8-26-2015

Good Morning All!!                       

       Acts 17:32; “When the people of the court heard that a person had come back to life, some began joking about it, while others said, “We’ll hear you talk about this some other time.”

     This verse comes at the end of one of Paul’s more famous sermons; the one in Athens preached about “the unknown god.”  Paul told the Athenians, who would listen to him, about how Jesus was this “unknown god” and that he came, died and rose again to save lost men.  While I was attending a pastor’s conference a few years ago we had a professor from one of the seminaries speak on writing and delivering “good sermons”.  He asked the question about this sermon, “Was this a good sermon?”  Most answered that it was weak, it lacked certain elements that are necessary for a good sermon and, in fact, some believe that even Paul thought this was a poor effort from what he wrote in later letters.  But there wasn’t total agreement.

    One older pastor said he thought it was a great sermon.  That got everyone’s attention so he continued with his thoughts.  He asked, “How many sermons have been preached by the people in this room?”  There were approximately 100 pastors in the room so the number preached within the last year would have exceeded 5000.  If the average years of experience was 10 years, that is over 50,000 sermons!  He asked, “How many of you have had a member of the congregation, as they leave the service, ‘wonderful message’ or ‘great sermon’ or ‘thank you for your message’ or something like that?”  Everyone raised their hand.  Then he asked his next question, “How many of you had a visitor or guest say “I’d like to hear some more of this’?”  No one raised their hand.  He said, “This is why that is a great sermon; it drew someone to Christ.”

    As you live your life and witness your faith, you will encounter this verse.  Either people will shake their head and laugh or they will be intrigued and want to hear more.  They might not say it out loud but this is the reaction to the Gospel of Jesus; either denial or a willingness to listen.  So understand that when you witness to those who do not know Jesus, we can usually only hope to keep the conversation going.  We want them to say, “I’d like to hear more about this.”  They might say it with their mouth or their actions but they say.  It might not be an immediate response for the Spirit works in his fashion and time.  So we continue to witness knowing that we are following God’s desire to spread his kingdom.

Father, lead me to witness your truth to the world.  Help me to respond when someone asks to know more.  Give me the words to say, even if all I do is point to the one to ask.  Help me to bring those who are lost and hurting to your magnificent light.  In the precious name of Jesus, I pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret