Gotta Tell Somebody

Text: Mark 1:40-45

Focus: Evangelism

Function: To help people understand the importance of keeping a fresh voice.

Form: Story Telling

Intro:

This sermon is one of three that I will be sharing in conjunction with the new book we will start studying in March, I am slipping it in right before Lent.

The sermons will be lectures on what it means to be the 21^st Century Church.

In this lesson, the point is, the gospel message has not, nor will it ever change, but the way we communicate it will.

I apologize to my mom, Libby, Emma and Jim, the writers and English majors that I know of in this group. I apologize for the grammatically incorrect title, Technically, it should read: “I have got to tell somebody.”

However, there is this song by an old Jesus Freak, from way back in the day, Don Francisco. He writes Christian ballads that expose the emotions of these events. It helps me to see and to tell the story of these Biblical events. He, much like the new translation of the Bible, “The Message,” tells the story.

As a matter of fact, the title changed from “Telling the Story” to “Gotta Tell Somebody.”

And Don Fransisco has a song titled: “Gotta Tell Somebody.”

It tells the story of a man who, like this man, has experienced an incredible miracle at the hand of Jesus and is then dumbfounded by Jesus' next command: “Don't tell anybody!”

The man in this song, just like the man from our lesson, can't contain his excitement, love and gratitude for what Jesus has done for him.

He disobeys and starts shouting the message to everyone who will listen.

It is so prolific that crowds of people start following Jesus.

I suppose a fundamental response might be that even though this man was saved by Jesus' compassion toward him, his response was disobedience to Jesus' command.

Was he wrong?

I assume that Jesus knew how he was going to respond and Jesus still healed.

I assume that even though he disobeyed the command to be silent about it, Jesus knew that his excitement and gratitude could not be contained.

Many of us have experienced that enthusiasm. When I came back to Christ, I had this great big belt buckle that said: “Jesus saves.”

I was excited about what Jesus has done for me. I was excited to the point of obnoxiousness.

Warning, this is a PG13 story. It is true, but it is also shocking.

God did something great in me. I was 18, I was promoted to assistant manager of a Big Boy restaurant in Ft Wayne, IN.

The 4^th night, after the training manager left, January 7, 1976, two men came through the back door, beat me unconscious, locked me inside the walk-in cooler, stole the day's deposits, came back to the cooler, where I was now awake and said to each other: “We have to stab him and kill him, he can identify us.”

I lay there. My left hand was shattered from trying to deflect the blow of the club, you can still see the scar from the extensive surgery to repair it. And as I lay there, I was forced with a choice.

At the time, I had turned by back on my childhood faith, rejected the Lordship of Christ to serve myself. I was heavily involved in both drugs and the occult.

And as I lay there, after hearing that conversation, I was faced with my eternal destiny.

I decided to repent and ask Jesus to save me.

He did.

I actually heard Him speak to me.

He said: “you will be alright.”

At that moment, I felt God's presence enter my body. It was right here (point to behind my right ear) and the peace of God flooded my body.

A moment later, I think God moved one of the men toward compassion, I heard the response from the other man. He said: “no, we don't have to stab him, we can kill him with the club.”

I counted 9 blows before I one of them jumped up and kicked with full force right here (point to right side of neck). I think he thought he was breaking my neck.

I was unconscious for about 45 minutes when a ringing phone woke me.

I didn't know that I had passed out. I thought they were still there looking to see if I was breathing or moving.

I was pretty confused, but after what seemed like eternity, I looked up to see that I was actually locked inside the walk in cooler.

That prison was a dilemma. But it might have been part of my salvation. The cold air kept me from bleeding to death. They had to sew patches of skin back onto my head. But, my metabolism slowed down, the concussion did not kill me.

Because I was 18, and my skull was not yet completely formed, it absorbed the shock of the blows without fracturing. (pause) Or, a miracle happened. (pause)

As I lay in that cooler, realizing that I was locked inside and would probably freeze to death before the morning manager came, I had some time to pray.

I thanked God that I was to die there because I knew that there was no way that I could ever give up my drug addiction.

My parents were pretty upset about my waywardness and I knew that they had thousands of people, all over the word who were praying for me. Thanks, Mom.

As a matter of fact, mom was so frustrated she had once prayed: “Lord, if you have to knock him over the head to get him to listen, do it.”

I decided to write them a note telling them that I was saved and that I would see them in heaven.

And here is the next miracle.

It might not sound like much, but I see it as huge.

I was young and into the finer things.

I had received a very fine Cross Pen as a gift for being a groomsman in a wedding.

Those my age and above will remember that Bic pens had this commercial about their 29¢ pen: “Writes first time, every time!”

Being a new manager, with a great work ethic taught me by my father, I went the extra mile earlier that night and pulled out the ice cooler to clean behind it.

I found this Bic pen laying in the grease and grime. And I tested it, it didn't write.

I remember cursing Bic for false advertising and turning around to throw the pen away in the trash bin.

But it so happened that the man washing dishes was taking out the trash and the bins weren't there.

I put the pen in my shirt pocked to throw it away later.

Through the beating, being knocked down, carried into the walk-in cooler and everything else that happened, the Cross pen was missing and that worthless Bic pen was still there.

