Last week I spoke about how the church is in crisis and unless we REINVENT the church, she will continue to die a slow but sure death.
One of the ways we need to REINVENT the church today is by no longer being a COME AND GET IT church, but instead, a GO AND GET THEM church as Jesus modeled when he sent OUT his disciples. Among the last words Jesus spoke in this world were, “GO, and make disciples…” not “Post a sign out front and tell people to come inside.”
Another way we need to REINVENT the church today is by speaking our testimony out loud to those in our community.
Look up these passages of Scripture with me:
1 Peter 3:15, “Be ready always to give a reason for the hope…”
Acts 1:9, “You will be my witnesses…”
1 John 1:1-4, “That which we have seen, heard, touched, we tell”
Matthew 16:13-15, “Who do YOU say that I am?”
To have a story to share with the community you must have a story worth sharing!
There is a part of the culture within which we live the church has allowed to come in and claim as normal for the church and that is this issue of being private. The ‘privatization’ of the Church has left the church speechless in a bad way! We don’t share about ourselves, we don’t speak up and speak out about what changes Jesus Christ has made in our life.
Here is what happens when you and don’t speak about our what Jesus Christ has done for us:
1. We forget our story (inflated)
2. The story dies (vs. life!)
3. We have nothing to share (filled)
But when we review our story with each other, we practice sharing what Jesus Christ is doing in our lives, here’s what happens:
1. We not only remember, we can’t stop talking about!
2. The story doesn’t die, it multiplies! The spoken story takes on a life of its own and it multiplies because it is alive!
3. We grow more and more in the grace and power of God and favor with people! Why? Because we have something they want!
People want to have hope, they want to have power to live by, they want to have peace, they want to feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves and they want to give their lives away to something that means something!
So let me ask you, “Who have you been saying Jesus is?”
Jesus travels to Caesarea Philippi and historically the place where Jesus is speaking to his disciples is a shrine where people would bring an idol and place it into a hollow spot on the side of this huge rock and worship there. In the culture of that day, the people were saying, “God is this…God is that” and whatever they chose to worship they would and bring it this spot in Caesarea Philippi.
Against this backdrop, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “Who are the people saying I am?” Not only did the culture of that day have things they said about God, but they were talking about Jesus and they had different ideas about him. Some said John, some said Elijah, some said Jeremiah, some said one of the prophets.
But then Jesus turns to them in this idolatrous scene and asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” And that is the question everyone of us has to answer! Not only for our own souls, but for the souls of everyone we come in contact with! People are asking questions more today than I can ever remember!
Magazines, radio, movies, everyone has their own ideas in our community today about who God is and who Jesus is. And what has the church done? The church is hiding! The church is private! The church is missing from the streets and the community because it is busy being removed from people so it can be in a building which we have called ‘the church’!
Our community is seeking for the real God and the real Jesus and we need to:
1) Be ready to give a reason for the hope we have!
2) Be Jesus’ witness of what he has done in our life
3) Speak up and speak out about what we have seen, heard, touched
4) Who are you saying Jesus is? Not from some passage of scripture…not from some words, but from your heart, from your warm, flesh and blood, and from the real you.
Have you forgotten your story of Jesus? Or do you have one to share yet? Jesus himself said, “If you have a story, you WILL share it!” You WILL be his witnesses when the HOLY SPIRIT comes upon you!
Peter spoke to Jesus and answered his question, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” Peter had a revelation of God about who Jesus really was! But he never would have had that revelation given to him UNLESS Jesus would have been there in the flesh living and breathing right in front of him!
And the people in our community will never know Jesus because they will never the revelation of God because there is no flesh and blood, breathing human being like you and me in front of them testifying about what we have witnessed in our own lives about Jesus!
Peter is with Cornelius, a gentile, and bunch of others in Cornelius’ house and Peter says, “Well, you guys know I am not suppose to be here, but God has revealed to me that I need to be. So let me tell you all I know about Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit fell on that place just like it did when Peter first felt it and there was no doubt, God was doing it again for these people!
Don’t you want to experience that feeling, that excitement, that awesome power of God upon you again like when you first were saved?
Don’t you want others to feel in their heart, have the power of God in their lives like you do in yours? Don’t you want to share with others what Christ can do for them? About how Jesus can make a difference in their life because he made a difference in yours!?
But they will never come to faith and believe unless you speak up and speak out about what Jesus Christ has done for you.
They will never be saved from their wayward lives unless you are ready and prepared to speak and know what you are going to say because you have practiced over and over again with your church family what to say!
But just imagine what it will be like when God puts you in a place where you get to testify for him about who he is and what he has done! Just imagine people finally getting to hear the truth from your lips about who this Jesus is and what he has done because you a re a real, live, actual human being who knows because you have experienced it for yourself! And you aren’t afraid, no, you are ALIVE with it in your heart!
Take a moment to jot some thoughts down in your bulletin where I put three questions you need to have the answer to:
1. Who were you before you met Jesus?
2. How did you come to know him…what happened?
3. How has your life been different since you’ve come to know him?
A pastor was leading a conference for church leaders when one of the men got a call and walked out of the meeting. A few minutes later he returned obviously shaken. He told everyone that his father-in-law had just dropped dead from a heart attack and then shared how close he been to him. Someone asked how his wife was handling the situation and he said she was shocked of course but she has strong faith. The person who had asked the question said, I don’t know your wife, but from the way you talked about her at dinner last night, she must be a fabulous person.”
Listen: this is what conversation with those who don’t know Jesus Christ sounds like, “I don’t know this Jesus you are talking about, but from the way you talk about him, he must be a great piece of work!” How hard is it really to talk about someone you love?
Next week, I want to take some time and speak to you about who the people out there in our community are by giving you some teaching on the four generations alive in our community today…and then hopefully present some ideas on how we can reach them with the Good News and love of Jesus Christ.
