INTRODUCTION:
Today there is a lot of talk about churches needing to be relevant. What that usually means for those who might believe this way is that churches must change their style – change their music, change their preaching, change their approach, change their methods to fit the culture around it so that they can minister to today's world and not the world of yesterday (or the world as it was 30-40-50 years ago).
There may be many of you here today that either strongly agree or strongly disagree with that position. My goal is not to debate this issue with you, in fact I don't think that the church being relevant is as much the issue as we think it is. See these things, I believe, are not the main problem. These are cosmetic issues that deal primarily with communicating the Gospel to a world we have trouble reaching... so we feel we have to change our approach or method to meet them where they are.
However, I think the main question is not is the church relevant today but do we believe God is relevant today? Do we believe that God is relevant to the needs of today? Do we believe that the God of the Old and New Testament... the God of the Bible... the God of holiness and justice and grace... the God of wrath and judgment and the God who is also love, mercy, and forgiveness... Do we believe that God is applicable to our needs today? Is He relevant to our modern-day-thinking? Is He relevant to our modern-day-problems? Is He relevant to our modern-day-situations?
Because as we answer that question it should shape how we minister. It should drive us with compassion to reach a lost and dying world... the same compassion that God showed us through His Son. If we believe that God is the solution, then what are we doing about it?
As I prepared this message, riots are going on in Ferguson, reporters are being beheaded in Iraq, Christians are being slaughtered, families driven out of their homes to starve in the desert on a barren mountain, reports of unrest and bloodshed in several parts of the World, political scandal, racial tension, warfare, terrorism, threats, and not knowing what's going to happen tomorrow. Greg was talking to me about the news the other day of a woman being tied to two different cars and ripped apart. Hostages lined up and shot, executed. Bodies thrown in trenches similar to the holocaust of Germany during WWII.
But someone dares to ask, “Is God relevant for today?”
As I speak to you today, there are millions of people directly or indirectly affected by some form of cancer... terminal or otherwise. As I speak today, there are millions of people living unashamedly outside of God's will, doing what God's Word specifically says not to. We used to have a phrase, “Living in sin.” Why did we say it? Because we used to understand and care about God's standard. But now marriage is whatever we want it to be, life is whatever we want it to be, a family is whatever we want it to be. There are no words that are considered foul or filthy. There are no lifestyles that are considered taboo or socially unacceptable. We pretty much live under the clause “Everything is permissible.” And the moral code is thrown out the window. Everything is subjective.
There's a lot of questions about the future. A lot of uncertainty. A lot of anxiety. A lot of dis-trust.
More people could be turning to God's Word for answers, are instead turning to escapes or just turning the channel... turning a blind eye. Many are forming opinions but have no solutions.
I want to tell you that I don't come to you with an opinion this morning.
I come to you with the solution – This World needs God! This World needs Jesus!
Relevant means this: closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand. Pertinent. Related. Needed. Something so closely tied to the subject that if left out, we don't have the full story, the full solution, the full meaning. Is God relevant to what we are going through? You bet He is!
Today I want to talk to you about how the church can be relevant because we believe God is relevant!
How do we make the World see that God is the solution, that Jesus is the Answer for the World today?
Let's try to answer that right now as we look to God's Word.
BODY:
Please turn in your Bibles (if you have them) to … Mark chapter six.
Context- Jesus and his disciples are due for a break. Jesus had just lost his cousin, John, to a beheading. The twelve had just come back from a work-and-witness trip to the surrounding villages. And the scripture says that so many people were coming and seeking Jesus that they did not even have a chance to eat. So if you can imagine, they're kind of burnt out, peopled out, used up.
And Jesus says, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they climb in a boat and find some remote place to get away from it all. Ministry can be overwhelming... the needs of others. But the crowds find them even on vacation. Why is it that people seem to end up in the hospital or need you to do a funeral service when you're on vacation, when you're out of town?
So even before they land, people with needs are there waiting on them. And in verse 34...
