Untitled Sermon (2)

INTRODUCTION:

I want us to think about missionaries. We all probably know of missionaries. Christians who are so passionate about God, and about helping others to know God and experience his love, that they’ll move to a place (which becomes their “mission field”), a place they may never have been and maybe can’t speak the language. They do that for the sake of the mission. And in their mission field, what do missionaries do? Well, they befriend people who are far from God, in hopes that they might become friends with God.

And often they do this at a huge personal cost. In fact, it sometimes cost them their lives. It was said of Cortez when he came to the new world he burned his ships to motivate his men, so there would be no turning back. Back in the early Twentieth Century there were a group of missionaries known as “one way missionaries” because they packed all their earthly belongings into coffins and purchased one-way tickets when they departed for the mission field. They knew they would never return home. Best case scenario was that they’d be accepted and be able to live with the people there, and help those people get close to God. But often it didn’t go so well, and they would be killed upon arrival. The story is told of one such missionary named A.W. Milne who felt called to a tribe of headhunters in the New Hebrides. All the other missionaries to this tribe had been martyred, but that didn’t keep Milne from going to them. He lived among the tribe for 35 years and never returned home. When the tribe buried him, they wrote the following epitaph on his tombstone: “When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.”

I want us to think about missionaries today, because I want us to think of ourselves as missionaries. I hope you leave today realizing that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a missionary. That faith in Jesus automatically means you’re to befriend people who are far from God, in hopes that they might become friends with God. That you’re to look for places and people – in our city, in your neighborhood, in your workplace or school – places and people where is no light, and you are to be the light, so that soon there will be no darkness.

We’re going to look at two stories in the Bible today. Both are in Luke, chapter five.

WHATEVER IT TAKES

In the first story we’re going to see that we need to do whatever it takes to get our friends to Jesus.

Luke 5:17-26, "One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. **Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”**

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? ** Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” **Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.” Go to blank

So in this story we find a man who was handicapped. He was paralyzed. And, by the way, the way people thought back then, the fact that this man was handicapped made him the kind of person most everyone assumed God was not for, and who you weren’t supposed to be friends with. The philosopher Aristotle wrote: “Let there be a law that no deformed child shall be raised to adulthood.” In Rome, in the fifth century, there was actually a statute on the books that read, “Quickly kill a deformed child.” But despite that, this guy had some amazing friends. Some friends who knew, despite what others might have thought, that God was for him. And if you put yourself in the sandals of these friends, what you’re seeing is an opportunity to change your friend’s life by getting him to Jesus. And these friends were willing to do whatever it took to get their friend to Jesus. What are we willing to do to get our friends to Jesus?

So they carry their friend to the place where Jesus is teaching. And when they get there they find that the house is completely packed out. They can’t get in. And they’ve got to be so frustrated. They know their friend needs to see Jesus. And one of them must have said, “Guys, we have to figure out a way to get our friend in there to see Jesus!”

I like how a preacher named John Ortberg pictures the conversation going at this point. The natural leader kind of guy in the group might have said, “Let’s brainstorm, and remember guys, when you’re brainstorming, there’s no such thing as a bad idea.” And one of them, the one who was usually considered not the brightest bulb, says, “Dudes, I’ve got an idea! What if we make a like a hole and lower him through the roof? Whoaaaa, that would be awesome!” And the leader guy says, “Any other ideas?” But there aren’t any. The hole in the roof idea is the only thing they can come up with! And they realize it’s kind of an unorthodox way to enter a room, but they have to get their friend in to see Jesus. So these guys climb up to the roof and get to work.

Now put yourself inside the house for a moment. What you’re seeing is Jesus teaching. Then, all of a sudden, some dust kind of falls, and you don’t really think much of it. But then there’s this piece of something that out of nowhere lands next to you. So you look up and see there’s a crack in the ceiling. Then you realize: there are fingers coming through that crack! Pretty soon that crack becomes a hole, and it’s getting larger and larger and there are now eight hands digging at it. Then you see several smiling faces, and one very nervous one, which belonged to a guy lying on a mat.

Well, finally the hole is big enough for these guys to get their friend through, so they lower him on the mat to Jesus. And, just as they suspected, getting their friend to Jesus makes all the difference in his life. He leaves by walking out of the room, and he walks out with his sins forgiven.

