INTRODUCTION
Recently a Baptist Pastor in Illinois received a visit from the FBI. They came in response to an anonymous caller who took issue with something the Pastor said in his sermon.
According to the Baptist Press news service, “Nov. 23, 2004, started out like any other normal morning for Randy Steele, senior pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Ill., a town about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis… [until]… the phone rang.
It was the FBI. Steele said they wanted to meet with him personally…. When two FBI agents arrived at the church, Steele said they traded small talk for a few minutes before the suspense got to him and he asked about the nature of their visit. Their answer stunned him.
“One guy opened a file,” Steele said. And he said, “’This is pertaining to a sermon that you preached on Memorial Day.’”
On Memorial Day 2004, Steele was in the middle of preaching a sermon series he called Life Issues dealing with controversial cultural issues from a biblical perspective. One such sermon was about abortion and Steele chose Memorial Day to preach about it.
“I shared the number of people who have died in wars versus the number who had died through legal abortion since 1973, Steele said. “I stated that we are in a different type of war that is being fought under the ’presupposition of freedom.”
Steele said that he went on to name an abortion clinic in Granite City, Ill., a city just outside St. Louis, and pointed out that they perform as many as 45 abortions per week.
Somebody in the church that day apparently misunderstood Steele’s different type of war comment to mean that he was actually calling his congregation to a physical war against abortion clinics, so he or she placed an anonymous phone call to the FBI. (Now, don’t any of you get any ideas!)
This informant allegedly told the FBI that in addition to Steele calling for a war against abortion clinics, he also said he was willing to go to jail over such a cause.
Steele said that he had spoken about his willingness to go to jail, but that he made those remarks in a different sermon that dealt with homosexuality from the same sermon series.
“I had mentioned a pastor in Canada who had been arrested for speaking about homosexuality in his church,” Steele said. “The pastor said he went on to tell his congregation that if speaking the truth means that we go to jail, then by golly, that’s where I’m going to be and I’m going to save you a seat next to me.”
“That was the major gist of why [the FBI] felt like they could come here and look through my sermons,” Pastor Steele reported.
….Steele said that after the two FBI agents examined his two sermons in question, they realized he was not a physical threat to abortion clinics and apparently dropped their investigation.
…Pastor Steele said he was initially a little irritated that the FBI would ask to see his sermons, especially since he had to take time away from the grieving family in his congregation to answer questions, but he said he has no plans to stop preaching messages that are culturally relevant.
“As a pastor I believe that as Christians we are called to speak the truth no matter what,” Steele said. “And we have to continue to speak that truth in love to all people and to share the message of Christ because it’s the only message that’s going to change the lives of people.”
Like this Pastor, the message of Jesus was controversial in his day. If Jesus were around today I am certain the FBI would question him about some of the things he said.
Let’s begin today by considering this simple and yet very important question:
Why do the words of Jesus matter?
"Jesus was always saying the unexpected. Just when His followers thought they had Him figured out, He’d open His mouth and amaze them once more. Jesus didn’t kowtow to the smug religious leaders of the day. Instead, He challenged and criticized them with an authority and power that must have left their heads spinning… The Bible preserved Jesus’ words so that people through¬out the ages could apply them to their own lives. His messages are just as powerful, as stimulating, and as compassionate as they were when he originally delivered them." (Lee Strobel)
1. The words of Jesus matter because… they are ETERNAL and come directly from God. (Luke 21:33; John 6:63; John 12:50, 14:10, 24b; 17:8a)
2. The words of Jesus matter because… the one who lives faithfully according to them will withstand the STORMS of this life. (Luke 6:46-49)
Robert Kupferschmid was an 81-year old with no flying experience. However, due to a tragic emergency, he was forced to fly an airplane. On June 17, 1998, he and his 52-year-old pilot friend, Wesley Sickle, were flying from Indianapolis to Muncie, Indiana. During the flight, the pilot slumped over and died at the controls. The Cessna 172 single-engine plane began to nose-dive and Kupferschmid grabbed the controls. He got on the radio and pleaded for help.
Nearby were two pilots who heard the call. Mount Comfort was the closest airport, and the two pilots gave Kupferschmid a steady stream of instructions of climbing, steering—and the scariest part—landing. The two experienced pilots circled the runway three times before this somewhat frantic and totally inexperienced pilot was ready to attempt the landing.
Emergency vehicles were called out and ready for what seemed like an approaching disaster. Witnesses said the plane’s nose nudged the center line and bounced a few times before the tail hit the ground. The Cessna ended up in a patch of soggy grass next to the runway. Amazingly, Kupferschmid was not injured.
This pilot listened and followed those instructions as if his life depended on it—and it did. (PreachingToday.com: Hearing and Obeying.)
And you know what, our life REALLY DOES depend upon our willingness to listen and obey!
Notice what Jesus said in Luke 6 (in the scripture we began with). He promised that people who withstand the storms of life will be those people who:
47 ..come(s) to me and hears my words and puts them into practice.
Of these faithful people Jesus says,
48 “He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. ..”
3. The words of Jesus matter because… by them we will be JUDGED. (John 3:31-36; 12:47-50, 14:24a)
CONCLUSION
One day each of us will stand before a Judge to give an account of our lives: how we RESPOND to Jesus’ words will determine where we spend eternity and how we will serve God in the eternal kingdom. So, the challenge for us today is to live in a way that is consistent with the words of Jesus.
I began with the story of a Pastor who was visited by the FBI. I want to conclude by asking you to consider:
If the FBI came to your door tomorrow, what would they find? Someone has raised this heart-searching question: "If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" We claim to be followers of Christ. Do our lives prove it?
