Don’t Be Afraid to Tell People about Jesus!
Sermon for Sunday, June 22, 2008
1. Good morning! Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: Well what does our Lord want to say to us this morning or more precisely what is our Lord calling us to do this morning?
I want to read the Gospel reading once again but this time from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase “The Message.” Please listen to it again and ask yourself this question what is the Lord saying to me – to us . . . this morning?
Matt. 10:26
“Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. 27 So don’t hesitate to go public now. 28. “Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.29“What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. 30 He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! 31 So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries. 32“Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. 33 If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?
Hmmmmm . . . “Don’t be intimidated by the bullies of this world who want to silence any word about Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all!”
We live in a world that desperately needs to hear the call to conversion, but it’s a world that is ultimately captive to its base desires. The seven deadly sins of lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, envy and pride are obviously rampant and dominant. Just take a few moments to examine any advertisement for almost anything and you will discover one of more of these deadly sins being promoted in one form or another.
We’re not even ashamed of them any more! It has become cool to be self promoting! Just watch any of the “reality” shows to become convinced of that! Clearly sexual promiscuity is about “safe sex” not about abstinence.
I don’t want to belabor the point – I’m obviously preaching to the choir in some sense but It’s important to understand that you and I are being encouraged this morning to become more public about who we are in a culture that will immediately feel judged by us if for no other reason than by the contrast between itself and the values that we must proclaim and hopefully live out!
3. Ah! There’s the rub! For many of us Christians it’s comfortable to call ourselves Christians but to live our lives as functional pagans. And cynical onlookers are absolutely right to call us hypocrites when they see this dysfunction between our prosaic proclamations and our actual lives.
So the next obvious adaptation is not to say anything out loud but still to go to Church and to live a quiet functionally pagan life!
And that seems to be the place where many of us live today – we’re functional pagans.
Can anybody in this sanctuary relate to what I’m saying here? I confess you to that I can and it makes me very very uncomfortable.
I find myself seeing sins that need confession. I thank God for a weekly liturgy that allows me to confess my many sins and to receive, assuming I’m deeply sorry, God’s gracious forgiveness!
The terrible reason that so many of us are frozen in silence is that we’re more comfortable in a pagan world than we are in a Christian world. You see to live Christianity out loud is to swim upstream and to engender the vicious chagrin of the surrounding pagan world!
No wonder most of us choose the functional pagan option! It’s too scary to really live out our Christian ideals better and much easier to give them lip service but not to actually live them out!
Those of us who answer the call of God will have to face the hostility of this world, because our values and our commitment to righteousness threatens this world’s tentative moorings.
To commit oneself to the sovereign reign of God is to ultimately challenge the reign of the world, and this can make one very very unpopular.
Let me say that again: “To commit oneself to the sovereign reign of God is to ultimately challenge the reign of the world, and this can make one very very unpopular.”
4. They haunt me! It’s the last two sentences of the Gospel reading for today that haunt me. Listen to them again:
Matt 10:32 “Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. 33 If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?
Now let me quote them from the NIV translation:
Matt. 10:32“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
What does that sound like to you?
It’s an ultimatum isn’t it? “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
The word translated “acknowledge” is oJmologe÷w and it means to make an emphatic declaration, often public, and at times in response to pressure or an accusation — ‘to declare, to assert. It means to express openly one’s allegiance to a proposition or person — ‘to profess, to confess, confession.’
When was the last time you and I emphatically and publically declared our love or even our unabashed commitment to Jesus Christ?
Now I can imagine some of you may be thinking – that’s a bit unfair . . . I don’t think I need to go about getting in the face of everyone about my faith in Jesus! That’s not me – that’s not nice! That looks and sound too much like an obnoxious fundamentalist!
You’re right – it may be obnoxious and it’s very probable that you could proclaim your love and commitment to Jesus Christ in a less offensive way . . . BUT . . . when was the last time you even publically acknowledged your love for and faith in. . . Jesus Christ?
Why are we so frightened by the world in which we live?
There are a bag full of reasons but I think that at the end of the day we’re not fully convinced that Jesus Christ is the full meal deal!
The Jehovah’s Witness lady: Let me give you an example of unabashed courage! Just 4 days ago I was at home in full priestly garb – collar and all, when suddenly our back door bell rang. I opened the door and stepped out to the greeting hand of a handsome older lady and her disciple friend. She smiled took in my collar but undeterred proceeded to encourage me to consider converting to become a Jehovah’s Witness!
Now I don’t know about how you might proceed in a case like this but to try to convert a priest demonstrates this precious woman’s indefatigable courage . . . and certainty that she was right and I was wrong! Would that some of us had just a modicum of her commitment and courage in our evangelistic efforts!
5. Don’t forget about Jesus: You know it’s one thing for me to focus in on Jesus’ challenge to go out and fearlessly be who we say we are publically which means bold proclamation witnessed by prayer and healing and deliverance!
But I need to remember that the person making these challenges was Jesus Himself not a fallen person like me.
Each of us hopefully has our own unique relationship with our Lord. Just yesterday morning at our Saturday Morning Men’s Breakfast meeting I asked each of the men to share the “texture of their relationship with Jesus” and they shared eloquently and freely.
It was wonderful to get a glimpse into how each of the men experienced their relationship with Jesus.
Each of them had their own unique relationship – some more formal than others but all very very rich.
I don’t want to spend any more time exploring this but I want each of us to imagine that Jesus Christ has just walked down the isle into our midst. He has heard my remarks up to this point but now He wants to add His UNMITIGATED comments to this homily.
Imagine Jesus standing right here beside me and let’s assume that He wants to add His personal and unique contribution to this encouragement to not be intimidated by the world.
I imagine Him standing right here and looking with penetrating eyes of infinite love into each of our souls. I imagine each of us beginning to feel the wonder of His presence. Feeling His love – His infinite love for us.
I imagine each of us beginning to slide down to a kneeling position before Him and just kneeling in His Presence waiting for Him. This is what He would say:
“My dear dear friends - don’t be intimidated by this world. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. 27 So don’t hesitate to tell people about me right now – today – this afternoon. 28. “Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear and reverent awe for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.29“What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to that precious little canary even more than you do. 30 He pays even greater attention to you – He really does – I know He does. He pays attention to you right down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! 31 So don’t be frightened by all the bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries to me and to my Father! We love you! We really do!32 So be brave and “Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. Now I have to end this challenge with a statement of what will happen if you choose fear over my love – if you choose to be intimidated by the bluffs of this world over against telling people about me . . . so here it is -33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
Now I imagine Jesus saying that last statement with deep sadness in His eyes knowing full well that some of us will walk out of this sanctuary and go on about our lives as if this challenge were never made. And that last statement was for us and will be the indictment we will have to face when we stand before Him on judgment day.
But I don’t think Jesus would end it all here. I think He would then invite us all to bow our heads and receive His prayer of anointing.
So please bow your heads and let us pray . . .