S .O .S. is sharing our Savior. Acts chapter
5 verse 42 says, day after day, in the temple
courts and from house to house, they never stopped
teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus
is the Christ. At a recent commencement exercise,
a student who is a professing Christian gave
one of the addresses. When I saw his name on
the program I thought to myself what a marvelous
opportunity to speak to hundreds and yes even
thousands of people who are gathered here. That
was a secular school to be sure. But I was certain
that this student would say something about God
or about biblical values at least. or the Christian
worldview. But sadly, the speech was pure humanism.
It would have been applauded at any New Age meeting.
Or actually, any convention of atheists would
have stood up and cheered and said, what a wonderful
speech that was. Now whether the student was
intimidated by the circumstances, or is oblivious
of the doctrinal heresy in his speech, or is
himself a deceived proponent of error, which
he spoke, I really don't know. But I know this,
that it was a missed opportunity. But that student
is not alone. All of us have from time to time
failed to confess what we know is true. and to
stand up for what we believe. We too have compromised.
We perhaps have been intimidated. We have been
challenged to keep our religion private and to
ourselves. But we as the people of God are not
called to live that way. We are called to make
Jesus Christ the issue in our world. The whole
movement of our culture is in the opposite direction.
To keep your beliefs to yourself. But the Bible
says that as those who love the Lord Jesus Christ
and who believe that God reigns in his world,
we are to make our faith an issue. Now we're
to do that in a way that will be appreciated.
or at least in a way that will be acceptable.
We're not to make it an issue in a negative sense.
We're not to make ourselves troublesome and irritating.
But we are in the most positive way God enables
us to make our faith an issue in our world. We
are to share our Savior. Jesus Christ is the
only solution really to what is ailing the world.
From America to the Balkans that is true I'll
tell you what is the heart of the problems in
the United States of America today. It's not
economics It is true that we are in an economic
mess and Some people say there's no way out but
collapse It is true. We are in an economic mess
We are in a political mess Boy are we in a political
mess. But the problems in America are neither
economic nor political. The problems in America
are moral and spiritual. We could get out of
our economic problems in this country if everyone
in America were tomorrow to live morally. If
everyone were to be honest. Stop cheating. Stop
defrauding. It would not take very long for us
to get out of our economic mess without any kind
of a tax increase. I am not running for office.
The problems in the Balkans? The United Nations
doesn't have a solution for it. Europe doesn't
have a solution for it. Certainly our nation
doesn't, being on the other side of the ocean.
The deep -seated hatred that exists among the
various cultures and the Balkans can only be
solved by Jesus Christ, a spiritual awakening.
You can go to every problem that's in the world,
from Sri Lanka to Somalia, from the White House
to the Kremlin, and Jesus Christ is the answer.
And you know something interesting? The people
in Russia are a lot closer today to understanding
that truth than the people in the United States
of America. Because the public schools in Russia
are begging for people to come and to teach them
morality in their schools. And I'm talking about
biblical morality. I'm talking about teaching
the Bible. teaching the truths of Christianity
in the public schools. They realize that is the
only way out of their problems. The United States
is heading in exactly the opposite direction.
What an exciting day to be alive as a Christian
and to have the opportunity of sharing Jesus
Christ when people all around the world are being
confronted with the helplessness, the hopelessness
of the answers they've tried to find on their
own. Jesus Christ is the only Savior for what
is destroying lives, for what is destroying economies,
for what is destroying cultures. He is the only
Savior from sin. Sharing our Savior is the calling
of every Christian. The book of Acts begins with
its theme statement when it says, to me. That
is the theme of the book of Acts. In the power
of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of Jesus Christ
beginning in Jerusalem and then going to the
uttermost parts of the earth. In the book of
Acts we learn several lessons about sharing our
Savior. These are lessons that are important
for us today. They basically arise out of Acts
5 42 and its context. Lesson number one is this,
sharing our Savior involves a lifetime of mission.
That is our mission, to share the Savior. You
notice these early believers, it says, day after
day, never stopped talking about Him. They realized
that that's what Jesus Christ had called them
to do. It is true of us today. Sharing our Savior
involves a lifetime of mission. Whether it was
in the temple courts or the synagogues, the marketplaces,
the palaces, the prisons, wherever they were,
whatever the opportunities, they took advantage
of those opportunities. Sometimes it was in the
midst of intimidation. They were threatened.
