“The Invitational Approach” – John 4

Somebody tell me what it means to you to be a Christian. In just one or two sentences, tell me what you get out of it. What are the benefits of following the risen Lord? Is it the peace and joy you have even in the difficult times of life? Is it the forgiveness of your sins and the release of guilt? Is it the promise of Heaven when you die? Is it the full and abundant life that can be had in the here and now or the rewards in Heaven that you are looking forward to in the there and then?

Aren’t you thankful for all that? Aren’t you glad? Would you trade it for anything in the world? Now, aren’t you glad you don’t have to tell anybody about it? Aren’t you thankful to God that telling others about Jesus is not a requirement for entry into Heaven? I mean, that could get uncomfortable, right? It might be awkward to have to tell somebody else about all the wonderful gifts God has promised us. What if they rejected you or thought you were weird? What if they asked a question you didn’t know?

Let’s just all be grateful that God put pastors and evangelists and missionaries on the earth to do all that so you don’t have to! Right? I know you are busy people. You have kids and grandkids and jobs. Plus, you have pride and actually telling somebody else about Jesus might interfere with all that. So, don’t worry. Somebody else will tell people the Gospel. You don’t have to. And hopefully they will tell your kids and grandkids. Hopefully they will tell the people that you love so much. Just be glad you don’t have to.

I hope you are picking up on my sarcasm because I’m laying it down pretty thick. And yet that is absolutely the way that the vast majority of people live. “I’ve got mine. I hope you get yours.” It’s the most precious and powerful gift that could ever be given and it doesn’t cost any money to give it or receive it and yet…eh, somebody else will tell the people.

What would you say if I told you I had found the greatest place to eat not far from here? If I told you that the food was homemade, healthy and delicious; the prices were very inexpensive and the service was great and the portions were huge, what would you say? You would ask me where it was and what the name was, wouldn’t you? Then we would all go there after church today and we would have a great time.

But what if you found this same place and told me about it and I said, “Oh, yea, I found that months ago and I eat there twice a week now. It’s great!” What would your response be then? “Gee thanks, jerk! Why didn’t you tell us about it before?” Right? You would be mad at me if I didn’t tell you, wouldn’t you?

We are concluding our sermon series on evangelism today and all the different ways there are to tell other people about the Gospel of Jesus. But maybe you still haven’t heard one that matches your personality yet. You have gifts that God gave you but you aren’t as bold as Peter or as smart as Paul. You aren’t comfortable giving your testimony yet like the blind man and you don’t feel like the relational or serving approach would work very well for you either. Well, I have one more for you and it is surely the easiest one yet.

I mean, I thought the blind man did it pretty simply. All he said was, “I don’t know. What I do know is I was blind and now I see.” But the woman at the well evangelized in what may be an even easier way. Do you remember what she said? She basically pointed toward Jesus and told her friends, “Come and see.”

Let’s turn to the Gospel of John this morning and see what the woman wanted us and everybody else to see. The story of the woman at the well is one that I’m sure most of you are familiar with. I’m not going to read the whole story but I want to start with verse 4 and go through verse 19 to start. There are two things I noticed as I read through this story again that I had not noticed before. The first one is found in this part of the story.

John 4:4-19 says, “Now He (Jesus) had to go through Samaria.  5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. ) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.”

That last sentence is almost comical. Yea, I bet you do realize He’s a prophet, there sweetheart. I bet she looked like she saw a ghost when He told her about her love life. And the ghost was her. It can be scary to find out the sins of other people but there is nothing scarier than being shown your own sins. She now had a clear vision of who she was and what she had done and it had to be humbling.

I can tell you from experience that this is a miserable place to be. When you run smack dab into who you really are; when you see who you have become left to your own devices it is an awful place but it is an absolutely necessary place to be if you are to ever be right with God. I think most people are in agreement with Romans 3:23 that says we are all sinners. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. Anybody that is intellectually honest would have to agree with that.

The problem is that none of us are as bad as that person over there. Right? We’re good people. We mean well and over all we are way better than lots of people we know. Why, my cousin’s friend knows a guy that is way worse than me. He’s a real sinner. He needs Jesus. Me? I’m doing okay. I mean, compared to Hitler, I’m a saint.

Realizing you are a sinner along with everybody else in the world and comparing yourself to other people…that’s not such a bad place to be. But when Jesus confronts you with who you really are; with the depth and depravity of your personal sins that are now on full display in front of the One who died on the cross for those sins, that’s miserable.

For the woman at the well, what Jesus said in verses 17 and 18 was enough to show her who she really was – a sinner in need of a Savior – but also who Jesus really was – that Savior. For the first time she has a clear vision of who she really is and Who Jesus really is and that was enough.

If you go on reading in verse 25, the woman says, “I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Now, if you really read this and think about where she was coming from, you realize what she is really saying is, “Okay, mister, you are either the Messiah or you need to leave me alone. This is not comfortable for me to talk about with just anybody.” She is asking if Jesus is the Messiah. Is He God in human flesh? Is He the one that has come to forgive and heal and save?

Jesus answers plainly in verse 26. “I, the one speaking to you am he.” In Hebrew, it is “Messiah.” In Greek, it is translated “Christ.” Both words mean the same thing: the anointed one. It is a title given to Jesus that means He is the One anointed and appointed to die on the cross for the sins of the world and rise again the third day. All of that was prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus was born. It is one thing to read about Jesus. It’s another to face Him.

It is one thing to admit to a friend that you have some sin in your life. It’s completely another thing to have your sins pointed out to you by the One who is going to pay for them. Imagine, if you will, a court room setting. The stately judge is sitting in his black robe behind the massive wooden bench. Armed security is at every corner. A stenographer is there to type every word of the trial. And it is your trial.

Two guards bring you in, shackled at the waist and the feet, dressed in prison clothes and brought slowly towards the judge. Your criminal record is brought out of a file and your own attorney starts to read it out loud in front of everyone. It is page after page of everything you have ever done that has displeased God. Every sin you have ever committed is written down in horrifying detail.

The judge hears how when you were three you lied to your mother. But it goes on, year after year. Lying, cheating, stealing, lust, gossip, adultery, murder, idolatry, violence, even the coarse words you said in fun and the times you used God’s name for no reason. The attorney reads for what seems like hours and hours. Every impure thought, every curse word, those times you got drunk and the times you ate too much. Every sin is mentioned. Nothing is left out.

