GOD CHOSE US TO BRING THE PERSON AND MESSAGE OF JESUS TO THE WORLD.

Transcription

1 POWER EVANGELISM EASTER 6 GOD CHOSE US TO BRING THE PERSON AND MESSAGE OF JESUS TO THE WORLD. I. JESUS IS THE MESSAGE (JOHN 14:15-21) Jesus revealed God s love through His life, death, and resurrection. A. WHAT TO GIVE GOD FOR FATHER S DAY (15) B. WHAT HE GIVES US FOR CHILDREN S DAY (16-20) C. FAMILY CELEBRATIONS (21) II. EXCEPTIONAL EVANGELIST (ACTS 17:22-31) Some people have been chosen and gifted by God to be extraordinary messengers of His gospel. A. THE HEART OF AN EVANGELIST (22-23) B. THE MESSAGE OF AN EVANGELIST (24-28) C. THE APPEAL OF AN EVANGELIST (29-30) III. EVERYDAY EVANGELIST (I PETER 3:13-22) Every Christian has been tasked to be living breathing examples of God s love and His desire for relationship. A. THE HEART OF AN EVANGELIST (13-17) B. THE MESSAGE OF AN EVANGELIST (18-20) C. THE APPEAL OF AN EVANGELIST (21-22)

2 Power Evangelism Easter 6 We are in our 6th week of Easter and just two weeks shy of Pentecost. The theme of this period of time between Easter and Pentecost focuses on resurrection power; the power that raised Jesus from the dead and the same power that enables us to live the Christian life successfully, joyfully, and thankfully. This power enables us to defeat sin in our lives, to endure hardships with strength and confidence, and to grow to Christian maturity. It enables us to love God and to love one another. This morning we will learn that this resurrection power gives us the power to love the lost and to reveal Jesus to them. We will learn this morning that we are all responsible to evangelize. To be sure, there are exceptionally gifted evangelists like Billy Graham. It seems as if he can present the Gospel so simply and so clearly, that the Holy Spirit leads people to salvation by great numbers. And yet when I evangelize, it seems as if I make the Gospel so complicated that no one comes to faith. Let me give you an example. We had a family in our church with a 5-year-old daughter. She was so cute. One day the little girl holding her stomach said, Mommy, my stomach hurts. The mother replied, That s because it s empty. You have to put something in it. The little girl ate a snack and the stomach ache went away. I was over their house one night preparing for an upcoming program on evangelism. I was feeling sick and had such a headache. I was rubbing my head and said, I have an awful headache. Do you have some Advil? The little girl looked up at me with the sweetest smile and in the most sympathetic voice said, Don t worry pastor. That s just because it s empty. You just have to put something into it. There was probably more truth to that statement than I would care to own up to. But no matter how pathetic I am at evangelism I am, and no matter how bad you are at it, the Bible says that simply because we are Christians, we are evangelists; for better or for worse. The main idea of this morning s texts is this. GOD CHOSE US TO BRING THE PERSON AND MESSAGE OF JESUS TO THE WORLD. Evangelism in the Bible seems to be a complete package consisting of a real love and heart for the lost, a lifestyle that is consistent with the heart and love of God, and the ability to share what God has done for us and what He can do for others. If we are believers who are growing in Christ, that should be pretty simple to understand. JESUS IS THE MESSAGE (JOHN 14:15-21) In fact it ought to be easy because as the Gospel of John 14:15-21 points out; Jesus is the message. JESUS REVEALED GOD S LOVE THROUGH HIS LIFE, DEATH,

