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Let us
pray: Take my lips and speak through them. Take our thoughts
and think through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire
with love for you. Unless you speak, nothing of significance
will be spoken. Bring us your word, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Tonight
we continue our look at faith sharing. Let's begin with the
tough questions: Why should others be Christian? Why should
we tell them about God? What right do we have to change them?
We've
all had images of self-righteous Christians who "shove"
their religion down others' throats. It's downright rude.
And if there's one thing we Methodists can't stand to be,
it's rude. Yet, if we take the message of Christ in the Gospels
seriously, there's no way we can separate faith sharing from
our Christian experience. The first Christians didn't separate
"evangelism" from who they were in Christ. Faith
sharing was as natural as breathing. Evangelism, or faith
sharing, is normative for the Christian experience. Faith
sharing is not a program of the church; it is the other way
around! The church structures itself around how to share the
good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus called us the light of the
world. A light cannot help but shine. If that is what we are,
we cannot help but shine in the world. We cannot hide under
a bushel, we cannot let Satan blow us out, we have to shine
everywhere we go, till Jesus comes, I'm gonna let it shine!
Why are
we so reluctant? After all, it is only through the ministry
of faith sharing that people are introduced to the good news
of Jesus Christ! No one would be here tonight, were it not
for someone sharing their faith with us and bringing us to
this point.
Why share
faith? Last week we saw that, from cover to cover, the Bible
is a missionary book about a missionary God seeking to call
and create a missionary people. There is another reason for
sharing faith: to respond to the need of humanity. People
need the Lord.
Last week
we compared ourselves to Jonah, possibly the first Methodist,
so reluctant to share his faith that he jumped ship to get
away from having to do it. Please note, however, that there
was no pulpit committee in Nineveh. The citizens there did
not hold a council meeting and call for a missionary to come
tell them about God.
Why should
we tell them about God, when they don't want to hear it? Because
the Gospel is not a hammer, it's medicine. Our world needs
it, because of the reality of sin. The human race turns away
from God in disobedience. This broken relationship results
in alienation and isolation. Sin is separation from God. It
is a tragic consequence of our self-will and disobedience.
We wind up captive to our own distorted vision of ourselves,
others and the world. It's as though we are born into a family
with an enormous pile of overdue bills, and each one of us
adds our own stack of debts to the heap.
It's not
hard to see that the world is not the way God originally designed
it. The reality of sin hits hard. It causes pain, death, brokenness
and injustice. And it's people against people. You can see
the need for raw human nature to be changed through Christian
conversion. We are called to share faith because of human
need and human worth. People need a fundamental change that
Christ offers: a change that turns us from darkness to light.
Sharing
faith is determined by my understanding of the nature of faith.
Christian faith is putting beliefs into actions that are centered,
personal and relational.
First,
Christian faith is centered. We have a particular object of
our faith. Christian faith is not faith in general. It is
not what many people think, "It doesn't matter what you
believe, as long as you believe something." According
to the scriptures, the object of our faith is the living God
revealed in Jesus Christ. It is Christ-centered. The object
of our faith is not a philosophy of life, nor a system of
ethical ideals, nor a doctrine. It is Jesus Christ.
Second,
Christian faith is personal, for two reasons. Faith is personal
because it is centered in a person; its object is a living
person. Jesus is a living person because of the resurrection.
It means Jesus Christ is alive right now! It is also personal
because it requires a personal response. We have the sacred
right to choose to reject or accept owning that faith for
ourselves. That goes for those we love as well. They have
the sacred right to own that faith for themselves. Even our
children come to an age when they must choose for themselves.
Third,
Christian faith is relational. It makes possible a right relationship
with God. "For it is by his grace you are saved, through
trusting him." (Eph. 2:8) By God's grace, we are given
the ability to choose faith in God. Christian faith not only
properly relates us to God; it also properly relates us to
our neighbor. Our relationship with God is bound up in the
relationship with the neighbor, and the relationship we have
with our neighbor is bound up with the relationship to God.
We cannot claim to love God while we hate our brother or sister.
(1 John 3:14-16) It also enables us to be in right relationship
with our self. They say the greatest of all human wars are
those civil wars within the human heart and mind. Our relational
faith gives us an inner peace, an inner balance, God's Holy
Spirit in us, who guides us, based on relationship.
