"Open Doors: Evangelism and Discipleship
" Sermon Transcript for September 9, 2001 By Rev. Dan SinkhornScripture Reading: Mark 8: 34-38
Today, we are hearing about the third part of our sermon series on "Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors". How many of you have seen one of those commercials for the United Methodist Church on TV? All right, yeah, I saw some yesterday too. You know, we’ve been watching them at the beginning of our services, or hearing it today. And it’s been really neat to have them here; but don’t they sound even better and look even better on TV! They really seem to say something wonderful about God and what we hope God will find here in our church.
Now, I have a little poll that I want to take here. I’m just curious. How many people have been to Conner Prairie? My goodness! How many people have been to Colonial Williamsburg? My goodness! How about Old Economy Village? Gotcha! Old Economy Village is in Pennsylvania; it’s not far from Pittsburgh. I’ve been there. And I would rest assured that most of you have been to some sort of a restored village of some kind or community where they rebuilt the buildings and there are people there who dress in costumes of that era and act out the economy of that day. So you know what it’s like to go to one of these places and see how things functioned and how interdependent those people were on each other.
Now, I mentioned Old Economy Village because when I was growing up in western Pennsylvania we use to go there on our school trips from grade school. It’s just down the Ohio River in a little area known as Sewickley, PA. And Old Economy Village was one of these places like Shakertown in Kentucky. It was a religious community where the people wanted to be completely dependent upon each other and separate themselves from the outside world as much as they could. And in order for them to survive, they had to have a very efficient economy. Everyone there had to play a vital part in the survival and the thriving of the community so that one person made a product that other persons might use that product which created a need for yet another product; and this efficient sort of circular motion went on and on. Everyone in that economy played an important role. And without anyone of those people being successful at their particular role in the economy, the economy might very well fail.
And that was true of another economy that I want to talk about today which I call "God’s economy". Now some of you’ve probably heard the term the "divine economy". And this is a theological term I guess you’d say, that is sometimes used to describe the trinity. But what I’m talking about is something a little different. God’s economy, like the economy that you witness when you go to Conner Prairie or Williamsburg, the economy of God’s community known as the Church—and I mean the Church with a capital "C". God’s church is the village or the community in which God does the work of His divine and wonderful economy. And God depends upon us, all Christians, to participate in that economy. Not because He can’t do it without us, but because He wants us to participate. He commands us to participate in the divine,
wonderful economy that moves people to a saving relationship with Christ. That causes us all to develop and grow in our discipleship. That’s really not an option. It’s something that we are required to do.
I want to share a story from Scripture with you that is a particular favorite of mine. This is the story found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 8. It’s the story of Jesus and the Roman centurion. And Jesus is talking to a soldier here. And I want you to listen very carefully to how the soldier speaks to Jesus and what Jesus’ response is to him. Beginning with verse 5: "When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him asking for help, "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him." The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof but you just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one, "Go," and he goes, and that one, "Come," and he comes. I say to my servant, "Do this," and he does it." When Jesus heard this He was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.." Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go, it will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed in that very hour."
I love that story not only because of the faith that it represents but the way that God affirms through Jesus in that story the authority of Jesus and the intricate workings of God’s economy. See it took a military man and a non-Jew to recognize that. This soldier understood the most important aspect of getting his servant healed and that was to acknowledge who he was talking to. And the first word out of this Roman soldier’s mouth was "Lord". Now many of us as Christians are fond of saying, "I’m saved by God’s grace. Jesus is my Savior. Because Jesus died on the cross for me, I know I’m going to heaven. I’m a saved believer in Jesus Christ." But there is another part of our relationship with Christ that we must acknowledge equally. And that is His Lordship. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. So there is this economy that begins with our Lord, Jesus Christ who gives us the commands. And by this story that I just shared, you can see that He affirms this structure of faithfulness through following a plan, through following this structure, being a part of a larger effort. Jesus expects you, He requires you to be a disciplined participant in God’s economy. That’s where we get the word, "disciple". It’s no wonder He acknowledged the Roman centurion’s faith because who better than a soldier understands discipline.
And so we are called to a life of discipleship. And part of that discipleship is to be under the authority of our Lord Jesus and to discipline ourselves to do what he calls us to do. And don’t be so frightened about that. So many people are afraid to get involved in God’s economy. They’re so afraid to do things like evangelism, for example, because they don’t think they can succeed, because they are afraid of failure, because they are afraid of embarrassment. Well the beauty of God’s economy is that our job is only to do the part that we’re called to do. You don’t need to worry about failure; you only need to worry about getting involved in the process. Your kind of evangelism doesn’t have to be like my kind of evangelism. And thankfully, I don’t have to be Billy Graham. Everyone does their part as God rules it and as God commands them to do and as God gifts them to do. We have to have faith in God’s economy. We have to have faith in the "bigness" of God. To recognize that from where God is sitting on His holy throne, He can see all and He’s okay with how you do your part, just so you’re doing it.
There are some things that we should be doing in order to succeed in God’s economy.
