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The following message is brought to you by Preaching Today, a resource of Christianity Today International. The first sermon deals with an issue that troubles many pastors. How can I motivate people to deeper involvement with the significant aspects

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of life? The problem is that people are rarely motivated by being told to be motivated. Notice how this message is given. The speaker is Bruce Thielman, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The message is entitled "Legions of the Unjazzed" and this sermon follows the

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reading of the Bible passage Acts 5 verses 17 through 42. I'm deeply and personally convinced that the Christian life is to be an exciting and joyous experience. I think we are to be living lives which are thrilling to behold, exciting to watch,

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ennobling, enkindling, enabling, enthusiastic. That is what the Christian life is supposed to be. Not only in our dreams, we're all consecrated Walter Middies in our dreams. I'm talking about in reality. We are to be living dynamic and exciting lives.

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Jesus on the same night in which he is going to be betrayed, knowing what is ahead of him, what does he say to his disciples? Tearful moanings? Not at all, he says. These things have I said to you that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full. Or look at Stephen, the

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first martyr. At the very moment when the stones are striking him and crushing the life out of him, he lifts up his eyes, he sees his risen and his regnant Lord, he cries out hallelujah, he dies praising Christ and praying for the forgiveness

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of those who are taking his life away. Or look at Paul and Silas. They're in prison. If you think prison conditions are bad today, believe me there was no society for the improvement of penal conditions in Palestine 2,000 years ago. And there they are in jail at midnight and what do they do?

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It is recorded that they give themselves to a hymn sing. I wasn't there but I don't believe they were singing "Abide with me, fast falls the even tide." I think they were singing "Christ of the upward way, my guide divine, where thou has set thy feet, may I place mine." That's more in the tone of New Testament

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living. Look at John. John the author of Revelation. He has a faith that's so incendiary that to cut him off they put him on a scrubby little island 60 miles off the coast of Asia Minor. A no place zip code 0 0 0 0 0. But there on that island he sings a song of faith which is so full of hallelujahs and praise the

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Lord that the very book vibrates when you read it and reaches down into your heart and shakes you to the very center of yourself. That's New Testament living. Or look at our text. The disciples are arrested for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are brought before the Supreme Court of the Jews. There they

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are rebuked and told not to speak of him again and what does it say? They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name and every day in the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and preaching that Jesus was the Christ. Now that kind of living

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isn't cool, it's red-hot. I can understand how non-Christians might not live that way but I can understand why that kind of life is not flowing through us. We are not supposed to be part of the legions of the unjazzed. I like that phrase. I always say it's slow because I like that phrase. It's not original with me. It's

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from the writings of a man named Phil Edwards. Let me read the paragraph in which he uses the phrase. There is a need in all of us, he says, for controlled danger. That is, there is a need for an activity that puts us on the edge of life. There are uncounted millions of people right now who are going through

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life without any sort of real vibrant kick. I call them the legions of the unjazzed. Now the Phil Edwards who wrote those words is not a theologian, he's not a philosopher, he is not given to writing, he's not a poet, he's not a lecturer or a teacher. He happens to be one of the world's champion surfers and he's

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writing here about surfboard riding. But as I read his article and as I thought about him I became more and more convinced that that's what the Christian life it is supposed to be like. I say this with all reverence. We are to be riding through life on a surfboard with God. And I think if you'll give me a

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minute or two I can convince you of that. Look at the two basic principles of surfing. The first one is this. If you want to surf, you have to get out to where the big waves are. You can't spend your time piddling around on the fetid little pools up on the shore. You've got to get out to where the white water is.

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Now that's what we see in this scene which is before us tonight. The disciples have been out heralding the good news about Jesus. That's the word, to herald. It's like blowing a trumpet. They're making a big noise for the sake of Jesus Christ and they are arrested. From out there in the white water of witness they

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are arrested and they are brought before the Supreme Court of the Jews. Now that Supreme Court I would liken to the legions of the unjazzed. It's made up of two different groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees are those who never get into the water any farther than their knees and they allow

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themselves to be pushed around by every little Roman current that happens to come up onto the shore. You might liken them more to seaweed than anything else, being pushed about by anything that happens to come their direction. On the other hand you have the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees don't get into the water

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at all, but they can build better sandcastles than anybody else on the beach. So we have the beachcomber brigade on the one hand and we have the disciples who've been out bearing witness on the other. You have the white water people and the legions of the unjazzed, the vivid contrast. These have been

