Living in 3D (Acts 16.6-15 and Mark 3.1-6)

This is my adaptation of Bill Hybels' teaching series "Just Walk Across the Room" (week 2). 

Introduction

Last week, if you recall, we said that the single greatest gift we can give people is an introduction to the God who created them and loves them.

The reason we want to point people to faith is because this is what the father heart of God beats for. God gave the gift of his one and only Son so that lost people could become found people.

We talked last Sunday about being willing to enter the Zone of the Unknown; leaving our Circles of Comfort so as to engage with people we don’t yet know. We explored the art of listening for the Spirit’s promptings as we do this. It is vital to learn to rely on the Holy Spirit and not our own clever ideas.

And we saw that, at the need of the day, we need to just walk, remembering that Jesus too left the ultimate comfort zone of heaven to meet us where we are.

Today, I want to talk about what happens immediately after you decide to “just walk.” In other words, what should you be thinking about, praying about, and talking about in that Zone of the Unknown once you step into it? Because if you’re like me, deciding to “walk” is one thing. But knowing what to do once you’ve left your comfort zone is quite another.

I think these are valid questions for us all to ask: After I make the decision to walk across a room … what do I think about? What do I pray about? What do I say?

This week, we’ll explore what we’re going to call “Living in 3D.” It’s a framework for operating effectively (and perhaps over months and years) in the Zone of the Unknown.

1) Develop Friendships

Walk-across-the-room people live life in “3D.” What does that mean? It means that, first of all, they constantly look for ways to: Develop friendships.

If we’re going to reflect the Father’s heart, we need to make a habit of opening up new friendships. That is what Jesus did. And, since Christians are basically called to follow Jesus, this lies at the heart of being a true Christ-follower.

But there’s a problem here that I suspect that most of us will have encountered.

Let me see if I can explain what I mean with a story about an imaginary believer called Jane. Jane has been a Christian for ten years. She comes to Christ, is accepted and redeemed and filled with the Holy Spirit. She thinks it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her.

She is buzzing. She has a newfound care and concern for people around her. She wants everyone to experience what she has discovered. And so she is highly motivated to encourage them on their own journeys of faith in Jesus.

Jane is walking with Christ … and experiencing a corresponding increase in her love and acceptance of the people whom Christ loves. All is just as it should be!

Over time, Jane sees some of her friends and family come to faith in Christ - the change she sees in their lives is simply astounding! These new believers and Jane start meeting with greater frequency, just to chat about how much they love the Lord … how much their zest for life has increased as a result of God’s grace.

But as time goes by, Jane’s life becomes almost completely absorbed by her Christian friends. That part’s good … I suppose … except that Jane no longer feels that initial enthusiasm she had for sharing Christ with her unconvinced friends … mostly because there aren’t any left in her warm, safe Circle of Comfort.

Jane is still walking with Christ. But simultaneously, her love for others who do not yet know God declines. Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it - that this could happen in the life of someone who is maturing in her faith in Jesus?

If you think about it, this is what makes the Circle of Comfort so comfortable. All of us find it easy to love some people - maybe a soul mate or a spouse or friends at church. As soon as we see them, our initial emotion is warm. We love spending time with them. Our faces break into a smile when they come to mind.

Almost every human being has a loving heart toward some people. But almost every human being also has a secret list of people they just can’t stand.

It might be a business partner who took some of your money and broke up your partnership twenty years ago. It might be an ex who walked out on you. It might be someone who wounded you with harsh and unfair words. You might have really sound reasons for not liking a certain number of people.

We don’t talk about this very often because it’s uncomfortable. But it remains true: some of us have a mental “list” … and on that list are the names of people we wish we could put on a ship headed permanently out to sea.

But my firm belief is that unless Christians are determined to eradicate this from their lives, they will fear and avoid the Zone of the Unknown.

Developing friendships means acting on an impulse of the Christian heart that says, “Whoever you are, whatever you have done, whatever you believe life is all about … I’m open to accepting you, understanding you, journeying with you.”

That’s where it all begins.

No question, lots of us Christians are growing in Bible knowledge, in worship, in character, in serving, in giving. All the research shows that. But how much are you growing in your capacity to simply accept and welcome whoever is standing on the other side of the room?

Developing friendships. This is where living in 3D must begin. Once you are willing to view every interaction as the first step in developing a new, God-honouring friendship, you will find that some interesting doors open up.

