Judge me by what you see

Matthew 11

When I first read the Gospels it seemed amazing to me that Jesus would simply walk up to a group of fishermen and tell them to follow him and they would leave their nets and boats and become his disciples. What was going on? Was there some supernatural aura around Jesus that made people do this? Did they look up from their fishing nets and see a complete stranger with amazing charisma who invited them to follow him and then simply drop their nets and begin walking off with Jesus?

There is a lot of background the Gospels do not provide and to understand the interaction of Jesus and John the Baptist and the disciples who followed him, you have to go back into the earlier years of Jesus.

Remember that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins, born within a few months of each other. Because of the special circumstances of their births, their mothers had a close bond and although Scripture does not tell us this, it is highly probable that Mary and Elizabeth got together once in a while with their children. Certainly when they went to Jerusalem for the annual feasts they spent time together. Jesus and John the Baptist grew up as friends. As teenagers and young adults, they certainly talked about issues of faith. They knew each other well.

Evidence of the close emotional relationship Jesus had with John comes from Matthew 14. When Jesus received the news that his cousin had been beheaded by Herod, he withdrew to a lonely place to grieve. The crowds followed him and he had compassion on them, but he withdrew to grieve the death of his cousin

One of my New Testament professors in seminary made a case for why Jesus might have been one of John’s disciples. We will not know this for sure on this side of heaven, but it helps to explain the familiarity Jesus had with John’s followers and why some of them became his followers. If Peter and John and James were first disciples of  John the Baptist, it helps to explain why they would leave their nets and follow Jesus. They knew Jesus, had spent time with Jesus. He was not a stranger who called out to them to follow him.

At the baptism of Jesus, it was revealed to John – and also to Jesus – that Jesus had a special relationship with God. Jesus left for forty days in the wilderness to fast and pray and consider the implications of his baptism experience and it was only after John was thrown in prison by Herod that Jesus began his public ministry. It seems clear that Jesus waited until John was not able to continue his public ministry before he began his own public ministry.

At this point some of the disciples of John followed Jesus and became his disciples but others remained with John the Baptist. It is these disciples who came to Jesus with a question John had asked from prison.

John had heard that Jesus was doing miraculous things and so he sent his disciples to ask,
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus’ response to this question is what first caught my attention when I read through chapter 11.
“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

From reading the gospels, there are a number of responses that would seem likely. Jesus could have responded, “Who do you say I am?” He could have told a parable. Most times Jesus seemed not to want to answer such a question directly.

But in response to this question, Jesus gave a very direct answer.
Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

When John heard Jesus’ response, he knew exactly what Jesus was saying. There were well known passages from the Scriptures that prophesied about the Messiah and one of these was Isaiah 35. (vs 5-6)
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.

Jesus’ response to John’s question was to say, “You see what I do? I am doing what the Messiah is supposed to do. Yes, I am the one.”

Why did Jesus give such a direct response to this question? I think it reflects the affection Jesus had for his cousin.

Think about the question from John’s perspective. At the baptism of Jesus, it was revealed to him that Jesus was more than he seemed to be. John was still thinking about this when he was put in prison by Herod.

Although Herod visited him and liked him, Herod’s wife hated John and wanted him killed. John knew that Herodias was stronger and smarter than Herod and that his time on earth was therefore limited.

When he heard reports that his cousin was doing miraculous things, he reflected on what he had experienced at the baptism of Jesus. God had revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah but how could the boy he grew up with be the Messiah? His familiarity and intimacy with Jesus worked against his experience at the baptism of Jesus and he wanted confirmation.

In an expression of love for his cousin, Jesus told John’s disciples:
Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

Do you want to know who I am? Look at what I am doing.

This is a theme that runs through this chapter of Matthew. Judge me by what you see.

You see this theme later when Jesus talked further about what was being said about him and his cousin John.
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.

Did John have a demon? Was Jesus a glutton and a drunkard? Watch and see, Jesus said. You will be able to tell who we are by our actions.

This theme is evident again when Jesus spoke about the cities that had rejected him.
Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

The actions of the people in the cities revealed who they were. Or rather, their non-action, their refusal to repent, revealed the truth about them.

