Contageous - Do people want what you've got?

Every year I think that I have managed to escape from getting the flu virus and every year I get at least one cold…This happens every single year … I go through the same battle.... It starts with someone in our household getting the flu… I start becoming defensive… I start chewing on airborne and vitimin C tablets.. and just when I think that I have managed to get through… I catch a cold… The flue virus can be more than nuisance it can be deadly and so getting vaccinated is probably a good thing…

Now we are encouraged to be vaccinated with the flu virus... to prevent spread... Now the church ON THE OTHER HAND is the opposite... The church is about being fruit bearing… Jesus said that those who bare fruit… much fruit… more fruit… the point is that we are meant to go viral...

The worst thing for a believer is to be vaccinated... When you think about how they create a vacine… is they give you a bit of the virus..

with a little bit of the Gospel… just enough church… just enough worship and the word… problem is that we want to be contagious… and if we have just enough....

We want to be contagious… We want our message to go viral.

When it comes to the Gospel being a contagious is good thing… It is a good thing for a Church to have Contagious Faith… Paul wrote to the Ephesians and Colossian church… He told them that he had heard of their Faith in the Lord Jesus and the love they had for one another.... They had a reputation for being a healthy and life giving community proceeded them…

I read that it take 86 church members 1 year to reach 1 person… That is a really slow rate! Part of the problem is that evangelism is not part of a churches DNA....

We need to ask ourselves the question How can we create ministries that are thriving? How do we "Become a contagious church.”--- Contageous churches are full of contagious people...

ingression

John the beloved Disciple give us the keys to being a Contagious Christian…

1 John 1:1–2 ESV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

This is a prologue to which actually a sermon. It’s also, from a rhetorical point of view, an exordium. What you’re supposed to do in a rhetorical exordium is set up rapport with the audience. You do two things, actually—you establish authority, and you establish rapport with the audience.

The reason John wants to build report is that he is fired up with the message of Jesus… He has first hand knowledge of Jesus that he is anxious to share with others the hope that he has .... so they too might share (have the same fellowship) in that life..

How do we become contagious … First we have to...

1. We have to Catch IT!

John begins with the phrase “that which we heard from the beginning.”

What is “that which” that was from the beginning...Go back as far as you will in your imagination, says Genesis, before anything that exists came into being, and you will find God, the eternal Being. Go back to that same point, says John in his gospel, and you will find Jesus Christ with God, because he was God, before anything was created. 1 John echos the introduction to the Gospel of John...

John 1:1–3 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John is not so interested much creation but the Word of life.. or as Moffat says… “logos of life” The Greek word logos can be translated either as ‘reason’ or as ‘word’ or ‘speech’.

Christ the logos the Word of God (first principle in creation) Not only was Jesus with God in the beginning but in fact He was God…and he was the agent of creation… all things were made through him and nothing was made without him. God as creator is omnipotent in power… able to bring into existence creative order through the spoken word…

The idea is that this eternal subject of John has been audibly heard, physically seen, intently studied (have looked upon), and tangibly touched (hands have handled). This idea would have enormous implications for his readers.

The implications were enormous because they said that this eternal God became accessible to man in the most basic way, a way that anyone could relate to. This eternal One can be known, and He has revealed Himself to us.

John brings the message into the personal realm… Not only is Jesus God… but he is also through his incarnation became a man… John and others were first hand witness to Jesus being a personal God… That which from begining the eternal word appeared in human form in a place in time so that they could experience God in a personal way… They had the privilege of experiencing Jesus as a real person.... The word of life is described as being seen with their eyes.. this expression is only found in this text… it means they were eyewitness to life of Jesus.

John’s testimony is that he and his friends saw and heard and touched Jesus and they shared in his life. This is important when you think of a dangerous teaching of Gnosticism that was infiltrating first century the church.