I can
tell you with confidence that God desires us to share this
Christian faith. It is a natural outflow of our Christian
experience. God has given us a sphere of influence with which
to operate.
In the
Far East, the people place strong emphasis on the good and
evil influence of shadows. No Brahman would ever eat a meal
upon which the shadow of a low-cast person had fallen. The
food is immediately thrown out because the shadow has touched
it. They also have convictions about the powerful influence
for good of shadows. When Ghandi was the leader of India,
it is said that whenever the sun was such that his body was
casting a shadow, a mob would gather in the area. They felt
there was healing and power which came in the shadow of Mahatma
Ghandi.
All of
us cast shadows. G. Ernest Thomas tells a story of when he
was a boy. He and his father were out one night at a place
where their shadows were distinct and clear. One step and
there was a long shadow. With every step the boy's shadow
lengthened. He asked his father, "How long can a shadow
be?" His dad replied, "It depends upon the man."
Dr. Thomas said he never forgot that. The shadow we cast depends
upon how tall spiritually and how tall in dedication we are.
Our shadow is the influence we cast for good or for evil.
A boy
was getting ready to go to church when he went into the family
room and saw his father was not dressed. He was reading the
paper. The boy said, "I guess I won't go to Sunday school
today." His father replied, "You will - you get
ready." The boy replied, "No, not today." The
father said, "You've got to go to Sunday school."
"Why?" The father replied, "It will do you
good. When I was your age, I had to go." The boy resentfully
turned away. "Well, I will go," he said, "but
I'll tell you this, it won't do me any good either."
How about that shadow?
A businessman
would tell his story and cast his shadow. He was a successful
manufacturer of cutlery. He tells of his search to find God
and spiritual certainty. He witnessed to people on trains,
in public places, and later in schools and colleges. Here
is part of his story:
It takes
a girl in our factory about two days to learn to put the
seventeen parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that
the billions of worlds in our skies, each with its separate
orbit, all balanced so wonderfully in space - it may be
that they just happened; it may be that by a billion years
of tumbling about they finally arranged themselves. I don't
know. I am merely a plain old businessman. But this I do
know: that you can shake the seventeen parts of a meat chopper
around in a washtub for the next seventeen billion years
and you'll never make a meat chopper.
Hundreds
of lives were won to the Christian faith by the witness of
this one man.
Each of
us has been given a gift to share the gospel in our own words.
You in your profession have much more of an "in"
with a listener than I do. People expect it from me; how much
more powerful for you in your position to witness to the work
of Christ in your life!
The shadow
we cast may be a shadow of example, of character, clean speech,
or seeking to amplify Christ's message in your own sphere
of influence. Notice Jesus' words: "You are the light
of the world." Notice he mentioned no one else but "you."
We aren't just supposed to point at the light. We aren't just
supposed to talk about the light. We are to be light - the
light of the world. We are light. Light refers to purity,
as opposed to filth. Light refers to truth and knowledge,
as opposed to error or ignorance. Light refers to God's presence,
as opposed to abandonment by God. "A city set on a hill
cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under
a bushel basket, but puts it on a lamp stand, and it gives
light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before others, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven."
Jesus'
words here settle, once and for all, the notion that faith
is just personal. Jesus tells us to live it and share it for
all to see. Point people to God. Live it out in the world.
Let it shine.
A legend
recounts Jesus' return to heaven after his time on earth.
He returned bearing the marks of his earthly pilgrimage with
its cruel cross and shameful death. The angel Gabriel approached
him and said, "Master, you must have suffered terribly
for the people down there."
"I
did," said Jesus.
"And,"
continued Gabriel, "do they now know all about how you
loved them and what you did for them?"
"Oh,
no," said Jesus. "Not yet. Right now, only a handful
of people in Palestine know."
Gabriel
was perplexed. "Then what have you done to let all people
know about your love for them?"
"Well,
I've asked Peter, James, John, and a few others to tell people
about me. Those who are told will in turn tell others, and
the Gospel will be spread to the farthest reaches of the globe.
Ultimately, all of humanity will hear about me and what I
have done on their behalf."
Gabriel
frowned and looked skeptical. He knew that people weren't
dependable. "Yes," he said, "but what if Peter
and James and John grow weary? What if people who come after
them forget? And what if, way down in the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries, people get too busy to bother telling others about
you? Haven't you made any other plans?"
"No,
I've made no other plans, Gabriel," Jesus answered. "I'm
counting on them."
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