The Supernatural Community must get Bigger!
Matthew 9:1-13
We are living in days in which the church is classified as irrelevant, so we need to know how we can make a difference.
salt pot and torch
we are to use our influence, our “salt” and “light”, to make a difference in our world.
Like it or not one of our aims has to be to get bigger. And I’m not talking about putting on weight. The Supernatural Community, the church must grow in numbers.
The way we do this is by being salt and light in the unique way that God has made us.
Where there is a heart for evangelism, the normal policy is to adopt the latest method of evangelism circulating at the time, and to buy into a national scheme or initiative. So in the 50’s and 60’s much evangelism took place through rallies and mass events. Later in the 60’s and 70’s it was coffee bars and gospel concerts. In the 70’s too, people discovered Evangelism Explosion, saturation evangelism, family services and house groups. It was also the decade when church growth thinking came onto the agenda. In the 80’s some adopted Good News down the Street, some were challenge by power evangelism, whilst many discovered the evangelistic potential of celebrations. In the 90’s the emphasis has been on church planting as the best method for evangelism. Still others placed their energies into Just Looking groups, evangelistic meals, Agnostics Anonymous Groups and Alpha Groups. More recently our churches have been challenged to be Missionary Congregations, and then refined to understand its about finding church outside of church establishing Missional Communities. There has been healing on th e streets and ‘The Turning’.
Now hang on Nick are you saying that these are just all fads, are you saying that we’re into church planting at the moment but soon we’ll be into something else in 10 or so years time? Probably Yes. But that’s not a bad thing. The word fad is quite negative, being into the latest thing is no bad thing because they are immense resources and they are God inspired resources to help meet the needs of the day. But did you notice what I just said? they help meet the needs of the day. We have probably been guilty of using them as ends in themselves. If we are doing evangelism then these are the things we are doing. The truth is none of them were designed that way. They are all resources. Evangelism is to do with our hearts.
Honesty must compel us to admit that the results are no way proportional to the outlay of faith, prayer and energy invested. Perhaps we need to hold back from too quickly adopting methods of evangelism and start to think work form our vision and allow that to underpin our evangelism. We have a good Vision Statement ‘Reaching Out and Welcoming In.’ Possibly the fault lies , not in the methods, but the use of the methods without an adequate foundation.
If the community is doing what it should be, it will be an attractive place which people will want to join. But how do we reach out to truly lost people who matter so much to God, without using the cheats’ way of sheep swapping? One church grows at another churches expense!
Matthew 9 gives us a Biblical model for enlarging the community. It’s the way Matthew did it. It offers us ideas for the way we can do it.
It began with Matthew discovering in Jesus that God loved him and forgave him and wanted him to be a part of what God was doing.
- A dramatically changed life (Mt 9:9)
Likely that Matthews specific roll was collecting tolls on goods crossing the border between Phillip’s and Antipas’ tetrarchy (Syria and Egypt). More of a customs official. Bit worse than a tax collector. This was further extortion. Hated by general populace, especially by the religious as he was in direct contact with those considered to be unclean on a daily basis.
Matthew presumably had heard Jesus before. Now was the time for decision. His life was dramatically changed. We will never achieve anything for God until we have had our lives radically changed. How was he going to reach his friends?
One of the simplest but most effective vision statements today is that of Willow Creek Community Church. Their mission vision is “to turn irreligious people into lifelong followers of Jesus Christ.”
Are we prepared to give people the space to have their lives changed? We tend to want people to become middle class evangelicals rather than followers of Christ.
Sadly, the values of too many members in our churches communicate clearly that the church is our church, there to serve us and meet our desires and though we’d like them on our terms and without disturbing what is familiar and satisfying to us. Such an attitude is a recipe for evangelistic failure.
2. Key: Being who we are and doing what we do well (Matt 9.10)
Matthew had met Jesus and wanted all his friends to meet the Master too. What could he do? He could do the one thing he really knew how to do well –he could throw a party. People always enjoyed his parties. So he threw a big party and invited everybody –Jesus could do the rest. Why can we not just do the same –lay aside time-consuming religious activities, and spend time with people we like, instead?
Matthew could have spent loads of time down at the temple, buy a soap box, spend ages on training seminars. But Matthew threw a party. Not for his new respectable friends but for his old cronies.
