Community Evangelism: Spectators or Participants?
Matthew 9: 35 – 10:20
We are now in the midst of one the hottest seasons of the year. No, I’m not talking about the weather and its accompanying temperatures. After all we have just finished having summer this past week and autumn is upon us. And also some trees up on the mountains in Grant and Tucker counties of West Virginia are already turning red and dark maroon.
The season I am referring to is none other than one of America’s favorite pastimes: football. We have to admit that most of us love to watch a first-class football game. I know for a fact that we have some die-hard fans here in this congregation that will not miss one home game of his or her favorite high school team. Several will not miss a single game even if they had to leave work early on Friday afternoon and travel a few hours to get there. And then if the team makes it to the playoffs and eventually the championship, that means spending more time on the sidelines cheering on the team of choice.
Some of us go beyond just the local pee wee, youth league or school teams to follow the big guys of college caliber or the teams of the NFL. We will spend hundreds of dollar to be able to attend a pro-game in Pittsburgh, Baltimore or Washington or various other franchises. It is nothing for us to spend all day Saturday or most of the afternoon on Sunday or Monday nights in front of the television rooting on our personal choice of team or player. And as for the Super Bowl: It is one of the nation’s most watched television programs of the year.
When it comes to the sport of football we are hooked! We love all the tackles, fumbles and interceptions. We can’t wait for the team to break out of the huddle to see what play is next. As the team nears the line of scrimmage we anticipate each player to be in the right place and ready to cross that line with great determination to at least get another first down, if not a touchdown.
It is nothing for us to sit on the edge of our seats or stand or even jump up and down during the play. We scream to the top of our lungs to cheer the players on the field as to encourage their fullest participation in the game. And if the opposing team makes a worthy play we tend to “boo!” with great enthusiasm as well.
In between plays we either speak to surrounding fans about the previous play or speculate with one another as to what play the coach will chose next. Sometimes we go as far as to think of ourselves as the coach that is leading the team to victory and yell play suggestions from the grandstand. It is not even uncommon for us at times chose to blurt out an explicative or two to voice our opinion of goofed plays that cause a loss in yardage.
And then there are the referees: They never seem to make any correct calls on the field. Most of them need glasses or need to revisit the rule book, we say. No matter where they may hail from they never are unbiased as they should be, especially if our team is the one that looses the game. What justification do they have in making the “hometown” boys suffer the blow of a loss?
We get so worked up over a few ounces of air wrapped in pig-skin, don’t we? We definitely are fans, the great spectators that sits on the bleachers or stand beside the sidelines expecting the tremendous win of the season. We watch players become injured, coaches become angry and referees become belittled all over an oblong, brown ball and who makes the best use of it to win the big game.
What about the game of life? Are we any different when it comes to whether an individual knows how to make all the right moves on the field of life to become a receiver of God’s love and compassion? Do we get concerned about who achieves and who fails in discovering a true relationship with the Christ in the end-zone of life? Or do we just sit on the sidelines (sit in the church pews) watching the world (the lost) pass by and allow their souls to be tackled by satanic forces and therefore struggling to secure the saving grace of the gospel of Jesus? Is the church nothing more than a bunch of spectators or is it a full participant in this game reaching out to the community about us with the message of God’s love?
PRAYER
Jesus doesn’t take much time in our text for today to spell out the real problem when it comes to his disciples participating in the game of life and the spreading of God’s love to a dying community. He speaks in the terms of a harvest and the necessity for that ripened crop to be reaped from the fields. As a matter of fact, according to His words and actions within this passage, Jesus feels that this harvest is enormous as well. But that is not the crisis situation at all. The dilemma at hand is the lack of workers to harvest this plentiful crop.
It is not any different today, is it? All we need to do is notice that there are very few of us involved in the work of bringing in this great harvest that is readied right here in our own community of Wiley Ford? Do we not we see that there are an abundance of lost and hurting souls all around us that are parched and dry and dying spiritually? Shouldn’t that alone be the motivation that moves us out of these four walls with a similar compassion and zeal that our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ was stirred?
We are told here by Matthew that as Jesus beholds the multitude of people gathered around Him that He can definitely see that they are “…weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” [9:36]. Other translations give us a little clearer picture than the New King James Version. In them we find that the people are “harassed and helpless” (NIV); “distressed and dispirited” (NASB); “weary and worn out” (HCSB); “confused” (NLT); “hurting” (NCV); “troubled” (NLV); “beaten down” (NIrV); and “travailed” (WNT).
