Building Gospel Bridges Talk 1

0:00 I wonder what your stories of evangelism are, your stories of attempting to share Christ are. I wonder how many stories there are out here of success. Maybe you have some stories of success, I hope you do. Maybe, like me, you have many stories of adject failure as well. And I wonder as well, how do you define success when it comes to evangelism, And how do you define then failure? Is success simply getting somebody across the line to a place of repentance? Where they say, like Paul talks about in Romans 10, where they declare Jesus Christ as Lord with their mouth and they believe that he has been risen from the dead in their hearts. Is that the only and the one measure of success?

0:53 And then everything else perhaps is failure. Well, I've got to say, honestly, for a long time, for a long time, that has been my mindset. That was the mindset that I had. And I've got to say, I look back now and I see how much that mindset and that way of thinking actually held me back. Because I thought I had to have every perfect answer. I thought I had to have every perfect response to every difficult question. That I had to get somebody across the line or else there was no point in starting. and we're going to talk about that over the next few weeks in this series and think about that a little bit more but let me start then with a story for you of abject failure.

1:40 This was my first foray into evangelism. I was about 13 I think because I tried to scrub this from my memory but I was about 13 and I was on fire for Jesus at 13. I loved him. I was excited about my faith. I wanted that I wanted to share it with people. I didn't really know how to do that. And I was on fire. I was ardent.

2:03 I was fervent. I was convicted. And so my dad had given me this book. Only people of a certain age will know anything about these books. It was a book called Crossing the Switchblade. And it was by a pastor who moved to New York to witness to street gangs in New York. And then there was another book that followed that up by one of the street gang members who came to faith called Nicky Cruz. This is the book.

2:29 It was called Run, Baby, Run. Rather a threatening looking cover, as you can see. And in my 13-year-old wisdom and in my fervency, I wanted to share Jesus with others, but I had no clue how to do that. I had, and my prefrontal cortex was not developed in any shape or form yet. So in my own head, this was my thinking. I thought the best way that I could witness to the friend at the top of the was to take this book and without any explanation, without any context, without any conversation, post this book through this other 13-year-old's letterbox. Now, now I can see,

3:12 getting this book with a knife at somebody's chest in your letterbox with no explanation or anything like that, that would have done nothing at all, Apart from to make me seem incredibly strange and incredibly creepy, but I thought this was me evangelizing for Jesus. And lo and behold, half an hour later, this book came back through my letterbox in a number of different pieces. And looking back, listen, I can totally, I can totally understand why. Like I said, I would count that foray into evangelism for me as a 13-year-old as an abject failure, but not because, not because my friend didn't declare Jesus Christ as Lord, surprise, surprise, given the methodology that I use, but simply because I did not share Jesus at all. I shared nothing about him. I shared nothing about my relationship with him. I shared nothing about the impact he'd had on my life. I shared nothing to do with Jesus.

4:12 I tried to use this book as some sort of replacement for all of that. And I failed miserably. So this series over the next four weeks, this is a series, I think, for 13-year-old me. It's a series for 47-year-old me. And it's a series for all of us here who truly love Jesus, are truly excited by our relationship with him are truly excited by the hope that we have in him are overflowing with joy at the grace that he's shown us and who want to be able to tell others about him and invite them into the kingdom and we are also aware of those past failures that have scarred us in the past and we need to be leaning into the grace of God for a fresh start perhaps around this time. So over the next four weeks, next Sunday Phil Knox as we've talked about before is going to come.

5:21 He's going to speak from 2 Corinthians 4 and talk about our fragility as these jars of clay that have this treasure within us. Then the week after that Stephen Cave's going to come and speak from 2 Corinthians 5 about what it looks like what it means to be ambassadors for Christ. And then in the final week of the series, Gareth Black's gonna come and he's gonna help us wrestle with what Peter's talking about in 1 Peter 3 when he talks about us being, giving an answer to those who ask us for the hope that we have. Interesting, I don't think I did any of that in that story that I just shared with you. But we're gonna start in a very obvious place this morning. We're gonna start with the mission that Jesus has invited us into. We're gonna look at those last few verses in Matthew 28. And then combined with that, we're going to look at Jesus' parable of the sower in Mark 4.