Finally, the attorney stops reading and closes the file. The judge asks you how you plead. It’s a question you have no choice but to answer truthfully. You know you’re guilty. The judge knows your guilty. Everybody knows you are guilty so that is how you plead. The judge looks at you and says, “I have no choice but to sentence you to death. No pardons, no appeals, no waiting. Take him away!”

But just then your own attorney, who has read every sin and knows you and knows your case better than anybody, stands up and offers to take your place and all you have to do is agree to it. That is what the woman at the well is experiencing right here in verse 26 when Jesus says, “I, the one speaking to you am he.”

Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” That means by His wounds you have been forgiven and spiritually healed. And 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin.” That is the Messiah. That is the Christ. That is Jesus and that is who the woman at the well knew was speaking to her.

I want to see something else in this fascinating true story. Let’s go on to read verses 28-30. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Now, if you have heard this story preached on before, you may have heard that it was not common for this kind of interaction to happen. But I don’t know if you really understand just how ridiculously scandalous this whole scene was. First, a Jew would NEVER talk to a Samaritan. A man would NEVER talk to a woman. And NOBODY would talk to a woman like this who had, what might generously be called, loose morals.

But here is Jesus, breaking ALL the rules and I love it! But I bring all that up because it plays a part in what she says in verse 29. Can you imagine a woman – especially a woman like this – going into town and telling everybody in a loud voice, “Let me tell you about the Messiah!?” Nobody is going to listen to her with that approach. The approach she uses is the approach of someone who is admitting she has done wrong and is just encouraging others to go check Jesus out and see for themselves.

I love that she leaves her water pot. She was in a hurry but she was coming back so she just left it and went and told everybody that would listen, “Come and see. Come and see for yourself. Don’t take my word for it. My word is no better than my reputation. Come and see.” She didn’t try to debate them or prove anything to them. Just come and see. Spend some time with Him and let Him show you who you really are and who He really is. I don’t have to know all the answers. I don’t have to take up for Jesus or convince you on my own. I’ll let Him do that.

All you have to do is come and have a real encounter with the risen Jesus and He will do the rest. It’s interesting to me that nothing is said of the disciples telling anybody about Jesus while they were off buying food. They went into town and were at the grocery store buying sandwich meat and chips for lunch when the Savior of the world is outside of town talking to a loose Samaritan woman about her eternity.

But I don’t blame them. It might have been uncomfortable for them. Somebody might reject them or ask them a question they didn’t know. Besides, they were hungry and they were doing the Lord’s work. So, who can blame them? They surely knew somebody would tell the people about Jesus. Right?

How about you? Have you had an encounter with the risen Savior, Jesus, the Christ, the anointed? When you do, there’s no excuses to be made because you no longer compare yourself to other people. You compare yourself to Him and you see Him as He really is. That’s a scary place to be but it is a place necessary for true salvation.

All you have to do is come in faith and see for yourself. Allow Him to forgive you of your sin. He has already taken your place. He paid the debt you couldn’t pay and all you have to do is believe. That belief will show itself as a changed life that looks more like Jesus every day. Do that right now as the music plays.

“The Serving Approach” – Acts 9:36-42

Philippians chapter four is one of the most powerful, practical and useful chapters in the Bible. There is so much packed into that one chapter that is helpful for almost anything you are going through. Are you worried? You can find help in Philippians 4. Are you addicted? Philippians 4. Do you have a need? Are you blessed? Do you lack strength? Read that chapter. It’s so good. One of my favorite verses is verse 8. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”

I was thinking about this verse this week and thinking about what it says to think about. I have this bookmark in my Bible that helps me sometimes. It is the 8^th verse printed out and I have written on it some examples of things that are true and pure and lovely, etc. It helps in the heat of battle to have it written out when you need to think of something besides what Satan wants you to think about. Most of them are pretty easy to find examples for but I have always sort of struggled with the word “noble.” It’s not a word we use very often. We all kind of know what it means but what is a good example of something noble that we can really relate to? But as I thought about it this week, I was reminded of and started to thank God for all the people in our church that do noble things. These people do these things, not because they are on the church staff or because they have to or they are expected to but because they love this church.

I think about Ben and Cindy who lead the music and teach Bible study and do a great job. I think of Morris who runs the sound and has spent so much time getting our audio / visual stuff up and running. Troy takes care of the property and his pride in a job well done is obvious. Many of you give and prepare Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes. You prepare the bulletins and put together the church directory. You pay the bills. You clean and cook and prepare and plan. You make visits to other members in the hospital. You give generously to the food pantry. You pray for and love on those members that need it. All of that is very noble and while I see some of it, God sees all that you do and there will be treasures in Heaven for you for doing it.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Colossians 1:10 says, “so that you may live a life worthy of the LORD and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” For some of you, that is just how God wired you. That is your personality and is how God has gifted you. You enjoy doing good things for other people and by using your gifts, the church is able to minister especially to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. But did you ever stop to think that God can use those gifts of service and your personality that enjoys serving other people to actually lead people to have a life-changing relationship with the Lord?

We are continuing our sermon series on the different approaches to evangelism. There are as many different approaches you might take as there are personality types and God-given gifts but today let’s look at the serving approach. Evangelism is a churchy word that just means to tell other people about Jesus. It is witnessing. It is telling what God has done for you because you want others to have what you have. Some people enjoy street preaching or knocking on doors and asking people if they know Jesus. They don’t mind that kind of blunt, in-your-face style but other people are not as vocal and out-going and that’s okay too. In fact, it takes all kinds to make a church work and work well.

In Acts chapter 9, we meet a lady named Tabitha. Actually, it says her name was Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. So evidently Dorcas was like her biker name. 😊 You know? I’m not sure but it doesn’t matter. Anyway, Dorcas is more fun to say so we’ll call her Dorcas. Dorcas was known by the people around her for one thing. So, let’s jump right in there and meet Dorcas for ourselves and see what happens.

Acts 9:36-42 says, “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!" 39Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. 40Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes and seeing Peter she sat up. 41He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the LORD.” Let me read that last verse again. 42This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the LORD.”

Now, we all have good intentions, don’t we? We all want to do good things, memorable things, meaningful things. We all want God to be glorified. We want people to be helped. We want revival. We want lives changed. That’s good. But there is a world of difference between good intentions and good works.

