Growing the Kingdom
Mark 5:1-20
Introduction
What does Jesus want us to do? Jesus wants us to follow him. Jesus wants us to love God, neighbours and each other. God wants us to work for justice, especially among the marginalized, and Jesus wants us to grow as disciples. All of that would seem to be plenty and I suppose there is no reason for a Christian to be bored. But as the late night infomercials used to say, “That’s not all!”
Jesus wants us to grow the kingdom. They kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom is a very complex topic that deserves its own series. The kingdom is heaven but it is more. The kingdom is the church but it is more. The kingdom is really the reign of God. While God is technically Lord of all creation, it is obvious that not all of creation acknowledges this lordship. There are plenty of areas of existence in which God’s will is not done. Sometimes that also includes the church unfortunately.
One of the ways in which the church is called to grow the kingdom is through evangelism. People get stressed out when they hear evangelism but it is actually much similar than what people think. Evangelism simply means telling good news. In many areas of life, telling good news comes quite naturally. Let me give you an example. In Nova Scotia, gas prices are regulated and so we know that the gas prices at one station are the same as another station. Not only that, gas prices change at regular and announced days. Things are different in Ontario. You could easily fill up your car at one gas station and drive five minutes only to find the next station was significantly cheaper. And the gas stations could change the price whenever they wanted. Certain stations would suddenly and dramatically drop their prices to steal customers from other stations. You would see one station with lineups going out onto the street while the station across the street would have no cars at the pumps. Why do I share this? When drivers would find a station with really low prices, they would share that information widely. You did not have to drive to every station in the city to find the best prices, people shared the good news of where you could save money. People even shared which gas stations were most likely to get into price wars. The point is, low gas prices are good news, and people want to share the good news of the money they saved with other people.
To be honest, that is what Christian evangelism should be like. If we have experienced good news because of our encounter with Jesus, then why not share it with other people?
So let’s begin by looking at a passage that might help to shape how we share.
Confessions of an Ex-Demoniac
When looking at sharing our faith, this might not be the first passage that comes to mind. It is actually a rather bizarre story. We have a demon possessed man who seems to have super strength, runs around naked, and lives in a graveyard. And that is before things get really weird. The man is not just possessed by one demon but an entire legion of demons. Not surprisingly, this is a story about Jesus casting out demons, but this one seems particularly strange. The demons ask Jesus for a favour and Jesus complies. Instead of just acting them out into the air, they are allowed to enter a herd of swine. How this benefits the demons is not clear, especially since the pigs rush off the cliffs to their death. Thankfully, we do not need to understand everything that is going on here.
The main point of the story is what happens after. Whatever was going on with the man beforehand, he has now been delivered from his suffering. There is a radical change in the man, not just on the outside but on the inside as well. People recognize the change and are amazed.
The man wants to follow Jesus, which is exactly what we would expect and seems to be the proper next step. Jesus, instead, tells him to go home, which may be a shock to us. But what Jesus actually does is not to refuse him as a follower but rather insisting that he follow Jesus from home rather than on the road. The man had a story to tell and he had people to tell that story to, but it was not as a travelling disciple with the twelve.
What was the story that was to be told? The story was about God had done through Jesus. Jesus tells him: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” (Mark 5:19) I would like to point out two things, principles that we will go deeper with in a few minutes. The man is to speak with people that he is in relationship with already and the content is not abstract theology but a personal testimony. Keep those two things in mind.
Sharing Our Faith Today
So what is the best way for us to share our faith today? The bottom line is that God can use pretty much any means to bring people to himself. I have talked to people who have met Jesus through the ministries of pastors and leaders that we later found out were sexual predators. Despite their non-Christian character, these fallen celebrity preachers shared Jesus and there are people still following Jesus because of their ministries. The Apostle Paul in Philippians, thanked God that even when people were preaching the gospel from bad motives, that the gospel was being preached. Having said that, just because God can use anything does not mean everything is equally good. I have been involved in high pressure tactics that were designed to scare people into accepting Jesus as Saviour and I regret my involvement in those events.