6:10 And we're going to think about that question of success. I'm sure there are better words that I can use than that, but that idea of what is it to actually fulfill the part of the mission that Jesus has for us. So let's read those together. I'm reading from Matthew 28, 18. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. And then into Mark 4, Jesus telling this parable, listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed.

6:55 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and added up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and grew and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, some 100 times. Now if we just jump forward a few verses to get Jesus' explanation. Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable?

7:32 How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seeds sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

8:12 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop, some 30, some 60, some 100 times what was sown. so let's take a few minutes just in both these passages let's look at the first one again then in Matthew 28 here is how Matthew chooses to end his gospel account of the life of Jesus here he has Jesus after his crucifixion after he has defeated death and been raised from the dead at the top of a mountain with his disciples in his new glorified body and he gives them and he gives us, his disciples today, this command, this commission. And it's almost like Matthew's written this incredible account of the life of Jesus, but he hasn't put at the end as he finishes his gospel. Instead, in a sense, He is inviting those Jewish Christians he initially wrote for, and he is inviting us into keeping on writing the story, into taking part in the mission that Jesus has for the world, and that he has given us and invited us into. And I know that these are very familiar words to lots of people. And familiarity often breeds, as we talk about, not contempt, but certain sort of, you know, we don't really think about these things particularly deeply. And I know there'll be a lot of people here that if I said to you, you know, what's the Great Commission?

9:57 You would be able to quote this passage, but I wonder where you would start. Would you start, I think this is where a lot of people might start, therefore go and make disciples. Or would you start, and I think less people might start here, in terms of all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. But as we begin this series, as we begin this month-long focus on building gospel bridges together, we can't miss these words. We've got to start here and we've got to come back to here over and over and over again. The truth of these words of Jesus is the basis for our mission. because it's only the truth of these words that will give us the confidence.

10:48 It's only the truth of these words that will give us the courage, that will give us the audacity that we need to fulfill the mission that he has for us because we know we go on behalf of and in the power of the King of Kings, the one who is in authority over the whole of heaven and the whole of earth. It's the same truth that we learned in the Ephesians 1 prayer that we looked at a few months back, that we've just sung that prayer actually before I came up, about the spiritual power that we go out in. Here's what Ephesians 1 says, you'll remember it well. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Jesus says, after his crucifixion and his defeat of death. You go on this mission, yes, in your own abject weakness, but you also go in my power, my power on my behalf, under my authority. And that is an authority over every power and dominion in all of heaven and all of earth.

12:17 I choose, Jesus says, to extend the reaches of my kingdom through you, through that little ragtag bunch of disciples with him who'd been absolute disasters up to then. and also to extend his mission through us. And they use other words from Jesus whenever the disciples asked him, who can be saved, whenever they were talking at another time. With man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible, including, we've got to remember this, new people being saved, the blindest of eyes being open to spiritual reality, and the most unlikely entering the kingdom of God. We need to start here with this spiritual reality. We need to keep returning here to this spiritual reality. We need to keep praying that Ephesians 1 prayer for ourselves and for each other, and remind ourselves of the reality of this spiritual reality.

13:25 That's the basis. And then it's on this basis that Jesus says, therefore, therefore, because all authority in heaven and earth have been given to me, now you go and make disciples. What's the core mission for disciples? It is to go and make more disciples in the authority, under the authority of the king. And of course, making disciples is much more than witnessing and sharing the good news and evangelizing, whatever word you want to use. It's much more than that. It involves baptizing, it involves teaching. It's a long-term, lifelong process that we capture in our mission statement, that our goal is to help more people be changed and the devoted and mature followers of Jesus Christ.

14:14 But where does that start? It has to start with people hearing. Paul's words in Romans 10, how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one they've not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. We're to be beautiful feet with beautiful news.

14:43 That is the mission that we have been invited into with Jesus. And then again, come words that are crucial, but again, I think words that we too easily forget. Surely I am with you, Jesus says, to the very end of the age. Here's Jesus' promise as he sends us go and make disciples. I am with you always. At the beginning of Matthew's gospel, he had revealed the person of Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is now about to ascend into heaven and he says that idea that I am Emmanuel God with us, with you, that does not change. That remains because of the gift of my spirit.

