We are living during some strange, strange times. More and more cities are taking drastic steps to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. We, as a ministry have taken drastic steps as well. We have cancelled our face-to-face large group meetings for the immediate future and have moved much of our ministry online.
That’s what it takes to contain a global pandemic like the Coronavirus. But, something we must remember, even if every Christian was quarantined to their homes for the next several months in the worst possible scenario…you can’t quarantine the Gospel.
It is an unstoppable contagion that doesn’t hurt, it heals. It doesn’t destroy, it transforms. It doesn’t bring death, it brings life.
The Apostle Paul understood this well. At the end of his life he was stuck in a jail cell, chained to a Roman soldier waiting to be executed. He was in a final and ultimate quarantine of sorts. But he wrote these words in 2 Timothy 2:9,
“And because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained.” 2 Timothy 2:9
I love that last phrase, “But the Word of God cannot be chained!” That message was spreading and multiplying even while Paul was in quarantine on death row!
In the same way, we may feel somewhat quarantined during this time of social distancing and house confinement for many. But the Word of God cannot be chained.
I believe that we are living at a time where the Gospel could spread faster and farther than ever before. The circumstances surrounding this pandemic can actually accelerate the spread of the good news of the Gospel. For the first time since 9/11, many people are turning to God, worried about death and concerned about this life and the afterlife.
I’ve been sharing the Gospel for over 40 years and I can’t think of a time more ready for the spread of the Gospel than now.
We must lovingly share this hope with the world right now.
Almost 20 years ago I wrote my first book. It was called Outbreak. The subtitle is “creating a contagious youth ministry through viral evangelism.”
Why did I call it Outbreak? Because a virus is a great example of how the Gospel spreads. It spreads from contact. It spreads from person to person.
And, in the early church the Gospel spread from Jerusalem to Rome in less than 30 years, without airplanes, without cars, without the www.theapostlepaul.com.
In 1995, Hollywood produced a popular movie called Outbreak, starring Renee Russo and Dustin Hoffman. How many of you remember seeing this movie? This, now classic movie, was in the top 10 movies viewed on Netflix in the month of March. It tells the story of how a monkey got a contagious strand of the Ebola virus. This infected monkey scratches a man. The man sneezes in a movie theater. The camera follows the particles coming out of his nose through the theater into the open mouth of an unsuspecting movie watcher and boom…the outbreak begins!
There’s a scary scene in the movie Outbreak where a military epidemiologist talks about the spread of the virus. Standing in front of a large virtual map, he says, “The infection will start here” (pointing to a single red dot). “Within 12 hours it will spread this far” (the red covers a larger portion of the map). “Within 24 hours it will spread this far” (half the map is red). “And within 72 hours it will infect the whole of the United States” (the map is flooded with red.)
When I watched that scene I couldn’t help but think of Acts 1:8 where Jesus told his disciples how the Gospel would infect the world (in a good way!). He said, “you will receive power after the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem (the single red dot), and in Judea and Samaria (the red covers a larger portion of the map) and to the ends of the earth (the whole map is drenched with the red blood of Christ!).
So praise God that the Gospel message is more contagious than the Corona virus. The difference is, that the Gospel doesn’t kill you, it transforms you! It doesn’t make you ill, it makes you well. It doesn’t lock you down, it frees you up!
So how do we unleash it? We pray! We care! We share!
We learn from the ultimate carrier of the good news, Jesus Christ himself, how to start a viral outbreak in Mark 1:35-42. In this passage, Jesus becomes the ultimate carrier and starts a contagious movement that is still spreading like a holy pandemic 2000 years later. Let’s read this passage together,
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” Mark 1:35-42
We see in this passage that the ministry of Jesus wasn’t quarantined away in some monastery or out in a desert. It was strategically aligned for exponential growth. And what Jesus did we can do. What Jesus started we can continue.
How? It starts with this….
We pray!
Jesus set the pace for prayer
In Mark 1:35, 36 the Bible tells us, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
Jesus was always escaping ministry opportunities to pray. You wouldn’t want Jesus as a conference speaker! He’d always be gone on some prayer walk somewhere and nobody could find him. In a sense he was quarantining himself so that he could spend time talking to God the Father before he dove into the hard work of spreading the Gospel.