What is the best way to share Jesus? At times it has been thought that large events with a special speaker would be the key. I will admit that watching Billy Graham Crusades on television played a role in my own journey. Others have found some success with certain techniques that have been designed. I am not dismissing any of that.
But what if what we find in the story of the demoniac is the most natural way to share our faith? Jesus told him to focus on his friends and family. I have tried to share my faith with strangers and have even gone door knocking to talk to people about Jesus. It rarely went well. The problem with talking to people you know is that if they get offended, relationships could get strained. If is stranger is offended, it is no big deal. But perhaps if we focus on people whose relationship we care about, we will be more sensitive in how we communicate the good news.
This brings us to the content of what we should share. Some think that we need to provide a full theological explanation of how Jesus’ crucifixion provides atonement for our sins. Some people are gifted in that but probably that is not the first step in our conversation. There are plenty of resources available if that question comes up. Others think it is important to bring out the threat of hell and insist that they follow Jesus NOW because of their imminent danger. The revivalist Jonathan Edwards famously preached the sermon ‘Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God’ that vividly described the torments of hell. You may think that accurately describe the situation but what people hear is this: “God loves you and wants you to respond to his love. And if you don’t God will torment you for all eternity with pain that you cannot possibly imagine.” Are we surprised if they do not seem to embrace that message? Some think that you cannot preach the good news of Jesus without the bad news of hell. Except when we look at Paul’s letters, he never uses the word hell. Threats of hell at best provide fear-driven responses and at worst, drive people away.
Going back to the passage that we have been focusing on, what does Jesus say? “tell them how much the Lord has done for you.” That actually sounds like good news. It is not shoving religion down people’s throats. It is not about disrespecting other people’s beliefs. It is simply sharing what God has done for us through Jesus. People think this is only about our conversion experience and it only works if we have a “real” testimony where there is a dramatic change in our life before and after our conversion. That is part of it but it is not all. Much of what I share is how God has been there for us through the various struggles of life. It is all very natural and I don’t necessarily think of it as evangelism at the time, even though it is sharing the good news of what has happened.
Before I conclude, I want to address a very real concern. We try doing what I have been talking about here and yet we still do not see our friends and family at church. We might begin to feel that sense of urgency and wonder if we need to find a more direct method that will provide quicker results. First, I would say sharing our faith is not supposed to be a method that we plug in effort and out comes the desired results. It is about being transparent about the role of faith in our life and allowing that shine through our relationships. Secondly, I would say that we get stuck on our own sense of timing. We expect immediate results. Yet when I have seen this work, it usually is after a sense of disappointment, only to discover many years later that my relationship with that person was one step in that person coming to Jesus. Thirdly, I would say that we usually do not know what is happening on the inside. Just because someone is not at church does not mean that they are not on a journey of faith. Finally, and this is what no one wants to hear, not everyone decides to follow Jesus. It is not because we did not try hard enough or pray hard enough. Even Jesus in his earthly ministry had people walk away from him in rejection. I want to go back to the story we have been looking at. Jesus does not tell the man to go and make sure everyone becomes a believer, only that he should should share what has happened in his life. We can only do what we can do.
Conclusion
What does Jesus want us to do? Jesus wants us to follow him. Jesus wants us to love God, neighbours and each other. God wants us to work for justice, to go grow as disciples, and to grow the kingdom by sharing how God has helped us through Jesus. This may seem like a lot of work and it is certainly a challenge. But in my experience, anything that is valuable is also challenging. The good news for us is that when we stand before God, we will not have to fill out a form of how many people we helped, which justice causes we were involved in, a list of spiritual disciplines that we committed to, and the number of people that we personally introduced to Jesus. Rather we stand before God the Father as his children, adopted because of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. We trust in God’s grace. But that grace is not a reason for us not to do what Jesus wants us to do. Jesus is our Saviour but he is also our Lord. We do what our Lord tells us to with the best of our ability, with the opportunities that come our way and with the resources God has given us. This is what Jesus wants for us.
