DEVELOPING A CONTAGIOUS FAITH
A CONTAGIOUS STORY
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 12:1-2
APRIL 3, 2011
Arabella Katherine Hankey was born in London, England, in the year 1834. She did not go by Arabella, she went by Katherine, and most people called her Kate—Kate Hankey. She was born into a wealthy family. The Hankey family was very wealthy and her dad was the head of a banking conglomerate. She grew up with the finest education and great wealth and everything she could ever want. But she never really had a heart for the elite in society. Her heart was always with the poor. When she was six years old, she asked Jesus Christ to come into her heart and to be her Lord and Savior. Though she was obviously very young, her commitment was genuine and her love for Jesus was great.
When she was 12 years old, she made the decision to start a neighborhood Bible study for other girls. Her parents were pleased with that. Her parents were also Christians. At the age of 18, Kate made the decision to go in to the inner city of London and form Bible studies for the poor and her parents were not so certain with regard to this. They thought it was risky and dangerous. Kate had this heart for the poor and she said she was called by God. So, she went in to the inner city of London to work with what were called factory girls in the industrial section of London. She started these Bible studies and she herself taught, and the number of Bible studies began to grow. She did this for 14 years until there were many, many Bible studies in the inner city of London.
She was 32 years old after those 14 years and suddenly became very ill, tragically ill. The doctors told her that she would not live. She simply said, “I am in the hands of Jesus.” She was bedridden for 10 months, she was confined to her bed and she almost died, but she lived. By God’s grace, she continued her work in the inner city with those Bible studies. She grew those Bible studies. She lived until she was almost 80 years old.
She, in her latter years, started Bible studies in the prison systems of England and in the city of London. She was an amazing woman in love with Christ, but in those 10 months when she was confined to her bed, when the doctors thought she would soon be dead, she wrote two poems. Those two poems became two Christian songs, two Christian hymns that many of you have sung. The first poem became the hymn, “Tell Me the Old, Old Story,” which I know many of you have sung.
The second poem became the hymn, “I Love to Tell the Story.” I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus in his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story because I know it is true, it satisfies my longings like nothing else can do. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.” How many of you have ever sung that song let me see your hands? Wow, I am surprised; there are a lot of you. In the chapel service, probably 90 percent, but that didn’t surprise me. Then in last service and this service it looked like maybe half of you have sung that song. I know I sang it hundreds of time. I know some people look back on that era, on the Hankey era of hymnology and of church music as kind of a cheesy time. Remember, it was that generation that took the gospel to the nations. Today we are a little more sophisticated, certainly more politically correct, perhaps some Christians too politically correct to obey the Great Commission. Remember God has told us, commanded us, to take the story of Christ to the nations. The question today is, “Do you love to tell the story?”
This morning, what we are going to do is to look at two things. First of all is his story, and then secondly, your story. If we are going to have a contagious faith, we need to tell people his story. We also need to tell people our story. Those two stories, his and ours, need to somehow be joined.
First, we look at his story. His story, I hope you understand, is a love story. The story of Jesus is a love story, the greatest love story of all. When I was younger, I didn’t like love stories. When I would go to the movies, I would want to see an action movie, a suspense thriller, and I still love action and suspense thriller as movies, but I have grown to like love stories.
There are some great love stories. One of the greatest love stories in all of history is the love that Victoria and Albert had for each other, Victoria, Queen of England and Albert, who was the crown prince of Germany and became her husband. That story is told in a movie that just came out this last year called ‘Young Victoria. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards and it won the award for best costume.
They began to fall in love when they were very young. Soon they were deeply in love and they marry. They go on their honeymoon, and they are deeply in love. Apart from Jesus, Victoria is the greatest love of Albert’s life. Apart from Jesus, Albert is the greatest love of Victoria’s life. They only have twenty years together, but their love is so deep. They had nine children together in those twenty years of marriage. They had four boys and five girls. Today, the royal houses of nine nations are connected to Albert and Victoria and to those children. It is an amazing love story.
There are many stories told about Victoria. One story is that during her coronation as they played Handel’s Messiah, and they came to the part where Jesus is proclaimed Lord of Lords and King of Kings that she got out of her chair and down onto her knees and put her face to the floor to honor Christ. By other versions of that story, she stood and the whole assembly rose. I don’t know what is true. I do know this: Later in her life, Victoria said her greatest desire was to take her crown and set it at the feet of Jesus Christ.
