Dr. M. Taylor Bach 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9
I would like you to imagine for a moment that you are a resident in the tiny little nation of Kiribati. Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't until this week. Kiribati is a nation made up of thirty two islands just off the coast of New Zealand. The strange thing about Kiribati is that all these islands are just two meters above sea level which is about the distance of my arm span. So if you look at it this way (up and down) you get the idea how close the ocean is to swallowing up these islands. Recently their president sent out an international call for help. Why? Because global warming is rapidly raising the level of the ocean. Already twenty five percent of their territory has disappeared. If you were one of the 97,000 residents there, you would be frightened. The president has said, “We've probably reached the point of no return and something has to be done with our 97,000 residents. We are going to have to move off of these islands as the water rises. It is going to swallow up all of our homes and eventually our whole nation is going to disappear.” Imagine for a moment what that would feel like if you lived in that area and you knew everything that was dear to you was suddenly going to disappear. What does that have to do with the Gospel?
In the epistle that Jill read this morning, Paul is also concerned that which is near and dear to him, the good news about Jesus Christ, may disappear. This in fact would be a worse calamity than an island nation disappearing. He says that it is possible that a veil has come over the people in the city of Corinth and as such, it is hiding the Gospel and keeping the Gospel from people's sight. Even today, there is a great danger of the Gospel disappearing. This seems to be the situation in Christendom from the very beginning. In the Gospel that Jill read, the gospel of the transfiguration, we have an illustration of this as well. Peter, James and John were up on the mountain with Jesus. They saw Him transformed or transfigured into His divinity where His clothing was whiter than snow and He shone brightly. Surely after you have had such a spiritual experience, you would never let that fade in your mind. Yet, when they came down from the mountain, what happened? They couldn't even hang on to that vision. It was after that experience that Peter denied Jesus three times. It was after that experience that James and John went and hid in the upper room. So even when they had such an intense spiritual experience, the Gospel was hard to hold on to for them and the remembrance of that experience was difficult for them to maintain.
Jesus is revealed in the Bible as a bright light. That should be easy to remember. Not only do we have that in the transfiguration story but in the very first chapter of the Gospel of John. John the Baptist was being described as a witness to Jesus as the light of the world.
“There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him, all men might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light, the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”
The true light. I've got a prop this morning a lamp on the pulpit to stand for Jesus and His Gospel. Jesus is the true light to light the world. What happened to John? John was beheaded. What happened to his witness to Jesus? It stopped. Paul was concerned in the Corinthian community that a veil was being raised and the Gospel could disappear. Should we be afraid that the light of Christ will disappear in our time? Jesus in Matthew 5 said, “YOU are the light” (my representative). He said that you are not to hide your light under a basket because if you put the light under a basket, it disappears. It can't be seen. But a light is to be put on a stand where everyone can see it. It will illumine the world. (Here I turn on the lamp on the pulpit.) This is an urging that we don't hide our light, the light of Christ within us. This is an urging that we don't let the light of Christ disappear, that we don't let the Gospel disappear. Is the Gospel disappearing? Christians are now numbered as only 49% of the American population. We used to be the majority. But now we are only 49%. Here's a startling statistic 21,000 Americans are becoming Muslim every year. 21,000. Is the Gospel disappearing? Is the light going behind a veil? Is the light of Christ no longer being seen? It is a scary thought. It is an alarming thought. (Here I placed a basket over the lamp on the pulpit.) Is a basket covering our lamp?
In our ministry group that meets twice a month, we are studying about how to be the light to others and how to share that light. It has been fascinating to me because what is it that you think of when you think about evangelism? Do you think of a representative of a cult coming up on your front porch wanting to hand you a magazine, and you run and hide in the kitchen so they don't know that you are home? Or if you are like me, do you want to argue with them so you open up the door and invite them in? I have a good time confronting them. But what is your view of evangelism? Is it that kind of thing? This material that we are studying is saying that is the wrong way to look at spreading the light of Christ. Evangelism really is using your own personality, whatever personality type you have to bring the light of Christ to others. It is not confronting others in an obnoxious way.
The material that we are studying lists these personality types. First, there is the direct personality. This is the person who has no trouble talking to his neighbors and talking to his co-workers and friends and can walk up to them and say to them, “Are you saved? If not, you better get with it because you are probably going to hell.” Most of us would not handle it that way. Right? Most of us would think that we were offending our neighbor and most neighbors would feel offended if we asked them that question. Have you ever had anybody do that to you&walk up to you and say, “Are you saved?” And you want to say, “I've been going to church all my life. I don't like you confronting me that way. Of course, I'm saved. I'm going to heaven.” But there is a place for this approach. The material says that Peter had this approach. He was brash. He was direct. In his first sermon after Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon him, he came right out and confronted the Jews. “Hey, you are the guys who killed Christ. You need to change your ways and repent.” It had to be a difficult confrontation that could have gotten him killed, but instead 3,000 people became Christian as a result of his direct approach.