The friends saw an opportunity. The people in the house saw a man lowered through a hole in the roof. I love what we’re told Jesus saw. Verse 20 says that Jesus “saw their faith.” Whose faith did Jesus see? The friends. He saw it through the fact that they were willing to do whatever it took to get their friend to Jesus. The Bible says, in Galatians 5:6(b), “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” That’s what Jesus saw. Faith, expressing itself through love. Because if you love someone, you’re going to do whatever it takes to get that person to Jesus. And that’s exactly what these friends did.

But what about you and me? Most of us would say we have faith. But can Jesus see it? The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. And if you love someone, you’ll do whatever it takes to get that person to Jesus. Is that you? Does that describe your life?

It should, because if you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re a missionary. You befriend people, do think about their relation ship with God?

WHEREVER, AND WITH WHOMEVER

Let’s look at the second story, in which we’ll see that not only do we need to do whatever it takes, we need to do it wherever, and with whomever we can. We find this story in the very next verses. Luke 5:27-28, "After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him."

So in this story we meet a tax collector named Levi. Let me give you some background on this: At the time, Rome’s Kingdom extended from England to India. Movies today make ancient Rome seem rather sexy, but it was a ruthless empire that conquered the world by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. Roman soldiers would enter a new town, put up a statue of Caesar and command the people to bow down and worship. Anyone who refused would be massacred. There are accounts of thirty to forty thousand men, women, and children being impaled at one time on poles outside their home town. Once they established their authority, Rome would tax the people. An astronomical amount of money was required to fund Rome’s massive army. Historians estimate that the average Jewish household would pay ninety percent of their income in taxes to Rome. So Jewish people, who believed they were called by God to be their own nation, were ruled by Rome’s iron fist. And they were paying ninety percent of their income to fund the Roman army who had come in and killed scores of Jewish people and continued to oppress them. What the Roman Empire would do is they would find a couple of Jewish people who were willing to be the tax collectors. So it would be Jewish men, who would collect the taxes, 90%, from the Jewish people and give it to the Roman empire to pay for their military who had come in and killed so many Jewish people. And tax collectors were also known for charging a little extra to line their own pockets.

Can you imagine how much the tax collectors were despised? They were considered traitors. And it’s not just that they had betrayed their own people. It was worse because their people were God’s people. The Jewish people were the one’s who believed in and worshipped God. And so the tax collectors had not only betrayed their own people, they had betrayed God. They were the worst sinners in town.

And it’s Levi, a tax collector, who Jesus calls and asks to be one of His disciples. Can you even begin to imagine how shocking that was? Levi was probably the last person in that town the people would have expected Jesus to call, and the last person who deserved to follow Him. But Levi is exactly who Jesus called.

This is what the religious leaders hated about Jesus. They thought good people were supposed to separate themselves from the bad people. And so they couldn’t stand the fact that Jesus hung out with the bad people. In fact, one of the things they called Jesus was “A friend of sinners.” They meant it as a put down. What they didn’t understand was that Jesus came to be a friend of sinners. He came to befriend people who were far from God, in hopes that they might become friends with God.

Let’s check out the rest of the story: Luke 5:29-32, "Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus befriends Levi, and Levi’s automatic response is to get his friends to Jesus. In a sense he had no choice, because his friends needed to experience what he was getting to experience.

And it’s pretty creative how Levi does it. Maybe he thought his friends wouldn’t say yes to an invitation to come meet Jesus, “Would you like to meet the Messiah?” But they probably would say yes to come to a party. And if it just so happened that Jesus was at that same party…

What about you and me? Jesus was called a friend of sinners. Could that be said of you? Jesus said he didn’t come to hang out with the righteous, but to be with sinners so they might come to repentance. Could that be said of you? Levi was creative in getting his friends to meet Jesus? How hard have you tried to come up with the best possible ways to introduce your friends to Jesus?

YOU ARE A MISSIONARY. THIS IS YOUR MISSION FIELD. **

If you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re a missionary. You befriend people who are far from God, in hopes that they might become friends with God. You do whatever it takes – even if what it takes is throwing a party that offends religious people. You do it with whomever you can – even if it’s the person who’s considered the worst sinner in town.

