OPEN: A man named J. K. Johnston studied the Gospels and asked this question as he poured over Matthew, Mark, Luke and John: Where did Jesus meet people?
According to his tabulations:
· The Gospels recorded 132 contacts Jesus had with people
o 6 were in the Temple.
o 4 were in Synagogues.
o 122 were with people in their daily walks of life.
Johnston’s point was this: Jesus thought outside the box. He thought outside the temple and the synagogue. Thus, if you and I are going to reach people for Jesus, we’ve got to do that too. We’ve got to think outside the church building.
We’ve got to get outside of our “comfort zone.”
And that’s what Paul is talking about in I Corinthians 9. He thought and acted outside his comfort zone to reach as many people as he could for Christ.
Now, – since I’m talking about Facebook this month that is also true of our Facebook pages. If we’re going to reach people for Jesus we need to think outside the box (get outside our comfort zone).
Now, that’s not always easy.
If you make “friends” on Facebook with non-Christians you get whatever they post on THEIR FB page… on YOUR Facebook page. And a lot of times, it’s not pretty.
You see non-Christians don’t think like we do. For many of them, cursing is a 2nd language. Thinking immoral thought is just the way life is. Many of them have no problem laughing at offensive photos and lewd comments.
Often, there are people who put things on their FB pages that you and I don’t really want that in our lives.
So, how do we deal with that?
Well, there are 3 ways I can think of.
1. You can let it go.
One preacher on Facebook wrote: “I have non-Christian friends up here who regularly post things that personally offend me. I remain their friend and continue to have conversations with them.”
He had no problem having their offensive materials on his page because he was totally sold out to witnessing to them. So he completely overlooked their unpleasant comments. I’m not real comfortable with this, but he is, and it works for him.
2. You can “Unsubscribe” from them. You can remove them your friend list so that you will never EVER have any contact with them again on Facebook. I mean, it’s what they deserve… isn’t it?
One preacher on FB said: “I have told a few that I got off their "friends list" due to questionable posts.”
3. OR, you can “unsubscribe from their postings” from ever receiving their postings again.
But you can still keep them on your friend list. If you do this, you can stop their offensive material from coming to your FB page… but whatever you post can still be read on their’s.
I have personally opted for the 3rd choice.
I “unsubscribe from their postings”, but not from them.
Now, why would I do that? Why would I WANT these people - who share nasty things - to stay on my Friend list? Because I want to talk to them about Jesus. I use Facebook to post my sermons and our church newsletter/ talk about Jesus things there. If I cut these people off from friend list, I can’t share my Savior with them. And I KNOW that if they meet Jesus, their lives will change… and the obscenities and immoral way of thinking will wither away.
ILLUS: A young man left home for his freshman year of college, his mother was concerned that he wouldn’t keep his dorm room in order. So when she visited him at Thanksgiving, she was not surprised to find his room in total disarray. Papers and books were scattered all over the place. But what shocked her most were the obscene pictures hanging on the walls.
At Christmas time, she sent her son a box of presents, including a portrait of Jesus. He thanked her for the gifts but didn’t say anything about the picture.
In the spring, when she visited the school again, her son was eager for her to come to his room. Upon entering, she found - there on the best wall space in the room - the picture of Christ. All the other pictures were gone.
Wisely she said, "Jack, there is something different about your room. Did you get a new rug?"
“No."
"Is this new paper on the wall?"
"No."
“When I was here before, it seemed to me you had more pictures than now."
"Yes, I did, Mother, but those other pictures seemed out of place after that one of Jesus came into the room."
My point? Once Jesus came into the room, that boy changed!
So, on Facebook, I will block the posts of people who share things that are immoral, but I won’t personally unfriend them because I want Jesus to come into their room.
Now, that’s kind of what Paul is talking about in I Corinthians 9:
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” I Corinthians 9:19-22
Paul’s objective was to reach out to people who he didn’t feel comfortable with.
And Paul did it that way, because that’s how Jesus did it.
Who did Jesus spend His time with?
Well, He went to the synagogue every week.
And He went to the Temple on a regular basis.
But Jesus spent most of time with outsiders.
§ People who didn’t go to church/ didn’t spend much time with God
§ Prostitutes
§ Tax collectors
§ Thieves
SINNERS.
And why did Jesus do that?
Well, Jesus said… "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:17
So Jesus reached out to uncomfortable people… and that made others uncomfortable.
ILLUS: When I was a young boy, my home church had a church bell that they rang every Sunday at 9:00 in the morning.
It was a college town, and one of the local college students had apparently been up “partying” the night before… and he DIDN’T like the bell.
