"Inside Out"
John 20:19-23
Sunday, May 20, 2012

Introduction: A few months ago I was visiting one of our homebound members. We were talking about many things, but somehow the discussion got around to door-to- door visitation. She talked about how many years ago this church used to go out into the neighborhood and try to invite people to church and/or try to tell them about Jesus.  But then she shared with me her experience./  She came to the church one Saturday morning, and then she and others were “sent out” to go into the neighborhood. So she walked down the street a little ways to the first house, knocked on the door, and it was answered by a man. She then shared how she was from Community Presbyterian Church. Well….that is as far as she got. The man rudely told here that he was not interested, and slammed the door in her face. Devastated by this, she walked back to the church, got in her car, drove home, and told herself that she would never do anything like that again. It can be difficult to share your faith with others, especially when you try and do it door-to-door!

            We are called by God to do “incarnational” ministry. This means that we are to try and be Jesus to someone else, so that they can see God, just as God took on flesh in Jesus, so that we could see God. This morning I want to talk about how we are called to take what we know, what we have received from God, what we possess inside of us, and find a way to share it with others.

I.                   Be A Blessing- (John 15:7, 20:19-21)

a.      The disciples- Jesus was very intentional in His choosing the twelve

disciples. When He called them, He did so by saying to them: “Follow Me.” And after they responded to this call, they followed Jesus around, watching Him and learning from Him. This was quite an education for the disciples./    On one occasion…. Jesus drives an unclean spirit from a man. On another occasion Jesus cleanses a leper (and even touches him, which was not allowed by law, because to touch a leper meant that you were unclean as well). They saw Jesus heal a man who was paralyzed. They saw Jesus have heated discussions with the Pharisees (the religious leaders of the day) about what was lawful and what was not.

            From place to place Jesus led the disciples, teaching them about God’s love, about how people are saved, about God’s power, and on and on the teaching went. I’m sure the disciples were amazed, confused, excited, and challenged. But all the while they were just watching/  not doing. They were receiving the blessings of being with Jesus and learning from Jesus, but they were not really asked to do much.

            For 3 years they followed Jesus, and watched Jesus, and learned from Jesus. For 3 years they tried to understand who Jesus was and what Jesus was doing (you see they thought the Messiah was to come and set-up an earthly kingdom where the Jews would reign… and Jesus wasn’t doing anything like this). For 3 years they watched and waited to see where Jesus would take them./   And then Jesus starts to teach them about how the power of God will be with them. We read in John 15:7- “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”/  I’m sure the disciples wondered what they might ask for./            And Jesus talks about how they would be given the Holy Spirit so that they might have God’s counsel and presence. But Jesus gets arrested and then killed!

            And so when we come to our passage in John 20, we see Jesus coming to the disciples, after His death, and finding the disciples huddled in fear behind closed doors, afraid of everything and everyone. Yet this doesn’t cause Jesus any dismay, for He says to them in verse 21- “… ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, SO I SEND YOU.”/   Jesus is telling them that it is now time for them to do the work they saw Jesus doing; it is time to share the teaching they learned from Jesus. It is time for them to understand the blessings they received, and be a blessing to others in Jesus’ name.

b.      You and me-We are blessed to be a blessing.

Ex. When I was in college I got involved in a Bible Study with some friends. Every week I would go with my friends, and we would have a great study together and some great fellowship. But after a while we began to talk about the need to not just meet together and learn, but to go out and share what we had learned with others. We realized that we, like the disciples, had been called by Jesus to “follow Him,” but that following Him was more than just learning about the Bible; following Jesus was more than just trying to change the way we lived so that we would be more faithful to the teaching of the Bible. Following Jesus meant taking what was happening to us on the inside, and allowing it to come out of us; to share it with others. So we decided to go to the beach and try to do some sharing of Jesus with others. To do this we used a questionnaire. We would stop and ask someone if they would take a few minutes to answer some questions. The questions started simple… 1. Are you presently the member of any religious group or church? 2. What are your criteria for a meaningful or fulfilling life? 3. How do you believe human life originated? And then the questions would progress to: 4. Who do you think Jesus Christ believed himself to be? 5. Do you believe that Jesus Christ came physically out of the tomb? 6. How does a person become a Christian?/  It was amazing to see how many conversations we got into about becoming a Christian through this survey.