Look at our first reading from Acts 16. It just so happened that Paul and his companions walked over to a group of women who were meeting together in a certain place and got talking with them. They had already spent several days in that place and had probably spoken with many people. But that deliberate, intentional walk along a riverbank and conversation with Lydia was how the church got started in Philippi.

I was thinking about the growth of the church in the Acts of the Apostles this week. Every now and then Luke gives a progress update like in Acts 5.14: “More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” And Acts 6.7: “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” And Acts 9.31: “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria… was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

On each occasion that didn’t just happen on its own. Each time it was the cumulative effect of dozens of ordinary Christians leaving their circles of comfort, entering the Zone of the Unknown and developing friendships.

2) Discover Stories

If you live life in “3D”, you are constantly watching for ways to:

• Develop friendships … in order to
• Discover stories

When Kathie and I were first married and living in London, we got a letter from a friend of a friend of a friend called Gillian. We didn’t know her at all. It turned out she was an 18 year-old student who had been accepted to do three month’s work experience at the Ritz Hotel. Would we be able to put her up during that time?

We agreed that we would. Gillian was not a Christian and her values were a bit different to ours but we decided not to judge her or make comments about her choices but just accept her as she was, take a real interest in her and in what she was doing and live our Christian life as authentically as we could.

Over the time she was with us, unknown to us, she had borrowed a book off our shelves and had started reading it. It was called “Basic Christianity” by John Stott. By the end of her stay with us she had prayed the prayer at the end of the book and given her heart to Christ. In her last week with us she burst out “I’ve become a Christian, thank you so much!” We were startled. I can’t really remember ever really having a proper evangelistic conversation with her.

This story intrigues me because there have been many times in my life where I’ve been around someone for weeks or months or even years, and things always seemed to stay at a superficial level.

But if you take time to discover another person’s story … if you neither hide nor push your Christian faith, often the other person opens up about their heartfelt needs when the time is right.

If you are looking at me with glazed eyes, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, maybe it’s because you haven’t stepped outside your Circle of Comfort for a long, long time.

If that’s you, you really need to strike up a relationship with someone who is far from God and start getting to know their story, start praying for them.

Reconnect with the real world. Take an interest in someone who may be just waiting for someone to care. See what God might do.

Discover stories. Discover stories of people far from God who may be one prayer away from encountering the God you know. Be the one person in their world who takes a real interest in their story so that you will know how best to serve them … which leads us to our third “D.”

3) Discern Next Steps

Walk-across-the-room people live life in “3D”. They constantly look for ways to:

• Develop friendships in order to
• Discover stories then
• Discern appropriate next steps

Once you’ve risked walking across a room to stick out a hand of friendship and spent time unearthing what another person’s journey has been like so far, the best thing you can do is look for the nudgings of the Holy Spirit. During every single second of your conversation with the other person, simultaneously ask the Holy Spirit for direction, for guidance, for insight, for wisdom, for creative ideas, for appropriate next steps to take.

Ask! I need badly to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and inspiration when I’m in the Zone of the Unknown. If left to my own devices I will completely foul it up.

I once asked a woman how many months pregnant she was. She was not pregnant, just overweight. That was not inspired by the Holy Spirit. Nicky Gumbel tells about the time he wanted to persuade a young woman of her spiritual need. “Hi” he said. “You look terrible. You really need Jesus!” That was not inspired either.

I want to show you a short clip that illustrates well this idea of taking appropriate next steps. Meet Dave, from Bill Hybels’ sailing crew; a man who knows what it was like to have someone take appropriate next steps in his life. See if you can notice any appropriate next steps…

If you are using the material in your home group, you’ll get to see the whole story of an 8-year journey towards faith and how each step along the way was negotiated.

In the video clip, Bill took several “next steps” in the life of his friend Dave - steps that added up over time and led to changes in Dave’s outlook.

What about simply asking about Dave’s week? Asking about his wife, Beth. Asking about his work. That simple step honoured Dave. It made him feel accepted and cared for. It opened the door for further dialogue because Dave didn’t feel threatened or intimidated by the nature of the conversation.

Or what about giving Dave a copy of a book? Not everyone you know would appreciate this exact book. But they might be helped by a book. That simple step was exactly what Dave needed, at that time, in order to process the questions he had about science and faith. And because Bill was staying tuned into the Spirit … and tuned into Dave’s needs, was able to supply that need.

How about telling Dave that he was going to pray for him every day that week? There’s power in a commitment like that.