So, he came over to the church to complain.
Bear in mind this young man didn’t look pretty.
He hadn’t shaved or showered.
He was irritated to the point of being angry.
And he was intent on getting some satisfaction from a church that had rung that bell for the over 50 years.
How did my home church respond?
Essentially, they told him to go take a hike.
They were as belligerent as he was.
And they sent him on his way saying they had been there long before he had. It was their bell and they’d ring it any time they wanted.
Now, the question for us today is this:
Is that what Jesus would have done?
What do you think Jesus WOULD have done?
Would He have stopped ringing the bell? Probably not.
The bell had served its purpose.
· It had gotten a sinner up out of bed.
· It had brought a sinner to church.
· It had created an opportunity to preach.
If Jesus had been there, I think he would have invited the young man in for worship.
AND if the student had turned Him down I suspect Jesus would have apologized – explained why the church did this and then offered to take the man out for breakfast/lunch.
Maybe he would have asked if there was some way to help him
Asked if there was a problem he could help with physically, or maybe offered to pray him.
There could have been all kinds of ways Jesus would have met this hung over student, but (unless the man was dangerous or obnoxious) Jesus would NEVER have told the guy to go away.
Why did my home church do what it did?
Why did they angrily turn him away?
Because he made them uncomfortable.
He wasn’t dressed for Church.
He didn’t appreciate their values.
He didn’t respect their rights (to ring their bell)
So they turned him away.
They had the message of hope from God, but they didn’t share it.
They had the Salvation of Jesus … but they didn’t offer it.
He made them uncomfortable so they sent him away… to go to hell.
ILLUS: I remember reading about a California preacher named Charles Smith. He was disturbed by the number of hippies and degenerates he saw on the streets. He prayed about it… and then he went out and began to share Jesus with them.
Something clicked between him and this group of lost souls, and they began coming to church. But there were some in the church that weren’t comfortable with this influx of dirty people.
They smelled bad.
They dressed… weird
And (worst of all) their feet were dirty - it was soiling the carpet.
Smith heard these complaints… especially the one about the carpet and he said.
“Well then, let’s tear up the carpet.”
Eventually they did.
And they grew dramatically eventually becoming a large denomination – Calvary Chapel
Now, I don’t agree with much of the theology of Calvary Chapel but I know Smith was right about at least one thing – people mattered to God..
People mattered more than carpet.
People mattered more than a nice, neat, clean church building.
EVEN the dirty, smelly and lost type of people mattered to God.
Smith wasn’t looking to create a comfortable Church because Jesus doesn’t look for a comfortable church.
Too often people get to looking for their RIGHTS at Church.
They forget that Jesus didn’t come so they could have rights.
They forget that Jesus didn’t die so that they could be comfortable.
They forget that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead so that they could have church all to themselves.
THEY SAY:
I’m only going to sing certain kinds of songs.
I’m only going to sit in certain kinds of seats.
I’m only going to worship in a certain kind of building.
I’m only going to read out of a certain version of the Bible (to the exclusion of any other).
At this church… we’ve decided we don’t want to do things that way.
1. Some of our songs WILL be songs we’re comfortable with, but some of them won’t be. They’ll be songs that we believe will reach to the unchurched.
2. There’s no dress code here. I wear a suit and tie… but no one else is REQ’D to. Because people are more important than how they dress.
3. Even the new building we’re discussing won’t be designed so much for our personal comfort as for Christ’s great ministry to the lost.
Reaching to the lost has to be a DELIBERATE decision on our part because the longer we’re Christians, the harder it gets.
Why does it get harder?
Because once you and I became Christians, our pool of pagan friends began to shrink.
We don’t share anything in common with those guys any longer and they tend to get uncomfortable with our desire to please God in what we do and say.
So, we need to find a way to go where they are.
Kind of like Stan and Diane’s ministry in a nearby large city.
They have left a comfortable life in the country to work with people who have pierced tongues, lips, ears, eyebrows (and other places). Kids who have purple hair and dress in ways we’d never even think of doing.
Why? Because Stan and Diane have realized that – if you’re going to reach out to the lost – sometimes you’ve got to be ready to get uncomfortable.
But you don’t have to leave Logansport to find people who need Jesus.
I mean, it’s fairly simple: find someone who isn’t a Christian or a Churchgoer and make them your pet project.
They can be family, friends or co-workers.
Or they can be someone you greet at the grocery store/ Wal-mart
Your hairdresser
Your mechanic
Your tax preparer.
You pray for them.
You look for an opportunity to minister to them.
You look for a chance to invite them to church.
But they are the folks you tell Jesus about.
