Sermon: Gifts

2007

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Sermon: "Gifts"

4th in the "The 5 "G's" of Discipleship" series.
Delivered October 7, 2007 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Theme: Christ followers seek to discover, develop, and deploy their God-given gifts in order to build up the body and participate in the mission of the Church.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (4.3MB)

Sermon Text: Ephesians 4:16 and Mark 2:1-12

Video Clip with Joyce Sackett - "My garden is grace. I just feel like I am in the middle of grace when I am here. There is so much that I am given just because God has set things in motion. Things grow. I don't make them grow. I just kind of help them along and I am cooperating I guess with God and what he has already planned, but there is Grace everywhere. There are gifts from God to me. Thinking about gifts, we are talking about I believe in John's message, he is going to be talking about the gifts that individual Christians have and how they use them in the community and in the body of Christ in the kingdom. When I think about plants that way, each plant has a particular design that God gave it. It can't do what other things do. Gifts I think are extremely important. To know what a person is created to do, know what the essence of their life is, as created in Christ; then helping a person find that, that person will be able to really use their gifts."

I love Sunday worship. I spent a whole lot of time getting ready for it, preparing. In order to be ready for this service we had to have a sermon series picked out about two months ago. Then folks went and interviewed Joyce for this and then there was video editing and all kinds of meetings. We meet every week talking about what the services coming up will be like. We plan out several months. We also talk about the messages and all. The team here has to rehearse and make all kinds of decisions about the music; what the repertoire will be for the year. A lot of work goes in to that. It's a joy, but it's not by any means the whole ministry of this church. The ministry of this church is a lot bigger than that. While this is going on here there are other things that go on. There are ushers who make sure that people are properly greeted and have the right things in their hands. We have people who greet people, part of the First Impressions Team, who try to make sure that the whole experience here is one that is welcoming. We have teachers in Sunday School. We have adult teachers, teachers working with children, teachers working with students. When it's not Sunday we have ministry in small groups. The deacons reach out with care teams to families who have various needs.

But even that's not all of the ministry in the church. Not by any means. We have nursery care. We have all kinds of behind the scenes ministry. Somebody sharpens the pencils that you find in front of you. People who are putting in thought and time all week in to our experience of worship here. But even that is not all of the ministry; we have ministry that is outside the walls. People who make meals for Sarah's Hope, a shelter for women and their children, food bags given to ACTC. We put together boxes, gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It is something that we do every year about this time of year. We rebuild houses with Habitat for Humanity. We rebuild lives with the Helping Up Mission. We connect people with jobs through the ministry of Genesis Jobs. We touch the lives of children through events at Woodberry Crossing. We touch the lives of ill people, people who are struggling with HIV AIDS through the Jacques Initiative and Hope Springs and other ministries. But even all of that is not all of our ministry, because a lot of our ministry is just in your personal contact with people, people that you know, people that you care about, people that you love. It might be your neighbor. It might be a relative. It might be a child at a school because you tutor there or maybe you are a teacher. There are all kinds of people that we are connected to because of our jobs and some of those people are special in our lives and our ministry can include even them. All of these things in our lives can serve to move people towards Jesus Christ. That is our vision as a church. Moving people towards Christ where we live, work and play. And all the variety of our life like that and all the variety of our gifts can be used by God for that purpose. It might involve a saw. It might involve pots and pans. It might involve books. Different skills, different gifts and God can use them all and it doesn't have to particularly look spiritual.

We are going to take a look at some people who are using their gifts to move someone toward Jesus Christ. Let's go in to the gospel of Mark, Chapter 2 and we are going to begin on the first verse. Let's pray:

God, as we go in to your word, help us to understand, help us to believe, help us to respond, for we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay, Mark, Chapter 2:

"A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

This passage focuses on Jesus. The reason that it is in the Book of Mark is to help us understand the unique authority and power that Jesus had. And so what happens is that a paralyzed man is placed before Jesus and a two-stage interaction occurs. First, Jesus sees their faith and declares that the man's sins are forgiven. Now this is unexpected because what people expected was that Jesus would have just healed him. So that's the first surprise. But the other surprise is how Jesus declares that the man is forgiven. Jesus says to him, "Son, your sins are forgiven" Verse five. They didn't expect this, because Jesus simply declares it and by doing that he does what only God can do and this causes all kinds of reactions among the religious leaders there because it is not possible for a person to declare that someone's sin is forgiven. The closest we get to it in the Old Testament are expressions like this: "The Lord has taken away your sin." Even we in worship when we say your sins are forgiven, we say because of what is said in scripture, because of our confidence in Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven. But Jesus doesn't do that. He says, "Son your sins are forgiven." This particular stance that Jesus takes, the way he expresses it is unexpected and when he says 'son' its not a cheap figure of speech; Jesus is declaring right there a relationship, a family relationship with this person, a closeness that out of love what God is doing is bringing this man close and in to relationship and all of this catches the leaders by surprise. So the second thing that happens here, the second level of the interaction is where Jesus starts to deal with the responses of the religious people. And so, he asks them this question, Which is easier? To say your sins are forgiven or to say take up your mat and walk?

