Announcing the Messiah
This week is on John 1:40-42:
These verses describe one of the first cases of evangelism mentioned in the Bible. Andrew finds Jesus and then goes and gets his brother and invites him to church. His brother encounters Jesus, and the rest is church history. It's a story countless Christians have tried to relive in their own lives as they find God, and then try to invite their friends and family and random bystanders to church.
Unfortunately it rarely works out in our postmodern world. Unlike Andrew and Simon, who were both devout Jews by modern standards, most people today have no idea what a messiah is, or if they do, they don't believe one exists. They lack the context Simon and Andrew had for knowing what it is they're being invited to. While Simon and Andrew knew what the messiah was supposed to be, and believed they had found him, many people today have a completely different belief system.
Most people I've come across outside of church don't believe there is a God, or if they do, they're afraid to admit it. Their knowledge of Christianity comes largely from snarky divisive media narratives, or holiday specials. So while you're trying to offer them the great thing you have found, they're hearing "Hi I'm a dork and I want to turn us both into Ned Flanders from The Simpsons." It's no surprise that they say no. Before I was a Christian, the endless parade of people trying to invite me to church drove me crazy!
So does that mean we should be ashamed of the gospel and hide Christ from the world? Not at all! When a church crosses the boundary from "seeker sensitive" to "we don't really know why we're here, but we hope you'll join us," it just confuses everyone. If someone comes to church, it's because they want to see Jesus. Playing down our faith, reading scriptures from other religions, or just talking about doing righteous things is no substitute for telling the source of our righteousness. If someone is looking for the messiah, saying "we have found the messiah" is precisely what they've come to hear.
I think one of the reasons society used to celebrate Advent more widely, other than chocolates hidden behind cardboard doors, was to give people the background they needed to understand an invitation to church. Advent is the series of appetisers before the great feast of Christmas. It builds hunger and anticipation. In the Bible, God told the world about Jesus centuries before he came and then bent his universe (stars and all) to point to him in the days before his birth. I guess you could call that the first Advent, the opening salvo after millennia of mostly awkward silence, between the fall of man and the thing that fixes it all.
So what do you do when you love people, but they have no idea what Jesus is about? In a perfect world, they're hungry already, and you can point them to where they can be filled. You can go to your brother or sister and tell them you found Jesus, and they'll be happy to come along to meet him. Maybe they've gotten hungry without you knowing it and the Holy Spirit is tapping you on the shoulder to seat them at his table. If only we were always this lucky. If that's you, thank God for how easy he's made it.
Luckily that's not the only way people have shared their faith in the last couple thousand years. If you're interested in announcing the messiah to those you love, start by praying for them. A good way to distinguish between your own impatient sense of order and God's love and timing is to have a conversation with the master himself. Reading the Bible, you'll find a lot of stories where God had some very creative ways of making himself known to people. One of them even involves a talking donkey, but I wouldn't suggest starting with that as a first strategy.
So if you know someone who is hungry, invite them along on your journey, at least for a Sunday. For the next few weeks, the whole world is building up to Christmas, so timing at least is on your side. But if not, you can still drink some eggnog, regroup, and see what God has to say in the weeks ahead.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two disciples who heard what John said and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated Christ). Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
These verses describe one of the first cases of evangelism mentioned in the Bible. Andrew finds Jesus and then goes and gets his brother and invites him to church. His brother encounters Jesus, and the rest is church history. It's a story countless Christians have tried to relive in their own lives as they find God, and then try to invite their friends and family and random bystanders to church.
Unfortunately it rarely works out in our postmodern world. Unlike Andrew and Simon, who were both devout Jews by modern standards, most people today have no idea what a messiah is, or if they do, they don't believe one exists. They lack the context Simon and Andrew had for knowing what it is they're being invited to. While Simon and Andrew knew what the messiah was supposed to be, and believed they had found him, many people today have a completely different belief system.
Most people I've come across outside of church don't believe there is a God, or if they do, they're afraid to admit it. Their knowledge of Christianity comes largely from snarky divisive media narratives, or holiday specials. So while you're trying to offer them the great thing you have found, they're hearing "Hi I'm a dork and I want to turn us both into Ned Flanders from The Simpsons." It's no surprise that they say no. Before I was a Christian, the endless parade of people trying to invite me to church drove me crazy!
So does that mean we should be ashamed of the gospel and hide Christ from the world? Not at all! When a church crosses the boundary from "seeker sensitive" to "we don't really know why we're here, but we hope you'll join us," it just confuses everyone. If someone comes to church, it's because they want to see Jesus. Playing down our faith, reading scriptures from other religions, or just talking about doing righteous things is no substitute for telling the source of our righteousness. If someone is looking for the messiah, saying "we have found the messiah" is precisely what they've come to hear.
I think one of the reasons society used to celebrate Advent more widely, other than chocolates hidden behind cardboard doors, was to give people the background they needed to understand an invitation to church. Advent is the series of appetisers before the great feast of Christmas. It builds hunger and anticipation. In the Bible, God told the world about Jesus centuries before he came and then bent his universe (stars and all) to point to him in the days before his birth. I guess you could call that the first Advent, the opening salvo after millennia of mostly awkward silence, between the fall of man and the thing that fixes it all.
So what do you do when you love people, but they have no idea what Jesus is about? In a perfect world, they're hungry already, and you can point them to where they can be filled. You can go to your brother or sister and tell them you found Jesus, and they'll be happy to come along to meet him. Maybe they've gotten hungry without you knowing it and the Holy Spirit is tapping you on the shoulder to seat them at his table. If only we were always this lucky. If that's you, thank God for how easy he's made it.
Luckily that's not the only way people have shared their faith in the last couple thousand years. If you're interested in announcing the messiah to those you love, start by praying for them. A good way to distinguish between your own impatient sense of order and God's love and timing is to have a conversation with the master himself. Reading the Bible, you'll find a lot of stories where God had some very creative ways of making himself known to people. One of them even involves a talking donkey, but I wouldn't suggest starting with that as a first strategy.
So if you know someone who is hungry, invite them along on your journey, at least for a Sunday. For the next few weeks, the whole world is building up to Christmas, so timing at least is on your side. But if not, you can still drink some eggnog, regroup, and see what God has to say in the weeks ahead.
Comments
Post a Comment