You are no longer to speak this name. It's the
same kind of intimidation that is being used
today in the public places of America. You may
not speak his name. The early Christians knew
the proper response to that. And they said, whether
it's right to obey you or God, you be the judge.
We can't help but speak this name. And we ought
not to be intimidated to silence either. By those
today who like those people opposing Christianity
and acts said don't talk anymore about Jesus
We will talk about Jesus. He is the issue He
is the solution to the world's problems and we
are called to a lifetime of mission sharing our
Savior Sometimes it was in the marketplace of
ideas where this happened. I think immediately
of course of Paul going to Athens And they're
being invited to go to the place where the intellectuals
met on Mars Hill. It was there that they shared
ideas. They talked different philosophies. They
didn't accomplish a whole lot, but they talked
through all these different philosophies and
enjoyed that exercise. And when they heard Paul
talking about what he was talking about, they
said, come on up here and share with us. And
so he went to the marketplace of ideas, roughly
that would today be the equivalent of universities.
The place of education, higher education in particular.
They said, come and tell us what you want to
say. And so Paul stood before them and he proclaimed
Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, appointed
by God as the judge of all men. Now, it took
a while to get to that point. We'll see in a
moment there's a reason why. But that's where
he ended up. In the marketplace of ideas, they
were unafraid to share the Savior. We ought to
be the same way. And not be intimidated, not
be afraid, not be cowardly about sharing the
Savior wherever ideas are bantered about. Another
wonderful place to do that is in the letters
to the editor of the newspaper. Some of you have
begun writing to the editors of our newspapers.
I enjoy reading your letters, the ones that make
it in. And I appreciate how you phrase things
and how you put it in a winsome, winning way.
And how sometimes you don't even mention religion,
but you get Christian values out there in the
marketplace of ideas. There are many avenues
by which we can share the Savior where people
are talking about ideas. We ought to be using
every one of them. Then in the milieu of persecution.
The early church was persecuted and one of its
chief persecutors was Saul. A couple of later
chapters here in Acts, we see that he was putting
Christians in prison, and he was bringing them
to the courts, and they were being sentenced
to death. As a result of that, the Christians
who were in the environs of Jerusalem were scattered.
It says, wherever they went, they preached the
Word. Look in chapter 8 and verse 4, just at
that verse. Those who had been scattered preached
the Word wherever they went. You see, they grasp
this idea that I'm talking about. That sharing
the Savior is not just something you do when
you go out calling. It's not something you do
merely when you invite someone to come to church.
It's something you do every day. You just keep
looking for the opportunities that God presents
in every context you have to see it as your mission
in life. You may have a vocation. You may have
hobbies and sports you like to get involved in.
You may do a lot of things, but understand that
as a child of God, your mission is to share the
Savior. The second lesson that I see is that
sharing our Savior utilizes a diversity of methods.
Now notice in this verse that we're looking at
this morning. They never stopped teaching and
proclaiming two different verbs. Teaching seems
to be rather obvious. It means to lay out the
facts to someone as a teacher to students. Proclaiming
means to make an announcement. It's not exactly
the same as teaching. It means to stand up in
public and make an announcement like a herald.
So you see a couple of different methods here.
There's the teaching method, and then there's
just the public announcement, such as in the
marketplace. But listen to some of the verbs
that are used in the first part of the book of
Acts in telling about how the church went about
its mission of sharing the Savior. They taught
and proclaimed But they also warned, they pleaded,
they testified, they evangelized, they preached,
they told the message, they urged, they preached
the good news, they reasoned, they explained,
they proved, they persuaded, they vigorously
refuted. All of those are different verbs describing
how the church went about its mission. Sharing
the Savior involves a diversity of methods. We
ought to use whatever appropriate means we can
to share the Savior and to be creative in doing
that. There were thousands of believers yesterday
who marched in Minneapolis. Now that may not
be the way everybody would do it, but there were
thousands of people who did it that way and They
exalted Jesus Christ as Lord. That's one way.
But what about a backyard Bible club for boys
and girls? That's another method. To invite the
neighborhood children in to be taught Bible stories.