Bruce Morgan said, “Your good intentions will never overshadow your deeds.” I’ve heard it said that “One kind deed is more beautiful than a thousand good intentions.” (Matshona Dhliwayo) T.S. Eliot said, “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”  Now, don’t worry. I get none of my theology from T.S. Eliot but how do we go from having good intentions to, as Acts 9:42 says, having many people believe in the Lord? We don’t know much about Dorcas. We don’t know where she was born or how she died or even how she died the second time. We don’t even know what kind of motorcycle she rode. But we know she was known for doing good deeds. She obviously made clothes for her friends but we don’t know what else she did and we don’t have to. She had more than good intentions. She actually did good things. But even that is not enough to lead people to having a life-changing relationship with Jesus.

I want you to think of this as a recipe. Some of you like to cook. I’m an awful cook. It’s probably because I rarely follow the recipe. I made some cheesy chicken spaghetti the other day and I almost followed the recipe. I didn’t have all the ingredients so I compromised the best that I could and what turned out was barely edible. I ate it because I was too proud to not eat it after all the work I did but it wasn’t very good. To use the serving approach to evangelism, you need to have the right ingredients. Just having good works isn’t enough. There’s nothing wrong with good works on their own but to really change people’s lives, you have to add faith to the mix. Then add a liberal dose of prayer then allow the Holy Spirit to season it and cook it and then you can taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

Look first at the faith of the friends of Dorcas. Did you see that in verse 38? “…when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!" Why were they sending for Peter? Dorcas was stone dead at this point. They had probably heard of Jesus raising Lazarus and they had probably heard of Peter doing some pretty miraculous things in His name but Dorcas was room temperature. She was passed on and passed the point of no return. Why call for Peter?

I’ll tell you why they called for Peter. They called for Peter exactly because they had heard of the miracles of Jesus and Peter and they knew that if Peter could do a small miracle in the name of Jesus that Peter could do a huge miracle in the name of Jesus. Is there a difference? If something is a little bit impossible, is that any different from being a lot impossible? If Jesus could heal the blind, is it any more difficult to raise the dead? If God can bring this church from Runaway Bay to Lake Bridgeport to minister to our community in His name, can He not use your good works to bring others to Jesus? If God can bring you out of sin deserving death and into a full and abundant life with the promise of Heaven, can He not use your good works to bring others to Jesus? If God can heal Belinda’s legs, bring Morris and Lois out of cancer, deliver Billy from drug addiction, keep Troy sober for 35 years and forgive the sins of this wretched man, can He not use your good works to bring others to Jesus?

I hear people says sometimes that the reason we don’t see more miracles like they had in the Bible is because we lack faith but Jesus said, “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move.” It doesn’t take a lot of faith. When you do your good works, you do them in the name of Jesus and for the sake of God’s Kingdom and to make God look good and then have faith that God will use those works to bring others to Jesus. That’s what the friends of Dorcas did. The same God that used a burning bush in the Old Testament and the same God that raised the dead in the New Testament is the same God that protects and provides for you and your family and is the same God that will use your servant heart to bring others to Jesus. You know He can and you know He will. Now act like it! If you are going to use the service approach then you first have to be a servant. That’s the first ingredient in the recipe. Then you add your little bit of faith in the God that does big things. Then the next ingredient is prayer. Look at verse 40. “Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.”

As he had seen Jesus do when Jesus healed Jairus’s daughter in Mark 5:40, Peter sent them all out of the room. He didn’t want to “perform” for a crowd and bring attention to himself so he made that room his prayer closet. Now, this was not Peter’s first miracle. He had seen and done many miraculous things and you might think he would just assume that since Dorcas had the good works and her friends had the faith that all he had to do was just what he had done before. Just use the combination to unlock God’s power. Just rub the Genie lamp the way he had done before. Check off all the boxes and then God has to work because He did it before, right? How many of you know that is not how God works? Just because God has done something one way before does not mean if you replicate all the actions that you did before that God will do it again. Pre-Pentecost, before Peter had the Holy Spirit living inside of him, he might have tried to do it that way but now Peter knows the source of his power and he presumed nothing about the will of God. (McArthur, Acts 1-12, pg. 284) So, he got on his knees and approached the King of kings.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Every evangelistic approach you will ever use has to be bathed in prayer and when you do that you can rest assured that, as Ephesians 3:20 says, God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.” There are at least two mistakes you can use in using the serving approach. The first is to think that your little bit of service is not worthy of God to even notice. The second mistake is to think that you have done this kind of thing so many times, that you know what God’s will is and how to do this and what to say and how to say it. You have good intentions and with the right motives, you know God will bless it.

It would be a mistake not to go to God in prayer and ask for His wisdom on this and His blessing on this so that He looks good in the end. Because what if it isn’t God’s will that you do this this time? What if it had not been God’s will to heal Dorcas? Peter would have looked pretty stupid if he had just gone in there and said, “Rise, Dorcas!” and Dorcas just laid there dead as a post. Peter would have looked stupid and God wouldn’t look good either. Then what would have become of those people that were in the house? Their eternities were at stake with what Peter did so he started with prayer.

F.B. Meyer told the story about being on a cruise ship and on the ship was an agnostic man. He didn’t know if God was real or not and wasn’t real concerned about it but F.B Meyer was going to preach so the agnostic man thought he would go listen.  Before he left his room, the agnostic put two oranges in his pocket. On his way he passed an elderly woman sitting in her deck chair fast asleep. Her hands were open. In the spirit of fun, the agnostic put the two oranges in her outstretched palms. After the meeting, he saw the old lady happily eating one of the pieces of fruit. "You seem to be enjoying that orange," he remarked with a smile. "Yes, sir," she replied, "My Father is very good to me." "Your father? Surely your father can't be still alive!" "Praise God," she replied, "He is very much alive." "What do you mean?" pressed the agnostic. She explained, "I'll tell you, sir. I have been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I suppose I fell asleep while I was praying. When I awoke, I found He had not only sent me one orange but two!" The agnostic was speechless. Later he was converted to Christ. (Our Daily Bread)

Was it a miracle that woman got an orange? Sure, it was. She had no way of getting one for herself. It was impossible for her. So, yes, it was a miracle. And isn’t that just like God to answer a prayer that meets a person’s needs and leads somebody else to Jesus? Even little bitty miracles are miracles and every miracle is meant to lead people to Jesus. And if you want your service approach to be used by God, then pray. Can you imagine what would happen if we all decided to be more service-oriented instead of wanting to be served? Can you imagine if we all wanted to serve and used every service opportunity as an opportunity for God to use that to reach somebody for Jesus? “Lord, I’m not able to do much but I pray that you would use this gift to the food pantry to lead someone to Jesus.” “Lord, I don’t have much to give but would you use my gift of cleaning, mowing, planning, listening, filling Easter eggs, straightening the nursey, etc., etc. for your glory and to bring someone to Jesus like only you can?”

