Matthew 13:31-33
“From the Microscope to the Telescope”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN eastridgeumc.org
In a seminar on Church Growth, the secret to growing a church was explained as revolving around two very important things.
Can you guess what those two things would be?
Clean bathrooms and plenty of parking spaces.
In India and rural China, however, where the Church is growing fastest, among the most noticeable missing ingredients are clean toilets and parking spaces.
So this theory must be flawed.
One publication claimed that having a new digital sign on the front lawn was the secret to 100 percent of a church’s growth.
Do you think that people will say, “Hey, that’s a nice sign. And check out the parking lot. Wow, I want to be a Christian too!?”
Don’t get me wrong.
I think it’s good to have clean bathrooms and lots of parking spaces.
Signs are important too, although digital might be going a bit too far.
Certainly the most important thing when we are talking about making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world is Jesus Christ Himself, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believers who are part of the community of faith!
Someone has said, “A church is only as good as her disciples.”
And, “Healthy disciples make up a healthy church.”
As a matter of fact, healthy disciples reproduce other healthy disciples.
And that reproduction or new life could be said to begin at a molecular level.
All of us, for instance, began life as a zygote.
A zygote is a cell formed by the union of a male seed and a female egg.
All life begins at this level…
…from the micro to the macro, from the simple to the complex.
It’s the same in the Kingdom of Heaven.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.
Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
The point is crystal clear.
The Kingdom of heaven starts from the smallest beginnings, but no one knows where it will end.
The possibilities are endless!!!
If the Church is rooted in Christ and keeps that vision and spirit with increasing intensity and maturity, that Church can truly make a huge impact in our world and in the community which surrounds it.
If a Church doesn’t much grow in its spiritual journey, in its love for Christ, and focuses inward…
…well, there might not be much that will happen.
It’s easy to “get off track” and try and compete with the world.
For instance, the Church cannot compete with Hollywood when it comes to entertainment.
The best preachers cannot out-entertain Jay Leno and David Letterman.
But we can bring the Good News to a lost world.
The best worship band can’t put on a better show than the Rolling Stones or Kiss…
…but we can make a joyful noise to the Lord…
…which lifts the spirits of people and brings glory to God!
Our buildings need not be as nice as the ones corporate America is constructing, but then again, if they were would we not be wasting our money on things which perish rather than on people who are hungry, homeless, lost and hurting?
You and I, as the Church of Jesus Christ have something that Hollywood and the all the Fortune 500 companies do not have—we have a message that will truly transform people.
We have, through Jesus Christ, the answer to all the problems of humankind.
We need not try and compete with the world.
What we need do is focus on growing that mustard seed!!!
A group of young persons were having a discussion about how the Gospel might spread.
They talked about t-v, the internet, maybe even clean bathrooms and big parking lots…
Then a girl from Africa spoke up: “When we want to take Christianity to one of our villages,” she said, “we don’t send them web pages or books.
We take a Christian family and send them to live in the village, and they make the village Christian by living there.”
Are we making this community, this village, so to speak “Christian” by living here?
I think we are on our way!!!
Your continued support of our monthly servant evangelism activities is going a long way in helping this community perk up and say, “Now there is a community of faith which is ‘being’ the Body of Christ. They aren’t just playing church, they are ‘being’ Church!!!”
Do you know that East Ridge United Methodist Church is ranked in the top 2% of churches in this Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church for growth?
The mustard seed is growing into a tree!!!
This Saturday we have our second annual school supply give away.
As many of you know, last year we served over 300 families, but had to turn many away because we ran out of supplies.
Please, please help support this mission by either writing a check or going out and buying supplies yourself.
And then, come and be a part of the fun on Saturday morning.
We will meet here at the church at 9 am!!!
On August 20th we will be giving out free bottles of water at Linda’s Produce.
Last year when we did this, Jean Weber was so impressed that she came the following Sunday and eventually joined the church.
In September, we plan to serve ice cream to the many families with children over at the Superior Creek Lodge Hotel on Mack Smith Road.
Talk about fun evangelism!!!
Oh, and in October we will be bringing folks coffee and the newspaper—right to their doors.