I want us to spend a few moments thinking about some of the “next steps” that helped us come to understand God’s grace-filled love for us. In other words, the “next steps” that really mattered to you!

Perhaps someone lent you a book or a DVD or a worship CD? Maybe they offered to pray for you – or with you. It might be someone’s act of kindness at a difficult time in your life. Possibly somebody invited you to their home for a meal and you were touched by the Christian welcome or to a church service that blew your mind. Perhaps someone challenged you to give them a reason why not believing in God was better than believing in him? Maybe you can think of different things.

You’ll never believe this but the truth is that, for me, a nun called Sister Anna coming into my bedroom at 11:00pm and winking were absolutely key “next steps” in me giving my life to Christ at the age of 17. God does indeed move in mysterious ways! If you want to know more about that you can ask me afterwards…

Closing

Our Gospel story in Mark chapter 3 about a man with a withered hand says that Jesus was preparing to teach in the synagogue one day when the Pharisees had an idea. They were upset with Jesus and so they started plotting for how they might catch him out on a Sabbath technicality, which was an absolute no-no in those days. You weren’t supposed to work at all on the Sabbath, no exceptions including, it seems, healing injured people.

The Pharisees drag this poor guy with a shrunken hand into the synagogue and then stand back to see if Jesus will take the bait. Think for a moment what this handicap means. He cannot work. He cannot write or draw. He cannot embrace his wife or hold his children. He cannot shave, bathe, get dressed or relieve himself with dignity. Try living with a hand tied behind your back for a day and you’ll see how frustrated you become.

Jesus sees these religious leaders standing in front of him and just gets irate.

The text from The Message paraphrase says he was angry and “furious at their hard-nosed religion.” He couldn’t believe that they were putting their rigid laws above showing love to someone in need.

Jesus makes no apologies as he asks the crippled man to step forward and receive his healing. He can’t not heal the man. Jesus’ whole mission is about healing people and making them whole again.

And if there’s one thing I want to leave you with today it is this: You have the profound privilege of reaching the people around you with the same extraordinary love and irrepressible acceptance that Jesus himself showed wherever he went.

The same extraordinary love that was extended to you at some point along the way, if you are a follower of Christ.

Just take a look at all of the evidence right here this morning. All of us were spiritually withered in one way or another when people around us chose to take a “next step” or two and help move us a bit closer to God.

Here’s what I want you to remember: We are surrounded by people with withered hearts and withered minds and withered bodies, people with withered dreams and withered hope. I wonder if perhaps God will use you to start to bring healing to them in the next few weeks.

I want to encourage those of you who have the book to read the next section before next Sunday. You will get so much more out of this series if you do.

A new week is about to unfold in your life and in mine. And like all new weeks, we can choose to invest it in things that glorify and satisfy us … or we can choose to invest it in things that glorify and satisfy God. Here’s my challenge to you … my challenge to me.

This week, let’s “live in 3D”:

• Develop friendships … with all sorts of people, withered in all sorts of ways
• Discover stories … remembering to keep the focus on the other person
• Discern next steps … letting the Spirit guide our every action

This week, let’s be alert to the Spirit’s promptings, asking him to lead us toward the people with whom we’re supposed to build bridges of friendship.

Your prayer - “lead me, Holy Spirit” - is so vital! Wherever it takes you, if you choose to be obedient to God’s leading, I think you’ll look back on your week and say, “That was seven days well-lived.”

Let’s stand to pray...


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 30th January 2011

The Single Greatest Gift (Philippians 2.5-11 and John 4.4-42)

This is my adaptation of Bill Hybels' teaching series "Just Walk Across the Room" (week 1).

Introduction

If you’re a Christian, isn’t what you want most to touch the lives of the people you know - the people you love - who are far from God?

Sharing your faith should be as simple as taking a walk across a room. And that is something we can all do, isn’t it?

This “just walk across the room” metaphor comes from a true story about one person who was living really far from God until one day, his entire world got upended because a Christian touched his life by walking across a room and starting a conversation with him. You can read about that in chapter 1 of the book. It’s an amazing and exciting story.

The single greatest gift Christians can give to the people around them is an introduction to the God who created them, who loves them, and who has a purpose for heir lives. 

This is what sharing faith is: it’s watching for ways to give this single greatest gift to someone else. Today, we are going to try to understand how God can use us to do that. What does it take in order for us to give this “single greatest gift” to someone we know?