Another story told of her is that she would from time to time go incognito amongst her people, that she would dress in common clothes or perhaps peasant garbs and she would go out and amongst the people to seek to understand them because she loved them. I don’t know whether that story is true. Historians vary in account of her life. I do know that many times she said she was moved most of all by the story of Jesus and how Jesus had come and walked amongst us.
I want you to understand that in history there are many great love stories. There is no story that is a greater love story than the story of Jesus. Jesus came to this world because of love. He came for his bride. The church of Jesus Christ in the Bible is called the Bride of Christ, and Jesus refers to the church as his bride. He came into this world because he loved his bride. He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Jesus went to the cross for his bride. He went to the cross because he loved the church and he died for her that she might be holy and spotless and that her sin might be forgiven. He rose from the dead for his bride, conquering death that his church might live eternal and never die. He has ascended into heaven for his bride that he might always intercede for her. He is coming again for his bride that he might take her home. He invites the whole world to enter his church and be a part of his bride. It is a love story. It is a story that is meant to be told to the nations. This is the great commission that we would take the story of Jesus to the world.
We really understand his story as we look at some of the titles given to him in the Holy Scripture. He is called Emanuel, which means God with us. That reminds us that his story does not begin on this earth. His story does not begin in Bethlehem. He is El Gibbor. He is God the Mighty. He is Aviad. He is the Father of Everlasting, the father of eternity. He has neither beginning of days nor end of life. He continues forever; he is coeternal with the Father and the Son. So, his story, in a sense, has no beginning. There came a point in time when he came to earth and he came to Bethlehem.
He is Emanuel, God with us. He is the Holy One. This title he gave to himself as he addressed the churches of Asia in the book of Revelation. “I am the Holy One.” The words of the Holy One, “agios.” The angel announced that the child to be born shall be called Holy, the Son of God. This is his story. He alone is holy. It is his story. None of us are holy. There has never been anyone who has lived on earth who is holy other than Jesus Christ. We are all sinners in need of grace. Jesus is the Holy One. He was holy that he might become the lamb without spot or blemish, that he might be the Lamb of God.
This too is his story because he is Savior, the Greek word, “soter.” This title Savior was precious to the early church and should be precious to the modern church. Whenever, in the first few centuries, a Roman emperor took the title soter, the early church considered it blasphemous because there is only one Savior and that one is Jesus. Whenever any of the gods of the Greek and Roman pantheon were given the title soter, the early church considered it heresy and blasphemy because only Jesus is Savior. It is Jesus who went to the cross for us. It was Jesus who died in our place, who died for the sin of the world. He is the Savior. The name Jesus means Savior, Yeshua, he came to save. It is his story as he died in substitutionary atonement for you and for me. He is Lord and this too is his story.
You can travel to a lot of famous cemeteries; you can go to California to Forest Lawn Cemetery. Forest Lawn is one of the most famous cemeteries in our country and, indeed, the world. It has many sights, but it is centered in Glendale, California. It is a beautiful place with rolling hills and flowers and trees. My mom and dad are buried there, side by side. You can go to Arlington Cemetery in Virginia just outside of Washington D.C. and there are many famous graves: John F. Kennedy is buried there, and the eternal flame burns there.
You can travel to London, England, and you can travel to many of the historic places of London England. There are many burial areas, but Westminster Abbey is the most famous. In Westminster you find poets, politicians, famous people, saints and sinners buried. You could travel to Egypt, you could go to Giza on the banks of the Nile, and you could see the pyramids, where some of the pharaohs of old are buried. You could go up the Nile and you could go to the Luxor and you could see the Temple of Carnac and you could see the Valley of the Kings where other pharaohs are buried. Many famous burial places.
If you go to Jerusalem and you can go to the church of the Holy Sepulcher or you can go the Garden Tomb and you can see the burial place of Jesus and there is no one there. There are no remains there because he is risen and he is Lord. He is unique in all the earth. Lord of Lords, King of Kings, he is the hope of the world. It is his story. He will one day come again and he will receive his people unto himself and he will judge the nations. This is his story. We have been called, commanded to take his story to every nation of the earth and every corner of the world. This is the call upon the church of Jesus Christ.
