How Not To Be Ashamed Of Sharing Your Faith
Passing On The Faith, Part 2
2 Timothy 1:6-18
Last week we began a series
based on Paul’s second letter to Timothy,
called “Passing On The Faith.”
If you have your bible,
turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6 (pew bible page 817)
And I said last week,
the Christian faith is really like
an incredible chain made up on thousands of links –
a chain that reaches back 2000 years
to Jesus and the apostles;
a chain that has gone from one side of the world to the other.
a chain that involves millions of faithful people,
who generation after generation
passed on their faith,
parents, and grandparents,
teachers,
and pastors, and priests
and Sunday school teachers,
all kinds of people,
that wanted to make sure
the chain of faith passed down to them,
was not broken with them,
but that the chain would continue
through them to others.
The reason why any of us are followers of Christ today
is because generation after generation
of faithful Christians
have forged another link in the chain.
2000 years of passing along the faith.
So the ultimate question is really
whether you and I
will add another link to the chain,
Will we pass along the faith
to our children,
our spouses,
our coworkers,
our classmates,
parents,
and neighbors,
or will that chain that stretches back 2000 years,
and that made it all the way to us,
will it simply end with us –
our generation,
our private faith.
Now, when it comes to
talking to people about our faith,
very few people actually feel confident about it.
Most of the time
people feel a lot of inadequacy or fear or guilt
about sharing their faith,
So if you've ever felt like
you’re just a failure in this area,
I want you to know that
there’s some great Christians
that have done this really, really badly.
How many of you have heard of Eugene Peterson?
Eugene Peterson is a pastor,
He’s also one of the greatest writers and scholars
about Christian faith
alive today.
He’s written a bunch of great books,
But what he’s best known for, is
he’s the guy who translated The Message Bible
if you've ever seen this.
Eugene Peterson writes about how
he grew up in a very devout, Pentecostal Christian home,
but when he started first grade,
a second-grade bully named Garrison Johns
started picking on him every day.
Eugene writes,
"By the time I got to first grade, my parents had helped me memorize, 'Bless those who persecute you', and 'turn the other cheek.'
I don't know how Garrison Johns knew that about me, but most afternoons after school, he would catch me and beat me up. He found out I was a Christian and taunted me with “Jesus-sissy.” And I arrived home most days bruised and humiliated.
My mother told me, this had always been the way of Christians in the world,
and that I had better get used to it. She also said I was supposed to pray for him.
One day I was with 7 or 8 friends when Garrison caught up with us in the afternoon and started jabbing me.
That's when it happened. Something snapped.
For a moment, the Bible verses disappeared from my consciousness,
and I grabbed Garrison.
To my surprise and his, I was stronger than he was.
I wrestled him to the ground, sat on his chest, pinned his arms to the ground with my knees,
and he was helpless at my mercy. It was too good to be true.
I hit him in the face with my fists. It felt good, and I hit him again. Blood spurted from his nose, a lovely crimson in the snow."
This is Eugene Peterson, The Message Bible guy writing this.
"I said to Garrison, 'Say uncle.' He wouldn't say it. I hit him again. More blood.
Then my Christian training reasserted itself.
I said, 'Say I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.'
He wouldn't say it. I hit him again. More blood.
I tried again. Say, 'I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,'
And he said it.
Garrison Johns was my first Christian convert."
When I read that this week,
I realized I’m doing this thing all wrong.
I just need to hire some bullies.
The point is,
if you ever feel guilty or inadequate
about not knowing how to share your faith,
and doing a bad job of it,
then just think of Eugene Peterson.
I’ll bet nobody here has done it worse than him,
He pretty much set the all time low,
so you’re doing great compared to him.
2 Tim 1:6-8
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.
Skipping down to verse 11.
And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
Skip a couple more verse to verse 16:
May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
Here’s a quiz,
to see if you were paying attention.
What word jumps out at you,
that Paul uses 3 times in this short section?
(Ashamed)
Three times the apostle Paul speaks about
not being ashamed.
He’s saying,
don’t be ashamed of Christ
don’t be ashamed of passing on your faith
don’t be ashamed when you suffer for him.
This theme of not being ashamed
is found not only throughout this letter,
but its also found
everywhere in the New Testament.
For example,
Jesus warns us against in Mark 8:38
about being ashamed of him or his words.
Mark 8:38 TLB
Anyone who is ashamed of me and my message in these days of unbelief and sin, I, the Messiah, will be ashamed of him when I return in the glory of my Father, with the holy angels.