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witnessing and I would remind you that in the New Testament the word for witness we translate martyr. They were not only laying down their lips, they were laying down their very lives for the sake of Jesus Christ. And over here we have the company of the careful. So they begin to discuss the case and the

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man who stands to address them is a man named Gamaliel, who is distinguished for building the fanciest sandcastles on the whole beach. He asked that the disciples be removed and then he proceeds to give this counsel. He says, "If what these men are doing is not of God, then it will fail and we need not oppose it. On the

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other hand, if what these men are doing is of God, then our opposing it is not going to stop it anyway. Therefore, the best thing we can do is," and this is invariably the counsel of the legions of the unjazzed, "the best thing we could do is nothing." And that's their frequent answer. And so they beat the disciples up

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a little bit on his recommendation and let them go. Now I think it's important to notice that they beat the disciples up a little bit. When you're going to get out into the white water, when you're going to get out to where the big waves are, you can expect to be beaten up a little bit. When one of those waves

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grabs you, it lifts you up and then it throws you down and you find yourself spread-eagled against the floor of the sea. And you cannot lift your arms and you cannot lift your legs. And at first you cannot even open your eyes. And when you do open your eyes, you see long bubbly fingers of turbulence reaching

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down for you. And you roll into a ball and the water picks you up and it turns you over and over and over again. So you do not know where the sky is or where the land is. It's a rough and a tough experience, but it locks you into life. And that's what happens to these disciples. They're white water people.

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They're locked into life. I had a man come to me once and say, "I will give you a thousand dollars if you will help me solve my problems. If you will help me get over my anxieties and my fears, my doubts and my challenges that I would like to avoid, I'll give you a thousand dollars." And I'm enough of the

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Presbyterian to have been immediately interested in that proposition. And I said to him, "Would you like to be rid of all the difficulties that you face, all of the problems which are yours, all of the traumas that confront you? Would you like to be beyond all of those things?" And he said, "Yes." And I said, "Here's what

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you do. Go and get in your car, drive five blocks straight ahead to Glendale Avenue, turn right and go 11 blocks south. When you get about 11 blocks down, you will notice on the left-hand side of the road some very high wrought iron fences. Drive through the gate on those fences. You will now be in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

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There are 52,000 people there and none of them have any problems, none of them have any difficulties, none of them have any fears. To be alive is to have problems. To be breathing is to confront difficulties. The question becomes then on what are we going to spend our lives, what kind of problems are we going to

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spend our months upon, what kind of issues are we going to involve ourselves in, are we going to play around on the shore or are we going to get out where the white water is? That's the question which confronts us. And the disciples rejoice and count themselves thrilled and blessed because they are able to get

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out where the big issues are being dealt with. There's a French existentialist philosopher whose name is Jean-Paul Sartre and he's one of my most unfavorite people. And he's unfavorite not only because he is himself a member of the legions of the unjust but because he is busy trying to convert other people to

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that same point of view. Here's a man who writes his life story and titles it "Nausea." That's a fact. And in the midst of this document he writes this sentence, "I have discovered that I am alive and it sickens me." Now I can understand how he would be sick. If I could see no more point and purpose in life than he sees

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then I would be sick too. The part of that statement that I wonder about is, is this man really alive? He tries to defend the thesis that there are no issues in life that are significant enough, there are no things which we can do in life which are important enough or finally worthwhile enough to risk ourselves on. I

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can't understand that. We live in an age when outer space is calling to us. When because of developments in parapsychology inner space is calling to us. And look at what calls to us from the space which surrounds us. Generations to be brought together. The poor to be brought to a standard of living which is

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really living. Races to be brought together in peace and harmony. Nations to be brought together in brotherhood for the good of the whole world. People to be brought to Jesus Christ old and young and in between. There are so many things, so many ways into which we can throw ourselves. How can anyone suggest that

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this is not the most exciting and the most dynamic of all times in which to be alive? A few months ago they interviewed a fellow by the name of Southworth Swede who's a kind of an unreformed hippie up in San Francisco. There aren't very many of them left now. He stands about six feet tall. He has a black scraggly beard.

