James Emery White tells the story a college history professor who was a Christian. The professor would go down to a local nursing home and visit with the elderly men and women there on a weekly basis. Though some were lovingly visited every day by their families – having been sent there because they needed care that couldn’t be provided in a home environment – for many it was a place where they had been dumped so that their children wouldn’t have to bother with them. They were sad, and they were lonely. One day, after this professor had made his weekly home visit to those elderly people, a student stopped him and told him how wonderful it was that he had the love and gift for “that sort of thing.” The professor was taken aback at the compliment. “A love for it? A gift for it? Do you think I enjoy smelling urine, stepping over bedpans, or talking with someone who drifts off into senile daydreams in the middle of a sentence? Enjoy it? You’ve got to be kidding!” The student asked, “Then why do you go out there every week?” “Because,” the professor answered, “that is where Christ would be, and that is what Christ would do. And I am a follower of Christ and He has sent me.”
In Matthew 10, we have Jesus’ sermon commissioning the disciples for his mission in the world, sending them out to minister in His name. The word “apostle” and “sent” are the same in Greek. That means every Christian is a missionary, one who is sent-out into the world. Jesus’ intent was never that we would cloister ourselves in the fortresses of our sanctuary, but that we would go out proclaiming the Good News into every segment of society and minister to the needs of others. “As you go, proclaim this message, ‘Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10:7 Let’s take a closer look at this message today beginning first with the word, “repent.” The message of repentance has always been at the heart of the gospel and to miss that would be to miss the first and most important step to life in Jesus’ name. Mark 6:7-12 reads: “And they went out, and preached that men should repent.” Luke 24:47 says, “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” And 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is…. patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Without question the key to the gospel message is the need and the priority of repenting. The Greek word for repent is “metanoia.” From that, we get the word metamorphosis, which describes what happens when a caterpillar changes to butterfly. It means to be changed from one state into another.
But it’s not just about calling others to repentance, we need to repent as well. It’s about us being changed by the Good News and the power of the Holy Spirit so that God may more fully work through us. Doug Tegner tells the story of attending a one-day leadership retreat called to deal with his church’s current crisis. Redwood Chapel was founded in 1962 and has since hosted the Bay Area Sunday School convention (BASS), had strong music programs, planted vibrant churches in other communities, had dynamic youth ministries, a strong missions program, and an exemplary educational program for more than 50 years. They were the second church in the nation to have its own cable TV station and broadcast services. But after experiencing two difficult pastorates, the church was reeling from the loss of nearly half of their church family, losing more than 500 people between 2000 and 2006. Their ministry had been significantly diminished. They spent the morning recounting the significant events in the church’s history. But they also listed many downers and hurtful situations: occasional moral failures among church leadership, decades-old conflicts that continued to fester, messy tensions between elders and staff. What they saw were recurring negative patterns which had become obvious and systemic. And most importantly that day, they called them what they were: sin. By the end of the leadership retreat, they named four sins that had ebbed and flowed through the church over the decades: (1) Arrogance, boastfulness, and pride, (2) Avoiding difficult issues; (3) Gossip, and (4) Gracelessness. The report was brought to the congregation by the consultants and then given the next steps to be taken in healing and rebuilding the church, including a Solemn Assembly for congregational confession, repentance, forgiveness, prayer, and open conversation. At that service they named their sins. It was only then that the church could move forward. And then he writes, “As a congregation, we are still repenting…. At times we have to confront such (sinful) behavior, much of which has persisted for years without being addressed honestly and directly….. We are learning to live humbly, truthfully, and graciously with each other. But repentance is not a one-time event; it needs continual attention.”
Too many Christians and too many churches are not repenting or even repenting regularly, and this is why we are not seeing miraculous things happen for it is the first step in being and living like Jesus. So what does Gretna UMC need to repent of? Think about that question for a moment. What do you need to repent of? Do you need to repent of a “What’s in it for me” attitude towards church? Do you need to repent of a “I’ve served my time and it’s time for somebody else to take over” attitude? Do you need to repent of gossip or dealing with others without grace? Do you need to repent of not sharing your faith with others? Do you need to repent of not living out your faith in your public life? Do you need to repent of not giving sacrificially back to God? Do you need to repent of serving God only when it’s convenient? Repentance is the beginning of transformation.
Faith is demonstrated in the context of community, and it is evidenced in personal and social transformation. I’m going to repeat it again. Faith is demonstrated in the context of community (it doesn’t happen just by yourself; it can’t just be me and Jesus) and it’s evidenced in personal and social transformation. The gospel is personal, but remember, Jesus didn’t die to get your butt into heaven. Jesus died and resurrected from the grave to get heaven into earth through you - for you to infiltrate every social system on the planet with his redemptive purpose.