Here Jesus engages in a very specific kind of prayer called, “intercessory prayer.”
The Latin word for intercession comes from two words that mean “I go” and “between.” In other words an intercessor is a “go between” between the people we are praying for and the potential danger they are facing.
I’ll never forget my daily walk to Brown Elementary as a kid. It was about a 10 block walk from my house. That doesn’t sound like much but Denver is known for its major snowstorms and, sometimes, it could be a long, cold walk to and from school.
So I talked my mom into buying me a thick leather jacket that we found on sale. It was the coolest thing I owned and it kept me warm during the cold Colorado winters.
And I’m glad I had it on one particular day.
That was the day that two German Shepherds, that were often running loose in our neighborhood, ran across the street and attacked me. These dogs had, once again, escaped their back yard and were headed full speed straight for me. My heart was pounding as I backed up to a chain link fence and prayed.
I knew these dogs were about to attack. They weren’t barking, they were charging with their ears back and their teeth bared. Without thinking, I crossed my arms in front of my face and grabbed the chain link fence I had backed up against. I was standing with my arms blocking my face and holding on as tightly as I could as these dogs tore at me, trying to pull me to the ground. I knew that if these dogs could pull me off the fence and onto the ground they could easily kill me. I was fighting for my life.
For at least a few minutes these dogs tore into me. They bit and bit and bit but couldn’t bite through my thick leather jacket and, by God’s grace, they couldn’t drag me to the ground. But I knew that I couldn’t last very much longer. I could feel my fingers slipping and my grip giving way.
Then, out of nowhere, a little old lady named Ma Zeemer came shuffling down the street with a baseball bat. She was yelling and screaming and waving her bat. She got right in between me and those dogs. She threw herself in the danger and swung that bat until finally those two dogs ran away.
Ma Zeemer may have saved my life.
Ma Zeemer was my intercessor….because she got between me and the danger…she got between me and two ferocious dogs.
She risked everything to save me. She risked her comfort. She risked her time. She risked her safety.
And we must do the same thing. Because, in a very real sense, there is a pack of wild dogs attacking our family and friends! They are the hounds of hell.
But when we pray for those who don’t know Jesus, we come between them and the danger with a divine baseball bat. We intercede.
Would you begin to pray daily for the unreached people you have in your world that so desperately need the contagion of the Gospel? Write their names down on a prayer list.
You can also download the free mobile app, Life in 6 Words, from the App Store or Google Play and put their names into what’s called “A Cause Circle.” You can setup the app to send you weekly or daily reminders to pray for those people by name. It’s a simple way to remind you to pray and this app will also help you share your faith with those around you. Again, it’s called Life in 6 Words.
But, whether you use the mobile app a prayer journal, or a 3 x 5 card you put up on your mirror, do something to remind yourself to pray for the lost. Be an intercessor. Be a go-between. Stand between your friends, family, co-workers, classmates and teammates and the danger they are facing…the danger of a life and an eternity without Christ!
If we want to unleash the Gospel we pray. Then…
We care!
Jesus shows us what this looks like in Mark 1:35-42,
“So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” Mark 1:39-42
How does Jesus show he cares?
He cast out demons
There are literal demons and figurative demons that many people are wrestling with today, especially during this global pandemic!
But before we talk about figurative demons let me spend a few moments talking about literal demons. We are in a battle with an invisible, but very literal enemy, Satan and his army of demons. They are diligently seeking to deceive, distract, discourage and destroy us right now.
If you really take a look at this world you can easily see that the forces of darkness are real and that the Devil is doing everything in his power to stop us from loving Jesus and serving Jesus.
In 1 Peter 5:8 the Bible says this about Satan, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
A lion can roar at 114 decibels. It’s louder than a jackhammer and almost as loud as a jet engine. A roaring lion can be heard from up to 5 miles away.
Satan is roaring his hatred at humanity in visceral ways. Every time you read about another serial killer on the lose, aborted baby or trafficked child, a demon is smiling behind it all.
And I can guarantee you that Satan and his army of fallen angels want to leverage this pandemic to steal, kill and destroy. They want to steal joy, kill relationships and destroy lives.
However as followers of Jesus we are here, empowered by Him, to bring healing and transformation to those ravaged by these literal demons.
