Good News is for Sharing
I Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”
II Kings 7
Fear strikes at the heart of anyone who goes for a yearly check-up and hears the dreaded news that he or she has Cancer. Cancer attacks all parts of the human body. The very word “cancer” carries with it fear and dread.
What if you were a research scientist who had for years been studying the cause and effects of cancer cells. You finally discovered a cure for cancer that included diet, natural and synthetic medicine and you’ve seen it work to bring healing to all types of cancer cells. What would you do?
Would you say, “I’ve found the cure so only my family will get to use the cure and no one else.” You have made an historic discovery. You have good news. What will you do with good news that can help millions of people?
There is a similar story in 2 Kings 7. Samaria is surrounded by the Army of Benhadad of Aram. Ben-Hadad had apparently decided to starve the Samaritan army rather than attack them inside the city wall. The people of Samaria were desperate. They were running out of food and water. People were so hungry two neighbor families agreed to eat their sons. (2 Kings 2:28-29).
The prophet Elisha predicted that the famine would end and the people could have plenty of food to eat.
A page is turned in the story and we read about 4 Lepers sitting outside the gate of the city of Samaria. They were hungry and weak. Lepers were outcasts of the society. They were not allowed to live inside the walled city. Lepers were required to go bareheaded and to warn all who came near by calling out, “Unclean! Unclean! Lepers lived a shameful, segregated and separated life.
The four lepers decided to take their chances and go to the Aramean army to beg for mercy and get food to eat from their enemy. They said, “If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we will die. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
After the sun went down they crept into the Aramean Camp To their surprise not a person could be found in the camp. The Lord God of Creation had caused the army of Aram to hear the sound of horses and a mighty army on the march. They reasoned that the King of Israel hired King of the Hittites and the King of Egypt to attack. The Armeans panicked and ran for their lives, leaving behind all their food, horses, donkeys, tents and clothes.
The four lepers went into a tent and found silver, gold, food and clothes. They stuffed themselves until they could eat and drink no more. It was now the middle of the night and they said to each other: “We shouldn’t be doing this! This is a day of good news and we’re making it into a private party.” “Let’s go tell the news to the kings’ palace. While it was still dark they went back to the city of Samaria and ventured into the city. They told the gatekeeper the good news. The gate keeper woke up the king and told him the leper’s story. The King was suspicious and believed it might be a trick of the enemy. He thought, “If we go out they may ambush us.” The king finally sent five men to check out the story. The scouts saw for themselves all the food and supplies left behind.
When the news got out the people of the city, they went out in mass and filled their carts with all the food, clothes, and supplies then could carry.
The lepers by their sharing the good news made the day for an entire city of hungry people. Good News Is For Sharing.
Do you have good news? A missionary statesman defined good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as “One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
Do people in our community need good news? The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news.
I. People need Good News Because of the Fact of Sin.
Everyone needs good news because everyone has sinned. Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Because of sin everyone faces death. Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death…”
Last Sunday I explained in my message the origin of sin. Adam and Eve, representing all humanity, disobeyed God and yielded to temptation and sinned. The created perfect world became an imperfect world. From that point on of history, sinful humanity needed a Savior. Romans 5:12, “Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”
The penalty of sin carried two deaths – physical death and spiritual death.
Before the sin of Adam the life expectancy of Adam and Eve was limitless. Sin brought the consequences of physical death. Today the life expectancy is 70 plus years. Humans have lived as long as 113 years. The Bible says that as in the days of Noah so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Noah lived to be 120. It may be that when people begin to live as long as 120 years that may mark the second coming of Jesus Christ. Many other signs of the days of Noah are happening – lawlessness, people knowing about God but not living for God, and breakdown of the family. Ever since Adam physical death has been appointed to all people- but a few escaped death and went straight to heaven, Enoch walked with God and one day he walked into heaven, Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire, Jesus ascended into heaven.
The first death is physical and the second death is spiritual. Spiritual death is separation from God. Revelation 20:12,14, The Apostle John has a revelation from God about the final days of God’s judgment – “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
All who die with a vital active faith in Jesus Christ will not face the second death.
According to God’s Word do people need to hear the Good news of the Gospel? Yes they do!
2. Why do we fail to tell others the good news of Jesus?
The four lepers were tempted to hoard for themselves the abundance of food and supplies. Finally they came to their senses and told others the good news of what they had found.
• We fail to tell the good news because we are ingrown and selfish. The term “cocooning” describes many in our 21st Century Culture in America. People want private lives and shut out the world and its concerns. “Cocooning” has invaded the church. We praise God for His blessings and are happy to form our comfortable holy huddle and sing “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” We don’t want to be bothered with a messy corrupt world.
