Goal #3: Do as He did - Part 2

INTRO

Last week we began to talk about how Jesus calls us, not to just grow in intellectual awareness of Him, but also to take on His way of life and do as He did. We are called to be apprentices of Jesus. To take what He has taught us and trained us in and to, through the power of the Holy Spirit, put it into practice. Jesus’ ministry continues on and is multiplied through us as we endeavor to do as He did.

Additionally we asked, the question: What did Jesus do?

Made Space for the Gospel

Preached the Gospel

Demonstrated the Gospel

We spoke at length that often times Jesus’ primary method for ministry was the table. He used meals and fellowship as a means of inclusion and invitation to the outsider and unwanted. We also can and are called to show hospitality by creating spaces for people to be invited and welcomed into our lives to see how the family of God operates.

This week we’ll speak about the second step in Jesus’ ministry plan.

Preaching the Gospel

Preaching the Gospel - (A collective groan)

We’ve all experienced times in our life where we’ve heard the Gospel preached in the stereotypical way, or at least we’ve grown up with an impression that’s been given to us of how “preaching” or “evangelism” is supposed to go. Often, when I was in high-school I would hear enthusiastic youth pastor talk about how all the people that died for the faith and “Your not willing to stand on your lunch table and share Jesus.” a lot of stuff like “Your friends are dying and going to hell, don’t you care?!”. There’s an image in our mind of what it means to preach the gospel. Whether it’s a healthy image of an Easter sermon, or a less the desirable version of the gloom and doom street preacher with a bullhorn. Either one of which the average Christian doesn’t feel super comfortable with.

In a recent poll by the Barna Group, 96 percent of millennial Christians said, "Part of my faith means being a witness about Jesus," and 94 percent said, "The best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus." But a full' 47 percent nearly half also said, "It is wrong to share one's personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith." That doesn’t even speak to the amount of people who know they should share their faith but don’t out of fear or inadequacy.

We undoubtedly live in a society where it is offensive to share any type of truth claim to another person who may or may not hold an opposing truth claim. We live in the era of “My truth”. It feels like no matter how generous, gracious, or loving you are, you still have a high probability ticking someone off when you offer them your version of any type of truth claim.

This however, is completely ironic, because everyone is preaching a “gospel”. The question isn’t, if your preaching a gospel, it’s what gospel are you preaching?

You are currently preaching a Gospel

Keto? Cold shower? Vegan? Hunter? Reader? No screen Parents? Trump or Biden? All of us are preaching a message of “good news” about a particular practice or person that is worthy of our hope, affection, attention, and direction. We believe that these things lead to the good life.

Free Pizza

So when Jesus says to preach the Gospel, He isn’t asking you to do something that’s foreign to you, or something that your not trained or experienced in. It’s something that your already doing all of the time.

The gospel is that Jesus is the ultimate power in the universe that life with him is now available to all. Through his birth, ie, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit, Jesus has saved, is saving, and will save all creation. And through apprenticeship to Jesus, we can enter into this kingdom and into the inner life of God himself. We can receive and give and share in Love Loving. We can be a part of a community that Jesus is, ever so slowly, forming into a radiant new society of peace and justice that one day will co-govern all creation with the Creator in an eternity of ever-unfolding creativity and growth and joy. And anyone can be a part of this story.

That's good news.

- John Mark Comer

Preaching a preaching a gospel is just taking about what you love. We love Jesus, so we talk about Jesus.

Remember the Gospel isn’t just that Jesus died on the cross for you sins, but also that He was raised to life to give you the power to live the life that He taught us to live.

Once we realize that the simplicity of the act of sharing the gospel we’ll find that it is essential to our “following Jesus” that we share this goodness with as many people as possible just as Jesus commanded.

But how do we share this Gospel to people that so passionately hate it? Facebook posts? Books? Handing out tracts? Maybe.

Right now we live in a loneliness epidemic. The number of Americans that say that they have no close friends has quadrupled since 1990, 54% report that they sometimes or always feel that no one knows them. In this digital age that we live in that makes it possible for us to be more connected than ever, Sociologist say that Gen Z is the loneliest generation ever. We are aching to be seen, known, and loved.

Maybe the best method in the era we live in is to see, know, and love people where they’re at. That’s what Jesus did isn’t it? With this goal in mind let’s discuss five practices that we can do to Preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in our World.

1. Offer Hospitality.

Learn to cook, order food online, whatever it is set the table and show folks what it means to be apart of the Family of God

2. Find Where God is already working.

My problem with procrastination - Everything is gonna go wrong.

Start out with the assumption that God is already working in this persons life. (Because He is) Once you do this, it won’t be you trying your best techniques trying to convince, but you will be looking for and joining God in what He’s already doing.

3. Bear Witness.

Witness = Noun, not a Verb, “witnessing” is a weird term because it’s not something that your doing as much as it is someone who you are.

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

A witness is someone who sees or experiences something important for others to know about. It simply means to tell what you saw.

Parable of the soils

Some will accept, some will reject, throw the seed. Our job isn’t to convict, convince, or convert. It’s to be a witness

1 John 1:1–4 ESV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

4. Do the Stuff

John Wimber - found of the Vineyard Church

We must be sure to live out what we preach.

5. Live a beautiful life.

1 Peter 2:12 (NIV)

12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

“Good”= beautiful, lovely, shapely

“Among” = right in the thick of

The idea was to live beautiful lives not in isolated community, but right in the midst of the world. “In the world but not of the world”

Dr. Michael Green of Oxford, in his book, Evangelism in the Early Church, argues that 80% of the evangelism in the early church was done by ordinary christians (not pastors or celebrities) and was mostly just explaining to the pagans what the reasons behind what they deemed an odd life. They live in such a way that the beauty of their light shined to the extent that people become curious and inquired about it. What should be normal to us, Generosity, radical forgiveness, healthy biblical marriages, sacrificial giving, living below our means, leading our lives with prayer, is completely counter cultural to the world we live in. This gives us a unique opportunity to “give a reason for the hope that you have”

“There is a special evagelistic work to be done, of course, and there are special callings to it, but if those in the churches really are enjoying fullness of life, evangelism will be unstoppable and largely automatic. The local assembly, for its part, can then become an academy where people throng from the surrounding community to learn how to live. It will be a school of life (for a disciple is but a pupil, a student) where all aspects of that life seen in the New Testament records are practiced and mastered under those who have themselves mastered them through practice. Only by taking this as our immediate goal can we intend to carry out the Great Commission.”

Dallas Willard

The final question for us all is this: Is there anything uniquely different about our lives compared to the world?

Would people be surprised to hear that your a Christian? Is there anything in your life that the world can point to and say “Huh. What’s that about?”

In conclusion

It’s pretty easy for a lot of us to focus on the personal development side of our discipleship to Jesus or the Family of God side of it. And unfortunately it’s equally easy to fudge preaching the Gospel to all the world.

One of the most beautiful aspects of the Gospel is that Jesus would decide to use us (The problem) to be apart of the solution, its’ one of the most beautiful signals of Grace in God’s story. We must be careful to not quench the Spirit and follow the example of Jesus by loving our neighbors through declaring to them the truth.

Do you know someone who is far from God? What face is coming to mind even now as you read? Whom has God put in your He to love and serve? Where has God placed you in relationship with people who are lost?