3 AND RESURRECTION. Because God s thoughts, ways, and being are so far above ours, we can never fully grasp Who He is in all His mystery and glory. However, because Jesus was God in the flesh and is now living eternally in heaven, we can know this about God. God loves us and desires to be in a personal, passionate, and intimate relationship with each one of us. We know that He was willing to take on Himself; all the pain, suffering, and punishment that you and I deserve. We can be right with God simply by coming to Him and surrendering to Him in love. We don t have to seek Him out. He is seeking us out. This is Jesus description of Himself. He is still saying this today: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me (Revelation 3:20 / TNIV). WHAT TO GIVE GOD FOR FATHER S DAY (15) While in human form, Jesus showed us what God is like. Over the years I have often felt sad that my dad died before I had finished school. I would have liked to buy him some nice stuff and spent some time with him; mature man to mature man. I wish that I could have done more as a friend to him. But I have a heavenly Father and Jesus made it clear what to give God for Father s Day in verse 15. We don t have to think about extravagant gifts to buy or some great act of religious piety like fasting for 40 days or crawling up a hundred steps on our knees or giving the church a million dollars. Jesus said that we demonstrate our love for Him through simple obedience. Let me explain a little bit what that means. I could choose to read my Bible every day as an act of obedience to God. But unless that translates to real changes in my life, that just becomes one more self-righteous religious act. Let me give you some practical examples. Let s say you are a parent and have spoken harshly to your children. The act of obedience that will give God pleasure is when you go to your children and apologize for the harsh words. If you are a husband or wife and have been arguing or said unkind things, the act of obedience that will give God pleasure is you going to humble yourself and make things right with your spouse. If you have lied about someone, gossiped, or done something wrong to someone, the act of obedience that will give God pleasure is going to that person, confessing, apologizing, and asking for forgiveness. Jesus made it clear that He is looking for people who obey Him. He ties obedience to love. And let me just quickly remind us that Jesus said loving God and loving our neighbor summarizes all the commandments. WHAT HE GIVES US FOR CHILDREN S DAY (16-20) Jesus told us and demonstrated to us that obedience to God is the way we love God. In verses Jesus revealed what He gives us for Children s day. God has adopted us at great cost to Him. Today, many people spend tens of thousands of dollars to adopt children from other countries. Usually they have to travel to the other countries to pick them up. God the Father sent Jesus the Son to come and adopt us as His children. Jesus didn t pay with money. Jesus paid for us by His precious blood and His life. As we place our faith in Jesus, God adopts us into His

4 family and we become His children. In this passage, Jesus promised that we would never again be orphans because God is our Father. Secondly, to make sure we continue to know this and follow His ways, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit. Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth and the Counselor. The word counselor in Greek is paraklētos. Literally it refers to one called alongside. It refers to lawyers as legal advisors to stand alongside their clients to advise them. It can refer to an advocate who goes to plead another s case. For Jesus, the Holy Spirit has been sent to journey with us through life and death; to heaven and for all eternity. Look at verse 16. We are not joined together with the Holy Spirit til death do us part. We are joined together with the Holy Spirit forever. The Holy Spirit is God living in us. He convicts us of sin. He testifies to us concerning Who Jesus is. Jesus lives in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us into truth. He comforts us, encourages, and strengthens us. He intercedes for us and actually joins together with our prayers. Most of all, He connects us into constant relationship with God. God lives in us and we live in Him. We are bound together with other believers through the work of the Holy Spirit. He gifts us with spiritual gifts. God has given us an unbelievable gift in giving us the Holy Spirit. This gift will guide us safely home to heaven. FAMILY CELEBRATIONS (21) As part of God s family, verse 21 reminds us that we are invited to participate in family celebrations. If we miss this part of Christianity, we have simply turned Christianity into another religion. Christianity is all about God s passionate, intimate, and personal love. I m going to read verse 21 slowly. Listen to the encircling and encompassing love of God for His children: Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them (John 14:21 / NLT). We don t have to guess concerning what God wants from us and what He wants to give us. If we look at the life of Jesus and hear the message of Jesus we can easily see that God wants us to love Him, to love one another and to love the lost. JESUS REVEALED GOD S LOVE THROUGH HIS LIFE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION. If Jesus life was dedicated to helping people enter a relationship with God and teaching people how to grow in their relationship with God; and if we are called to imitate Christ, then it seems to me that we should be about the same things. EXCEPTIONAL EVANGELIST (ACTS 17:22-31) Of course there will be exceptional evangelists as described in Acts 17: I m talking about the Apostle Paul. He was arguably the greatest evangelist in the early church. SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AND GIFTED BY GOD TO BE EXTRAORDINARY MESSENGERS OF HIS GOSPEL.