Here’s the problem in the American church: We cannot take people farther than we are ourselves, and we are trying to convince people of something we haven’t even experienced in our own life – Jesus. Jesus did what he did, not in his own strength, but in the power of the Father. Do you know when Jesus was here – some people had the mistaken idea that Jesus was like Superman and he had special gifts that we don’t have? Philippians 2 makes this very clear. Jesus set aside before he came to earth, all of the powers of God. He didn’t have anything that you and I don’t have. What he realized was the dependence on the presence and the power of God was absolutely critical. This is why Jesus was sending the disciples out to minister in his name because for the first time they would be without him and seeking to do the things he did and which he commanded. But he wasn’t there for them as a crutch. They would be placed in the position where they were completely dependent on the Father and would have to do those things in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesu said in his owns words, “It is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons….” Matthew 12:28 And the disciples were to do the same. So what did they have available to them? The same thing we have available to us? The Spirit of God.
Embrace the kingdom of God now! He then says “the Kingdom of God has come on you.” This is the Good News! What is the kingdom of God? It is not a place or a building but is any time and any circumstance where the will of God is being accomplished. Folks, the Kingdom of God is here. “when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he means to tell you of the immediate availability of the reign of God all around you” and you can participate in it by everyday asking that your every breath, thought, word and deed honor and glorify God and fulfill His will. When you are a part of the kingdom of God, you are no longer your own. You serve at the will of the King for you are his subject and living in His kingdom. And so each day we awaken and look for the signs of the kingdom, seeking to live for the kingdom by doing the will of the King in everything we do. And get this! We will do even greater things than Jesus. And you think, There’s no way! I’m not Jesus. I don’t have his powers. And when we think and say that, we’re living way below our means. The gifts, every gift that was operational in Jesus’ life is operational in his church, the Body of Christ. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what God can do through us? We will do even greater things than Him!
Begin is to think biblically and act biblically Now get ready to hold onto your seats because Jesus says, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” And we think, “Wo, that’s impossible! That’s weird. I could never do that!” But this is what Jesus calls us to do. In fact, for those participating in the kingdom and being sent out by Jesus, this is what you are commanded to do. This is meant to be the norm for the church and those living into the kingdom. Pastor Francis Chan tells about his wife saying to him that she was reading the Bible and beginning to see what it meant to follow Jesus and his commands and living like Jesus and following that in her life. Everybody around her thinks it’s weird. They think its crazy or radical. But as she reads the Bible, she begins to realize that it is perfectly normal and that the way she’s living fits right into the Bible because it’s in the Bible. And then he says, if you put my life story in the Books of Acts around chapter 12 where Peter is in chains and in prison for his faith and it says, Francis went to Asia. What would you say, “Wo, he’s radical!” No, he says, you’d skip over my life and say, let me get back to Peter. We say we think biblically, we say we live biblically but if you really put your life in this book, how would it measure up? So what really is weird,: the person who seeks to follow Jesus and do the things he did and commanded, (like “Heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons”) or is the life you’ve been leading kind of weird when compared to the Gospel? When you begin to think like Jesus and begin to live into the kingdom, it’s things in our history like excluding lepers from church, ignoring the cries of the Jews as they were carted away to death camps, owning slaves, have Crusades and making people profess faith or die or even being able to buy your pew so you can reserve your seat in church which are so weird and strange and we’re embarrassed by this. But look even closer today: what about things like potluck dinners and charity auctions and raffles and bingo and thinking that coming to worship 1-2 times a month? It’s these things which are so weird when compared to the Gospel. And then he asks, “but when they look at us against the biblical record and the call of Jesus, what will they see as weird in us? What is the weirdness biblically? And I began to realize that a lot of what we do is very weird. It does not seem congruent with what is in the New Testament….(We need to think Biblically and what’s weird and who’s weird based upon Scripture and whether we fit in? I have to look in Scripture and ask, “Does my life make sense?” Because I want my life to fit in this book some day.
So when Jesus says, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” This isn’t weird but rather is meant to be the norm of what life in the kingdom and doing the will of Jesus is all about. And if we’re not doing these things and seeing and experiencing these things in our midst and in our life and ministry together, that’s weird! You have to realize that this is meant to be the new norm in your life and embrace it, turning your back on everything else in the world which is weird.
Fifth, realize that the only way you to do these things is in the strength of the Spirit which comes through prayer and fasting. Do you remember there was a man who came to Jesus and said, “Can you help me, my son has these epileptic seizures; can you heal him?” So Jesus healed him. That night the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why couldn’t we do this?” Remember, Jesus didn’t heal in his own strength and power; he did it in the strength of the Holy Spirit. He said to his disciples, “This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting.” Sixth, you have to have faith. Jesus went on to tell the disciples why they could not drive out the demon, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Why in the Western world do we struggle so much with these things Jesus calls us to do? Because dead people don’t raise from the dead. You can’t understand the things of God apart from the Spirit of God. Unless a person is awakened in the Spirit, they will never hear it. Some of you have been born of the Spirit, but you haven’t used the Spirit. You have used your mind with Christianity, but you haven’t used the Spirit. So your Spirit has atrophied. Use it or lose it. Your Spirit has gone asleep and it needs to be awakened or you will never understand the things of God.
Seventh, you have to pass on what you have received. Jesus says, “Freely you have received; freely give.” The practice for his followers are lifestyles of generosity with our money, our time and everything we possess, then we open the door for the work of the Spirit of God in our life and incredible things happening as a result. With the Holy Spirit and the power of God and the faith to move mountains…imagine what we can do!
http://vimeo.com/8980412