1) Enter the Zone of the Unknown

Think about this with me for a moment. A Christian in a social setting is standing in a conversational “Circle of Comfort.” It is easy and unthreatening. There is every reason to continue talking in that little circle. You have been in situations like that haven’t you? Across the room you notice someone standing alone, who needs a little encouragement or friendship.

Something inside you says, “What if you went over and extended a hand of friendship on the other side of the room?”

You see the situation. You sense a prompting - apparently from the Holy Spirit. Then you actually say to the people in your Circle of Comfort, “Excuse me a minute.”

Now remember, you have no idea what is going to happen once you cross the room and greet this stranger. You don’t know what the reaction will be. But once you have left your Circle of Comfort there’s no turning back.

And so you walk … inwardly praying every step of the way. You walk all the way across and enter what we’re going to call the “Zone of the Unknown.” Have you ever been there - the Zone of the Unknown? It’s where God often does his best work! Here’s the question I want us all to ponder: what would happen if we were all to enter the Zone of the Unknown more often?

Is it possible that we could actually impact someone’s eternal destiny and even that of their family?

I took some time to read through the book this week, and here’s a quote that should stop all of us in our tracks: “The day Christians like you and me stop taking walks across rooms in this manner, the day we stay glued to our Circles of Comfort, refuse to make the walk, refuse to enter the Zone of the Unknown … the day Christians like you and me stop doing that sort of stuff, it is lights out for the kingdom of God here on earth. It is the beginning of the end of redemptive history. It’s the slow defeat of the church - the bride of Christ. It’s the end of the dream of Christ that people on earth would come to know him.”

If you’re a living, breathing Christian, then the Holy Spirit is asking you to walk. He’s asking me to walk. He’s asking us to make a difference in the lives of the people we see each and every day! At work. In social settings. At the gym. At our kid’s football game. Wherever. Whenever.

If you’ve submitted your life to Christ but wonder why you’re not surging ahead in your spiritual development or your spiritual maturity, could it be that, for too long now, you have clung to your Circle of Comfort, and avoided that Zone of the Unknown?

If you have made the choice to follow Christ - if you have found him to be truth, if you have found what the Bible says to be truth - then why would you - why would any of us - think that other people wouldn’t be interested in knowing about what we have discovered to be the most life-changing, heart-stimulating, eternity-altering encounter of our lives?

2) Listen for the Holy Spirit’s Promptings

In order for us to be effective in the Zone of the Unknown, we need to learn to listen to the Spirit’s promptings every step of the way.

Before you get the wrong idea about what this looks like, let me tell you that being available to the Holy Spirit doesn’t always work out the way you think it might. Sometimes we hear about these evangelist types who travel abroad and on their journey they lead everyone they come across to Christ - the taxi driver, the airline agent, the flight attendants, the poor victim sitting next to them on the plane, the family across the aisle - the whole plane becomes a church before they land! Stories like that make us feel like we’ll never measure up don’t they? But it’s actually possible for ordinary people to do this.

About two years ago, when Benjamin was at Preston Primary, I noticed someone new waiting at the school gate. She was always on her own and seemed to know anybody at all. After a few days I felt prompted to just walk across the playground, offer a hand of friendship and welcome her to the area.

It turned out that her name was Sohini. What I discovered was that Wendy and Kathie had already walked across the playground when they were waiting for the children on other days. She was surrounded by Christians! Soon after, she brought her son along to Fuse.

A few months later I invited her to do the Alpha course and she said “no.” But a few months after that I invited her to do the Journeys Course with her husband and they said “yes.” They loved Journeys and it really helped them think more deeply about faith. Then Sohini said she was interested in the Bible so Kathie and I bought her one. When we gave it to her, her face lit up! By that time she’d got to know Julia as well and was volunteering as a helper at Fuse. Every time she came she just drank in what Julia was saying about Jesus. Recently, she has started to come to the Wednesday Communion service and this week, for the first time, she called herself a Christian. Praise God! But if Wendy, Kathie, Julia and I hadn’t left our Circle of Comfort and followed the prompting of the Spirit I wonder if it ever would have happened. I asked Sohini if I could tell her story today and she agreed very enthusiastically.

The key is this: fundamentally, being walk-across-the-room people means that we walk when the Spirit prompts us and we don’t walk when the Spirit says not to. Frankly, it’s what keeps the edge and the adventure in the Christian life.

