Moving Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Posted on Oct 18, 2009 in Sermons | Comments Off

Speaker: Andrew Brown
Key Passage: Matthew 8:1-22
Date: 18 Oct 2009

As many of you will know when we came to PBC in 1995 it was part of a dream run.  Nan Yong and I were married at the end of our time at Carey Baptist College and straight away we went on a trip to South Korea with Rotary International.  When we got back we prayed for a cheap, but good flat.  We had our eye on one in Kohimarama, but there were heaps of other applicants and I couldn’t make the interview so I asked Nan to give the guy my card.  It was my card from the Rotary trip.  He gave us the flat right away. Turned out he was a Rotarian!

Then I asked the Lord for 6 months work as an accountant before pastoring for the very first time.  I got a 6-month contract with NZI and as the 6 months began to run out I asked Nan Yong where we should go and live if I didn’t get a pastoral call.  We decided on Pakuranga.  Within 1-2 weeks of deciding that we got a call from PBC. How would you like to come to an interview about becoming our Pastor?” We thought, “How convenient!!” And the moment I drove into the car park at PBC for the interview I just knew that this was where the Lord was calling us -and sure enough he did!

Things were going very well indeed until I decided to visit the bank.  We needed a mortgage so that we could buy a house in the area.  I walked into the office with hope high in my heart.  I sat down in the seat opposite the agent.  I said, “I’m a Pastor.” He said, “I’m a Christian, too.” Right, I thought – another miracle –now we’re home and hosed. ‘So tell me how big is your church?’ he asked. “Oh about 90 adults, but it’s going well!” A big smile lit up my face. “And how long have you been a pastor there?” “Nearly two months,” I replied still grinning like an idiot.  How long was this going to take [look at watch]? “How many churches have you pastored before?” he asked politely. “Oh, just this one, but it’s going great so far!” I said.  And then he dropped the bombshell -“Well get a letter from your church stating what your income is, and then, maybe, maybe, we’ll take another look!”

Do you remember that scene from Maxwell Smart where he is walking down a corridor of doors and every single one of them opens in front of him, except the last one, which I think swings back and hits him right in the nose?  Well, it felt like that.  Okay, it wasn’t an outright “No,” just a “maybe,” but it wasn’t supposed to happen like this!  It was supposed to be a shoo-in.  I mean we were on a roll!

But what we had were ‘MISMATCHED EXPECTATIONS.’ I expected to get in automatically on the first visit.  We didn’t.  He wanted to vet me very careful before he entrusted the bank’s precious money to me, and that’s what he did.

So what about you?  Has there ever been a time in your life when you thought you were ‘the man’ or ‘the woman,’ but instead you got turfed out? Mismatched expectations?  Was there some girl or a guy, and you thought “Yeah, they’ll be cute on me,” but they weren’t?  Was there a job you went for?  You thought you were the ‘one.’ Only they didn’t see it.  You thought you should have won that auction on Trade Me, but some other blighter beat you to it?  How did it feel?  How did you respond?

So what if Jesus isn’t that impressed with your application to be one of His disciples?  What if you and Jesus have got mismatched expectations?  What then?

You see in our passage today two men come and talk to Jesus about being His disciples, and they are very surprised by His reaction.  Jesus does not deal with them as they expect.

The first man is a scribe.  He is what the Greeks called a ‘Grammateus.’ He was an expert at handling documents, which meant that he could read and write –a rare skill in those days.  This man had competed an apprenticeship under a Rabbi, maybe even several Rabbi’s, so He knew what being a student or follower of a religious leader was like.  Also he had authority like a lay preacher in the Methodist or Anglican Church.  He could talk with the Pharisees like a colleague.  So he had training, intellect and experience.  He would be an asset for anyone to have, but Jesus says, “What do you want to follow me for?  I don’t even have a place to lie my head.”

The second chap is already a disciple of Jesus.  He’s not one of the twelve disciples, but part of Jesus wider circle.  He too thinks he knows what being a disciple is all about –and Jesus wants this guy to come with Him, but then this guy kind of applies for leave.  He says, “Look I’ll come with you Jesus …once my Dad is dead!”  Jesus says, “Well, if that’s how you feel, you are already dead yourself.  Now sort yourself out!  Are you coming with me or not?”

So both in their own way are excellent prospects. They expect everything to go okay (no problems getting along with Jesus [thumbs up]), but Jesus blows their expectations right up out of the water.  In fact Jesus behaviour is bizarre!  It’s an enigma.  I mean, if Jesus is the bank manager, then these two guys are the applicants, and they are excellent applicants.  Jesus should have welcomed them with open arms.  After all it’s a bank manager’s job to make loans and it’s a Messiah’s job, surely, to recruit followers.  Yet Jesus pulls them both up short [Halt!].  So what’s going on here?  How do you make sense of this and how does it affect your future?

