Main Idea: Sharing Jesus with those we know starts by developing friendships that can last forever.

This morning we begin a new series of messages called "Peer 2 Peer: Sharing Jesus with Those We Know." This series was inspired by a book our ministers read last fall by Bill Hybels called Just Walk Across the Room. The title of the book is a way of describing the steps a Christian chooses to take to introduce Jesus to a person they know who is lost to a relationship with God. It is true that over 90% of persons who become Christians do so because someone they know chose to be involved in some way to introduce them to Jesus. If I asked those of you who became Christians because someone you knew influenced you or introduced you to Jesus, virtually all of you would stand.

While that is the overwhelming way most of us became Christians, it is the hardest thing for persons who are Christians to do. We get nervous, fearful—all kinds of things can come along and keep us from sharing Jesus with those we know, especially if it is someone who we consider to be a peer. Someone who is just like us, who we work with, hang out with, in class with or live near us are the hardest people for us to introduce to Jesus. Yet it didn’t begin that way. For most of us after we received Jesus for ourselves we had such a desire to tell everyone about it. Then overtime that passion cooled until it has become the last thing we ever think about. (Draw graph on flip chart)

We know, though, that the single greatest gift we have ever been given was the gift of our eternal personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We imagine, though, that we can do a lot of other good things for people we know that will somehow substitute for our not sharing the gift of Jesus with others. Yet the greatest decision we could ever make is to leave our circle of comfortable relationships and go across a room, hallway, street, community or even an ocean in order to introduce someone else to Jesus. Our goal should be that instead or our level of introductions to Jesus going down as we grow older in Christ they should go up. In fact our lives should be so focused that we make it our one goal in life to bring as many people as possible to heaven with us by the time we die. (Draw graph on flip chart)

That is what Jesus did for us and it was and still is his singular priority. That is what we see Jesus doing as he comes near the end of his ministry. As Jesus is making his journey toward Jerusalem he will specifically explain to his disciples his purpose and God’s plan for salvation. He tells his disciples in Luke 18:31-34 that God’s plan includes: being arrested, mocked, mistreated, suffering, death but also a triumphant resurrection. With all that he had facing him in Jerusalem he had time to meet and eat with one person who was lost to a relationship to God. It was a man named Zacchaeus.

Jesus was the master at finding a way to illustrate spiritual truth in real life. So while he is making his way to Jerusalem he passes from the northeast to the southeast, going through Jericho (Luke 19:1-10). Jericho was a crossroads community between the west and east. In that town was a man named Zacchaeus who was the chief tax collector of the area. As chief tax collector it meant he was the person at the top of the pyramid with other tax collectors working under him. A tax collector was particularly despised by the Jews because they would normally be a Jew who had sold their soul to the Romans. The way taxes were collected was that a set tax would be determined and the collector could set his own profit margin. For Zacchaeus to be the "chief" would make him uniquely hated and also very wealthy.

When Zacchaeus first heard about Jesus we do not know. Yet when he became aware that Jesus was coming through his town he made it his priority to get to see him. He had a problem in that his height was a restriction—he couldn’t see because they were taller. In order to get just a glimpse, he finds a sycamore tree, because it had a wide trunk and short branches, and climbs up into it.

As Jesus passed by he saw Zacchaeus, called him by name and told him to come down that it was necessary for him to go to his house that very day. Do you remember what we said about our being saved being a priority with Jesus? Well, here is the example. Jesus knew Zacchaeus by name and said it was his absolute intention to be in Zacchaeus’ house that day! Whatever else Jesus was intending to do, this was more important than anything else. He was always in touch with God’s voice speaking to him so he was ready to obey when he saw this one man up a tree! Jesus could have kept on moving toward Jerusalem because his destiny was to save the world but he took time to introduce one person to the salvation he came to give.

Somewhere in all this excitement Zacchaeus made a choice to receive Jesus into his home and ultimately into his life. In these moments when Zacchaeus’ eternity was waiting to be changed from hell to heaven he made a choice to allow what he knew about Jesus in his head to change him in his heart. Everything else in this story was the result of this decision. So in a moment Zacchaeus gets down out of the tree and welcomed Jesus into his house "with great excitement and joy." At first all Zacchaeus wanted was to see Jesus but now he is letting him have total access to his life!

When someone like Jesus introduces someone like Zacchaeus to God, religious people get nervous. Immediately when Zacchaeus and Jesus met face to face the crowd starts to buzz. They start grumbling because from their frame of reference a person like Jesus doesn’t belong with a person like Zacchaeus. I’m sure that all the way to Zacchaeus’ house he hears their comments. I believe Jesus was grinning from ear to ear. By the time they get to the doorway of the house Zacchaeus has had enough. The criticism was casting doubt on Jesus’ credibility and Zacchaeus’ sincerity. So he does something unusual—he stopped! What would he say?

