Title: What Would Jesus Do?
Text: 1 Cor 10:31-11:1, 1 Peter 2:21
Date: 11/11/07
Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church
Introduction: It was a beautiful Sunday morning in the little town of Raymond. The members of the First Church of Raymond were all decked out in their Sunday finest, and were enjoying another inspirational worship service.
Rachel Winslow an attractive young lady had just finished singing a beautiful arrangement of the song, "Where He leads Me I will Follow.” The pastor, Rev. Henry Maxwell stood up, walked over to the podium and began to deliver His message to the congregation.
Today’s message was on being a Disciple of Christ and Following His example. As usual Maxwell did a wonderful job of delivering the message. Just before the close of the service a man who had been seated at the back of the church stood up and made his way down the aisle to the front of the auditorium.
The man looked to be in his early thirties. His clothes were dirty and torn, he looked as if he hadn’t had a bath in several days. He turned around to face the congregation and said, "I’ve been wondering about something ever since I came in here, and with your pastor’s permission I would I would just like to say a word at the close of the service.”
First of all, I want you to know I’m not drunk, and I’m not crazy, I am perfectly harmless, but if I die, which is very likely, I want the satisfaction of knowing that I had my say in a place like this, and before this sort of a crowd."
The people didn’t know what to think or what to do about this stranger, so they just sat there and listened to what he had to say.
He told them that he was unemployed even though he had been looking for a job for several months. Then he asked them a very important question, He said, "What does it mean to follow Jesus? What do you mean when you sing, "I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way?" "Do you mean that you are willing to deny yourself or even suffer like He did as you seek to save those who are lost?”
Then after a short pause the man told the congregation that the other night he had listened to another group of Christians sing several beautiful songs. He told them that as He sat there listening to those beautiful old hymns a thought came to his mind.
He said, “there seems to be an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn’t exist if all the people who sing Christian songs went and lived them out.”
Then he shook his head and looked at the pastor and the crowd again before saying “I suppose I just don’t understand. But what would Jesus Do? Is that what you mean by following His In Steps?
Then all of a sudden the man collapsed. Rev. Maxwell quickly dismissed the crowd and a doctor in the congregation came to the man’s aid. But there wasn’t much he could do, the man never regained consciousness and died later that afternoon.
The incident I just shared with you never really took place. But it has challenged thousands of Christians around the world to take a good look at what it means to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ.
It comes from a book entitled, "In His Steps,” which was written in 1896 by a man by the name of Charles Sheldon, who was the pastor of a church in Topeka, Kansas.
This book, and another book entitled, "What Would Jesus Do?" Which is a contemporary version of Sheldon’s book that was written by his Great Grandson, were the inspiration behind these little bracelet’s with the letters W. W. J. D. on them. They stand for "What would Jesus do?"
The bracelet serves as a reminder to the individual wearing it that they are a disciple of Christ, and therefore what they say and do is a reflection on Him and His teachings.
This morning I want to use that question as we discuss some practical ways of living out our faith in the 21st Century.
I want to do this by presenting you with a number of real life situations that Jesus faced, which will also face.
1. What would Jesus do if he came across someone in need?
Of course this was something that happened all the time. When Jesus wasn’t teaching or preaching He was trying to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people.
A. One day Jesus had spent much of the day teaching and ministering to a large crowd of people near the Sea of Galilee. When his disciples came to him and encouraged him to send the people away so they could go find something to eat since it was getting late in the day and it was a remote place. Jesus told the disciples to feed them.
Of course they protested and said there was no way they could find enough food for a crowd that big and even if they could they didn’t have enough money to buy it. About that time Andrew walked up with a young boy who had 5 small loaves of bread and a couple of fish that he was willing to share. Jesus then told the disciples to have the people sit down. Then he took the loaves and the fish from the boy, thanked God for providing them, broke them into pieces, and gave them to the disciples to pass out to the people.
Of course you know the rest of the story. After they finished eating the disciples went around and picked up the leftovers and there enough to fill 12 baskets.
B. illustration:
A Seminary professor told his class if anyone wanted some extra-credit points to meet him at the Library at 2:00 p.m. for a special assignment. At two o’clock, fifteen students showed up at the Library. He divided them into three groups of five.
He gave each person in the first group an envelope and told them to walk across campus to Stewart Hall. He went on to say that they only had 15 minutes to get there and if for some reason they were late getting there that it would effect their grade.
The professor waited a couple of minutes and then gave each of the people in the second group an envelope with their instructions in it. They too were told to go to Stewart Hall, but they were given 45 minutes to get there.
A few minutes later he handed out the last five envelopes to the last five students and informed them that they had 3 hours to get to Stewart Hall.
What the professor didn’t tell any of the students was that he had asked 3 Drama students to meet them along the way, acting like people in great need. One of the drama students was walking around with his head in his hands, moaning out loud in pretending to be in great pain.
The Second Drama student positioned himself between the Library and Stewart hall and proceeded to lie down on the ground and pretend to be unconscious.
The third Drama Student positioned himself on the very steps of Stewart Hall and pretended to have an epileptic seizure.
Of course what the Professor was trying to do was to see how many of his students would stop to help the individuals in need. The results were quite interesting.
Not one of the first five students that were only given 15 minutes to get to their destination, stopped.
