Telling our Stories
10-26-2008
John 3:33-36; Matthew 28:16-20
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but He is strong… The words echo down the ages from some of the earliest memories many of us have. Someone somewhere told us the amazing story of Jesus and his saving grace. Was it a Sunday school teacher who first touched your heart, or was it a friend or relative? Was it in a song which you happened to hear that the message really caught your ear or perhaps it was through a neighbor who invited you to go to Vacation Bible School with their kids and there you came to know Christ? Perhaps it was at a camp ground on a starry night where the counselors told their own stories your heart was “strangely warmed” with the reality that God is real and Jesus really did die for you. Where ever it was, whenever it was it was a story which has lived for over two thousand years. In the Bible we are told time and again of Jesus saving grace. We are told to go out and to reach others and bring them to Christ. We are to live out our faith so that others may come to experience the truth of our convictions for themselves. To know for themselves how complete our joy really is; to understand that even during hard times that our God will never desert us
In John 14:23-24;
Jesus says if anyone loves Him that they will obey His teaching. Eugene Peterson has an interesting way of looking at this scripture. At this point in the Jewish history it was a pretty loveless world. It was a world of aggression, condemnation, one in which loyalty was always in doubt. Jesus is basically offering a covenant relationship with Him and God the Father. It was to be a loving relationship in which loyalty and love would be rewarded with an even greater love and loyalty. This has several important implications. First is the obedience factor. Jesus was the Rabbi or teacher of those who chose to follow him, in return for claiming Him as their master the student was expected to remain loyal and obedient.
On the other hand it is clear in these passages that if one turns from God and refuses the offer of love that the chance of belonging to God will be taken away.
Jesus points to one who is greater than Him as being the authority of message He was giving, He proclaims was not His own message but rather straight from God’s lips, the highest authority, to the peoples ears.
In dropping down to the 15th Chapter, Jesus is using a description which would have been clearly understood by those listening to His message because most of them depended on the land for a majority of their food. In order to grow a crop that is strong and hearty, one that would produce an abundance of fruit, the branches which don’t bare any fruit must be pruned off so that they don’t draw nourishment away from the branches which have fruit. He states that those who follow his teachings have already been made ready. He then draws the listener back to where he has promised to remain with those who love Him as the source of their spiritual nourishment but he warns against turning away – not only will you not bear fruit but you will be like a pruned back branch and will be discarded in the fire. Again he stresses the relationship between the father-God and Himself and the great desire to bring those who remain faithful their hearts desire. But realize that if you have your eye on the prize your fondest desire will be to stay in the close relationship with God.
In verses 12 – 15 Jesus stresses the commandment of loving one another as He has loved. I must admit it would take a love like no other to be willing to die for the sake of others as he clearly knows he will do. It makes it all the more sweeter to know that it was not that we chose him but rather that He chose us and He is sending those He chooses out to draw others to Him. This is the fruit which He wants us to produce – the kind that stays with Him down through the ages and keeps on bearing new fruit down through the generations.
As we transition to our reading from Matthew it is interesting to understand that much the same theme of going out into the world to spread the message of love to others is repeated in Matthew 28:16-20.
First, we begin In verse 16 there is the great reunion of Jesus and His disciples. These are the ones who were with Him during his ministry. These are the ones we are told whose lives were irrevocably changed by God’s love through Jesus. These are the original “Fruit bearers.”
As the scene opens we are told the disciples went to the mountain where Jesus told them he would meet with them. As they approach they see their master and friend once again. Many of them are overjoyed and they run to Jesus. But then it says “still some doubted”. Perhaps the Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible will help to explain why they doubted. The Message says “Some though held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.” To truly worship Jesus means giving all of one’s self into the wonderful care of Christ.
Christ is God, God is Christ; the two are inseparable and as we have seen in the last two weeks as we have briefly looked at God’s relationship with Moses and the Israelites, God wants all of our praise, all of our love and in return he gives all of His love to those who will give up their lives to him. But too many times humans tend to hold back from this kind of commitment because of fear of losing themselves – of losing control. Too many times we are like the Israelites – we want a God who we can control. We put our desire for control over our own lives in front of where our relationship with God.
Then Jesus spots them and he comes to them. This is certainly a case of Jesus meeting people right where they are at. Jesus meets each of us right where we are at too. In whatever spiritual condition or state we are in, Jesus will meet us there. Jesus is the one who can reach the darkest corners of our lives and change us from the inside out so that the light of God’s love pours out of us.
Then Jesus gave them the great commission. He told the disciples to teach everyone they came in contact with the ways of life in the Spirit. This continues down the ages from then until now for just as they touched the lives of those they met so too those lives touched other lives and so this commandment of Christ is still working today and it will be forever. As Christians, it is expected that we too should teach others of the deep love of God and how to live a Spirit filled life just as it was commanded of the disciples. It is up to each of us to teach the way of life to others as we mark them as Christ’s through baptism in the triune name of God. It is our responsibility to remain faithful witnesses to those who are not as spiritually mature as we are, even as those who are further in their journey continue to witness to us in order to help us to grow.
These scriptures all point to how we are to live our lives as Christians today. We are to remain His fruit bearers by telling the stories of Jesus to those who have never heard. This has been the means of keeping the faith alive for generation after generation. Where did you first hear the Gospel message of Christ amazing love? Was it through a parent, grandparent, friend, Sunday school teacher, or perhaps it was a Vacation Bible School which you attended one summer or a camp you went to and a counselor you met. Once you heard the story of God’s never failing love, the seed was planted. It then started to take root and grow in your heart. From time to time you may have tried to deny it was there but still the bond had been formed between you and the Lord. It bursts forth at times you least expect it to and it always causes your heart to sing with the unimaginable grace which is ours through the blood of Christ. This is how God intended it to be. We pass on from generation to generation the good news, the joy and the love of Christ for each of us. That is why on days like today when we have had the opportunity to baptize little ones that we realize how important it really is to continue to share our stories with others. To not only bring them to the light but also to bring those whose lives they will touch to that same light just as we have been brought and our parents have been brought and their parents had been brought and on down the line to where it all began with the disciples on the mountain with Christ.
Earlier, I challenged each of you to help to raise the little ones who come into your lives either here or out in the world by telling and retelling the old, old stories of Jesus. It really does take a community to raise a child up in the ways they should go. We must never, ever forget to tell of God’s great love and to invite others to come to Christ, to know for themselves the love which we experience and the certainty we each have of life eternal for which this love provided. Then when our time has come to go to that eternal home which Christ prepared for us – then we will know that the message will still move forward as a light in this world of darkness.
(My thanks goes out to many fine Pastors and authors at Sermon Central for ideas which you have given to me.)