Are you able to tell the story? Are you willing to tell the story? One of the reasons we are doing this series is to equip you for this. One of the reasons we have invited you to come and join one of our small groups is that we might take you through this and that you might learn to tell his story. You might learn to tell it to those who might become your friends, people in your neighborhood, people at work, people you laugh with, people you cry with, people you have drawn close to that you can tell them about Jesus. You can tell them how Jesus loves us and how Jesus died for us and how Jesus is the hope of the world. This is his story.
Secondly and finally, God wants you to tell your story. He wants you to tell his story, but he also wants you to tell your story. Really, it is only when his story and your story are combined that your faith becomes contagious. There is the call upon us to tell our story. One of the most famous Christian conference centers in the world is in the state of California; it is called Forest Home in the San Gabriel Mountains, 600 acres. This is Forest Home, not Forest Lawn. Forest Home is an incredible and beautiful Christian Conference center. There at Forest Home there is a lake called Lake Mears named after Henrietta Mears. Henrietta Mears, along with Hollywood Presbyterian Church, founded Forest Home Christian Conference Center many decades ago.
At Forest Home there is also a cabin called the Mears Cabin. The Holy Spirit of God has, from time to time, over the decades just descended upon that place, and lives have been changed. People have been called into ministry, anointed for ministry. Billy Graham was anointed, by his own testimony, in the Mears Cabin; he felt he received the anointing of the Holy Spirit that empowered him for his crusades and his ministry. The same thing was true of Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ International, one of the largest ministries in the world. Also Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision. All of this at Forest Home Christian Conference Center.
Forest Home Christian Conference Center has this great auditorium called Hormel Hall. I have been there many times because as a child I would go there for family conferences. As I grew up, I would go there for junior high camp and high school camp and college briefing conference at Forest Home. Hormel Hall I think was probably built by donation from a member of the Hormel family. We never called it that. I always called it More Hell Hall because many fire and brimstone messages were heard there.
There was this other place at Forest Home called Victory Circle. It was a large amphitheater built around a huge fire pit. Every conference ended there; every camp week ended there around that big campfire in that large amphitheater. It was the final event of the week where everyone was invited to share their testimony, to tell their story. I sat there many years. Unfortunately, that event at the end of the week was often called a f***** service. It was so called because those who ran the camp, those who lead the camp were kind of naive with regard to society. They didn’t even know that that word had been used as a derogatory slur towards gay people. This was in the 60’s. I knew the word was used that way, but the camp directors seemed clueless with regard to that, and they were good people. They were people who loved Christ and would have never intentionally used a word associated with a derogatory slur towards gay people; they only knew the original meaning of the word.
The original meaning of the word was a stick or a bundle of sticks that were used as tokens of commitment and consecration. So, you would come down from the amphitheater to the fire pit and you would take one of those sticks and you would throw the stick into the fire and you would make your commitment and your consecration to Christ. Then you would share your testimony.
Many years I sat there, my heart was just pounding, and they would invite people to come down. It was always hard for me because I felt my story wasn’t a very good one. Some people had amazing stories of radical conversions. They lived incredibly criminal lives and were suddenly converted to Christ. I was raised in a Christian home and accepted Christ at my mother’s knee in the living room of our home when I was five years old. I have come to appreciate my story. I have come to appreciate the wonderful Christian mom and dad I was blessed to have and the wonderful Christian family in which I was nurtured. It is my story because God has made it so.
It is important that we all tell our story and we all figure out how to communicate our story and that we are able to tell people how we came to believe and what Jesus has done for us, and how Jesus gives us hope for the future because there are chapters ahead of us, and how Jesus gives us purpose in life. We need to learn how to tell our own story and tie it to his story. So, in our small groups this week, we are going to be looking at how to tell your story, how to craft that, how to say that. This is so important. I have this great book here by Dan Allender; we have it in our Inklings bookstore. The book is entitled, To Be Told: Know Your Story. Your story is to be told. Dan Allender is head of the Mars Hill Seminary in Seattle. He is hilarious. I have never laughed so hard, but there are times he touches your heart. You will go through here and it will help you understand how to tell your story and how important it is that you do so.
Our Scripture today was Hebrews 12, and you might be thinking, “I wonder why that was?” Hebrews 12:1-2. This is a passage of some controversy. “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” What is that cloud of witnesses? There are some that think it is our departed loved ones in Christ, it is the saints of Christ through the centuries, and they are looking down on us like a cloud of witnesses. That might be, but it is not likely, because there is no other passage of Scripture that tells us that is what the saints do.