5 THE HEART OF AN EVANGELIST (22-23) In verses we catch a glimpse into the heart of an evangelist. I want to recap a portion of last week s message. Stephen became the first martyr of the Christian church. As the religious leaders were stoning Stephen for his faith in Jesus, Stephen prayed that God forgive them and to receive his spirit into heaven. He died with a great deal of grace. This Apostle Paul who became the greatest evangelist in the early church was at that execution; only he was part of the religious people killing Stephen. The Bible says that he guarded the coats of those stoning Stephen and that he actively gave his approval to the death of Stephen. However, after meeting Jesus, Paul could never get this out of his head. It haunted him until he died. The Holy Spirit grabbed hold of Paul, led him to sorrow, repentance, faith, and submission in faith. Paul could never go back and undo the damage done to Stephen. I m sure if he could have, he would have. We have all done things we can t go back and fix. There are things that will haunt us until we die. And that s why grace is so wonderful. Paul was a powerful evangelist because he submitted to the calling and leading of God. We know from earlier verses that Paul was distressed by all the idols and by the prevailing culture in Athens. It was a city of philosophers, schools, and politics. The Areopagus was composed of philosophers, academics, and politicians. This is where Socrates was judged and condemned to death. Every day different speakers would present papers and would defend their thesis. Paul was distressed at the lostness of the people. I m eerily haunted by the similarity between the Athens of Paul s day and our society today. They were a culture who accepted all religions and gods; all that is except for Judaism and Christianity. They chased after the good life and wanted to be considered good, noble, and intellectually enlightened. Listen to what Athens was like and see if you feel our society and theirs are eerily connected. I ll be quoting from Warren Weirsbe s commentary on Acts: The Greek religion was a mere deification of human attributes and the powers of nature, wrote Conybeare and Howson in their classic Life and Epistles of St. Paul. It was a religion which ministered to art and amusement, and was entirely destitute of moral power (pp ). We think of ourselves a good, upstanding, noble, and moral people. Many of us would also consider ourselves to be mature Christians. In the public arena we argue philosophy, morals, and politics. We talk a lot about what the government should or shouldn t do. We talk a lot of what people ought to believe and what they should do. But I m guessing not many of us sit down, read the Sermon on the Mount, study it, and commit ourselves to personally obeying the commands Jesus gives us in it. If I understand at all the Gospels, this kind of study should leave us completely broken and painfully aware of how much grace we are in need of. In his encounter with Jesus, Paul was completely broken and recognized his desperate need for Jesus grace. And even though Paul was an expert in theology, Scripture, Spiritual disciplines, and religious studies; at that moment of faith he recognized it was all

6 garbage compared to the grace of Jesus. The heart of the evangelist is filled with humility, gratefulness, and a desire to help others find the grace of Christ. THE MESSAGE OF AN EVANGELIST (24-28) The Apostle Paul was trained in philosophy and theology. He now simply saw these things as tools to put the spotlight on Jesus. In verses Paul lays out the message of an evangelist in verses He will now use his training in philosophy and theology to point the way to Jesus. Whether we put the Gospel in plain simple terms or intellectual terms, the message must be simple. There is One God Who created the universe; everyone and everything in it. This God is separate from His creation but He is intimately involved with it. Since He is the creator, He has expectations of us. He has revealed Himself through the history of the Jewish people. He has revealed Himself through the Scriptures, and even through nature. But most of all and most clearly, He took on human flesh to reveal His person, nature, and will to us in the person of Jesus Christ. So God is different and above His creation. Theologians refer to this as God s transcendence. In other words, trees are not gods, suns and other heavenly bodies are not gods, the earth is not god. We are not gods. God is different. One of the religions in Greece at the time of Paul reflected this error. They were pantheists; meaning that everything was god. Today there are several manifestations of pantheist religions; like eastern religions, Native American religions, and many new age religions. In fact, some of the radical environmentalist positions are based on this idea of pantheism. These religious ideas are wrong because God is transcendent. He is different from and above creation. However, God is also what the theologians refer to as immanent. The other school of thought during Paul s time was that the gods were really not interested in the everyday affairs of humans. Many of our founding fathers were deists. In other words, they believed that God created the world, wound it up like a clock, and then left human affairs up to us to run. In this system God is not involved with us. However, the God of the Bible is intimately involved with his creation. In fact He created us to be in a personal relationship with Him. We were created to fellowship with Him. He is imminent. He is present everywhere, He knows everything, and He is all powerful. He has expectations of our relationship with Him and with one another. Because we were born into sin and because of our self-centeredness, we have all sinned, offended God, and find ourselves separated from God without any hope of repairing that relationship on our own. Here is where the person who thinks they are noble, good, intelligent, or moral in any way has to let it all go and count it for garbage the way Paul did. Here is where we find ourselves. We stand before this Holy God guilty and condemned; all of us. We can never do enough good or be good enough to deserve His love or to ever be in a right relationship with Him again. That is horrible news. But the very word Gospel in Greek means good

