This weather reminds me of going to the shore when I
was little.
And some of the best times came when my family was joined by my Aunt Helen, Uncle
Lloyd and my cousin Helene for the trip.
We would have our own little crowd when we strolled up and down the boardwalk.
And we got to watch my Uncle Lloyd interact with the boardwalk venders.
He would be right in the front row of their little demonstration. They would hype
their product. Hit you with the soft sell first and then launch into the hard sell.
Show you all their product could do. And then remind you it was cheap at half the
price.
Somewhere in my Uncles house, he has a whole shelf, maybe room of boardwalk vender
purchases. It seems they always knew the sales pitch that would lead him to bring
the product home with him.
What happened on the boardwalk, happens everyday in our lives. We constantly are
bombarded with sales pitches for products. They ware in the papers we read, on the
radio we listen to and especially on the television we watch. In effect, the sermon
I preach Sunday is a sales pitch also. I am selling you each Sunday on Jesus
There are certain things in life that have name brand familiarity.
You have used the product so often, have heard it advertised over and over again,
that you know it works as soon as you hear the name.
If you heard, "It's the real thing," you would know it was a Coca Cola
commercial. And if you had a choice between Coca Cola, and some brand you never
before heard of in your life, you would pick the Coke. The company was been around a long
time and you have faith in the name.
Your faith in that name might quench your thirst for an hour or so, but it does not offer
far reaching rewards. The quenching will at some point unquenched, and a new Coke will
have to be consumed to restore the satisfied feeling.
Jesus, when he returned to his disciples was faced with two chores. The first,
to convince the disciples that he was real, not a ghost, and secondly He had to
start instilling faith in his name.
To convince the disciples he was not a ghost, Jesus did all of things we probably would do
if faced with the same situation.
Just suppose that will on a trip, out of the area, perhaps even out of the country,
a report was sent back home announcing you had been killed in an accident. Just to
keep the analogy similar, a body was sent home in a seal casket. A ceremony
held and the casket was buried.
It turns out someone stole your identification. Then they had the bad fortune of
being in a fiery accident. There was not way the body could be physically identified so
they took the identification they found at face value. Officially you are dead.
You come walking in on your friends and family. They gasp, a few may scream, they
all are happy to see you but...they wonder are you an apparition a ghost.
You would do just as Jesus dead, touch me! Do I feel like a ghost. Does a
ghost have flesh and bones. Touch me and tell me if I feel like a ghost.
Then Jesus hit them with the clincher, he took a piece of the fish dinner they were
serving that night and ate it. Almost as if to say, did you ever see a ghost eat?
Jesus told them, now as they gathered about him fully believing he was in the flesh, and
told them that the prophets said the Messiah would have to suffer and would rise from the
dead on the third day. More importantly he told them that repentance and forgiveness
of sins was to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, not just Judah and the Jews, but
to all nations beginning right there in Jerusalem.
The disciples were charged to begin a movement. They were the televisions,
telephones and telegraphs of their day. They were to tell the people about the
resurrected Jesus. They had to build faith in Jesus' name.
Did they fulfill there mission?
In Acts, we see Peter actively working at building such a relationship with the people he
came in contact with.
Peter and John had gone to the temple.
Before they entered, they saw a beggar sitting out front. They recognized him.
He was in his familiar spot. He was a long-time beggar. He was born lame. Had
been begging all his life.
As John and Peter passed by he asked them if they had some spare change. Begging
really has not changed much over the centuries. I do not know if Peter and John were
really short or whether they realized on this day, they were going to pass on the gift
that money could not buy.
They told the beggar, lying on his mat just outside of the temple, that gold and silver
they did not have but what they had they would give him. Peter proclaimed, "In
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
The beggar did not question the name of Jesus. He did not ask what gave it the power to
make him walk. Instead, when Peter extended his hand, he grasp it. Rose to his
feet. Felt the strength being powered into his legs and ankles. And as he
stood. He started to get happy. Took a few tentative steps to feel his legs
under him. Then he went from walking to jumping and leaping. He could
not contain himself. After years of being carried around. he was on his own two feet.
He walked with Peter and John into the temple. He was still jumping, shouting and
praising the Lord.
I do not know if John and Peter could have picked a better advertisement for what faith in
Jesus name could do for you.
Everybody that went to the temple knew the beggar. He had been there all of this
life. They knew he was lame. Now they could see him jumping, no they could
hear him shouting,. there was no mistaking who it was. The only question was how he had
received this miraculous cure.
They all looked at Peter and John. They though that pair might have had the
power to make this man walk. John and Peter had power...but it was not power of
their own. They came carrying the power you receive from having faith in Jesus
name.
They told the gathered crowd that God had glorified Jesus. The same Jesus that they
as a people rejected in favor of a murderer. They told the people that they killed
Jesus but God had raised him back up again and they had seen him, there were witnesses to
the fact he was arisen.
They were sharing their faith with the gathered crowd. They were letting all that
had ears to ear that they believed in the power in Jesus' name.
They said by faith, that just Jesus' name was enough to make the lame man walk and it only
was through faith in Jesus that the man had been returned to perfect health.
Peter said he know they did have a clue what they had done or were doing when they killed
Jesus. Neither did their rulers who permitted it. He said that God through
their actions had fulfilled all that which was foretold by the prophets. Their
prophecy that the Messiah would suffer was fulfilled.
Peter and John had presented their product.
They were trying to sell the people on the name of Jesus.
You can not sell a product you do not know.
They sold Jesus on all of his virtues and all of his power.
They said he was a suffering servant. And that His power was so great you could
invoke it just by having faith in His name.
But Peter saved the best for last.
He urged them to try it for themselves.
He told them to take a test drive in Jesus.
Repent of your sins, he told them and then turn to God so your sins will be wiped away.
Peter did not say this in his name, but in the name of Jesus.
This was a salesman who had faith in his product. He used what he sold. So
Peter had little trouble telling others about the name of Jesus because He had faith
in it himself.
Today we still care the same commission that Jesus gave to the disciples.
We are supposed to proclaim his name to all nations. We are to let people know, in
and out of season, that repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be proclaimed in Jesus
name.
Like Peter, we have to know the product before we can sell it.
Tell people how good Jesus has been to you. Let them know he is your great physician.
Let them know he is your mighty counselor. Let them know he woke you up this
morning. Let them know, they may have faith in Mr. Clean, but it is Jesus, who is
stronger than dirt.
Let them know they put faith in their Coca Cola, but it is Jesus that is the real thing.
If you know Jesus, you can sell him. We have to let people know that we faith in his
name. Tell all those to whom you proclaim the name of Jesus, that your faith is
built on a strong foundation. That you are anchored on the rock. That you are
not selling a pig in the poke. That you are proclaiming the product because you use
the product.
Tell that you not just heard of what Jesus can do, you have seen and felt what Jesus can
do. Tell them I have faith, I have faith, I have faith in the name of Jesus .
I am a witness of these things..
