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Introduction:
Church growth has become a science and an art. Books have been
written about all the things we need to do to evangelize. We hear
catch phrases like “seeker sensitive,” “relationship
evangelism,” “bridge building,” “felt needs,” and on the
list goes. There is nothing wrong these terms in themselves and
each my have their place, but recently I was reminded of Mark
10:17-27. A rich young ruler approached Jesus asking,
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Consider who this man was. He was really the first century Jewish
parallel of a yuppie. He was a young, upwardly mobile
professional. He was well off. Surely he would be an asset to the
financial needs of Jesus and his itinerant band of followers. If
Jesus was careful with how he handled this one, not only would He
catch a fish, but He would catch the big one. Here we have the
opportunity to be a fly on the wall as Jesus demonstrates before
His disciples exactly how to cast a line and reel in the fish.
Yet, by modern standards of seeker sensitive, bridge building,
relationship based evangelism, Jesus blew it. In fact, for a
minute, if we have been weaned on modern evangelistic methods we
almost expect Jesus to turn around afterward and say to His
disciples, “Now look, I have just demonstrated an example to you
of how not to be fishers of men. Let’s consider My big
mistakes.” In fact, take a look at the big mistakes Jesus made
here if the modern evangelistic experts are right. Discussion: I.
Jesus Big Mistakes A.
Jesus
did not work to build a relationship bridge.
1.
Modern
Evangelism Expert Outlook:
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much
you care.” Jesus should have tabled the hard lessons against
materialism until He had taken the time to let the rich young
ruler get to know Him. Once they had made a real relationship
connection, then Jesus could have started addressing spiritual
issues. 2.
Evangelism
School with Jesus:
According to Mark
10:21, Jesus loved the rich young ruler. But He didn’t
wait around for the rich young ruler to figure that out before
letting him know what he needed to hear. This ruler was the
epitome of seeker. Surely this was a man with whom Jesus could
develop a relationship and bring him into the fold step by slow
step. 3.
Should we work to develop relationships with people and let
them see how much we care? Of course. But let us not think
relationship building equals evangelism. Evangelism means telling
people about Jesus and how they need to respond to Him. B.
Jesus
did not address the rich young ruler’s felt needs. 1.
Modern
Evangelism Expert Outlook:
Jesus should have figured out a way to present the message of
discipleship and commitment such that it hit the rich young ruler
in his felt needs. Obviously, the ruler felt no need to give all
his possessions away, but he felt the need to attain eternal life.
Jesus should have invited the ruler to come along so he could see
first hand how to live for eternity. After all, if you want to
know how to inherit eternal life, surely just hanging around Jesus
for a while ought to give you a pretty good idea. 2.
Evangelism
School with Jesus:
Jesus didn’t address the ruler’s felt needs. He addressed his
actual needs. The rich young ruler had a god above Jehovah
God—his many possessions. He only felt the need for some extra
steps to get him into heaven. What he really needed was a complete
life make-over. 3.
Should we give thought to the felt needs of the prospects
all around us? Absolutely. We can often get people to their real
need by starting on their felt need. However, we need to
understand painting pictures of felt needs merely feeds the
unbeliever’s selfishness and produces converts that founder the
moment they don’t feel their needs being met. C.
Jesus
did not tailor His message to his target audience’s cultural and
demographic background. 1.
Modern
Evangelism Expert Outlook:
Jesus should have stepped back and figured out what made this rich
young ruler tick. What moved him at his innermost being? Had Jesus
taken time to consider this man’s cultural and demographic
background, he would have surely known you cannot attract the
well-off with messages of selling everything. Jesus big mistake
here is revealed by the fact that selling everything we own and
giving it to the poor is not even a strict requirement of God’s
law, consider Acts
5:4. Jesus didn’t have to preach this lesson to the rich
young ruler. He should have tailored His message to what would
attract His target audience to Him. You can attract more flies
with honey than vinegar. 2.
Evangelism
School with Jesus:
Jesus did not tailor His message to what would attract someone
from the rich young ruler’s cultural and demographic background.
He tailored His message to His target audience’s spiritual need.
There was only one way for this man to inherit eternal life. He
had to cut loose the hold his material goods had on him. 3.
Should we consider our prospects’ background as we teach
them? No doubt. Paul himself demonstrated this in I
Corinthians 9:19-23. However, we need to remember in
Christ demographics and cultural background mean nothing (Galatians
3:28). Jesus expects the same committed discipleship from
every culture and every demographic. Evangelism is not tailoring
the discipleship commitment to be attractive to each demographic,
it is teaching each demographic to lose themselves in service to
Jesus Christ. D.