The study says that the second personality is the personality that uses the intellectual approach. This is the person who likes to know all the Bible information, who likes to study the Bible. It is the approach of Paul who authored thirteen letters of our New Testament. So this is the person who loves to explain their faith to other people. There is definitely a place for that. In fact, if you introduce people by one of these other approaches, sometimes it might be good to refer them to the Paul-type to get the faith explained.
The third type of personality that was described in our class is the testimonial type. This is the type of person who isn't good at quoting or explaining the Bible to others, but they simply say, “'Look what's happened in my life. Here is my testimony. I've changed. Look what happened to me.” That approach is very difficult to argue with. You can't argue with another person's experience. “OK. You had this happen to you. I can see how much you've changed. That is impressive.” “Is it because of the Gospel?” “Yes. It is because I love Jesus and Jesus has come into my life and I'm now a different person.” So that is the testimonial type.
The study goes on further and says, “How about the interpersonal type?” The interpersonal type is the type of person who cares about you and gets into your issues in your life and invites you to speak to them. When I have trained counselors, I've always trained them to ask broad-brushed questions. A broad- brushed question is one that can't be answered yes or no but it has to be answered with an explanation. A person who has an interpersonal approach does this automatically. They just ask you, “Hey, what is going on in your life?” “What is really going on in your life?” If you just say “Fine”, they ask, “Are you really fine?” Before long, you are listing the dog is sick, Aunt Sadie is dying, and I just lost all my retirement. Before long, you know their whole life history. The interpersonal type is very good at bringing that out and then allowing themselves to be able to say, “And Jesus can solve those problems. If you invite Him into your life, He will deal with those issues. So invite Him in.” “He can heal your troubles.”
Let me give you examples of the testimonial and the interpersonal type. The story of the Samaritan woman illustrates both. Once she met Jesus, she went running out to tell all of her friends about what happened to her. She gave her testimony. “This man knew that I had five husbands and the man I am living with now isn't one of them.” The interpersonal approach was Jesus' method in this story, as He met her and surfaced that information about her. Jesus used the interpersonal approach and the Samaritan woman used the testimonial approach.
The next type of personality is the invitational personality. This is a person who is social. They love to invite people to do things with them. “Hey, I'm going shopping. Would you like to go with me?” “Hey, I'm having a few friends over for pizza to watch the game. Would you like to come over and watch the game with us?” The Bible lists a person named Matthew, the tax collector, as this type. He saw two groups. He saw his tax collector friends who were crooks and criminals and bilked people out of their money, skimming Roman taxes for their own benefit. Then he saw the group that Jesus was putting together, his Christian friends, the twelve apostles. He said, “Do you know what? I am going to invite them all to my house and get them together and have them mingle with each other because that is what I do best.” So he did that and you can imagine how those two groups went together. But the sinners could see that the Christians had fun, that they weren't awful people. They weren't going to beat them over the head with “Are you saved?” They were going to be enjoyable to be with. And they might say, “Oh by the way, why don't you come to our church and try it out?” (Or synagogue as the case might have been back then.) The material calls this “Matthew parties” and encourages the social person to follow this method.
There is one final type; the serving type. These are the people that just love doing things for other people. Their great joy is maybe taking care of someone. Their great joy is maybe mowing the lawn for an elderly neighbor or taking out the garbage for someone, or repairing somebody's car, or doing something nice for another person just on the spur of the moment. These are the serving type people. They share, too, that the motivation behind “my serving is the good news, the Gospel.”
Here is a summary of the types& 1 The direct 2 The intellectual 3 - The testimonial 4 The interpersonal 5 The invitational 6 The serving type.
What type are you? How might you use your personality type to share the Gospel, to let the light shine, that light that is Jesus Christ dwelling within you? How might you use your personality to pull that off, to invite people to our church, to make sure that the Gospel isn't disappearing? Perhaps you are not just one of these but a combination. I'm the intellectual, testimonial, interpersonal type!
The other night I saw on 48 Hours a brief story of George Clooney in Darfur. Maybe some of you also saw that TV show. I had recently read about George Clooney. So first of all, I am concerned about his salvation because he seems to have given up his faith. At least he shared that in one of the interviews. He said that he is not into religion. But his father, Nick, has repeatedly said to him, “You better do something significant with your life because no one remembers actors. In fact, nobody remembers an actor from 1920 or 1930. (Do you?) So you had better do something significant with your life.” This parental message playing in George's head apparently has motivated him to use his celebrity to confront the genocide that is going on in Darfur. I am hoping that it will lead him to the light of Christ to a greater degree. He may just discover Christ through the Christian groups he is associated with in Darfur. They are bringing the Good News to these persons who are homeless, impoverished and persecuted. George is the direct and interpersonal type. He has the potential of leading many to Christ. Let's hope some day he will do it.
The Gospel may be disappearing. It may be disappearing because of our greed. It may be disappearing because of our family breakdown. It may be disappearing because other religions are coming in and taking over. It may be disappearing because we are not sharing the Gospel. We are to be the light of Christ. As I talk to you today, I want to encourage you don't let the light go. (Here I turned the lamp on the pulpit off so the light went out.)