            And yet, for many people, this experience would be like the former member who had the terrible experience at the door…. I share this example, and it probably doesn’t get you excited to tell others about Jesus./   THE KEY is understanding about the blessings you receive from knowing Jesus and learning about Jesus. If you truly see how God has blessed your life because you are a Christian, you will then be motivated to share THIS with others.

            Ex. There is a story of a young man who heard about Jesus. But he wasn’t sure that he could tell others about Jesus. And so this kept him from wanting to give his life over to Jesus…One day he was talking to a friend who was a Christian, and sharing this concern with him. His friend told him that if he just wanted to keep his faith to himself he could. Excited, the young man went home, went up to his room and asked Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. After the prayer he felt at peace and excited about life with Jesus in it. As he went downstairs he saw his mom and dad and a friend of theirs in the kitchen. Still feeling this excitement he said to them: “Did you know that you can become a Christian and not have to tell anybody about it?”/            When you feel the blessing of having Christ in your life, it should just spill out naturally to others.

II.                Live for Others- (John 20:21, 3:16; Matthew 20:28; Isaiah 61:1-2)

a.      Understanding the need- In John 20:21 Jesus says, “as the Father has

SENT ME.”/  In Matthew 20:28 it says “For the Son of Man came not to be served but TO SERVE AND TO GIVE His life as a ransom for many./ ” In John 3:16 we are told that “For God so loved the world that HE GAVE His one and only Son…”/  Verse after verse reminds us that Jesus came not for Himself, but for others; Jesus lived His life not for Himself, but for others. And so Jesus sends us as He was sent, so that we might live not just for ourselves, but for others.

            While we have the tendency to be self-centered, there is also an innate part of us that desires to make a difference with our lives. Isn’t it true that when you help others, you feel good about yourself./   EX. When I worked in youth ministry in Camarillo, every year we would take a trip down to Mexico. The trip consisted of doing various kinds of construction work on the homes in Mexico. One of the benefits of doing this in Mexico is that there weren’t construction codes. So we didn’t have to get permits and pay large sums of money to do the work. We would send a person experienced in construction ahead of us, they would survey an area, and then we would go down for a week to do the work. We were able to make a difference in people’s lives by helping their homes become better. One house I remember was in terrible shape. They only had a dirt floor, and so whenever it rained their floor would turn to mud. They had no windows, and their walls were literally paper-thin. So we re-roofed their house, put in better walls, put in 2 windows, and we were able to raise the house and lay a concrete floor under it. What a difference this made! And those of us who worked on the house felt so great about what we accomplished for Christ. These youth that went on the trip were well-off in their lives, and they appreciated all the more what they had. But even more, they paid to go on this trip because they knew that they were seeking  to live for someone other than themselves. They were trying to be Christ to the world, serving rather than being served!

b.      Making it happen- What can you do in your life to make a difference

for Christ? What can you do that helps you to live for others? It is so easy to get involved in work, in your kids’ lives, in your grandkids’ lives. But Jesus calls us to care for those who are struggling, those who are oppressed, those who are lost. Remember these words from Luke, 4:18-19, where Jesus was in the synagogue, and He opened the scriptures and read from Isaiah 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”/ God is about caring for those who can’t always care for themselves. As the apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 6:2- “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”/  It is us who God has called to do His work. We are sent by Christ to do the work that Christ Himself would do.

            The great thing about being a part of a church is that the church sends you out. You can’t be sent on your own, but the church can send you in Jesus’ name. And as we are sent, we go “in the name of Jesus” and “with the power of Jesus” behind us. We also should go together so that the burden doesn’t fall on just one person…. I have felt this burden for a long time now, the burden to “go out”. I believe there are a couple of ways God is calling us to get involved: one is the community right around us (right now we are doing this with our bread ministry/food pantry, our computer class which will re-start this summer, and our support of the Hispanic church and their ministry to the community); a second is to organizations like “His Nesting Place” and “WomenShelter of Long Beach” we where help support organizations who are making a difference in the community of Long Beach. Each of these places needs the Lord’s favor. By our efforts we can bring take Christ to others.