What about the Outdoors Worship Service? Or what
about a backyard barbecue inviting your neighbors
in? Or using a special season of the year to
invite your neighbors to come together at your
home to think about the meaning of Easter or
Christmas? What about the sermons from science,
this marvelous opportunity we have in August
to invite people to come? and to have them see
the laws of science demonstrated here and the
gospel arising right out of the laws of science.
It's called Sermons from Science. It's a marvelous
evangelistic opportunity in August for all of
us in our church. We need to use all of the diverse
methods that God allows us to, that are within
our means, that we might share the Savior. Whatever
method we use, it needs to be with the same compassion
and conviction which these early believers had
as they shared the Savior. The third lesson that
I see is that sharing our Savior requires contextualization
of the message. You say, what in the world does
that mean? Well, you know what context means.
When we talk about the contextualization of the
message, We're saying that this message needs
to be put into the context of the hearers so
that they can understand what we're trying to
say to them. Now we see it here in this verse
where it says that they proclaim the good news,
there's the message, that Jesus is the Christ.
What does the word Christ mean? Can someone tell
me? What's another word for it? Well savior is
a synonym, but it Messiah Messiah Christ is Messiah
Christ is the Greek Messiah is the Hebrew term
Chosen one that's an English transliteration
now. Tell me this What group in the world? would
understand what Christ means Jews exactly You
could not preach Christ to the average Gentile
and have him understand it. That was not a term
that connected with him. He may have recognized
it as something Jewish, but it didn't come down
into his life. It wasn't a part of his world.
And so we see the church preaching the Good News
in the context of the Jews first. And as they
did that, they proclaimed Jesus as the Christ.
Now to the Jew, that term had all kinds of colorful
meanings to it. They recognized it coming right
out of the Old Testament as being the chosen
one of God, as being the one who would come to
redeem and rescue Israel. Now when the believers
went to Samaria. What do you think they talked
about? Do you know who the Samaritans were? The
Samaritans were despised people, yes. They were
people who were disliked intensely by the Jews,
although they were half Jewish. The Samaritans
of Jesus' day were the descendants of Jews who
had been carted off to Assyria 700 years before
and who had intermarried with Assyrians. Thus
they were called the half -breeds. They were
hated. But the Samaritans, although they were
different than the Jews, brought a lot of Jewish
ideas into the religion they created. They did
not look down to Jerusalem, obviously, as the
headquarters of their religion. They had their
own headquarters in Samaria. And they had some
other ideas that were extraneous, but at the
heart of it were some of the Old Testament ideas
including the Christ that connected with them
too. If you go to John chapter 4, it's very interesting
to see that that's who the woman at the well
thought Jesus was. Are you then the Christ? And
so when the church went to Samaria and preached
the gospel, we see in chapter 8 and verse 5 that
Philip proclaimed the Christ there. Why? Because
it connected, that same message. It was a context
they would understand. Well, let's go over to
chapter 10 now and look at kind of a different
type person, a different culture, different context.
Let's look at the God -fearing Gentile. Here
is a Gentile who has not yet converted to the
Jewish religion, but he's intrigued by it. He's
listening to it. He believes it, basically. But
he's not a convert to Judaism. He's a God -fearing
Gentile. Well, let's look at chapter 10, verse
34. Peter began to speak. Now he is speaking
to Cornelius, who is a God -fearing Gentile.
I now realize how true it is, he says, that God
does not show favoritism, but accepts men from
every nation who fear Him and do what is right.
You know the message of God. the message God
sent to the people of Israel. Now he did. He
was a God -fearing gentile. He says, now Cornelius,
you're not a Jew, but you know the message. Telling
the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who
is Lord of all. And he goes on, he picks up on
basically the same theme to this God -fearing
gentile. Helping him to understand that Jesus
is the Christ, the one who fulfills the Old Testament
Scriptures. Now if you turn over to Acts chapter
17, which we'll do just briefly, you'll see years
later the Apostle Paul going to a different crowd.
Here he is talking to people who are raw pagans.
They're intellectual. but they worship all kinds
of gods. It says in verse 16 of Acts 17, while
Paul was waiting for his group in Athens, he
was greatly distressed to see that the city was
full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue
with the Jews and the God -fearing Greeks. Where
did he reason with them? In the synagogue. That
was the connecting place. and as well in the
marketplace day by day with those who happened
to be there. Another context. Well, he goes on
to tell us who some of those people were and
they ask him to come and to talk about his message.