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He wears the high boots you know and the leather and the flower behind his ear and all that. He has a little store which he calls a psychedelic-a-tesson. And he lives over the store. He has a one-room apartment. It's decorated with 14 handles and some cushions and there's a table in the middle which is two

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inches high and you sit on the cushions around the table and Time magazine asked him what he thought about his style of life. He said, "Oh man I'm happy. Well I'm as happy as a little puppy. I just feel like I'm playing hooky from life." Well I suppose if you can get turned on by 12 candles or if it really excites you to

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sit on a cushion and eat from a table two inches high, that's all right. I mean I personally don't want to go through life like a puppy. Not able to put one foot in front of the other, having to be housebroken and my nose rubbed in my indiscretions. I think there's more exciting ways to live than that. I don't

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think we ought to go through life like puppies. I think we're supposed to go through life like Great Danes with a bark and a bite that are significant. Wrestling with the issues of this day to the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. We are not supposed to be like filled ashtrays or bowls of soggy Rice Krispies

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or four-legged chairs, one leg of which is shorter than the other three. We are supposed to get excited about more important issues than how our steak happens to come from the restaurant kitchen and should it be sent back again. I don't understand people that get excited about those things when there

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are whitewater issues in our time. A lady was going through the Philadelphia Zoo and she saw the monkeys playing with dice. And she went and she told the keepers that somebody had thrown some dice into the monkey cage. The keeper didn't believe her. She said it's true, come and see. And they went and they saw

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and it was so. And they said yes ma'am you're right and turned around started to walk away. She said aren't you going to do anything about it? They said no, they're just playing for peanuts. And that's the trouble with most people's living. They're playing for

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peanuts. And the only place you discover the real thrill and the power of faith is when you get out into the whitewater where the deep issues are. That's the first thing you have to do to surf. Now the second thing you have to do to surf is this. When you get out into the whitewater where the big issues are, you

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have to lean into the wave. Now know that that's what the disciples did. It wasn't just getting out there, it was doing the job when they were there. It was becoming involved. It was leaning into the thing. You see the water that flows around the base of the cross never needs chlorine. It moves so fast that it is

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self-purifying. And what you have to do is be willing to lean into that current. To lean into what the surfer would call the curl. The wave builds up you see, you ride behind it and then just as it begins to crest you climb to the top of that crest and you ride the curl. And you hear the whole Pacific Ocean roaring

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behind you because it understands itself to be in a race with you and you are winning. And your surfboard trembles at your feet and it sounds like like ten thousand yards of tearing silk. That tremendous hiss that surges up under you. It's a magnificent experience to be riding the curl of the wave but to do it

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you've got to be impulsive enough to lean into the wave. Of course there are some people who are against being impulsive. Of course if Mary had not been impulsive she never would have broken that alabaster box and with that anointment anointed the feet of Jesus. If those four men had not been

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impulsive they would never have torn a hole in the roof to bring their friend to the healing hands of Jesus. Matthew would not have gotten up from that table and left his tax ledgers and his coins behind. Luther would never have stood at the forums and said I cannot do otherwise God help me amen. Livingston

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would not have lost himself in the wilds of Africa. Damien would not have served the lepers until he himself became a leper. Schweitzer would not have opened medical treatment in Lamberinae. Kramer and Niemoeller and Bonhoeffer would have bowed to Hitler. It was impulsive not to and yet that's what they did it. The

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hundred young people on our campus who are thinking today about the ministry or other forms of church occupation or mission field they would back off from that because you see that's too impulsive. A pox on those who say it's too impulsive. If that's level-headed thinking I don't call it level-headed I

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call it flat. The Christian faith is supposed to be a mixture of burning enthusiasm and quixotic extravagance. That's what I find in the New Testament and that's what is to be found in us. If I may bring a very brief word of personal witness. In those moments in my life when because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in

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me I have been enabled to risk myself in something I have found excitement and drama and that which makes life worth living. And in those moments in my life when I because of my own cowardice have backed away from opportunities to take stands or to risk myself in adventures for my Savior. In the moments when

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because of my own cowardice I have retreated I have not only felt shame in that moment but I've wondered from that day to this how far I might have been carried had I ever managed to lean into that way. Tennyson wrote it a long time ago and it's been quoted so often we oft times miss the sense of it but let me

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say it again tonight and so slowly that we cannot miss the sense of it. It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I don't understand how it is that we can involve ourselves in faithful undertakings in so many different dimensions of our life and then when it comes to the great social

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issues of the day back off. Every time you step on your brakes that's an act of faith. When you meet a young girl when you meet a young man and the two of you become one in God's house before God's people that's an act of faith. What's that relationship going to be like in ten years you don't know it's an act of

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trust. When you bring a child into the world that's an act of faith no one can guarantee to you that that child is going to be perfect and beautiful in every way as you want that child to be. If we then are involved in faith in every dimension of our lives why when it comes to the big and the most

