The popular sci-fi movie “Star Wars” featured a planet called Tatooine on which Luke Skywalker lived.  This planet orbited around two suns.  And earlier this year astronomers discovered a real Tatooine.  They located a real planet orbiting around two suns.  This video shows a planet named Kepler 16b crusing around a smaller red sun and a larger orange sun.  The planet takes 229 days to make the circuit.  Scientists were thrilled to find this—a two-sun solar system.

In our text this morning Matthew is going to paint the story of the Old Testament as a two-sun solar system.  Matthew is going to provide a way of viewing the Old Testament which has two center-points.  There are over 900 chapters in the Old Testament.  Someone has suggested that there are over 3,000 peopled named in the Old Testament.  And there are over 23,000 verses in the Old Testament.  But Matthew’s going to give us a way to cut through all of that.  Of the hundreds of chapters, and thousands of verses and individuals in the Old Testament, Matthew’s going to tell us that it comes down to just two.  Everything in the Old Testament revolves around these two items.

Matthew’s two-sun solar system portrait of the Old Testament is found in Matt. 1:1-17.  This is a text which even the most avid Bible readers skip.  Most people believe this text is just too boring to pay attention to.  It’s called a genealogy.  We might call it a family tree.  It tells us about Jesus’ ancestors.  These are people whose stories are told in the Old Testament.    And in our three-part series called “A Christmas Family Tree” we’re going to explore the family tree found in Matt. 1 and in Luke 3.

There are five things you need to know about genealogies like these.[1]

1. First, genealogies were common in ancient biographies.  Ancient biographers often began by writing about the birth and ancestors of the one who was the focus of their biography.  Matthew begins his biography of Jesus with this genealogy and then he tells the story of Jesus’ birth.
2. Second, genealogies were common among priest’s families. Some genealogies of Jewish priests were preserved in the Temple.  Those of upper-class priests traced back to the pre-exilic period.  That is, they could trace their family tree back beyond the time when Israel was exiled to Babylon.
3. Third, genealogies were used to determine rights to royalty and inheritance.  A genealogy could qualify or disqualify a son to be the next in line for the throne.  In a similar way, genealogies were used to determine if a member of a family had any inheritance rights.
4. Fourth, genealogies could be used to prove the racial purity of a family or an individual.  This was especially true of Jews.  Their genealogies were used to show that their bloodlines were pure and contained no Gentile blood.
5. Fifth, genealogies were testimonies to God’s providence.  Jewish people believed God was at work bringing these husbands and wives together and blessing them with children.  Thus genealogies served as a testimony of God’s providence in a family’s life.

And this is where Matthew’s genealogy fits.  Matthew’s list of names is actually a testimony of God’s work in the world.  It’s one of the most powerful testimonies of God’s work in the Old Testament.

And Matthew shows this divine work as a kind of two-sun solar system.  His genealogy of Jesus and thus is overview of Old Testament history centers on two individuals.  The first sun in Matthew’s Old Testament solar system is Abraham.  Notice how Matthew begins:  ¹The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matt. 1:1 ESV).

For Matthew, the place to begin thinking about Jesus is Abraham.  The place to begin watching God’s work is Abraham.  The place to begin understanding the Old Testament is Abraham.  Why?

There’s something very fundamental that answers this question.  When my children were younger, Kendra and I read an important book to them.  The book was authored by John Trent.  It was called I’d Choose You.  The book described a young elephant named Norbert who had a pretty tough day.  He had to sit all by himself on the roller coaster to school while all his friends sat with each other.  And the day went downhill from there.  But when Norbert got home from school, his mother and father “blessed” him.  The book is based on the Old Testament concept of blessing.  The author examined Old Testament references to blessing and found that there were five aspects of blessing.  First, there was the giving of meaningful and appropriate touch.  Thus in the story Norbert is hugged by his parents after his hard day.  Second, there was the speaking of words of affirmation.  Thus, in the story Norbert elephant is cheered vocally by his parents.  Third, there is the expressing of high value.  Thus in the story Norbert receives a “You’re Someone Special” medal from his parents.  Fourth, there is the picturing of a special future.  Thus Norbert’s parents help him see that tomorrow will be better.  Finally, there is the commitment to continue to bless.  And by the end of the story we realize Norbert’s parents will bless him the rest of their lives.  The book is really about how we all long for blessing.