And so in verse 22, Paul stands up in the Areopagus,
Mars Hill. And he says, men of Athens, I see
that in every way you are very religious. For
as I walked around and looked carefully at your
objects of worship, I even found an altar with
this inscription to an unknown God. Do you see
what he's doing here? He has not mentioned Jesus
Christ. He has not mentioned the Old Testament.
He has not mentioned God. He is connected with
these pagans on a different level. He says, I
see that you're very religious, and they were.
People say that there were more altars and more
gods in Athens than there were people, and there
were hundreds of thousands of them. And he says,
as I was looking at some of your altars, I noticed
one with this inscription. to the unknown God.
Now the superstition of these pagans was that
they had to worship all the gods. If they missed
one, they would be in lots of trouble from that
God. And so they put up this idol that said,
to the unknown God, to cover all the bases. And
that's the idol, that's the altar, rather, that
Paul saw. And he said, now you're worshiping
the unknown God. I want to tell you about it.
And then he begins to preach about the God of
creation. He goes all the way back and picks
up the story of how God is the creator and gives
to all life and breath. And notice that it's
not until almost the end of his message that
he brings up the name of Jesus. He says we're
all God's offspring, in verse 29. Verse 30, in
the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now
he commands all people everywhere to repent.
Who does? This unknown God. He says he has set
a day when he will judge the world with justice
by the man whom he has appointed. He has given
proof of this to all men by raising him from
the dead. Now as at this point he's really interrupted,
the message does end because the resurrection
of the dead was not well received. by these intellectuals.
But my point is that Paul preaches to them the
truth about God in the context of where they
were. Now ladies and gentlemen, this third lesson
has never been more important for you and for
me than it is today. Past generations have been
able to witness fairly casually and easily in
the United States because our whole culture was
formed around Christian values and ideas. That
is different today. We can no longer assume that
people know who God is. I think of the person
who just a few months ago made the comment to
someone in our church, Well, I've heard about
Easter, but I don't even know who Jesus is. There
are many people out there today who don't have
a clue as to who God is, other than the higher
power. That's why I think that the method that
we are using and developing in our church called
the Chronological Bible Study, It's such a key
method in our culture. Because what it does is
it starts back with the book of Genesis and it
explains who God is. And then it works its way
through the Old Testament talking about how God
has revealed Himself. And it actually concludes
then with the gospel message of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It really patterns itself after Acts
chapter 17 in a lot of ways. If you want to have
a Bible study in your neighborhood, that is probably
a tool you ought to consider. A chronological
Bible study that starts at the beginning and
then just unfolds the truth of the gospel. We
are to share our Savior, but to do that, we have
to put the good news in the context of what people
can understand that we're talking to. You can't
go to your neighbor and just assume he's going
to understand the four spiritual laws When it
says God loves you and offers a wonderful plan
for your life because they don't know who God
is That's an important lesson for us to learn
we are called to a mission a lifetime mission
to share our Savior And it requires contextualization
of the message. Well, finally, let me just say
that sharing our Savior results in a contrast
of movements. We see that as the early church
did this, their numbers grew. We're here in Acts
chapter 5. Just turn back to verse 14 for example.
It says, nevertheless, more and more men and
women believed in the Lord and were added to
their number. You can see that kind of phrase
throughout the early part of Acts. God added
to the number. The number of the disciples was
multiplied. There was growth. It was true also
in the ministry of Paul. Chapter 16, for example,
and verse 5. So the churches were strengthened
in the faith and grew daily in numbers. These
are the churches that Paul had planted. And they
were every day growing spiritually and numerically.
We need to get rid of the idea that somehow is
developed in the 20th century American mindset
that a church can be a healthy church and not
grow. Numerically. Now, there are some exceptions
to that, I suppose, when the church is under
persecution. There might be reason for it not
to outwardly grow numerically, although that
isn't what happened, is it, in China. There may
be a rural place where there are limited numbers
of people and a church can... grow to a certain
point and then it's struggle from then on to
grow anymore because of just the the numerical
odds are against them But let me tell you in
a metropolitan area. There's no excuse The idea
that a church can grow spiritually without growing
numerically is a false idea. It's unbiblical
But we've accepted it just as being well, of
course, that's true. It's not true Now it may
grow by 1 % or it may grow by 100 % but it's
going to grow. Because people are going to come
to Christ if the church is healthy spiritually.
