More Ready Than You Realize
08/28/2005 - The Fruit of Spiritual Friendship
I can remember it like it was yesterday even though it was over twelve years ago. The kitchen phone rang in our little two-bedroom apartment in Chicago and Jennifer answered it and before long she was shouting with joy. On the other end of the phone was a young woman named, Emilie. And the first words out of Emilie's mouth were, "I believe! I believe!" She was so excited and couldn't wait to tell us and I'll never forget that phone call.
For the last five months Emilie had been part of a group that Jen and I were involved with during our internship at Willow Creek Community Church. It was a group specifically for people who did not claim to be believers in Jesus Christ, but admitted that they were on a spiritual journey and were seeking. And so each week we gathered for an hour or so and discussed our journeys and looked into the Bible for answers to questions that were raised.
About a month before the phone call, Emilie had watched five members of that little group get baptized together after they had crossed the line of faith. But at that point she wasn't there yet. She wasn't ready to take that step. After all, she didn't believe.
But the last time our group met, shortly before our internship ended and we moved back here to start Valley View, we had a discussion about what it is that God is asking us to believe anyway. For years Emilie thought she needed to believe everything that was in the Bible all at once. But she just couldn't do that. She still had lots of questions about creation and evolution and a literal Adam and Eve. And so it was so helpful to her when one of her spiritual friends in the group said, "Emilie, you don't have to believe everything that's in the Bible to be a believer in Jesus." And that's true. You don't.
She also had questions about whether she was good enough to become a Christian. And someone else assured her that no one is good enough to become a Christian. In fact, becoming a Christian is all about realizing that we aren't good enough. But God loves us anyway and Jesus died on the cross for all the things that don't make us good enough. And that made a lot of sense to Emilie.
And it was comments like that shared in the safety of spiritual friendships with other men and women who were also seeking that God used to bring Emilie to faith. And in that phone call Jennifer she said to her, "I'm so excited because right now there's a party being thrown in heaven in your honor. The angels are dancing with joy because another person has been brought into God's kingdom, another lost sheep has been found, another sinner has been rescued! And that's you!" What a moment!
And when I read the chapters that we're looking at today I couldn't help but think about Emilie. This morning we continue our series called More Ready Than You Realize with a teaching I've called "The Fruit of Spiritual Friendship."
Our series is based on the book More Ready Than You Realize written by pastor and author Brian McLaren. And McLaren's book is based on a spiritual friendship that he developed with a woman named Alice. In fact, the book is really a journal of their email correspondence over a number months that God used to bring Alice to faith in Jesus Christ.
And today we read the email where Alice says, "I believe!" It goes like this, "Hi Brian. I don't think I'll have too much to say in this email but I have been waiting to email you for a week or two. I wanted to make sure that I'd be emailing you real information and not just some kind of emotional flux I was going through. Guess what? I have faith! It's here! I'm not kidding!"
It is so amazing-I mean, not like I've been on a crazy emotional high for the past few weeks, because I haven't. If that was the case, I'd be very wary about deeming myself 'faithful.' I've been feeling very normal, except I really think that spirit that you talked about with me before is really starting to grow a little bit in me. Very small, but present. I think for the first time in so long, I don't feel this overwhelming disdain for everything inside of me. It's because I feel a little of God's love."
I just pray it continues to grow, not disappear. But I'm not going to focus on that. You know, all the logic and reasoning that people always say about Jesus, that he "MUST" have been the son of God, that if he wasn't, he was a lunatic or a liar, that they've found proof, blah, blah, blah .... It is just so lame, in my eyes, to feeling like your heart is going to explode when you start to see just how wonderful Jesus is ... when you start to understand that Jesus IS'NT dead. I never understood that. I think a major part of my little epiphany was realizing that God is so far beyond all that petty logic and knowledge. At least, that's how it is for me. I'm sure for other people, the logic is great. But when proof stops at logic for me, it is pretty lame."
And I am seeing it everywhere! In all these peoples faces, in handshakes, in tears, in coincidences, in need. This spirit is so alive! Why am I telling you this?? I don't know-it really is in every person though. It's not discriminatory. It's pretty amazing. I should tell you something you don't already know, right? I just wanted to tell you since we spent so much time talking about it. Take care, Alice"
Like Emilie, Alice believed. And the spirit she's describing is the Holy Spirit that McLaren had talked about with her. And the Spirit of God, now living inside Alice, was making her alive and reminding her that she's loved by God and helping her to see life in a whole new way and causing her heart to explode with just how wonderful Jesus is. He isn't dead. He's alive. And now Alice is alive too!
What did Jesus come to give us? He came to give us life. In John 10:10 Jesus says, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full! He says that in contrast to what the evil one offers us. He comes as a thief to steal and kill and destroy our lives.
But life is what Jesus came to give us. Life is often the fruit of a spiritual friendship. And sometimes, not always, and perhaps not even often, but sometimes we're there to see a person come alive and hear those words, "I believe. I believe." Sometimes we're there to witness the birth of a new life. And there is nothing like the joy of seeing a person pass from death to life as Alice did and as Emilie did. It's like witnessing the birth of a baby. And we've seen a lot of babies born this year and quite a few more to come. And those are happy occasions, times of celebration, times of great joy.
One of my favorite new life experiences is found in the New Testament book of Acts. I like it because of the transformation from death to life. I like it because of the simplicity of what it is we must believe to have that life. If you have a Bible open it with me to Acts 16.
In Acts 16 we find the apostle Paul and his friend, a man named Silas, in deep weeds. They've just been arrested and beaten black and blue in the Greek city of Philippi just for healing a psychic and telling people about Jesus, the one who gives life.