This theme runs through this chapter: if you want to know who a person is, watch them and see what their actions indicate about them.

It is not enough to talk the talk of Christianity, we have to walk the talk. We have to put into practice what it is we believe, otherwise our faith is dead.

Before I go any further, I need to say that we are Christians not by what we do but by who we know. It is our relationship with Christ, his hand reaching down and grasping us and pulling us to himself that saves us, not our actions.

But if we have been saved by Jesus, then there should be evidence of that change.

This is what James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote in a letter that is part of our Scriptures.    James 2
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Believing is not enough. Believe must move us to change and growth. James concludes his discussion of faith and deeds by saying:
faith without deeds is dead.

I had a poster when I first began my Christian life that had a picture of a flower growing in a field and it said, “Growth is the only evidence of life.” If I step outside and look at a plant in my garden that does not have buds, does not have any indication of new leaves, what should I conclude? I can wait for a week, a month, maybe two, but then when I see that there is no growth, no indication of new life coming, I conclude that the plant is dead and pull it out. Only evidence of growth keeps that plant in my garden.

In the same way, if we do not see evidence of growth in our lives, we need to question whether we really are spiritually alive.

What happens when we come to faith? We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a guarantee of the work of Jesus to save us. So the creative, transforming power of the Holy Spirit that hovered over the waters in the beginning, as Genesis tells us, is living in us. The creative power that made all the beautiful complexity of life in the universe is in us. How is it possible to have that creative power in us without being transformed?

When we give our lives to Christ and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit we will begin to change. It cannot be otherwise.

This does not mean we will be perfect. This does not mean we will be better than others.

Tony Campolo writes of meeting a woman after one of his talks who was critical of him.
A woman once told me that I wasn’t much of a Christian because she knew non-Christians who lived better lives than I did. If those people are so wonderful without Jesus, I asked her, could she imagine how much more wonderful they would be with Jesus. And, I added, if I was as rotten as she suspected I was with Jesus, could she imagine what I would be like without him?

Following Christ will not make us perfect in our behavior but it will make us better. That is the powerful great news of sanctification. We have hope because what we are today is not what we will be tomorrow. The Holy Spirit is at work within us and as we cooperate with him, we will change and become more godly. But the key is that we will grow and change because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

So where is the evidence of faith in your life?

Last week in the Adult Sunday School class we were discussing the parables Jesus told about the cost of discipleship. These stories were told in this context:
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Many people were following Jesus but not all were following Jesus with proper motives. Jesus was the biggest show in town and some were following just because he was so entertaining with all his magic tricks. So Jesus confronted the crowd following him and talked about the cost of discipleship.

We have pretty free-flowing discussions in our Sunday School class, making it difficult for whoever is teaching that day, and I am one of the trouble makers. Tracy had talked earlier that day during his sermon about how his parents wrote down on a hundred or more sheets of paper all the ways in which God had been faithful to them. I thought about that and wondered if it would be helpful to sit down and make a list of all the ways in which I have sacrificed for my faith. If there is a cost to discipleship then I should be able to look back and see what it is that my faith has cost me.

It is particularly helpful as an exercise if you can’t come up with much of a list. There is a cost in following Jesus but if we can’t list very much that our faith has cost us, what faith is there?

For example, if you were to give me access to your checkbook and savings book and all your financial records and I did not see any evidence of sacrificial giving, what would that tell me about your faith?

Christianity Today is a magazine in the US and it reported in a recent issue that one out of every four Americans who identify themselves as Protestants give away no money at all, not even a token $5 per year. Ten percent of those who identify themselves as evangelical Protestants give nothing away. Only about 27 percent of evangelicals tithe 10% or more of their income.

Is it any wonder that American culture is so self-centered and materialistic when the evidence suggests that most of those who call themselves Christians do not have the evidence of Christian faith? Is it any wonder the church has so little impact on American culture?

Giving in the church should never be a requirement. I was pastor in the early 1980s of a couple churches in Ohio that talked about paying their dues as if the church were a club or an association. Giving in the church is supposed to come out of the overflow of our experience of the love of God.