Jesus
called attention to minor mistakes. 1.
Modern
Evangelism Expert Outlook:
Jesus should not have called attention to the minor faux pas about
calling Him a good teacher. We all knew what the rich young ruler
meant and jumping on every disagreement or mistake merely
antagonizes the prospect. 2.
Evangelism
School with Jesus:
Jesus did highlight this issue because He intended to provoke the
rich young ruler’s thought. If the ruler was going to call Jesus
good, ultimately, he needed to recognize Jesus as God in the
flesh. Jesus wanted the ruler and those listening to think about
this. Perhaps that might stir up some thought to bring the person
around. 3.
Should we jump on every minor mistake made in a
conversation with a prospect? Of course not. If you do, you will
major in minors and never get anywhere. However, we need to keep
our eyes open to issues we can highlight to generate thought and
provoke possible discussion. Consider the following example.
People commonly ask questions like, “What kind of church do you
attend?” Or “What denomination are you part of?” More and
more sound brethren are simply responding: “Church of Christ.”
When you point out that is just not correct, we do not attend a
“Church of Christ” kind of church, nor are we part of a
“Church of Christ” denomination, the person will almost
inevitably say, “But you know what they meant.” Yes, I do know
what they meant. But now they don’t know what we mean. Instead
of prompting a teachable moment that might provoke discussion, you
shut down the discussion with an incorrect answer. Sometimes it is
good to call into question the minor mistakes if they lead to
bigger issues that might stimulate good study. E.
Jesus
demanded too much too soon. 1.
Modern
Evangelism Expert Outlook:
The rich young ruler had not been with Jesus like the apostles. He
had not traveled with Jesus or learned all of his ways. He had not
been brought up hearing Jesus’ strong messages of total
commitment. That was just way too much to put on the rich young
ruler right away. Jesus should never have overwhelmed the ruler
with the message of absolute, total discipleship commitment right
up front. Instead, Jesus should have brought this little infant
seeker along slowly, only demanding as much discipleship as he was
ready to handle at the time. If you ask too much, too soon, you
are liable to kill your chances with a prospect before you even
get started. 2.
Evangelism
School with Jesus:
Jesus doesn’t want half-baked, half-committed disciples of any
sort. From the very beginning, Jesus wanted the rich young ruler
to know if he wanted eternal life he was going to have to give up
everything. Jesus didn’t believe He was asking too much too
soon. He believed He was asking just enough at just the right time
because that was what it would take for this man to have eternal
life. 3.
Do we need to be careful about overwhelming a prospect at
the first contact? I am sure we do. But we must not make the
knee-jerk reaction of so many today acting as if we can really get
someone to a true commitment progressively after they have decided
to follow with us. If we get someone into the baptistery through
the teaching of a half-baked commitment, they will almost always
only be halfway committed. Why do we think if we soften the
teaching and water down the message that we will help more people?
We may get more people to hang with us, but we are not turning
them into committed disciples. Rather, we turn them into people we
constantly fear will leave if we teach what true commitment is
really about. And since these guys are rich
young rulers, that scares us to death. F.
Jesus
was too exclusive, viewing the law-abiding rich young ruler as
outside God’s kingdom. 1.
Modern
Evangelism Expert Outlook:
In Mark
10:23, Jesus demonstrated an underlying problem that no
doubt came out in the way He talked to and looked at the rich
young ruler. Jesus viewed the kingdom as exclusive to those who
would give up everything and follow Him. Despite the fact that
this rich young ruler was faithful as best he knew how to the 10
commandments, Jesus viewed him as an outsider. If we ever want to
effectively evangelize, we have to quit the us/them mentality and
be more inclusive. 2.
Evangelism
School with Jesus:
The rich young ruler may have had similarities with Jesus. There
may have been some common ground upon which to work. But the rich
young ruler was not walking the path to eternal life, no matter
how spiritual or supposedly obedient to the Law he had been. He
was not entering the kingdom. In what way could Jesus act as
though he was? 3.
Should we work to find common ground with others?
Obviously. A great example is when Paul, in Acts
17:23, talked about the unknown God to be able to talk
about their need for Jesus. But if we move from finding common
ground with which to start our teaching to being more inclusive,
we suddenly lose the need to teach others. If we start viewing
folks who are simply similar to Christians in some beliefs and
practices as though they really are like us, then what motivation
do we have to teach them how to be saved? We practically believe
they are saved already. We are only motivated to evangelize when
we look at those who are on the outside as on the outside. But we
must look on them with love and want to give them the message they
need. II.
