Jesus enables us to do. Even when we do not know or forget that He is the one enabling us! The capacity to invent and innovate and re-invent. The capacity to dream and design, and dream again and re-design. How He helped us get throw the upheaval of Covid-19. Coming up with new ways to do business; new ways of working we never imagined.
And He will do the same as we make our way through the chaos of tariffs. And He will help us use AI for the good of society. In all expressions of the Marketplace, making divine creativity available for the full flourishing of humanity. It is awesome to witness. It is, after all, the same creativity that turned water into wine. The same creativity that fed 5,000 people from five little loaves of bread … with left-overs in super abundance. The same creativity that heals
broken bodies and broken hearts. The same creativity that breaks strongholds of evil. The same creativity that raises the dead! Jesus is there in the Marketplace, willing to share it all with us.
So, fifth. As a result of it all, He is bringing salt to the earth, and light to the world. Salt prevents decay. And salt gives flavour. In every part of the Marketplace, Jesus is spreading salt. And, it turns out, that you and I are the salt! We, joining Jesus in the Marketplace, preventing decay and bringing flavour. Light drives back the darkness. And light illumines the way into life.
In every part of the Marketplace, Jesus is shining light. And, it turns out, that you and I are the light! We, joining Jesus in the Marketplace, driving back the darkness, and illumining the way into the life He wills for the whole creation.
Affirmation. The risen, living Jesus is there. He is really there.
Question:
What is He doing there?
Drawing people to Himself.
Drawing people into the inner life of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Drawing people into the only kingdom that stands.
Sharing His extravagant creativity with us.
Spreading salt and shining light.
What a privilege to follow Jesus in His Marketplace!
Oh, the pastor-returning-to-engineering?
He is having the time of his life!
Note: This was Darrell Johnson’s address on Saturday, September 27, 2025, given at the tenth anniversary Gala event sponsored by the Institute for Marketplace Transformation
