25 Jan

1/27/19   Matthew 4:12-23      “Pay It Forward the Christian Way!”

I just read an interesting article in Guideposts magazine that got me to thinking.  Look out everyone when you get the pastor thinking!  Anyway it talked about how much healthier people are if the spend 15 minutes a day in being thankful.  Some of the findings are amazing.  Anyway, to me, this translates into 15 minutes of prayer.  This all makes sense to me because it has been proven that Christians live longer and have happier lives than the general population.  That is a scientific fact.  So make sure you take some time for prayer every day because it is so important.  Today I would like to look at how being generous can help both you and the Kingdom of God plus it isn’t hard to do.

I got this story from Bret Blair who tells us that the first man to become a billionaire was a millionaire by age 23.  By age 53 he had become a billionaire.  Here was a man who had everything but he had lost his health.  He couldn’t sleep or even smile anymore as life had no meaning.  He was so sick that doctors told him that he didn’t have long left to live.  In a dream he dreamt that he wouldn’t be able to take his fortune with him.

So he called his attorneys together and they devised ways to give his fortune to hospitals, research and missions.  This was the beginning of the John D. Rockefeller Foundation.  This foundation has found cures and helped millions of people over the years.  And a miracle happened to John D. Rockefeller also as he got better and lived to age 98.  You see God loves it when we share what we have with others who don’t have.

There is an old Jewish tale about two brothers, one was single and one was married with many children.  The brothers farmed together and had good crops.  They shared everything equally and each had their own storehouse.

One day the single brother thought that the married one should have a larger share because he had such a large family to feed.  So he began to take a sack of grain to his brother’s storehouse every night in the middle of the night.

About the same time the other brother was thinking that he should be giving the single one some help because he had no children to take care of him when he got old.  You guessed it.  He decided to take a sack of grain to his brother’s storehouse every night in the middle of the night.  Of course, every morning they would find that they had the same number of sacks that they started with.

So they kept on for quite some time thinking that somehow their own stores were being replenished.  Then it happened.  In the middle of the night they ran into each other.  They couldn’t believe it.  They embraced and cried.  God saw all of this and decided to bless the land where they stood.  It is said that years later, and we have absolutely no way of proving this, that Solomon built the Temple on these grounds and that it would be a house of peace and a blessing to all people.  God loves us to be generous.  God wants you to be generous also.

And this will be shown through Jesus Christ in today’s reading.  As we begin we see that Jesus heard about John the Baptist being in prison.  He decides to move to Capernaum from Nazareth.  One of the reasons that He may have left Nazareth is because He had been rejected there.  No one believed who he was there because to them he was Joseph’s son, a carpenter.  Even today we find it very hard for a pastor to come back home to preach because so many knew him when he was young.

So he moves to the little town of Capernaum in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali.  This is on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Far to the south are Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.  And running in between them is the mighty Jordan River.  It is in Capernaum where Jesus sets up a sort of headquarters in the north.  This is all done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah.

Last week I talked about all the unlikely people who have risen to power under the authority of God?  Paul is the last person you would expect to be the greatest evangelist of all time because of all the terrible things he had done.  A slight shepherd lad would be the last person you would expect to be the greatest king on earth, King David.  A little baby in the manger would be the last person you would expect to be our Savior.  Well here it is again.  Capernaum is a tiny fishing village in the small territories of Zebulun and Naphtali, who were two of the lesser tribes of the original 12 tribes of Israel.  Once again we have God using the underdog to do big things.  He uses small to show great.

And I think that God uses us in the same way.  I have just read about how most churches in the world are small.  Your church may be small.  But good churches are also known as churches that do things regardless of the size.   Just because you are small doesn’t mean that you can’t serve God in an honoring way.   I was just reading another article about how in megachurches people are able to hide and not do anything to further God’s Word.  But when you get to smaller churches, the people that try to hide cannot because it is too obvious.  So you all work harder and that is a good thing.  There is nothing wrong with doing God’s work and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a small church.  I have seen small churches that do far more than many bigger churches or even megachurches.  Praise the Lord for that.

Moving to verse 17 we see that Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  This is the same message that John the Baptist preached.  Jesus is taking over for John who is now in prison.  This is to show that John had to become lesser.  Jesus is in total control of the ministry.  As a matter of fact Jesus is in control of all the things that happen to Him but that is for another sermon.  It was written that John would lead the way and then become lesser.

One of the points of these opening verses is to show the readers and us that Jesus is the Messiah that was prophesied about in the Old Testament.  There are many skeptics out there today who still don’t believe this.  Over the past few months I have been trying to show how the prophecies of the Old Testament about Jesus have been coming true.  These come from historical documents that were written before Jesus was born.  We have original texts dating well before His birth.  This is why I will dare to say that most of these skeptics have not done a very good job of reading their history or they couldn’t say the things they say.  Check it out yourself.  You will see that your faith is in the right place.  This whole story is too complicated and too tied up in history not to be true.  Jesus Christ was and is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament.  Jesus is God.