           

III.             Reconcile People to God- (John 20:21; Luke 19:10; 2 Cor. 5:17-20)

a.      What it takes- EX. “Changed Lives,” by Tim Kimmel. In 1921, Lewis

Lawes became the warden at Sing Sing Prison. No prison was tougher than Sing Sing during that time. But when Warden Lawes retired some 20 years later, that prison had become a humanitarian institution. Those who studied the system said credit for the change belonged to Lawes. But when he was asked about the transformation, here's what he said, "I owe it all to my wonderful wife, Catherine, who is buried outside the prison walls."/  Catherine Lawes was a young mother with three small children when her husband became the warden. Everybody warned her from the beginning that she should never set foot inside the prison walls, but that didn't stop Catherine! When the first prison basketball game was held, she went ... walking into the gym with her three beautiful kids and she sat in the stands with the inmates./  Her attitude was: "My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I believe they will take care of me! I don't have to worry!" She insisted on getting acquainted with them and their records. She discovered one convicted murderer was blind so she paid him a visit. Holding his hand in hers she said, "Do you read Braille?"/  "What's Braille?" he asked. Then she taught him how to read. Years later he would weep in love for her./  Later, Catherine found a deaf-mute in prison. She went to school to learn how to use sign language. Many said that Catherine Lawes was the body of Jesus that came alive again in Sing Sing from 1921 to 1937. Then, she was killed in a car accident. The next morning Lewis Lawes didn't come to work, so the acting warden took his place. It seemed almost instantly that the prison knew something was wrong./  The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison. As the acting warden took his early morning walk, he was shocked to see a large crowd of the toughest, hardest-looking criminals gathered like a herd of animals at the main gate. He came closer and noted tears of grief and sadness. He knew how much they loved Catherine. He turned and faced the men, "All right, men you can go. Just be sure and check in tonight!" Then he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked, without a guard, the three-quarters of a mile to stand in line to pay their final respects to Catherine Lawes. And every one of them checked back in. Every one! (Stories for the Heart, p. 54)/  Catherine Lawes was able to make a difference in the lives of these inmates because she genuinely cared about them with the love of Jesus Christ. By sharing Christ with them, she helped them to be transformed at the core of their being!

b.      Where it leads- Even more, we are called to care about people’s

souls. There are so many who are lost on the inside. We are called to help people to be reconciled to God. When Jesus tells us that He is sending us out, He is sending us to do the work He came to do; SAVE SOULS! Jesus said that He came “to seek and to save the lost.” So too our mission should be to seek and to save the lost. But you won’t find the lost if you don’t look for the lost. You won’t find the lost if you don’t go where the lost are. You won’t find the lost if you do not have a heart for the lost. If Catherine Lawes didn’t genuinely care for the inmates and their condition, she wouldn’t have been able to make the difference she did make. If we don’t care about the condition of the lost, we won’t see the need, or expend the energy to help people be reconciled with God through Christ!

            In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 we read… ^“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.”/ We are implored to be made right with God, and once this happens, we are called to help others be made right with God. This is possible for anyone, as we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Conclusion: God became flesh in Jesus Christ so that He might dwell with His people. Why did He want to dwell with His people? Because He wanted us to know His love. There is not a more powerful way to show your love than to be there for someone. And God was there for us in Jesus Christ./   We are called to be Christ’s presence in the lives of others by being there for them. Those who are lost are not breaking down the church’s doors. Jesus tells us that He sends us “out” to where the people are and for us to be His presence.

If you have any special ideas about how we can do this in our community please share them with me! We need to all be thinking about how we can be God’s presence in our community.

EX. In the movie “Sister Act” Whoopi Goldberg plays this worldly singer who witnesses a mob crime. The police hide her as a nun in a traditional convent where she has trouble fitting in. But then one day she takes over the choir and teaches them a jazzier version of one of their hymns. From this she talks the Mother Superior into letting them go out into the dangerous city and paint over the graffiti, shut down the pornography store, and tell people about the love of Jesus. Whoopi Goldberg and the nuns go “inside out.” Let us go “Inside Out” by taking the blessings we have within us, and letting them be seen outside of us. Let us move outside our church walls with the love of Christ. Amen.