From this it should not take you and me very long to see for ourselves the fields of ministry that are available to us as a church. Many times we don’t even have to go outside our own households to observe individuals or groups of people that are emotionally frustrated, disoriented and totally drained. We just sit by and watch the world go by as people right next door to us become distressed, weary and embody feelings of helplessness. It is those who we know personally that are being harassed and beaten down by satanic forces their work environ-ments and households. No wonder there are thousands of people right here in the Cumberland, Maryland metro area that are despondent and dispirited, feeling that their lives stagnant and being unoticed.
Because of Jesus’ compassion towards such people, he sent out an invitation to those closest to Him: His disciples. He’s inviting, no I should say commanding them to go! He is still sending out this unchanged call for you and me to go to our neighbors, family and close friends. We are being compelled by the voice of the harvest master to go into the fields that are white unto harvest. He needs workers, not innocent bystanders watching someone else doing the labor.
Jesus did not just send them forward into their world with empty hands. He proves them with all the necessary tools that will be needed to bring in this harvest of souls. According to Matthew’s account, Jesus “…gave them power” [10:1]. The New International Version employs a more definite word for “power.” The term “authority” is utilized instead.
Let me try to explain it in this way: A policeman has the authority to stop a speeding car but does not have the power to do so. By virtue of the law officer’s position and certification, he or she has the authority of the law of the land to stop a car that is speeding down a freeway. But, he or she does not have the ability to actually halt the vehicle through his or her physical power.
It is no different with the church today. We, too, are His disciples and have been entrusted with the authority to cast out demonic forces, heal the diseased, and preach the good news of Jesus, the Christ. We cannot do these miraculous wonders of our own power and abilities. Jesus empowers us through the call of discipleship to go and complete these marvels through his name.
Where do we start? Where do we go? What must we do?
We must begin in our own home community. Jesus instructs the twelve not to go outside the confines of Judea and Galilee. He demands that they not enter into any pagan territory at this time, but to proceed within their own faith community; with their own kind; with their peersing; the Jews. In other words, there is no need for the disciples to go on a foreign missionary journey to unknown fields to bring in the harvest. There are locations to be harvested nearby.
Listen to the words of the Christ to the twelve and how they still ring clear today: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” [10:5, 6].
Now you are probably wonder why I feel that these word of the Christ are still ringing clear today. I believe He is speaking to us right here in the Wiley Ford Church of the Brethren this morning, just as He did to the twelve. He wants you and me to start close to home first of all. His desire is for us to see that we have a community right here around the church building that is in need of a Savior and a Lord. He wants us to take notice that we don’t have to go very far beyond the front doors of this building to see those who are hurting, distressed and feeling abandoned. He longs for us to go within a walking distance to begin this harvest of souls and showing them the necessity of allowing God’s great love to work in and through their lives.
How do we know who to approach first? Do we go outside and turn left or right? Do we go up on the hill behind the church or out to the other end of Wiley Ford? What about those in South Cumberland? Ridgeley isn’t too far down the road either? Besides each of us have our very own neighbors, co-workers and family members that need Jesus, too, don’t we?
What do we say? How do we find the right words for the right situation? Do we confront people calmly with just words alone or do we also help provide spiritual answers to their questions? So is it necessary to mix words with physical gifts of love such as food, clothing, money or anything else that might help alleviate their feelings of hopelessness?
I love what Jesus tells His twelve disciples as he sends them out to do the work of the kingdom of heaven: “…do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” [10:19b, 20]. Of course he is telling them that as they do this special ministry to their community that there will be those individuals that will not really like what they are trying to do. Jesus informs them that they will be confronted by groups of people that will personally challenge what they are doing and will place charges against them with the local authorities.
But I also feel that Jesus was trying to convey to them that as they go on their way that He will be the one, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, to do all the talking. As they heal the sick and command demons to flee that they will be enabled to speak boldly through the authority of Jesus, the Christ. As they raise the dead and preach the message of the kingdom of heaven that they will do so via the bidding of God’s Spirit. When they cleanse the leper and give to those who are in need, that God will be the one to sanction what is to be said at the time.
Isn’t it wonderful to know that we have also have a mighty God has chosen you and me, our church, to reach out to our surrounding community? Doesn’t it make your heart leap with joy that God is wanting you and me to go and preach the good news, to bring great feelings of optimism to the hopeless and to set at liberty those who are bound with the hardships of this life? Are we now willing to accept this call, this command, to go and continue the work of Jesus?
I challenge everyone here this morning to step out in faith and predetermine before leaving this church building today to speak to no less than one person in your immediate community this week about Jesus, His saving grace and His wonderful words of hope and love.
My prayer is that we will become much more than just a bunch of spectators that are sitting on the sidelines of life and being satisfied watching just a few working in the field of harvest.
AMEN and AMEN!!!
