Dandelion Christians
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
2 Timothy 4:3-4
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
“They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
Matthew 6:31-33
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
(Prayer for help with today’s message)
Please open your Bibles to: Acts 1:8
Does anyone know what this is? (Picture of a dandelion ready to go to seed)
What would happen if you took one of these and tied a little string around it and suspended it in a jar and put it on a shelf where it would never be moved?
And, what if you could even suspend the force of gravity on that little puff ball of a dandelion? What would happen over the years to that dandelion?
Nothing. That’s what would happen. Nothing; that is if it is possible for nothing to happen …
Anyway. Such a thing never happens in nature.
So, what does happen in nature?
A breeze comes by, the seeds are released from the plant, they fly around until they settle to the ground and they hopefully, germinate and grow into other dandelions.
Such is the life of the dandelion. But, without the wind it would just stand there. It needs that irritating wind to rip its seeds off and scatter them across the face of the earth.
Now, last week we took a look at Jesus’ ascension into heaven to be our one and only Mediator and Jesus gives the 11 remaining apostles a couple of final commands.
Let’s look at one of them: Acts 1:8
Jesus says to the disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jerusalem? That is where Jesus was crucified. We don’t want to be there!
Judea? That’s still too close to Jerusalem.
Samaria? We hate those Samaritans!
To the ends of the earth? We don’t want to go there! That’s where all those unclean gentiles live!
We would rather just stay here in this little huddle, hiding inside this upper room … praying.
The disciples in that room were like the dandelion when it is still yellow. They had the potential to be fruitful but had not yet come to the point where they could be scattered like the dandelion seeds.
Then, came two winds …
In Acts 2 we see the wind of the Holy Spirit coming into the room where the disciples were gathered. That was the first wind that was needed.
Acts 2:1-13 tells us …
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs - we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
After this Peter preaches a bold sermon in the power of the Holy Spirit and about 3,000 were saved that day! 3,000 added to the kingdom of God.
NOW that the wind of the Holy Spirit had blown upon them the disciples had turned from a bunch of yellow dandelions into the white, fluffy dandelions, ready to spread the seeds of the Gospel of Salvation through Jesus Christ.
But, another wind was needed …
In the next few chapters we see the disciples performing many miracles in the power of the Lord and the Jewish leaders are starting to get upset.
But, where are the disciples? They’re still in Jerusalem. Jesus had said they would go not only to Jerusalem but to all of Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
But, what kind of wind would get them out of Jerusalem?
The wind of persecution …
(Give a brief account of what led up to the point of Stephen’s stoning …)
Turn to Acts 8:1-4
“On (the day that Stephen was martyred) a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”
Did you hear that? “Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went!”
Sometimes we are like the yellow dandelions; not yet ready to spread the seeds of the Gospel around the world, in out towns, in our workplace or even in our homes!
We are immature and we don’t even know it!
We may look like pretty Christians all bright and dressed up but we are of no value to the Kingdom of God!
What do we need?
We need the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow upon our lives, to bring us to maturity, to bring us to the place where we become a benefit to the Kingdom of God and to the place where we are pleasing in His sight.
Perhaps we need to stay in a room and pray until the Holy Spirit is poured out into our hearts and we are transformed from immature-yellow-headed-dandelion Christians into mature-puff-ball-dandelion Christians, ready to go to seed.
Then we will not only be ready to release the seeds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but anxious to do so.
Many times we are like the dandelion with seeds ready to go.
But it is so comfortable to come to church and sit inside these walls and think that we are doing enough for the kingdom of God.
We need the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow through our lives so that we become willing to move out of our comfort zone.
We need the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow through our lives so that we become willing to sacrifice so that others may know Christ as their Savior.
Once we are mature Christians, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, we won’t need “motivational” speakers to energize us into action.
Instead our heart will yearn to let others know that there IS a Savior and His name is Jesus!
Mature dandelions don’t need to be convinced to do what their Master designed them to do; they just do it naturally.
When the Holy Spirit transforms you into a mature Christian, the wind of the Holy Spirit will naturally take you to places and plant you in places where you can and will be an effective part of the Kingdom of God.
Some people in the world consider dandelions to be nuisance weeds.
Some people in the world consider dandelion Christians to be nuisance weed in their culture.
John 3:8
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Let us be mature dandelion Christians for Christ and the Kingdom of God!
Final comments and prayer.