Let's pick up the story at verse 22, The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Pail and Silas had been humiliated, stripped in public, beaten with rods, flogged with whips and placed in a maximum security prison cell for doing exactly what God had called them to do. That experience alone would be enough to shake your faith to the roots or even uproot it. Philippi was the first European city to hear the message of the gospel and this was the reception it got!
Which reminds me that sometimes I think that if I'm doing the will and the work of God he'll remove all the obstacles, the path will be smooth, the seas will be calm, the job will be easy. Not! Why not? Because in God's mind overcoming the obstacles is often more important than removing the obstacles in the first place. The obstacles are the opportunities for our faith to grow strong.
This week I read a quote by Billy Graham who once said, "Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys." We need them both. We need the times of inspiration and vision that mountaintops provide. But we also need the valleys where the fruit is grown. And this was a deep valley that Paul and Silas were going through.
And yet even in the valley, with God's help, they continued to dance the dance. And in their situation the dance looked like this. Look at verse 25, About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
The dance for Paul and Silas looked like prayer and singing. It looked like worship even in the midst of the valley, even locked down tight in maximum security with blood oozing from their wounds, Paul and Silas were still dancing the dance. How? Why? Because they're naturally exceptional dancers in and of themselves? No. Not at all. They have two left feet like the rest of us. Instead, it's because of that spirit that lives inside them, that Holy Spirit who was exploding in their hearts even in a prison cell. And those in that cell with them listened to them and watched them dance. Our attitude and our faith in the midst of deep valleys is a powerful way that we dance the dance. And others will take notice.
Then something dramatic happened. There was an earthquake that woke the jailer up and when he figured out what was going on he was about to kill himself because he knew he'd be executed if any of the prisoners had escaped. And he was sure that they had. Until Paul shouted, "Stop! Don't do it. We're all here. Nobody's run away!"
Look at verse 29,The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-you and your household."
I love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in The Messageversion when he writes, "The jailer led them out of the jail and asked, 'Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?' They said, 'Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you'll live as you were meant to live-and everyone in your house included!'"
This man saw life in Paul and Silas like he had never seen life before. These two men, even in the valley, even in prison, were full of life and he wanted that life. He wanted to really live. And what did they tell him was the secret to living life like that.
Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you'll live as you were meant to live-and everyone in your house included!"
Believe! Have faith! Put your trust in whom? In what? In the Master Jesus. I love the simplicity of the gospel in this story. What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you will really live.
For a long time Emilie thought she had to believe everything in the Bible before she could become a Christ follower. For a long time she thought she had to be good enough to become a Christian. For a long time Alice thought she would have to agree with a certain political agenda or become a mean spirited person like Christians often appear in the media. But finally she realized all she needed to do was believe, believe in Jesus. He isn't dead. He's alive!
At our baptisms here at Valley View we ask just two questions that are designed to indicate whether a person believes or not. We ask, "Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God? And do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sin and rose again and by trusting him alone you have eternal life?" Two questions that reveal faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 32,Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God-he and his whole family.
As with Emilie and as with Alice there was great joy for the jailer and his family after they crossed the line of faith. And there was evidence too of the work of the Spirit in the washing of the wounds and the making of a meal for Paul and Silas.
To us this looks like a dramatic event and certainly there is great drama here. But I have no doubt that God must have been preparing the heart of this jailer and his family for months maybe even years before he crossed the line of faith. Just like he had been working in Emilie and in Alice for months, even years before they could say, "I believe!"
Earlier in this series what did we say were the three dynamics of a spiritual friendship? Being a safe person. Genuinely caring for people. And being patient. Be patient.
When I think of being patient I think of another woman who was in that same seeker group in Chicago. She was a jovial, middle-aged woman named Pat, who came to the group through the invitation of her teenaged daughter named Julie. We all liked Pat. Pat made us laugh a lot and was very candid about the fact that she wasn't a believer. Yet she loved to come to the group and to the church and she often brought people with her. In fact, one time Pat said, "I don't believe this stuff, but if it's true I want my friends to know about it so they have a chance to believe it." Pat wasn't a believer but she was the best evangelist in the group!
And a few years after we left Chicago and moved to this area we got a phone call from Pat who said, "Guess what? I believe. I know it took me a while, but I'd thought you'd like to know that now I believe!" That's the fruit of spiritual friendship and it's wonderful.
Before we left Willow Creek, that safe group of spiritual friends who taught us so much about the way God works gave us a clock with their names written on the bottom and this verse from Jeremiah 29:13 inscribed under the face,You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And ever since that clock has sat on my desk as a reminder of the fruit of spiritual friendships.
Brian McLaren closes chapter seventeen of his book with these words, "It has been nearly two years since I helped Alice load her harp into the back of her vehicle and responded to her question with the offer of a conversation. When I read those words, 'I don't feel this overwhelming disdain for everything inside of me,' and, 'I feel a little of God's love,' I thank God for the privilege and miracle of spiritual friendship. I think of Jesus, befriending a few men and women in Palestine, and sending them 'to every nation' to spread the friendship (Paul called it a message of reconciliation) everywhere. I thank God for how that friendship, passing from person to person, across cultures and generations, from century to century, eventually reached me, and how it has reached Alice. And I think of the others who will be welcomed into the friendship through Alice, and through the spiritual friends Alice makes."
And I think of you, and I hope that you want to be part of this 'pretty amazing' thing too. I hope you hear the music, and feel it moving you, and that you will help others hear it and love it and feel it like a song in the lungs and a dance in the limbs ... and join this wonderful dance of God's 'nondiscriminatory' love." Will you? It's all part of the adventure of being alive.