21.9.08
HOW TO EVANGELIZE AND ENJOY YOURSELF John 2:1-11
INTRO
Girl down drain recued.
Remarkable story:
The father of a little girl sucked 150ft (46m) along an underground drain has told how she had stopped breathing when he pulled her from the River Wear.
Leona Baxter, three, was playing in a puddle when she disappeared. She had been washed into the uncovered drain, travelled 150 ft, and was thrown out into the river.
Her father Mark saw what he thought be her coat floating down the river. Then he realized it was Leona.
Leona responded well to First Aid and has fully recovered.
POINT
It’s not every day that we hear good news like this.
Spiritually speaking, people’s lives are going down the drain every day and people who are drowning in their circumstances cannot rescue themselves. They need someone to rescue them and bring them back to life.
We are the people who have the power to rescue them
And Jesus is the one Person who can restore them to life again.
This is ‘good news’
POINT
Who knows where we would be if it had not been for the people who had come to our rescue or brought us good news that had saved us.
ILLUSTR
A lot is said these days about the value of First Aid, and having the knowledge of it and courage to use it in an emergency. In particular, if someone has a heart attack or has just been pulled from the water and is not breathing, would you know what to do? And would you have the courage to do it?
Maybe you have used First Aid and rescued someone. And looking back on it you are glad you did. You found that it was not as difficult as you imagined it might be and that it was very rewarding to see someone alive because of you.
POINT
As Christians have a spiritual message with the power to save. We know that Jesus has commissioned us proclaim it.
But how often do we stand by and do nothing to rescue people in spiritual distress because, like a person unskilled in first aid, we are not sure how to go about sharing with them the message by which they can be saved?
HOME GROUPS
At this present time our Home Groups are running several different studies covering the subjects of worship, fellowship, discipleship, service or evangelism. Home Group leaders are preparing the material themselves and over the next couple of years each group will have covered a subject in each of these areas. It is my privilege to be leading a refreshing new study entitled ‘Reimagining Evangelist’ (based on Rick Richardson’s book with the same title).
The insights we are gaining from this series are what many of us have been looking for for a long long time. It is fantastic to find material that enables us to see how easy it can be to be an effective witness for Jesus.
READING – John 2:1-11
THESIS: Jesus is our primary example of how to evangelise
i.e make the Good News known [Keyword: Characteristics]
The Story
Weddings in the Jewish tradition lasted seven days – an entire week! – and the bridegroom as the host was expected to provide enough food and wine for the whole seven days. But they ran into a big problem at this wedding – they ran out of wine!
This was the height of embarrassment, especially in first century Jewish culture.
Jesus’ mother Mary tells Jesus.
Jesus’ response is: “Woman, what do I have to do with you?”
He makes the point that what he is about to do is not a response to a request from a family member. What he is about to do is of his own volition.
He instructs the servants fill the six stone water jars, normally used for Jewish purification rites, and once they have filled them to the brim, Jesus orders them to draw it out and bring it to the chief steward. The water has turned into wine.
POINT
What was Jesus doing?
First – he sees the major embarrassment of the family and he saves them from it.
But he also makes a statement.
Not only is a miracle, it is also a SIGN.
The significance of the sign lies in the contrast between the ritual purification of the water and the plentiful provision of the wine.
We can see here the wine as a symbol of Jesus life blood which alone can cleanse from sin – and the plentiful provision of it as a symbol of God’s grace.
POINT Jesus’ presence and his actions at the wedding conveyed a message to the people. Jesus was making the Good News known.
What characterized Jesus way of making the Good News known?
1. IT WAS NATURAL (Jesus was enjoying himself)
POINT
I wonder whose wedding this was? I am sure that Jesus did not attend reluctantly out of a sense of duty. Jesus was there to honour the couple and enjoy the event along with the people.
POINT
Rick Richardson makes the very good point that evangelism and enjoying ourselves are not incompatible. On the contrary, Jesus witnessed whilst celebrating a wedding with the others whom he called his friends.
APPLIC
Witnessing to others is a natural thing for us to do as we live our lives as Christians with our friends. They cannot help but notice the difference in the ways we think, speak and act. And leisure activities enjoyed with non-Christians friends may be one of the best ways for us to make the Good News known.
POINT
The expression of our faith should be a very natural thing for us to do. There are less effective, more contrived ways of sharing our faith.
ILLUSTR
Deficient ways of sharing our faith with others can be like their experience in front of a computer screen.
When you are working with a computer one of the most annoying things can be what is called pop-ups.
You are browsing away, and then all of a sudden a new window pops up out of nowhere. You didn’t ask it to. It comes out of the blue and tries to sell you something or get something from you.
POINT
Witnessing can be like that. You just never know with some people when Jesus will suddenly pop up into the conversation. The message people get is that – you are not interested in them; that you got alongside them and befriended them in order to sell them a package – the Jesus package. You might have meant well, but there are better ways of faith sharing than the pop-up Jesus style.
Again Rick Richardson describes evangelism as ‘’not closing the deal of a sales call, but the sharing of a gift’.
POINT/APPLIC
Evangelism is not presenting the whole package in one and seeking to close the deal.
Brian McLaren says, ‘we count conversations not just conversions’.
It is
• friendship verses agenda;
• Story verses dogma;
• Kingdom verses afterlife;
• journey verses event.
APPLIC
What do you enjoy doing? Ask a friend to join you.
Jesus’ way of making the Good News know was not only natural:
2. IT WAS SPIRITUAL [water into wine]
POINT
There was a spiritual message attached to Jesus caring action.
Only Jesus could perform a miracle like this. But there was an encoded message in what Jesus did.
As we have already seen: This was not only a miracle, it was also a SIGN.
Here we see Jesus changing the ordinary water of ritual purification into wine that brings joy.
It is a shift from law to grace; from the shadows to the reality.
And Jesus’ provision, just like God’s grace, is plentiful.
POINT
Jesus tuned in to the needs of the people.
And this was not the only time Jesus did this.
EXAMPLE
c.f. the Woman at the Well.
Jesus saw into the life of this woman.
He saw how untrusting she was – That she was avoiding others by getting water from the well at midday instead of evening. Jesus saw by the Holy Spirit into the life and needs of this woman and told her things about her that only God could know.
APPLIC
The Holy Spirit can, and does, also give us insight into the needs of others.
ILLUSTR
Christians are turning up to pray with people at psychic fairs these days because the people who attend these fairs are people in need who are aware of spiritual realities and have rejected what the see as ‘the Church’ as having any possible relevance or being of any help to them in their need.
Christians offer prayer, including prayer for healing, in the power of the Holy Spirit and ministry such as dream interpretation to those seeking help.
Prayerfully, seek to tune into the lives of your friends and ask God to reveal how you can minister to them.
CLOSE: IT WAS EFFECTUAL
Verse 11 reads:
John 2:11
This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
POINT
The Christian faith can be contagious.
At the conclusion to this extraordinary story we see the outcome of it all: He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
ILLUSTR
Rick Richardson gives the illustration of how he moved away from having a ‘script’ of sharing his faith (a pop-up Jesus style of evangelism) to something for more natural. He chose to go skiing with his non-Christian friend.
[story p71 Reimagine evangelism Rick Richardson]
CONCL
What do you enjoy doing? Do it with your non-Christian friend because you enjoy it. And let them discover Jesus through you.