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said this about his followers: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

You’ve got to have savour. You’ve got to be enthusiastic about the Lord. But, more than that, salt needs to be where the food is. I can be the strongest, most salty salt the world has ever seen but salt is useless unless it actually gets on the meat! I won’t make any impact unless I get close to the people who need Jesus.

Based on the law of averages, there are some of you sitting here this morning who are thinking, “I agree with this. But I think this is for spiritual superstars. I don’t have the right training, the right skills or enough confidence. I don’t have a quick mind or a way with people.”And if you’re in that camp, I understand you. I know what it is like to walk across the room and think, “I’ll be so glad when this is over.”

I dread the Zone of the Unknown. I get nervous inside when a normal conversation shifts gear into spiritual territory. But I want to grow old with no regrets. I’ve said this before but I’d much rather spend my life being scared than bored. In the Zone of the Unknown I’m scared. In the Circle of Comfort I’m bored.

I want to walk by faith and not by sight. There is something a lot like Jesus that is going on in you and in me when we leave a Circle of Comfort and take that faith-walk across the room and reach out a hand.

Last Sunday night I had a sensation in my left shoulder as I was praying and I just had a hunch that God was saying someone had pain in that part of their body and that he wanted to heal it. So I said so in the 6:30pm service. At the end of the service, someone came forward who I have never seen ask for prayer ministry.

And she said, I’ve had a pain in my shoulder for about 15 years and the doctors can’t do anything. Last night it was particularly painful. We prayed and she said it started to twitch and feel strange. So we guessed that might be God a work. We kept praying and blessing what God was doing. She looked astonished, saying the pain was completely gone. What is true in prayer ministry is surely true for personal evangelism. As we tune into the whispers of the Holy Spirit and step out in faith God will lead us into the exciting things that he's doing. 

This is something anyone can do. You can learn this. You can be equipped for this. You can become more effective at sharing your faith.

But, bottom line, what’s the reason we want to get better at all this?

3) Just Walk!

Romans 5.8 is familiar to some of you. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Let me push the Pause button here for just a moment.

I spent some time this last week reflecting on what this reality means in my own life … God took hold of me as an annoying, self-centred, slightly geeky 17 year-old, wondering if I’d ever find a job, despairing that I’d ever find a girlfriend, (everyone else probably wondering if I’d ever get a life!) and God extended grace to me through Jesus Christ. He took hold of me and changed my life forever.

And how was it that Jesus demonstrated the love of the Father? What was the radical move he made to prove to you and me that he really does love each one of us? He took a walk.

The verses from Philippians you see on the screen say that at a specific point in history Jesus left the ultimate Circle of Comfort - heaven itself - walked across the universe and reached out his saving hand to people like us. And because of that one walk, humankind was able to be saved and secured in the family of God forever.

Every person who has ever inhaled air has been (or is) in dire need of being rescued.

And these days - right here in our everyday lives - what God tries to do with us between now and heaven is to say, “What I did, leaving that circle, making that trip and reaching out to you… is what I want you to do. I want this to be characteristic of my followers whenever I give them opportunity to do so.”

If you will stay open, with an eye focused on people and an ear tuned to God’s whisper, I think you will be amazed by what unfolds.

God says to us all today, “I am going to ask you to walk across the street; across a restaurant; across an office... I am going to ask you to take that walk, leave whatever Circle of Comfort you are in and enter the unknown - and then something exciting is going to happen. That is what I want you to do.”

And that’s the third point: Just walk!

Why? Because Jesus “just walked” for you. For me. For us. And for every, single person on planet Earth today.

This is why we’re setting aside an entire month of our calendar to this. Our vision is that every home in our parish will know we are a vibrant Christian community ready to pray for them serve them and lead them to Jesus. That’s why we’re doing this.

So that we can all get better about hearing the Spirit’s promptings, but also so that we will start taking action with a sense of confidence … and in the process, become more like Jesus!

One of the most dramatic occurrences of Jesus taking action in this way is found in John 4. Jesus and his disciples had been travelling all day and had come to a well.

It’s the middle of the day, and these men are hot, hungry, and thirsty. They see a woman standing by the nearby well. We learn later that she had been through five divorces and that she was now living with someone unmarried. In highly-spiritual terms, that’s what you call having a lot of tread worn off your tyres.

Make a note to take a closer look at this story this week - again. When you review it, you’ll notice that all thirteen men - Jesus plus his twelve disciples - come up to Jacob’s well. The disciples size this woman up, think she’s not the kind of company they want to be seen with and head off somewhere else for lunch.

