Becoming A person of Peace

We have been in a series called One Matters. And in this series we have been reviewing how Jesus over and over again goes to 1 person.

We have looked at the women at the well, the parables of lostness, the Ethiopian Eunuch

And you might be thinking…Ok…We have been praying for people…

We have been talking about how Jesus transforms people

so what is my role in all of this?

Jesus has a ton to say to us about evangelism

Evangelism Techniques

So in the past 50 years we have seen a great explosion in techniques to get the word out about Jesus. 

There was really an explosion of methods,

There were the four spiritual laws, a guy named Bill Bright came up with this, and this was good stuff, many people came to know Jesus as their savior using this method..

Bill Bright used to say that the four spiritual laws were so effective he would choose a middle seat on an airplane, sit down, hand out a copy of them to the person on either side of him and say, I am going to take a nap, when I wake up I want to have a conversation with you about this…

He’d wake up and the people would accept Christ…

There is another method called evangelism explosion…and it was to go door to door and to ask a series of leading questions like

If you were to get hit with a truck today would you go to heaven or hell?

And then usually there would be a push for the person to make a decision to follow Jesus

I remember when I was a youth pastor this was the method that Campus Crusade for christ used and two christians confronted me and really kind of cornered me and began asking me questions…and I knew what they were doing so I decided to play with them a little to make a point

Do you do things that are wrong…and I was like, Oh yeah, I totally do

They were like, do you believe that we as a people sin…and I was like yeah I totally do and so do I even if I don’t want to do it

They started asking me questions like, do you believe that there is a God. And I said oh yeah I believe that there is a God…

And then they said do you believe that your sin offends him…And I was like…Well it must, because God is perfect so our imperfections must make him mad…

then they were like…did you know that God sent his son Jesus to take your sin away so that you can have a good relationship with the father? I was like yeah thats awesome

Then they said, do you want to start a relationship with Jesus right now? and I said, NOPE! and they kind of were stunned so they were like…WHY? and I said,

I’ve been a christian for 8 years

And they said, well why didn’t you tell us that? and so I took the opportunity to tell them that they never asked me even my name…they were just strangers assuming that I had no spiritual background…that I was just some lost atheist…

I told them that while I loved that they were sharing their faith and wanted to see people come to know Jesus their method made me not want to talk to them

So to be honest with you as a young christian I never really understood evangelism…what it meant to share the gospel because I always thought…If thats what evangelism is

So today I want to encourage you to be bold with the truth

1 God intends his disciples to be on mission with him

So the first call of Jesus I what: 

Matthew 4:19 NIV

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

Matthew 4:19 NIV 1984

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."

The key difference I have is with the word “make” vs “send”  I think

Here is why this is important…in Greek the word poieō is “make”  but it also means “prepare to send”  but it also denotes a passage of time so the process of making can take some time…In other words going out on mission with Jesus doesn’t happen over night…

being on Mission with Jesus means that you need to be made into the kind of person who loves being on mission with him.

So the new translation makes it sound like come in and I’ll send you out…

But the original text would have been heard something like this…

Come follow me, I will invest in your life and make you to be the kind of person who will fish for men…

In other words, being a disciple of Jesus means that you are on mission with him…

You cannot say you are a Christian without being on mission with Jesus in some fashion

Being a disciple of Jesus means that you do what Jesus does…It means you will go after the one

So we see that in the call to follow Jesus there is also this implicitly stated idea that we would also be on mission and become “fishers of men” 

And then one of the last interactions that Jesus has with the disciples is  called the great commission…lets go there…

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

All Authority: Not some authority, not a little authority…All authority. This is actually a command of Jesus, we call it the great commission, but the reality is that this is the one thing that Jesus tells us to do…to go and replicate our faith in others!

So here Jesus is saying to his people…go make disciples!  Did he say, go make churches? 

No because when you make disciples or apprentices of Jesus then you will always get the church! 

Sometimes this verse is only read when you are sending out a team over seas…Because of the phrase “All nations”…but that word nations is “Ethnos”  which simply means people groups…

And guess what, “all nations” or ethnos were around in first century Israel…

Guess what Sacramento is rich with? All Ethnos!