So why does the bible tell us over and over
not to be ashamed.
Well, its simple.
Because we’re continually tempted
to be ashamed.
If that wasn’t a temptation for people,
the Bible probably wouldn’t say much about it.
But let’s just be honest and admit
we all want to be liked,
and respected,
and though highly of.
We don’t want to be unpopular.
We like it when people praise us,
and make positive comments said about us.
We like affirmation.
And so, when we realize
that part of our Christian message
might be offensive to a person
or might be unpopular,
we’re tempted to just keep quiet,
aren’t we.
or we’re tempted to water it down a little.
avoid the tough issues.
just go along with the crowd.
You see there’s a lot of pressure in our culture,
not to take a stand about anything,
not rock the boat,
In 21st century America
we like having an
easy-going, tolerance
of whatever people want to believe.
A lot of people in our society
have what you might call “Oprah Theology”
the kind of belief that would never offend anyone.
If you’ve ever watched Oprah,
you get the impression that
all of us are spiritual people,
And whatever our particular beliefs,
we are all on equally valid,
spiritual journeys.
It does not matter if you call God
Krishna,
Buddha,
Allah,
Jesus,
or just your higher power,
It doesn’t really matter,
They’re all valid paths to God
and you certainly wouldn’t want to take a stand,
and say that one is right,
and the others lead nowhere.
That just wouldn’t be respectful and tolerant.
There was an example of this after 9/11,
in the National Memorial Service
It was a huge gathering in New York City at Yankee Stadium
and the nation was led in prayer,
and in a time of remembrance
of those who had been killed by terrorists
at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon.
And who was asked
to moderate and lead that prayer meeting at Yankee Stadium?
Was it Billy Graham,
or some other nationally known Christian leader?
or maybe a famous Catholic priest,
or even a Jewish rabbi, or a Muslim Imam?
No. It was Oprah.
And it was because of her message
that all paths to spirituality are equally good,
Now I don’t have anything against Oprah,
I just don’t think she’s a very good spiritual guide.
we need to base our faith
on something more substantial,
like, what is really true?
And we need to tell the truth,
that Jesus is the way,
and of course we do it lovingly and respectfully,
but we speak the truth,
and we’re not ashamed of the truth.
Paul tells Timothy,
“Don’t be ashamed to tell anyone about Jesus.”
That’s what has allowed the chain of faith
to be passed down for 20 centuries.
And now you and I must pass it along,
and not break the chain.
On Monday morning, around 8:30.
I was at home praying, and I like to sit at a window that looks out on our back deck, where I have several bird feeders set up,
and I’ll pray with my eyes open while I’m watching the birds.
So I’m praying on Monday,
and there weren’t any birds there at the moment, but a squirrel had showed up to eat some of the seeds that fell from the bird feeders,so the squirrel is busy running back and forth on the deck, eating seeds,
its just a peaceful sunny day, the squirrel is enjoying breakfast,
and suddenly, from the left side of the deck, this huge hawk swoops down and snatches that squirrel right off my deck, doesn’t even slow down, takes off over the trees, and in five seconds he’s out of sight.
And I’m going, WHOh, what just happened. When I put out those bird feeders, that was not the kind of feeding I was anticipating.
And 2 thoughts come to mind.
First of all, that squirrel just had a really bad day.
2nd, he never even saw it coming,
one moment he’s peaceful, enjoying breakfast,
the next he’s either dead or on the way.
And I started thinking about that
as I was writing this morning’s talk.
Isn’t that a picture of life?
We look at the people around us,
and for the most part
they look like they’re doing fine.
Nothing urgent about them.
Oh, maybe they have some marriage problems,
or maybe they lost a job,
or their kids are having problems,
I mean we all have problems,
but for the most part,
they look like they’re doing fine.
They’re like the little squirrel on the deck,
enjoying the sunny warm weather,
eating a little breakfast, life is fine.
And because they look fine,
we don’t want to bother them,
or offend them
by telling them about our faith in Jesus,
They don’t really want or need that, do they?
If they wanted religion
they could go to a church, right,
They don’t need us to tell them,
I don’t need to share my faith with them,
because they look like
they’re doing fine without it.
But its only because
we don’t see the hawk
hovering overhead, waiting.
That hawk is there for all of us, sooner or later,
nobody lives forever,
We will all face a day of judgment,
when we’ll see God face to face,
and its either going to be an unbelievably great day,
or its going to be
way worse than my squirrels bad day.