In a sense there are, figurative demons as well.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “boy that guy is really wrestling with some demons.” These may be the habits or thoughts or baggage that a person is struggling with that can lead to loneliness, depression, alcoholism, suicide and shattered relationships.
These kinds of demons have been exacerbated during this time of global crisis and pandemic.
Maybe you’ve lost so much money in the stock market you’re worried about your retirement. Maybe you’ve lost your job due to the massive cuts in business across America and you’re worried about paying the mortgage or even putting food on the table.
And if you are feeling the stress of all this, then how much more stress are those who don’t have Jesus as their solid foundation feeling? We must reach out to those who are hurting with the love of Jesus! We must work under the power of the Spirit to cast out the demons they are wrestling with, both literally and figuratively.
Jesus casted out demons. And…
He healed the leper
The Bible had very specific instructions on how to deal with lepers in the Old Testament. They were isolated, of course because leprosy was highly contagious. But, instead of weating a mask if they were infected, they were supposed to yell “Unclean! Unclean!”when they were around those who were healthy. Can you imagine the stigma of that?
But Jesus broke that protocol in Mark 1:41,42, “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”
Now, I’m not saying that you should go out and hug someone with the Coronavirus, but I am saying that you need to care for them and care for all of those who are afraid of it, which is pretty much everyone.
Christians have set the pace for caring for the hurting throughout Church history. When everyone else rushes out of fear, Christians rush in out of love.
Moses Lee wrote these words for The Gospel Coalition, “In AD 249 to 262, Western civilization was devastated by one of the deadliest pandemics in its history. Though the exact cause of the plague is uncertain, the city of Rome was said to have lost an estimated 5,000 people a day at the height of the outbreak. One eyewitness, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria…Having noted the difference between Christian and non-Christian responses to the plague, he says of the non-Christians in Alexandria: At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape. Non-Christian accounts confirm this sentiment. A century later, the emperor Julian attempted to curb the growth of Christianity after the plague by leading a campaign to establish pagan charities that mirrored the work of Christians in his realm. In an AD 362 letter, Julian complained that the Hellenists needed to match the Christians in virtue, blaming the recent growth of Christianity on their “benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead, and the pretended holiness of their lives.” Elsewhere he wrote, “For it is a disgrace that . . . the impious Galilaeans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well.”
So if Jesus set the pace for caring by touching and healing a leper, and Christians throughout history have set the pace for by rushing in when everyone else was rushing out, how we can set the pace for caring during the current crisis?
Well, let me give you three quick ideas to jot down:
Set the pace for hygiene.
I know that this doesn’t sound super spiritual but there’s an old civil war saying that used to go, “Trust God and keep your powder dry.” We could put it this way “Trust God, wash your hands and keep your distance.”
As Proverbs 27:12 reminds us, “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.”
It is no act of love to infect someone with the Coronavirus or to risk getting infected. We must use the proper protocols for hygiene and safety if we are really to love those around us.
Set the pace for peace.
We are living in a social-media driven culture of fear and fear mongering. We need to be the voices of calm and peace during this time. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers….” May we be the peacemakers during this time of rumor, frustration and anger. May we be the voices that calms people down instead of stirring them up.
Set the pace for encouragement.
Ephesians 4:29 reminds us, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Maybe this means that you send an encouraging text or note to one person you know who doesn’t yet know Jesus. You could include a couple of encouraging verses or passages in your message to them. This would be a great way to begin to open the door to a future Gospel conversation.
Jesus prayed for those who were hurting. He cared for the hurting by casting out their demons and healing their sick. We too must pray. We must care and, finally….
We share!
When Jesus was away praying, his disciples sought desperately to find him. Here’s how Mark 1:36-38 records their search and his response,
“Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’ Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’”
Jesus had a greater purpose. His purpose was to share the good news of the Gospel with as many as possible. But how do we do that during a pandemic? We unleash the Gospel verbally and virally!
Here’s the great thing about sharing Jesus during a pandemic, people are open to talking about it! You could start with a question like my friend Andy does, “These are some pretty crazy times huh?” And people just start talking! You can then make a simple segue like this, “While this stuff is pretty scary, my hope is built on a foundation that is strong, not religion, but a relationship with God. Where do you find hope during this time?”
Whether you use those exact words or something like that, just bring it up. Another way you can bring it up is by asking someone how you can pray for them during this time.
