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This is
the third week of the series, "Faith Sharing." Already
a couple of people have told me how they have been able to
share their faith with someone, even a stranger. They even
handed the person their Faith Sharing New Testament (that
we passed out the last two weeks)!
The past
two weeks, we've looked at Christian faith and why we share
faith. First, we share because faith sharing is God's idea.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a missionary book
about a missionary God whose will it is to call and create
a missionary people. From the beginning, the quest for relationship
is primarily God's quest. God is the seeker, the pursuer,
the searcher. Salvation is God's idea!
Second,
we share faith because people need the Lord. People need Christian
faith. Humanity exists in broken relationship with God, each
other, and even within. That broken relationship is what we
call sin. Sin destroys life. Just look at all the media attention
Seaholm High School has had this week. It is so sad. We want
to say, "I can't believe they are making this such a
big deal." But we reap what we sow: from media images,
from the cultural view of casual sex and sexuality, and from
the indifferent or clueless approach we take in parenting
youth and what we allow within youth culture. "Keeping
them busy" isn't working anymore. We are sadly witnessing
the reality of sin, and lives are ruined. We must share faith
because of the seriousness of sin and human need.
We also
share faith because of human worth. We've been created in
God's image and pronounced very good. People need to hear
that! Our motive is love - God's love. We love because God
first loved us. We share because the Gospel isn't a hammer;
it's medicine. As we share faith, we need to be clear. Our
Christian faith is centered on the living God revealed in
Jesus Christ. It's personal because it is centered on the
person of Jesus Christ. It's also personal because it requires
a personal response from each person. And Christian faith
is relational because it properly relates us to God, each
other, and ourselves.
Tonight
we are looking more into the "sharing" half of "faith
sharing." Why does that sound so scary to us? Because
we don't understand the definitions. The word "evangelism"
means nothing more than "good message." When we
engage in evangelism, we do nothing more that share God's
story in the context of our story. We simply faithfully share
about God. God, then, is the one who converts people. Obviously,
the goal of faith sharing is that people would respond to
God's invitation and enter into relationship with God, through
Jesus Christ. But don't confuse the goal of conversion with
the definition of evangelism. Do you see the difference? Do
you see how liberating this is? We don't need to fret over
the results of evangelizing. We just ought to be concerned
with whether we have made known the gospel of the kingdom.
The only failure we ought to fear is that of failing to spread
the gospel of Christ's kingdom. Our primary responsibility
is to take the initiative to share Christ with others, and
leave the results up to God.
The core
of faith sharing is in faithfully presenting the good news
of the kingdom of God in word, deed and sign. We do it through
the power of the Holy Spirit, God with us, and then wait and
watch in humility and hope. In Romans 15:18-19, Paul summarizes
this point: "For I will not venture to speak of anything
except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience
from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs
and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from
Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed
the good news of Christ." Let us look at faith sharing
by word, deed and sign.
First
(and second), word and deed. The gospel must be made both
verbal and visible. In the Bible, word and deed are not separated.
In creation, God spoke and creation happened. With Jesus,
his words ring true to his lifestyle and his life supports
his words. In the early church this holistic approach is the
same: most often the early Christians proclaimed Christ in
the midst of ministries to the afflicted, in the midst of
hostile authority, in the midst of oppressive systems of the
world.
Neither
is more important than the other. That would be like asking
which is more important, breathing in or breathing out? It
depends on which was done last! The United Methodist Church
has traditionally done a good job of doing the deed of the
Gospel. We do it with the best motives, with skill and commitment.
However, we are reluctant to name the Name in whom we do the
deed.
Jesus
called us to offer the cup of cold water in his name. If we
only name the name, we are dismissed as irrelevant. If we
only offer the water, we are quenching physical thirst but
leaving spiritual thirst unsatisfied.
As a church,
and as individuals, we have got to practice both. We don't
have to be apologetic. We simply need to be humble and hopeful,
because it is God who changes people. We just need to be faithful
in word and in deed, whether we are at home, at work, at school,
or somewhere in between. Be the light. Share it. And point
people to where your light comes from, in word and deed.
Third,
we need to share Christian faith in signs. I'm not necessarily
talking about televangelists slaying people in the aisles.
Signs can be trivialized and misused, just like everything
else in the world. In the Bible, signs and wonders validate
both the messenger and the message. Signs are visible tokens
of invisible realities that are spiritually significant. In
other words, whatever gives significance to Christ is a sign.
It could be great art, stained glass windows or sculptures.
Signs pointing people to God could be a great marriage, church
structures, dance, poetry, a song, and especially the signs
of the bread and cup in communion. A sign could be as simple
as choosing morality in the face of our present culture (which
isn't always so simple!). We can offer the sign of healing
as a way of faith sharing among people who are broken or suffering.
Words, deeds and signs: authentic faith sharing needs all
three. And then we wait and work in humility and hope, and
remember that God is faithful.
Our modern
American culture is very much like the culture those first-century
Christians found themselves in. Listen again to what Peter
says:
"But
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty
acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's
people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have
received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles
to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against
the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles,
so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see
your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge."
You may
not see yourself as all that. You may say, "I'm can't
preach like Peter. I can't pray like Paul. Heck, I'm not even
a Mary!" But still, God has given you a ministry of word,
deed and sign right where you are.
Let me
close with the story of a nobody named Kimball. Edward Kimball
was concerned about one of his young Sunday school students
who worked at a shoe store in town. One day Kimball visited
him at the store, found the student stocking shoes, and led
him to Christ then and there. Dwight L. Moody eventually left
the shoe store to become one of the greatest preachers and
evangelists of all time.
Moody
preached in a little chapel in the British Isles pastored
by a young man with the imposing name of Fredric Brotherton
Meyer. In his sermon, Moody told an emotionally charged story
about a Sunday school teacher he had known in Chicago who
personally went to every student in his class and led every
one of them to Christ.
That message
changed Pastor Meyer's entire ministry, inspiring him to become
an evangelist like Moody. Over the years, Meyer came to America
several times to preach. Once, in Northfield, Massachusetts,
a confused young preacher sitting in the back row heard Meyer
say, "If you are not willing to give up everything for
Christ, are you willing to be made willing?" That remark
led J. Wilbur Chapman to respond to the call of God on his
life.
Chapman
went on to become one of the most effective evangelists of
his time. A volunteer by the name of Billy Sunday helped set
up his crusades and learned how to preach by watching Chapman.
Sunday eventually took over Chapman's ministry, becoming one
of the most dynamic preachers of the twentieth century.
Inspired
by a 1924 Billy Sunday crusade in Charlotte, NC, a committee
of Christians there dedicated themselves to reaching that
city for Christ. The committee invited the evangelist Mordecai
Ham to hold a series of faith sharing meetings in 1932. A
lanky 16-year-old sat in the huge crowd one evening, spellbound
by the message of the white-haired man, who seemed to be speaking
and waving his lone finger at him. Night after night, the
teenager attended and finally went forward to give his life
to Christ.
The teenager's
name? Billy Graham - the man who has undoubtedly communicated
the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people than any other man
in history. Remember how it began? A "nobody" named
Kimball was concerned for one of his students. In that deed
of visiting a shoe store, he changed the world for Christ.
Can anything
like that happen today? You bet it can. When you and I take
the time ... to share our faith.
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