Not obnoxiously.
Casually, but consistently.
And eventually you will be able to reach people others may have thought unreachable.
Jesus spent time with sinful people because He wanted to reach them, heal them, change them. Jesus never unsubscribed them from being friends… but he never “subscribed” to their lifestyle. He never accepted and wallowed in the sin they lived in.
Now, this is something of a delicate dance.
Paul tells us in I Cor. 9 that we need to be versatile about how we share Jesus.
But in verse 21 he says something intriguing:
“To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.” 1 Corinthians 9:21
In other words – in the process of reaching out to the lost, he never let go of the foundation in found in Christ.
The problem for too many Churches and Christians is – they DO let go of Christ and end up subscribing to the mindset of the lost. They become deceived into thinking that they need to become completely like the lost to save them.
They forget WHO they are and WHY God has saved them.
A preacher named Jerry Shirley said: “There are churches that engage in a social gospel (trying to make the world a better place to go to hell from) substituting culture for Calvary – never talking about getting saved, or the blood of Jesus.”
And he’s right!
There are churches who have abandoned their core principles.
They forget WHO they are WHY they exist.
And IF that can happen to churches it can happen to us - as Christians - too.
We can forget WHO we are and WHY we exist.
So, how do you avoid that?
How do you and I avoid falling THIS trap?
By being mindful of 4 truths.
1st – We need to remember WHO Jesus was.
Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Let me repeat that: There is no other way to God EXCEPT thru Jesus Christ.
If we forget that, or we question it, or we doubt it we’ll never stay on message. We will get sidetracked. And we will end up having nothing to offer this world.
2nd – we need to remember HOW WE KNOW who Jesus was.
Where do we find out who Jesus is… and what He wants us to do? (The Bible.)
In His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17
I have all kinds of commentaries in my office. All kinds of books about Jesus. I can go and watch TV and see all kinds of documentaries that purport to tell me things about Christ. But if any of those books, or any of those TV programs say something other than what the Bible says… they’re lying. They have abandoned truth. They are evil and we need to avoid them.
If we ever abandon our belief that the Bible is God’s TRUTH… if we ever walk away from the idea that Bible can sanctify us/set us apart from this world… then we will never be sure of WHO Jesus is – or what He wants of us.
The Bible is our ONLY source of knowledge of Jesus.
Churches/Christians that abandon Scripture… abandon Christ.
3rd – we need remember WHY Jesus came.
John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Jesus came because God loved us
Jesus came so that if we believed in Him - accepted Him on His terms - we not perish. We would live forever with God.
And 4th – we need to remember HOW Jesus asked us to accept His forgiveness.
Someone once came up with something they called the five-finger exercise.
(Hold up index finger) Believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God. (John 3:16)
(Hold up 2nd finger) Repent of your sins. Recognize that you’ve messed up in your life and determine to turn toward and God and live for Him. (Acts 3:19)
(Hold up 3rd finger) Confess that Jesus is Lord – that He now owns you and dictates the direction you’re going to go in your life. (Romans 10:9-10)
(Hold up 4th finger) Be buried in the waters of Christian Baptism and rise to newness of life. (Romans 6:1-5)
(Hold up thumb) Live for Jesus for the rest of your life (Hebrews 3:14)
Jesus said “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16a)
In John 3 Jesus said much the same thing, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. John 3:5
Jesus said that to a Rabbi named Nicodemus and chided him for being a teacher in Israel and not understanding what this meant. Why should Nicodemus have understood Jesus’ statement? Because, in the days of Jesus, being “born again” or “reborn” was a common term used by Jewish Rabbis to describe Gentiles who converted and became Jews. According to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown “"The Jews were accustomed to say that…” when a Gentile was admitted “…into the Jewish faith by baptism, that he was a new-born child.”
Thus when Jesus spoke of being born of the water Nicodemus should have known that that referred to baptism. But he didn’t understand the use of God’s Spirit in this, because up until Jesus’ resurrection from the cross, God hadn’t given the Spirit as He does now.
The Scriptures tell us what our part is in accepting Christ – faith, repentance, confession, baptism and living for Christ. But it also tells us of the crucial part in our salvation that God performs – by giving us His Spirit to live inside us. That Spirit is our mark of salvation, our comfort, our teacher, our protector and guide.
God has called us to reach out people who make us uncomfortable.
But in reaching out, we need to remember the important things that make us His followers. We must reach out with boldness to draw people into the Kingdom.
Are you ready to do that?
Invitation.