You can almost feel the tension between Zacchaeus and the crowd. Something very important, though, happened—Zacchaeus demonstrated just how much change Jesus had already made in his life. He turns back to the crowd and tells them that they could already count that here and now he was giving half of everything to the poor and that everyone that had been cheated would get four times the amount that he cheated them. What Jesus says next he says for Zacchaeus, the disciples, the crowds and for us. He says in essence, "This is a saved man! What has happened here demonstrates my whole purpose, for I have come like someone looking earnestly and exhaustively to rescue completely people who are lost to a relationship with my Father. I have come to save what is lost."

In this story we see how Jesus was willing to put aside everything else and "walk across a room" to introduce someone he knew to a relationship with God that would last forever. He did it because it was the reason he came to this earth. He did it because he couldn’t bear to go to the cross without bringing just one more person with him into heaven. What does this look like for us? I have asked JR Baker our University Minister to tell you how he develops friendships that he desires to last forever.

Understand that God’s highest priority is to rescue people who are lost to a personal relationship to him. (Luke 18:31-34) What Jesus demonstrates in his actions and by his words is he is making an all-out search for persons we know who are lost to his grace. This understanding cuts through all of the self-focused interests we have. We need all kinds of help in growing deeper in our relationship with God. We need to have stronger relationships with those who are Christians like us. We need to build stronger families. All of those are true and so many more and we can’t ignore them. My question is though: When are we going to say that the highest priority that I can live for is to join Jesus in rescuing everyone I can from an eternity in hell? This is where it starts.

Follow the Spirit’s leading to leave our circles of comfort to develop meaningful friendships with people I know. (Luke 19:5) I don’t know how Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name but he did. Whatever else was his priority he sensed God’s voice telling him to stop and talk with Zacchaeus and nothing else was more important. It is God’s desire that we be people who are so in touch with God’s Spirit that we can sense his leading to stop whatever it is we are doing and relate to someone we know who needs a relationship with Jesus. That will mean leaving the comforts of our own little world and relationships and "walking across the room" to develop a friendship that just may lead to you introducing them to Jesus and their joining you in heaven.

See the eternal potential that Jesus sees in others. (Luke 19:5) Jesus was the master at seeing beyond the current issues in a persons life to see what they could become if they only had a relationship with him. Far too many of us are blind first to those around us who need Jesus but second we are blind to the potential that God sees in a person. We think that they could never become what they should become. No one but Jesus could have dreamed that Zacchaeus would have changed so dramatically. No one maybe but Jesus would have believed that about you. That person you think is hopeless is just filled with all kinds of potential when Jesus changes their life but you have to see them as God sees them.

Be willing to be misunderstood by other Christians in order to develop friendships. (Luke 19:7) The crowds of religious types couldn’t fathom someone like Jesus having anything at all to do with a man like Zacchaeus. That will happen to us as well if we dare to seek to develop friendships with persons who are lost. It will happen within us. We can get so used to the Christian crowd that we start looking with disgust at those who really need Jesus the most. Then if we actually start developing a friendship with someone that needs Jesus then we will find ourselves in places that may not be acceptable for those who have already been found by Jesus. Remember Jesus said himself, "I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough." (Luke 5:32)

Keep the main goal the main goal. (Luke 19:10) As Jesus finished his time with Zacchaeus he said, "And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost." He stated again in one sentence why he was here: seek and save those who are lost! Of all that he did- healing the sick, loving children, teaching the disciples to love each other, telling his followers how to live in a right relationship with God-the one thing that was the main thing was seeking and saving people who were lost. If you choose as an individual Christian or for us as a church it will be a fight to even stay in the game. There are always a multitude of good things that can drag us away from the main thing until we think that the other things are the main thing. It has to be something that you intentionally do or it will not happen.

Let me say this very clearly the main thing is not for us to try to keep adding only those who are already Christians. We cannot act like we are in competition with any other church in our area. There are thousands of people in our community that you already know who don’t have a saving relationship with Jesus and they are the ones who should be our main goal. We want to be a church for those persons who already know Jesus feel is warm, inviting and are ready to go to serve. Yet our "target market" is those Jesus said was his target: to seek and to save those who are lost to a relationship with him.

For sometime I have sensed a special leading from God to connect more intentionally with the people and businesses in our downtown area. I have prayed diligently about being more of a friend to those who work and serve in the downtown community. Before Christmas I took a morning and went door to door in one area of Main Street and passed out cards for "The Glory of Christmas" as well as our Invite cards to business people. I don’t have any amazing life changing stories to tell. I met some wonderful people and had some awesome hot chocolate. What I do know is that in that moment when I was just walking down a street and greeting people I felt more of a connection with God’s true purpose for my life than anything else I could do. If I could just freeze that moment I could live on that forever.

Today I am asking you to make a choice to connect with God’s true purpose for your life and join him as he seeks those who are lost to a relationship with him. I am asking you to decide to "just walk across the room", leave your circle of comfort and develop a friendship with someone you know, a friendship that can last forever. I am asking you as a church to do the same, to make the choice to decide that the main thing is really the main thing, to choose to put your needs as secondary in order for lost people to be found. As we work to develop friendships with those we know and those we meet who knows we just might be the one that the Holy Spirit uses to change the direction of a lost persons eternity. I know this: There is nothing like that moment, absolutely nothing.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org