As Harold Shank shared with us a few months ago, many of us have never been blessed in this way.  Harold said that as a professor at Oklahoma Christian University he would often devote part of a class to talking about the Old Testament idea of blessing.  Then he would bless the students by telling them how valuable they were to God, what a special future God had for them, and how God would stick with them no matter what.  And students would cry, because they’d never been blessed like that before.

That blessing is what Matthew has in mind by mentioning Abraham as one of the center points of the Old Testament and of Jesus’ family tree.  The story of Abraham is the story of a promise.  It’s a promise of blessing: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2-3 ESV).  For Matthew, the entire story of the Old Testament revolves around a promise of blessing.  God wants to bless every person in every nation.  He wants to demonstrate how valuable we are to him.  He wants to affirm the worth of all of us.  He wants to express what a special future he has for us.  And he promises to do this through Abraham’s descendants.

That’s a sun around which the entire Old Testament revolves.  That’s a sun around which the story of Jesus revolves.  Its message is this: God wants to bless you.  You are valuable to God.  You are worth a great deal to God.  God has a special future for you.

But for Matthew, there is another person who is central in the genealogy and thus central to the Old Testament.  The second sun is David. Matthew traces the lineage from Abraham to David.  And he summarizes the genealogy in verse 1 by saying that this is “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  For Matthew, everything you need to know about Jesus’ family tree and thus the Old Testament is in this one phrase: “the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Matthew also draws attention to David at the end of the genealogy: ¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (Matt. 1:17 ESV)  Matthew uses the number 14 to point to David.[2] In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, it was possible to assign numerical values to letters.  And the numerical value of the letters in David’s Hebrew name is 14.  The number 14 was Matthew’s way of saying that every person in Jesus’ genealogy points to David.  Every event in the Old Testament points to David.  But why?

This can be answered by recent events.  During the second week of November many sports fans were stunned when the Board of Regents of Penn State University fired the University President and famed football coach Joe Paterno.  The cuts came after the arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges.  Board members felt that that the University President and football coach did not do enough to stop Sandusky’s misbehavior.  Around the same time we heard news of Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou stepping down due to his inability to overcome Greece’s financial turmoil.  Days later Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to resign over similar difficulties.  We are living through a period of leadership failure.  Leaders are falling.  People all over the world are longing for leaders who will put the people first, lead with integrity, and usher in better times.

This longing for leadership is central to the story of David.  Like the story of Abraham, the story of David in the Old Testament is the story of a promise.  It is the promise of leadership.  God swears to David in 2 Sam., ¹² When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7:12-13 ESV).  Later Isaiah would say this about David’s heir: Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Is. 9:7 ESV).  The story of David is the story of a promise of leadership.  A promise of a leader who has the ability to create peace and righteousness and justice.  A leader who never abuses power and who always thinks of his people.  This promise will be fulfilled through David’s descendants.

The story of the Old Testament is that through David, God promises to bring a leader into your life, into the life of every person, who leads in a right way.  A leader who will bring you justice and righteousness.  A leader who will bring peace to your heart and to our world.

For Matthew, these are the two promises around which the entire Old Testament revolves: a promise of blessing and promise of leadership.

And these two promises, according to Matthew, are fulfilled through Jesus’ birth.  That’s one of the points of Matthew’s genealogy.  Because his family line goes back to David and to Abraham, infant Jesus is the one who fulfills both the promise to Abraham and the promise to David.  Through infant Jesus comes the blessing that every person longs for.  Through infant Jesus comes a leader with the justice and righteous and peace we hope for.  Through Jesus’ birth, God is saying to you, “You are valuable to me.  You have worth to me.  I have a special future for you.”  Through Jesus’ birth, God is saying to you, “My son can lead you.  My son can rule with integrity.  My son can provide what no other ruler can.”

For Matthew, Jesus is now the true sun of the solar system of our lives. Ultimately Abraham and David merely pointed to their great-great-great-great grandchild Jesus.  Jesus is now the sun around which the entire Bible revolves; around which the entire cosmos revolves.

Matthew even uses special language to make this point.  In vs. 1 Matthew literally writes “the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.”  The word “genesis” ought to swing our minds back to the book of Genesis.  There, a new world began.  Something fresh was started.  A new sun rose bringing with it hope and life.  Matthew is saying that the birth of Jesus is something similar.  It is another genesis.  It is a sun rising bringing with it hope and life.  Bringing blessing and leadership.