- The first and most essential thing is that we must surrender ourselves to Jesus. (Acts 2:38) We must repent and be baptized, every one of us, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins; and then we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it’s been my privilege before to preach to you about the gift of the Holy Spirit, but let me just remind you that when you are filled with God’s Spirit, you are given the gifts that you need to succeed. You are given what you need to do, whatever God has called you to do in His economy. And you receive that gift by accepting the fact that you are a sinner and that it is only through Christ’s gift of salvation that you can be saved and forgiven for your sin.
The first thing that everyone has to do in order to get into God’s economy is to accept God’s gift of grace. Acknowledging that no matter how hard we try to be good, no matter how well we live this life, it will never stand up to God’s holiness test unless we first accept that Christ died for us on the cross and then by His sacrificial death we are forgiven. Once we accept that with all our hearts and we are filled with that repentance spirit and we’re filled with that spirit of God that helps us know that we are a new forgiven creation, then everything else gets a lot easier. Now that isn’t to say that life gets easier, but your ability to cope sure improves. And certainly your ability to do what God called you to do improves.
God gives you gifts; and you pray daily for the increasing of those gifts through the power of His Holy Spirit. It is possible to become things you never dreamed you could be. I’m a testimony to that! Ten years ago the last thing in the world I imagined doing
is standing here on Sunday morning bringing you God’s Word. But God makes us able to do things we didn’t know we could do.
- Another thing that we have to be doing, and for many this is a very natural response to what happens in the first thing, and that is telling about Jesus. We need to be telling people about Jesus. Tell everyone we know! Don’t be ashamed to talk about Jesus. Our Scripture reading that Reverend Mike gave us, made it very clear that if you’re ashamed to talk about Jesus you risk Jesus saying that He’s ashamed of you. Don’t be ashamed to talk about Jesus. And realize that when you have been saved by God’s grace, when you realize that Jesus Himself sacrificed His life for you, it’s not something you’ll keep to yourself.
I remember last fall my little son, Jonathon, was at the right place at the right time. So that one of his little friends who had gotten in to some water that was over his head in a swimming pool was in deep trouble and Jonathon grabbed him, pulled him to the shallower water, put him up on the side of the pool and made sure he was okay. And do you know, people talked for two or three days about how wonderful it was that Jonathon saved his little friend. And we were so proud of him we could hardly keep it to ourselves. We got on the phone and we called the grandparents. "Do you know what Jonathon did the other day? He saved his friend."
If we have no hesitation about bragging about those we love and those around us who have saved another, why would we hesitate to brag about how our Lord has saved us? We mustn’t be ashamed because after all, when we’re talking about Jesus we’re not talking about ourselves. This is the thing that the Scripture we’re looking at will help reinforce, I hope, is that Jesus is the subject. When we bring people into the church, hopefully you’re not inviting them because of the great music. You’re not inviting them because of the beautiful surroundings. You’re not even inviting them because of the great preaching! Hopefully, you’re inviting them because you want them to meet your Savior face to face. We invite people in to a relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that’s our motivation. And when we preach Jesus we don’t have to worry about the rest. As Paul says there in II Corinthians, "We don’t preach ourselves, we preach Jesus Christ, our Lord. And ourselves only as His servants for His sake."
When you go out into your life and you visit the people around you, you tell them about Jesus for Jesus’ sake. And you don’t worry about your fears and concerns. That’s how you open the doors of our church! You invite them to meet Jesus. And my prayer is that Grace Church is a place where you can be sure that with a little bit of effort you can meet Jesus. You’ll see Him in the faces of those who worship here, you’ll hear Him in the music, you’ll hear Him in the preaching, you’ll meet Him in the classroom, and you’ll meet Him in the halls. You’ll meet Him at Wal-Mart. You’ll meet Him at the restaurants. You’ll meet Him on the sidewalks when you encounter Grace Church believers.
- Finally, you need to be working out your salvation. Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13, "…we need to continue to work out salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose." This is a never-ending growth process. When you enter in to a saving relationship with Christ and you become one of His followers, you are not to sit idle and do nothing. As I said earlier, it may be very natural for you once you realize how wonderfully saved you are, to go and tell people about Jesus. But it doesn’t stop there either. It must be about the business of growing personally. Your discipleship is your great witness to the world around you. It is a sign that God is growing in you and that you are growing because of what He has changed in your life and in your heart.
When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the other teachers of the law and the other religious leaders, if you really listen carefully you recognize that He was not condemning them completely. In effect He was saying to them, "You guys do religion real well, but you do humanity very poorly." You see, Jesus came to show people and help them realize that God wants relationships more than He wants religion. That God honors religious activity when it’s a sign of your relationship with Him. Look at the many healings that Jesus did in stories in the New Testament and recognize that in almost every case it is very clear about Jesus not only healing the body but also restoring that person to the community. Their infirmity, whatever it was, was keeping them apart from the community. And by healing them, He restored them to the community. And in many cases, He concluded the healing by saying, "Now go tell the Priest that you’ve been healed." Because the Priest had the authority to officially restore them to the community.
