Going Public! Series

Sermon: Going public

Thesis: Christians need to go public with their faith. When we are water baptized in front of others we are going public and testifying to those around us that we have become Christians. When we do this we are following a faith action step and a teaching by Jesus. Going public is a testimonial willingness to be identified as a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

Scripture Texts:

Romans 1:16-17: 16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Luke 9:26: 26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

2 Timothy 1:8-10: 8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

2 Timothy 2:15: 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Introduction:

Point of the Scriptures: The framework or the main theme of these 4 verses is that we need to “Go Public” with our faith and we are never to be ashamed of being called a devoted follower of Jesus Christ – a Christian. This means that when Jesus returns He will lift us up before all to show how we were faithful witnesses for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Today we live in a society that frowns, looks down on Christians who go public with their faith. This post Christian society believes that your faith is a private thing not a public thing and you should just quietly keep it to yourself. Some believe that your faith should not be expressed at work, at school or in public at all. But the same media that pushes we need to be quiet promotes their false beliefs in public all the time. They promote their faith (their beliefs) everyday on radio, Tv, news papers, blogs and other sources. They feel they have a right to go public but we Christians should not be public. We need to silent while they promote their lies to seduce people to their false belief systems. But the entire Bible refutes this lack of action- we are to Go Public!

One Yale professor even wrote a whole book on the premise that our faith should be private – it’s an individual thing and it needs to stay at home and in church only – His book was called “The Culture of Disbelief.”

When I first became a Christian in the late 70’s we had all kinds of ways of going public with our faith:

• I bought the radical Christian Bumper stickers and pasted them on my truck.

• I bought a gold necklace that had an etching of Jesus on it.

• I bought and proudly wore Christian lingo T shirts.

• Some of my friends went to witnessing on the streets – being corner preachers with blow horns .

• Some made end time signs which they held up on street corners all day.

• Many of us handed out tracks to the public.

o We were great at leaving them in the bathrooms of public places.

o I even did door to door evangelism.

o Back then the tracks were old and not real creative looking but we were proud to hand them out to those who were lost.

• Some of us carried Bibles with us everywhere we went.

o We would open them and quote Scripture to those we were talking too.

o Over time the pocket Bible became the in thing to have in your pocket.

• Over time others found different ways to express their faith publicly:

• Some choose tattoos.

• Some choose to wear Jesus wristbands.

• Some choose the fish on the back of their car -- which I guess is more refined than my radical bumper stickers were.

Can you think of other ways people have “Gone Public” with their faith? Well here is a movie clip showing some different ways people “Went Public!”