The Sequence

Surprise the World #0 — Intro

10 min readMar 11, 2019

March 10, 2019
Commonwealth Bridge Worship

Surprise the World

Today is a special Sunday; it is daylight saving Sunday, and I give you my respect for being here on time. It is also the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is a season of forty days, which Christians observe as a time of repentance, fasting, and preparation for the coming of Easter. We often use this time to give up something — such as chocolate or social media — and to engage in a seasonal Bible study or a devotional practice. We do these things as ways to prepare ourselves for Easter, the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And starting this Sunday, I would like to start a new sermon series called “Surprise the World,” based on this little book with the same title written by Michael Frost. In this book, Frost presents five habits of Christians that could surprise the world. I know there’s a bit of corny-ness in these kinds of books, so I’m building off the book with my own special spin to it. And to be honest, I’m not sure if it will make less corny — ‘cause I’m known to be corny as well.

You might be thinking, why do we need to surprise the world? To this point, I alluded last Sunday that our life as the church should surprise the world. We talked about the birth of the church from Acts 2, where people filled with the Holy Spirit started to speak in languages other than their own. To this incident, the crowd exclaimed their surprises with either bewilderment, “What does this mean?” or with skepticism, “They are filled with new wine” (2:13).

Surprise the World?

But First, Communion 3/3

minoowkim.com

Once the crowd expressed their surprise, Peter — one of the disciples — then responded to them with the message of Jesus’ resurrection. This is how Peter began, “these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning” (v. 15). And what came after Peter’s message was finished was the joining of three thousand people — who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (v. 42).

I hope you see the sequence here.

There was a group of people filled with the Holy Spirit (represented by fire) and they spoke in different languages.
This surprised the crowds, evoked their questions, and aroused their curiosity.
One of the disciples responded to the surprised crowd.
They ended up joining the group through baptism, which birthed the church.

And this early church continued to surprise the world. In the fourth century Roman Empire, Christianity was something to be despised by the Roman officials as ‘atheism.’ To them, Caesar was the Lord; yet, these so-called Christians living under their rule said otherwise — they called Jesus the Lord. And not only did they speak otherwise, but they also lived otherwise. The early church surprised the Roman empire through its devotion to the acts of hospitality and philanthropy. They loved their enemies. They cared for the poor and fed the hungry. This was what Julian, the 4th century Roman Emperor noticed; and he feared that this Christianity that spread like wildfire would overtake the Roman values and traditions. This is what Julian wrote to his officials based on his observation.[1]

The Galileans (or Christians) also begin with their so-called love-feast, or hospitality, or service of tables — for they have many ways of carrying it out and hence call it by many names — and the result is that they have led very many into atheism (that is Christianity).

Again, there is this sequence.

There was a group of people who devoted themselves to the acts of hospitality and philanthropy.
This surprised people.
Perhaps, there was an explanation on why they do what they do.
People joined to become Christians.

The Mission

As a new church, we always talk about our desire to share the good news of Jesus Christ. But, this is not just the desire for a new church, it is for all churches. The Great Commission states: “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt 18:19–20). This is the mission of the Church.

Still, for most of us, we are not quite sure how we can carry this mission. We do not fully understand how to share our faith with people and how to invite them to be part of the church.

For many of us, the common image of sharing the good news is aggressively shoving the message into peoples’ faces. Whether true or not, that is the predictable image of Christians sharing their faith. This method is not necessarily wrong; but this method also doesn’t surprise people — at least not in the way the early church surprised people — and is deemed ineffective in our current culture.

So, how do we share the good news of Jesus Christ with others?

Some people say it’s about creating opportunities, spaces, to share our faith with others.

While I do not disagree with what people say about creating opportunities to share our faith with others, I believe sharing the good news of Jesus Christ comes primarily through living a life that surprises the world and intrigues others — a life that evokes questions and arouses curiosity. When that happens, people around us become surprised or intrigued and think long and hard about what they witness.[2] That’s when the people around us begin to ask questions, to show curiosity, giving us an opportunity to explain why we do what we do, an opportunity to share our faith.

So, what does it mean to live a life that surprises the world?

We first live a life that is aligned with God’s desire for us; or, in short, live out our calling from God.

While there are many different ways to live out our calling, what is at the kernel would be this scripture from 1 Peter 2:21:

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

Or John 15:12–13,

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

In other words, living out our calling all comes down to loving just like Jesus loved — a self-sacrificial love.

Sequence #1 is defined by our ability to share this very love.

Who is the Greatest?

Today’s scripture is yet another example of Jesus’ self-sacrificial love that shocked his own disciples — those who were supposed to know Jesus the best.