But let me point out one more aspect of this genealogy.  The genealogy is made of three blocks of 14 names.  The first 14 names move from Abraham to David.  There’s a kind of upward movement as they climax with King David.  But the next 14 names move downward.  They take us from the golden days of King David to the dark days when the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon.  It was the lowest moment in Jewish history.  The final 14 names then move upward from the exile in Babylon to the birth of Jesus.[3]

Consider this movement.  It means that the people of God suffered years of exile when it appeared that the sun had set on God’s promise to Abraham and to David.  In exile, their spiritual universe no longer had any sun.  When the Babylonians came, they demolished Jerusalem and dragged the people away to a foreign country.  Stranded there in exile, the people felt they no longer had value in God’s eyes.  They no longer mattered to God.  They no longer had a special future with God.  They no longer had a leader in whom they could trust.  A leader who would make the wrong things right.  When the exile began, their hope in the promises to Abraham and David ended.  In the darkness of the exile, it seemed the sun had set on the promise of blessing and leadership.

And aren’t there times when it seems that sun has set in our own world?  Brishan, Candice and I met with Jon Arnett a few weeks ago.  Jon oversees the Sightseer class for those who want to learn more about Highland.  As we sat down to discuss the class, Jon shared that another round of cuts had just gone through the corporation he works for.  Hundreds were being let go.  Hundreds of more cuts were to follow.  And we felt for those affected.  To lose a job, especially during the holidays, is so hard.  I have no doubt that some of them felt a kind of cold blackness, as if the sun had set.

For some of us the holidays are not the most wonderful time of the year.  They are the most difficult time of the year.  Because of death, sickness, loneliness, or financial loss, it feels as if the sun has set on the promises of God.  And we wonder if God is really going to come through.

But notice that in Matthew’s genealogy, while there is downward movement, there is also eventually upward movement.  Eventually the exile ends and Jesus is born.  Eventually God’s promises of blessing and leadership are fulfilled through Jesus’ birth.  And what Matthew wants us to know through that movement is that the sun has not set on God’s promises to us through Jesus.  For Matthew, Christmas is about the fact that eventually, hope always wins.  Eventually, God’s promises are always kept.  Eventually, divine blessing and leadership always arrive.  It may not come in the time we anticipated.  It may not come in the form we imagine.  In fact it may show up as a baby lying in a manger.  But eventually, the sun always rises.  God’s promises are always kept.

So as you celebrate with trees and presents and meals this Christmas, pay special attention to the lights.  Let the lights remind you of the sun.  Let the lights remind you that everything in your life revolves around that sun of Jesus Christ and its certainty.  And though you may have experiences that gnaw at your soul, making you wonder if God is there, if God does care, if you do have worth in his sight, and if there is any leader out there worth following, remember the sun of Jesus Christ.  No matter the darkness, that sun eventually rises.  All the promises and hopes pinned to Jesus Christ will come true.  God will come through for you in the end.

[2] Frederick Dale Bruner Matthew: A Commentary Volume 1 (Word, 1987), 20.

[3] Bruner, 4.

Teach us, God, to teach our children not just history but His Story–the account of your glorious deeds and doings.

May His Story be the next generation’s greatest inheritance.

May no generation pass without our passing your account on to them.

May they find themselves in you.

Like us, may they set their hope on you.

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Lord, we thought we perceived your plan.

We believed we knew your purpose.

But you’ve altered that plan.

You’ve adjusted that purpose.

And now, we’re off course.

Now, we’re off the map.

Be with us, Lord, as we step into the unknown.

Help us, Lord, to trust in your person though we do not know your plan.

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When we stop seeking you, God, we start serving ourselves.

I’ve seen it again and again. 

Person after person marginalizes you.  And before long, they marginalize those around them.

We simply do not love neighbor when we do not first love you.

When we write you out of our Story everyone suffers.

Especially you.

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And there are a lot of stories to choose from.  Many of us choose contemporary best-sellers: Now You See Her by James Patterson, In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, or Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo.  Others of us choose classic and time-tested stories: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerad, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, or The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.

I have with me a book cart, the kind you might find in a library.  And it’s filled with all kinds of good stories.  These would be great books to pick up and read right now…[mention some of the books on the cart]

There are a lot of great stories.  Libraries and bookstores and our shelves and electronic readers are filled with them.  But for the next four weeks I want to talk about one story: the story of Jesus.  It’s not a terribly popular story today.  The latest research by the Barna organization finds that only 40% of adults read the Bible on a weekly basis.[1] The story of God and Jesus is still on the I’ve-not-read-it-yet-but-I-want-to pile for many Americans.