15:41 So while we are called to go and make disciples on his behalf and under his authority, the truth is the burden is not on us. It's not on our power. It's not on our eloquence. It's on his presence and his power to shine his light in the hearts. Every time we see this mission that we have, we've got to remember the words of Jesus that sandwich it, that come before it, and that come after it, or else we're not going to have what we need to go into the mission. The burden for so much of this is on him. But then what is on us, I suppose, is the question. What are we called to do in terms of fulfilling our part?

16:36 And that's where we turn to the parable of the sewer. Here's a story. Here is an image that helps us to understand that role, that helps us to understand that responsibility that we have in Jesus' mission, helps us to grasp what I suppose success is when it comes to us fulfilling that part that we want to play. So here we have this farmer and it's sowing time and he lifts his bag full of seed. He goes out into the fields, into the land and he grabs big handfuls of seed and he throws them. He scatters them far and wide. He pays little attention to where that seed lands, to what type of soil it falls on. Some of that soil's hard, compacted path and it's easy picking for the birds.

17:28 Some of it's shallow and things initially look like they're going to go well and then because of the shallowness of the soil, the root can't take and everything sort of disappears and disintegrates. Then some falls among thorny plants and those thorns choke the grain that the farmer's trying to grow. And then some falls on good soil and produces different quantities of healthy, flourishing crop. And like I say, the farmer isn't spending much time. In fact, he's spending no time at all assessing the potential, assessing the depth, assessing the nutrient quality of the soil, assessing the thorniness or lack of thorniness of the area that he's throwing into, that's not his concern. He has plenty of seed and he has to get on with scattering that, with throwing the seed. That's what he has to do. As to whether the seed grows into a healthy plant or not, well, that is way beyond his control.

18:30 And he knows it. Sun, rain, soil quality, all sorts of different factors that he cannot do anything about his job. His job is to scatter the seed. And Jesus explains the parable to his perplexed and confused disciples. The different conditions of soils represent different conditions and receptivity of hearts. The seed is the word of God. That's vital that we get that. The seed is the word of God.

19:03 and as disciples of Jesus on mission for him, we are these farmers. We are these seed scatterers. But the power of transformation is not in us. It's not in our scattering skill. It's not in the technique of throwing that we have. The power for transformation is inside the seed. The power for transformation is in the word of God, is in the good news of the gospel of Jesus, but how often in our own minds do we make it the opposite way around? And I've got to say, as I said at the beginning, I find this picture so liberating, so freeing, so encouraging.

19:55 I've honestly struggled to understand. I genuinely, for whatever reason, have not really grasped it before. and I'm not sure why but that's the reality and I've read a couple of books on it recently that have really helped me and I just want to mention them to you the first is here by Glenn Scrivener it's called How to Speak Life in 321 it's a it's a book for Christians who are keen to do what we're talking about to share their faith share Jesus with others it accompanies his 321 evangelistic course that we'll be running here in April. And just to mention as well, I was able to record a podcast with Glenn a couple of weeks ago and I'll release that or we'll release that on Wednesday. And you'll be able to hear much more about what he says on this topic that we'll hopefully add this morning whenever that comes out. But the book takes its premise from this parable that our part in the Great Commission, our responsibility is to be seed scatterers. Seed scatterers who do the job has been given to us and who come to terms and who are freed up by the reality. And the phrase that Glenn uses here is that our evangelism is hit and miss, mainly miss.

21:11 Hit and miss, mainly miss. You'll hear him talk about that in the podcast. Liberated by the reality that the power is not in us, but in the seed that we scatter, not in the arms or the words of the scatterer. and then the second book here is called Scattering Seeds of Hope. That's a book written by a man called Jeremy Marshall and Jeremy Marshall passed away in 2023 after a 10-year battle with cancer. Jeremy was a very successful banker in the city of London. Before he got ill, his final job was CEO of Whores Bank in London, but that was not his primary identity. He saw himself first and foremost as a seed scatterer of the gospel of the word of God.

22:04 And that identity, that task, it was given massive urgency when he was diagnosed, when he was told then in 2015 that he probably had around 18 months to live. And he kept going for another eight years, but he was just excited to do whatever he could, to take every opportunity to scatter seed, to share Jesus with others in the sphere of influence and in the different places that God had placed him. And this book, it's not a big book at all. It's nice and short and easy to read. And for normal people, it's a great book to really encourage you and to think through what it means to scatter seed. I managed to buy a number of them for a pound this week. There's quite a number of them out in the foyer. If you want to take one before somebody else grabs one, you can take one on the way out and you can look up, sign up events and pay your pound for it if you can.