Well you can really see that two ways. You know it could be easier to declare forgiveness, because words are cheap. If we are not worried about whether the words are true or not, and if we have no proof, then maybe the words are easier. But if the forgiveness is real, then the reality is it's easier to heal, because that forgiveness is costly. When Jesus says to that person "Son your sins are forgiven" Jesus was fully aware of the cost of giving his own body, shedding his own blood for that forgiveness, because it isn't the blood of goats, it isn't the blood of lambs, it isn't the blood of bulls that brings forgiveness. Jesus knew that it required the giving of himself to take our place because of our rebellion, because of our hostility, because of our distance from God. So the reality is that the forgiveness is harder and costs more and that the healing is actually a fruit of the restored relationship and closeness of God to us, because of forgiveness. And so then Jesus uses the easier thing to prove the reality behind the harder thing. So he takes the easier thing, the healing and he tells the man "Take up your mat and go home." Verse 12 we see that happen. The man got up and walked out.

It is an amazing moment of Jesus showing his total authority over the situation: able to declare a forgiveness of sins, able to heal a person's broken body, able to restore a person's relationship with God, able to understand what's going on in the hearts of the religious leaders around him. But I want to go back in to the passage and look at it on another level. We've seen its main level, it main teaching, which is about Jesus, but there is another level in this narrative. It's about a small group of family and friends who circle around someone in need to move them towards Christ. Jesus is in town. There is no room. There is no room in the house where he is preaching and teaching. There is no room outside the door. Someone knew about this happening and someone got a group of people to carry their paralyzed relative or friend, to carry this person in to the presence of Jesus. Think about what's going on here. These people had to believe that it was worth the effort to try, that it was worth the shame of being right out in front of everybody and taking the chance. They didn't have 100% assurance that this was all going to work out their way. Maybe Jesus wouldn't get a chance to see him. Maybe Jesus would see him, but wouldn't heal for some reason. They had confidence. They had faith, but they are not 100% sure and it's not going to be easy.

We meet them in this passage and they are right outside the house, but that's not where the story begins. They might have carried that friend blocks or even miles to get to Jesus; coming all that way carrying their friend because they believed that coming to Jesus might end the misery, coming to Jesus was the place to be, Jesus could do it. Somebody had to organize the group. Was it the paralyzed man? Was it one of the friends? Somebody went around and gathered people together, because they had to have a group to do this; the paralyzed man couldn't do it. One friend couldn't do it; they required a group. It says that there are at least four and there might have been more. The way the expression is pulled together it sounds like there is a group of more than four and four of them are carrying him. They get there, they get there only to find that they can't get close enough for Jesus to even see them. Then the scripture tells us "so they make an opening in the roof and dig through."

Now, you have got to stop right there. Mark has this habit of moving us fast through a story. Think about that for a moment. They come up to the back of the group. There is four or six people carrying this paralyzed man. They see the problem so they first just try to push through. I mean that is the first thing you do; just try to get through the crowd. They can't because people are jostling out of the way. I am not going to get any farther. I can just barely see Jesus from here. So one of them gets the bright idea; let's go up on the roof, now you have got to remember at roofs at this time were flat and were used like patios. You lived up there, you slept up there some, you even worked up there. Let's go up on the roof and destroy the roof of this person, make a hole big enough to drop a person horizontally to get him in front of Jesus. Now this is a normal group of people. I doubt if everybody saw the crowd, saw the roof and just said, "Let's go up the stairs." No, they had a committee meeting over the body of their friend where one of them says, "Let's go on the roof" and the other one says, "Are you crazy? What would Jesus think? What would the person think? Won't we get in trouble?" A normal interaction of people happened and yet the vision was compelling. This person had to get in front of Jesus and so they take the risk.

So they go up on the roof and they start pulling up the tiles and the straw and the mud, anything else that is in the way. You know the people who dug in the fastest and did the best job of clearing out the hole might have not been the person who had the idea in the first place. And as they got to the point where they actually start lowering the man someone else might have had the idea of how to do it safely and someone else might have been strong enough to have that extra reserve of strength to make up for the mistakes and make sure that it happened. Like all groups of people they were each different. They each had their strengths and weaknesses. They had their natural talents and working together they moved their friend towards Christ. What they did wasn't huge and it wasn't complicated. They didn't heal their friend; Jesus healed him. They didn't forgive their friend, they didn't bring God's forgiveness to them; Jesus brought that forgiveness. Yet what they did was essential, because that brought that person in to Christ's presence.