Now, here’s where the last ingredient comes in and it is the most important part. The good news is that you don’t have to add it. God adds His Holy Spirit to the mix at this point and it always turns out for our good and His glory. We don’t always think about the role of the Holy Spirit in leading someone to Jesus. We know that the Spirit lives inside of us and is our Counselor and our Guide. We have peace and joy because of the Spirit’s presence in our lives but in John 16:8, Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

Aren’t you glad it’s not your job to convict the world of anything? That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. You do your part by serving, having faith that God can and will use that service, praying to that end and then letting the Spirit do what He does. Maybe He brings a great revival or maybe a seed is planted in someone that bears fruit some day after you are gone. All you have to do is be obedient. You use the service approach and let God use you. Whatever evangelistic approach you use, they all are used for one thing. We just want other people to have what we have. We have peace and joy in this life with the promise of Heaven in the next life and we want everybody else to have the same thing just because we love other people. And we love other people because God loved us first.

He loved us enough to send His only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins that we could never pay. Scripture says we have all sinned and what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell, separated from God and all our friends and family. (Romans 3:23 and 6:23) But all we have to do is truly believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6) That belief will be lived out in our lives by the changes that God brings in our lives; changes that make us more like Jesus, with the Holy Spirit living inside of us. If you have never asked God to forgive your sins and then repented of or turned away from those sins, do that right now. The Holy Spirit is calling you. Just trust and obey right now as the music plays.

“The Relational Approach” – Matthew 9:9-11

If you think your family has problems, consider the marriage mayhem created when 76-year-old Bill Baker of London recently wed Edna Harvey. She happened to be his granddaughter's husband's mother. That's where the confusion began, according to Baker's granddaughter, Lynn.

"My mother-in-law is now my step-grandmother. My grandfather is now my stepfather-in-law. My mom is my sister-in-law and my brother is my nephew. But even crazier is that I'm now married to my uncle and my own children are my cousins."  (sermonillustrations.com)

A typical relationship is hard enough, isn’t it? Your spouse, kids, in-laws, parents. They’re all crazy people. I heard a lady say the other day that she once gave her husband the silent treatment for an entire week, at the end of which he declared, “Hey, we’re getting along pretty great lately, aren’t we?”

Why can’t everybody be perfect just like us, right? Or maybe we should all just go live as hermits. Do you ever wish that after dealing with people sometimes? Dealing with people and having relationships with people is hard to do. Some people are better at it than others but I think almost everybody struggles with it sometimes.

The command that we are to “love our neighbor” is repeated lots of times throughout the Bible (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19, 22:39; Mark 12:31; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8). Along with the admonition to love God completely, this command was also repeated in three of the four Gospel accounts. The importance of loving God and loving others as much as we love ourselves is apparently very important. It is also very important to get the order correct…God first; everything else follows.

The apostle Paul said that we can be sure we are treating others the way God would have us treat them if we simply followed this commandment, “For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”” (Romans 13:9 ESV). (https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-relationships-is-one-more-important-than-another/)

But we all love our neighbors, right? I bet almost everybody here would say that they have love for their neighbor. Thankfully, it doesn’t say that we have to like them but we are supposed to love them and I bet most of us do that. Hopefully, we at least don’t act like we hate them. Or at least we aren’t going to admit it here at church.

But do we really love our neighbors and what is the definition of “love”? Is it the opposite of hate or is there something else? I am reminded of a story I have told here before but it is so powerful that I need to remind us all of what I heard Penn Jillette say. Mr. Jillette is a famous magician you may have seen on TV. He and his partner Teller play in Vegas and other places and they are incredible to watch. They are very good at what they do. If you like magic shows, look them up. They are the best.

But Mr. Jillette is an avowed atheist. He’s not agnostic. He is a militant atheist. That doesn’t make him a bad person. He just “knows” there is no God as strongly as most of us know that God is real. I heard him talking one time about a man who came to see one of their shows and came up to meet them afterward. He was very complimentary of the show and then gave Jillette a little Gideons Bible. Jillette said, "It was really wonderful!" "I believe he knew that I was an atheist, but he was not defensive and he looked me right in the eyes," Jillette continued. "…And he was truly complimentary. It didn't seem like empty flattery." "I've always said that I don’t respect people who don't proselytize (witness)," he added. "I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a Heaven and Hell and people could be going to Hell, or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… Uh, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?"

He then followed that up with a specific. "How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"

Wow! That is so well-said. Unfortunately, that man didn’t change Jillette’s life like he wanted to but he was obedient to what God commanded all of us to do. “As you go, make disciples.” (Matthew 28:19) As you go to the magic show, as you go to the grocery store, as you go to the library or the cleaners or the soccer practice with the littles, go and make disciples.

We are going through a sermon series on the different approaches to telling others about that everlasting life, as Jillette said. We have seen the direct approach by Peter, the intellectual approach by Paul and the testimonial approach by the blind man. All of these are good approaches to use if that is your personality and if you are using the gifts that God gave you and could be used for people in several different circumstances whether you knew them or not.

But today we are going to look at the relational approach. Those other approaches so far are fine for telling complete strangers if that works for you but the relational approach is for the long game; the long term approach that requires you knowing someone well enough that you have earned the right to speak truth to them and our inspiration for this approach is the Gospel writer Matthew. Did you know that in Matthew’s book that bears his name that he never says a word? Isn’t that interesting? He never quotes himself or throws in his two cents. His whole book is just constantly pointing to Jesus. That’s something we can learn from right there. “Don’t look at me. Look at Jesus.”

I want to read just two short verses that most people probably read right over but we can see something important and inspirational in these verses if we look close enough. Turn to Matthew 9 and let’s read verses 9-11. Matthew was a tax collector and most of you know that back in those days, tax collectors were usually dishonest and took advantage of anybody they could so most people absolutely hated them. But when Matthew met Jesus, I want you to see how Matthew’s life was changed…and how it wasn’t changed.