You see, the only reason
we’re tempted to be ashamed
of sharing our faith,
is that we’re ignoring the hawk,
we’re ignoring the fact that,
one day all of us will die
we don’t know when it’ll be.
but its pretty much guaranteed.
and those who are unprepared for that day,
will face consequences forever.
If we really understood that,
and if we really cared about those other people,
we wouldn’t even think twice
about whether to share our faith
or about whether people might reject us.
We’d do it in loving ways,
we’d do it respectfully,
but we would definitely tell people,
if we cared about them.
You see, we have no reason to be ashamed
because we have an answer
to the worst thing
that can happen to someone in this world,
Death.
Christians are the only ones
who have a real answer for death.
That means,
We have the answer
for terrorist bombings,
or cancer,
or genocide,
or earthquakes and tsunamis.
We have the answer,
because Jesus came into the world
to break the power of death.
Verse 10 of 2 Timothy…
Christ Jesus, our Savior, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.
That’s why we have such Good news,
because Jesus broke the power of death,
and illuminated the way
to life and immortality.
He showed us the way.
Now even though this is really good news,
even though it’s the best news ever,
one of the things that makes it difficult to share,
is that 21st century American people,
pretty much reject any claim to absolute truth.
If you try to say that
you know THE way to God,
they’ll respond,
How dare you claim to possess THE truth?
Who do you think you are?
You are intolerant of other viewpoints.
You’re arrogant.
We hear a continual message in our society,
that truth is relative.
What’s true for you, might not be true for me,
and vice versa.
And people are happy to accept your truth,
so long as they can say
its only true for you.
“I’m glad you were helped by believing in Jesus.”
“I’m glad that you are happy.”
“It’s nice that you got off of drugs.”
“It’s nice that your marriage was healed,
Your faith certainly seems to work for you.
but don’t start pushing that Jesus stuff on me.”
It works for you,
its true for you,
but not for me.
Yet Jesus told us there is absolute truth,
in fact, he’s it!
John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus says,
there is absolute truth, and I’m it.
So that means there’s only two options.
Either Jesus actually is
the way, the truth, and the life,
or else he’s a liar.
There’s no in-between, where
maybe he’s true for you
but not for me.
When Jesus says that
no one can come to the Father except through him,
that doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation,
or for other options.
Either its true,
which means that sharing your faith
is the most important thing in the world,
or Jesus has lied,
which means he’s not the son of God,
and we’re all lost.
Now lets go back to 2 Timothy,
and look at the question,
if passing along the faith is so important,
its so critical,
then how do we overcome
the temptation to be ashamed?
2 Tim 1:6
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.
Notice Paul says,
fan into flame the gift of God,
for the Spirit of God
does not make us what? Timid.
Paul says,
the Holy Spirit doesn’t make you timid or fearful.
It gives you power and love and self-discipline.
In fact, if you notice that
when it comes to talking about your faith,
with your friends,
that maybe you’re a little timid,
watering the message down,
trying to be as inoffensive as possible,
not saying anything,
not speaking up,
that is the opposite
of what the Holy Spirit is trying to produce in you.
The Holy Spirit is trying to produce in you
confidence and power
so that you can’t wait to tell people
about your faith.
Now, some believers solve the problem
of sharing their faith, a different way.
They just don’t have any friends
that aren’t Christians.
Have you noticed how a lot of church people
form kind of a little Christian bubble,
and they spend all their time with other Christians,
and they're not even friends with anyone
who’s far away from God.
Then they wonder why
they never have an opportunity
to share their faith with someone.
Imagine a football team where players said,
"We have such wonderful huddles.
I feel comfortable in our huddles.
I love our huddles,
but I don't like it on the field.
When I go out on the field,
people are trying to hurt me.
When I go out on the field, people hit me.
The field is not a safe place for me,
so I'm just going to stay in the huddle."
If the Bengals just sat in the huddle
and never left it,
what would their record be?
Okay, bad example.
Maybe they’d actually improve.
But here’s the point:
A lot of people outside the church
look at churches in our society,
and all they see is a big huddle.
It gathers week after week,
and its only apparent goal
is to have a great huddle
and make the huddle as big as the huddle can be.
But then sometimes people notice that,
the huddle isn't all that great.
Sometimes people argue and fight about their huddle,
or they criticize other huddles,
The world is watching this,
and actually, the world doesn’t care
how good our huddle is.
They're wondering,
are you going to actually get in the game.
In other words,
Are we going to actually make a difference in the world.
Will we really care for the poor?
Will we feed the hungry
and help the homeless?