And perhaps that helps explain why so few Christians share that story today.  The latest Barna research finds that the number of Christian teenagers who shared the story of Jesus with people of another faith dropped from 64% to 45% in the last few years.[2] That’s a 20% decrease.  There’s declining interest in the story of Jesus and there’s declining numbers of Christians sharing that story with others.

Yet I think most of us here know that Jesus’ story is the greatest story ever told and that it’s a story that deserves to be told.  I think many of us want to share that story.  We want everyone to have the chance that we’ve had, the chance to make Jesus’ story our own story.

I would not be a Christian today if a high school senior named Gary Cox had not befriended me and talked to me about Jesus for about a year.  I think many of us know how critical it is to share the story of Jesus.  We know there are people just like me out there who need his story.

For the next four Sundays I’d like to talk about this.  I want to talk about getting into the lives of people, living the gospel before them, and verbalizing the story of Jesus.

Let’s start with the story of Jesus itself.  Several times throughout the New Testament the authors stopped to summarize Jesus’ story.  Here are the key summaries:

John 3:16-17

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

1 Cor. 15:3-8

³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Col. 1:15-20

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Phil. 2:6-11

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

1 Tim. 3:16

¹⁶Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Heb. 1:1-4

¹Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Rev. 1:5-7

5and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.  To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

These texts summarize Jesus’ story.  And in these summaries we find six “chapters.”  Jesus’ story comes to us in six chapters:

First, there is the manger.  Jesus’ comes to earth as a human.  We call this the Incarnation.

Second, there is the cross.  Jesus dies in our place.  We call this the Crucifixion.

Third, there is the tomb.  Three days after his death Jesus is raised.  This is the Resurrection.

Fourth, there are the clouds.  Jesus’ followers watch him ascend in the clouds.  This is called the Ascension.

Fifth, there is the fire.  Jesus sends the Spirit on his followers in the form of fire.  This is called Pentecost.

Sixth, there is the trumpet.  With a loud trumpet call Jesus returns to reign finally and fully.  This is known as the Second Coming.

These are the key chapters in Jesus’ story.

Dr. Monte Cox from Harding University spent time earlier this year with Highland’s staff.  Monte showed us that these six chapters are the record of how God shared Jesus with us.  How did God share Jesus?  He shared Jesus with us through a manger, cross, tomb, clouds, fire, and trumpet.  And Monte demonstrated that we can learn a great deal about sharing Jesus with others by looking at how God shared Jesus with us.  Each of these six chapters teaches us something about how we share Jesus with others.  This series is inspired by some of the information Monte shared with us.  Some parts of this series are built directly upon Monte’s presentations.  Other parts are original with me.

We’re going to start this morning with the tomb.  [VISUAL AID]  This large book represents the story of Jesus.  And these pages represent the chapter on the tomb.  What does the tomb teach us about sharing Jesus with others?

Think for a moment about another question: what is evangelism?  In the early years of my Christian faith, I came across two wrong views of evangelism.  First, some Christians in my life shared Jesus in a way that suggested that evangelism is mostly about this: fill a seat. For some Christians evangelism was mostly about getting people to attend a Christian event.  Fill a seat at a worship service.  Fill a seat at a youth devotional.  Fill a seat at a gospel meeting.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with these events.  They can be great first-steps.  Events like these are central to Highland’s evangelism.  But for some of the Christians whom I knew, this was the extent of evangelism.  Evangelism was complete once they got an individual to fill a seat.  And I think we all know that there’s much more to becoming a Christian than filling a seat.

Second, other Christians in my life shared Jesus in a way that suggested that evangelism is mostly about this: Flee the flames. By flames, I mean the flames of hell.  Evangelism was primarily envisioned as just rescuing people from hell.  Once in college I was invited to participate in an evangelistic campaign.  We were to go door to door in this town and ask people this question: “If Jesus came back today, do you know, for sure, that you would go to heaven?”  It’s not a horrible question.  But it’s not a good first question. It suggested to me that the primary issue in evangelism is getting people to avoid hell.  There’s some truth in that.  But it left a question in my mind: What then?  Let’s say someone is persuaded to be baptized and become a Christian in order to escape hell.  What do they do for the rest of their lives while they are waiting for heaven?  We rescued them from hell but we didn’t give them anything meaningful to be part of until they died and went to heaven.