23:05 But you can take it before you do that. if you get the opportunity. So a couple of things there to help us with this idea of scattering seed. But in the last few minutes then, what I want to do is as we reflect on ourselves, we need to bring this back to ourselves. As we reflect on us, as you reflect on you and I reflect on me, and our place in Christ's mission, our calling to be disciples, making disciples, this task of scattering the seed of the word of God with all its transformational power, let's think about some of the practicalities of that. Some of the things that we need to think about, some of the things that we might need to put in place if we are to be seed scatterers. And just taking this picture of the farmer scattering a seed, the first one I think is this, and I'm sure you could add lots more than this. I've just got four for this morning.

24:02 The first one is this. We need to fill our bag with seed. If the seed with the power of transformation is the word of God, and it is, then the more of God's word that we know, and the more deeply that we know it, and the more we are encountering God through it and having our hearts impacted and transformed by it, well then it's obvious that that's gonna have an impact both on our motivation to scatter seed and on the productivity of our seed scattering. Now I'm not talking here about having a PhD level knowledge of the Old and New Testament. Let me give you an example from Jeremy Marshall's book that I find really helpful. He talks there about the different stories of Jesus that he has lined up in his mind to respond to different questions that might come his way. Interesting that he's not, it's not that he wouldn't go down the line of sort of propositional arguments, but he was much more interested in responding to questions with stories.

25:10 I find that's interesting. It's also easier, I think, isn't it? If you have stories. So if someone was confused by the gospel of grace, as opposed to a religion of works, he would tell them Jesus' story of the prodigal son. He would tell them of this son who came back and threw himself on the grace and the love of his father and said, I'll be a slave for you if that's what you want. As opposed to the elder brother who thought that the father owed him something and then hardened his heart. If someone asked about the hypocrisy of Christians, he would tell him the story of the woman caught in adultery being brought to Jesus and Jesus absolutely exposing the hypocrisy of those who brought her but also offering her grace and forgiveness and love but also then telling her to turn from her life of sin another story if someone asked him about suffering he would tell them the story of Mary and Martha after the death of their brother Lazarus in John 11 he would tell them about how the son of God Jesus

26:36 wept with Mary joined with her in her suffering but not only that that he then had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead that here is the one, the only one who can do anything to remove our suffering, to redeem our suffering in any way. Jeremy had a bag full of seed of stories from God's word, stories that showed the person of Jesus, that put Jesus' words and actions front and center and he would scatter them as much as he could. So we need to be filling our bag of seed. And that goes back to what we've talked about so often before, about being disciples who are immersed in God's words. Because if the power is in the word of God, then being immersed in his word and growing in his word and being transformed ourselves by his word, that's key to our witness, to our ability to scatter seed. So that's the first thing, fill our bag.

27:51 Then secondly, we need to go. We need to go outside. A farmer is not fulfilling his role in scattering seed if he sits in the farmhouse and admires the beauty of the seeds that he has but doesn't actually go anywhere with them. He needs to get outside. He needs to start scattering. So a big question for you, and a big question for me as well because I, in the role that I have spend so much time, so much of my week with other Christians how much are we going outside in that sort of metaphorical sense into the places where we can scatter seeds spending time with not yet saved people building connections building relationships friendships, showing care, showing love.

28:56 Being outside where the seed can be scattered. According to Evangelical Alliances 2022 Talking Jesus Research, 46% of practicing Christians don't know any non-Christians well enough to invite them to church. That's quite a sobering statistic. And if we are one of that 46% representation, we need to think seriously about what we need to do to change that. And that's not straightforward. Those things don't happen overnight. You can't build a relationship. You can't build friendships overnight.

