Humor writer Ed McManus said one day he was late leaving home for work. There was a knock at his front door. It was wet and cold outside. He opened the door and there stood two Jehovah’s Witnesses, damp and shivering in the cold.
They asked if they could come inside. Well, he couldn’t leave them standing there, so he said okay. He brought them into his living room and offered them a chair.
They were quiet for a long time, so he asked, “What happens now?”
The older one said, “We don’t know. We never got this far before.” (1)
Jesus is sending his disciples out to do evangelism. He gives them precise directions about how to proceed:
“After this the Lord appointed seventy‑two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”
Our Mormon friends, as well as our Jehovah’s Witness friends, take this kind of evangelism very seriously--going out two by two to share their message. We may not agree with their theology, but we admire their dedication.
What I want to do, however, is draw your attention to the last verses of this passage because something interesting is happening in our culture with regard to the church, and I believe we at least need to address it.
Jesus sends out seventy-two of his followers to evangelize in people’s homes. The seventy-two come back with glowing reports. Verse seventeen reads like this: “The seventy‑two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’”
Jesus’ response to this is interesting. He says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven . . .”
Then he adds in verse twenty, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
In other words, don’t judge your actions by their results, even by your successes. Judge them by your faithfulness. “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
WE LIVE IN A CULTURE THAT WORSHIPS SUCCESS. Even in church.
In fact, I read somewhere that there is a church called the Winners Church. Supposedly, it is one of the fastest growing churches in the world. It now has branches in 32 countries. Its motto, according to its leaders, is: “Be happy. Be successful. Join the winners.” We should not be surprised by this. More and more, Christianity is being marketed as a commodity--a commodity that enhances your life. Like toothpaste and a new automobile.
Dr. Robin Meyers tells about a wedding in an upscale megachurch in Oklahoma City, where fifty thousand dollars were spent on flowers alone. Fifty-thousand dollars for flowers in a world where children are going hungry. Dr. Meyers comments, “But why not? This very church, like so many power-of-positive-thinking churches, blatantly mixes religion and material success--turning Jesus into a form of neutral energy. The prophetic Jesus is out, and the cosmic friend and financial advisor is in. No longer a radically disturbing presence (asking the rich young ruler to sell all he had, give the money to the poor and follow him), the New Jesus is a kind of cosmic, life-enhancing partner. He has become an additive of sorts, like STP. You put him in your tank and get wherever you’re going faster and with fewer knocks. Exactly where you’re going doesn’t seem to matter much.” (2)
Dr. Meyers is right on target. Our culture worships success. Even in church.
There was an article in the NEW YORK TIMES magazine sometime back about a five‑thousand member church in Arizona, one of those new congregations that exploded into a mega‑church.
According to the article, the church spends $16,000 a year on Krispy Kreme donuts for its worshipers, has Starbucks‑trained workers serving lattes in its café, has ten X‑Boxes in its classroom for fifth and sixth graders, and a plant that they hope people will confuse with a shopping mall. The pastor says the sermons are a Christian version of Oprah or Dr. Phil, heavy on successful principles for living--how to discipline your children, how to reach your professional goals, how to invest your money, how to reduce your debt . . . The theory is to give the people what they want; and what they want is what they see at the mall or on TV. (3)
Now our purpose today is not to criticize other Christian groups. In fact, the truth is that some of them are helping people that we could never reach. Their methods may not be our methods, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They are trying in their own way to spread the Gospel.
LET’S BE CAREFUL, THOUGH, ABOUT JUDGING THE QUALITY OF FAITH BY WHETHER IT IS SUCCESSFUL OR NOT. In the world’s eyes, you could hardly call Jesus’ life a success.
Rev. James Brassard tells a humorous incident that occurred to his wife, Andrea. She was talking with Ken Vanderjack, a campus pastor in New Jersey. She asked him what he was doing for students for Easter.
Ken answered that they were hosting a free showing of Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. Since Gibson’s portrayal of the crucifixion has been criticized for its brutality, Andrea inquired if he was showing the original version or the less-violent edited version, which cut out most of the beatings and blood.
“No, we’re showing the original,” said the campus pastor. “The edited version,” he said, “gives the impression that Jesus was sentenced to ‘Community Service.’” (4)
I like that. Jesus was not sentenced to community service, but to a cross. One would hardly call Jesus a worldly success. As earlier generations of pastors have declared, “Jesus was not crucified on a golden cross between two candlesticks, but on a cross between two thieves.”
THE QUESTION IS NOT HOW SUCCESSFUL WE ARE; THE QUESTION IS, ARE WE FAITHFUL IN OUR SERVICE TO CHRIST? The scriptures remind us that “Christ was faithful unto death . . .” There are many congregations that are serving Christ faithfully who can barely pay their light bill, much less pay $16,000 for Krispy Kremes. These churches are grateful that faithful members donate flower arrangements for the altar; they can’t even imagine $50,000 for flowers for one wedding. They will not make anyone’s list of the top ten churches in America, but they worship God faithfully, and they are in ministry in their community, and they are seeking to minister to the least and the lost. Jesus said, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
I bring this up, because we often make this same mistake in our spiritual lives. We assume that if we are doing what God wants us to do, being what God wants us to be, all kinds of blessings will follow--including social and financial success. Some churches actually teach this. And then a devastating illness occurs. Or the loss of a job. Or a terrible grief experience. Does this mean that we have let God down? Even more important, does this mean God has let us down?
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING SUCCESSFUL. I don’t recall anywhere that Jesus praised failure. Notice that Jesus sent these messengers out with a purpose. They were to make disciples. That is what Jesus expected them to do--to reach out to those outside the Christian community.
