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6/8/08

Full Story at 11:00

Have you ever watched the evening news night after nights and wonder how they come up with something “newsworthy” every night?  Granted, sometimes you can tell that not much happened that day because they seem to be a little light on news, but regardless there’s still a news program every night.  I’ve never been around to see a news program put together… to see how the station decides what is newsworthy and what isn’t, but I picture it a bit like this… even though I may be quite off.  I picture the producer sitting at his desk with headlines scattered all over submitted by his reporters.  I picture him reading each headline, trying to decide which ones are going to bring the most viewership.

Now, I imagine sometimes there may be so few headlines that he has to use about all of them.  But I imagine other times he has stacks have headlines that have to go by the wayside simply because they can’t all fit in a half-hour program.  That’s not to say the other headlines aren’t newsworthy… that the other headlines aren’t about real needs of real people… that they aren’t about real hurt and real pain… it’s simply a matter of there only being 24 hours in a day.

When Jesus walked this earth, he was confined but the same 24 hours that you and I are… and like us he too had to eat and sleep… and take care of the needs of the people.  Listen, or read along with me, won’t you, to Jesus’ experiences in just one day while he was on this earth.  We’ll be reading from Matthew chapter 9, beginning at verse 1.

Matthew 9:1-8; 18-38 (NIV)
¹ Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. ² Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

³ At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

⁴ Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? ⁵ Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” ⁷ And the man got up and went home. ⁸ When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

¹⁸ While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹ Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰ Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. ²¹ She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

²² Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.

²³ When Jesus entered the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, ²⁴ he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. ²⁵ After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ²⁶ News of this spread through all that region.

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²⁸ When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied.

²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; ³⁰ and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” ³¹ But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.

³² While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. ³³ And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

³⁴ But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”

Wow! Quite a busy day, wasn’t it.  And this was just some of his day.  We could have read more.  Some people suggest that this all didn’t actually happen in one day… that there was no way that Jesus could have been bombarded by so many people in just one day.  But not only does Matthew write as though this is all happening in one day, but human nature suggests it’s quite likely that all of this could have happened in one day.  Just look at how busy a gas station got a couple weeks ago was when they were accidently selling gas for $2.97 instead of $3.97, and you can just imagine how busy Jesus would have been as soon as the people heard that Jesus could heal people of life-long diseases!  And it’s in this context that Jesus says the very familiar next paragraph:

³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

I imagine Jesus was really feeling how few the workers really were!  Jesus was going to town and village, and not only did he have the good news of the kingdom to bring, but he was also healing the people who came to him out of desperation.  I can only imagine, being human, that Jesus wanted a break… he wanted someone else to take the reins for a while.

But who could do the work of Jesus, the Son of God?  Surely only Jesus could bring the Good News with such compassion and such Confidence, right?  Only Jesus could heal the blind and raise the dead, right?  Well, maybe (or maybe not), but I wonder if Jesus isn’t getting at something larger.  I wonder what work Jesus was expecting the workers in the harvest field to do.

We’re likely all familiar with the ending of Matthew.  The now familiar verses which Jesus spoke.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  But he doesn’t tell us HOW to do this does he?  He doesn’t tell us how to make disciples.  He does tell us how to teach them, does he?  Well, if Jesus’ life and ministry are any indication, I think he gave us a pretty good idea.

As you likely know, for quite a while, door to door evangelism and huge evangelistic crusades used to be quite the thing.  And why not?  A single person could reach hundreds if not thousands of people.  But you may also have noticed that you don’t hear nearly as much about door to door evangelism or evangelistic crusades as you once did.  Why is that?  Are people just too busy now?  Do they not care about the lost anymore?  Well, maybe, but I don’t think so.  At least I hope not.

You see, while you can reach a lot of people by going door to door or holding a huge crusade in an auditorium, the truth is that the long lasting effects of this type of ministry are quite limited.  I read a study a while back that asked relatively new believers what it was that drew them to the Christian faith.  How many do you think came to be Christians due to things like evangelistic crusades?  2%  Only 2% of new Christians were Christians because of crusades put on by people like Billy Gram or Louis Palau.

Well, what about door to door?  I don’t need to tell you about the stereo type that the Jehova’s Witnesses have given door to door ministry.  But is this stereo type any surprise.  Someone who you don’t know from Adam comes to your door step, tells you everything you believe is wrong, everything they believe is right, you must choose to believe what they believe, and then they leave again.  I had someone do something similar to that the other day… a vacuum sales person.  She came to the door.  I had never met her.  She all but let herself in.  She told me my vacuum was no good, but that she had the perfect vacuum cleaner.  She wanted me to buy one right then and there, and then she left again.  I don’t know about you, but in my book that’s just plain rude.

So what did Jesus do.  How did he show us to make disciples.  How did he show us to teach them.  Well, at times he did teach large crowds (sometimes 4 or 5 thousand in number).  And as we saw in our passage, he did at times go to people’s houses, but it seems these weren’t his primary ways of making disciples and teaching them.  At the time of Jesus’ death, he still didn’t have a very large following.  While his message got to many people, apparently there weren’t yet many people who believed.  So what did he do?  He showed people he cared.