Lessons for us. A.
Don’t
judge the effectiveness of evangelism based on response. 1.
We are told, “Find what God is blessing and do that.”
That statement means we need to look at what other churches are
doing that increases their membership and follow their examples.
However, don’t forget Matthew
7:13-14. If only few will find the narrow way, what makes
us think the congregations growing the fastest are the ones really
blessed by God instead of deceived by the devil? 2.
I have preached this sermon somewhat tongue in cheek. No
evangelism expert would really comment on Jesus’ big mistakes.
But if this story had been slightly different. If it had been how
Edwin Crozier tried to evangelize the rich young ruler, every one
of them would have pointed out these mistakes. Their biggest piece
of evidence would have been Mark
10:22. If I had been more effective, the man would have
stayed. After all, he was a seeker. I blew it. But who among us
will say Jesus blew it. He didn’t make mistakes, yet He
evangelized in the exact opposite way from the modern experts. 3.
Finally, I must anticipate one objection. I have no doubt
someone will say, “But Edwin, this is Jesus. He knew the hearts
of men and we’re not Jesus.” That is true. Jesus knew how the
ruler would respond, yet, He still evangelized him this way. If
Jesus is our example (cf. I
Corinthians 11:1), how can I say I should evangelize in
some different way than He did. B.
Don’t
fear rejection. 1.
Too often we are paralyzed as we try to figure out the
fail-proof way to evangelize someone. We read books. We ask
preachers. We get together and talk about it. We do everything to
prepare for evangelism, we just never get around to evangelism.
That’s ok, because at least we have never been rejected. 2.
Keep our example, Jesus Christ, in mind. The rich young
ruler was not the only rejecter. Do we forget the day Jesus ran
off about 5000 people (John
6)? Do we forget when Jesus was on the cross, everyone
rejected him except one thief on a cross? Do we forget that even
after His resurrection only 120 out of thousands were with Him?
Don’t fear rejection. Just teach the gospel of Jesus as best you
can. When people reject us, we are in good company. C.
Our
job is to get the needed message out and let God deal with the
rest. 1.
I know I am beginning to seem like a one trick pony. This
point seems to make it into most of my lessons these days. I keep
saying this mostly to remind myself and help me overcome my fears
and hang ups about evangelism. But our job is not to cause church
growth. That is God’s job (I
Corinthians 3:5-7). 2.
Let’s do our job. Let’s teach people about Jesus.
Let’s call people to totally committed, fruit-bearing
discipleship and then leave it up to God. D.
With
God all things are possible.
1.
While preparing for this sermon, I pulled out some of my
books on growing churches and remembered some of the things I had
heard from “growth experts” and even other preachers. I kept
hearing about all the things that won’t work and all the people
we probably won’t be able to convert. But then I read Mark
10:27, “All things are possible with God” (ESV). 2.
Remember Ephesians
3:20-21. God can do far more abundantly than all we ask or
think. The fact is we can’t save anyone anyway. We can’t grow
churches. With man it is impossible. Why then do we try to come up
with plans based on how effective we can be with specific kinds of
people? The reality is true evangelism and church growth only
comes from God. Let’s rely on Him. Let’s begin with prayer.
Then just spread His message in every way we can to everyone we
can and leave the rest up to Him. Conclusion: This study has been almost earth shaking for me. It has called into question many of the standard practices and tactics of evangelism and church growth with which I have been enamored for years. Even as I read some of my books on church growth with the active mindset that they were not teaching what Jesus was practicing here, I was enamored with their statements. As I finished this study, a soul searching question occurred to me. Why do we talk about all the mistakes of those who evangelize like Jesus did but become so enamored with the completely different tactics of modern experts in large churches? The answer, brethren, is perhaps not so flattering. Is it that the rich young ruler is the kind of member we want? After all, think of all we could do with rich members who contribute well. Think of all the problems we would have if we started converting the poor and the downtrodden—the very people so attracted to Jesus. Is the reason we are enamored with modern evangelistic methods because the rich young ruler is the kind of member we want and we already know he won’t respond to Jesus’ methods of evangelism? Or is the problem even worse? Is it that we know we wouldn’t even respond to an evangelism that demanded total commitment and sacrifice of self and so why should we expect others to? Brethren, we need to do some soul searching. Are we evangelizing? If not, why not? If so, who and how? Are we calling people to absolute and total to commitment to Jesus? Are we demonstrating that kind of commitment?
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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