The disciples did not comprehend what Jesus was saying about his impending death and resurrection, and instead, they engaged in a conversation that was more relevant to them, asking amongst themselves: Who is the Greatest?

When we think about who is the greatest, we think about the biggest, the tallest, the most influential, and the most followed person. And often, this greatness is defined by one’s political power, monetary power, or family power.

In response to their argument, Jesus said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (v. 35). Then Jesus took a little child out of nowhere, put “it” among them, and took “it” in his arms (v. 36).

Unlike today’s society where a child is perceived as a source of joy, full of potential, that was not the case in Jesus’ time. In the 1st century Greco-Roman world, a child was considered a subhuman, or even a non-human.[3] In Galatians, it is also said that a child is no different from a slave (4:1). A child held no status or power. A child represented the lowest of the lows and the one who is the most vulnerable — an “invisible” in its society. Further, a child was not allowed to hang around adult males; instead, a child was to be with women, another marginalized group of people during this time.

Yet, in the discussion about who is the greatest, Jesus brought out this child, put the child in his arms, and said to his disciples, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (v. 37). Given the context, we know that this statement was never about being nice to innocent little children but recognizing those whose humanity weren’t fully recognized by society. What Jesus was saying was that true greatness comes from the ability to welcome those who are the lowly and the least. And by welcoming, Jesus meant loving, engaging, embracing, and serving — acts that require letting go and putting ourselves in vulnerable positions.

This is God’s desire for us, our calling — for whoever welcomes the least of these welcomes Jesus, and whoever welcomes Jesus the Son welcomes God the Father.

Habits of Ordinary Saints

What Jesus says in this scripture is subversive of the norms of his day as well as the norms of ours.[4]

And this only makes sense — just as the disciples who followed Jesus’ example surprised the world, the church that follows Jesus’ example should surprise the world.

Why should we surprise the world? I truly believe that following Jesus’ example and living out our calling naturally puts us in a position of surprising the world.

I want us to reflect together for a moment. The reason we are here today at church, despite it being a daylight saving, is because at some point we were surprised by someone’s selfless acts and intrigued by someone’s self-sacrificial love. Think about it. For some of us, this “someone” may be our parents, our grandparents, our close friends, our mentors in life, or a complete stranger.

Think about their peculiar acts that always made us think long and hard. It may be their prayers before every dinner where everyone at the table had to hold hands. It may be their small yet habitual acts of kindness to their neighbors, such as sharing food or writing them a Christmas card. It may be their faithful tithings to the church even when they were going through a financial crisis of their own. It may be their selfless acts of helping those who were in trouble and those who were in need. It may simply be their warm and inextinguishable smiles that always embraced us. It may be their devotion to prayers, always carving their time to pray before God. It may be their selfless presence in our lives when we were going through a time of crisis and tragedy.

Whatever it may be, their actions made us wonder why they do what they do. And in some way, shape, or form, we connected the dots between their actions and their motive. And most of us are here today — participating in a church — because what we learned was that their motive comes from their faith in Jesus Christ. They surprised us, they made us wonder, and they made us want to be part of this Christian faith.

Just as they made such an impact in our lives, we can do the same in the lives of others — whether they are our own children, our friends, our neighbors, or members of the community. If we truly are a church that is aligned with God’s desire for us, the people near us and around us will notice. If we truly are a church, the people in our lives will be curious and surprised, and in doing so, in some way, shape, or form, they will witness the good news of Jesus Christ and give us a chance to share our faith.

And to do so, it all begins with fostering a set of habits that change the pattern of our life as Christians. As it is said, “The key to sustaining positive change is to turn each desired action into a habit.”[5] By the grace of God, our parents’ habits introduced us to Jesus. Our grandparents’ habits led us to this faith. Our friends’ habits led us to this space. Our neighbors’ habits introduced us to this Christian life. And, by the grace of God, we can do the same: our small habits can surprise the world.

So, what I would like to do in the next five weeks is to share about the five habits presented in this book called “Surprise the World”; and these five habits are Bless, Eat, Listen, Learn, and Sent.

And this is perfect timing for us. Usually, the season of Lent is exploited to break off our old, bad habits. But this season can also be utilized in a way where we foster new, positive habits. These five practical habits are designed in a way that, according to the author’s words, to “not deplete our energy and burn us out, but rather reenergize us, replenishing our reserves and connecting us more deeply to Jesus.”[6]

So, with excitement, I ask you to join me on this journey of fostering new habits that can surprise the world. There is nothing more faithful than joining in Jesus’ ministry of surprising the world, for he is the one who came to surprise us with his unconditional love and unfathomable grace. Let us pray.