Part of the teaching of Gnosticism was that though Jesus was God, He was not actually a physical man, but instead some kind of pseudo-physical phantom. Yet John declared, “I heard Him! I saw Him! I studied Him! I touched Him!” John stresses the importance of the word of life being incarnational becoming a man… at the same time…he stresses the importance of having a personal knowledge of God. John says that those who know Christ were personally convinced that he was none other than the ‘Word’ of God—the source and meaning and purpose of life… It was a relationship with a real person… this is one of the reasons why the Disciples were willing to lay down their very lives for the Gospel… It was more that an inclining or a feeling more than a belief system… It was because of the knowing Jesus personally… seeing him after the resurrection… there were no doubts about who he was.

They heard with their auditory senses...

Something they saw with their own eyes..

They studied and looked upon and marvelled…John says that which they had looked upon. The Greek word used here is theasthai, meaning to gaze at and study something carefully until understanding breaks through. John says that he and his companions carefully studied Christ—and they understood the nature and significance of the One whom they followed.F

They physically touched Jesus.

To have heard was not enough; people ‘heard’ God’s voice in the Old Testament. To have seen was more compelling.

To touch means to feel or to hold with ones hands --- But to have touched was the conclusive proof of material reality, that the Word ‘became flesh, and lived for a while among us’. This word touched (epsēlaphēsan), the climax of the four relative clauses, describes more than a momentary contact. ‘ “Psēlaphan” is to grope or feel after in order to find, like a blind man or one in the dark; hence to handle, touch … It may also be used in the sense of “examine closely” ’ (Brooke).

It is the same word that Paul uses in his sermon on Mars Hill… that they had made this statue to the Unknown God — Acts 17:27 God created mankind for the purpose that they should seek him and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him..

Acts 17:27 ESV

that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

As you read through the four verses, you’ll see in the beginning when John says the word we or our, he is talking about the apostles who were eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus’ life.

He says, “We looked at him. We felt him. We saw him.” He is talking about us, we the eyewitness.

Then in verses 2 and 3 he says, “I’m telling you about what we saw, because I want you to know what we know, and I want you to experience what we’ve experienced through Jesus.”

So by the time you get down to verse 4, he is really not talking about we, meaning himself. He is not even talking about we, meaning the apostles. He is talking about us Christians...

This experience of knowing Christ is not limited to the first Century… The only way to be a contagious Christian is to experience Christ for yourself… they proclaimed eternal life because they had caught it… they got it…

The only way only way to catch the a cold or the flu is through intimate contact…

illustration

The common cold is spread in several ways...

1. by airborne respiratory droplets... ( someone has to coughs or sneeze in your direction)

2. By skin to skin contact... (handshakes or hugs)

3. By Saliva (kissing or shared drinks)

4. By touching contaminated surface...

This is what John is getting at in these verses...

implementation

How to we catch it…

God “speaks” to us in many ways. His “voice” is heard in all of the following:

• Creation, the “thumbprint” of God (Ps. 19:1–4)

• Covenants (Old and New Testaments)

• Christ—God in flesh (2 Cor. 1:6; Heb. 1:3)

• Conscience (Rom. 1:18–21)

• Christians (1 Cor. 7:12)

• Circumstances with God’s providence (Gen. 50:20)

• Counselor, Comforter, the Holy Spirit

Through the Scriptures --- Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God…

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The Greek word John uses for seen is horan. This term basically refers to the physical experience of optical viewing, or seeing something with our eyes, without further implication.

Then, the writer expands his point by saying we have looked at. The Greek word used here is theasthai, meaning to gaze at and study something carefully until understanding breaks through. John says that he and his companions carefully studied Christ—and they understood the nature and significance of the One whom they followed

Evangelism is not what we tell people, unless what we tell is totally consistent with who we are. It is who we are that is going to make the difference.

If we do not truly enjoy our faith, nobody is going to catch the fire of enjoyment from us. If our lives are not totally centered on Christ, we will not be Christ-bearers for others, no matter how pious our words.

—Madeleine L’Engle, A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Yearling,

ingression

2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

The word manifested means “to come out in the open, to be made public.” It is the opposite of “to hide, to make secret.” Under the Old Covenant, God was hidden behind the shadows of ritual and ceremony (Heb. 10:1); but in Jesus Christ “the life has now emereged”..