Two students in the second group of five stopped, but all five of the last group stopped to see what they could do for each of the people in need.
The professor concluded that time was definitely a factor.
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus taught His disciples the importance of being willing to help those in need.
Maybe one of the reasons that the Good Samaritan was able to stop and help the man who had been beaten and left for dead was because he wasn’t in a hurry, while the priest and the Levite were both living in the fast lane and simply didn’t have the time to allow themselves to be sidetracked.
It makes me wonder how many people God places in our path every day that need help, but we are so busy that we don’t even see them, much less help them.
Too often when we see someone in need instead of helping them we ‘judge them.’ We think to ourselves, ‘if they would just get a job - or stop doing this or that then they’d have enough money to buy something to eat or pay their bills.”
But let me remind you that Jesus taught his disciples not to judge anyone.
I think we can safely say that Jesus always did everything He could to help someone in need, and as His Disciples we should do the same.
2. Secondly, What would Jesus do about forgiving those who had wronged him in some way.
A. Peter came to Jesus one day and asked Him a question about forgiveness. (We find this incident in Matthew 18:21)
MT 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
Most Jewish Rabbi’s taught the people that they should forgive someone up to three times. So Peter thought 7 times would surely be sufficient. But notice how Jesus answered him.
MT 18:22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
B. Jesus practiced what He preached.
(1) While hanging on the cross Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
(2) Following the resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples along the Sea of Galilee.
The night Jesus was arrested Peter had promised Him that he was willing to die for him even if the other disciples weren’t. Yet despite his promise to the Lord, when it came right down to it Peter denied knowing the Lord 3 times. Peter is the one who denied Jesus, yet Jesus not only forgave him but gave him a tremendous amount of responsibility as a leader in the early church.
Jesus taught Peter and the other Apostles not to keep track of the sins that people commit against them but to forgive them. So as Christians, we should do the same.
3. Next, What would Jesus do about associating with people with questionable reputations?
A. One day Jesus was invited to have dinner in the home of a Prominent Pharisee. When word got around that Jesus was there, a woman, who didn’t exactly have a great reputation came to see him. Luke records this incident in Luke 7:36.
LK 7:36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
LK 7:37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,
LK 7:38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
LK 7:39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner."
B. Matthew & his friends - (Home of Matthew – invited some of his friends to have dinner with Jesus)
MT 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and `sinners’?"
MT 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
Jesus was a friend to the friendless. He was a friend to the outcasts and loners of society, and as His disciples we should follow his example.
4. What would Jesus do about people who lied or insulted him?
(A) In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said,
MT 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Jesus put those words into practice throughout his life but it was never more evident than on the day he was crucified.
From the time the soldiers arrested him in the Garden of Gethsemane to the time they nailed him to the cross they did everything they could to demean and belittle Jesus. They made fun of him, they beat him, they tortured him, they spat upon him, yet Jesus didn’t curse them or do anything like that, but as we have already mentioned, he looked at them and said, “Father Forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”
Jesus didn’t retaliate or try to get back at the Roman soldiers who had insulted and persecuted him, or the Jewish religious leaders who made fun of him and challenged him to come down from the cross. Instead He forgave them, and as His followers we should forgive those who say and do things against us.
5. Finally, Let’s consider What Jesus would do about Temptation?
The Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way. Which means he was tempted the same way we are tempted yet He did not sin.
When Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread He turned to the devil and said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Mt 4:4
When Satan tempted Him to test God’s love by throwing himself off of the highest point of the Temple, Jesus responded by saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the Test.”
When Satan tempted Jesus to bow down and worship him in exchange for the Kingdoms of the world, Jesus responded by saying, “Away from me Satan, for it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Matthew 4:10
illustration: Mark was a 10 year old boy who never misbehaved or caused problems at school. But unfortunately he never made very good grades in spelling.
One day during a spelling test he was tempted to copy off of Jane, who always made straight “A’s” in spelling. Even though Mark was a Christian, and knew that it was wrong to cheat, he did it anyway. The teacher saw Mark looking off of Jane’s paper and was terribly shocked and disappointed because she had always admired him for his honesty.
When it came time to collect the tests, the teacher noticed Mark did something very unusual. He bowed his head, and silently prayed and asked God to forgive him, and then he ripped up his paper. He decided to take a zero rather than turning in a paper in which he had cheated on.
The teacher called Mark up to her desk and said, "I was watching you, Mark, and I want you to know that I’m very proud of you for what you just did. Today you really passed a much greater examination than your spelling test.!"
Conclusion: Just as Mark’s teacher was watching him, there are a lot of people watching those of us who call ourselves Christians to see if what we say and do are consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ that are found in the Bible. Unfortunately too many times they aren’t.
Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of India once made this statement concerning Christianity. He said, "If every Christian in India lived according to the principles that Jesus taught in the Scripture all of India would be Christian today."
In the Book "In His Steps" Henry Maxwell, the pastor of the First Church of Raymond challenged His congregation to make a commitment to God not to say or do anything for an entire year without first asking themselves the question “What would Jesus do?” It literally changed the lives of those who were willing to make that commitment, and it will do the same for us today.
Are you willing to Walk as Jesus Walked? Are you willing to do what Jesus did? Are you willing to commit yourself not to do anything without first asking the question, "What would Jesus do?" Let’s pray.
