I recieved this idea from my mentor Jerrie Barber.
I Want the Church to Grow-But Do I Want Any More People? , #4
Galatians 2:11-14
Norman Cates tells the story of a guy who prayed every morning: "Lord, if you want me to tell someone about you today, please give me a sign to show me who it is."
One day he found himself alone on a bus. At the next stop a big, burly man got on the bus and sat right next to our praying friend. The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before he could get very nervous about the big guy next to him, the big guy burst into tears and began to weep.
The big guy’s crying got louder and louder, and then at the height of his tears he shouted out, “I feel so empty inside, I need something to give me peace, I need to be saved, and I need someone to show me how to get to the Lord. Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?"
He then turns to the Christian and pleaded with him, "Please can you tell me about Jesus, can you show me how to be saved?"
With that the Christian immediately bowed his head and prayed, "Lord, is this a sign?"
Ralph Parlett in his book “The University of Hard Knocks” states that we as Christians need to quit praying for opportunities and begin praying for optometrists.
Truly the fields are white for harvest but so many of us are stuck in the ought a Gap. Remember what the Hebrew writer wrote in Hebrews 5:12
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
You see like we have discussed over the past few weeks it is that ought a gap that keeps out
people that I fear.
people of a different race.
And people who haven’t been through the same process of growth that I have. Just like our first century brethren we want the church to grow but… And that’s why we have the gap.
Tonight I believe that we all want the church to grow because we know that growth is normal.
From the very creation of the universe growth has been imprinted into the earth. As early in Scripture as Genesis chapter one we are taught this.
And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 11-12)
But we know that the laws of sowing and reaping are not just true in the garden but spiritually this law is true as well.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. (Galatians 6:7-9).
This church and you individually will reap what you sow. If the church is not reaping benefits, if souls are not being added to the kingdom, the law of sowing and reaping says there can only be two reasons:
1) We are sowing bad seed
2) Or we are not sowing at all.
Now according to 1 Peter 1:23 we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God. So if we are truly sowing the good news it is not a seed problem. That only leaves one choice.
Unfortunately there are many in the church today who refuse to sow, for the very same reasons that troubled the first century church. That’s why the Hebrew writer had to discuss the ought a gap.
You see I might not want people in this church that my friends don’t want. Now I know we are all adults here and that might sound a little High Schoolish but if we were to be totally honest with one another it’s a struggle, and the struggle is not new.
His name was Michael and he stood 6 foot 3 and weighed a good 200 pounds. The hair on the top of his head was Tennessee Orange and if he was Christ like is was because of the prophecy found in Isaiah 53:2 “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.”
To say the least Michael and I were nothing alike, he was two years older that I was and once he wore a Star Trek uniform to Church and it wasn’t even Halloween. And I guess you could say that we weren’t friends. I had worked very hard for my status in my High School and spending time with someone like Michael could ruin that in a moment.
The summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year the church we attended was going on a Mission Trip to Miami Ohio, right outside of Cincinnati. We had to buddy up 4 to a room and as luck would have it there were only 3 in my room and Michael needed a Roommate. Our Youth Minister told us that we didn’t have a choice, Michael was going to be in our room.
To make a long story short I learned to appreciate Michael, and we did spend some time together that summer. Sure he started his prayer every night Star Date 0610, but he did have some wonderful qualities.
When the fall came the unbelievable happened. The first day of school Michael came and sat down with me at lunch, completely uninvited. I was mortified and as my friends got up to leave I joined them. Nothing else was said and on Tuesday Michael went and ate somewhere else. Wednesday night I said hi to him and asked him how his classes were and he told me something I can still hear ringing in my head today. “Why am I good enough to talk to at church but not good enough to sit by in school.” I didn’t have a good answer then and I still don’t today.
As I said this is not just a high School problem any more than it is a 2004 problem. You see Peter struggled with these same issues. We have discussed in the past how Peter was used by God to bring about the first Gentile convert. And how as long as Peter was in Caesarea he didn’t mind eating, studying, and visiting with the Gentiles but when he got back among his Jewish friends the story was a little different.
In Galatians 2 the Apostle Paul gives us a little insight to the struggle.
But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (Galatians 2:11-14).
Now I, personally, may not mind being associated with certain people, but there is a inner struggle of “if my closer friends don’t want them, I’ll ignore them around my closer friends.” That has existed for years.
Even our Lord was involved with this as the religious leaders in Jesus’ day felt this tension.
Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. (John 12:42,43).
You see Jesus was criticized for the people He associated with. And to be honest he associated with some winners.
Tax collectors and sinners.
Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples--for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard this, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."
A woman who was a notorious sinner. Luke 7:36-39
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, "If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!"
Our problem today is unless we can figure out a better and easier way to carry out the will of God than Jesus did, we will have to face the ridicule and criticism of good people.
Jesus faced persecution for loving the unlovable. There was not a God fearing Jew in the first century that wanted God’s love to be extended to the Gentiles, and because of that Jesus was persecuted. If we are truly to be about the Fathers business of sharing the good news and loving the unlovable as Christ did then we need to take His words to heart that are found in John 15:20:
Do you remember what I told you? ’A servant is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you!
Christ’s promise is just as true today as it was 2,000 years ago. If we are truly trying to walk in the steps of the Savior then we will also feel the persecution that He felt.
Now as we close tonight I need to make this one last point. And if you take nothing else from here tonight I need you to take this.
Unfortunately we live in a world that has it’s priorities mixed up. Someone somewhere told you that you were better, smarter, faster, better looking that someone else. It might have been your wife, first boyfriend, dog or it might have been your grandmother.
Or maybe someone told you that you were not as good, or pretty, or smart. Whatever you were told, whether you want to or not it has helped shape who you are. And while I am not here to tell you that I’m OK and you’re OK, I am here to be totally honest with you.
We all want to be normal, but the writers of the scripture insist that no one is normal, at least not as God describes normal. God says “All we like sheep have gone astray.” And it is that going astray that makes us the unlovable that Christ died for.
I like what John Haddington said, "I have been comforted for more than 20 years by the thought that Jesus welcomes, not only sensible sinners, but stupid ones as well."
Jesus came into the world & saw sin as it really is - with all of its heartache & filthiness. He died because of the sin but He always had great love & compassion for those who sinned. He was the great community builder. He understood what it was to see people with their weirdness and accept them anyway. And in His acceptance He made us what we want to be.
So let’s end tonight with by asking the same question that Paul confronted the church at Galatia with:
Are you trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or are you trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