Let’s look back at our passage.  It starts off at the beginning of Chapter 9 with a paralytic being brought to Jesus, assumedly to be healed.  And so Jesus gives him a quick gospel presentation and encourages him to come to his next teaching, which would be in the center of the town at 7:00 that evening, right?  No.  He tells the man he will be praying for him and goes off on his way… forgetting his promise to pray for him, right?  No.  So what does he do?  Jesus sees the man’s faith, has compassion on him, and forgives him of his sin and heals him.

But Jesus is a busy man.  He can’t do that every time, can he?  Well, in verse 18 we see him again being pestered by some needy people.  Some guy comes up wanting Jesus to take a look at his sick daughter.  Sure by now Jesus must be running late for whatever he had planned for the day, so surely now Jesus will brush him off with a quick, “I’ll be praying for her,” right?  No.  He goes with this man too.

And then if that wasn’t enough, he’s just heading off to see this man daughter when a bleeding woman comes up to him, and he heals her to.  If you can say one thing about Jesus, it’s that he wasn’t very efficient!  Just think of all the people Jesus could have reached in this time if he just would have brushed these people aside and gotten on to bigger and better things.

But the day isn’t over yet.  Maybe he’ll finally do something worth while and speak to a crowd or knock on the doors of at least a dozen or two houses before the sun sets.  But no, instead he heals a couple blind men and a demon possessed man.  To say Jesus must have been tired by this time is an understatement!

You know what’s easy?  Brushing people off.  How do I know?  I do it all the time, do you?  Especially when I’m busy.  Maybe I hear someone has a need.  Maybe their lonely, or sick, or struggling with something and I tell them I’ll be praying for them or I give them something to read when I was going through a similar situation.  Quick, easy, neat, and to the point.  I feel good that I “helped” the person, and I can go on with my day.  But you know, Jesus’ great commission doesn’t say anything about making us feel good.  It says to make disciples and to teach.  But if Jesus’ life is any indication, he’s more interested in quality than quantity.

What do I mean?  Well look at the fruit of Jesus’ life.  Sure, he touched many people, as do you and I.  But how many people did he teach as his disciples? 12.  Some 33 years on earth, and even the Son of God only had 12 disciples.  He only has 12 people whom he really invests in.  That’s not very efficient, is it?  Well, it’s not efficiency God’s looking for, it’s quality.  It’s quality of relationships.  If Jesus is looking for big numbers, it’s only in the number of workers, not the number of people reached!  For even numbers, lets say that the world now has 6 billion people (it’s actually a little more than that).  That means it would take 500 million teachers.  In other words, for us to reach today’s world with Jesus’ method, that is, 12 meaningful, discipling relationships, it will take 500 million committed Christians.  It’s no wonder we have to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers!  Jesus needs Billy Grams and Louis Palaus, but he also needs you and me if he needs 500 million teachers!  Jesus teaches twelve disciples, but then he sends them out.  I like playing with numbers, so humor me for just a minute.  Lets say, for round numbers, that Jesus was on the earth 2000 years ago.  If we also were to say that a generation is 30 years, that would mean approximately 67 generations have gone by since Jesus walked the earth.  If Jesus’ 12 disciples had each made 12 disciples and those 12 disciples had each made 12 disciples, there would have been, from Jesus’ time until now, 2 to the 72 power (that’s a 2 with 72 zeros behind it) discipled Christians in the world.  That’s amazing, isn’t it?  Especially when you consider that it’s estimated that there haven’t been more than 13 billion people on the earth since 1 A.D.!

But maybe you, like me, struggle with a couple things when you think of discipling only 12 people in your whole life.  The first thought that comes to my mind is much like the dilemma I picture that news producer having every day.  There are so many news worthy events, how do I know which ones to focus on.  In other words, there are so many people with needs.  There are so many hurting people in the world.  How do I know where to start?  The harvest is plentiful. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Ask him where you are to work and ask him to send other workers for the other needy, hurting people of the world.

But maybe you, like me, also struggle with the other extreme.  It seems like I often don’t find out about a need until the need has past.  I don’t hear about it until the eleventh hour.  But I wonder if this isn’t because I make myself to busy.  I’m too busy going from one thing to the next that I don’t take time to really care about and for people.  Unlike Jesus, who, although he was extremely busy, he still found time for people, I brush people aside.  I have more important things to do.

You know how through the evening the news puts on little teasers to get you to watch the full news program at 11:00.  The teasers often end with something like “Full Story at 11:00.”  I wonder if people don’t sometimes give us little teasers that there’s something “newsworthy” in their lives that we either ignore or brush aside.  For instance, I was in some store the other day an asked one of the employees where something was, but before I asked he asked me how I was doing and I asked him how he was doing.  Instead of the usual “Fine”, he said “I’ve had better days.”  I didn’t know how to respond so I kinda brushed it off and moved on with the rest of my day.  I wonder if he wasn’t giving me a teaser that there was something newsworthy in his life that he wanted to talk about, but rather than listening to his story and caring about him, I just moved on… maybe to catch the full story at the eleventh hour.

So this evening’s passage was a day in Jesus’ life… a day where he helped some people… but I wonder if it wasn’t also meant to be a day to help you and me… a day to show you and me that even in a busy schedule we can… no, more than that… we must take time for people.  If each of us were to follow Jesus’ example and touch just a few people’s lives it would be enough for all of us to touch the whole world a few times over

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.