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Opportunity: The Da Vinci Code
Contributed by Don Jones on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: The sermon is designed to get the church to take advantage of the discussions about the Da Vinci Code to tell others the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.¡¨
Lee Strobel gives us the following reasons to take the opportunity. He says.
"I saw the impact the book can have up close. A woman became a Christian and then asked me and Mark Mittelberg to share Christ with her boyfriend, who¡¦s one of the most famous Muslims in America. We met with him a couple of times and thought we were making some progress. But then she called Mark one day all upset. ¡§Something terrible has happened,¡¨ she said. ¡§He read The Da Vinci Code and said, ¡¥This confirms all my worst suspicions about Christianity.¡¦¡¨ From then on, he hasn¡¦t been receptive to the Gospel. One Da Vinci Code reader said to a pastor friend of mine: ¡§I will never again set foot into a church, because now I know the real story.¡¨ So there¡¦s good reason to be upset that people are buying the book¡¦s premise that Christianity is a fraud. Even so, I¡¦m not so sure that protesting the movie or hoping it will go away is the right approach for Christians to take."
Cue slide: Opportunity
We can take this controversy and debate about the Da Vinci Code and we can engage others with the truth of the gospel. Like Paul, in Acts 17:17,
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
Jesus tells us to "go and make disciples" and to "be His witnesses" and we have ample examples of his followers engaging society, the same "mushroom" society, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like Paul in the city of Athens, it is our responsibility, individually and as a church, to tell others. The Athenians called him a "blabber" and an "advocate of foreign gods" but he continued to preach and teach. We are to take these conversational opportunities and tell others about the Gospel, Jesus crucified and resurrected. I believe through the curiosity and questions raised by the book and movie, we have a unique opportunity to impact our culture for Jesus. Like Paul in Athens, we can blabber.
Cue slide: The Danger of Da Vinci Code
The danger in all of this is this whole discussion is that it is a matter of life and death. Some people will be banking their eternal lives on this Da Vinci Hoax. The difference between the Da Vinci Code and the Gospel is that the Da Vinci Code results in death and the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings life. Mike Wilkins shares this observation.
The whole area of service is a very important one in the Christian life. The importance can be seen in the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea in the Holy Land. The two bodies of water are connected by the Jordan River in a direct north-south line along the Great Rift Valley. Clear, sweet water from underground springs flows into the Sea of Galilee. And the Sea of Galilee flows south into the Jordan. Galilee is a gorgeous, active lake, full of life that has sustained fishermen in the region for millennia. The Dead Sea, by contrast, is a shallow, selfish basin with no outlet. It hoards the water that flows into it. Some water evaporates, leaving behind brackish, clouded water so dense that swimmers bob like corks. The whole sea is dead.