• How quickly we forget that Jesus chose to get involved. Jesus chose to humble himself and come to a sinful world. Jesus came to reveal God’s love to a loveless world. Jesus was never beyond helping a person in need.
• We fail to tell others the good news of Jesus because we are pre-occupied with our own personal lives and problems.
• We fail to tell others the good news of Jesus because we have been persuaded and influenced by secular thinking that says, “Everyone should do what is right in their own eyes.” “There is no need to get excited about people spending eternity separated from God. All religions lead to God. God is love and heaven is open to all both good and bad.
• We fail to tell others good news because we believe people are doing just fine, all they need is a better education, more funding, and with all compromising there will be peace in the world.
• We fail to tell others because we don’t want to invade the private world of people. We are to be tolerant and not offend people concerning their beliefs.
What will it take for you to begin to tell others and put into practice (I Peter 3:15) - “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
3. God’s Plan for His Followers is that they tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.
God created Adam and Eve to enjoy a perfect world. Disobedience resulted in sin and brought the fall of man, hatred, murder, strife, war, famine and disease.
God’s ultimate plan is to again create a perfect world – a world under the reign of Jesus leading all who follow Him.
There are many reasons for telling good news as a Christ follower:
(1) We share Good news of Jesus because we take God at His Word. The Bible is our authority. God’s Word is clear. Jesus gave his last command for His followers to become His witnesses: Jesus told His followers that he would be going to Heaven to create a place for them. They would not know the time of His return, But Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Because the early Christians were obedient there was spontaneous expansion of the church in an anti-Christian culture.
Can the Willow Vale Church make an impact in our Silcon Valley anti-Christian culture? Yes it can. Why? Because God’s Word is true. God’s Word is power. God’s Word is not a book of fiction. It is a book of fact.
In the July 7th, Daily Break, reference was made to the Da Vinci Code. Many people take the best-selling novel as fact. In fact the book is fiction. Central to the book’s plot line is the allegation that “lost books of the Bible” have been suppressed by the church for centuries. These so called lost books claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children with her.
The fact is, these so called “Lost books of the Bible” are not accepted as part of the Bible for a reason. All book of the New Testament had to meet a certain criteria by the early church leaders. The only books included in the Gospels were written by individuals chosen by Jesus as apostles! The books in the New Testament had to have widespread acceptance among the early church leaders. The “lost books” referred to in the Da Vinci Code do not pass the test. All the 27 books in the New Testament meet the early church criteria.
Because of sin we all need a Savior. Only Jesus can forgive sin, not education, not a new world system, not a certain religion, not science, or self help therapy.
Good News is for sharing. Years ago Pastor Samuel Shoemaker wrote a book titled, “I Stand at the Door.” This book describes what our life and ministry should be.
I Stand by the door
I stand by the door. I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out. The door is the most important door in the world – It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there; When so many are still outside and they, as mush as I, crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find is only the wall where a door ought to be. They are creeping along the wall like blind men, with outstretched, groping hands. They are feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door, yet they never find it…So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world is for men to find that door- the door to God. The most important thing any man can do is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands, and put it to the latch – the latch that only clicks and opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die on cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter – die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it – live because they have not found it. Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it, And open it, and walk in, and find Him…
So I sand by the door.
Go in, great saints, go all the way in – go way down into the cavernous cellars, and way up into the spacious attics – It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is. Go deep into the deepest of hidden casements, of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood. Some must inhabit those inner rooms. And know the depths and heights of God, and call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is, sometimes I take a deeper look in, sometimes venture in a little father; But my place seems closer to the opening…
I stand by the door.
You can to in too deeply, and stay in too long, And forget the people outside the door. As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place, near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there, but not so far from men as not to hear them, and remember they are there too.
Where? Outside the door – thousands of them, millions of them. But, more important to me, one of them, two o them, ten of them, whose hands I am intended to put on the latch. So I shall stand by the door and wait for those who seek it.
“I’d rather be a door-keeper…” So I stand by the door.
Jesus said “ I am the door, no one enters except through me.” Jesus also said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, except through me.”
Are you standing by the door? Which way are you focused, inward or outward? Are you prepared with an answer. Are you reaching out your hand in love.
Let’s commit to not being ashamed of the Gospel. Pray for your FRAN network – friends, relatives, associates and neighbors. Use all means to save some.
Make it your prayer, “Prepare my heart dear Lord to have an answer. Give me your vision. Help me to stand by the door.
Everything we do as a church we want to present Jesus as the way, the truth and the life.
Are you preparing to have an answer? Get involved in a small Bible study group – Christian Life Class on Sunday mornings, Study group on Sunday evening, Men’s or Ladies Bible study group. Plan to get involved in our 40 Days of community starting the end of September and going through the month of October.
Let’s all commit to “Knowing God and Making Him Known.”