Jesus had a different view of evangelism.  He put it simply in Matt. 28: 19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  The problem with the view that some have of evangelism is that it’s too short-sighted.  Jesus wasn’t merely interested in filling seats.  Jesus wasn’t even merely interested in saving people from hell.  What Jesus was after is summed up in the word “disciple”—Go and make disciples.  We don’t use the word “disciple” much today.  But it was the word of choice for Jesus.  He envisioned the goal of evangelism with this one word: “disciple.”  In Jesus’ day, a disciple was someone who followed a mentor or a leader; someone who did what the mentor or leader did; someone who surrendered his/her story for the mentor’s or leader’s story.

Here, then, is a better definition of evangelism: Play your part. To be a disciple means to make Jesus’ story your story.  Thus, to evangelize is to invite others to make Jesus’ story their story.  To evangelize is to invite people to play their part in Jesus’ story.  It’s not simply to get people to fill a seat.  It’s not merely to help people flee the flames.  It’s so much bigger than that.  Evangelism is inviting people to find the purpose of their life in the story of Jesus.  It’s inviting them to play their part in Jesus’ story.

That brings us back to Jesus’ story.  What exactly is Jesus’ story?  What would it mean to invite a person to play his/her part in that story?  I’d like to use the tomb, the resurrection, to answer that question.  About three years ago a scholar named N. T. Wright wrote a book about the resurrection.  In this book, Surprised by Hope, Wright says that many in the Christian faith assume this is the point of the resurrection: “Jesus was raised from the dead so that when we die we too can be raised and go to heaven and live there forever.”[3] Many of us automatically think that’s the main point of the tomb.  Jesus was raised from the dead.  Thus, I will be raised from the dead.  If that’s the main point of the tomb, it would seem evangelism is largely about inviting people to be part of a story that allows them to escape death.  That’s a pretty good story: “Come follow Jesus so you can escape death.”  That’s a compelling story.  But it’s still short-sighted.  Wright shows the biblical meaning of the resurrection is much grander.  In the context of the whole story of Scripture, here’s the true meaning of the tomb: “Jesus was raised from the dead to inaugurate the final chapter of God’s renewal of the cosmos so that one day heaven can come to earth.”  God brought life from death and restored wounded flesh and bones at the tomb as the ultimate illustration of what he’s doing with the entire cosmos.  The great story of God, which Jesus participated in, is bringing wholeness to brokenness, breathing life into death, making beautiful what has become ugly.  The tomb was the climax of that work.  And according to Wright early Christians believed that “God [is] going to do for the whole cosmos was he had done for Jesus at Easter.”  If you want one scene that best illustrates what God has been working on since Genesis 3, look at the tomb.  His primary work is repairing, restoring, and turning death to life.

Here’s the point: Jesus’ story is about so much more than just getting people off the earth and into heaven.  Jesus came as part of God’s historic project to renew and recreate the cosmos and us.  The story of the tomb is essentially this: Through Jesus God is renewing, recreating, and reconciling. Jesus’ story is the climax of a much larger story that starts in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve and their rebellion throw the entire universe off center and decay and death and evil start to reign.  Ever since that moment, God’s been recreating and renewing us and the world.  He’s been taking dead things and breathing life into them.  And this work climaxed at the resurrection.  The resurrection was God’s announcement to the world that this is what he intends to do to the entire world.  And we’ve been invited to play a part in that story.  God not only wishes to renew and recreate us so that we are the people he created us to be.  He also invites us to participate with him in this renewing work.  That’s what the tomb is about.

We hear an echo of this in one of the summary passages.  In Col. 1:20 Paul writes that through Jesus God is reconciling to himself all things.  One definition of that word “reconcile” is this: “to bring back a former state of harmony.”^[4] In other words, it means to bring everything back to the way it was created to be.  To bring everything back into its right relationship with God and with others.  To bring everything back to its right function and role in the world.  That’s why Jesus lifted up women, children, the poor and the marginal.  He was restoring to them their original worth.  That’s why Jesus urged rich people to give to the poor.  He was restoring to the poor the life they were meant for.  That’s why Jesus forgave the unforgivable and befriended the unlovely.  He was restoring them to the position of value and love they were intended for.  And at the tomb, God showed just how great his power is to restore, renew, and recreate.

