Feb. 4, 2002

WWJD

Acts 10:38

Something that has been around for several years now are the little WWJD - What Would Jesus Do? - bracelets that are popular with the young people. It has even become somewhat of a minor industry in the Christian community; WWJD Bible covers, WWJD T-shirts, all kinds of stuff. But that's because it's a good question. I was listening to a popular Christian teacher on the radio this last week, and he mentioned that one of the most asked questions in his ministry is always: "What is God's will for my life?" That's a good question. What am I amounting to in my life? When my life is over, what will I have done? All of us only have just so many days in this physical life, when we have used them all up, will we have made any difference? Why are we doing what we are doing? Who are we doing it for?

In the last chapter of the gospel of John, the Lord Jesus has fixed breakfast for His disciples, He reassures Peter that things are still OK, He still has plans for Peter, things for him to do, and then He tells Peter in verse 19; "Follow me." Wonderful. Gracious. Peter is restored, he will have a useful life again after all as a disciple of Jesus.

Then something very interesting happens. In verse 20, it says that Peter turns around and sees John following Jesus, and he pulls a typical Peter sort of faux pas, he points to John, and asks Jesus; "What about him? What's he gonna' do?"

Do you ever get this mental picture of the rest of the disciples thinking: "I'm glad I didn't say that!" Jesus tells Peter: "Hey! It doesn't concern you what I might have in mind for him, you follow me." And Peter is probably thinking: "I had to ask. I just had to ask..."

But I'm glad that he did. Because the Lord's admonition to Peter is also good for us. How can we follow Jesus? What would Jesus do if He was still here, and therefore; how would we do it too? In like manner? Trying to answer that has filled a lot of books, but lets keep it simple. Jesus reached out to others. Jesus did not live a self centered life. Parts of His life were private and personal, but in His visible life, we see Him reaching out to others to meet their needs.

I would suggest to you that if you want to live a Christ like life, if you want a life that is useful, rewarding, a life that is significant in the eyes of God, and useful to those around you, it starts by following Jesus, which means imitating Him, as He reached out to others and met their needs.

Jesus always seemed to be aware of the needs of those around Him. He was aware of their physical needs, their spiritual needs, their mental and emotional needs, and even their normal day to day needs.
In Mark 2:1 we see an occasion of Jesus dealing with both a spiritual problem, a health problem, and a religious prejudice problem at the same time. We read: "And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
:2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.
:3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
:4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
:5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
:6 But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
:7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
:8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
:9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
:10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
:11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
:12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion."

Jesus saw an opportunity to minister to this man's whole situation. He didn't just fix things in one area, He ministered across the board. He saw to the needs of the whole man. He saw a way to stir the consciences and imaginations of the others that were present. He used that occasion to challenge the religious presuppositions of everybody there. He met one man's needs, and in the process exposed the others to an awareness that they had needs that they didn't even know about, and that He could meet those needs too.

We tend to separate our spiritual lives and our physical lives, but we see in these verses that there is a lot of overlap, and Jesus deals with all sides of our human needs, not just part of them. In Mark's gospel, there is a description of Jesus feeding a multitude, and we see that Jesus is not only meeting peoples physical, spiritual and health needs, He is also meeting their intellectual needs.

In Mark 6: 34, it says: "And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things." Jesus meets people's intellectual needs, and we should too.

There is a bumper sticker that says something like: "God says it, I believe it, and that settles it!" Well that's nice, but it's not very scriptural. 1st Peter 3:15 tells us the attitude that we ought to have: "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."

We live in an intelligent world. There are no verses in the Bible that make reference to Blind Faith. Blind Faith was a rock group from the sixties, it is not a biblical concept. God does not ask us to have blind faith, He asks us to have an intelligent and reasonable faith. He asks us to present the gospel to others in an intelligent and reasonable manner.

In Acts 18, verse 24; we read: "And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
:25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
:26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
:27 And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:
:28 For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ."

Here is a man -Apollos- who was well educated, a wonderful public speaker, but in order to present the gospel correctly, he needed to be brought up to speed, he needed to know the facts, so that he could reason and teach in an intelligent fashion, and then he did. That is our role model.

For us to follow Christ is to recognize and communicate that we have an intelligent faith. God does not ask us to believe Him contrary to reason, the Holy Spirit deals with us rationally and intelligently, and God expects us to present the gospel to others in a reasonable way.

When Jesus saw the multitude, they were like sheep without a shepherd; clueless, leaderless, unaware of the truth, a lot like most folks still are today. His way of meeting their needs was to teach them many things. He told them the truth. That is our example. That is one of the basics to being a follower of Jesus.
If we are going to be followers of Jesus, we need to look for ways to minister to other people spiritually, physically, intellectually, and in reasonable, down to earth day to day ways.

Let's take a look at the down to earth part. In Matthew 15:29, we read: "And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.
:30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:
:31 Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel."
Because it says that they glorified the God of Israel, that indicates that these multitudes were gentiles, that Jesus was going and ministering to whoever was needy, regardless of their religious or ethnic background. That says something to us: no prejudices.

Verse 32: "Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." Jesus is concerned not only for the spiritual needs, the health needs, the intellectual needs, but even the day to day needs of; "Will they make it home OK unless I give them lunch?"

It is good to have big plans, it is great for us to be planning out how we are going to take North East Tennessee for God, but first we need to make sure that we don't forget to feed the neighbor's cat when the neighbors go on vacation. We start to change our world by being thoughtful and considerate of the most simple needs of others. Ministry begins in the basic things. Making sure that none of our friends or neighbors or relatives are in a crack, or having to go without basic needs. Which is not the same thing as carrying someone that is too lazy to work. If someone is going without because they are lazy, just be patient. That sort of situation has a built in way of fixing itself.

