Reach Teach Minister
Reach, Teach, Minister.
A story is told of a time shortly after Jesus was raised from the dead and returned to heaven. In this made-up story, the angel Gabriel was talking with Jesus and congratulating Him on having defeated the devil with His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, and secured the salvation of mankind. And Gabriel wanted to know what the plan was, to announce the salvation of mankind. Gabriel suggests that perhaps they should call out the angel choir and appear in the sky to proclaim to the world the good news.
And Jesus responds, “No, Gabriel, my followers are going to tell the world about Me.”
“Your followers!” Gabriel gasps. “Jesus, You can’t be serious!”
“Oh, but I am,” Jesus replies. “I’ve told the ones who believe in me to tell everyone they know about Me. And they then will tell the ones that they know, and on and on, and, well, they’ll get the word out.”
“But Jesus,” Gabriel says, “You can’t trust them! Look at how they’ve failed! Remember how scared they were when you were arrested? Peter even denied he knew You. And, this is the most important message ever! The people of earth can experience peace with God because of what You did! Shouldn’t we angels tell the news?”
“No!” Jesus says. “My followers will spread the news.”
“But, what if they fail? What’s plan B? Can the angel choir be plan B?”
Slowly, deliberately, Jesus replied, “They must not fail. There is no plan B!”
The story is fictional. But the point of the story corresponds perfectly well to what the Bible says: Proclaiming the message of salvation depends on us.
Immediately before Jesus returned to heaven after His resurrection, He told the Apostles,
“When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, New Living Translation).
And that’s exactly what we find throughout the pages of the book of Acts in the Bible, which records the history of the early Church. The apostles preached, and people came to believe in Jesus. And then those people told others, who told others, and on and on it went.
In fact, one of the great stories in the book of Acts concerns Cornelius, who was a gentile convert to the Jewish faith and was trying his best to live a life that was pleasing to God. And God sent an angel to Cornelius and directed him to send for the apostle Peter, and the angel said,
“He will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.” (Acts 11:14, NASB).
The Bible says
“Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” (Rom 10:13–14, NLT).
You see, there is no neon-flashing sign in the sky! angelic choir singing the news!
If the message is going to reach the world, the church must be the messenger,
individual Christians must carry the message.
There IS no “plan B.”
In the last few months the Elders and ministers here have really been looking at what God wants our church to be.
The main focus - to align and focus our SS program toward one goal accomplished with three simple tasks. Reaching people, Teaching people, and Ministering to people.
A lot more can be accomplished when focused on one goal.
The elders realize this and so right now I’m asking you all to be a part of this. Not just in the Sunday school program but church wide. This is our goal our focus our vision. And it all comes straight from the word of God.
The Great Commission. Jesus spoke these words after He had been raised from the dead, telling His followers to tell the world that He had risen. Look at it with me. Matt 28:18-20:
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18–20, NLT).
I. Reaching People. It is our job to reach them.
You can use the church as a resource to help to you as you share Jesus with your friends and family. Bring them to church with you and experience it for themselves.
Thom Rainer, in his book Surprising insights of the Un-churched shares some really interesting facts about new Christians.
Top three reasons new Christians became new Christians and joined specific churches;
1. The preaching was inspiring, challenging and scriptural.
2. The church had a clear focus and was clear on doctrine.
3. The church was friendly and inviting.
Very few people just walk into the doors of a church
Our job to invite them.
When Jesus said “Go” He didn’t mean you had to be a missionary in some far off country. It could more easily read “as you are going… make disciples”.
while you’re at the grocery store pick up some milk.
while you live your life, while you raise your family, while you’re fishing, hunting, shopping, talking with friends, going to school,
Any time you are with His children God wants YOU to make disciples of them.
It is our job, it is our mission, and it is the last thing Jesus said before He left this earth.
Think back when you were young, mother yells from the back door.
That is exactly what Jesus did. He left us with the most important thing there was to Him, “make disciples”.
When was the last time you made a disciple?
When was the last time you were directly involved with someone coming to Christ?
A year? Two? Ten? Never?
Sometimes I hear that people are just not comfortable with telling others about Christ. Or even inviting them to church.
How many saw the Super Bowl on TV last month? Did you talk about it after ward with anyone?
What if you got to go and watch it in person? Do you think you would tell anyone about the experience? The crowd the atmosphere, the nachos.
Here’s another angle;
Cancer, a deadly disease.
If you had cancer and found the cure for all kinds of cancer not just your own, would you tell people about it?
As a Christian you have the cure for the most deadly
killing millions of people, more rapidly than, cancer, and AIDS combined.
This disease is sin.
We know the cure, but hide it, it’s mine you can’t have it. Are we selfish? embarrassed? Or what?
Why are we not all out telling people about this cure?