Jesus turns around, sees the woman, and simply walks from one side of the well forecourt to the other - which catches the woman off guard.

Because of the customs in that region, she’s not expecting him to have anything to do with her. In their society, Jesus wasn’t just walking across a typical “room” - he was walking through barriers of gender, race, culture and religion.

Because of her lifestyle, this woman would’ve been labelled a “sinner” by the religious establishment. She was a Samaritan. Most Jews wouldn’t have walked through this town because they believed they would have become “unclean.”

But despite all of the protocol and sensitivities, Jesus left his Circle of Comfort anyway.

Moreover, he directs the conversation from the everyday topic of drawing a cup of water from the well to something much deeper … “living water,” and this catalyzes her eventually coming to faith.

The text says that she leaves her basin, runs into town, and drags half of her friends and neighbours out, telling them that they just have to come meet this man who knew all about her past but who accepted her and showed her… grace.

And for the next two days everyone listens to Jesus teach. It says in the text that many people from the town crossed the line of faith and joined God’s family during that timeframe. All because one man took a walk across a room - okay, a well forecourt - to reach out to someone living far from God.

But here’s the picture I want to leave with you from this story: Imagine fifteen or twenty years later when all these people’s kids and grandchildren are sitting around enjoying the beauty of Christian community.

Imagine that they begin to tell stories about where their faith journey began. One of them says … “How did all of this start?”

I know that, like the disciples, we can be tempted into staying in our safe circles. We too can make a habit of rushing off to our lunch appointments or family gatherings instead of engaging with the people standing in front of us. But hopefully, the longer we keep company with Jesus, the more our eyes will be opened to seeing the things that he sees; people around us who need love, friendship, community … and hope.

Ending

As we close, I want you to think about how you ended up as a Christian. I want you to think about how some of your friends did. Almost every Christian I know can think of somebody - it might have been a mum or a dad, it might have been a colleague or a teacher, it might have been a friend or a neighbour - who walked across a room for them.

And so if you are a Christian, then probably someone took a risk for you along the way and did something that interested you in the possibility of knowing the love of God and the opportunity to be freed from your sins.

If this is true for you, thank God today for the person who “took a walk” to hand you the single greatest gift you’d ever receive in your entire life.

I hope you’ll become the kind of person for whom others will thank God at times like this.

I close by reminding you that, if you want to get the most out of this teaching series, you have an assignment this week to read the Introduction and chapters 1 and 2 of the book. There are still copies available from the bookstall and in the library to borrow.

Those who actually do the reading were probably the ones in school who asked the teacher for more homework! I know that. But if you do the reading you will become better at all this than if don’t.

Over the next three weeks, we are going to get very practical. We will learn in detail how to excuse ourselves from our Circle of Comfort. We’ll learn to look across whatever room we are in and open our eyes and use our ears and discern from the Holy Spirit if there is someone on the other side that God is drawing our attention to.

If you’re in a home group and your group has decided to use the material offered you will get even more out of this. Our staff team are doing this as a group over the next four weeks.

And as we learn together I offer you a few predictions about the month ahead:
• Firstly: we will all grow in our relationship with Christ.
• Secondly: those looking at this in groups will grow in relationship with one other.
• Thirdly, we will get better at pointing people to faith.
• And finally, we will have an absolute ball doing it!

Let’s stand for the closing prayer…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 23rd January 2011

How to Win the Biggest Prize (Matthew 13.44-46)

Introduction

Jesus used just 66 words to tell a couple of complete stories.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.” “When he found one of great value” says Jesus, “he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

A Twitter tweet can have a maximum of 140 characters. The story of the treasure hidden in a field has 125 characters and the story of the pearl has 128.

Jesus tweeted. Or at least he could have done.

The two short stories are quite similar. Both feature a man. Both men discover something of great worth. Both appreciate the enormous value of their discovery. Both are willing to pay whatever it takes to obtain what they had found. And both end up giving everything they have to possess their prize.

But there’s one big difference. Did you spot it?

In the first story, the man stumbled across his find by chance. But in the second one he was actively searching for pearls when he found a truly exceptional one.


Treasure in a Field

Sometimes you make a spiritual discovery out of the blue. You weren’t looking for anything – but suddenly the answer to all your longings is staring at you in the face.

