How You Can Change Your World

Acts 3:1-10

Dr. Jim Denison

A new series of New Testaments has just been released for evangelistic purposes. It profiles well-known athletes who talk openly about their faith in Jesus. For instance, the football issue profiles Dallas Cowboys tackle Chad Hennings, who says, “God showed his great love for us by sending his Son, Jesus, to die for us. That love is available to us just for the asking. And that love is the answer to life. The more I live, the more I find that fame is not the answer. Neither is social status or money. The things of this world will fail you. People will fail you. Christ is constant. That’s where you can put your faith and trust. He loves us no matter what, and he will give us the strength to handle whatever comes our way.”

Other Christian football players profiled include Greg Ellis, Kent Graham, Danny Kanell, Aeneas Williams, Tony Boselli, Jason Sehorn, Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Brent Jones, and Trent Dilfer.

Christian basketball players include A. C. Green, Hersey Hawkins, Nancy Lieberman, Kevin Johnson, Mark Jackson, and Mark Price. Christian baseball players and managers include John Wetteland, Johnny Oates, John Smoltz, Tony Fernandez, Orel Hershiser, Keith Lockhart, Felipe Alou, Brett Butler, John Olerud, and Joe Girardi.

Today we conclude our week of prayer for global missions with a very simple point: God can use anyone. He can give every one of us a sense of fulfillment and significance, and use us in ways which have eternal impact on our world. Any one of us.

I want to show you that it’s so, biblically and personally.

Unlikely evangelists

Our text opens with Peter and John on their way to the Temple at the time of prayer, 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Here they meet with a beggar, a man born lame, now over forty years old (4:22). Laid there daily, to beg from those who go by. The same steps, the same gate, the same ritual, even the same beggar, week after week, day after day. The same helpless situation, year after year.

Of all the people in the crowd who could help this man, they would be the least likely, wouldn’t they? They have no money to give him—”Silver and gold I do not have” (v. 6). They have no medical expertise to offer him. But it turns out they have something better. Something every Christian in this sanctuary has to offer the crippled and hurting people who surround us today.

Our text says that “Peter looked straight at him, as did John” (v. 4). The Greek word means to stare with intense purpose. Others looked, but Peter and John noticed; others heard, but they listened; others rushed by, but they stopped. Why?

They see the need. This is where all ministry begins. No seminary degrees required. No special gifts or abilities are needed. No sin or failures in our lives exempt us. Every one of us can do this.

Next, they trust the name: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (v. 6). Not in their name—they have no power to help him. Not in the name of the Temple, for it cannot heal; not in the name of religion, for it cannot restore; not in the name of their faith, for it is not his. In the name, person, authority of Jesus Christ, and in no other. Because no other can help.

They know that Jesus can heal this man, that he can meet any need and solve any crisis. Do you know that?

Finally, they touch the hurt. Many in their day believed that people with physical handicaps were somehow under the judgment of God. This is unbiblical and wrong, but it was their popular theology. So, you don’t touch a person like this, lest you become contaminated spiritually.

But: “Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up” (v. 7). Peter actually “grabbed” the man, the Greek says. He got involved personally. Again, no special skills, training, or background are needed. Any one of us can who will.

And here’s the result: the man is instantly healed, physically. And spiritually: “he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”

And he becomes a powerful and remarkable evangelist himself: “When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” (vs. 9-10).

Peter, John, and this now healed crippled man make perhaps the most unlikely evangelistic association in Christian history. And among the most joyful. Because God can change our world, and use us to change the world.

Can God use hurting people?

Is this still true? Can God really use anyone who wants to be used, no matter our background, pain, mistakes, or circumstances? Can God use hurting people?

Perhaps you saw the USA Today story about Eddie Timanus. He is a sports writer for USA Today, can hit a 70-mph fast ball, play football and beach volleyball, and recently won $70,000 and two cars on Jeopardy after five straight wins. He also happens to be blind. Does pain or disability disqualify anyone in life?

Or with God? Peter denied he even knew Jesus, three times. Did God use him here, and for the rest of his life?