The evidence in the person of Jesus convinced them of the reality of the gospel and thrust them out to proclaim it

inspiration

1 John 1:3–4 ESV

3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

interconnection

How do we become contagious … First we have to...

1. We have to GET IT!

2. We need to SHARE IT!

instruction

John Emphasis again the point that which they had seen and heard…Word of Life… This is essential to proclaimation.

John tells us that at the core of our gospel proclaimation is the knowing of God…there is a subtile difference between the knowledge of God and the knowing of God… Knowing God is an experience…but it’s always based in the logos.. word of life… In other words in order to introduce others to Christ you need a personal relationship Jesus..

The most important thing John has to say in his preface is that Christianity is Jesus Christ. Without Christ there would be no Christianity, for Christianity began by God’s revelation of himself in Jesus and continues by the authoritative testimony of the apostles and others to that revelation. It follows that without Christ there can be no Christianity today. “It is,” as Malcolm Muggeridge has written, “Christ or nothing.”

Here is the thing is...

You cannot impart what you do not possess. - Howard Hendricks -

Here is the problem… it is easy know truth with out doing.... we can profess Christ without expressing it in a consistent life…

Have you ever told someone that you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Let me warn you that people will think you are nuts… how can we have a relationship with someone who is not tangibly present? You hearing voices in your head? Billy Graham was once asked how he knew that God existed… He replied, “I know he exists because I spoke to him this morning?” What make our relationship personal

is when we take it personally. Jesus did not just die for everyone else’s sins; He died for mine and for yours. When we recognize that our own sins separate us from God and that we need Christ to bring us back into fellowship with Him, then we personalize the connection. Our relationship becomes person when we directly approach him in prayer… we address God as our Father...

It is personal when we live out the implications of such a relationship. This relationship involves faith in Christ, trusting in Christ, and walking in the light He provides us.

Our relationship becomes intimately personal as we sense the Spirit of Christ connecting with our spirit. His Spirit offers counsel, comfort, conviction, and confidence that we are in good standing with the Lord God

Knowing God is personal but it is lived out in the context of Community.... In other words — the virus is contagious… and we need that to be active and alive within our community of Faith.

The purpose of the proclamation of the gospel is, therefore, stated in terms not of salvation but of fellowship.... purpose of proclaimation… is to restore community… with the father.. and community with the people of God. Great pastor and theologian John Stott...

We cannot be content with an evangelism which does not lead to the drawing of converts into the church, nor with a church life whose principle of cohesion is a superficial social camaraderie instead of a spiritual fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Stott.

vrs 3

“And we proclaim to you what we’ve seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship (koinōnia) with us.

Koinōnia is an active term that means the sharing in common of something between two persons or two groups of persons, or the participation in common between two persons or two groups of persons. Speaks of cooperation and participation..

There is communion in our community…referring to one’s “participating in” or “sharing in” the realities of new covenant blessings or the “sharing with” other believers in those realities... it’s “partnership” in the gospel (Phil. 1:5). And this active sharing with other believers can take concrete form, in giving and serving.. The basis of our horizontal fellowship is based on our vertical relationship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

illustration

Beachgoers along the shores of Panama City Beach in Florida recently found themselves witness to an event as dangerous as it was inspiring. While playing in the water, two boys suddenly became caught in a rip current and started screaming for help. Understandably, the boys' mother jumped in the water to try to save them, only to get caught herself. One by one, more family members came in after the group, only to face the same predicament. After just a short time, the spectacle and shouts had attracted a number of onlookers. "There was a guy in the water, saying, 'Man, they're all stuck out there, the riptide's pulled them out. I tried to go out there; if I go any farther, I'm going to get stuck,'" said witness Derek Simmons. But luckily, Simmons' wife Jessica did some quick thinking, gathered the help of those around them, and began instructing people to grasp arms and wade into the sea as a human chain, anchored to the safety of the shore. As many as 80 people worked together in this fashion, and after a stressful few minutes successfully pulled the swimmers to safety. "It was the most remarkable thing to see," Jessica Simmons told reporters. "These people who don't even know each other and they trust each other that much to get them to safety."

