Matthew 5:33-37
An American surgeon, named Dr Evan Kane, believed that many operations that were performed under general anaesthetic could be performed under local anaesthetic! He decided to test this theory by finding someone willing to have his appendix removed by local. In the year 1921, the first patient was wheeled into the operating room. The operation was a success, and who was the patient? It was Dr Kane himself! He had performed the operation on himself! He proved that he was willing to do first, what he would ask others to do later! Likewise, Jesus was willing to go to the Cross first, before asking us to take up our cross and follow Him!
What we’re talking about this morning is believability in ourselves as Christians! Unfortunately, we each suffer from a credibility gap – which is the difference between what we say and what we do! The question is, can others take us seriously, or more importantly, do we take ourselves seriously? When we promise to do something, do we even believe ourselves that we’ll do it? If we don’t even take ourselves seriously, can we really expect others to take us seriously? Some years ago, I came up with the absurd idea that I’d love to see people wearing credibility T-shirts (with their percentage credibility printed on the front – so that when anyone told us something, we could decide how much to believe them by the level of their credibility!)
Jesus clearly told His followers this is Matthew 5:37, “Simply let your yes be yes and your no be no!” In other words, “Be prepared to do whatever you say – and stick to it!” Years ago, I promised to give one of my mates a TV antenna for his new house, as I had a spare one at home. But somehow, I forgot this promise, and I found from then on, I could never face him because I had let him down. Eventually he became an assistant director of education in where I lived, and as much as I needed to use his name as a referee for many job applications, I didn’t dare contact him or ask him because I had wrecked my credibility with him! I have lived with the consequences of that broken promise ever since!
Our topic today appears under the three C’s – Conduct, Consistency, and Commitment.
Conduct – How many times do we as Christians fail to uphold Jesus’ example in our own behaviour? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10: 31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do, do it all for the glory of God! I once went out for a meal with a group of non-Christian friends in the city. I enjoyed the food so much that I gorged myself to the point where I have never felt so bloated in all my life! I spent the next couple of hours spewing it all up in the gutter as we walked along the streets of Sydney! Did I set an example that my friends would want to follow? What sort of example are you setting for your non-Christian friends? (Perhaps we would like to share around the group, just how we have let Jesus down in the example we have set for others!)
Consistency – How often can our friends rely on what we say? If you tell them that you’ll be there in ten minutes, do you take ten minutes or fifty minutes? A mate of mine would sometimes agree to call on me for lunch at midday – but I always knew when this happened that I could comfortably watch the midday movie for the next two hours – and yes, although he’s never been to this church, he does profess to be a Christian! Time means very little to the current generation in particular! But if we are consistently late, instead of consistently punctual, we send the message that we cannot be relied on! Remember again that Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no!” He wants us to be reliable and believable! Am I a man of my word – or as with my TV antenna story, have I let others down? And we must each apply this to ourselves! When my wife and I went for marriage guidance counselling, I offered to start the ball rolling by admitting my faults – in the hope that my wife would do likewise! But the counsellor said, “Well it’s obvious why your marriage has failed! You have just explained it! She didn’t even invite my wife to do her bit! Would anyone here like to share how they have let others down? Can people say of us, “He/she is a man/woman of his/her word?”
Commitment – The Bible contains thousands of God’s promises which have never been broken! Once He makes a commitment to us, He fulfils His word! But when we make a commitment to follow Jesus by handing over our whole lives to Him, do we follow this through, or do we waiver back and forth, as if we’re still trying to make up our mind? When we get married, we do so in public and we make life-long promises to the other person and to God! And if someone says to us afterwards, “Are you married?”we can’t very well say, “I haven’t decided yet!” Likewise, when we commit our lives to Jesus, we not only make a lifelong commitment, we make a commitment for eternity! (This is not so with marriage, because there is no marriage in heaven!) If someone asks us, “Are you a Christian?” we should be able to say, “Yes I am,” or “Not yet!” But we can’t really say, “I really don’t know!” When I was a kid, I attended Sunday school from the age of three until I turned 14. Then I was confirmed as a member of the Anglican church. I saw this as a type of graduation ceremony – meaning that I didn’t have to be a Christian any more! And many people see becoming a Christian as the graduation – now that I’ve done this, I’ve done my bit! But becoming a Christian is the beginning of our new life – not the end of it!
Jesus was willing to give His life for each of us on the Cross! Are we willing to offer Him our lives in return, or are we willing just to make token gestures once in a while? Remember my previous mate i who says he’s a Christian because he goes to church once a year? The apostle Peter didn’t understand Jesus’ purpose originally, but after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter wrote, (in 1 Peter 2:21, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps!” The Message translation says, “He suffered everything that came His way so you would know it could be done, and also how to do it – step by step!” Let’s make sure that we take ourselves seriously in following Jesus – so that others can follow our example! The apostle Paul was able to say in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ!” Wouldn’t it be something if we could say the same thing?