I’ve discovered personally this fact: hurting people can best help other hurting people.

When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, the people who most encouraged her and us were cancer survivors.

When my sister-in-law went through a divorce, the people who most encouraged our family were those who had experienced such a tragedy themselves.

Linda Sharp was my friend in college. I attended her father’s funeral after his death to cancer, and then six months later, her sister’s funeral after she was killed by a drunk driver. When my father died, she helped me more than anyone else.

And I’ve seen it in ministry as well.

Ondie Brum was a convicted felon who came to Christ in a state penitentiary. Now he has a ministry with prisoners across the state.

Walter was my student at Southwestern Seminary; he told our class one day about the year when his wife and four of his children died. Then, with tears in his eyes, he said to us, “God is still on his throne.”

A lady came to our contemporary service in Atlanta; the next week she brought her former female lover; and the next week she brought her entire AA support group.

How many of us are hurting? Can God use us? And change our world with the joy and satisfaction of helping others, as we change the world?

Can God use successful people?

On the other hand, can God use successful people as well?

Paul was the most brilliant scholar of his generation, with the equivalent of a Harvard Ph.D. and facility in three languages and cultures. As a result, he could speak with great effectiveness to synagogue rulers, brilliant philosophers, Roman officials and governors, and even Caesar himself. Can God use successful people?

What about people of business success?

Bob Buford was a very wealthy cable executive who scaled back his business to found Leadership Network, Inc. This ministry today brings together hundreds of executives and Christian leaders from around the world. Bob’s book, Half-Time, has changed thousands of lives.

What about people successful in sports?

Tom Landry was interviewed on the Cowboys’ retrospective which aired a few weeks ago. Then player after player, coach after coach, were interviewed regarding his influence on their lives. I especially remember what Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson said: “When he was my coach, I rejected everything about the man—his morals, lifestyle, and Christianity. But today I try to emulate him in every way I can.”

Payne Stewart wore a “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelet when he won the U.S. Open, donated $500,000 recently to a Christian ministry in Orlando, and had an eternal impact on his fellow golf professionals and the larger sports world.

Can God use successful people? And change our world with the joy of helping people, as we change the world?

Can God use “secular” talents?

One last question: can God use so-called “secular” talents for spiritual purposes? Does all ministry have to be done on the church campus, by people with so-called “spiritual” gifts?

Biblically there’s no distinction between the “secular” and the “sacred.”Dr. Luke became Paul’s personal physician after coming to Christ in Antioch. Matthew the tax-collector used his scribal abilities to record the Sermon on the Mount and four other teaching discourses of our Lord.

There’s no “secular” place where God cannot work. The Dallas Morning News recently told the story of Patrick Murphy, the former Trappist monk who is now a management consultant. His purpose: to help business people, including top executives, find their souls. People magazine recently told the story of Charles Bolin, a graduate of Golden Gate Baptist Seminary and current chaplain at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He is ministering to hundreds of people—employees, dancers, dealers, and gamblers—people who never go to anyone’s church. He claims he’s going where Jesus would go. He’s right.

And there’s no “secular” talent God cannot use. I think of Ethel Childress, the classically-trained musician who founded “Creative Hearts,” a ministry to disadvantaged children in the area of our Atlanta church. In a year she reached sixty families for Christ.

I remember Scott Condra, the banker with a love for outdoor hiking. His Atlanta Outdoor Adventures brought hundreds of people into God’s creation, where he shared the gospel freely and effectively. Jason McCranie was a brilliant graphic artist and computer technician whom God used to make possible our contemporary service in Atlanta.

Do you have a talent, an ability you’ve never considered using for the Kingdom of God? Can God use it? And give you the joy and fulfillment of helping people? Can God use you?

Conclusion

I’d like you to meet someone who proves that God can use us, each of us. Marian Osteen has grown up in Park Cities Baptist Church, and recently spent two years serving as a missionary in Nicaragua.

Dr. Denison: Marian, tell us a little about yourself.

