Some years ago, I took a group to Glorieta, NM to attend a Sunday School training week. I became aware that a man by the name of Paul McClung was supposed to teach a specific witnessing strategy. Because of family connections to the McClung’s I decided I would participate in this particular breakout session. I wasn’t so interested in the witnessing strategy than I was in meeting a distant family member and comparing stories about the family.
When I got to the room, I found out that Paul was not going to be the presenter because he had become ill and did not come to the conference. As I sat through the training, it appeared to me that the man presenting didn’t really believe in the strategy he was teaching. I finally asked him, “Have you ever led anyone to faith in Christ using this way of witnessing?” He admitted that he had never used this, he was only filling in for Paul.
There was a man once who preached a sermon titled "The Catching Kind of Religion." His first point was, "Do you have religion?" The second point was, "Is it the catching kind?" And the third point was, "Has anyone ever caught it from you?" So, this morning, I want for us to think about sharing our faith, everyone of us, every single Christian.
Jesus had a wonderful way of taking the things around people ... the everyday, common things that everyone knew about and experienced ... He took those things and tied some divine, wonderful teaching to them. It might be farmers sowing in the field, a rebellious runaway boy, another boy that was selfish and stayed home, children playing in the marketplace, birds flying through the air, or beautiful flowers growing wild on the hillside. He took the things all around and just laid those alongside the truths of God and taught.
I often wonder what it would be like if our Lord had chosen to live in this society at this time. If this had been the time the Father had sent His Son down to earth to live among us, I wonder what kind of illustrations He would have used.
I feel certain, given the time of year and the problem we face in trying to schedule activities, He would have used a football illustration if He lived in this society.
So this morning, I want to talk to you about when it's time to get in the game.
We will begin in Mark 9:2 (READ through vs. 7)
Several years ago, Andy Griffith created no small stir in the entertainment world with a record entitled “What It Was Was Football.” He portrayed a country boy come to town who saw his first football game. He saw the field as a little cow pasture that someone had ruined by painting stripes on it and driving posts into it.
He saw the referees as escaped convicts running up and down that cow pasture and blowing whistles. He saw the football as a pumpkin from his viewpoint. He said it must have been a very tough pumpkin because they kicked it and fell on it all day long, and it never once broke. But after watching that game for awhile, he decided that the object of the game was for one of two bunches of men to take that pumpkin from one end of that cow pasture to the other without either getting knocked down or stepping in something.
Well, you and I have watched football, and we know that the huddle is not the most exciting part of that game. But it's a very important part. It's a time when the team comes together. They remind themselves of their objective.
They know what their goal is. Each one is given a particular assignment to reach that objective and attain that goal.
They get together in the huddle, and then they leave and go run the play, trying to reach that objective and accomplish that goal.
One day, Jesus took three men with Him up on a mountain ... Peter, James and John. There they were, praying. It was a very special huddle. It was a time of inspiration, information, gaining new strategy, and remembering what they were about and what was to happen. While Jesus was praying, He was transfigured.
That's an interesting term that's hard to translate into our language. It literally means that what was inside of Him shown through His skin. It was a glorified and illuminated kind of thing. His clothes became brilliantly white ... whiter than any earthly process could whiten them. That was very unusual for that day, and He shone.
When John wrote, "We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). I believe this is what he was talking about. They saw the glory, grace, and truth of God shining through Jesus that day.
To add to the frightening wondrousness of that moment, there appeared Moses and Elijah with Jesus. Can you imagine what Peter, James, and John must have thought? Here they were; these national, biblical, and spiritual heroes to everyone who had grown up in their society.
Peter's mind was frozen. His wits were locked, but his mouth worked quite well.
He said, "Lord, here's what we're going to do. This is a wonderful thing to be here. Let's build three tabernacles ... one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. We'll stay here and enjoy this. It'll be a wonderful time."
About that time, the Scripture says, a cloud came over them. The Word doesn't really say it overshadowed. It indicates the cloud didn't cast a shadow. It cast light. From that cloud, God's voice interrupted what Peter was saying. The voice of God said, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!" Just that quickly it was over. Jesus, by this time, had to bend down and touch these three men who quite possibly were lying prone in the dirt, afraid to look. He said, "Get up, guys. It's time to go." They left the mountain of inspiration and went down into the valley of service. There they found failure. The other nine apostles had been trying unsuccessfully to heal a very sick boy.
There were religious critics who followed Jesus and His apostles everywhere. They used every opportunity they could to discredit our Lord and His teachings, works and words, and they were delighted that the boy couldn't be healed. Isn't that terrible? They were using this as an opportunity to criticize Christ, His teachings, and His followers.
Those nine apostles were abject failures in their own minds. Then they looked up and saw Jesus coming down into the valley. Isn't it wonderful to know that no matter what valley of failure we find ourselves in, our Lord walks into that valley and turns it into a victory.
I think it's significant that He had nothing to say to the people who were religious critics. He simply went to the need and healed the young boy. Our text says, God got great glory from that, and from that we learn when it's time to get in the game.
You've Got To Get In The Game...
You know, you're not in the game if you're not in the huddle. Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together ... and all the more as you see the Day approaching." We're not in the game if we're not in the huddle. We need these huddles. Christians need to come together in huddles and say, "This is who we are, and this is what we're about. That is the objective and goal, and this is where we aim ourselves." We need these huddles more than we've ever needed them before.
Have you ever listened to yourself talk in our Christian huddles? Sometimes before church, I move around and visit with people. Sometimes, I listen. When we listen to us talk, I wonder if we're going to have anything at all to say when we get to heaven.