Potential Preaching Angles: Christians in the past have noticed how "Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread." One of the most beautiful parts of the gospel is how after God saves his children, he does not tell them to sit idle but

implementation

With its use came the implications of responsibility, accountability, intimacy, and even generosity. The Greek culture also used the term to refer to the intimate relationship of a marriage..

The term is significant because koinonia is the first of the writer’s five stated purposes for writing his letter:

1. To expand the fellowship of believers with God (1:3)

2. To experience the fullness of joy (1:4)

3. For deliverance from sinning (2:1)

4. To have confidence and purity before God (2:28)

5. For confidence and assurance that his readers have eternal life (5:13)

ingression

There nothing is more enriching or more wonderful than helping others tothat same conviction too, and seeing their fellowship deepen.... w hen there is this mutual infection and affection in the Gospel… it translates into greater joy… When Jesus chose and sent out the 72 disciples they came with a good report...

inspiration

JOHN 10;17-19

John 10:17–19 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.

Luke 10:17–19 ESV

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

The original language phrase is ana duo. I love the fact that Christ sanctions companionship in the work of the gospel! The point is not the magic number of “two” as opposed to three or four. The point is togetherness

interconnection

How do we become contagious … First we have to...

1. We have to GET IT!

2. We need to SHARE IT!

3. We need to SPREAD IT!

We spend much of our time trying for find Joy and to be honest Joy seems to be illusive … Entertainment… takes away the pain temporary… but then it back to the grind…

“Every morning we wake up with an unimpeachable dream to find joy. But sometimes that dream becomes a nightmare: self-secured joy is just a shadow. At the end of a restless day we look to the self-help gurus but they can only give us magnifying glasses to gaze more deeply into our own navels.

–GLORIA FURMAN , author of Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full

Karl Marx wrote, “The first requisite for the people’s happiness is the abolition of religion.” But the Apostle John writes, in effect, “Faith in Jesus Christ gives you a joy that can never be duplicated by the world.

Stott tells us that there is a divine order… in outr

—Proclamation of Gospel…

— Fellowship with each other…based on our fellowship with Christ and the father

---- It results in fulfillment or Joy..

John tells us that our highest joy is the result of personal experience of Christ in our lives and being in fellowship with other believers. Believers help one another learn and practice what it means to know Christ and share Him with those who don’t yet know Him.

There is joy in the mission… Luke 10:17 when Jesus sent our the 72 Disciples… we are told that they had joy in mission… they were so excited that they were able to cast out demons…

Jesus says reminds them that Joy goes deeper it’s in Salvation and it is also in our mutual joy of sharing this message with others…

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SERMON ILLUSTRATION

Researcher Tracks the 'Vanishing Neighbor' Effect

Few Americans today say they know their neighbors' names, and far fewer report interacting with them on a daily basis. Pulling data from the General Social Survey, a recent report found that a third said they've never interacted with their neighbors. And only about 20 percent of Americans spent time regularly with the people living next to them. That's a big drop from four decades ago, when a third of Americans hung out with their neighbors at least twice a week, and only a quarter reported no interaction at all.

Public Policy expert Marc Dunkelman noted, "There used to be this necessity to reach out and build bonds with people who lived nearby." Dunkelman added, "[From the 1920s to the 1960s] there was this sort of cohort effect, in which people … were more inclined in many cases to find security that existed in neighborhoods. They depended on one another much more." Little wonder that his book on this subject is titled The Vanishing Neighbor.

Adapted from Linda Poon, "Why Won't You Be My Neighbor?" City Lab/The Atlantic (8-19-15)

implementation:

What is God up to in our neighborhoods and communities? How do we join with what God is doing in these places? Church questions are a subset of these far more important questions

We need new habits, attitudes, and actions around our relationship and engagements with the gospel and our cultures.

ingression

inspiration

interconnection

Conclusion

The question this morning are you infected with the Gospel.. have you been inoculated with just enough of the gospel to make you impotent.. The apostle Paul said he was not ashamed of the Gospel because it was the power of God to salvation.