Introduction
Have you ever watched highway workers tear up a small section of road to fix a pipe or to simply create a better patching surface? The have a tool that they use called a jackhammer. That thing has some power. It will cut through asphalt and open holes in roads. I would say that it makes an impact on the user as well as the road that it is being used on.
Describing the Biblical Text
As we look at this text, we see Jesus making an impact on people’s lives.
We see Him healing, comforting, and generally meeting the needs of the people who came to Him.
But, he was able to do this at a time when there was concern over the fact that certain people wanted to kill Him.
He had just put together a leadership team which would establish what we call the church.
He is about to deliver a sermon called the sermon on the plain.
But, at this point he is doing ministry and meeting the needs of people.
Narrate the Contextual application
As a church, to what extent are we called to meet people’s needs?
What litmus test do we apply to the people that we help?
What litmus test did Jesus apply here?
He simply helped people where they were and that prepared them to hear his message of living as a part of the kingdom of God.
Life Application (thesis)
When we look around our church at our own neighborhood or even the neighborhoods in which we live I would like us to consider whether or not we are making an IMPACT.
Maybe we should consider whether or not we want to make an impact.
We have been put here for some reason; what to do, what to do.
We need to find the ways to minister.
We need to actively look for ways to meet people’s needs.
The church must IMPACT the community through the power of God.
I want us to look at three characteristics of Jesus ministry and see how we might bring those characteristics to bear on our lives and on our church.
SO WHAT!! (Outline)
We are to minister among the people.
When we think about the people who came before us in faith, we can see that God took an active role in their lives as the object of their faith.
God walked with Adam in the garden.
He took Enoch to heaven, protected Noah through calamity, called Abraham from obscurity, wrestled Jacob, led Israel by cloud and fire, wrote for Moses and Daniel, and became a human being for us.
God has never failed to be involved in the lives of His people,
And as the church, it is our responsibility to be involved in the lives of people.
Jesus gave us that little command about loving our neighbors as ourselves and I don’t think you can love people without some kind of involvement in the lives they live.
As we look at this text, we see people here seeking Jesus
We see essentially two groups of people: the disciples and the throng.
Now, the disciples were there because they had just been chosen and they were probably assisting Jesus with the logistics of the crowd management.
But there was a throng of people who knew That Jesus was a teacher who taught with power not like the scribes of the day.
They were coming to Jesus to hear him and they were coming to Jesus to be healed.
The deal was this though; Jesus was accessible.
When we were at Kitty Hawk, the church bought a new computer from a company that you may have heard of called Dell. Well, after a couple of months, it crashed and would not even turn on. One call to the toll free number to the tech support people with the service tag and there was a technician there the next day. She couldn’t fix it. She called Dell who told her that we could return it. They sent us a new computer, a model better than the one we purchased and let us send the old one back in the box the new one came in.
Now, last Christmas, we ordered these little Digital music players for our kids from a company called Creative. Well, long and short of it was they were junk. What’s worse is that you could not find an address or an email address or a website for any help at all. We were stuck with junk.
The difference between those two experiences was that Dell didn’t mind interacting with their customers even when it was to fix a problem.
BTW that what Jesus does; He fixes problems.
Creative, on the other hand doesn’t give the impression that they care about their customers.
When people see our church, do they see a loving caring fellowship that desires to be a part of their lives and wants to minister to the needs that they have or do they see a church that really doesn’t care or want to be involved in their lives?
It is an effort that we must all make if we are to be like Jesus and we are to minister among the people.
Jesus was setting the example for the body of Christ and as the body of Christ; we should follow His example to the tee.
Another characteristic that we see in this passage is that we have the power to do the work that God has sent us to do.
We might look at this passage and see Jesus doing things that we could never do.
I don’t have a gift of healing and have never had the opportunity to cast out unclean spirits. But you know what I have had?
I have had the opportunity to pray with people.
I have been able to stick my hand I my pocket and hand someone 2 or 3 bucks.
I have been able to tell someone struggling with sin and bad habits that there is strength and hope in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what, these are things that we can all do.
There is so much potential for ministry right here.
All we have to do is tap it.
Think about it.
Jesus came to this earth to be a part of people’s lives.
He came to do the will of God who sent Him.
He came to be a part of your life.
But is he?
How open are we to his voice when it calls us out of the Lazy Boy and into the?
Jesus knew us before the foundation of the world and desired to be a part of you life even then.
The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and because of that, we need a savior.
We need Jesus to give us peace with God, forgiveness from sin and a hope for eternity.
I want to ask you all to bow your heads right now.
If you desire to have a relationship with Jesus, won’t you acknowledge that right here this morning?
I will be leading a prayer and if you feel compelled to follow Jesus Christ this morning, won’ you pray with me, repeating the words silently.
If you prayed that prayer, you are ready to begin serving Jesus
We are to minister among the people.
We have the power to do the work that God has sent us to do because we have the Son of God, Jesus who died for them.
If you think that is not important, listen to the words of Jesus
As the Father has sent me so send I you and he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit. John
All authority is given to me on heaven and earth go make disciples and lo I am with you. Matthew
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Acts
We go in the name and in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no shortage in what we can do as His followers except that we limit ourselves with excuses, prejudices, and we lack the faith that we actually have the power to do something.
We cannot as a church sell ourselves short.
There used to be a cartoon hero named He-man who would raise his sword and declare, “I have the power!”
We have the power; we just have to be willing to use it.
The third characteristic we see here is that effective ministry brings people to us.
Yes we are told to go but often time we see that people come and many times they do not return and you have to ask yourself, “Why?”
I think that it is because they perceive that we do not exhibit a healthy attitude of ministry towards others.
We may appear to be too self-absorbed.
All too often, we approach church like we are consumers and not like we are there to be the arms, hands eyes and ears of Jesus.
Sometime when I go to a restaurant, I watch a table if I am there for a long time I will notice as people come in sit down, eat, and leave. What is interesting is that someone else will come in and sit at that same table. Those people have absolutely no interest in what the people who were there before them ordered and did. No one has ever said, “What did the previous people who sat here eat?” You know why? When we go out to eat, we are self-absorbed consumers. I have a friend in SC who is a real pain to eat with. He finds something wrong with every place you go. If we are not careful, we can take that kind of attitude to church.
Do you know what Jesus’ attitude about His ministry was?
Mark 10:45 tells us this “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Jesus was saying that we are the least of our worries especially when we are serving God.
How are we impacting the world around us?
Do we have what it takes in terms of our willingness to go to the people?
Do we have what it takes in terms of the power of God?
Do we have what it takes to do ministry so effectively that others come looking for us.
We have the responsibility to minister.
We must in that ministry share a message.
In that message we will multiply and the Kingdom of God will be increased.
We can make it happen.
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