The Greek word here is “maturon,” and it has a variety of meanings, but it’s where we get the word martyr. This is Hebrews 12, and it just follows on the heels of Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11 we have the whole list of the heroes of the faith, who gave their lives in consecration of the Lord. So, the meaning may be that a cloud of martyrs or it could be a cloud of testimonies, because they all had their testimonies and they inspire us. They are examples for us. So, we run the race as we form our own testimonies and provide our own examples. As we run this race, we are told that we look to Jesus who is the “archegon” and the “teleioten.”
What do those words mean? He is the archegon. The RSV translates this pioneer. That is a tough word to translate. Archegon comes from the Greek word “arche,” which literally means beginning, but it also is related to “archon,” which means ruler. These are very different concepts. But contextually, most scholars agree archegon here really means author.
He is the author of our faith and the “teleioten.” This is a word that is only found here in Hebrews 12, nowhere else in the New Testament. It is not even found in the Septuagint, which means there is no Hebrew word in the Old Testament that is properly rendered by “teleioten.” This is a rare word. We know it is tied to “telos,” which means to end or to complete or to finish. So, he is the author and finisher of the faith, author and finisher of our faith. There is a sense in which he is the author and finisher of your faith and of mine. I understand that there are more chapters of our books and I understand the complexity of free will and the sovereignty of God, and the difficulty of combining those two concepts, but there is a sense in which Jesus is the author of your faith, the author and the finisher.
We have that promise in the Bible that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of the Lord. So, he is the author and the finisher of our faith. There is a sense in which your faith, the faith that you now have, has his hand upon you. As you tell your story, there is a sense in which it is his story in you. As you tell your story, which has his hand upon it, he puts his hand on those you speak to. This is a powerful thing, to know your story and to tell it, because he is the author and the finisher.
How important this is that we commit to the story. I love to tell the story; I love to tell his story and also mine as he has impacted my life. This is the call upon the church of Jesus Christ. We have founded the Institute at Cherry Hills Community Church and it is co-directed by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg, and we thank God for them. I think when a lot of people think of apologetics and the Institute and Cherry Hills, they think of linear, deductive reasoning. They think of rational arguments, they think of theology and doctrine. And all of these things are important, but understand that apologetics really centers on the story. The greatest apologetic we have is his story combined with your story. That is so powerful on the earth and in this world. If we would know his story and our own and be able to share it with others it impacts lives.
There is a movie coming out Friday, this Friday and the movie is called Soul Surfer. It is the story of Bethany Hamilton. How many of you have heard of Bethany Hamilton? Quite a few of you have. Her story is amazing because she had great hopes of being the greatest surfer in the world. She had an incredible tragedy in her life when she was attacked by a fourteen-foot shark and the shark took off one of her arms at the shoulder. Everyone thought it was over for her, but it wasn’t. She has now gone on, with one arm, to win national titles and to set records. Pretty amazing story. At the heart of her story is Christ, because she loves Jesus. This movie comes out Friday and I am very interested in how it turns out.
Who knows what Hollywood is going to do with her life, but I can tell you this. The part of Bethany Hamilton is played by AnnaSophia Robb, and she is a committed Christian. She is an evangelical Christian. This is a young woman who loves Jesus Christ. She grew up here in Colorado and is a student at Arapahoe. There is no one better to play the part. Dennis Quaid who plays the dad in the movie, is a member of Bel Air Presbyterian Church where Mark Brewer, who is one of my best friends, is the pastor. Dennis Quaid asked if he could play this role of this Christian dad. He is the one who talked Helen Hunt into playing the role of the mom. I am really excited to see what they might do with her story.
I have seen Bethany interviewed; I have seen her mom interviewed in Kauai, Hawaii. I have seen her dad interviewed, I have seen her brother interviewed, and I have seen her youth pastor at her church interviewed. Her story is a great story. She has said that she believes, indeed, that Jesus is the “archegon” and the “teleioten,” that he is the author and finisher of her story. She believes that whatever tragedy that may happen in life that Christ redeems it. He redeems it by his power and it is part of our story. It is the will of Christ that we tell our story.
I don’t know what you are going through, I don’t know what tragedies you have experience or what loss you have suffered, but Christ wants to redeem your story and use it. It is a powerful thing. He is the “archegon” and the “teleioten.” So, he has this call upon us that we go into the world and tell his story and we join with his story, our story. It is powerful. It is the key to having a contagious faith. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.