Will we actually get generous with our resources?
Will we really love our families?
Will we actually do business with integrity?
Will people in the huddle
actually love people outside the huddle
who look different,
dress different,
talk different,
believe different,
and act different than them?
Do they care about people outside the huddle?
You see, for a good football team,
the huddle is not an end in itself.
In a huddle, the team comes together.
They encourage each other.
They make a plan,
and everybody gets their assignment,
but the whole point is
to get out of the huddle
and into the game.
In a good church the idea is,
We come together.
We get encouraged.
We worship God.
We get inspired.
We receive our assignments.
Then we say, 'Let's go do it.'"
Then you actually go do it.
We go out in the community,
and we work,
and we serve,
and we show love to other people,
and we make friends,
and we give,
and we volunteer,
and we do the work of God’s kingdom,
while we’re out in the community,
not while we’re in the huddle.
Paul says in 2 Timothy,
the Holy Spirit gives you power and boldness.
What for?
So you can stay in your huddle?
No, so you can go out in the community
and change the world.
So I’m to fan into flame the Holy Spirit
that gives me power and boldness,
and love for other people
so that I want to share my faith.
and the Spirit gives me wisdom
in what to say,
and gives me the right time to say it.
Now, lets look for a second at the story
of a very unlikely follower of Jesus,
a guy named Matthew.
He was also known as Levi,
that’s the named used in this story,
and he was a tax collector.
Now, tax collectors have never been especially popular.
especially with April 15th coming up.
By the way, did you hear
the IRS is simplifying the tax code for next year?
They’ve got a new tax form that only has two lines on it.
It’s very simple.
Line one says
“what did you earn in 2011?”
Line 2 says, “Send it in.”
People have never really liked tax folks,
but in Matthew’s day it was a lot worse.
Matthew was a tax collector in Galilee,
collecting taxes for the Romans, the enemy.
and tax collectors back then
were hated by the rest of Israel
because they collaborated with Rome.
They basically said
“I want to get rich so much
that I’ll betray my own people
and work with the Roman oppressors.
And because they were considered traitors
they were completely rejected.
Tax collectors were not allowed in the Synagogue.
No religious Jew would eat with them,
talk with them,
or even touch them.
A good rabbi wouldn’t even look at one.
The only person who would be friends with a tax collector
was another tax collector.
Now Matthew was kind of a low level tax collector.
He worked at kind of a tollbooth.
He collected tolls on a road.
Anyone who wanted to use the road out of Galilee
would have to pay a tax to the Romans,
and Matthew was the guy sitting at the tollbooth
collecting the money.
Luke 5:27-32
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Jesus looks at this guy,
who everybody else hates and despises,
and Jesus says, Follow Me, Matthew,
because I know all about you.
I know your decisions
that you made money your God,
and you’re looked at as a traitor,
But I’ve decided
I want you to be My friend.
I’m inviting you to be one of My disciples,
and I’ll travel with you
and I’ll teach you.
I’ll pray for you.
I’ll eat with you.
I’ll share life with you.
You’ll be one of My guys,
one of My followers.
Matthew is sitting there
with his mouth hanging open,
in shock.
This Rabbi wants me to be one of his disciples?
He didn’t need to think twice.
He immediately got up and left everything—
left his job, left his career,
left all that money—
and followed Jesus.
Think of the impact on his life.
One minute he’s rich,
but also hated and rejected,
a social outcast.
The next minute he’s unemployed,
but now he’s accepted
he’s given a clean slate
he has friends
And he’s right with God,
He’s forgiven,
he’s got a new heart.
and a purpose for his life;
No wonder he left it all.
But after that happens,
something keeps bothering Matthew.
and will not let him alone.
Matthew remembers his old friends,
all those other tax collectors.
He knows that
to everybody else
they’re worthless scum,
they’re despised tax collectors.
But to Matthew, they’re friends.
He cares about them.
And one thing Matthew knows for sure,
if he doesn’t do something for those tax collectors,
nobody else is going to.
Nobody else is going to bring them to Jesus.
If he doesn’t do it,
they have no hope.
So he thinks, and he thinks, and he thinks.
And then he gets this idea.
He says, I’ll have a party.
My friends love parties.
Everybody likes to come to parties.
So I’ll invite these
despised, corrupt, traitor, tax collectors
and I’ll invite Jesus.
Because if I can just get those guys, and Jesus
in the same place,
then Jesus will figure out what to do next.
He will take it from there.