Mark 6:34-44 New International Version (NIV)
34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
Now what does Jesus do when he sees the crowds? He has compassion on them. He feels compassion for them, and that compassion moves him to action. He didn't see these crowds as a bother, as an interruption, as an inconvenience. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. They have no one to lead them. No one to nourish them. No one to care for them. Do you know what a sheep is without a shepherd? Meat for the wolf. Jesus looks at these people and he sees their great need!
He sees they need a Savior. He sees they need someone to care, someone to help, someone to give them direction. This is something that we need to understand about the ministry of Jesus.
The ministry of Jesus here on earth was defined by compassion for the helpless, for the broken, for the down-and-outs, for the terminally ill, and for the hopeless.
His heart was broken for those who had no one.
Compassion means feeling deep sympathy and sorrow for some else who has misfortune, and having a strong desire to alleviate that suffering. The prefix “com” means with and “passion” means any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. Compassion - With feeling and emotion. So what would be the opposite of compassion? Indifference. Apathy. No mercy. Not caring. Disconnected. Zero feeling or emotion. Completely unmoved to action.
Are we indifferent, apathetic, disconnected, or unmoved when it comes to the needs of others?
When we look at our fallen world are we moved with compassion or are we unmoved with indifference?
Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them; so he began to teach them many things.
But his disciples start looking at the time.
Why are we so driven by our schedules and agendas? See sometimes I think we get so focused on finishing at a certain time so that it doesn't conflict with our plans, that we limit what God can do for people. We've got to finish so we can rush off and beat the crowds to the restaurant. I've got company coming in an hour, Preacher. There's a game coming on... or you're cutting into my Sunday nap time.
I begin to wonder how important is what we do each Sunday. How important is it? Is it an inconvenience? Is it an interruption? Is one hour a week too much for God to ask of us to seek Him together in prayer, in worship, or through the hearing of His Word? For many, that is the limit of them being involved in ministry. For many others, that is too much to ask.
Jesus says, “You don't need to send them away. You give them something to eat.”
We give them something to eat? We don't even have enough for ourselves. We're hungry, Jesus. We haven't eaten yet, Jesus. We haven't had time to meet our own needs, Jesus. Look at all these people! It would take at least a half-a-year's wage just for each person to get a crumb.
And that's the way we look at the world's problems. What can I do? My contribution won't even make a dent. And so people excuse themselves from making any difference at all. Just eat my fill and go home. Jesus says, “What do you have? Go and see.” And he takes the little they have... and what does he do? He gives thanks. Are you thanking God for what He's given you? And He blesses it. Are we dedicating what we have to God asking for His blessing, His anointing? And He distributes it.
Are we hoarding or are we distributing what God has given to meet the needs of others?
Then what happened? God multiplied. God supplied. God was relevant to the need of the situation and the church was able to reach the world around it. That's how we become relevant!
The one thing I love most about this story is the twelve basketfuls, one for each of those disciples just to say, “See, just have a little faith, a willingness to give, and some compassion and God will multiply.”
Listen, a relevant church is a church that believes that God is relevant to the problems we face in this world and gives what it can to God so that God can be glorified!
It is too small of a vision for God just to fill pews in a church building in our little pocket of the world so that we can survive another decade. God wants to use you (and what little you have) to change your world! That's the way the church becomes relevant to a world that needs Jesus!!!!
Let's look at one more passage of scripture before we close...
Matthew 9:35-38 New International Version (NIV) says...
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
CONCLUSION:
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” Send them out. Jesus says, “Go!” Go share the Good News. Go make disciples. Go make a difference in this world. But we as churches are content to stay. Oswald J. Smith said, “The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.” There is a world in trouble and we have the solution – Jesus Christ! What are we doing share the solution?
Does it matter to you that an estimated 80,000 unsaved people die every day to face the judgment seat of Christ? When you see the crowds of people who do not know him, are you moved with compassion or will you choose to be indifferent? It's time for the church to be relevant because God relevant to the needs of this fallen world!
