DID YOU SEE THE GORILLA?
Matthew 28:16-20
1. “Most people like to think of themselves as alert and aware. But under the right circumstances, even the most observant people can be blind to what’s going on around them.”
• With those words CBS commenced a report entitled “What You See Depends on What You Look For”
• The report focused on research conducted by a team of Harvard psychologists on the issue of what is called “inattentional blindness” – that means that people really can miss things – even BIG things – that happen right before their eyes.
• And the way in which they studied this phenomenon was to have people sit and watch a videotape with the instructions to count the number of times people in white shirts passed a ball. This message was underscored – to look only for people in white shirts passing the ball.
• At the end of the videotape they were asked if they noticed anything unusual and over 50% of the people did not notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the display, through the players, and out the other side – even if it stopped and thumped its chest.
• The point of the exercise is to demonstrate that if you are not expecting to see something, you might well miss it and also to show that it is quite possible for us to miss seeing something important even though it might be right before our eyes because our minds are focused on something else.
• A spin off result of the study is to show how dangerous it can be to be talking on the cell phone or putting on makeup or doing any number of other things while driving.
2. Well, the application I would like to make this morning is how very easy it is for us to miss some of the really BIG issues of the Christian life because our focus and attention is elsewhere. And so the question I want each of us to answer is, Did You See the Gorilla?
• And the gorilla in this case is what has become known as The Great Commission – Jesus’ charge to His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded us.
• Some Bible teachers have referred to it as The Great Omission because of the lack of mission and evangelism-mindedness that has enveloped large segments of the church and has led us to be focused more on self-preservation and just taking care of our own.
• Now those are not bad or wrong tasks. It is an excellent thing for us to care for one another and look after one another and take care of the building where we gather and its various activities.
• But if that is the primary or sole focus of our activity then we have missed the Gorilla!
3. We could compare that mindset to a Fire Department or EMT crew spending the majority of their time on cleaning and polishing and adding gadgets to their vehicles instead of getting out to extinguish fires and rescue people from life-threatening situations.
• All of us would agree that cleaning and maintaining the vehicles in tip top condition is important, but it can NEVER be MORE IMPORTANT than the work of saving lives.
• Rescuing people and getting them to safety has always got to remain the primary function of such services.
• My brothers and sisters, the same is true of the church. We are first and foremost God’s and the world’s Rescue Mission and when we forget that, we become little more than a spiritual version of Rotary, or a bridge club, or the local coffee klatch – nice societies, pleasant and enjoyable groups, but not the church of Jesus Christ.
4. I have inserted a copy of the story of The Life Saving Station [ get copy here - http://www.myfortress.org/LifeSavingStation.html] in your bulletin for you to take home and read and digest – but briefly it tells the all too sad story of many denominations and revival movements that have started out with great enthusiasm and a strong sense of focus and purpose and then over time became cozy, comfortable self-preservation societies that have forgotten their original reason for being.
• Some within the church have sought to be reformers and call it back to its original mission and either met with resistance or apathy and consequently broke off to form their own new group which eventually experienced the same tragic story.
• That was one of the reasons for the birth of the Methodist Church within the Anglican Church – Methodism was a reform movement seeking to call the church back to its mission to reach and save the lost – and so with great passion John Wesley and John Whitefield went to preach to coal miners and pub frequenters and wherever people would listen and repent of their sin and turn to God.
• But down the road as Methodists became a bit more respectable and dignified we lost some of that evangelistic fervor and gave our attention more to other matters, like preserving our buildings and our organization and the numbers of new people brought to Christ began to decline.
• And so in 1852 William Booth decided to abandon the traditional approach to church and began to take the Good News of Jesus Christ out onto the streets of London to the poor, homeless, hungry, and destitute. And thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunks were his first converts. And so The Salvation Army was born.
5. So let’s take a look at this BIG Gorilla that we dare not miss? In our Scripture passage that Joan read Jesus makes the following three specific statements:
a. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me
b. Go therefore and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you
c. And remember, I am with you always, till the close of the age
6. ALL AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME.
• What does that mean? Well, it literally means that ALL AUTHORITY, SUPREME AUTHORITY, authority over which there is no higher appeal in the entire universe, has been given to Jesus by His Father. He’s the BOSS, He’s the Decision Maker and He calls the shots.
• The authority is not mine, nor is it yours, nor is anybody else’s – it belongs to Him.