The point is that Jesus in His ministry looked at the whole situation. He met this need, this need, this need, and then He recognized that meeting those needs had revealed a situation where He could then meet a another further need; which He then did that too.

2nd Thessalonians 3 tells us "not to be weary in well doing." Sometimes it seems that we have already done a lot, and then another opportunity to do something comes up along on top of everything else, and we're tired...Waa... God sometimes does that just to see if you're serious. So even when you're tired, pick up the ball and run with it. Don't miss an opportunity for ministry just because you have already done a bunch, and maybe you think it's time for a day off.

Ok, so we need to be aware of what's happening, physical, spiritual, intellectual, and down to earth. How do we do that? Is this a one size fits all thing? Is there some standard formula? Probably not. All of us are different, all of us will find our own ways of meeting the needs of others as we follow Jesus. What did Jesus tell Peter? "Don't worry about what John is doing, you follow me." The way you follow Jesus will be different than the way I follow Jesus, but both of us will need to practice following Jesus in all these same basic areas. The techniques and details will change, the basics won't change. Spiritual needs, physical needs, which would also include our emotional health, our intellectual needs, and our down to earth daily needs.

If you will be faithful to follow Jesus in these areas, He will start bringing you into contact with people He wants to minister to - through you. In the gospel of John, chapter 4, Jesus is going through Samaria. Samaria is in northern Israel, and the Samaritans are a people who have split off from the Jews, they worship Jehovah in their own way, on their own mountain instead of Jerusalem. the Jews and the Samaritans are a lot alike, but they are also divided from each other.

Jesus stops at Jacob's well and meets a Samaritan woman, and they get into this interesting conversation.
She tries to obscure the conversation with rabbit trails, she talks about local customs, and traditions, and religious differences between Samaritans and Jews, all kinds of peripheral issues, but He keeps bringing her back to the main thing; which is to recognize that He is the Messiah, and that He has come to her.
He brings her to a realization that He is the Messiah, and we see a change come over her life. She leaves her waterpot and goes and tells others in her city that she had found the Lord. That meeting was not an accident. It was not just a coincidence. The Holy Spirit led the Lord to her, and also led her to meet the Lord.

God arranges the meetings and encounters of those who need Christ with those who can tell them about Christ, and none of those things happens by accident. God will lead you to the ones you need to talk to. We are the ones who are equipped and qualified to tell others about Christ. All of us are capable of telling others that Jesus Christ died on the cross to take away our sin. It's as simple as that.

Sometimes the people we talk to will want to go off down spiritual or social or cultural rabbit trails, but all we need to do is keep it simple. We need to preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Salvation is one beggar telling another beggar where the bread's at. Have you ever tried to do that, share the Living Bread; and discovered that the other beggars don't want to listen? Frustrating, isn't it?

All of us have heard of situations where the Holy Spirit leads someone to walk up to a Christian and say: "I need to get saved; please tell me how," and that's wonderful, praise God, but that is the exception to the rule. What do you do if you have a gospel to share, and nobody wants to listen?

Go back to basics. Get good at the basics. Learn how to minister to the needs of others. Nobody wants to listen to a holier than thou know it all, but most anybody will listen to someone that shows a genuine interest in them, and shows that they genuinely care. Jesus came to seek and to save those that were lost, but he also ministered and cared for those who had no spiritual interest in Him, or could care less about the salvation of God. Jesus met their immediate needs anyway. He showed compassion even when it had no apparent long term benefits.

If we are going to be followers of Christ, we don't love and care for others "because that is how we get them saved;" we love and care for them because that's what Jesus would have done. Obviously, most anyone will listen to someone who first shows them genuine love and concern. There is such a thing as earning a right to a hearing, and that's fine. Sometimes we ought to do that. Lots of times we need to do that. But if we are truly followers of Jesus, then we will show -and have- a genuine interest and concern for others, ministering to them, meeting their needs first. Perhaps they will then be willing to listen. That's great. If not, minister to them anyway. Because that's what Jesus did. And that is our role model.

One last thought before we close, and that is - that along with the idea of What Would Jesus Do?, we might also ask the question, What Would Jesus Not Do? Jesus didn't keep any blessings to Himself. The things He got from God, He turned around and passed on to others. He did not use the things of God merely for His own benefit.

Did you ever notice that Jesus spent a lot of time around the sea of Galilee, but I don't remember ever reading that He spent any time around the Dead Sea? The Sea of Galilee is a big lake, it has rivers and streams running into the sides of it, and the Jordan River runs out of it toward the south. The Jordan River waters the whole land of Israel and Judea, it provides water and crop lands and fertility to everything it passes through.

Eventually the Jordan River runs into the Dead Sea, and that's where it quits. The Dead Sea has no outlet, it is all in and no out. It is a huge lake where the water is trapped in this hot dry valley, and it just evaporates, and virtually nothing can live in it.

A lot of Christians are like the Dead Sea, they are all intake and no outlet. They take in lots of Christian teaching, lot's of God's blessings, lots of the things of the faith, but nothing flows out of them to become a blessing for others. By any chance, is anybody here today a Dead Sea Christian? God has blessed you, you take in the things of God, you receive His blessings, thank you Jesus, praise God for His bounty, but then you don't ever remember to turn around and pass on anything of those blessings to others?

Maybe you love Jesus and you want to be more like Him and grow closer to Him? Then you need to be more like the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, and less like the Dead Sea. Because Jesus spent a lot of time around Galilee and the Jordan, but He never spent any time around the Dead Sea.

If you are truly a believer, then God has been blessing you in different areas of your life, and you need to be passing on that blessing to others. What Would Jesus Do? He would minister to others, in what ever way they needed ministry, and that's what we need to be doing. Let's get busy about our Father's business.