Matthew 9:9-11 9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

That Jesus must have had some kind of magnetic personality, don’t you think? He spoke two words and Matthew left his job. No two weeks’ notice. No phone call to his boss to explain. Jesus said “follow” and he followed and he never went back. Matthew’s life was changed forever. Not only did he quit his job that day but he made a decision that would change how he lived and how he died. This was no half-hearted decision. He knew that even if he wanted to, he could never go back and yet, he never asked a question. He never paused. He didn’t have to think about it or ask Siri. “Follow me.” Boom! Done. His life changed in so many ways in that instant.

But I want you to see just how Matthew’s life didn’t change. Look at verse 10 again. “While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.” Now, when it says, “tax collectors and sinners”, this is not the country club where some sophisticated businessmen plot some white-collar misdemeanors. Tax collectors were not respectable people to the Jewish society. They were considered traitors to their country and their religion and no upstanding Jew would dare be seen with them. So, that leaves some serious sinners. We are talking about the dregs of society. These are not the pretty people. This is a rough crowd. Matthew obviously had not yet read that commandment that says, “Thou shalt not hangeth out with sinful folks.”

Look at this. Matthew’s life has changed…but his friends have not. Now, first let me tell you what I am NOT saying. Let me explain what I am NOT encouraging. If you got saved and you are coming out of an addictive lifestyle, you need to never see any of those so-called friends ever again. If there are people in your life that helped you get high or partied with you or drank with you to the point of addiction, those folks are on their own as far as you are concerned.

I met a guy in jail not too long ago that got saved, got off drugs and became a youth minister in a local church. He was clean for a long time and finally felt confident that he could go witness to his old partying buddies. He found them and one thing, as it always does, led to another and…well…I met him in jail. It happens all the time and it will happen to you. Let somebody else witness to those people.

But what Matthew did was invite Jesus to meet his friends because he wanted his friends to meet Jesus. He had a relationship with these people and he wanted them to have a relationship with Jesus. It didn’t matter to Matthew what kind of sinners these people were because he knew it didn’t matter to Jesus what kind of sinners these people were. Really bad, nasty, ugly sinful people need Jesus just as much as people who sin in “pretty” ways and “acceptable” ways.

Do you believe that Jesus doesn’t care what kind of sins you commit? What’s the limit on the number of sins Jesus will forgive? I need to know because if there’s a number, I’m pretty sure I’m passed it. How bad of a person do you have to be for Jesus not to forgive you? I need to know because He has forgiven me of some really ugly stuff.

Now, when the Pharisees asked the disciples the question in verse 11, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" this was a rhetorical question. They didn’t want an answer. They were pointing out the fact that no Jew in good standing with the law and the temple and with the ways of polite religion would be seen with such trash. They were unclean people and were making the disciples and Jesus unclean.

And that is just what religion is good for. It is good for pointing out flaws in people. It’s good for listing rules and for giving laws that can’t be followed. Matthew didn’t introduce his friends to religion and we shouldn’t either. Matthew introduced his friends to Jesus and we should too. Matthew didn’t introduce them to Jesus so they would become better people, able to hob-nob with the uppity-ups. He introduced them to Jesus so they would have life!

This past Thursday I went with some of my family to the Victory Temple Ministries luncheon in Fort Worth. They have this lunch on the first Thursday of every month and everyone is welcome. I didn’t know what to expect but what I found was a place that is made for drug addicts and alcoholics who truly want to turn their lives around.

Since 1992, over 15,000 men and women have gone through their 6-month program to kick their addictions. It is a free program but it is not easy. You wouldn’t expect anything to be easy to break the chains of addiction. At this lunch there was a powerful time of worship and praise with testimonies of several men and women who got up and spoke about what their lives had been like before they met Jesus, how they came to know Jesus and then what their lives had been like since they met Jesus.

The Victory Home gives them a safe place to come to, feeds them, trains them and then sends them out as disciples. It is all relationship-based. I said it is a program but the pastor of the home got up and spoke and said that it’s not really just a program. They don’t bring addicts to a program. They don’t bring addicts to a home. They bring addicts to Jesus and watch Him change their lives.

They start a relationship with men and women that most of society has given up on. They prove to these people that they care about them, love them, show them that they have worth and value to them, to God and the ministry and they build trust with them and when they are ready and God has dealt with their hardened hearts then Jesus comes in and changes them forever. It is grace and love and forgiveness and hope lived out over and over again and God gets all the glory. It’s not easy. It sometimes takes a long time. It is costly in terms of time, talent and money. It always is and it will be for you. But how bad do you have to hate somebody not to tell them about the Good News of Jesus Christ that is going to change their lives forever?

Who is God calling you to start a relationship with? Is it your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend from before you were saved? Maybe God is leading you to just invite them over for dinner or to watch a ballgame. How hard is that? You’re going to be watching the game anyway. Why not invite that lost friend over so you can start investing in their life for eternity? You don’t have to hammer them with scripture when they show up. Just enjoy your time together and when the time is right, then invite them to Jesus. That’s the relational approach. If you have a relationship with Jesus and you have a personality like Matthew had and you have the gifts that God gave you, maybe you should try it.

If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, I want to invite you to right now. I’m not inviting you to religion. I’m not even inviting you to be a member of our church. I’m inviting you right now to a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. When you accept Him and truly believe in Him as Lord and Savior, then He will forgive your sins and change your life forever. Why not do that right now as the music plays?

Victory Temple Ministries www.victorytempleministries.com

Men’s Home

2526 Columbus Ave.

Ft Worth 76164

817.626.1819

Women’s Home

2517 Loving Ave.

Ft Worth 76164

817.378.0921

“The Testimonial Approach” – John 9

I have a confession to make. I enjoy walking through graveyards. I do. They fascinate me. I take my dogs walking through the one in Bridgeport several times a week and notice something different every time. It got me thinking this past week about what people put on their headstones. There’s not much room on that stone but what is written on there is meant to sum up the person’s life.

For a lot of people, it’s just their name and two dates. Some stones only have one date and that tells you something about that person. But some people splurge and put a word or a phrase; some even have a whole sentence on there or even a poem. Some want a Bible verse or their military service. They can even put your picture on there now if you want that.

How do you want to be remembered? You don’t usually have room to put where you were born and what you did for a living and your spouse and children and all the great details of your life. Hopefully, that will be said at your funeral but the marker over your grave only gives a few details. All that other stuff is important to you but there just isn’t room. It’s a shame but it’s true.