And now we move on to the calling of the first disciples.  Peter and Andrew are first.  Jesus says, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  And they followed Jesus and changed many people’s lives.  The same thing happens with James and John.  They too changed many people’s lives in the course of their ministry.

But I would like to take a quick look at the ‘follow me’ part because all four of these people immediately set their work aside and followed Jesus.  We are left to our own devices to speculate on what went on in their minds as the left their livelihood and families and went with Jesus.  But whatever it was, it was so strong that they would follow this stranger and start a new career.  They would begin helping strangers wherever they met them.  They would begin to pay it forward the Christian way.  I would almost have to think that this is one of those God moments for these disciples.

I think that we too have God moments like this.  I would guess that many of us have dropped everything and followed God.  Many people think that this passage means that if we follow Jesus like this, then something drastic will happen where we will have to be a missionary overseas, or one in this country.  Or even worse, you may even have to be a pastor.  But I don’t think that this is the message that God is sending us here although it could be.

I think what God means here is that when we accept Jesus as our Savior and start to live the Christian life, like these four disciples did, and then we leave our old life behind.  For many of us there is an exact point in time where we accept Christ and become a Christian.  It is at this point where we leave our old lives behind and follow Jesus.  And if you have never done this, then confess you sins to Jesus and ask Him to be Lord and Savior of your life.  Please do so today because the satisfaction of a Christian life is far, far greater than anything else you can do.

The last point I would like to make today comes from the last verse where we read that Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching and preaching the Good News of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and sickness among the people.  After reading this again, I would like to remind you of who Jesus was and is.  Once again, He is God!  In the verses right before this we see the devil tempting Him in the wilderness.  He has fasted for forty days which is close to impossible by human standards.  They are transported from mountain top to the city in a blink of an eye.  There are other places in the Scripture where we read of His ability to move from one place to another in a flash.

We also read in the Old Testament how God can create earthquakes, tremendously high winds and blazing fires for Elijah in a moment.  We read in many, many places where God has tremendous power to do things.  Jesus has this power also as He is God.  And this is the power that the Jewish people were looking for.  They thought they knew that the Messiah would help them to overthrow the wicked Roman rule.  They were a much oppressed people and the Messiah was the way out.

But Jesus has other plans.  He doesn’t use his power in this way at all.  Instead he calls disciples together to follow Him.  These people in return will go out and make more disciples.  And from there more disciples will be made as these new people go out.  He is changing lives and He expects that these changed lives will go out and change more lives.  This is the Christian way to pay it forward.

We also read about Him preaching and teaching.  He does this for the same reason, to change lives.  We read about him healing every disease and sickness.  He is showing us how to be generous.  He does this for the same reason.  If you had a disease that was going to claim your life, and someone came along and healed you, you would be grateful.  You would also tell others.  I was just healed from a massive heart attack and I praise and love Jesus for His healing touch.  I had many God moments during this ordeal.

From what I understand this is kind of the same premise of the movie that came out several years ago called “Pay It Forward.”  In it some 7^th graders are assigned to think of a project that will change the world.  One of students gets the brilliant idea to go out and help three people who desperately need some form of help.  This would be in the form of money or food or anything.  Then instead of paying the person back, they pay it forward.  They are to do the same thing for three more people.  They are to help them.  And this is basically what Jesus was trying to do as He changed the world.

In the movie one of the students helps out a drug addict.  They get him in a place and get rehab and get him started on a new life.  All he has to do is help three more people.  Then he falls off the wagon and back into addiction.  Now he has nothing to pay forward until he sees a woman getting ready to jump off a bridge.  It takes a while but he talks her out of it.  He has paid it forward the Christian way.  Jesus was working through all these people by helping them.

This is such an interesting concept and so Christian.  Amanda Wilson came up with a challenge that I would like to pass on to everyone here today.  If you want you can try to pay it forward and see what happens.  This is very good.  But she had a little different approach.  What she and what I would like you to do for the next few weeks is to say a special prayer.  Pray this prayer in your prayer time. “Holy Spirit empower me to give as Jesus did.”  That is all.  Say that with me.  “Holy Spirit empower me to give as Jesus did.”   And if you don’t have a prayer time, then start one with this prayer.  Then let’s talk a little about what has happened.  Even though you belong to a church that is very generous and you are also generous as an individual, I think that God will surprise you.  God will talk to you and you will be doing His work, whether it is great or small.  Adults can do this, youth can do this, and even the children can do this.  I think that this is an exciting challenge for us.  Holy Spirit empower me to give as Jesus did.

And it will also be rewarding.  You will be rewarded by knowing you are doing the right thing.  The receivers will be rewarded by receiving, not only what you give, but also what God gives.  And God will be rewarded as we continue to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ by the giving of ourselves.  The small reward that you might get or will get from Jesus is far greater than any type of reward this old world has to offer.  He loves you so much and He will never stray from your side.  Talk to him and let His love flow through your life.  I can only say, “Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us so much and Holy Spirit empower me to give as Jesus did.”  Let’s pray.