You’re a missionary. You neighborhood, the office you work in or school you attend – that’s your mission field. The place where you play sports, or watch your kids play sports – that’s you mission field. The store where you do your grocery shopping – that’s your mission field. God put you there because the people there need Jesus.

And let me just say, if you’re here today but you’re not yet a follower of Jesus, maybe you don’t even believe in God at all – you need to know that God loves you and wants a relationship with you. And we love you and want you to experience that relationship with him. That’s why our church exists. That’s why we do what we do. So you’ll know that God is for you.

We want that for you, and we want that for everyone in our city.

We don't have a road here we refer to as crack alley, what we do have here are are a number of people who are hurting, lonely scared and desperately seeking something better to govern their lives. There are some here who have dedicated their lives to making a change in the lives of others, are you one of them?

Where are you being called? Who is the person who is far from God that you’re being called to share Jesus with? Who is the person living in brokenness who you could serve? Where our city is there darkness, and you could be God’s light there?

Let me give you a couple of helpful hints for people trying to live out this missionary life.

First helpful hint: The best way to do this is to lead with love. The best way to help your friends get close to God is to lead with love. So you build a relationship first. But, if your not sincere, stop they’ll see right through you. Love them first. You do friend kind of things first. You find ways to serve them first. Before you try to share your faith or talk to them about Jesus. Why? Because after they’ve seen God’s love in you, they will be far more open to hearing what you have to say about God.

Could put in a story here of this strategy working.

A second helpful hint: One of the most powerful ways you can help your friends to become friends with God is by inviting them to church. That’s kind of nice, isn’t it? That it’s not all on you. Our church wants to partner with you in introducing your friends to Jesus and hopefully helping them come to faith.

So after you’ve led with love, look for opportunities to invite them to come here to church with you.

Two thoughts about that idea of inviting them to church: First, one invite doesn’t typically do it. Studies show that a lot of people won’t say yes and actually show up until they’ve been invited like five or six or seven times. That sounds weird, but it’s not really. It’s true with almost everything. On Madison Avenue, marketing people call it “six to stick.” Usually you need to see a commercial or hear about something about six times before you respond to it. So lead with love, and then invite your friend to come here to church with you. But realize you may need to invite them five or six times before they actually show up. And you can do that.

A second thought about inviting your friend to church: The invitation doesn’t have to be weird. Like, “Hi friend, I was noticing you were a sinner, and thought you should join me this Sunday…” No, it doesn’t have to be weird. It can just be a part of your normal conversation. Like, “What are you doing this weekend?” Listen to response. “Oh, that’s cool. Hey, I go to church every Sunday, maybe you should come check it out sometime. I think you’d really like it. In fact, this Sunday we’re talking about…” Or, “I don’t know if you’d be interested, but my church is starting a new series this week I think you’d really like. It’s about…” Just invite them as part of your normal conversation. And you can do that.

CONCLUSION

And you need to, because you are a missionary. And God has put you in this mission field. And you can do this. You and God together, you can totally do this.

Check this out: In 1956 a few American men decided to move to Ecuador to be missionaries to the Auca tribe who lived there. Those men were killed by the Auca tribe. One of the men was named Jim Elliot. He was a married man. His wife’s name was Elizabeth. You want to know what Elizabeth did? She went to Ecuador, to the Auca tribe, to try to be a missionary to them. Instead of hating them, instead of spending the rest of her life bitter, she decided, at the risk of her life, to try and become friends with them in hopes that they might become friends with God. And guess what? It happened. She lived with the tribe for years, and led many of them to Jesus.

Jim and Elizabeth Elliot were followers of Jesus, and so they were missionaries, and so they did whatever it took, wherever, and with whomever they could. They did it risking their lives, forgiving their husband’s murderers. And they were just people, just people who believed in Jesus and were empowered by God. And that means we can do this too. And we need to, because we are missionaries.

I want us to think about missionaries today, because I want us to think of ourselves as missionaries. I hope you leave today realizing that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are a missionary. That faith in Jesus automatically means you’re to befriend people who are far from God, in hopes that they might become friends with God. That you’re to look for places and people – in our city, in your neighborhood, in your workplace or school – places and people where is no light, and you are to be the light, so that soon there will be no darkness. ***