Giving ten percent of our income is an Old Testament concept. The New Testament teaches us that all we have belongs to God, not just ten percent. In this church there are students who will struggle to give five percent but there are others who should be giving much more than ten percent.

If you make a list of the ways in which you sacrificed as a Christian and you do not put on your list that you have taken less elaborate vacations than you might have or bought a car that was not as nice as you would have liked or not gone out to eat as much as you would have liked or in some way sacrificed so you had more money to give to the work of God in the world, then you need to ask yourself why?

Jesus said:
Luke 12:34
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If you want to know where your heart is, follow your money.

Following Jesus will cost you. You will miss out on some of what the world has to offer you but you will gain a treasure in heaven that will not perish, spoil or fade.

Where is the evidence of faith in your life?

When is the last time you talked with someone about your faith? Jesus asked us to take the gospel out into the world. If you are growing in faith, you are learning how much you are loved by God and how much God desires to be in relationship with us. Jesus taught about the kingdom of God because he wanted people to open their minds and hearts and come into the kingdom. He challenged the religious leaders in harsh language because he wanted to provoke them into reassessing their dead legalism. Jesus sat at the well and talked with the Samaritan woman because he had compassion on her and wanted her to find water that would satisfy her spiritual thirst.

Who have you talked to about your faith experience in the last week or month? How can you have an intimate, growing relationship with Jesus without wanting to tell others about it?

Whether or not the people you talk with become Christians is not the issue. That is God’s work. The question is, have you, are you sharing your faith experience with others.

Where is the evidence of faith in your life?

Who is there in need that you are helping? James wrote in his letter:
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

We are not able to help every person and there are times when it is best not to help someone. But there are many needs. In what way are you helping those in need? Note that James singles out helping our brothers and sisters in faith. How are you helping your brothers and sisters?

How do you know you are a Christian?

In November I preached a sermon titled, Boldly Approaching While Desperately Clinging. I asked at the end of that sermon:
Are you living a cultural Christian life, going through the motions, or are you in a genuine relationship with Jesus, clinging on to him for dear life?

How can you tell? Reaffirm your faith this morning by giving your life, as completely as you know how, to Jesus. If you have never surrendered to Jesus, then do so this morning.

We are not saved by the sacrifices we make for God. We are not saved by the good things we do. We are saved because we desperately cling to Jesus who will save us.

But how do you know you are desperately clinging to Jesus? Look at your life and examine the evidence of growth in your life. In what way is the work of the Holy Spirit transforming you to help you become more godly in your thinking and actions? Clinging to Jesus will change you. You cannot help but grow if you cling to Jesus.

If you look at your life and see insufficient evidence of your Christian faith, the answer is not to simply give more money, tell more people about Jesus or help more brothers and sisters in need. Authentic Christian faith comes out of the overflow of our experience of the love of God. Authentic Christian faith is not a list of external behaviors to which we have to adhere but an internal relationship that leads to a changed life and changed priorities.

So the first place to start if you want to have a stronger Christian faith is to seek renewal in your relationship with Christ. Spend time reading the Scriptures and praying and journaling. Take time to listen to God.

Authentic Christian faith is not a matter of duty but a matter of love. We are not called to be slaves to a long list of actions and behaviors, we are called into a relationship of love that results in actions and behaviors that reveal us to be Christians.

This is where chapter 11 of Matthew ends. The law of Moses had become a burden under the strong hand of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus came to free us from that burden. We are not slaves to the law, worn out from the task of obedience. We are free sons and daughters of God who cling to Jesus and long to live lives pleasing to him.

Jesus calls us to come to him, not so he can beat us with rules and regulations but so we can work with him in the task of bringing the good news of the kingdom of God to a needy world.

Some of us might be afraid to give ourselves more completely to Christ for fear of what that might entail. We might fear that we will be overwhelmed or that it will cost us too much. But Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The safest place for us to be is next to Jesus, working with him. The most restful place to be is next to Jesus, working with him. The wisest decision we can make it to give ourselves completely to God, trusting him with our lives.

When you come forward for communion this morning, make your life an offering. There is a cost in giving yourself to God. Making yourself an offering to God will cost you your money, your pride, your time, your ego – but you will gain the joy and peace of God.