Verse 29
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
Now, I have to wonder
if Matthew floated this idea
past any of the other disciples first.
I wonder if he told them,
hey guys, I’m gonna have a big party,
and you’re all invited,
and Jesus is invited too,
and also
a whole bunch of tax collectors and sinners.
The disciples are saying,
what did you say?
This is like saying,
hey, we’re going to have a big party with:
Billy Graham and Hugh Hefner.
Mother Theresa and Linsey Lohan.
Pope Benedict and Charlie Sheen.
That’d be some party, huh?
What do you think the other disciples would’ve said?
Not a good idea, Matthew.
Ixnay on the artypay.
Don’t even think about it.
Jesus would never do it.
It would trash His reputation.
It would ruin His ministry.
But Matthew cares about these other tax collectors,
he wants them to find what he found,
so he throws this party.
Just imagine being at that party.
What would they talk about?
If you’re a tax collector,
what do you say to Jesus?
So Jesus, like, who does your taxes for you?
And Jesus says,
Well, generally I have Peter go down to the lake,
catch a fish,
pull a gold coin out of its mouth
I use that for taxes.
By the way, Jesus actually did that one time.
It’s a great story.
I’d love to know what they talked about at that party.
But there’s no doubt
Jesus knew the right things to say,
And I’m sure he told them at some point,
how God loves them
no matter what they’ve done,
or where they’re at.
And God has a purpose for their lives,
and wants them to be part of his family.
And I can imagine Matthew watching this,
as Jesus is talking to all his friends,
He’s thinking, You know, all those years
I thought getting rich, was what its all about.
I thought making money was it.
I was so deluded,
this is it right here.
this is what its all about.
I have people here that I love
and Jesus that I follow
and I brought them together.
I can make a difference in their life,
for all of eternity.
This is as good as it gets.
This is the best.
Now, lets stop for a second,
and talk about us,
and I want to ask 3 questions.
The first question is:
Do you know anybody who needs Jesus?
Or another way of putting it is:
Who do you know that is so together that they don’t need Jesus?
Who’s in the “I don’t need Jesus” category?
You know anyone like that?
Do you think God ever looks down at the United States,
and says to Himself,
You know, those Americans,
they’ve got the wealthiest country in the world,
they are so blessed with resources,
they’ve got all kinds of opportunities for education,
they are so smart,
and capable,
and they all have great relationships
They really don’t need My Son.
They’re doing fine by themselves,
they don’t need me.
No. I don’t think God says that.
I think he knows better.
I think he knows that,
no matter how good somebody looks on the outside,
no matter how in control they look,
they actually have no control
over what happens after this life.
Lets do a little exercise.
Everyone pull out your wallet or purse
or wherever it is you keep pictures
of people in your life,
Just pull your wallet out.
Don’t worry, we’re not going to take another offering
I just want you to get out the pictures.
and show them to the person next to you?
And if those pictures involve children or grandchildren,
be sure to point out how exceptionally good looking they are,
what fine DNA has obviously been passed on.
Now if you don’t have any pictures in your wallet,
you’ll just have to think about the pictures you have
sitting on your mantle or bookcase at home.
Now, as you look at those pictures
here’s the question I want to ask:
How many of you have at least one person in a picture,
and you’d say,
I’m concerned for that person’s spiritual wellbeing.
maybe a picture in your wallet,
or maybe its one at home,
maybe its a mom or a dad,
a brother or sister,
a son or a daughter,
a friend, neighbor, co-worker.
How many of you have at least one person
whose picture is in your mind
and you’d say,
I’m concerned for that person’s spiritual wellbeing.
If you have someone in mind like that,
then I can tell you
what you are hoping for.
You are hoping there’s a Matthew in their life.
You are hoping there’s somebody
who knows them
and loves them so much
and is so passionate about Jesus
that they are staying up nights thinking about,
God, what is some way
that I can get this person together with Jesus
because everybody needs Jesus?
Second question:
If I take the risk of pointing someone towards Jesus,
whether I talk to them,
or invite them to church,
or however,
If I take the risk to do that,
who can I always count on
to be at work?
And the answer to that question is: God.
Any time I take a step toward
pointing someone to Jesus,
it’s never just me.
God is always at work, behind the scenes.
Its not all up to me,
its not dependent on me,
because God is at work.
I just need to take the risk.
A Third Question to ask yourself:
What’s keeping me
from pointing people to Jesus
like Matthew did?
We’re going to end with a video… (VIDEO: “Unspoken Plea”)
As the video plays I’d like the worship band to come up.