Marian: I grew up here in North Dallas and I have been going to Park Cities Baptist since I was four years old. I graduated from Lake Highlands High School and went on to Texas A&M where I studied education.

Dr. Denison: How did you get started in missions?

Marian: I grew up learning about missions through Mission Friends and through G.A.s, and that interest was furthered when I was a youth under Jeff Warren. I went on some wonderful mission trips and loved those memories. During my time at Texas A&M God just really just showed me the importance of reaching the lost and having a concern for them.

I heard about the Journeyman Program through word of mouth. I hadn’t seen any signs or anything and I found out more about it and found myself at a conference in Virginia. There were binders of jobs listed all around the world for all different fields. I looked at the ones for teachers and I ended up putting my top three choices. My first choice was to be a teacher in Managua, Nicaragua at an English-speaking, Christian school there. A couple of weeks later I got a letter that said I had been assigned to my top choice. In August 1997 I headed out to Managua and I just returned back this summer. I was there for two years teaching third-graders.

Dr. Denison: What did you see God do in Nicaragua?

Marian: God is doing amazing things in Nicaragua, using all different sorts of people. There are mission teams from all around the United States going there every week or monthly, especially after hurricane Mitch a year ago. That was a huge devastation on the country. With widespread flooding, thousands lost their homes. Many were killed. God has used that to bring people there to rebuild houses, to build churches. God is using different people from all walks of life.

I was fortunate enough to go to two churches every Sunday. One was an English speaking, international Christian fellowship and one was a Spanish speaking church. At the international fellowship, I got to know missionaries from all around the world. One was a woman named Saundra who was climbing the corporate ladder in Florida and she ended up deciding to come to Nicaragua. She was starting feeding centers, training pastors to bring nutritious food to children and families.

Another woman was Helen from New Zealand, who was in her late sixties. Her husband died two years ago and she’s working to reach women of the street, prostitutes. She is meeting them and loving them and sharing the Gospel with them. Another man is Dr. Weckter—he and his wife and three kids are there. He is a college professor and is very highly educated. He is training pastors and working with the business class there. So God is using all different types of people.

Dr. Denison: What would you say to people who think God cannot use them to change their world?

Marian: I kind of went through that. I was speaking my English and could barely get around in the marketplace. God showed me that He wanted me there to teach third grade. Of course, I could be doing that in Dallas, but He had called me to Managua. I was obeying him daily and counted it such a privilege to teach my ten third graders Bible every morning and to pray with them.

There’s one student in particular named Jacob. He was such a precious child, but he had been acting out some and it came time for me to call his mom and have a conference with her. I knew that things were not too great at home. Every morning Jacob would pray that his father in Canada would become a Christian and that his Mom would stop saying bad words and stop drinking.

When I was about to have this conference I was pretty angry at this woman because she would come home late at night and she wouldn’t spend time with Jacob and his two-year old sister. I asked the other teachers to please pray for me that I would love her right where she is. So, she came after school in her stylish suit. She’s young and beautiful. We sat down. As she started to talk I realized what a hurting person she was and this overwhelming, supernatural love came over me. I almost felt a physical warmth for her. I just loved her so much and I had never felt that much love for a complete stranger.

I asked her at the end of our conference if I could pray for her and her family. I held both her hands and we bowed our heads and the Holy Spirit gave me words. When we raised our heads she had tears streaming down her face. The Lord was calling me to reach out to some of the mothers of my students. There were three that he put on my heart in particular. I had them over for dinner and some of them invited me over dinner. God really used my willingness to be friends with people I wouldn’t have ordinarily been friends with.

Before I left Nicaragua, Indiana, Jacob’s mother, couldn’t understand why I wanted to leave and why I was moving back to Dallas. She said that she really wished she had met me earlier. I don’t have a dramatic testimony where she came to the Lord and completely changed her life. But I do know that God is working in her life and that there are people there whom He has placed and as long as they are obedient to what the Spriit tells them to do, then Indiana will come to know the Lord.

So it comes to a very simple prayer, Isaiah’s prayer: “Here am I; send me.” Will you pray that prayer, right now?