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significant issues of our time do we back off? When what we ought to be doing is riding the curl. That takes commitment. Sidelines very quickly become slide lines. That takes loyalty. The faith would have never gotten out of Galilee without loyalty to Jesus Christ. That takes discipline. There are no exceptions

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no evasions no excuses. It is commitment loyalty and discipline but the result you see is 10,000 yards of tearing silk. I think of a Presbyterian elder in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania who God call one night it was not an ordinary night Pittsburgh had undergone an ice storm that is it had rained and then

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everything had frozen. The whole city and everything in it was covered with ice police wagons and fire wagons were not moving ambulances from hospitals were not on the road. This man got a call from the pastor of his church. There was a family in the church that had a little boy who had leukemia. The youngster had

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suddenly taken a turn for the worse. They called the hospital the hospital said bring him in they were unwilling to send an ambulance to bring him. These people didn't have a car. They called the minister of their church asking if he would help his car was in the repair shop some ten miles from his home no way

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for him to get it. But this elder happened to live near this family and so the minister called. He was a white water person. He was a person who was willing to lean into the wave. So he went out and got into his car. He had three accidents before he got to the house of these people to pick up the boy. You couldn't

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stop for stop signs you couldn't stop for traffic lights. You could only stop when the momentum of your car was stopped by natural things about you. They brought the little boy down wrapped in a blanket the mother and the child got in the front seat the father in the back seat they started off. They had several

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minor scrapes as they went along the road. They were going just a foot at a time. They came to the bottom of a hill and as they managed to skid to a stop he tried to decide whether he should try to make the grade on the other side or whether he should go to the right and down the valley to the hospital. And as

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he was thinking about this he chanced to look to the right and he saw the face of the little boy. And the youngster's face was flushed and his eyes wide with fever and with fear. And to comfort the child he reached over and tousled his hair. And then it was that the little boy said to him, "Mister, are you Jesus?

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You know in that moment he could have said, "Yes, for for him to live was Jesus Christ." Now people who piddle around with life never know moments like that. Safety first instead of Savior first. Thrift first instead of tithing first. Business first instead of blessing first. Family first instead of faith first. They never

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recognized that we had to do with a big rough God who reaches down into the midst of life and takes hold of things and wants to move them around for the good of his children. And sometimes that gets very black and blue being moved around. But out of the bruises come the beauty and the blessing. It's like the

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greatest moment that you can know in surfing. When you get into one of the truly big waves in the islands of the Pacific. There is a time when if you ride the wave properly you can press the curl and coming down the other side turn into the wave so that the wave curls over your head. In that moment you find

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yourself in a tunnel of water. It swirls all about you. It's like a whirling green cathedral. The water above is nose thin and the sunlight coming down spangles it so that it looks like green diamonds. And it's absolutely silent in there. You cannot hear a sound. And if you want to you can lean back against the wall of

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water behind you and it lifts you and carries you like a pillow. Now you can never know that what it's like to be carried. What it's like to be in a whirling green cathedral. What it's like to have life spangled with diamonds. You can never know that until you move into the midst of the wave. Until you say yes

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to God's dares. And at the end of the day you drag yourself and your surfboard up onto the beach. And you ram the board down into the sand and you fall down in front of it and lean up against it. And the roar of the sea is very soft now as if to acknowledge the fact that you have defeated it. And the Sun setting cuts

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itself on the tops of the waves and bleeds across the water right to your feet. And you're utterly exhausted. Every filling in your teeth is loose. It's not that you're weary of what you've been doing. It's that you're weary in it. Any Christian in the white water knows what I mean. You're never weary of Christ's

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service. Oh but sometimes you're bone weary in it. But it's a very magic time. It's the time which it seems to me makes the whole ride we call life worth living. You know there are a lot of folks who have planned their lives out very carefully. Nice little job. Nice little marriage. Two nice little kids. A nice

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little boy and a nice little girl. Nice little retirement plan. Nice little house with a nice little two-car garage with a nice little car in each half of it. Nice little place to go to in the summer or if you prefer a nice little place to go to in the winter. You know what the end of that story is? It's a nice little hill

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with a nice little mound upon it and a nice little stone at the top of the mound with your nice little name on it and a few nice little dates underneath. You know what will have happened? You will have tampered yourself into mediocrity when you could have forgotten yourself into immortality. Don't do that.

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Instead be a part of the legions of the just. Thank you for listening. We hope you've been engaged, encouraged, and equipped by this message. To search our library of other fine sermons and workshops or to receive our newest messages from the finest preachers in North America

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