"No Way Jesus"
Sermon Transcript for May 23, 2004
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-11
By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
I want to direct the message today especially for the graduates. The rest of you can listen in; it’s okay. Now I don’t know if anybody recognizes this guy on the screen here. His name is Hans Ray. Now Hans Ray is an extreme bicyclist—a bicycle motorcross rider. And he’s probably the best in the world, but he’s a little but nutty I think. I’m not sure. In a recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine where this picture came from, Hans Ray is described this way: He went and selected a favorite bike from his garage, got on it and then did a wheelie and bunny hopped on the back tire of his bicycle, a lot like in this picture, up the stairs to his back porch, onto a piece of yard furniture, and then to the railing of his porch, and from there up on to the roof of his house. Then he bunny hopped up to the top of the roof; and then flipped the bike over so that he was doing the wheelie on the front wheel, then bunny hopped down the other side of the roof, then came back up on to the chimney of his house perched on the back wheel like this picture. And the Sports Illustrated writer described him as some sort of bicycle motorcross weathervane. Now is he crazy? Could be, but he is an extreme mountain biker; the best in what he does. And I guess it goes without saying that I don’t want to see any of you trying this at home. He’s a professional. I can just see some of you out at the Franklin United Methodist Community—John Elliott on his bicycle. No wheelies John!
Now Hans Ray calls himself “No Way Ray”. And he says the reason that he is called that is because for years his friends in southern California would dare him to do things and then he would do it. And they’d go, “No way, dude. You’ve got to be kidding me; you can’t do that!” And he liked it so much he wore it. You know, it’s kind of like us Methodists. You know they called them Methodist back as a nickname to put them down and then they wore it with pride. And so he wears the title, “No Way Ray” with pride. And so if he’s leaping off rooftops or going down a 1,000 meter waterfall, or if he’s riding his bike over unbelievably difficult terrain on the edge of the Grand Canyon, he’s doing what he feels he was made to do to the best of his abilities.
But you know, Hans Ray is not the first person to hear the words, “no way”. See I happen to believe that our Lord Jesus was a lot like that. I think that he was “No Way Lord”. He was the One who was constantly driving people to say, “No way, dude, I can’t believe you are going to do that!” I want you to help me with this part of the sermon. Now I’m going to read some things to you and when I say, “But the people said”, I want you to respond and say, “No way Jesus”. All right, will you help me now?
In the synagogue there was a man who has the spirit of an unclean demon and Jesus said, “Be silent. Come out of him”. But the people say, “No way Jesus”. And when several people brought a paralyzed man on a bed to Jesus, He said, “I say to you, ‘Stand up and take your bed and go home’.” But the people said, “No way Jesus”. He commanded his disciples, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you.” But the people said, “No way Jesus”. In the house of a dead girl, Jesus took the little one by the hand and called out, “Child, get up!” And the people said, “No way Jesus”. Then He told His disciples, “The Son of man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and scribe and be killed and on the third day raised.” And the people said, “No way Jesus”. And after His resurrection, He promised them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” But the people said, “No way Jesus”.
You know, I think Jesus got use to hearing “No way Jesus”. I think that was pretty much a standard response for Him. And you know how He responded to that? He did it! People said, “No way Jesus”, but Jesus proved them wrong. He showed them that He was radically different from what they had come to expect. Now the ministry of Jesus is filled with “no way” miracles, with “new way” teachings, and “one way” to heaven. To be in the presence of God, to experience the power of God, is to embrace the “no way Jesus”, the extreme Messiah who drove out demons, who raised the dead, who healed the sick, who Himself was killed and rose again, who ascended into heaven and promised that He would return again.
Now you might hear a tale like that and say, “no way, no way dude”. But I want you to know that the Holy Scripture has given us plenty of evidence that this is real and believable and we can trust His good word. And we must be willing to embrace them, not only for our salvation but for the living of our entire life. You know, in the church we have a tendency to talk a little too much, I think, about salvation. Now it is very important—please don’t get me wrong on that. I want you to know that every single Sunday there is someone here who’s heart has not heard and believed that because Jesus loved you so much, He died on the cross, paid the penalty for your sin, and by Him alone you are saved from the punishment that you justly deserve. Everybody has had to hear that message at some point. But an equally important message that we often neglect to mention with the same fervor is that we are to live the disciplines that Jesus taught, that we are to live an extreme life. We are to be “no way Christians” just as surely as He is the “no way Jesus”.
How do we do this? Well, by the Holy Spirit that He promised would come to all of His believers, to all those who followed Him! The Holy Spirit dwells within when we accept Christ. And it is that Holy Spirit that we need to crank up and allow to rule our lives and make us disciples living the discipline. Now BMXers like Hans Ray—that’s Bicycle Motorcross Riders—they want people to join them in their sport, but they understand that everybody is a little different just like all Christians are different. And they understand that people can best be evaluated by the expression of their gift. So I want to use some of Hans Ray’s terminology to help us recognize some of our gifts and to see how we might live out this Christian life filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now Hans Ray will tell you that some bicycle riders are flatlanders. The flatlanders are people who generally stay on the ground and they do their tricks by seeing how many ways they can maneuver their bike and continue to ride without ever putting their feet down and pedaling as little as possible. It’s very technically demanding and requires them to really have a great sense of self control and discipline in order to get the most benefit from their ride. And you won’t see those flatlander bikes doing the kind of stuff that Hans Ray does. Now if you are a flatlander Christian, you are probably down to earth, practical, committed to meeting the physical and spiritual needs of people around you like those seven servants appointed in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 6. The people who do this kind of work are filled with wisdom and with the Spirit and they seek to serve. They are committed to doing whatever needs to be done. So you might be the kind of person who collects canned goods for the local food bank. You might cook meals for the homeless. You might mentor a single mother. You might be the person who goes to the nursing home and share Scripture with someone who can’t come to be with us here. Maybe you visit a sick church member in the hospital. It’s not a dangerous kind of ministry but it is extremely important, it is essential for the health and the growth in the Christian community. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that when these seven servers in Chapter Six performed their ministry, the numbers in their fellowship grew. The mission of the flatlander is to serve in practical ways.