I wonder what Jesus would have said if they came back and said, “Well, Lord. Sorry. We knocked on a few doors, but people didn’t seem to be interested. You know, there are a lot of competing religions in this area. People have so much to do nowadays. We’re sorry to let you down, but it doesn’t seem to be a good use of our time to go door to door. Maybe we ought to try something else.”
I suspect Jesus’ reaction to this kind of report would have been quite different. Christ still calls us to make disciples. Let’s not confuse apathy about spreading the Gospel with being faithful. If the disciples had gone about their task half-heartedly, Jesus would not have praised them. But success should not be confused with being faithful either. Sometimes God’s greatest saints have suffered dreadfully.
I want to read to you the testimony of Helen Roseveare, an English doctor and missionary to Central Africa--what was then the Congo--for some 30 years.
When civil war broke out in the Congo in the 1960s, Helen Roseveare and her hospital were engulfed in it. Years later, she spoke about that experience at an American college. Please listen to a description of her experience in her own words:
“When I came to know Jesus as Savior, I’d asked God for the privilege of being a missionary. Twenty years later, October 29th, 1964, I was taken one night by wicked and cruel soldiers. It was a terrible night; I was very cruelly beaten up; flung on the ground, beaten with the butt end of a gun . . . kicked by the boot of a rebel soldier, dragged to my feet, beaten with a rubber truncheon. It’s a cruel, cruel weapon. It sears into your flesh. There were times when [I] prayed for death. It would have been easier to die than to live. There were times I [was] so scared I would let the Lord down, scared that I would fail him. I would say, ‘God, if he hits me again, I shall say anything he asks me to say, I’ll do anything he asks me to do.’ I was scared stiff I would fail him. And God would move in and stop it. That night I lost my back teeth. I don’t know whether it was through a rubber truncheon or the boot of a rebel soldier; it was a cruel night.
“And there came a moment when I just felt that the price was too high. I felt that God had failed me. I never doubted God; I never doubted his Word; but I did doubt for a moment his relationship to me. I felt he’d failed me; I felt he’d walked out on me, left me alone. If I had prayed any prayer, I would have prayed, ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ And then, suddenly, in the middle of all the wickedness and cruelty and darkness and fear, suddenly there was God. I didn’t see a vision; I didn’t hear a voice; I just knew with all my being that God was there--overwhelmingly there; vitally, really, tremendously there. He was in charge, no rebel could touch me, but God allowed it.
“And it was though he said to me, ‘Listen. Twenty years ago, you asked me for the privilege of being a missionary. This is it. Don’t you want it?’ And as I was driven down the short corridor of my home, the Lord said so clearly to me, ‘These aren’t your sufferings, they’re not beating you. These are my sufferings. All I ask of you is the loan of your body.’ It was a fantastic moment for me! For twenty years anything I’d wanted I’d asked of God. But that night, the Almighty Creator stooped to ask of me. Something he wanted. Something, it seemed that I had to give. And suddenly, overwhelmingly, I realized the privilege . . .
“That night one word became real: it was the word ‘privilege.’ The fantastic, inestimable privilege he was offering me, of sharing with him, in some little way, just the edge of the fellowship of his sufferings. He didn’t take away the fear or the wickedness or the cruelty or the brutality, but it was altogether different. It was with him, in him, for him, and Jesus was overwhelmingly real. And I just offer to you, that this wonderful business of being called, to be saved, being sent to serve . . . yes, it will involve you in everything, you will have to count all you [have], give it all to him. But what he gives back is greater than anything you can ever give to him . . .” (5)
That is the testimony of a saint of God. Can you even imagine such faith? It certainly makes a mockery of those who teach that if you serve Christ, you will be given health, wealth and prosperity. Listen, I want to say something very hard to you:
THERE MAY COME A TIME WHEN YOU WILL HAVE TO SUFFER. No, you probably won’t suffer at the hands of an enemy soldier, though in this day of terrorism, I suppose anything is possible. But think of Helen Roseveare’s experience and then imagine it wasn’t an enemy soldier, but cancer, inflicting that kind of suffering. Or, even worse, we could watch someone we love suffer and die. I’m not being morbid. Such things have happened to some very good people, perhaps someone you know. At such times you may wonder what you have done to deserve such an experience. Or you may feel God has let you down. At such times I pray that you, or I, will somehow surrender ourselves to God, that a great peace will come over us and we, too, will sense that this is not our suffering, but God’s suffering. God is asking us to have that kind of trust, that kind of faith.
Listen once more to Christ’s words, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” I’m not going to insult your intelligence by saying to you that if you serve Jesus everything will go your way. It simply is not so. People who say otherwise are an offense to God. What I will say to you is that over the ages millions of persons have discovered when they have gone through the crucible of suffering, God has been with them to give them strength, comfort, and a sense of peace. “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
1. THE JOKESMITH
2. Dr. Robin R. Meyers, The Virtue in The Vice: Finding Seven Lively Virtues in The Seven Deadly Sins ( Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc., 2004).
3. Donald M. Tuttle, http://www.first‑christian‑cc.org/images/sermons/June%205,%202005.htm.
4. http://www.ccpc.bowiemd.org/documents/Easter2005.doc.
5. Helen Roseveare. Transcribed from a tape of her address at Columbia Bible College. “The Wedding Banquet,” Dr. Robert Rayburn, http://www.faithtacoma.org/sermons/Matthew/Matthew75.22.1‑14.Jul3.05.htm.