Maybe you think that you don’t have enough knowledge of the Bible to tell people about Jesus. If that is the case, let me ask you this. Do you know Him? Do you understand what it means to be a follower of His.
If you are a Christian then you know enough to tell others. That is how we reach people. We tell them, we invite them.
Making disciples.
Reaching people means making disciples.
Let’s look at how to make disciples. We don’t need some book; we need no literature written by man we simply need to look at the original disciple maker.
Matthew 4.18-20
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.[1]
Jesus didn’t ask he said “follow me”
Jesus was a disciple maker - bold, there was no fuzzy, feel good, invitation to come to him.
He didn’t say “I have this thing in Cana and I thought it might be cool if you could join me, you know, if you want to.” NO he was bold he stepped up and said “Hey you, yeah you there, follow me!”
We need to do the same. We need to be bold forceful. Look at some guys in the Bible
- Andrew John 1.41 The first thing he did when he heard Jesus was he found his brother and brought him to Jesus.
- Philip – Jesus told Philip “follow me” and Philip went straight to Nathaniel and said “come and see!”
We need to reach people for Christ.
We need to be Disciple Makers!
II.Teaching people.
The second thing we look at is teaching people. It goes hand in hand with the reaching. When we reach people they need to move seamlessly into being taught.
Mat.28.20 - Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
We are called by Christ to teach people, so how do we teach them.
II Tim. 3.16&17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All scripture is useful to teach. And since we are commanded by Christ to teach, we need to learn!
We have some great teachers here in this church. And I would venture to say there is not a class that you could go to that you would not learn something in. We have Sunday school in the morning and Wednesday night classes, where we simply dive into the word of God and learn as much as we can.
If you don’t attend Sunday school or one of the Wednesday night classes I want to ask you why.
I’m not condemning you for not going but ask yourself why you don’t attend. Granted you can learn from the sermons here on a Sunday morning but is that enough? If you really want to learn and grow in your walk with Christ you need to attend a study with other people. That is where we learn the most. This is where we do the teaching. Not from this pulpit. Do you really want to learn and understand the word of God? Or are you just comfortable with the once a week one hour service? We should never be comfortable with our knowledge of the Bible. We should always hunger for more and more, the Bible is a never ending well of all that we could ever need, and many of us are simply too happy where we are to discover how much more there is.
We are called to teach people. But how can we, unless we know what to teach. You know enough to begin the journey as a Christian but we need to continue.
Not only is diving into the word important so we can teach, and that should not be the reason you do it. Getting into the word is your time to connect with God. And if we are serious about doing what we are commanded by Christ in the great commission then we need to connect with God. Because this is how it works, before we can get any of this done we need to Connect with God ourselves. Then stay connected through prayer and His word and studying it with other Christians.
We need to;
Connect with God
Connect with others
Connect others with God.
And when we get this all started in our own lives we then need to follow it with ministry.
You may not realize it but if you are a Christian you have a ministry. You are a minister of God. You’ve been called to be one by Him. Maybe not in the pulpit but in your life. As a Christian your life is your ministry. And we need to know how to minister to others.
III. Ministry
One of the best examples of ministry other than Christ in the Bible is found in Luke 10 The good Samaritan.
(read Luke 10.30-37)
To minister means to give aid or service. It means to serve others, that is what your ministry is about.
When Israel was far from God, the prophet Jeremiah called the people to repentance. He promised God’s forgiveness and blessing on the nation if the people would turn to God. Listen to Jeremiah 3.15
“ Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.”
This morning as you think about your ministry, because you do have one, ask yourself this question: Am I conducting my ministry with a heart like god? Am I a shepherd after His heart?
People with a heart like god are compassionate and sensitive to the needs of those they minister to. The Bible tells us on more than one occasion, that Jesus showed compassion for the people. One of those scriptures is Matthew 9.36
“ When He saw the crowds He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
When was the last time your heart was broken because of the spiritual condition of others.
God’s heart is full of compassion and love for His children. If you minister with His heart, you will have that brokenness that will encourage you to serve Him with all your heart.
Out of a heart that grows in Christ comes a heart for the people that you are called to minister to. As you hear from god through prayer and His word and speak the truth in love, you demonstrate your heart for God’s people. And then you carry out your God-given ministry for His glory. People can clearly see when you minister with a heart like His.
So:
Reach people
Teach people
Minister to people
Connect with God
Connect with others
Connect others with God
The best thing about this, and moving people through this, is it is perpetual, those you reach and teach and minister too will then reach others teach others and minister to others, and it never ends, if we do it. But in order for it to never end it Has to start because there is no PLAN B!
Challenge to write the name of the person on you bulletin.
I want to pray for you before we sing our invitation song today.
During this invitation, I want you to think about whoever the person was that you thought about earlier, that needs to know about Jesus, and I hope you will commit yourself to praying all this week about bringing him or her to church, and about God preparing their heart. But right now, let me pray for you.
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