7 news. The Good News is that this transcendent yet immanent God loved us so much, He sent His One and Only Son Jesus to come and save us. Jesus paid the price we could never pay to be reconciled with God. Jesus took on human flesh, suffered, was humiliated, tortured, and executed. In that act, He took all of our sins, nailed them to the cross, and buried them in the tomb. And then on the third day, He rose from the dead as proof He was Who He said He was. He was our Savior. THE APPEAL OF AN EVANGELIST (29-30) Paul makes the appeal of an evangelist in verses We have a problem. We are separated from God. Jesus has the answer. He died and rose from the dead so that we can also have eternal life. There will come a day in which God judges us. He is not going to put our good deeds and our bad deeds on a balance scale to see if the good outweighs the bad. He has already said that we cannot be saved this way because our bad will always outweigh our good. We will be judged based on His offer to us. If we accept the gift He gave us in Jesus and surrender to Him in faith, we will be saved. If we reject Jesus, God will reject us in eternity. Why wouldn t anyone want to receive this gift for free? We find out later, some people that day received his message, some rejected it, and some wanted to hear more. God prepared Paul to be a super-evangelist. Paul was educated in the best schools, came from a well-to-do family, and had a sharp mind. But all that was useless until Paul surrendered to Jesus in faith and God filled him with the Holy Spirit. SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AND GIFTED BY GOD TO BE EXTRAORDINARY MESSENGERS OF HIS GOSPEL. EVERYDAY EVANGELIST (I PETER 3:13-22) The Apostle Paul was certainly in that category. But the further point of this is that the Apostle Peter in I Peter 3:13-22 reminds us that we are all called to be everyday evangelists. EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS BEEN TASKED TO BE LIVING BREATHING EXAMPLES OF GOD S LOVE AND HIS DESIRE FOR RELATIONSHIP. In today s public discourse, there is not much room for logic or reason. We have discussed this before. In general, our society has become sophist in nature. We put together a few presuppositions and simply make up arguments to support our views. I think it is easy to point this out in politics. No matter what President Obama does right, Republicans will argue that what he has done is wrong. They will use facts and so-called logic to back it up. No matter what President Obama does wrong, Democrats will use facts and so-called logic to say he was right. That is how we have come to operate in our everyday lives. I m sad to say that this type of sophism has permeated our academic institutions and I m very sad to say this type of sophism has infected the modern day church. What s lacking is this; genuine humility and a desire to pursue God in our personal lives. The heart of an evangelist comes through in verses THE HEART OF AN EVANGELIST (13-17) Evangelism is simply a part of our Christian lifestyle. Last week we said there was a difference between suffering because we are obnoxious and stupid rather than