It’s the same with our testimony. Our salvation story starts when we are born; it involves every church we have ever been to and probably several Sunday School teachers and a praying mother or grandmother if we are typical. It could include some horrific stories of abuse or addiction or law-breaking and all of it is meaningful and part of your story and hopefully all of it ultimately brings glory to God.

The problem is, most people in most situations aren’t going to listen to a 45-minute-long story. I don’t care how meaningful it is. People just don’t have that kind of attention span. I can tell you as a preacher and as one who has sat in a lot of worship services, it’s a rare speaker that can keep a group’s attention for more than thirty minutes.

A few years ago, I went to a seminar for pastors and one of the break-out meetings was on how to lead people to Jesus. I would think that most pastors have a pretty solid grip on how to do that but the speaker said he wasn’t too sure and so he was going to teach us. He started by using a huge whiteboard and drawing a long bridge on it from one place to another and every board that made up the bridge was part of the Gospel.

I kid you not, after 45 minutes of watching him draw and listening to his convoluted explanation, I got up and left. I went outside and made a few phone calls and about 15 minutes later, I went back in only to find the bridge not quite drawn yet. I love the Gospel and I love hearing it told in new and different ways but this was ridiculous. In fact, to be honest, his approach just made me mad.

Now, as we are seeing in this sermon series on evangelism, there are a lot of different approaches to telling somebody the Good News of Jesus Christ. We all have different personalities and different gifts and different approaches and we need to make sure that we know our audience before we speak, like Paul did in our scripture last week. There are very few wrong ways to do it but the biggest wrong way is to take too long.

The best way to tell most people your salvation testimony is to briefly tell them what your life was like before you met Jesus, how you came to meet Jesus and what your life has been like since you met Jesus. Now, if it sounds like I used the name Jesus a lot in there is because your testimony should be more about Him than you. Yes, that’s right. Your personal testimony should be more about Jesus than it is you.

I know your life story is interesting and it’s important and meaningful and has made you who you are today. And if anybody asks to hear your life story then you feel free to give them the whole story. But when you are talking to your neighbor out at the mailbox or your co-worker at the water fountain or the cashier at the store, they may be nice and are trying to look like they are interested but after three minutes, they have probably checked out.

It’s interesting to see a man in scripture who has such a great testimony. It’s brief, it’s concise, it tells everything he knows and he wants to tell it. We have had fun studying this guy in the past. Last year in Boot Camp we talked about him and if you were here you remember him. I would call him by name but we don’t know his name. We don’t know when he was born or when he died. We don’t know much at all about him but when we get to Heaven, we will see him there and will get to hear his whole story.

Turn to John chapter 9 and let me introduce to you again the man who was born blind. Several times Jesus healed people that were blind. It was actually a Messianic sign that He do that. In Isaiah 35:5 it prophecies that the Messiah will open the eyes of the blind and this is one of the places that Jesus does that.

Now, just like in Job’s day, some people believed that all problems were caused by sin. That’s why the disciples ask the first question as you will see. We have talked before about this. We know that sin does have consequences but not all bad things are caused by sin. Sometimes bad things happen because we live in a fallen and sinful world and bad things happen. Sometimes God allows or even causes bad things for reasons we will never know. But Jesus uses this man’s blindness to teach all of us a lesson and the man has a great testimony come out of it. Let’s read verses 1-34. It’s kind of long but it’s a good story.

John 9:1-34 says, “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. 8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” 10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked. 11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So, I went and washed, and then I could see.” 12 “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said. 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.  5 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. 17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” 18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” 20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” 25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” 26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” 28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Did you catch his testimony in there? You have to be listening closely because it was short and sweet. Look again at verse 25. With all the stuff going on; with all the people questioning him and threatening him; not to mention the little detail of him now being able to see after all these years, he was being pretty patient but you can tell he is about to get tired of it. In all of that, he tells them what his life was like before Jesus and what it was like after Jesus. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

Isn’t that good? They asked him a lot of questions about Jesus and how Jesus performed this miracle and most of the answers to those questions the man didn’t know. At one point he ventures a guess as to who Jesus was. In verse 17, the Pharisees are hounding him for an answer about Jesus and the man simply says, “He is a prophet.” But that wasn’t enough for the leaders and so finally, in verse 25, the man sums up everything he knows about Jesus and it’s not much. “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

And that was enough! That’s all he had to say and that’s all you have to say. Through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you as a believer in Jesus Christ, that is enough. We would hope that an answer like that would prompt some other serious questions from those we are talking to and maybe you can answer those questions but all you have to say is what your life was like before Jesus, how you came to know Him and what your life has been like since.

The Apostle Paul testified to thousands of different people in all different places and in all different circumstances. Sometimes he would be hauled in front of some king or magistrate to explain what he was talking about and most of the time he started out telling them about his past as a persecutor of the Christians and how he was walking through Damascus and a bright light knocked him down and Jesus spoke to him. He would tell the whole story and relate it to their past and then tell them how they needed to change and what to do to be saved. Paul was a great speaker and often had that kind of opportunity.

But I find it interesting to read in Acts 24 that Paul was brought before Felix, the governor of Caesarea and was given an opportunity to speak to him privately. It says in verses 24-25, “Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25As Paul discoursed about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, "That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you."

It was too much too soon for poor old Felix. This was one time when Paul might have been better served by just saying, “Felix, I once was blind and now I see.” Then, if Felix wanted to know more (and who wouldn’t?) Paul could have added to it. But he lost his chance with Felix and his wife, too.

Both of my sisters have evangelistic hearts. They both have a passion for people and a passion for Jesus like I can only wish for. Sally is a missionary to Target. That’s right, the big store with the red dot; that Target. Seriously, she goes to Target intentionally, not just to buy groceries or clothes but to minister to other shoppers and employees and it has paid off spiritually. I’ll tell you more about that later.

Suzy has always had a heart for telling others about Jesus. You’ll have to get her to tell this story because she tells it better than I can. But when she was in elementary school, she decided one day she was going to witness to her friends at school. They were in the cafeteria eating lunch and Suzy just asked, “Have any of you ever been saved?” She was going to tell them what she knew about Jesus, like the good little disciple she was but then a little boy at the table spoke up.