The call to follow Jesus can not be separated from His mission to make disciples

And do you see the promise that Jesus bakes in here?

Surely I am with you to the very end of the age!

Do you see that?

So what I have been saying all though this seres is that there is nothing closer to the heart of the father than when one of his lost kids is returned to him…

Being on mission with Jesus is when he guarantees his presence!

Been a christian for a while and feeling stale in your walk with Jesus? You probably slowly and over the course of years retired from being on mission with Jesus.

You live for him, you worship him, you attend church and tithe, but you haven’t share about Jesus lately…

Well you want to feel closer to him?

Get on mission!

Be about the father’s business… Get on the same page with the Lord.

See the reason why I started with talking about the evangelism programs of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s is because these programs were great at making converts, but they were not always good at making disciples…

They were well meaning for sure and I dont want you thinking pastor Dave is bashing all of these old programs, I used to do them too! But these old programs just masked the fact that Jesus tells us exactly what to do!

But There has to be a better way!  to share the good news of Jesus! Turn with me to Luke 10

Ok we’ve looked at church models…but in Luke 10 we find the strategy of Jesus and it is totally freeing! 

Luke 10:1–12 NIV

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Team: Luke 10:1, and He sent them out two by two

See Jesus never sent anyone out alone...if you are trying to share the gospel all alone then you are walking with a leg cut off…You need a team!

Are you married and your spouse is a christian? There is your team.

At work is there another christian person there. Bam instant team.

Do you have a christian friend you play pickleball with or golf with? Instant team

When I was in high school, the christian teacher teamed up with other christian students to share the gospel because he wasn’t aloud to do it…He would tell other christian kids, hey..>So and so is hurting right now they need a friend…Hey why don’t you be praying for x,y,z they are going through a rough time…or So and so could use an invite to your youth group!

Jesus never sends anyone out alone. But I will tell you this, if you do end up being alone, Jesus says in the great commission that surley I am with you even till the very end of days

Time: Luke 10:2, The harvest is plentiful

The harvest comes at a particular time….can you harvest a crop when it is just planted?  NO! 

I can not even begin to tell you how many times I invested in people and it was just planting a seed

There was this kid named Joey who was in my youth group. PUNK ROCK skater kid. I mean this kid had hair down to his butt, wore leather on 100º days didn’t care about Jesus at all…

He only came for our skateboard ministry. But he came to our youth group…

Well one day, I had to go to his house and talk to his parents because he punched another kid in the face…

And I never saw him again…That is until years later he found me on facebook…Messaged me and told me that he used to be a punk but that little youth group skate park ministry had a huge impact on him, we planted seeds in that kid that someone else harvested and he went to bible school and now Joey is a pastor in Idaho!

Jesus tells us to have a team, and that there is a time! The harvest

Other people There have been times in my ministry where I just said if you want to follow Jesus just raise your hands and a bunch of hands went up

Here is what you can’t do…

You can’t decide when the time will be for them

You can’t knock on someone door and not leave until they accept Jesus as their savior and get baptized.

We believe that God is working in something we call Prevenient Grace…Which is the grace that comes before people believe

we believe that the Prevenient Grace of God is the Holy Spirit wooing people to choose him…That the Holy Sprit is literally doing work!

Target: Luke 10:6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them. 

See Jesus is sending us to particular people, we can just call them “people of peace” 

It’s funny, I almost never hear Jesus’ strategy for evangelism being used in America…I always hear about this being used in other countries

But Jesus tells us that we are looking for a person of peace!

A person of peace will:

         Like: They will welcome you into their home (10:7)

         Listen: They will listen to what you have to say (10:9)

          Serve: “Eat what they sit before you” (10:8)

A few years back. I did a small group where part of it was this person of peace teaching…and I spent 10 minutes talking about Luke 10 then I said…Ok. Now We are going to try this

I literally said you all have 45 minutes, We had a target that was like under .5 miles from our house so I sent them to target and said, find a person of peace!