8 suffering for godliness. In this passage Peter is not talking about the sufferings that come with life like illness, setbacks, etc. This suffering is related to suffering for simply being and living Christian. He assumes that there will come a time we will suffer for our faith. The people he was writing to actually had started to be persecuted for their faith in Christ. He encourages us to do good and pursue good things. For the most part, people around us will benefit from our desire to do good. For example, if I help my neighbor push his car out of a snow bank, would he want to persecute me for that? No, he would appreciate it. If I pay all my taxes on time, will the government want to persecute me for that? No. If I come to work on time and don t miss work, will my boss persecute me for that? No. In general, if we live out loving Christian lives according to Christian principles, we will make it relatively unscathed. In fact, people should wonder why we live the way we do. And if we are living for Christ, it should not be about our own goodness. In verse 16 Peter says that in our hearts, Jesus should be in our conscious thoughts. And when people ask us why we are different we should be able to quietly and respectfully explain our relationship with Jesus to them. But being able to explain our relationship with Jesus assumes that we have an ongoing relationship with Him. Our conversation about Jesus ought to be normal and natural. Do you remember the study we did a couple of months ago about the blind man Jesus healed? The man wasn t eloquent when people asked him about Jesus. He simply said, I was blind but now I see (John 9:25 / NIV)! If we are Christians and walking with Christ we should have all sorts of things to share when asked. Let me give you an example. I have a neighbor who is a great guy. I don t think he is a Christian yet. He is a guy who is extremely honest. My Aunt had told him that I liked to give to people and help people in need. Obviously out of prior hurts he asked me, How do you prevent people from taking advantage of you? Thinking about this for a little I responded, You don t. It can t be prevented but when we do things for God, He notices and keeps track. That wasn t some theology or quote from the Bible; although it is found in the Bible. That answer came from my heart, from firsthand experience, and the companionship of God through it all. Many Christians don t have present testimonies because they are focused so much on others sins, they not looking at what God is doing with them. If we are walking with God, we should have constant testimonies concerning our sin, disappointments, setbacks, blessings, victories, and love with others. THE MESSAGE OF AN EVANGELIST (18-20) The message of an evangelist is again described in verses Here is the message again. Jesus died for our sins. He rose from the dead and triumphed over sin, death, and evil on our behalf. We enter into eternal life as we join our lives to His through faith. I don t want to spend much time on this but if you are interested I d be happy to meet with you and study it in depth. I don t think it is all that important but I need to just mention it. If you have ever recited the Apostles Creed you may have read this line, took a double take, and scratched your head. The line in the Apostles Creed describing Jesus says, suffered under Pontius

9 Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hades; the third day He rose again for the dead. Like me, you may have said, I don t remember reading that in the Bible. Here is where that thought is found. I ll read from verses in today s text: 18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water (I Peter 3:18-20 /NIV). It seems as if Jesus died, went to hell to preach to the Gospel to those in hell between His death and resurrection on the third day. This is a legitimate interpretation of the passage. Scot McKnight, in his commentary on First Peter does a nice job of laying out the different possible interpretations of the passage. I think what is important to focus on is the fact that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God proclaimed His victory over sin, Satan, and death. He did the same through Noah. The world Noah lived in was wicked. God judged the world but saved Noah. We, like Noah, are called to live out our Christian lives in faith. We are to do good, live with confidence, without fear, and be prepared to lovingly, gently, humbly, and respectfully explain our love relationship with Christ. We do so knowing that Jesus will come one day soon to once and for all proclaim victory over evil. Our hope is in Jesus and eternity. THE APPEAL OF AN EVANGELIST (21-22) But we must remember that we must offer the appeal of an evangelist to those we come in contact with as described in verses We were saved by the love of God. When we placed our faith in Jesus he removed our sin and the stench of death from our lives. We live with a clear conscience only because Jesus paid for all our sins. Ultimately the love we have for God and the love for the person standing in front of us should be an overwhelming presence of the living God we serve. It is always appropriate to ask if people want to receive that same love. EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS BEEN TASKED TO BE LIVING BREATHING EXAMPLES OF GOD S LOVE AND HIS DESIRE FOR RELATIONSHIP. We have a great message for this lost and hurting world. God loves us and sent Jesus to make a way for us to be reconciled with Him. God will supernaturally empower some to be great evangelists. However, we are living breathing messages of God s offer of salvation. GOD CHOSE US TO BRING THE PERSON AND MESSAGE OF JESUS TO THE WORLD. Some of you may be gifted evangelists. But if you re like me, the best thing we can do is live very joyful lives and be prepared to share the love of Christ with people

10 we meet. I don t know who wrote this but I think it captures the essence of how we are to live and evangelize: One day as a woman was crossing a street at London station, an old man stopped her. He said to her, Excuse me ma am, but I want to thank you. She looked up and exclaimed, Thank me? He replied, Yes m, I used to be a ticket collector, and whenever you went by you always gave me a cheerful smile and a good morning. I knew that smile must come from inside somewhere. Then one morning I saw a little Bible in your hand. So I bought one, too, and I found Jesus. I m afraid that too many of us are complacent and self focused rather than being a loving, gracious, joyful appeal from God to those we meet. Please let that never be said of us.