These are some of the kinds of things that cause the neighbors to say, “There’s something happening over at that Methodist Church. They believe in Something Real. They are living their faith. I would like to be part of that!!!”
And the mustard seed continues to grow as more and more folks come and “perch in our branches” finding rest for their weary souls, eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, and hope in this difficult life.
Every Wednesday evening at 6 pm the Servant Evangelism Team meets.
We are a small group of folks.
But we consider everyone in this Church to be a member of the Team.
Please come and help.
We need your ideas.
We need your talents.
We need you in order to grow the mustard tree!!!
In the other parable for this morning Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
The whole point of this parable is the transforming power of the yeast.
Yeast changes the whole character of the dough.
Bread without yeast or unleavened bread is like a hard, dry and unappetizing biscuit.
But bread baked with yeast is soft and porous and spongy, tasty and good to eat.
In this parable the Gospel is the “yeast.”
The flour and dough are the world.
As believers, we are called by Christ to mix the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the world.
Just like a little yeast will transform a whole loaf of bread--you don’t have to be an expert to be an effective evangelist.
It doesn’t take much yeast to do the work.
No matter how little of the Gospel a person may know, that person can be used to reach people and change the world for Christ!!!
Neil Cole, in his book Organic Church describes such a scenario.
He met a young man named Sean who was an outstanding musician before drugs took everything from him.
Sean had sold all his instruments to feed his speed habit.
He lost all his jobs because he would steal to buy more drugs.
Cole invited Sean to his church.
And he admits that he was surprised when Sean came, and even more surprised when Sean came back again and again and again.
Cole writes that “Eventually he even began to smile and interact with us.”
Cole worked hard to try and help Sean get clean.
He suggested a rehab facility, but Sean didn’t like that idea and begged for another option.
That’s when Cole said to Sean, “Get in your car right now and drive over and tell your drug dealer about Jesus.”
And Sean did just that.
Sean’s drug dealer was a woman who lived next door to him in the ghetto and supplied drugs for the local kids.
From that point on, Sean never took any drugs.
He was free.
Cole writes, “The power of the Gospel, received and also given to others, transformed his heart.”
By sharing the Gospel, “Sean internalized it and learned to believe it in a more substantive way.”
And that is how it is for all of us.
It is just as important for us to share the Gospel, as Christians, as it is for those we share it with.
I recently read of a school teacher who used to work for a Christian school but in recent years chose to teach in the inner city.
In her first week of work there, she came home with a big smile and a glow on her face as if she were strangely fulfilled.
She said, “It is so much more fun to be light in the darkness than to be light in the light.”
How about we all learn to have more fun!!!
Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” and then He added that a light should be placed on a lamp stand so that it gives light to all the darkness surrounding it.
Do you know that YOU are the light of the world?
And as a corporate body of believers in Christ, WE are the light of the world together.
Our greatest significance is found in the darkness!!!
God has placed East Ridge United Methodist Church in this specific community so that we may shine brightly in order that those around us will come to Jesus!!!
We are to take the yeast of the Gospel into the neighborhoods surrounding us.
We are to mingle with those who do not know Christ.
We are to love them.
We are to live with them.
We are to mix into the “flour” of our world until we have “worked all through the dough.”
Jesus said that the “Kingdom of Heaven” is like this.
And you, my friends are God’s Kingdom in this section of East Ridge and North Georgia!!!
Jesus bought this Church with Jesus’ own blood.
This Church belongs to Him, and Jesus fully intends to live in it…
…that is in YOU and ME, not the building itself…
We are Jesus’ building project, and so is this entire community.
And if Jesus is at work building His Church it will be beautiful and solid.
Many will come and find salvation in its branches.
Lives will be transformed.
If churches are unhealthy, it’s not because of Jesus, it’s because we have gotten in the way of Jesus’ work.
The Gospel is compared to “yeast.”
And yeast changes the quality, not the substance of the dough.
It’s still dough, yet it is changed dough.
In the same way, we are people but we are to be changed people…
…people of quality, people of God.
And people of God do what God is calling them to do.
Nothing could be more exciting than this.
Praise God!!!
Amen.