You dont have to baptize them in the water fountain..

you don’t need to pray with them…But just find a stranger that is a person of peace…Someone who is nice to you

That is a person of peace

and guess what! Every single person came back in like 30 minutes and said…well when you are looking for a person of peace you find them everywhere

Most people had multiple persons of peace that they met

Now when you meet a person of peace what do you do?

Task: Luke 10:9 demonstrate and declare the kingdom of God.

Now Jesus sent them out and said heal the sick among you… and then tell them about the kingdom of God

He always told them to demonstrate kingdom power before he told them to preach…so might seem strange thing in America today….What do we do about this verse?

Here is what I think you do. You can’t do miracles…You know this right? Alone. You are powerless

I want to suggest that you pray for people

Here is something you can do…let’s say you are eating at a restaurant and your waitress is a person of peace…They usually are…before the food comes and not in front of a bunch a people, as long as it is private enough to feel comfortable for the waitress…you can say, hey we pray before we eat, is there anything I can pray for you for? Then trust God

I have non-christians in my life that I pray for all the time and I tell them. I am not the messiah, jesus is, I just trust him to do the work

And guess what…That leads to deeper conversations all the time

What does it mean to say the kingdom of God has come near? In our time? It simply means that you tell people that they are loved by God and he is closer than they think….

But guess what…Jesus does guarantee something

There will be trouble…

Trouble: Luke 10:10, when you are not welcomed, then leave

This is the the most feeing thing in the world

And if you have a problem with that then don’t email me, take it up with Jesus because he said it not me. 

There are people who are not persons of peace…They are not ready to hear about Jesus they don’t want you to pray for them…Nothing

I want to give you an example of this…

A few years ago, when my kids were younger I took them to the park and a husband and wife with their kids came and they struck up a conversation..>they were super nice but! They only talked about themselves…I thought, “these are not people of peace”

When they like 30 minutes later finally said…Well what do you do…

I said, well I am a pastor

They were fascinated and they asked a ton of questions

I thought, well maybe these are people of peace

And Finally they asked so many questions I said well if you are ever curious we are just right down the street, why don’t you come sometime?

They both laughed and said…”UH NO THANK YOU and they basically left the park”

I shook the dust…And I shouted, “I tell you it will be more bearable for sodom and Gomorra than it will be for you on the day of Judgment!

No I didn’t…I said, thats okay! I felt no guilt, these were not people of peace…

Jesus had a polemic against people who would reject God…Well the first century world would have understood all of these references about the day of judgment etc…

So Jesus’ Evangelism strategy

The only way this all works if you are a person of peace.  See if you’re a jerk no one is going to want to listen to you

See if we are going to boldly love this world we have got to share the gospel with it…

And I think Jesus’ strategy is actually the easiest

But also we have to know the Gospel: 

See you’re not selling a used car or a timeshare, you are sharing life with someone else. 

 What was Jesus preaching?

Matthew 4:17 NIV

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

See Jesus came preaching repent for the kingdom of God is near…he came preaching this to Jews…

Who you have to understand were eagerly waiting a restoration of God’s kingdom on earth…this would have been seen as great news…

The Apostle Paul would break this down for people

We wont read it because its huge but this is 1 Corinthians 15

God has come near!

Jesus Christ died for our sins

that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day

that he appeared

The result of that on Paul: “But by the grace of God I am what I am” 

“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

So if we are going to boldly love people I want to suggest that you team up, you pray over the right time and you finds a person of peace and share this good news with them…

How did Paul do it…Look at my old life….When Jesus and I started a relationship, by his grace I’ve been changed…

See God’s kingdom is the theology of the cross, it is resurrection, it is atonement and resurrection all wrapped up into one.

So today maybe you’re here and you living in the kingdom of you…where you sit on the throne of your life and rule all…I just want to ask you the Dr. Phil question, “How’s that working out for you?”

I want to invite you into God’s kingdom, a kingdom full of love, acceptance, forgiveness, a kingdom full of saints who used to be sinners, a kingdom of hope a kingdom of power, a kingdom of enduring suffering and persecution, a kingdom where the poor are rich and the hungry are fed…

When Jesus is on the throne of your life…then this is what you can expect…

Lets pray