Introduction:
A. I want to begin by using an illustration from Israel’s history as a backdrop for our lesson today.
1. The story is covered in 2 Kings chapters 6 and 7.
2. Sometime around 850 B.C., Joram was king of Israel, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and laid siege to Samaria.
a. There was a great famine in the city and it lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for 80 shekels of silver. (This was a very high price for one of the least desirable parts of the donkey.
b. Things got so bad in the sieged city that people were turning to cannibalism.
c. The king was so upset when he heard about the cannibalism that he tore his robe, and pledged to have Elisha the prophet killed that very day. For the king considered Elisha in some way responsible for the conditions in the city.
3. When the king sent a messenger to apprehend Elisha, the prophet gave the messenger a message for the king from the Lord, “About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel.”
a. In other words, the prices are going to return to normal, which must mean that the siege will end.
4. Now there were 4 men with leprosy who sat at the entrance to the city.
a. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’ – the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
b. So, at dusk the four lepers got up and went to the camp of the Arameans.
c. When they arrived they found the camp deserted.
d. Little did they know, but the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, and so they abandoned their tents and horses and donkeys.
e. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
5. The four lepers entered the camp and ate and drank and began carrying the silver, gold and clothes to a hiding place.
6. After doing this for a while, they said to each other, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves…let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.
7. So, they awoke the king and told him that the enemy was a threat no more, and that the city had been saved.
8. Just imagine how happy the people of Samaria must have been when they heard the good news!
B. Today we are going to talk about being faithful in sharing the good news.
1. We cannot be considered faithful before our God without being faithful in this aspect of discipleship.
2. How wrong it would be for us “lepers” with the death sentence of sin, to find salvation and keep it only for ourselves!
3. Like the lepers in this story, we must recognize that we have good news that must be shared with others.
4. With the rest of our sermon time, let’s talk about having the right perspective, the right passion, and the right presentation.
I. The Right Perspective
A. Billy Graham once said, “The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided. Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generation, and we cannot bear the full responsibility for the next one; but we do have our generation. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age.”
1. Jesus said it this way, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Mt. 9:37)
B. We have the wrong perspective when we are thinking that the harvest is not plentiful, when we are thinking that no one is interested in spiritual things.
1. There are always people who are searching for God, and our God is always drawing people to Him.
2. Now it is true that those who are searching today, may be searching for God in less traditional ways, but they are searching nonetheless.
C. The need certainly could not be greater.
1. There are more and more people inhabiting this earth.
2. By percentage, fewer are turning to Jesus for their spiritual needs.
D. So, if we are going to have the right perspective that will lead to faithfulness in sharing the good news, then we need to be thinking these kinds of things.
1. We need to be thinking that the lost are truly lost.
2. Those who have not put their trust in Jesus will not be saved and spared on Judgment day.
3. The road to heaven is truly a narrow one. All roads do not lead to heaven.
4. So many people are perishing, and they don’t even realize it.
E. The right perspective not only includes an understanding of the plight of the lost, but the power of the gospel.
1. To think wrongly is to think that Scripture has no power to convince and convict.
2. To think rightly is to think that the message of Jesus can still lead to salvation.
3. Paul declared in Rom. 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of every who believes…”
4. Heb. 4:12 reminds us that “…the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
5. Isaiah 55:11 says, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which it sent it.”
6. So, let’s work on having the right perspective – the lost are lost, but the word can touch their hearts.
II. The Right Passion
A. I have seen a lot of people over the years who have caught a passion for some life-changing product or program.
1. When that happens, they put all their energy into the thing and into converting others to it.
2. You know what I’m talking about. Maybe the person has gotten involved in Amway or some other pyramid, multi-level marketing scheme.
3. Maybe they have found some natural food supplement or fad diet.
4. Or maybe they have been listening to some guru.
5. Whatever the product or program is, they are sold on it and they want everyone they know to be sold on it.
6. We might find them a bit irritating, but we have to admire their passion.
B. Having found Christ, all of us have found the greatest person and program (if you want to think of it like that) that there is.
1. In Christ we have found the solution to all our problems and the supply of all of our needs.
2. He is the real thing. (Sorry Coca Cola)
3. In him we have found something to live for and die for.
4. Like the starving lepers we talked about earlier, we have found not only what we need, but what others need.
5. To keep it to ourselves would be like finding the cure for cancer and keeping it to ourselves.
6. An elevator operator at a hospital in Nashville one said, “I’m just a nobody, telling everybody, about somebody, who can save anybody.”