NOTE ON BEING REBORN IN JOHN 3
Early Jewish rabbis spoke of proselytes — gentiles converting to Judaism — as being "reborn." Encyclopedia Judaica states, "A proselyte terminates all former family ties upon conversion and `is considered a newly born child’ " (volume 13, page 1184, article "Proselytes").
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible states:
The Jewish direction for developing theologically such an illustration as Jesus provided is evident in the somewhat similar rabbinic comparison of the new proselyte with a newborn child.... "I make you a new creature, like a woman who is pregnant and gives birth" (Rabbi Judah bar Simon). (volume 4, page 27, article "Regeneration")
Further discussion of these concepts is found under the subject "Baptism" in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible and in chapter 6 of The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, by Alfred Edersheim. A summary of these points is also given in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 1985 one-volume edition, pages 114-115, under the heading "gennao."
New birth, as a figure of speech, is known to refer to proselyte conversion. It was understood to mean conversion of the mind and heart, beginning a new spiritual life with a new way of thinking, leaving one’s old ways and ideas completely behind.
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, by Alfred Edersheim: "It is, indeed, true that a Gentile on becoming a proselyte—though not, as has been suggested, an ordinary penitent—was likened to a child just born…. The expression, therefore, was not only common, but, so to speak, fluid."
The Talmud says, "A man who became a proselyte is like a child newly born."
According to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: "The Jews were accustomed to say of a heathen proselyte, on his public admission into the Jewish faith by baptism, that he was a new-born child. But our Lord here extends the necessity of the new birth to Jew and Gentile alike—to every one."
According to Adam Clarke’s commentary, "[The Jews] held that the Gentile who became a proselyte was like a child new born."
The figure of speech ‘born again’ was not foreign to Nicodemus. It was a figure applied to a bridegroom on the occasion of his marriage, to the Chief of the Academy on his promotion, to the king on his enthronement, and to the proselyte on his entrance into Judaism.72 The application of this expression to the entrance of a Jew into the kingdom of God left Nicodemus’ head reeling. (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965, I, p. 384.)
Edersheim, in his "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah", mentions a number of circumstances to which this applied. Proselytes to Judaism were considered newly born. So too were the bridegroom in his marriage, the Chief of the Academy on his promotion and the king on his enthronement. It was a term used to describe a new beginning in an important circumstance of life, where the person took a new role as a beginner, like a child, having to start at the bottom and learn a role in life all over again.
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Alfred Edersheim 1883, Book III The Ascent: From The River Jordan To The Mount Of Transfiguration
Chapter 6 The Teacher Come From God And The Teacher From Jerusalem - Jesus And Nicodemus (St. John 3:1-21.)
It has been thought by commentators, that there is here an allusion to a Jewish mode of expression in regard to proselytes, who were viewed as ’new-born.’ But in that case Nicodemus would have understood it, and answered differently - or, rather, not expressed his utter inability to understand it. It is indeed, true that a Gentile on becoming a proselyte - though not, as has been suggested, an ordinary penitent16 - was likened to a child just born.17 It is also true, that persons in certain circumstances - the bridegroom on his marriage, the Chief of the Academy on his promotion, the king on his enthronement - were likened to those newly born.18 The expression, therefore, was not only common, but, so to speak, fluid; only, both it and what it implied must be rightly understood. In the first place, it was only a simile, and never meant to convey a real regeneration (’as a child’). So far as proselytes were concerned, it meant that, having entered into a new relation to God, they also entered into new relationship to man, just as if they had at that moment been newly born. All the old relations had ceased - a man’s father, brother, mother, sister were no longer his nearest of kin: he was a new and another man. Then, secondly,19 it implied a new state, when all a man’s past was past, and his sins forgiven him as belonging to that past. It will now be perceived, how impossible it was for Nicodemus to understand the teaching of Jesus, and yet how all-important to him was that teaching. For, even if he could have imagined that Jesus pointed to repentance, as that which would give him the figurative standing of ’born from above,’ or even ’born anew,’ it would not have helped him. For, first, this second birth was only a simile. Secondly, according to the Jewish view, this second birth was the consequence of having taken upon oneself ’the Kingdom;’ not, as Jesus put it, the cause and condition of it. The proselyte had taken upon himself ’the Kingdom,’ and therefore he was ’born’ anew, while Jesus put it that he must be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God. Lastly, it was ’a birth from above’ to which reference was made. Judaism could understand a new relationship towards God and man, and even the forgiveness of sins. But it had no conception of a moral renovation, a spiritual birth, as the initial condition for reformation, far less as that for seeing the Kingdom of God. And it was because it had no idea of such ’birth from above,’ of its reality or even possibility, that Judaism could not be the Kingdom of God.