• And if you and I have signed up to be on His team (and there really is only one of two teams to be on – His and that of that other individual – what’s his name? – you know, the losing opponent), then it means that what He says goes. What He has to say is not up for debate, discussion, or other alternatives.
7. GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL PEOPLES BY TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU.
• Because He has been given the position of Supreme Commander of the Universe, he does what Commanders do – he issues commands and His command just before departing earth for heaven is for us to be a going people. Now that is very different from being a coming people.
• A coming people would be a group that says to others “Feel free to come and join us sometime” and so puts the onus and responsibility on others for coming to check out what we do here inside our building.
• Or to use the Fire Department and EMS services analogy, it would be like them saying to the community, “If you have any problem, come on over to our place and we’ll be glad to help as we can”
• A coming group of people is one that is preoccupied with its own programs and activities that help keep the group together and taking care of one another – not bad things at all, but it keeps them fully absorbed and engaged in their own preservation and there just is no time to still add another thing to our list.
• You notice that Jesus issues not a suggestion, not a request, not a plea, but a clear and unmistakable command to GO to all peoples and the way we do that is by starting where we are at – right here in Morton or Mossyrock or Glenoma – where you are.
Go to your neighbors next door
Go to the folks across the road on your street
Go to the people at the Senior Center
Go to the people in the Long Term Care
Go to the kids
• And a major part of making disciples involves talking to people and teaching them the word and the ways of Jesus. Yes, the way you live your life in front of others is important but if you are not also taking hold of the opportunities to talk to them about the Lord then you are not fulfilling a major part of your responsibility.
• None of us, I am certain, raised our children without instruction. You didn’t potty train them or teach them to brush their teeth or have good manners at the table or how to do any number of tasks and live as a responsible human being purely and simply by example. Sure you sought to back up your instruction by example – but your discipleship of your children had to include very specific sessions of verbal communication and instruction and it has got to be the same way for us in reaching out to others in the name of Christ.
• And just as you didn’t hire out that responsibility to some paid nanny so in the church that responsibility belongs to each and every one of us.
• Your pastor is not hired to be the coach, the quarterback, the scout, and recruiter for the team. The responsibility to Go and make disciples is squarely on the shoulders of every person who says “I am a disciple of Jesus Christ”.
• Fruitfulness is to be the natural result of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Child bearing was to be the natural and normal result of marriage, but sadly some couples are unable to have children for one or another reason. And that is always a sadness and indicates some kind of physiological problem. It is equally a great sadness and indicative of some spiritual problem when believers can spend their entire lives in church and never know the joy of leading someone else to faith in and commitment to Jesus Christ. Now in the natural and physical realm there comes an age beyond which we do not generally expect to produce children - but there is no such thing as "spiritual menopause"!
• Another matter to note is that when we understand ourselves to be a people under orders – humbly submitted to the directives of our Supreme Commander in Chief – that there will come times when there will be a conflict between His will and our will – that is just the nature of things in this world - and the question that then arises for us is simply do we go with His plans or go with ours.
• Anne and I faced that issue yesterday. We had already made plans to go spend the day on Whidbey Island with our family there. We hadn’t seen them in a while and the grandkids were especially wanting us to come on over. But because Anne had a staffing shortage and a larger intake of new and very sick kids, she understood instinctively that in this situation the needs of sick children took priority over our need to go have fun with our kids and grandkids.
• Of course we and they were disappointed, but allowing ourselves to get all bitter and twisted about it and let it dominate our thinking is not a helpful or productive response. You get on and do what you have to do and trust that God will give you another opportunity to do the thing with the kids.
• The same is the case with our upcoming 40 Days of Purpose. The need is there to have as many “hands on deck” as we can who are using this God ordained time to reach out to people in our communities who do not yet have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and not leaving that responsibility up to a smaller crew.
• And so we are in need of those who will help cover the prayer slots for the 24 hour prayer chain. We are in need of those who will offer to have a small group in their homes – even if it is with just one or 2 other people. We need to have groups that people who have not till now felt very comfortable attending a church, would feel comfortable to visit and participate.
8. AND REMEMBER, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, TILL THE CLOSE OF THE AGE.
• Finally Jesus reminds them and us that He is the director and the power for all that we do.
• On our own we are sunk – but as Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
• God never calls us to a task that we, empowered by His Spirit, cannot fulfill. Whatever He calls us to do, He also equips us to accomplish.
9. As you take a fresh look at the church of Jesus Christ – its calling, its mission, its purpose – may each of us, by God’s grace, not miss the Gorilla!
AMEN