What are you going to talk about in heaven? You will not be talking about how the administration is bad. You won't be able to talk about how heaven has gone to the dogs and how good it used to be in the good old days. You won't have any aches and pains. Surely, you won't be gossiping about other people and saying bad things even in snide ways. God will remove that poison from our system.
If you take away gunning at the establishment, griping about the mess things are in, groaning about our aches and pains, growling about the weather, and gossiping about others, you've just about eliminated the totality of some folks' conversation.
It's interesting that in Luke 9:31, the parallel passage of this Scripture, it says that Moses and Elijah and Jesus talked about the death that Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem. They talked about the cross. You and I need to understand that all the way through God's Word the emphasis is upon that cross,
that sacrifice, and the resulting resurrection to give us life and pay for our sins. Evidently, this is the most important thing in the mind of God. This is the thing the Word of God speaks of.
Isaiah says He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. John the Baptist stopped his preaching one day, pointed and said, "There He is! Look! There's the Lamb of God. He's going to take away the sins of the world." He was talking about Jesus and the cross. Peter said in the Scripture we're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul says, "God forbid that I should glory in anything except that Jesus died on the cross for me."
And when you get that peek at the last page, when you look at what Revelation tells us about heaven, we find that the scores of angels around the throne of God are singing, chanting, or saying one thing: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." It's talking about the cross.
We sing a song sometimes that says:
I love to tell the story,
'Twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story
of Jesus and His love
It will be our theme in glory. It should be our theme in our Christian huddles to a great extent. It should be our theme as we share with others what God has meant for us.
...And Get Your Assignment
When you get to the huddle, the huddle is for getting the assignment, isn't it?
Can you imagine a football team? The quarterback has got them all in the huddle.
There's a quiet there. He calls the play in the third quarter, and a tackle says, "He just assigned me to block that big, burly, bodacious, broad-shouldered, mean brute across the line from me. That guy has been beating me up all day. I don't want to block him. I want to go block that little guy out there in the backfield."
Suppose the fullback says, "He's called my number again. He's going to hand me the ball. I have noticed that every time he hands me the ball, I get hurt. So when he hands me the ball this time, I'm going to give it back to him." Is that too far from what God's team looks like today?
We need to get the assignment, and it's easy to learn that assignment if you want to. Jesus said it many times ... four or five times after His resurrection and before His ascension. He said things like, "...As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). Of course, He said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10) and "...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). He said, "...go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ... and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Mt. 28:19-20).
Then just before the taxi clouds took Him back to heaven, He said, "...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). That's the assignment.
Then It's Time To Run The Play
When you've gotten in the huddle and received the assignment, then you're to go run the play. That's what it's all about.
You will recall that Jesus took these same three men to another little huddle one night at a place called Gethsemane. Then He withdrew like He usually did.
Jesus did most of His praying alone, and He withdrew and talked to His Father again about this.
He said, "Lord, I don't like the play. I don't want to run it. But if it's what You want, I'll do it anyway." He was so burdened and disturbed that the perspiration was blood coming out of Him when He went out and ran the play.
May I remind you that Jesus could have gone all the way through to that point.
He could have come down here, lived among us, living a good life and doing good things. He could have gotten in the huddle with His Father all those times and heard Moses and Elijah talk about the play. He could have gotten to Gethsemane and said to His Father, "I know what the play is." You and I are not here because He learned His playbook, but because He did it. He left that huddle and ran the play. If He hadn't done that, we would not be here today, and we would not have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, those who have received Christ as Savior. He ran the play.
It was 1967 when the Cowboys and the Packers last played for the NFL championship. At that time, I was a very diehard Dallas Cowboy football fan.
I didn't know or care much about Green Bay back then. In that day, their quarterback was Bart Starr. I had heard of him but didn't know much about him.
Back in 1967, the coach of the Dallas Cowboys was Tom Landry, one of the finest Christian gentlemen you could ever know.
I'll never forget the game in 1967. It was up in the cold wilds of Wisconsin.
They didn't know about chill factor in those days, but the actual reading on the thermometer at game time was nineteen below zero. They played on that ice field.
The stands were packed with people who thought it was important enough to come and stand in that cold and watch them play.
Our team was ahead most of the game. The Green Bay team drove the length of the field, and with just three seconds left, Bart Starr sneaked in for the winning touchdown just as the clock was running out. They stole that game from our dear Cowboys.
I'll never forget the Green Bay fans in that drive. Remember, it's twenty below zero. They're all outside. They'd been there for two hours watching this game.
This game is very, very important to them, apparently. They're standing there in this biting cold, and when their team started that last drive, they all stood as though they were one person and said, "Go! Go! Go!" Their team went and won.
In Hebrews 11, we read about the heroes of the faith ... Abraham, Moses, and all those scores of people who served God, not knowing as much about God's love as we do. But they served Him so well, and they were rewarded.
Hebrews 12 begins by saying, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw out everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Do you get the picture?
It's as though all the alumni of the kingdom of God are in the stands ... all those people who have served Him. On the field is the only team that God has right now ... you and me. I've heard preachers say we're living in the most critical times in history. Of course we are. It's the only time we have, and we're God's only eligible team. I think we might see with the eyes of heaven that cloud of witnesses that Paul talked about. I think we might see tear running down their cheeks. As they stand, they're seeing how God's team is acting. I think if we could hear, we would hear them saying, "Go! Go! Go!"
What a sin it is just to sit on the bench or stay in the huddle and lose the game by default.