He said, “Yes, I have been saved.” And Suzy thought how great that was. She wasn’t the only one and she had visions of both of them spreading the Gospel to the whole school starting right there at the lunch table. Then the little boy launched off on this long story of how he and his dad went fishing one time and the boy fell out of the boat and his dad reached out and saved him. That was his salvation story. His dad saved him from drowning. Of course, everybody at the table had to talk about that and Suzy was left staring at her sandwich. But she learned a lesson that day besides the one her teacher wanted her to learn. She learned you have to know your audience. Speak like they can understand. Get to the point and keep it brief. If you don’t, you may lose your chance.

I remember when I first came to this church and was just getting to know people so I went around and asked people for their testimony. I have to admit, I was shocked. Some people couldn’t tell me anything and some people told me everything and after 15-20 minutes I still hadn’t heard anything about Jesus. I heard about their childhood and where they lived and what churches they went to and how their mother was a Sunday School teacher. But what I didn’t hear was the most important stuff. What was your life like before Jesus? How did you come to start your relationship with Jesus? What is your life like now with Jesus?

What is your salvation story? Can you keep it under three minutes? I haven’t timed it but mine goes something like this. I started my relationship with Jesus when I was just seven years old so my testimony doesn’t have the drama and the flash that some do. I had never raped or murdered anybody. I wasn’t a drug-dealing president of the local Hell’s Angels or anything but I knew I was a sinner. I knew I had displeased God and I had heard that scripture said that what we deserve for our sin is eternal death in hell away from God. (Romans 6:23)  I asked my Dad about it and he explained that all I had to do was believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins and ask Him for forgiveness and to be Lord of my life and I would be saved and have eternity in Heaven. So, I did that and my life since then has been changed. I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. I still sin sometimes but when I do, it pains me and I ask God for forgiveness and do my best to turn away from that sin.

Because I am able to have a relationship with Jesus, and I know that God loves me and is in control, I have peace and joy in my life even in the difficult times plus the assurance of Heaven as a co-heir with Jesus to all the good things God has in store.  How about you? Would you like to have that peace and joy in your life? Would you like to hear God the Father welcome you into Heaven with, “Well done good and faithful servant!”? You can. And all you have to do is believe. Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Do that right now as the music plays.

“The Intellectual Approach” – Acts 17:16-34

I have three basic questions this morning. The first question is, what makes you laugh? What kinds of things do you find funny? Next question is, what makes you angry? Do you ever get really mad? What was the situation? Last question. What makes you cry?

If you really want to know somebody, those are good questions to ask. They tell you a lot about a person. It’s interesting that I think I know at least three different people that feel one of those things all the time. Some people think everything is funny. Some people are always mad and some people cry about everything. You probably don’t want to be around any of those kinds of people.

Here at “Cries Fellowship” it’s not uncommon for somebody to be crying and it is usually not because we are sad. Most of the time when somebody around here is crying it is because we feel God at work in our lives as individuals and as a church. For most of us, it’s difficult not to cry when you are in the presence of All-mighty, All-powerful, All-knowing God, the Creator and Sustainer and Deliverer, our Savior. It can be scary and intimidating and it should be.

What makes you cry? In this day and age, it’s easy to get mad at things. When you turn on the news and you feel like you’re in the Twilight Zone seeing what some people are doing to our country, it’s easy to get mad. When you see people, as scripture says, calling good evil and evil good, it’s easy to get mad. When you see people making bad choices and blaming God for the consequences, it’s easy to get mad. But maybe it ought to make us cry.

In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. Because Jefferson trusted that students would take their studies seriously, the code of discipline was lax. Unfortunately, his trust proved misplaced when the misbehavior of students led to a riot in which professors who tried to restore order were attacked. The following day a meeting was held between the university's board, of which Jefferson was a member, and defiant students. Jefferson began by saying, "This is one of the most painful events of my life," was overcome by emotion, and burst into tears. Another board member asked the rioters to come forward and give their names. Nearly every one did. Later, one of them said, "It was not Mr. Jefferson's words, but his tears."  (Today in the Word, March 29, 1993.)

In our continuing sermon series on the different approaches to evangelism, none of these methods of sharing the Gospel are going to work if you don’t love people and if you don’t feel absolutely broken-hearted at the thought of them going to Hell. Let’s not mince words here because that is exactly what happens when someone dies without having a life-changing relationship with God through His Son Jesus. There is a real Heaven but there is also a real Hell and I don’t wish Hell on my worst enemy.

So, it doesn’t matter if God made you more relational or service-oriented or He made you intellectual, if you don’t have a passion for people, this is a waste of time for you. In Acts chapter 17, we see Paul coming as close to a vacation as we ever see him. He is actually on one of his mission trips and he has some stories to tell already. He has seen lots of people come to know the Lord but he has also been run out of town, put in jail and nearly killed several times. You know, that’s just another Tuesday for Paul.

But in Acts 17, he is by himself and he is waiting for his missionary buddies to meet him in Athens. So, he has some time to kill. He doesn’t have anything on his schedule and I find myself thinking, “C’mon, Paul, why don’t you just go to the beach or something. Get some rest. Heal up a little, maybe rent a jet ski or something and have some fun.” But no, he has to be about the Lord’s work and so as he walks around town, he is making mental notes about what he wants to say to be able to lead these people to Jesus.

Now, you have to know that Athens was the hotbed of intellectual reasoning. It was THE place to go to be a philosopher. For thousands of years people like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle met right here in Athens to do what they did best: talk. Talk, talk, talk all the time. They even had a main place to go to talk and that was the Areopagus. The Areopagus was where they had court and city meetings and basically the place to go to hear and be heard on any number of subjects.

In Paul’s day, this was the place that two groups of people met and discussed their philosophies, the Epicureans and the Stoics. These are like Republicans and Democrats but with some intelligence. Anyway, the Epicureans believed in the pursuit of pleasure and comfort and living well. They were complete atheists. Today, if someone is called epicurean, it probably means they like to eat well. The Stoics, on the other hand, thought there was a different god for everywhere and in everything and were big on self-discipline.

Now, Paul shows up and is concerned for the eternal life of both groups and in verse 16, we see his concern for the city as a whole. Let’s start reading at verse 16 and go to the end of the chapter.

Acts 17:16-34 says, “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”

In that first verse, it says that Paul was “greatly distressed.” The original word used there means to be broken-hearted and angry together. It is something that Paul just can’t let go. He can’t walk on by and let it slide but he also knows that there is a difference between arguing and debating. These people didn’t argue. They debated. They loved to debate but there was no room here for anger. Paul knew his audience wouldn’t hear a word he said if he went after them like Peter had, if you remember last week’s message. So, Paul took the intellectual approach and he was the perfect man for the job.