Now it can be a happy, content and complacent
church and debtor than a doornail. It's not going
to grow. But that's not a healthy church, is
it? A healthy church must grow numerically as
well as spiritually. So that's one movement.
As we are sharing our Savior, there's going to
be growth. It has to happen. And we have to provide
for it. On the other hand, there's a movement
the other way of resistance. And you see it beginning
to build up in Acts from the early chapters.
People who are opposed to this, they don't like
it. It's stepping on their territory. Their enemies
mobilized. And let me tell you, when a person,
when a church is serious about sharing the Savior,
And it's using methods that are effective in
the context of the culture where it is. You can
count on it. There will be opposition that will
rise up. Now remember, the opposition is not
really flesh and blood, is it? We don't wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers, against spiritual forces in the realms
of darkness. It's demonic opposition that uses
flesh and blood. But believe me, it happens.
To some degree, it was even evidenced yesterday
in the march for Jesus, where there was opposition.
Resistance is inevitable. That ought not to stop
us. It must not stop us. We must continue to
be the people of God. Why? Because people need
the Lord. Because people need Jesus. Because
He is the solution to their problems. That is
not a simplistic statement. It's the truth. Jesus
Christ is the solution. He is the answer. And
we are the ones called by God to that privilege
of sharing Him. I liked what we sang just before
the message. When we said, blessed to be a blessing,
that's us. Privileged to care. Challenged by
the need apparent everywhere. Where mankind is
wanting, fill the vacant place. Be the means
through which the Lord reveals His grace. That's
our calling. Whenever I go into one of our department
stores and pass by the fragrances, I like to
go over where the men's fragrances are and see
the samples that are out. Now, you men do this
too, so don't stare at me like I'm some oddity.
I like to go over there and I pick out one and
put a little bit on my hand. You know, like I'm
going to buy it. Just want to see what it's like.
And then when they're not looking, I go like
this. And then I like to go find my wife and
give her a hug. I say, ooh, you smell good. I
guess it's a contrast to what she's used to,
I don't know. But there's that fragrance. On
the other hand, have you ever gone into a restaurant
and the no smoking section was filled and you
couldn't wait and so you had to get in the smoking
section to eat? And they say, well, there's nobody
smoking there. You can go ahead and sit down.
As soon as you do, they pull them out. And you
leave there, and you just reek with the smoke.
And you walk home, and your husband or your wife
says, whew, where have you been? Have you ever
noticed? You can just smell it. It hangs on you,
on your clothes. It shows where we've been. Oh,
that our lives. as we walk among people, that
our lives would be fragrant with the sweetness
of Jesus. That the aroma of His life and His
love, His compassion, His caring for people would
be so strong in our lives that people, when they
meet us, would say, boy, there's something awfully
fragrant, awfully sweet about that person. We
are called to share the Savior. That's our lifetime
mission. What a privilege. What a calling. Let's
do it. Because people need Jesus. Let's pray.
I want to call you to this step of obedience
today. Will you say in your heart, Lord, I will
be obedient to share you with others this week.
I will look for the opportunities. I want you
to be the fragrance in my life. I want you to
be the sweet aroma of God, of the good news.
And Lord, I will look for the opportunities to
open my mouth and to put the gospel, the good
news, in the context of that person that's listening
to me so that they can understand it. Now, you
may have been living this way for the last week
or a year or 50 years. Or you may just today
be saying for the first time, I really want to
live that way as a child of God. But if that
is your prayer, whichever situation may be yours,
you're saying, Lord, I want my life to be a fragrance
of Jesus to others. Would you just lift your
hand and put it down? Just lift it so he can
see it. As a testimony to God, God, this is what
I want my life to be. Amen. Lord, this week,
May the aroma of Jesus be upon us, the sweetness
of God, and may there be something about our
lives that will attract others to Him. And Lord,
fill us with courage. Fill us with wisdom that
we might share the Savior with others. Amen.