C. In our Scripture readings today we saw the passion of the early Christians.
1. They had found Jesus and there was no way they were going to keep it to themselves.
2. Not even when punished and promised further punishment would they be silenced.
3. They said things like, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20)
4. What a wonderful example they have left us – “They never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.” (Acts 5:42)
D. Have we caught that kind of passion?
1. Do we really appreciate what we have found in Jesus enough to want to share it with others?
2. Jeremiah said, “his word is in my heart like a fire…I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jer. 20:9).
3. Having the right kind of passion begins with appreciating what God has done for us, and then wanting to tell others what God can do for them.
4. The right perspective and the right passion will hopefully lead to the right presentation.
III. The Right Presentation
A. This is often where we get overly concerned.
1. We say or think things like: “I don’t know what to say, or how to say it” or, “What if I say it wrong?”
2. Let me try to relieve a little bit of the anxiety we sometimes have. Saying something for or about Christ is better than saying nothing.
3. God can and will work with and through our attempts to point people in the right direction.
B. Ultimately, what we want to do is to point them to Jesus.
1. Jesus is the Savior and the source of salvation.
2. Acts 4:12 says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
3. The story of Jesus is truly a compelling story. It is a story of love and sacrifice. The story of a man with a mission and unequalled character and courage.
4. I’m convinced that if we simply tell people the story of Jesus, he will capture their hearts.
C. So, what is the good news that we must be faithful in sharing?
1. It is the news of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. (1 Cor. 15:1-5)
2. Implied in this gospel is that fact that God loves every single one of us and that he values us enough for his son to make the extreme sacrifice of himself for us.
3. The good news is that God is not going to count people’s sins against them if they are in Christ. For being in Christ means that we are new creations. The old has gone and the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17-18).
4. Ultimately, what we want to do is to make people thirsty for Jesus and what he offers.
5. The story is told of a salesman who was talking about a sale that he lost. He flippantly said to his boss, “Well, I guess you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
a. His boss corrected him, “Your job is not to make him drink, but to make him thirsty, so that he will want to drink.”
D. Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth and part of what he meant by that is that we, being salty, can make others thirsty.
1. We make them thirsty by telling our story which illustrates what God can do in a person’s life.
2. And we tell them Jesus’s story.
3. One way to tell that story is to simply read it with them.
4. Invite someone to read one of the gospels with you. It will change both your lives.
5. In the Gospel of John class I have been attending on Sunday mornings, we are watching a new movie about Jesus that is based on John’s gospel.
6. It is such a high quality portrayal of Jesus, that I’m convinced that encouraging someone to watch this movie could wet their appetite and point them toward Jesus.
Conclusion:
A. Our God is so faithful, and he calls us to be faithful.
1. One aspect of our faithfulness is being faithful in sharing the good news about Jesus.
B. God has custom-designed each of us with a unique combination of personality, talents and background, so that he can use us to reach out in fashions that fit our design.
1. Some of us are designed for a confrontational approach – direct, bold and to the point.
2. Others are designed for an intellectual approach – reasoned and didactic.
3. Some of us are designed for the testimonial approach – like the man who Jesus cured of his blindness in John 9. He didn’t know much theology, but he could say, “One thing I know; I once was blind and now I see.”
4. Others of us are designed for the invitational approach - like the woman in John 4 who went and invited her friends to come and hear the man “who told me everything I ever did.”
5. Then there’s those of us who are designed for the service approach – like Dorcas in Acts 9 who witnessed by serving others in Jesus’ name, making clothes for the needy and helping the poor.
6. The method is not the critical factor, but being busy and faithful in reaching out is critical.
7. We are all likely going to have to get out of our comfort zones a bit to reach out, but that’s what following Jesus is all about.
8. It’s about growing and risking because of the love of God and for the sake of others.
9. So, ask God to help you develop and use as many of these approaches as possible.
C. The perishing need to be rescued, will we be faithful in throwing them the lifeline?
1. Let’s surrender all and step back and watch God use us in rescuing the perishing.
2. There is nothing more wonderful and exciting than sharing the good news and seeing people give their lives to Christ.
3. Those who have had a part in leading a lost soul to Christ know what I mean.
4. Lord, help us to be faithful in sharing the good news. Amen!