How Your Church Can Change the World

Acts 13:1-5

Dr. Jim Denison

Stan Parks, son of Keith Parks, the former president of the International Mission Board, is a missionary to Indonesia for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He is here today to share with us how what God is doing in Indonesia and how our church is involved.

The point is simple: through the Parks family, our church has touched Indonesia, a country 9,421 miles away.

I cannot touch Indonesia from Dallas. I cannot touch the world with the incredible good news of God’s love and compassion. But we can! And we should, for their sake and for ours as well.

The eminent psychologist Dr. Karl Menninger was lecturing to a packed hall of graduate students. During the time for questions, one asked Dr. Menninger what he would prescribe for a depressed person. All pens were at paper, ready to record a brilliant diagnostic and treatment strategy. Dr. Menninger smiled and said, “I would tell the person to leave his house, cross the street, knock on his neighbor’s door and ask how he could be of help.”

An upset and angry college student came for counseling to Dr. George Truett at First Baptist Church of Dallas. He was ready to abandon his faith. Dr. Truett listened to his problems, then asked him for a favor. The young man agreed. Dr. Truett gave him the name of a person in the hospital who needed a visit, and his room number. “I just don’t have time to make the visit. You make it for me,” he said. The young man agreed. He became interested in the person’s troubles, eventually put his own to the side, and left that hospital room a new man.

340 million people worldwide are considered depressed today. Loneliness, purposelessness, a lack of meaning and direction is pervasive in our culture today. Mother Teresa was right: loneliness is an epidemic.

But it doesn’t have to be so. We can walk across the street and help someone in greater need than ourselves. Antioch of Syria was the city least likely to become the greatest church in Christianity. If they could, so can we. Here’s how, in very practical terms.

Follow Jesus personally (11:19-21)

Antioch of Syria was the third-largest city in the Roman Empire, with a population of half a million people.

Situated 300 miles north of Jerusalem, the city was founded in 300 BC by Nicanor I, who named it for his father Antiochus. In 64 BC it became the Roman capital of Syria. Today it is the city of Antakya in modern-day Turkey.

Antioch was a city of great beauty and sophistication. Unfortunately, it was known the world over primarily for its corruption and decadence. The cult of Artemis, five miles to the south, practiced all kinds of sexual immorality and temple prostitution. Every kind of illegal activity was found there. If you crossed Las Vegas with Sodom and Gomorrah, you’d have Antioch.

It is amazing that this city would have the greatest church in early Christianity. We can never give up on any city, including Dallas.

What happened is this.

Persecution had scattered believers out of Jerusalem (v. 19). These first missionaries preached only to fellow Jews. But then some courageous believers from the island of Cyprus and the African town of Cyrene came to Antioch and began to preach to Gentiles.

Remember how Jews hated Gentiles, and considered them firewood for hell. These unnamed first missionaries set aside their prejudices and gave the gospel to these cursed Gentiles. And in this way multitudes in Antioch came to Christ. Among them was Luke the physician, author of Luke and Acts.

Later Peter would preach here; in fact, there is still a church building where he first preached in Antioch. In short, “a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (v. 21).

To be a church like Antioch, of course we must first follow Jesus personally. We must accept him as our personal Savior and Lord. You can only give to others what you have received personally. Have you accepted the amazing gift of his miraculous grace and love? No matter what you’ve done, or how you’ve struggled, you can. You may be in Antioch, but you can. This is naturally where we start.

Love each other (22-24)

Now, the Jerusalem church sends Barnabas to check out what’s happening in this Gentile, notoriously immoral city. When he arrives, he witnesses a miracle. Not only are thousands of Gentiles becoming Christians, but the Gentiles and Jews there are one family in Christ.

According to Galatians 2:12, they were eating together, taking the Lord’s Supper together, and worshiping together. This was unheard of! But Jesus had told them, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). They proved they loved Jesus by loving each other.

So with us. We cannot reach our city and world unless first we reach out to each other. Controversy within a church or denomination will always hinder missions without. Satan always attacks first at the unity of the people.

