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Past
Sermon Notes:
Are you Hungry?
- JNL July 26, 09
The Truth at all Cost! - JNL July 12, 09
Who are
you? - JNL May 24, 2009
The Power of God - @ Redeemer Feb 1, 09
Faithful over little - JNL Nov 16, 08
An Example of Sermon Notes:
Reverend Terrance A Jacob, Jordan
New Life Community Church
Date: Sunday, August 23, 2009
10:30 a.m.
Text: John 6: 56-69
You Gotta be Crazy to Follow Jesus
Introduction:
As I read the Gospel readings for the last month,
I wondered why Jesus seems to be bent on graphically
describing the kind of relationship we should have
with him, even to the point of making it sound gory.
"Eat my flesh and drink my blood." "Eat of me…" "I
am the bread… eat me…" I think that if I was sitting
with the Lord, I would have motioned him aside and
whispered to him, "Lord, let it drop now. Ease up on
these people. You made your point. You don’t have to
labor this t the point of discomfort!" Scripture
says that after these statements of the Lord, many
of his disciples stopped following him.
So after all this crazy talk, Jesus turned to the
Twelve and asked them if they were going to leave
too, but they said that they will follow him. You
see, they were crazy too. I am sure the others that
left looked at the Twelve and said, "This man is
crazy, and you all gotta be crazy to follow him
too." An so I have entitled my sermon for today,
"You gotta be crazy to follow Jesus!"
1. The Gospel does not make sense
Firstly, the Gospel does not make sense. In fact,
Paul says that that the gospel is foolishness to
those outside (1 Cor 1:18). Let’s face it, it often
does not add up. God sees that we are being
disobedient, in spite of God’s many actions to help
us obey His laws, so what does He do? He sends his
only son, to become human – with all its suffering,
pain and limitations – and then to die a cruel death
on the Cross, like a common criminal. Then God tells
us that through His son, all who believe will now be
pardoned of ALL their sin and made acceptable before
God; that those who believe in Jesus will not perish
but have eternal life!
The Lord’s coming into the world is also with no
pomp and ceremony. He is born to in a manger, a
stable to two people who are not even married! Mary
is still a virgin, when she becomes pregnant –
sounds really crazy, doesn’t it? The King becomes
nervous about this baby, the angels tell his parents
that he should be Immanuel (God is with us). They
give him the name Jesus, because He will save His
people from their sins.
2. No respecter of persons
Secondly, Jesus was no respecter of persons – he
did not care about status and standing. When Jesus
begins His ministry, he chooses the most unlikely
people to entrust with the spread of the Gospel.
Mostly uneducated; some fisherman, tax-collector,
others who were not anywhere close to being elite or
scholars. Then this King of Kings, spends most of
His time with ordinary people, so much so that he
gets accused of being a friend of sinners –
prostitutes and drunks.
This was a busy week for us at Jordan. I
interacted with so many people. I met some
interesting and some crazy people. A few come to
mind. In the parking lot during the Community Meal
with the Tour de Revs, I met a woman who seemed to
be "looking after" the free water bottles the Revs
brought from the Lutheran World Hunger program. I
went to her, greeted her and she reached out her
arms. I gave her a good hug, and as I hugged her, I
asked, "So what are you selling?" She said,
"Everything is free, except me!" I smiled and
slapped her across her shoulder gently. She turned
to me with a broad smile saying, "You made my day.
You made my day!"
As I reflected on my interaction with the woman I
thanked God for Grace. She was drunk and a
prostitute. Men generally just use her. Everyone
frowns on her, but Jesus does not! I felt this deep
sense of compassion, and I hugged her like I would
hug anyone of you at JNL. As I stepped back and she
said what she did about my making her day, I had a
lump in my throat. Did God find ME worthy enough to
hug the poor woman through feeble me, today? Did He
really? I did not think when I held her close to me,
or when I whispered to her. You must think I am
crazy. I honestly know that it was not me – I was on
autopilot and Jesus was flying. Another person came
to our church during the week. "I’m Marcel", she
said, "but they call me Tamika." I took his hand
knowing that he is a transvestite, and I held it as
he told me that he needs a lot of help; that he is
in prostitution and on crack, etc. I was moved with
compassion again. God wants to touch people who are
suffering and he wants you and I to be His hands
(God’s work, our hands – ELCA theme for 2009). But
then, my brothers and sisters, we gotta be crazy to
follow Jesus!
3. The craziness is in the following
It is not the actions that are crazy; it is the
following that is crazy. If it was in the actions,
we would have something to boast about and it would
be our quest to attain. Growing up I used to always
admire the clergy who were kind of on the edge. I
priest who would go to the Bar to meet a student;
the pastor who would hide a fugitive; the nun who
would bring in a prostitute and befriend her. I
wondered if they were simply non-conformists or just
mischievious. I discovered from getting to know some
of them that they are not driven by being
non-conformists or being different, they are simply
driven to follow Jesus. It is the Lord who leads
them in ways that seem questionable. All this,
because He wants to reach out and touch…
The disciples were crazy to follow this man. He
claimed to be the Son of God, yet he mixed with
sinners. When the religious people of the day were
about to stone a woman for having committed
adultery, she happened to run in His direction, and
Jesus protected her. He knew that she had done
wrong, yet he did not dwell on her sin but on her
wellbeing and her future. He prevents the stoning,
speaks words of forgiveness and shows her a new way.
What a gospel! What a Savior! He is thirsty one day,
and He goes to the well. There He sees a loose
woman. The religious people say that He should not
talk to a woman in public, let alone someone who was
not a Jew. What does the Lord do? He starts chatting
with her.
While we know that the Lord’s actions lead to
salvation, the actual interactions raised eyebrows
and drew sharp criticism. To the natural mind, his
actions were questionable. Yet, the disciples
continued to follow Him. They had to be a bunch of
crazies to follow Him.
Conclusion:
Why do I say, "You gotta be crazy to follow
Jesus"? Formal religion is all neat and tidy; with
dogmas, creeds, liturgies, membership, rules and
procedures. Most religious people pride themselves
in being upstanding saints – holy people – on the
right path. Often we look down over our noses at
those who are struggling with obvious sin and
trouble. The way of the Jesus, the Way of the Cross
is different. Jesus said that I did not come for
those who are well, I came for those who need a
doctor. The gospel comes to the poor and downtrodden
and picks them up out of poverty, sickness and sin.
Jesus picked me up out of my sin. When I was blind
to my sin and my need for a Savior, He gave me
sight. When He sees a prostitute, He wants to touch
her. When he sees that person struggling with an
addiction to crack, weed or alcohol, Jesus wants to
touch them – even if they are reeking of the stuff!
When He sees someone in bondage – whether by demons,
past trauma or mental illness, he wants to touch
them, he wants to free them. To the lonely He wants
to be a friend. To the hungry He wants to give food.
To the lost He wants to take them home. He’s not
crazy, He’s not mad, He is… He is Love. Love wants
to reach out and touch. Are we crazy enough to go
against the grain and be God’s hands to a needy
world? You gotta be crazy to follow Jesus.
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