29:39 That's going to take thought and prayer and recalibration of priorities that's going to take sacrifice of other things and other times and other priorities in our lives? How much are we outside? Then, once we get outside, with our bag full of seed, we need to be alert to the opportunities to scatter that seed. In a sense, quoting scripture in any shape or form in any place is scattering seed. but I doubt if you went into work tomorrow and just started spouting off Joshua or Judges or something else that you'd get much of a reception. I don't think any of us think that's what we mean by scattering seed. We need to be ready for opportunities, natural opportunities. I heard one story of a young person here in this church recently

30:39 and they were having a conversation in class and whatever was being talked about in that conversation between this group of friends, this young person said the word biology and somehow his teacher overheard him wrong and thought that this little group were talking about the Bible, not biology. And so he asked the question, are you guys talking about the Bible? And he said, no, I mentioned, I think I said biology, but if you want to talk about the Bible. And they started having a conversation about that and that conversation I think led to a conversation about suffering and that conversation led to an opportunity to actually give a book to that teacher in a far less creepy and weird way than I did when I was 13 and probably with a lot more hope for an outcome. Taking the opportunities as they arise and they are everywhere when we're looking for them. They are everywhere. When we're talking to somebody else about what we did at the weekend. When somebody laments the state of the world to us.

31:47 That opportunity to be a child of light in those conversations. When you're going through a time of struggle or suffering. Or when a friend is going through struggle or suffering. Again, I think I've mentioned before at my mom's funeral. I used words from Romans 5 to talk about suffering. and the connection with hope in the midst of the illness that she spent so much of her life with. Many of you will know the words about glorying and our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And after the funeral, it was live streamed.

32:28 It was right at the very beginning of lockdown. After that funeral, a friend texted me and he said he'd seen a post on Facebook that this was happening, that we posted up, and he watched the funeral. And he was really struck by the hope that was conveyed in those words in Romans 5. And he'd looked them up and read them for himself and tried to understand them. And that came out of nowhere. I had the opportunity to scatter the seed first in the tribute and then he came back and I had the opportunity to scatter a little bit more seed and the responses that went back and forward. Now ultimately lockdown happened and nobody saw each other for months and months and months and that did unfortunately at that time fizzle away. But I don't think that's the end of the story and the truth is I got to scatter some seed and hopefully somebody else will get to come along and scatter some seed behind me.

33:25 In fact I'm pretty sure that's already happened over and over again. Fill our bags. Get outside. Be alert to opportunities to scatter. And then finally, we need to pray. And we need to pray. And we need to pray. And we need to pray.

33:48 Praying for ourselves. Praying for our opportunities. praying for that courage, praying for people too that we get to have these conversations with and praying for one another. Again, I go back to Ephesians. I go back to Paul talking about this at the end of his letter when we talked about it a few weeks ago. Remember his humility and his dependence on the Holy Spirit's power and work when he played with the Ephesians to pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of The apostle, the evangelist Paul pleading that they would pray for him. We need to be praying.

34:42 Because it is the Holy Spirit of Christ who shines light into hearts. Not us. it is the Holy Spirit who makes blind eyes see not us it is the Holy Spirit who turns hearts of stone to hearts of flesh who transforms the powerful seed of his word into new spiritual life we join Jesus on his mission by scattering seed and by handing over all the rest of it to him in prayer. Knowing, knowing that with man, knowing that with me, knowing that with you, this is impossible. But trusting that with him,

35:39 all things, all things are possible. So let's get to scattering seed. Let's pray together. Father, as we reflect on ourselves for a moment, and as we think where these words of yours from Matthew 28 and from Mark 4 intersect with our own lives and our own stories and our own histories and our own disasters in the past. We ask that you will speak to us by your spirit. We ask that you would liberate our hearts through this call to scatter seed and leave the rest up to you. To recognize that we are not going out on this mission in our own strength, in our own authority,

36:54 but that we are going in the authority of the one who has all authority over all of heaven and all of earth and he is present in us and he is present with us by his spirit. We trust you and your word to transform hearts to open blind eyes. And so as we sit here now, we ask that you would put people, you would put names on our hearts. That we would be praying for opportunities. That we would be alert to those opportunities. That we would be putting ourselves in places where those opportunities might happen. And that we would be ready with the word of God that has been so transformational in our lives.

38:00 And ready to tell our stories of that. Father we put all this in your hands may we be your obedient servants may we understand what it is you've called us to what it is you haven't called us to and may we be reminded that we go in your power and your authority in Jesus name Amen