On the other hand, a loving family of faith is our best witness in a hurting world. If you want to go across the street to help a neighbor in need, start in your pew, your Sunday school class, your choir, your church family. Who needs you today? How can you love Jesus by loving them?

Remember the old rabbinic story about the man who visited hell and found a long banquet table covered with food, surrounded by starving people. They held long wooden spoons, too long to feed themselves. Then he was shown heaven—the same table, food, spoons. But in heaven they fed each other.

Share his love with those you know (25-26)

Now they begin to witness to their immediate community, their Jerusalem. Here’s how it happens.

Barnabas travels one hundred miles north to the town of Tarsus, to find Saul. He knows God has called him to reach the Gentiles, so he brings him to Antioch. Together they disciple the church for an entire year. As a result, these believers begin to demonstrate the character of Jesus.

They take on his morals, his character.

They begin to demonstrate his compassion to those they know.

As a result, their community comes to call them “Christians,” which means “little Christs,” or “imitators of Christ.” They see Jesus in them.

It’s said, “The light that shines farthest shines brightest at home.” This is true of our lives, and our church.

I became a Christian because I wanted what the Christians had. Do people want what they see in your life? Who can you touch this week? A new neighbor? A lonely student? A struggling colleague? The waiter you see often at the restaurant? The person working at the cleaners, or the grocery store? I drive a 1991 car, so I know the dealership service manager well. To whom could you “cross the street” and help?

Give to reach the world (11:27-29; 13:1-5)

Now at last this Gentile church begins to reach outside its immediate community to the larger world. They do this through the “three P’s” of missions support: possessions, people, and prayer.

First they impact the world through their possessions. Prophets warn them of a coming famine in Judea; it actually occurred there between AD 45 and 48.

So, these Gentile converts, who were not reached by Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, nonetheless, reach out to them. They take a financial offering, using their possessions to help people in need. Even though famine will come to them as well, they give their possessions, sacrificially.

Can we do this? Of course. This is what the world missions envelope is for. Every one of us has something we can give to touch the world.

Next they give their people. The story continues in chapter 13: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them'” (v. 2). Even though they are the founding pastors and teachers of the church, and seemingly indispensable to their future. At great sacrifice.

But they respond: “after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (v. 3). The church gives its possessions and people to the world.

Could some of us go? Could one of us be the next Barnabas or Saul?

And finally, their prayer commitment. Note that they “fasted and prayed” for them (v. 3). They began what became a lifelong spiritual commitment to support this global mission effort. Any missionary will tell us that the most important way we can help is to pray.

Can we pray? Specifically and passionately?

The result of their possessions, people, and prayers is the beginning of the global missions movement which takes the gospel to the entire world. Paul will lead three missionary journeys, and each one will originate in Antioch. Each time he will return to this church for their help and support. Each time they will send him out with their prayers and help.

And one church will touch the world.

Conclusion

Today one quarter of the world, 1.2 billion people, have never even heard the name “Jesus Christ.” And three out of four do not know him as Lord. Over 3,000 people will die without Christ in the time it has taken me to preach this sermon.

Do you need to cross the street today and help a neighbor in need? For her sake, and for yours? Start by giving your life to Jesus; then find someone here to help; then someone tomorrow; and give your possessions, life, and prayer commitment to touch the world. For we really can touch it, together.

Chuck Morris is someone none of you know, but thousands of people are in heaven because of him. Chuck was the pioneer missionary in East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo; the rest of the island is part of Indonesia. I spent a summer there doing missions and followed Chuck. Then came the pivotal day of the entire experience.

It was a clear Saturday morning. I was sitting on the bed of our small room, talking with Chuck as I packed. He asked me if I was open to missions ministry. I told him I would go if God opened the door. He looked at me, pointed his finger at me, and said, “Never say you’ll go if God opens the door. Say you’ll go unless God closes the door.”

Has God closed the door to us? Clearly not! Our church can touch the world. Now, what if our global mission depended on you?

It does.