Recognizing and Acting on the Works of Christ.
Matthew 11:20-24
March 12, 2006
Introduction
Why Is Missouri Called the "Show-Me" State? (Adapted from the official site of the Missouri Secretary of State)
There are a number of stories and legends behind Missouri’s unofficial slogan,the "Show-Me" state.
The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri’s U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903.
In a speech, he declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."
Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.
Other versions of the "Show-Me" legend place the slogan’s origin in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. There, the phrase was first employed as a term of ridicule and reproach.
A miner’s strike had been in progress for some time in the mid-1890s, and a number of miners from the lead districts of southwest Missouri had been imported to take the places of the strikers.
The Missouri miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods and required frequent instructions. Pit bosses began saying, "That man is from Missouri. You’ll have to show him."
Resources: Rossiter, Phyllis. "I’m from Missouri--you’ll have to show me." Rural Missouri, Volume 42, Number 3, March 1989, page 16. Official Manual of the State of Missouri, 1979-1980, page 1486.
Well, today Jesus’ words give me the impression that he must have felt like he was dealing with people from Missouri.
How is that, you ask? Well, I’d invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 11:20-24.
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."
I’d like to think that I’m not very gullible, but I’ll admit that there have been times I’ve been taken in.
For instance, did you know that the word "gullible" isn’t even in the dictionary?
I’m wondering if maybe the people in these cities were ancestors to Missourians. But to an extreme.
Why? Because nothing Jesus did seemed to convince them.
But I don’t want to harp on these folks today. That would be easy enough, but I want us to look at what we can learn about Jesus and how he worked among people who didn’t seem to eager to receive him.
So I want to point out three lessons from Jesus, and one other fact that we need to keep in mind as well.
And in doing that, my real hope is that we’ll all take some of these things and make them part of our own life, okay?
Let’s get started. The first lesson we can learn about Jesus is that...
1. Jesus went out of his way to bring the message.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time here, but it needs to be noted that Jesus didn’t just set up shop in Nazareth and say, "If you want what I got, then you need to come to me and make an appointment with one of the twelve apostles."
Jesus walked all over the place, bringing the gospel to not only towns in Israel, but even went through Samaria a time or two, bring the good news to those hated "half-breed" Jews.
Why is this important? Because it shows that Jesus cared for those who either might not have opportunity to hear him unless he took the message to them.
Here in America, there are churches everywhere, and while there are many that are Christian in name only, there are plenty of places to go and hear the good news of Jesus.
Everywhere was a walk back then, and if you didn’t have the time, the energy, or the health, then you were just plain out of luck as far as that goes.
Jesus said, "I’ll take the message to them. I love them that much."
So here’s where I’m going with that:
One of my burning desires is that the individuals of this church become people who accurately and passionately reflect Christ to the people in our area.
And to do that, we need to be a church made up of individuals who, in spite of the many churches in this county that carry the good news of Jesus, say, "We’re going to take the message to THEM."
"We’re not going to wait for them to come to us, we’re going to them." Because quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, people aren’t seeking out churches much any more.
It’s just a fact of life. A sad fact, but a fact nonetheless.
They’re comfortable where they’re at, and most find enough spirituality to satisfy them in the bookstores and on TV. And needless to say, the vast majority of what they find in those bookstores and on TV is not Biblical.
We need to take the message to them if we have any hope of helping significant numbers of people find Christ.
Jesus went out of his way to bring the message.
Let’s move on to the second lesson we can learn from Jesus in this passage, and that is that...
2. Jesus gave ample opportunity to respond to the message.
Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum were the places where Jesus had performed most of his miracles. In fact, Capernaum is where Jesus made his home as an adult.
Over and over, he continually showed them that he was the Messiah, and that they needed to come to him in repentance. And he brought miracles to show that what he was telling was the truth.
He says that if he had done these things in places like Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented and come to him, but NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
These towns, who have had first-hand access to the Messiah, rejected him.
Did I say these people’s descendants might have settled in Missouri? You know, that might be an insult to people from Missouri.
My guess is that they would have believed if they had seen what Jesus did to back up what he said.