Once you’re in a spiritual conversation, it’s simple to share with them the Gospel message.
Dare 2 Share has been training teenagers for almost 30 years how to share the Gospel with their peers and we’ve developed an acrostic that has been shared millions upon millions of times with people around the world. This acrostic spells out GOSPEL and tells the whole story of the Good News of Jesus from Genesis 1-Revelation 22, from the first chapter of the Bible to the last.
God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)
Our sins separate us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. (Genesis 4-Malachi 4)
Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew-Luke)
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John)
Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. (Acts-Revelation.)
I’d encourage each of us to memorize this acrostic word for word like millions of teenagers have and be ready to share our faith by explaining it. Think of each sentence like chords on a guitar. You get the chords down and then you can make music. It’s hard at first, but then the more you practice, it begins to sound beautiful. Memorize these sentences and then make some beautiful music with the Gospel as you make it your own.
This acrostic was made famous by a viral video that came out several years ago called Life in 6 Words that was viewed by millions online. (optional: show the 5 minute video)
A second way you can share the Gospel is by using Dare 2 Share’s Life in 6 Words app. It is a simple way to share the message of Jesus whether or not you memorize the GOSPEL acrostic. Basically, if you can swipe and read you can share the Gospel using the Life in 6 Words app. I encourage you to go to the app store right now and download this free app. If you are over the age of 50 just hand your phone to the youngest person around you and they can download it for you ?.
Within the next few weeks (note: by mid April 2020), the mobile app will have a new feature that will enable you to share the Gospel virtually. This means that, even if you are quarantined at home, you can use this app to start Gospel conversations with anyone via social media or phone-to-phone.
Remember you can’t quarantine the Gospel!
Jesus prayed, cared and shared. That’s how he dealt with a people infected with a pandemic called sin. And he healed lepers in the process.
So I close with this story about Father Damien.
In the mid 1800’s lepers from all around the world were quarantined to an island just off the coast of Maui, called Molokai. This beautiful Hawaiian paradise soon became the drop off center for lepers from all across the globe.
If the seas were too rough the captains would drop these poor people off into the water 500 yards from the shore and make them swim. Many drown in the raging waves. The ones who survived washed up onto an island that, although beautiful to look at, was full of drunkenness and prostitution and hopelessness. The sould of these poor people were as leperous as their bodies.
Everywhere one looked there was hideous disfigurement, bleeding and oozing sores, rampant diseases of various kinds, and perhaps worst of all, hopelessness.
When Father Damien accepted the call to minister to the lepers, he knew he was accepting a death sentence. Father Damien had no plans to keep distant from the lepers. He was called to serve them and he served them up close.
He built them churches. He embraced every leper he saw. He shared with them the hope of Christ. And, of course, he contracted leprosy himself and died 15 years later. But Molokai and the lepers on this island had been fundamentally and forever transformed. To this day he is a hero in this still active leper colony.
In a very visceral sense Father Damien is a great illustration of Jesus. God created a beautiful paradise for Adam and Eve to live in, but all of that was destroyed when they sin against him. In a sense the leprosy of infected their souls and the souls of all humanity, since their fateful choice to rebel against God. And that leprosy of sin had no cure. Religion couldn’t cure it. Neither could good deeds or good intentions. All of humanity was doomed to die. As Romans 6:23 puts it, “For the wages of sin is death…” But that’s not where the verse ends. It goes on to say, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Just like Father Damien came into Molokai uninfected by leprosy, Jesus came into humanity uninfected by sin. But Jesus took the infection of our sin on the cross and he died for our sins and in our place. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus, not only took the leprosy of our sin upon himself, he gave us his righteousness, his perfection. So, not only are we healed through faith in Christ, we are forever transformed into sons and daughters of God.
If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, I encourage you to trust in Him right now. Believe He died for you and rose from the dead and then put your full reliance on Him right now to forgive you for your sins and give you eternal life. (do appropriate response time)
And, if you already have put your faith in Jesus, let’s follow his pattern by praying for the lost, caring for them and sharing the message of the Gospel with them. Ask God to reveal to you the person you are going to pray for, care for and, yes, share the Gospel with this week. (do appropriate response time)
Yes, we are in the midst of a global pandemic, but you can’t quarantine the Gospel.
Let’s pray.