Now another kind of rider that Hans Ray would tell you about is a vert rider (that’s short for vertical). Hans probably falls in to that category because the vert rider is the person who is always trying to do the impossible—trying to get big air. If you’ve ever watched the X Games on TV, you’ve seen these people on their bicycles, or snowboards, or skateboards. They ride in something called a half pipe and they just fly up the edge and see how high in the air they can go. They try to see how many times they can turn the bike around in mid-air. They do five 40 degree turns and nine 100 degree turns and if they are lucky they come down on two wheels and no other parts of their body. They do back flips and front flips and they just look like they are defying gravity. Christian vert riders are the same, you know. They are people who are on the edge. They are always looking for the extreme opportunities. They are the ones who are looking for something new in worship and they want us to mix things up a little bit. They like the really exciting songs. They like well, you know, some of them are the kind of people who like to just without being able to help it, just throw their hands into the air to sing the Lord’s praises as they pray and call upon the Lord. They are people who really need to be moving all of the time. So sometimes they are down in the bottom of the half pipe getting up momentum and other times they are in the air defying gravity. Vert rider Christians are always zipping back and forth. You know we have some of those here at Grace Church and I laugh because those kinds of people are the ones who have their messages forwarded to the church so that we are answering the phone saying, “Well, no you just missed her.” “Well, I called the house and she wasn’t there so I figured if I called the church she’d be here.” Well, these are the Christian vert riders. They are moving back and forth constantly always looking for an opportunity to do something exciting for the glory of God. They are willing to accept the risks that go with their kinds of stunts. And Christian vert riding is dangerous. I mean, just try to introduce a new style of worship or a new song and see how quickly you fall on your hands and knees. Christian vert riders are okay with criticism. They’ll take it; it’s part of the risk that they take.
And then, finally, Hans Ray would classify another type of talent as the street rider. Now, these are the bikers whose routines consist of jumping over gaps in the pavement. They like to do something called “grinding”. Maybe you’ve seen this. You know, the kids do it on their bicycles or their skateboards. They jump up on a railing or a stair or something and they just sort of grind down there. They like to dart in and out of traffic; they are not too afraid of cars. And they are not too afraid of skinned knees and busted elbows. These street riders might be those bicycle couriers that you see in the big cities. You know, when I went to Chicago for school every summer, I always marveled at these guys because there would be sea of people at a crosswalk and cars everywhere and horns honking and here comes some maniac on a bicycle flying right on through. And you wonder what on the world kept him alive! There’s just a living on the edge, being willing to take risk, being willing to push the limits to get the task done. Jesus speaks about Christian street riders right before he ascended into heaven when He said, “If you’ll be my witness in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” He was talking about those street riders—people who are willing to get out their in the midst to share the Good News of Jesus, to share the truth at risk to go into the places people don’t want to go. That’s what it means when it says Samaria. When Jesus said, “I want you to go to Samaria”, He was talking to Jews and He was saying, “You’ve got to even go to the places you don’t want to go.” The Christian street rider is willing to do that, willing to take whatever opportunity comes their way to say, “I want to tell you something really exciting. I want to tell you about my Lord.” They are the ones that often here the words, “no way dude, no way I’m going there, no way I’m going to do that”. Well, they are the ones that say yes and they just do it.
What kind of Christian are you? Do you fall into any one of these three categories? May I say, “Are you in the game?” You know the Christian X Game--the extreme Christianity that Jesus calls us to, the kind of Christianity that asks us to take risks, to be willing to get on the edge. That’s the game we are talking about. Are you in the game? Are you watching?
Now I want to say something especially to the graduates again, but it is for all of us. If you heart the message of salvation and God has successfully pursued you with His grace and you’ve been justified because of Jesus, now is the time for sanctification. That is, now is the time to live the life of the Christian. It doesn’t stop with your justification; it only begins. Now is the time to get in the game. Now is the time to exercise the discipline. Jesus has ascended into Heaven; graduation day has come and gone for most of us and it is time to live it, to be Christians, which is to seek perfection. It doesn’t mean that you will achieve it in this lifetime but it should always be your goal to be as much like Jesus every day of your life. Because Scripture tells us that there will come a day of judgment when we will not only be asked whether we believe that Jesus paid the price for us, we’ll also be asked to give an accounting of how we lived it. What would you say? What will your scorecard read? Now rest assured it isn’t dependent upon our performance. And it is so important that we live it every day of our lives, not become stagnant or stale.
Now graduates, you’ve heard these messages, heard these truths for many, many years because your parents have made you come to church, they’ve given you their leadership in spiritual matters, but they are afraid now, just a little anyway, that you’ll forget, that it won’t be important to you anymore. Our hope and desire is that like that Holy Spirit that Jesus sent, down inside you is the fire that will bring to life all these truths and make you part of the Christian world that changes things and makes them better. My hope and desire is that everyone sitting in this room right now, myself included, be eager to do the same for the glory of God according to His perfect will.
Let us pray, “Heavenly Father, thank you for giving the Word. May it be burned in our hearts at least that which is entirely of you so that you will be glorified, the people will serve you according to your perfect will. Amen.”
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