We saw last week that since our faith has such a sure foundation on the faithful promises of our never changing God, it will affect our whole lives. What we believe affects who we are and what we do. When we see the love God has showered upon us, our lives become lives of thanks to him. So, in the coming weeks, months, years, God willing you will hear from us many applications as to how that faith affects your marriage, family, work, school, sex life, finances, free time...really every aspect of your life. But today we are going to look at one of the most important ways in which faith affects our lives.
You know, Jesus, forty days after his resurrection, before he ascended into heaven, gave some final instructions to his followers. And it’s interesting what Jesus encouraged them to do based on their faith in him. He didn’t tell them: Go and be good husbands and wives. He didn’t tell them go and work hard. He didn’t tell them go and help the poor and needy. All good things, but that wasn’t what Jesus told them at that time. You know the last thing Jesus told his followers before he ascended into heaven? “Go and make disciples (believers) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” That’s right. First and foremost our faith affects our lives in that we are now messengers of the Gospel. Not an easy thing. It’s not something that we think as being real “practical” in our lives. But it is important. So that’s what we are going to talk about today and we are going to do so meditating on the words of Saint Paul that we heard in the second reading for this morning. Now, I am going to read it again, and I want you to pick out three things: What is the message that we share? What are we the messengers like? What is our motivation?
I. The message
What is the message that we share? The most important component of “faith sharing” is the message, but before we look at what the message is, we first should clarify what our message is not. Paul tells us here that we don’t preach ourselves, or in other words, the message is not about us. If the only thing that I do as a pastor is spend all my time telling you stories about when I was a boy or about my life, I am doing you a disservice. Because this isn’t about me...and when you share the message with others, it’s not about you.
We preach Jesus Christ as Lord. A little review from last week. Do you remember what my name means? That’s right, but we don’t preach ourselves. So, a better question is: What does Jesus’ name mean? That’s right. Savior. We preach that Jesus Christ is our Savior Lord, because as we saw last week, that’s what we believe, right? And if he is our Savior, that means we need saving. And so does everybody else!
You know, I don’t want to be one of those guys who people don’t want to talk to because I come across as fanatical or phoney or as a know-it-all. But I know that some people no matter how hard we try not to bother them, will get annoyed with us when we share with them the message of the salvation, but the thing is, they need to hear it. They are sinners and they need to know it. If they don’t recognize their sin, they will never feel that they need a Savior. And if they don’t think that they need a Savior, they have no need for Jesus.
It’s like your neighbor who doesn’t like to be woken or bothered when he is sleeping. But if it is 3:00 AM and his house is on fire, are you not going to wake him, because you’re afraid that he might get mad at you for waking him up? Of course not, you’ll take the chance of upsetting him, because if not he could die. If a person is content in thinking that he or she is a good person and doesn’t need God, they are in a burning house, in danger of suffering eternal death in hell. Won’t we want to wake that person up to the danger that he or she is in?
And we can do that with a very simple message. You don’t need to study eight years in a seminary or be some profound theologian to be able to talk to others about Jesus. God has given us a very simple message: 1) We are sinners who need a Savior. 2) Jesus is the Savior that we need. Granted, to show a person that he is a sinner, we may need to spell out that God in his word demands perfection and show his law so that they see that they are sinners. We may have to clarify how Jesus is our Savior, that he came to this world as our substitute, to live the perfect life that we cannot in our place and to die on the cross for our sins. But in the simplest possible terms our message is: you need a Savior, Jesus is that Savior.
II. What is the messenger like?
But, Pastor, it’s not that easy...I don’t have the training...Nobody’ll listen. Well, God helps us out with those “concerns” by reminding us what we are like as messengers. He tells us that we are “jars of clay.” What is a jar of clay like? It’s fragile, kind of ugly. In and of itself, nothing special. So if we are just jars of clay, why does God even bother to use us? To show that the power comes from him, and not from us. This is a humbling and yet comforting message. Humbling because it reminds us that when a person does believe it’s not because of us. They don’t believe because of the jar of clay, but because of the gospel treasure that the jar is carrying.