CS Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia had an experience just like that. He wrote a book called Surprised by Joy about how he went from Atheism to being a Christ follower almost overnight and with little warning.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

Notice what the man thought his discovery of treasure was worth. To him, it was worth more than “all he had” because that is what he traded to get hold of it.

The Cullinan diamond is the largest ever found and is worth about $400 million. How excited you would be if you were digging around in your garden and you found a gem bigger than the Cullinan diamond?

Listen, being a Christian isn’t just a lifestyle choice. Some people like to go the gym, others collect beer mats, others spend time on the allotment and still others call themselves Christians and go to church.

No, no it’s not like that. Following Jesus is not a hobby. It affects everything you do because it changes the very heart of who you are. Jesus becomes the most important thing about you. He redefines all your values. He turns your life upside down and pulls it inside out.

Jesus said that the man who finds the treasure “in his joy he goes and sells everything that he has.” I’ve looked up that word “everything.” It means everything.

This man doesn’t just sell all he has; he does so with joy. No regrets. He doesn’t complain about the sacrifice he has to make. In fact, he probably doesn’t even consider it a hardship. He gives a lot for the field, but he gets so much more in return. What a discovery!


The Pearl of Great Price

But for others, becoming a Christian is not a chance discovery, but the conclusion to a long search.

Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.” He’s looking out for something truly exceptional.

He’s got a magnificent collection.

“Here it is; my pride and joy” he says. “My whole life I’ve built up this portfolio of precious pearls. It has become one of the world’s most valuable collections.

And he starts to give a little presentation of his collection. “This one,” he says, “is where it all started. It was handed down to me by my great, great grandfather the day I was born. It’s been in the family for generations.

“This one was given to me by my mother on her deathbed; she pressed it into my palm, smiled, and then breathed her last. I was just a boy when she died. It is only worth about £2,000 but it has incalculable sentimental value.”

And he continues to show you dozens of pearls on velvet cushions; of all sizes, some perfectly round, some more milky white than others – some with a silvery sheen… He is a pearl nerd. He could bore you for hours.

“This one has a strange glittery shine on it. That’s because it was subjected to great heat (perhaps from an underwater volcano) when it was being formed. It’s the only one like it in the U.K.

“Here’s one that was recovered from a locked safe on board the Titanic. For insurance reasons I’m not allowed to tell you what it’s worth.

“This one was given to me as a retirement present from my work colleagues. For 30 years I worked with those guys – happy days.

“This string of pearls are my wife’s favourite; it was worn by Marilyn Monroe when she sang for President Kennedy. I bought that one for £2 million in an auction.

And so he goes on…

One day, his broker calls. A new and rare pearl has come on to the market. In fact, it is not just rare, it is utterly unique. It’s the size of a golf ball, it has an incredible, pure shiny hue, it reflects light in the most glorious ways and it surpasses everything else in his collection.

“When he found one of great value” says Jesus, “he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.”

Why is a pearl especially fitting as a symbol of the kingdom of God? What do you think? I think it’s because it is the only gem that cannot be improved by human craftsmanship. God’s kingdom, like a pearl, is conceived, designed, created and perfected by God from beginning to end.

Think about it. All other gemstones have to be cut and honed by skilled artisans before they have any beauty. But a pearl is flawless when it is found and it can’t be improved by cutting. In fact, once cut by a human hand a pearl is worthless.

Any human attempts to try to improve the kingdom of God take away its perfection. Salvation comes from God – you can’t add to it at all - otherwise it’s not salvation; it’s just self-help.

Pile up everything in this world on one side of the scales and put salvation on the other side and it still doesn’t balance. The salvation of your soul, knowing Jesus and eternal life in the glorious presence of God are worth infinitely more.


Conclusion

That’s what Jesus wants you to understand about these two stories about the kingdom. (1) What you have to be willing to give up in order to get into it, and (2) what you stand to gain when you do.

For you to know the joy of God’s kingdom, everything must come after it.

I was talking to Steph Ferguson and Ray Black before the evening service last week. They attended the Alpha course last term and I met them on the first night. They started coming along to All Saints’ after the awayday in November and I noticed that their faces had changed. They were full of joy. They have found the pearl of great price.

So for those of you who have yet to meet them, I thought I’d introduce them to you this morning.

There followed an interview with Steph and Ray; why they signed up for Alpha, what their lives were like before the started the course, what happened during Alpha and what have been the changes in their lives since then.

This is what our vision is all about; people discovering Jesus and being added to the community of faith.

Let’s pray for them both…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 16th January 2011