The people in these towns didn’t believe, even though the proof was in front of their very eyes.
But did Jesus never stopped taking the gospel to these people, and the fact is that he went there a number of times. He wanted them to get the message, and to receive it.
We need to show that same perseverance in our efforts to reach people for Christ.
Now I’m assuming that efforts will be made, and that’s a stretch, but folks, we gotta remember that the job lays with us, not angels and not the media.
There have been lots of people that I’ve shared the good news of Jesus with, and they have not responded.
No amount of presenting evidence, logical arguments, or whatever convinced them of their need for Christ.
But my hope is that they will continue to hear and learn about Jesus, and that someday they will come to him. I haven’t given up hope for them - as long as they’re breathing, they have opportunity to put their faith in Christ.
And just because you may have shared Jesus with someone and they rejected it once doesn’t mean that they may not find him in the future.
But we also have to keep in mind the third lesson Jesus gives us:
3. There is a consequence for rejecting the message.
Have you ever been in a situation where something went wrong, it was your own fault, and you had no excuse?
Come on! Please don’t tell me I’m the only one!
Many of you remember the blizzards during the winter of 1995-96. And for a while, the interstates were closed across the state.
And in many places, there were barricades placed on the on-ramps to prevent people from entering the interstate.
Well, for some people that’s like waving a red flag at a bull. They’re going for it, no matter what. And these people proceeded to drive around the barricades onto the interstate.
And what happened to some of these people? They got stranded, of course, and so rescue workers had to be sent out to get them before they literally froze to death.
Governor Janklow got fed up with this and imposed a fine of $200 plus reimbursing whatever department had to go get them.
One thing was blatantly clear: no one could claim ignorance, since the news of the closings was all over the place, and the barricades were out.
And there was a consequence: a major hit in the wallet. Not to mention the fact that rescue personnel had to risk their own lives in order to get these people.
Can you say, "Idiot?"
Well, Jesus is saying that if you reject my message of repentance, there will be consequences - judgment.
I mentioned a couple minutes ago that I have shared Christ with some who rejected the message when I shared it with them.
Some were angry, others just didn’t think they needed Christ, and still others thought they would give Jesus a try later on in life.
But the cold fact of the matter is that if they leave this world rejecting Christ, then Christ will reject them forever.
We cannot blind ourselves to the fact that those without Christ face eternity in hell.
And we have to understand that it’s not simply a matter of someone saying, "Behold, I reject thee, Jesus of Nazareth, who claims to be the Messiah!"
It’s also a matter of simply putting him off by not taking him seriously enough to receive his message.
And that leads me to a fact that I want us to keep in mind, and that is that...
The message is still relevant: Repent.
Folks, let me just ask you a question: why do you think the Bible records Jesus’ message to the people?
It wasn’t just so we could have a nice religious history book.
It was because the message is still relevant today. God has not changed, and neither has the message.
We are called to repent and come to Christ. But let’s get at what repentance is really all about.
I think that when a lot of people hear the word repent, they picture wild-eyed evangelists screaming at them on the streets, the TV, or radio.
Or they think of the guys in robes carrying signs that say, "Repent for the end is coming!"
But the term rarely gets defined. So let’s take a look at that real quick, okay.
Repentance means to change your mind so you can change your life.
Repentance as we normally think about is turning your life around - from living for yourself to living for God.
And that’s great, but the problem is that if don’t deal with the root of life-change, then it won’t happen to any real degree.
So what’s the root of life-change? Your mind. Now before you think I’m going all "Tony Robbins" or "Norman Vincent Peale" on you, hear me out.
Look with me at Romans 12:2 (NLT) -
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. (NLT)
Did you catch that? You should - I emphasized it in your note-taking guide.
Until you change the way you think about sin, you’ll never stop it.
Until you change the way you think about what it really means to live for Christ as the boss of your life, you won’t do it.
Does this make sense? Repentance starts in the mind. But it can’t end there, obviously. If it’s not impacting your life, then it’s not really repentance.
This is why John the Baptist told people to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance," back in Matthew 3.