Our Christian journey is about community. It’s about participating in God’s economy because we don’t have any choice, because we just can’t help it. That’s one of my favorite things to say when we come to worship together, "Welcome to worship, we’re here because we just can’t help it!" Welcome to God’s economy. You’re participating in it because you just can’t help it.
There’s nothing wrong with religion, but Jesus makes it very clear that religion for the sake of itself is doomed to failure. We must be a people of God’s economy, to participate in His community, to invite others to join in that family of faith, who help others to be restored and renewed. And each one of us have all the necessary gifts to do our part in that economy.
Let me see if I can illustrate it this way. I keep hearing that they’re going to build a highway from Indianapolis to Evansville. I’m not holding my breath and I’m sure you’re not either. But if they do, someone will have to survey the route, someone else will have to clear the major obstacles, someone else will come along and make a straight path and level the ground, someone else will come along and pave the road. Eventually someone will come and put the lines on the road and put all the safety markings out and the signs and eventually people will be able to get from Indianapolis to Evansville where they weren’t able before. Now the person who did the survey, would you consider them a failure because they didn’t build the whole highway? Certainly not! And the person who paved the road is certainly not a failure because they didn’t survey the road. And yet, many of us resist doing what God asks us to do as part of His economy because we think we’re suppose to do the whole thing. Simply grow where you’re planted; do what God has called you to do right where you are. Use the gifts He’s given you right now. Ask Him to reveal your role in His economy right now. You see, our religion should be our whole way of life. It should be what we do every moment, every hour, every day, every week of our lives.
I have a favorite book in my office that I read frequently. It’s kind of a short book. It’s called The Prophet, written by Kahlil Gibran back in the 1920’s. It’s a wonderful book. It’s not particularly Christian and yet it has wonderful affirmations and Christian beliefs. Now the prophet is his very wise sage who’s been living in a particular community for many, many years and he’s about to leave the community. And all the townspeople have gathered at the lakeshore while he waits for his boat to come and pick him up. And while they wait, they ask him to give them a few more nuggets of wisdom. And an old priest says to the prophet, "Speak to us of religion." And the prophet said, "Have I spoken this day of what else? Is not religion all deeds and all reflection and that which is neither deed nor reflection but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul? Even while the hands heal the stone or tend the loom. Who can separate his faith from his actions or his belief from his occupations? Who can spread his hours before him saying, "This for God; this for myself. This for my soul; and this for my body."
Our challenge today is not only to be religious people but to be people of God. Participants of His economy every day of our lives everywhere we go with whom God has given us to celebrate and share our lives. I’ll give you one last illustration. This one really works for me. I love the movie, "Top Gun". It came out about a dozen years ago. Top Gun is a great guy flick. It’s all about Navy fighter pilots, and big noisy airplanes, and bombs and missiles and things. It’s just great! And the main character is a fellow nicknamed Maverick. And in the course of his training he had an accident that kind of robs him of his nerve. So that at the end of the movie Maverick finds himself in a combat situation and there are several Navy fighters out over the ocean trying to protect their ship from enemy airplanes. They are to try and protect each other and their shipmates and the honor of their country. Maverick is having a problem though. He’s lost his nerve. And so while the others are twisting and twirling around in the sky and shooting their guns at each other and their missiles at each other, Maverick is just kind of circling high above. He keeps shaking his head and saying, "I can’t do this. It’s not right. I’m no ready." He lost his nerve. He just couldn’t get in the game. But in that particular aircraft there’s a second person sitting in the seat behind the pilot who helps the pilot to navigate and use the weapons. And this person in the back is sitting behind Maverick just inches from the back of his head saying, "Come on man; get in the game! Let’s go. Let’s get to fight! Come on, they need us. They’re depending on us. Get in the game!" And he keeps nagging and pestering Maverick. "Come on, get in the game!" Until finally Maverick says, "Okay, Okay." And he engages the enemy. And because he finally got involved he was able to save his fellow pilots. He was the hero who took down the enemy airplanes and saved the ship and all the shipmates. He saved the honor of the United States. Because he finally got in the game!
Well, you know, people like Reverend Mike and me, that’s our roles. Our job is to sit behind you and to nag you and to get involved. Our job is to walk behind you saying, "Get in the game! People need you! People are depending on you! God has a plan for you and your place in it is essential! Get in the game!" That’s what we’re here to do and that’s what you need to do. If you’re not already involved in God’s economy, get involved. Surrender to Jesus. Tell people about Jesus. And grow in your personal discipleship. We’re a people of one Holy Spirit but with many, many gifts. And God can use all of our many gifts to accomplish so many wonderful things in our midst. And the joy it brings us is amazing. It makes life fun even when so many things don’t seem to be going right. So as our closing prayer, as a way of responding to what we feel that God is saying to us today, I want to ask you to join me in singing, "Many Gifts, One Spirit". And let that be our closing benediction. Please stand.
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