Why do you think so many people were there? We would like to think that the Holy Spirit had so convicted people that they just had to be there in order to meet with Jesus. This I think is over spiritualising. I think they were there because everybody knew about Matthew’s parties, they were a lot of fun, know what I mean!
So he had a party and invited Jesus. And do you know Jesus went! Disgusting isn’t it that Jesus should go to a place like that and spend time with people like that! Do you know I think Jesus thought this was a great idea.
Most sermons you have heard will talk about the fact that if Jesus was prepared to go to a sinners house we should be prepared to go too. This is missing the main point. Jesus didn’t just ‘dain’ to go he was enthusiastically delighted to get the opportunity! It didn’t happen often. Got desperate and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house. These were the people he came for! v12f the sick, the sinners!
Matthew co-operated with Jesus. He did what he did well, threw a party, and Jesus did what He did well revealed his love for sinners. For us, we can co-operate with each other to use our gifts to draw others to Christ.
This was a normal situation, food drink and good company! Matthew had brought Jesus to the real people not dragged people to an unreal world!
Matthew operated on a new principle: He did what he did well and he did it for God! For Matthew, it was throwing a party. For us it will be different.
Here is a model of enlarging the community which rings true. Doing what we do best. Using it to speak of Christ. Co-operating with others with different gifts. Drawing people in through the door to faith!
So many people do not feel immediately comfortable in church, but they will come for a meal, they will go to the football, they will play golf or go to the theatre.
The question is do you know enough people to do these things with. We do when we’ve just become Christians, but we are so busy making new Christian friends, which is a good thing but not at the expense of our non Christian friends.
It begins of cause with knowing the love of Jesus but has to move impulsively, instinctively, to wanting others to know that love too.
Living our lives aware of other people
Be nice
Start by smiling
Ask Jesus to prompt but be nice anyway
Moving onto their turf
Discovering their story
3. Resisting the damage from the religious heavyweights (Mt 9:11)
Not everyone is happy with this approach! It was not religious enough, The riff raff were hearing the good news, but they were not being made religious! Inevitably the ‘religious heap’ turned up.
“This is not how to do evangelism”
Jesus you’ve got this wrong, you need to get these people down to the temple. Get them singing religious songs. Bore them to death. Embarrass them. Make them feel like idiots. Shout at them an humiliate them! Treat them as outsiders.
“This is not what to do with your time”
If you have spare time to spend with outsiders, you should be doing more churchy stuff.
4. Lost people are not the enemy, they matter to God, therefore they matter to us (Matt 9:12)
Matthew’s friends mattered to Jesus, far more than they mattered to the heap!
Jesus’ views was (v12), when will you understand that lost people matter to God. Therefore expect one another to know and spend time with lost people. Expect it, encourage it, and bless one another for it.
People are in danger and need rescuing
The puritan divine Richard Baxter once said “M EN WILL NEVER CAST OFF THE PLEASURES OF THE WORLD ON THE DREARY REQUEST OF MAN”. Matthew’s friends were experiencing the new community arriving at the party. They met Jesus, and his disciples. They saw on their own ground, what could happen to them on holy ground.
This is a different understanding of church than most of us have been used to.
We have to change the way we behave towards people outside the church, because they are not like us.
I want this community to be:
*A community open to others
*A community where we co-operate together in our evangelism. Where we can all gain good relationships, and then confidently introduce them to those gifted to be sensitive evangelists either in our homes, at special events, or at the Sunday services which are designed for them.
*A community where, as at Matthew’s party, our non-Christian friends, will be treated with the utmost dignity, kindness, gentleness and respect. Where they will not be yelled at, or humiliated. Where they will be challenged with the gospel with integrity and not embarrassed or misled!
*A community built around our friends, relatives and neighbours and then their friends, relatives and neighbours.
If we are really concerned about the lost, we would be having coffee or dinner with them ! We would be driving them to the doctors, playing sport with them or going for a walk with them. We would be doing what we do best and using it for God. It’s been difficult to do many things in lockdown but hopefully you have been keeping in touch with family, friends and neighbours. As things begin to open up, what can you do? How can you spend time with people? How will you introduce Jesus to them? Who will you get to help you?
Too often it seems as though the church treats the lost as the enemy. Jesus would have had lunch with them. The lost matter to God enough for him to allow his only son to go to the cross. They must matter to us just as much!