Well, we need to loop back a little bit to the start of events.  We need to gain a little perspective in order to understand this event. In the verses just prior to this passage Jesus has taught the greatest sermon ever preached.  On a hillside just outside Capernaum in northern Israel Jesus introduces the world to God’s dream of a brand new world.  Jesus has a ‘Martin Luther King’ moment – “I have a dream!” – and He lays out all the changes God is going to make in our lives.  That same crowd then follows Jesus down the hill into Capernaum where He lives, and on the way Jesus unleashes a stunning series of miracles to show that He has the power to do this.

You see it’s one thing to say you’re going to bring about change.  It’s another thing to be able to actually do it. I don’t mean to pick on the politicians, but how many of them have promised us one thing or another, but not been able to deliver it?  Jesus shows that He has power from God to do it.  He has AUTHORITY.

In the first miracle a leper approaches Jesus as He is heading through the fields towards town.  Now he wasn’t necessarily a leper.  He might just have had a dreadful skin disease, but he does a no-no. He approaches Jesus, which He isn’t supposed to do!  You see in that day and age lepers weren’t allowed to approach people.  In that day and age lepers were supposed to tear their clothes, wear their hair long, stay isolated from people, and cover the lower part of face and cry out “Unclean!  Unclean!” so that people could stay away from them. But he approaches Jesus and asks him if He is willing to heal him, and Jesus says, “I am willing.” Immediately He heals him.  Just like that that.  It’s done!  Jesus crosses a very strong SOCIAL boundary in order to help him.

Then He instructs the man not to tell anyone, but to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem and to offer gifts there that show that He has been healed. Unfortunately the man doesn’t do that.  We know this from one of the other gospels.  Instead he blabs it to everyone else, except the Temple priests, which is a shame.  Because the purpose of Jesus first miracle is to warn the leaders of Israel that He has arrived!  The Messiah has landed.  The Son of God is here.  The King is in His house to claim His own!

But in the second miracle a Roman centurion approaches Jesus just as he is entering the town.  This man is the commander of a 100-man unit in the Roman army.  He is a tough, battle hardened veteran, but he’s worried about his servant who is suffering in great pain at home.  This centurion not only believes in God, but he actually believes that Jesus is God and can heal his servant.

But what is unusual about this event is that Jesus, as a Jew is not allowed to visit this man’s home. Everyone knew this.  The whole Empire knew it.  It was considered spiritually unclean for a Jew ever to eat food with a non-Jew (a Gentile) or to enter their home.  But what does Jesus do?  Jesus immediately (in the Greek text it says He emphatically) says, “I will go!” This time Jesus crosses the major ETHNIC boundary of His day to help somebody.

Now the Centurion realises this.  It’s obvious in what He says.  He is culturally sensitive and embarrassed enough to know that Jesus shouldn’t do this, so says, “Just say the word and it will be done.  You don’t need to actually come.” It’s an extraordinary act of faith and Jesus praises Him for it.  In fact it shows that even if the Jewish people reject Him (like the leaders in Jerusalem do), many others from all over the world will become a part of His Kingdom.  People of every tribe and tongue will follow Him.

c. But then, thirdly, Jesus gets to Peter’s Mother’s place, and she is bed sick with fever, probably malaria.  So what does Jesus do?  He goes over, touches her hand and heals her.  She is so grateful she gets up, cooks for and feeds Him.  Now this event is meant to be re-assuring.  It shows that Jesus comes home to the Jews and gives them another chance to lovingly follow Him.

But did you notice what He just did?  Was anyone shocked by it?  Jesus just healed a woman!  Shock, horror!  [Put on stole] “I thank you God that you did not make me a non-Jew, a slave, or a woman.” This is what many men in the Jewish community were taught to pray every day!  And yet Jesus bothers to reach out and to heal a woman!  So again Jesus steps across another major boundary to rescue someone -this time a GENDER gap.

Then after dark the crowd bring the demon-possessed and the sick to him and Jesus heals them all.  Jesus uses His authority as the Son of God to heal the marginalized, the despised and the excluded of society.  Write this on a big banner.  This is what Jesus is all about!  Jesus is going to die on the cross to deal with all the sin and the suffering of this sorry world that we live in.  Jesus will pay the ultimate price with His blood to build the foundation of God’s new Kingdom.  As Rob Bell says the religious system of His day left the multitudes out, but Jesus welcomed them all into His kingdom. Anyone could come as well as any other. They still can. This is the gospel.