Paul was extremely intelligent. He could speak multiple languages. He was well-educated and well-traveled and well-read, but mostly he was good at reading people. In 1 Corinthians 9:22, Paul said, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” Paul’s passion was for people to come to know God like he knew God. He wanted them to have the joy and the peace in this life that he had as well as the promise of eternal life in Heaven like he had. So, I want you to see how Paul starts off his evangelistic message.

In verse 22, Paul starts off by giving them a compliment. He said, “I see you are very religious.” Now, the King James Version translates it “very superstitious” and that is not a good translation. They did not consider themselves superstitious at all. But they were proud of being religious. They didn’t know that Paul was not really impressed with how religious they were but would soon explain to them that knowing God is not about religion but relationship.

But he starts off with what they considered a compliment and then he made his case for Jesus being God and Lord telling these intellectuals something that would make them listen. Do you know what most smart people want? They want to get smarter. They crave knowledge so Paul tells them in verse 23 that he is going to tell them something they don’t know.

For us today, we have to be careful with this because you don’t want someone to think you are talking down to them or patronizing them. That’s the wrong method here. What you want them to hear is that you have some knowledge to share that they will be interested in. You don’t even have to be a scholar to do this either. What is a disciple? A disciple is simply one who learns from Jesus and then tells others what you know. That’s all you have to do and an intellectual person will respect you when you say you don’t have all the answers but you know what you know.

That is how Paul starts his message and then he gets into the body of what he wants to say. Look at verse 24 again. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.” Here Paul teaches them about the greatness of God. They were used to worshiping little manmade idols made of wood or stone that had no power or feeling but Paul speaks of the Creator God who made men on purpose and for a reason.

How important is it to feel that you are here on this earth for a reason? Do you think that would be good news for somebody that was an atheist? God created you. You are not an accident. I don’t care what your parents say. You are not a mysterious speck of dust in the vastness of the cosmos. You have meaning. You are loved. You have great worth. Intellectual or not, that is a great message and we can preach it because we have a great God.

Muhammed Ali always claimed to be the greatest, and maybe he was the greatest at boxing but he never created something out of nothing. He never spoke something into existence or held the universe in the span of his hand (Isaiah 40:12). Ali may have ruled in a 20 x 20 boxing ring but God is Lord of Heaven and earth! He is the Creator and Sustainer and he created you and sustains you and at the very second He stops sustaining you is when you take your last breath. That is the greatness of God.

Paul continues his message to the intellectuals at the Areopagus in verse 25 by teaching them of the goodness of God. There is a difference in being great and being good and God couldn’t be great if He weren’t also good. Paul said, “And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” Paul said that not only did God create us but He gives us everything we have and everything we need.

I say all the time how important it is to know that God is in control and He loves us. If He was only in control but didn’t love us, He would have thumped me off the planet a long time ago. And if He only loved us but wasn’t in control, then that would be nice but what is He really going to do for me? How is He really going to protect me and provide for me? But scripture is full of passages that speak of God’s sovereignty which means He is in control and we know that He loves us, if from nothing else but for the fact that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us.

Corrie Ten Boom once said, “Often I have heard people say, "How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!'" Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. "No, Corrie," said Betsie, "He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: 'For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.'" Corrie concludes, "There is an ocean of God's love available--there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love--whatever the circumstances."

Let me repeat that verse she quoted from Psalm 103:11, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.” How do I know that God is good? I know because He is great and His love is great. That’s how I know He is good.

How do I, Todd, know God is good? Because He blesses me with the presence of the Holy Spirit to live inside me and guide me and give me peace and joy in difficult times. That’s how I know God is good. I will probably never have to face something so awful as Corrie Ten Boom did but I can still feel God’s presence in my life and when I feel like a speck of dust in the universe, that makes me feel wanted; like I must have great worth. That is God’s goodness.

Paul has one last point to teach the intellectuals at the Areopagus. In verses 30-31, we see him teach them about the grace of God. Just knowing about God and His greatness and how He created everything is not enough. Most intellectuals, in fact, anybody that thinks deeply at all, want to know how they got here. They also want to know that they are here for a reason. They want to know why they are here. That’s important. And the first two points of Paul’s message address those two important life issues. But deep thinkers also want to believe that there is more to this life than just this life.

Oftentimes, because they can’t explain it, they choose to believe that there is no God. Intellectuals have a hard time with faith. If it can’t be proven in court or in a petri dish then it can’t be believed. Paul chose, in verse 31, to use as his proof the resurrection of Jesus and that was smart because even though they were 2000 miles away from where it happened, when a dead guy comes back to life, people hear about it.

These days, since we are 2000 years away, you might use as your proof your own testimony. We have talked about this before. With intellectuals especially, they might want to debate with you about facts and figures but they can’t debate your personal testimony. They can’t say that you don’t have peace and joy in difficult times. Use your testimony to teach them of the grace of God. That’s what Paul was trying to do in verse 31.

That Paul was so good at this. Look again at verse 31 and see that Paul mentions that God will one day judge with justice. That was a great word to use for these folks because intellectuals usually think in black and white. They like for things to be either right or wrong, true or false. They want justice, or at least think they do because when they see that we are all sinners as it says in Romans 3:23 and that the justice that we deserve is eternal hell as it says in Romans 6:23 then they see their need for grace.

That’s when John 3:16 kicks in. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That’s the Gospel. You can do that. You can do that even if you are not a so-called intellectual. Teach them that God is great. Teach them that God is good and then teach them of God’s grace. Don’t be intimidated. You, as a believer, have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of you to give you the words and to soften their hearts and minds to what He tells you to say.

Paul told his young friend, Timothy, to do the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5) and I have no doubt that he would tell you the same thing today. And you can do the work of an evangelist, no matter what gifts God has given you and no matter how God has wired you. We should be like Paul and it should break our hearts so bad to think of lost people going through this difficult life and then spending eternity away from God in Hell.

It should hurt us bad enough that we would become all things to all people even if those people are smarter than us. We don’t have to know all the answers. Just know your audience like Paul did and then listen to the Holy Spirit speaking and be obedient.

Do you have that voice inside of you that is the Holy Spirit? Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." You can trust that voice if you are close enough to Him to hear it.

But you have to do what Paul told the smarties at the Areopagus. You have to believe and you have to repent. Seek Him, reach out to Him and you will find Him because He is right there. Do it right now as the music plays.