Evangelism, then, is inviting people to let Jesus renew, recreate, and reconcile them.  But it’s even more.  It’s inviting them to take up their role in working with Jesus to renew, recreate, and reconcile the whole cosmos.  Just think of this: There was an ideal way that people were to relate to each other, an ideal way that governments were supposed to function, an ideal way in which families were to live, an ideal way in which marriages were supposed to thrive, an ideal way in which friendships were to be rich and rewarding, an ideal way in which work was to be fulfilling, an ideal way in which companies were supposed to operate, an ideal way in which churches were to function, an ideal way in which nations were to relate to nations, an ideal way in which people everywhere related to God.  And through Jesus God is working to bring back everything to that ideal state.  And the resurrection was God’s way of demonstrating that even when things look dead and broken beyond repair, he has the power to breathe new life into them and restore them to their original and intended state.  That’s what the tomb was about.  And if evangelism is inviting people to be disciples, it’s inviting them to take up their part in that story.  It’s not simply inviting people to fill a seat or flee the flames.  It’s inviting people to take up their part in Jesus’ story of renewal, recreating, and reconciling.  One thing the tomb does is remind us what evangelism is really all about.

But how do we do that?  How do we invite others to take up their part in Jesus’ story, a story of renewal and reconciliation?  I want to briefly introduce a concept I’ll call Three Story Evangelism.  Sharing Jesus revolves around three stories. 

• First, listen to their story.  The first step in sharing Jesus is to listen.  Listen to others as they share their story.  Ask questions so you can learn the story of the person you’re trying to share Jesus with.  Listen for the things in their story that seem broken.  Listen for areas that need renewal.  Listen for perspectives that have gone askew.  That will give you a better sense of how to help them see that Jesus can renew even them.
• Second, look for opportunities to share one story in Scripture that, to you, summarizes the renewing, recreating, and reconciling story of Jesus.  Find one story in Scripture that captures the renewing work of Jesus and look for opportunities to share just that one story with other people.  Share it in a way that says, “To me, that’s the heart of Jesus’ story and that’s why I follow him.  That’s why I’ve made his story my story.  That’s why I’m a Christian.  And that’s why you should be one too.”
• Third, look for opportunities to share one story from your life that summarizes what it’s like to play a part in the story of Jesus.  Think back through your life.  There are probably a handful of experiences that capture the way in which Jesus has brought new life into some aspect of your life or in which Jesus has allowed you to be part of bringing renewal to the cosmos.  Find just one story from your own life that summarizes how you’ve experienced Jesus’ story.  Then share that story with others.  Share it in a way that says, “This is how I’ve experienced Jesus’ story.  This is why I follow him.  This is why I’ve made his story my story.  And this is why you should as well.”  ‘

Life Center Only – A band called Gungor has a song called “Beautiful Things.”  It’s a song about the tomb.  It’s a song about how God is making beautiful things even out of dust; how God renews and recreates.  As we listen to this song, I want you to think of those last two stories I just mentioned.  What is one story from Jesus’ ministry that best illustrates how God is makes all things new through Jesus?  And what is one story from your own life that best illustrates how you’ve experienced Jesus’ renewing work.  As the video plays, think of one or both of those stories.  And be prepared to share them with someone this week.

[2] http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/403-how-teenagers-faith-practices-are-changing?q=evangelism.

[3] N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne, 2008).

^[4] Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.

Reading/ listening to Scripture is fundamental to experiencing God and growing spiritually.  Ideally, we need opportunities to read deeply and to read widely.  We need time to dive into a small piece of Scripture and we need moments where we are exposed to large sections of Scripture. 

In about ten minutes a day, here’s a strategy for reading deeply.  It’s called Lectio Divina, or divine reading.  This exercise forces you to slow down and listen for God’s word for you from a bite-sized portion of Scripture.  The first thing I do each morning is spend 10-15 minutes in this habit.  It consists of four steps.

Read.  I read the short text slow, usually out loud, 3-6 times.  Sometimes I’ll read 2 translations.  As I read, I’m listening for a word or phrase that catches my attention.

Reflect. Now that I have a word or phrase that catches my attention, I reflect on it.  What is it about my life which needs that word or phrase?  Why did God put that word or phrase on my heart today?  What does that word or phrase mean for my life today?  Here’s where I usually do a little journaling.

Respond.  I take a few moments to pray to God about what I’ve heard.  Since God has spoken to me through his word, I speak now to God.  If his word has convicted me of sin, I pray for forgiveness.  If his word has encouraged me, I thank him.

Rest.  Before leaving this holy time, I spend a minute or two in silence.  I just rest in the presence of God.  He’s spoken.  I’ve spoken.  Now I just relax, take some deep breaths, and am present with God.

If you’ll practice Lectio Divina at least ten minutes each day, you’ll find a great deal of inward transformation.  You’ll experience a new closeness with God.

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