It still didn't write, so, I couldn't leave a note to my parents. So I went back to praying.

But something happened. As I was praying about my drug problem, again I sensed the Holy Spirit. I heard again, a voice that said: “I am the one who sets you free.”

When I heard that, although I experienced severe blood loss, broken bones, skin torn off my head and this major concussion, somehow strength came over me. It felt supernatural.

I stood up and that worthless Bic pen was just the tool I needed to jimmy the lock keeping me in the cooler.

The door popped open, and there, laying on the floor in front of me were two carving knives.

So, before anyone could judge why I was wearing that great big belt buckle, all I could say was this: “I gotta tell somebody!”

I have shared the story with audiences over a thousand.

I have shared it is small intimate circles.

And, I have shared it often in the Prisons where I have preached.

In that version, I share my perspective toward my assailants.

Two young men. They were misguided youths who were thinking only for the moment. One of them was promised the promotion that I just got, but was fired for stealing. The other, his cousin, the one who was perhaps moved with mercy and said: “no, we can kill him with the club” was allowed to finish High School before his sentence was carried out.

These two young men lost a lot more than me. They served 7 out of their 14 year sentences. And, worse, they are branded as “felons.” They will never be able to get good employment. That mistake ruined their lives. That have now paid for it for 40 years.

And I got eternal life out of it. Well, don't surprise me with a “boo!” I will jump! I don't like sitting at the back of the bus, I get claustrophobia pretty bad. Sadly, growing up in the inner city, that is not the worse thing that has happened to me. (I'll be weeping, look to heaven for strength and take a moment.)

But out of that, I got eternal life!

I share how I pray and fast for their salvation. I have never spoken to them, I didn't go to the sentencing hearing. I wasn't asked to be informed when they were released. About 15 years later, I saw one of them pumping gas in my own neighborhood. I was immobilized with fear. But I forgive them even though this happened to me.

Have you ever wondered what your last thoughts would be when you were dying?

I experienced that. My thoughts were on God. And God saved me!

But now I am sort of reluctant to share the story.

You may think it is odd. But, the story is shocking.

When I shared with with over a thousand people, it was in the height of the age of Modernity.

In that time it was like this: Here was the Christian Church, in a sense with its back against the wall. And we were making what is called “an apologetic” for the Christian faith.

And apologetic is an argument that expresses the logical sense of our faith. It is a defense.

In the age of Modernity, when the world believed that science and reason alone would solve the world's problems, when the world believed that faith in God was most likely ignorant tribal superstition, we defended our faith with proofs of the existence of God.

There were several reactions to that event. Many came forward in that auditorium and gave trusted Christ.

But there were some also who sort of “moved away from me on the bench” as Arlo Guthrie put it in the ballad song: “Alice's Restaurant.”

It begs the question, “why would God do a miracle for him and not save my own son, my own wife, my own daughter?

Or, “does this guy really believe that God spoke to him?”

Those are good questions. And, in the age of modernity, when Christians had to defend the existence of God in order to spread the good news, a credible, first hand story of miracles was a good way for me to share Jesus.

But 9/11 happened and the world has gone and changed.

But not the good news. That message, that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved,” from Romans 10:13, has never and will never change.

But today, for the most part, people no longer doubt the fact of spirituality. Most people accept the concept of God. In the sit-com “The Big Bang Theory” there are these two genius scientists. Amy Farrah Fowler, one of them, while speaking to the other the first time they met said: “Although I don't reject the concept of a Deity, I can't understand one that takes attendance.”

What people want to know is this: Does God love them?

Brothers and sisters, we have got to tell everybody! (AMEN?)

So, let us go back to th is man who had leprosy and was now healed.

He was a fresh voice shouting out to everyone who would listen the love of Jesus!

God calls fresh voices all the time to share Jesus' love.

In the age of modernity I preached this passage as a miracle that proved that God existed.

But at the point of time that the story actually happened and again today, in post-modernity, the real intent of the story is more prominent.

The man's message was this: “Jesus loves me!”

Think about the plight of the leper in that day.

They had to cover themselves and cry out, wherever they went: “Unclean! Unclean! Get away from me!”

Wow!

He was a person who was excluded from modern society by both civil and religious law.

And Jesus proves His love for this man by healing him. What a story!

I am going to say this next thing, not to shock you, not to cause division, but to bring the story right here into the message of the good news for the 21^st century.

There has been a lot of bickering over the rights of, inclusion or exclusion of, homosexual persons.

As a pastor, I get the question frequently: “what do you think of homosexuality?”

it is a sincere question from most people. But my answer goes right back to this message.

In modernity, we argued the reality of God, the existence of an human soul and the very question of sin, death, judgment, heaven and hell.

I can tell you that the world we live in today is post-Christian. And people don't care about all those things.

The world around us does not want to know if homosexual activity is sin. What the world wants to know is this: “How does God love them? How does the Church love them?”

And we can argue that question, which I refuse to do.

Because here was a man who was excluded from the family of God because of the way that God made him.

And Jesus saved him.

That is now my message. Not that God exists, but that God loves me; God proved it to me.

God loves everyone.

God loves my enemies.

God loves the sick.

God loves those who are very, very different from me.

And the good news, the story that we have to tell to the nations is this: God is love.