Sunday November 4, 2018, All Saints Sunday
“Transformed to Transform: A Winning Witness”
Acts 4:23-36
We begin a new
conversation this month that centers around the mystery of these marbles. Check out these five containers. Each has a very specific amount of colorful
marbles in them. No, your pastor as not
(yet) lost her marbles. Curious about
what these marbles represent or mean within our series Transformed to Transform? Stay tuned because the reveal will be on
Sunday November 25th. This morning we
will talk about how we are a winning witness of Jesus in the world.
Let’s pray… Come
Spirit of the Living God, infuse us with the power of your love, conviction and
boldness so that we can do and be your witness in the world in which we
live. Come Spirit of God, come. Amen.
Witness…can
be or do. Be a noun like “she was a
witness of the car accident”. Do the
work of witness like “his writings witness his inner toughness”. God’s Holy Spirit seeks to move into your
life and mine that we become both. Be a witness. And do the ministry of witness-ing.
As we paused this morning to honor, remember and celebrate
this year’s class of Ridge saints… I was mindful that from the youngest to the
oldest within this group are witnesses who were friends of Jesus and who shared
how Jesus impacted their life others through their everyday actions with others. From the youngest John Rogers and his music
ministry in our Ridge praise band to the oldest Russ Altherr serving meals to
the homeless on Mondays; our Ridge saints have shown us how to be and do
witness work for Jesus.
You could say that today’s message on winning witness is
about communication. Specifically, we will examine how to effectively
communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2018 and beyond. I am sure as I speak
the introverts in the room have a growing sense of fear or anxiety. Talking about sharing Jesus with others
brings up all sorts of mixed emotions, past hurts, or even a sense of
overwhelming angst.
But what if… sharing Jesus with others- being and doing the
witness work is not what you think it is?
Not knocking on someone’s front door.
Not telling someone what they are doing wrong in life. Not imparting guilt, shame or some other
coercive strategy to win someone to Jesus. What if sharing Jesus is something
else?! What if a winning witness is much
more joyful, empowering, hopeful, and contagious??!!
As we heard read in our Acts reading today we learn the baby
church or early church… understood the being and doing of ministry…
together. These early Jesus followers
understood that God calls every follower of Christ to witness on a daily basis
by using every means of communicating the gospel of Christ to a lost and dying
world.
For sharing Jesus to be effective, the saints must recognize
that God's evangelistic call extends to all Christians. It is not limited to
certain groups, leaders, staff, or clergy in the church. God does equip the
church with ‘evangelists’, but we must not confuse the gift of an evangelist
with the commission of sharing how Jesus has changed your life.
Look again at the use of the plural pronouns in our Bible
reading! Verse 31 indicates that the apostles were joined by the rest of the
church in speaking the message of the gospel. In an amazing answer to prayer,
God empowers ordinary Christians with extraordinary boldness to witness for
Christ. God will do the same for you and me!
Your personal time with Jesus (in prayer, reading, listening
to Christian music, sharing in quiet, serving to help someone else) fuels your
sharing of Jesus with others. Verse 13
says the community took note that these men had been with Jesus. Then in verse
20, Peter informs the religious leaders that he is simply speaking about things
he had seen and heard. These verses obviously refer to the apostle Peter, but
the text reveals a simple yet powerful truth for all believers to embrace.
You and I talk about those things that interest us.
Grandparents talk about grandkids. Some people talk about favorite restaurants.
Others talk about sports. As we spend time with Jesus which strengthens our
faith… the result will be that we have something to share with others about how
Jesus has healed us, comforted us, transformed us, challenged us, forgiven
us, and sent us out into our circle of influence to pass along the best of what
we have gained.
Ridge these past
few years has been undergoing a shift in our perspective and understanding of
what being church means. Our leaders
have been learning about what is happening in dying churches and what vibrant
growing churches are experiencing. One
of the key difference in a vibrant church is a huge shift in our understanding
of what a winning witness for Jesus looks like.
Consider this
slide (show Attractional vs. Missional church).
For many years with the way our culture used to be… churches in America
could operate with an “attractional” model or mode. We evangelize
or market to people by to get them to come to us. We try to produce events and worship that are
attractive to a demographic. But,
you say, our world is very different in 2018.
And indeed it is different.
Overall,
the Church’s (Protestant and Catholic alike) influence
on Americans is beginning to fade. A growing number of Americans have given up
on God—or at least on organized religion. They have become “Nones,” a term
popularized by Pew Research. And their numbers are growing. Pew’s
2007 Religious Landscape study, which surveyed 35,000 respondents, found that
about 16% of Americans claimed no religious affiliation. By 2015, that number had grown to 23%, almost one in four Americans.
A
changed cultural context provides you and I as Jesus followers with an
unprecedented and amazing opportunity!
The mission is every before us- to make disciples of Jesus Christ for
the transformation of the world. A
missional church… “is a reproducing community of authentic disciples, being
equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim God’s kingdom in
their world.”
Which
means consider what a missional
church looks like. “Our evangelism is relational.
We invest in people and society, living out our faith in Christ. We find ways to go and live like Christ with
people in their regular everyday activities.
Living like Christ is distinctly different, but not irrelevant.”
I read a quote
recently by a French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who said, “If you want
to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divine the work, and
give orders. Instead, teach them to
yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Many of us who have
been a part of church for decades have spent years drumming up people,
gathering word, dividing the work of church, and so on… but as I read Acts 4,
as I pray, and as I consider the mission field of Northwest Indiana before
us…if Ridge is to accomplish God’s purpose as a winning witness in our world we
need to do more than apply marketing principles- you and I need to yearn for
the vastness and endlessness of a relationship with Jesus!! As we yearn…we share our yearning with
others.
The children’s song,
“We Are the Church” (#558 of United Methodist hymnal), reminds us that being a
community of people who follow Jesus is not about our building, our church bank
accounts, our organ, or our guitars.
Rather, being church is about being a unique, significant sort of people.
Therefore, you could say that technically, no one ‘goes to church’… because we
‘are the church’ with one another and toward the world around us.
To be church as a
winning witness looks like (show 2nd slide) …switching from a
consumer mindset of church which has said, “I
go to church where I am fed, have my needs met, and have professional teach my
children.” To be a Missional Church which means “we are a body of people sent on a mission who gather in community for
worship, community encouragement, and teaching on God’s Word, in addition to
what we are self-feeding through the week.” We are the church- we are the witness (doing
and being Jesus) to the world.
Sure Ridge has great resources, but resources do not reach
people. People reach people. When was the last time you invited someone to sit
with you in worship? Invited someone to
come to one of our special events like Trunk r Treat, Winter VBS, or Christmas
Eve worship? Or when was the last time
you offered a kindness to a stranger?
Called the local synagogue this week after the horrifying events of last
week, Tree of Life? Raised a Habitat
wall shoulder to shoulder with people of different faiths? Told a friend how
Jesus met you in answering your prayers?
We are all called to be winning witnesses of Jesus who spend
time with Christ and share with compassion as we expect our loving God to use our
winning witness to save souls. This is
how we are transformed to transform. Come be church with us! Let us pray…
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