Verse 5, it says, "When Jesus saw their faith" not just the faith of the paralyzed man, the faith of the people who had the heart to do this, who had the heart to take a risk, who took this action, this bold action to get in to the presence of Jesus, he sees their faith and then he looks at the man, at the heart need of that person and says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." That's the heart need of anyone we move towards Christ. These people were important, because they physically carried him. They had a strategy and they took a risk and it all gets folded in to what God uses for his own glory. Can you imagine how they felt at the end of that moment? How they felt when their friend walked out forgiven, walked out in relationship to God, walked out as a son and walked out? Have you ever felt that? And is that the sort of thing you want to feel? To be used by God, have your gifts used in such a way that someone is pulled back together out of their brokeness?

Ephesians 4:16 expresses the reality we see working here and it's the reality that is always at work in the body of Christ. Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 16:

"From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Jesus is the center. From him it all happens and it's the whole body at work to bring glory to God and to draw people to Christ and yet each part has a contributing part to play and it's different because each part is distinct. When we became Christians God gifted us for a role that he wants us to play in the body. He does this a number of different ways. The first thing he does is he takes our natural talents and under his lordship, under his masterful craftsmanship those natural gifts become usable to God. So if you were organized before you became a Christian, God is going to use your organization. If you are good with figures, God will probably use that as well. If you are a good listener, God will probably use that. But then he also gives us gifts that we never had before; special gifts he gives us because of the role he wants us to play. It might be a gift of special spiritual wisdom that we are able to cut through situations and see them and speak a word that helps someone understand the proper response to God at that moment. It could be a gift of healing. God uses our natural talents. He gives us special spiritual gifts and then he puts us in to certain roles in the body. It might be pastor. It might be teacher, elder, deacon, intercessor, small group leader, ministry team leader; there are all kinds of roles and that's not nearly all of them.

The point is; you were created with good gifts. You are created to do some things well; not everything well, no one in the body does everything well. One of the things that session does in this church is to try to keep me and George from doing things that we don't do so well and let us work off our strength. He puts in to certain roles. We are created to do some things well and we are created to use these gifts to serve all kinds of people. Some of the people we are called to serve are members of this body. Some of the people are homeless. The person we are called to serve might be our neighbor who lost a job. It might be children at local schools because we are a teacher or because we help with tutoring. It might children half a world away through something like Operation Christmas Child and other ministries. But we are called to serve. All kinds of different gifts working together, by compassion, preaching, service, care, teaching, cooking, building, changing diapers or even tearing through the roof tiles we can be used by God to move people towards Christ.

One of the greatest biblical rediscoveries of the 20th century has been that the health and impact of the church is greatest when everyone in the body uses his or her gifts; that it's not a matter of just preachers and elders and deacons. Those roles are important, but those roles are important to help equip the saints, all of us, to do the ministries that God has gifted us for. Now some of us here know what our basic gifts are and so our challenge is simply the rediscovery of how to use them; at this point in our lives, how to use them to move people toward Christ. But some of us here might not be clear of what our gifts are and if you are in that situation then really take advantage of this network class that is coming up on Tuesday, because in that you will be getting scriptural teaching about what the gifts are. You will be getting some opportunity to evaluate how your gifts match up, what strengths seem to be there in your lives, what your passion is and this process tries to help you develop a clear understanding of what a next step could be for your service of God.

In the passage that we just looked at in Mark we see a person that is healed from paralysis and even more fundamentally we see that a person experiences the forgiveness of God, their guilt is removed, their relationship with God is restored and they take the first step of an eternal future with a God who loves them. It's an amazing moment of ministry. Jesus did it all. That is where it all happens; right at the feet of Jesus, but four or six or seven friends helped make it happen. They weren't religious leaders. They weren't preachers and teachers. One of them had the faith to see the possibilities. Another solved the problem in a creative way. Another was stronger than the rest and gave a certain stability to the whole enterprise. Another was good at calming down a paralyzed man who was afraid of being dropped from eight feet up. And another one might have had the skills and connections to solve the problem of fixing the roof they just destroyed. It might have been part of the deal. Different gifts. But what unites them is that they are all willing to work, they are all willing to risk, they all had faith that Christ really was the answer. This is the thing that compels us to use our gifts, is that we know that Jesus has real answers. And that is why they worked together; that is why they used their gifts. You are created with good gifts in your life. So the question that I would like to leave you with: what is the creative, audacious way God might use your gifts to move people towards Christ?

Let's pray: God, we admit that you are the one who brings all of our hope. You are the one who has the solution to the deepest problems that affect our lives as human beings and so help us now to use our gifts to help others in this world find the incredible answers that only you can provide. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.