This message does give us a lot of comfort. It takes the pressure off. We don’t have to convince anybody of anything. God just wants us to share the precious message of his love. The results are in his hands. If a person believes it is because God worked faith in their heart. If they don’t believe, it is because they in their sinfulness refused the Holy Spirit. So, don’t worry about it so much. God understands that you are a jar of clay. Share that simple message with people in the clearest way that you can and God will do the rest.
But, be careful, let’s not use that as an excuse to share the message in a non-loving way. If we present the Gospel in an obnoxious, in an in your face kind of way, people will never even give the Gospel a listen and then it is all for naught. You know, that’s the real difficult part of sharing our faith. Tearing down the barriers so that we at least have a chance to share that simple message. People have some strange ideas about church and Christians that get in the way so that they won’t listen. So, if the in first moment that we meet a person, we ask them: “Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?” Is that person going to listen to what you are saying or will he be thinking of the fastest possible way to get rid of you.
So, we need to look for opportunities when those barriers won’t be there. We need to build up relationships with people first so that they know that they can trust us. And then God will give us opportunities when it is easier to share our faith. For example, when a person is dealing with the death of a loved one, a divorce, family problems, stress: all those things, remind people of the terrible effects of sin on the world and on their lives. Then you have an opportunity to give them the comfort of how God took care of that sin problem by winning heaven for them and how he can help them resolve their sin problems here on earth. At those moments they’ll most likely listen. Then we’ve done what God asks. The results are in his hands.
Another easy way of sharing the Gospel is inviting friends to certain events at the church: We are going to have a fun event at my church this Sunday or we will be starting up Sunday School at our church, do you think that your kids might want to go? Then they will have the opportunity to hear that message of faith here in church.
II. Our motivation.
But why go to all the trouble, why worry about whether or not that person is going to heaven? Let’s look again at our motivation. Paul tells us, “We believe, therefore we speak.” He reminds us that we are, “Hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may always be revealed in our body.” Our faith attests to the fact that even in the middle of all the junk and problems in the world, we are not crushed, we are not abandoned, we do not despair. Though our bodies attest to the fact that we are slowly dying, the life eternal we have in Jesus shines through.
Now, out of thankfulness for that amazing love that keeps us from being crushed and that gives us hope when we would otherwise despair, out of thankfulness, we just have to talk about it. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of it as fire burning within him that would eat him up if he didn’t share it. When we really see what God has done and is doing for us, it’s hard to keep quiet about it. If you heard that Washington Mutual Bank had a deal that they were giving away a million dollars to anyone who shows up at the door for the next month. What would you do? You’d go down and see if it was true, right? And once you got your million dollars, what would you do next? Would you go hide it in your house and not tell anyone? No, you’d call up your friends and family and say, “I’m a millionaire, and you can be to, just go down to Washington Mutual...and hurry!” Our Daddy Warbucks in heaven has given us something that is worth a lot more than a million dollars. If your willing to call up your friends and family over money, which is here today and gone tomorrow, well, how much more for the eternal treasure of heaven?
We believe: we have the sure confidence that Jesus our Savior is faithful and never changing. Even in the middle of all the problems of this sinful world, we have strength and hope. Therefore we speak: This faith affects our lives in that when we see God’s love and the incredible gift of heaven, when we see that our friends and family need that gift as much as we do– well, we are just naturally going to share that gift with them. If you’re still not sure you can do it, read your Bibles more. God will give you all the training you need. If you have any questions or need advice about what is the best way to handle a certain situation, that’s what Pastor Carlos and I are here for, trust me you won’t be bothering us. I hope and pray that your attitude will always be the same as the hymn that we just sang:
I love to tell the story of unseen things above Of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love
I love to tell the story because I know it’s true
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do:
I love to tell the story;
Twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and his love. Amen.