But not everyone who is invited comes in!  In verse 18 Jesus plans to cross the lake, and this is very deliberate.  Like John Wesley did, Jesus often spent the day with the crowds, but at night He withdrew with the very interested ones, His disciples, for deeper teaching.  As Jesus is about to go the two disciples that we talked about earlier approach him.  They probably want to get in the boat with Him.  They probably think that they belong on the other side of the lake with Him.  (Now let’s make sense of this…)

But what the scribe it turns out is actually looking for is a plumb job –a good position.  Like many of you, you want to live in the best suburb or the best country.  You want to work in or run the best company.  You want to attend the best school or university because the best prospects are usually there.  This scribe is no different.  This guy is no fool.  Jesus is the rising star of the Jewish religion.  He could become a top Rabbi.  He wants to attach Himself to Him.  Who knows?  Maybe Jesus will form a prestigious, well-funded new institute that will have a cosy, important little job in it for him?

But Jesus can’t offer that to him.  Jesus has come to give the kingdom to the marginalized, the poor and the most excluded people of this planet.  Jesus is going to violate the world’s strongest social, political, ethnic, cultural, and gender-based boundaries in order to do this.  It will cost him everything.

So He has to say, “Man, maybe this is too much for you!  Maybe this is too tough for you to do!  You need to think about this.  Are you up to this kind of lifestyle?” What He is saying to this hasty disciple is ‘MAKE SURE YOU COUNT THE COST’ because this could cost you everything!

And the same thing applies to you.  You know many preachers’ they say, “Come to Jesus and be healed.” [Pause]  Is this really what Jesus offers? Maybe Jesus is really saying, “Come for Me. Come with Me.  Come build My Kingdom.  Find my healing along the way.” So, if some of you say, for instance, “Andrew, I’m not sure I’m ready to be baptised and to become a disciple of Jesus,” I’m sad, but I say, “That’s fine.” Because Jesus wants you to be ready when you commit.  Jesus wants you to weigh it all up (this whole world that we live in) and then commit yourself to Him without any reservations.  So the big question for some of you today is, ‘how are you going to count the cost?’

But the second man who came to Jesus, he knew the score.  He knew what Jesus was on about.  He knew what and how Jesus was building.  He wanted to go, but ‘all‘ he was asking for was time to bury his Dad.  This was his most sacred obligation.  This was one of the most important things that a Jewish man could ever do!  The Jewish Rabbi’s taught that you did not have to pray, or even keep the religious rules, if you needed to bury your Dad.  But there was only one problem!  His Dad wasn’t dying yet.  What he was really saying was “Sure Jesus, I’ll follow you, but not just yet!”

He was a cautious disciple and Jesus word to Him is ‘COMMIT.’ He says, “You know the score.  You know where spiritual and eternal life is.  You know that following me gives life an eternal meaning and purpose that you will never ever find elsewhere.  So get on with it!  I want you to be with me!”

And this might be Jesus word to you today.  Even if you’re already baptised, what are you putting off?  Why are you putting Jesus off?  What might be holding you back?  Why delay doing what is most important thing in your life –following and obeying Him?  Are you going to wait until your life is over before you do this?  Jesus says if you aren’t following Him, your life is already over -meaning nothing is more important than this!

So what are the next steps you will take to either count the cost or to commit? How are you going to move out of your comfort zone, the rut you are in?  I want to encourage you to do two things this week.

The first one is to have some conversations with others.  Maybe you can talk about it in your small group, or go out for coffee with a trusted friend.  Process what we’re talking about here.  Talk about what you need to let go of in order to follow Jesus more closely.  Find out what you are going to do in order to commit your life unreservedly to following Christ.

And then will you let us know, if you are comfortable, what you have decided on a yellow communication card next Sunday?  Maybe you decide to be baptised, maybe you decide to become a member of this band of disciples, maybe you increase your giving, and maybe you decide to study or to volunteer to serve God in some capacity somewhere?  Whatever it is, whatever you decide to do, please feel free to let us know.

And can I urge you to remember just one more thing before we close.  Just because you’re not ready, it’s doesn’t mean this is over with.  Jesus is still waiting in that boat for you.  Do you remember that loan I was turned down for at the beginning?  I subsequently thought about things, changed my approach, got my documents together and went back to another branch of that bank.  I got that loan we needed, and we have never looked back!  You can sort things out to be a disciple of Jesus!  You can look forward to a long and rewarding discipleship –so …just… go for it!

Would you please bow your heads?  As your head is bowed I want to ask you two questions.  1.  What do you know you need to do to count the cost and become a disciple of Jesus?  2. What do you need to do in order to commit to what you have started?

“Lord, may you grant each person here the courage to do what they know they need to do this day, this week. In Jesus name.

Amen.”