Real repentance is more than lip-service to Christ - it’s living for him. But it starts by changing the way we think.
So how does that happen?
By reading and applying the Scriptures to your life, with the help of the Holy Spirit. It’s that simple. The Bible gives us the information, the Holy Spirit makes it live in us, so we can live for Christ.
But let me get back to the main message of what Jesus is saying.
Repentance is still necessary today, just as it was when Jesus walked the earth.
The message to come to Christ for forgiveness of sins, a new life on earth, and a home in heaven is just as relevant today as it was when Jesus was on earth.
And it’s up to the people of God to take that message to the people of the world.
Conclusion
This last week I did the funeral of an elderly man who didn’t attend this church. I’m not sure he attended any church, for that matter.
It was an easy funeral in some ways, mainly because I didn’t have to preach very long - they had lots of music and stuff.
But one of the hard things about it was that I could not find any evidence that this gentleman knew Jesus. Nothing anyone said about him gave any indication of a faith in Christ. In fact, everything I heard gave me the opposite impression
And so I spent a lot of the time hoping that no one would ask me if I thought he was in heaven. Because the best I could say would be, "I don’t know. Here’s what the Bible says about getting into heaven. If he followed this, then yes. But if he didn’t, then no."
No one asked me, and I left after the luncheon, relieved but exhausted.
When I got to my house, I found a message from a Wesleyan pastor in western SD, asking me to visit a man who is getting treated for lung cancer, and it looked terminal.
He also had no church background, and this pastor wasn’t even sure the guy would let me talk to him.
So after a bit of rest, I went to visit with him. I stopped by the Christian bookstore first to pick up a tract that would reinforce what I was going to share with him, and if he didn’t let me talk with him, he might be willing to at least read it. I asked the lady at the bookstore to pray for this guy and for me.
When I got to the place they were staying, they were actually expecting me. I told the gentleman that people who loved him wanted me to talk to him about how to get to heaven. "Is that okay with you?"
He said yes, so we sat down at the table and I shared Romans 6:23 -
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And I drew out a little diagram I like to use.
When I was done, I asked him if it made sense, and he said that it did. So I asked him if he would like to pray to receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus, and he said yes. And so he did.
No matter what happens with his health, he is assured of a home in heaven.
If you know me very well, you know that my favorite thing in the whole world to do is tell people about Jesus and how they can get to heaven.
And my emotions go through the roof when someone actually prays to receive Christ.
But it was hard for me to rejoice as the evening wore on, because I couldn’t get past the fact that earlier in the day I did the funeral of a guy who didn’t have that assurance, as near as I could tell.
I was heart-broken for one and rejoicing for the other.
I was grateful to be used by God in the life of the one person, especially in view of the fact that I didn’t even know he’d let me in the door!
Boy, God’s wonderful.
Why do I bring this up? Because folks, there are people all around us who have access to the good news of Christ. There are a number of churches in our area that preach the truth of Jesus from the Bible, and there really is no excuse for someone missing out on hearing of Jesus.
But folks, we also have to understand that we have a part as well - we are to take the message to people, whether they go to church or not.
We need to be willing to go out of our way to bring the message. We need to be willing to give ample opportunities to respond to the message. And we need to understand and communicate that there are consequences for rejecting the message, because the message of repentance and faith in Christ is still relevant today.
So here’s the question: who do you know right now, in your immediate sphere of influence that you can be praying for?
Someone who you can either tell about Jesus yourself, or give a tastefully done tract to, or invite to church, or whatever.
Someone who needs to hear the message maybe one more time.
I can just about guarantee that this gentleman who came to Christ last week had heard the message before. But he needed to hear it one more time.
So who are you thinking of? Commit to praying for them. This time of Lent leading up to Easter is a great time to be inviting people to church, especially on Easter Sunday.
So if nothing else, be praying that God will help you invite someone here that day and that they will accept the invitation. I promise they’ll hear the good news of Jesus.
Folks, don’t gloss over the words of Jesus here. Take them to heart. And ask him to break yours for your friends and family who don’t yet know him.
Let’s pray.
