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1 - Have You Tasted My Jesus? - 2 Timothy 4:1-5
Good morning! It is good to be back with you following a few days vacation! Today I want to
begin a series that I hope you will find intriguing. It is based on some of the great children’s books by Dr.
Theodor Seuss Geisel. More that likely, most of you here who are parents or grandparents found it nearly
impossible to make it through the pre-school years of your kids without regular doses of Dr. Geisel,
otherwise fondly known as Dr. Seuss.
Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel published 46 children's books, often characterized by imaginative
characters, rhyme, and frequent use of a particular meter knows as anapestic. His most-celebrated books
include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish
Blue Fish, Fox in Socks, Hop on Pop, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who, and How the
Grinch Stole Christmas! His works have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials,
four feature films, a Broadway musical and four television series.
For most of us as parents or grandparents, Dr. Seuss has spawned many hours of fun reading with
our kids and grandkids. And children never seem to tire of hearing them … though we may! I have read
some of them well enough to have them memorized, at least in part.
What many do not know is that Dr. Geisel was a fine Christian gentleman who was dedicated to
his church and consistent in his faith. Many wonderful religious truths are to be found in his writing and
those that contain such nuggets give fodder to great opportunities to teach those truths to our kids.
Now many of our highly intelligent and sophisticated members may be offended by the simplicity
of this series, but I beg them to stay with me. There is a method to my madness as I hope you will soon
see.
In this series I hope to accomplish three goals. First I want to take some of those poems that are
known to many of you and point out how you can use those for teaching times with your children.
Second, there are lessons you and I can learn from Dr. Seuss as well. Finally, I want you to see that you
can start a conversation with folks almost anywhere about almost anything (including children’s books)
and take a beeline to the Gospel. Yes, even Dr. Seuss.
So let’s get started.
Today I want to remind you of Dr. Seuss’ book Green Eggs and Ham. It is a long tediously
repetitious children’s poem that ends this way. For about the 20th time our hero Sam-I-Am asks his
nameless friend:
“You do not like green eggs and ham?”
To which his friend replies: “I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
Sam-I-am: “Could you, would you, with a goat?"
Friend: “I would not, could not with a goat!"
Sam-I-am: “Would you, could you, on a boat?”
And in frustration the friend replies:
“I could not, would not, on a boat. I will not, will not, with a goat.
I will not eat them in the rain. I will not eat them on a train.
Not in the dark! Not in a tree! Not in a car! You let me be!
I do not like them in a box. I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there. I do not like them ANYWHERE!
I do not like green eggs and ham!
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
To which Sam-I-am responds: “You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you
may. Try them and you may I say."
In desperation his friend agrees: “Sam! If you will let me be, I will try them. You will see. (He
takes a bite of the green eggs and ham.)
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Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat! And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree. They are so good so good you see!
So I will eat them in a box. And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house. And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there. Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!
I do so like green eggs and ham! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am.”
As a parent and a grandparent, I’ve read that story many times. They never seemed to grow tired
of it as they grew up. But I did!
It was always a fairly boring story. Over and over and over again Sam-I-Am repeated the same
phrase again and again. The only difference in his appeals was that he would change one or two words
each time he tried to convince his friend to try “green eggs and ham.”
Now, hold that thought.
In 2 Timothy 4, Paul is writing to his protégé – Timothy – who’s a preacher in Ephesus. Paul is in
prison and will soon be executed for his preaching. And he’s willing to die because - as he reminds
Timothy – their message is critical for the world. There’s going to come a day when Jesus will come
again and when He comes, He “will judge the living and the dead.” Please read with me from 2 Timothy
4:1-5
“I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the
dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.
Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap
up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to
fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry.”
Please allow me to read verses 1-2 from the paraphrase the Message. Listen closely as I read. “I
can’t impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge,
with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so
proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t
ever quit. Just keep it simple.” That is a fresh way to express Paul’s heart here.
Timothy’s job was essential, because the fate of hundreds and possibly thousands of people
depended on his faithfulness. People would either go to heaven or hell, depending on how faithfully
Timothy did his job - and Paul was commanding Timothy to stand in the gap.
An atheist once told William Booth (founder of the Salvation Army) "If I believed what you
Christians say you believe about a coming judgment - and that those who reject Christ will be lost and
damned to an eternal hell - I would crawl on my bare knees on crushed glass all over London, warning
men, night and day, to flee for refuge from the coming day of wrath!" Wow! But note the context: “If I
believed what you say you believe …”
Timothy’s job – and our job – is to realize how critical our message about Jesus is. Jesus is
coming again, and only those who belong to Him are promised heaven. Everyone else faces an eternity of
regret.
We hold within our to hands two great heavenly gifts. In one hand we hold the Gospel of how God
became a man so that He might reveal Himself to all mankind. He did so that He could take our sins upon
himself and accept the death penalty for our sins. Then He rose from the dead so that you and I might
have His life … the life of God flowing through us. That is the Gospel we hold in one hand.
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In the other hand we hold the great commission Jesus gave us to use every method we can think of
to talk our friends and relatives about coming to faith in Him.
But how can we talk to them about Christ? What can we do that will make us capable of getting
them to come to Christ? How do we share the Gospel and how do we get into conversations about Jesus?
Well, we could learn a few things from our hero, Sam-I-Am. While “Green Eggs and Ham” is a
children’s book, Sam-I-Am uses many of the same principles we can use to convince people to “try” our
Jesus. Let me point out just three basic principles that we can learn from Dr. Seuss about sharing Jesus
with our friends.
1st – Realize that you’re going to encounter rejection.
There are going to be times – no matter what you do – the people you care most about will just say
no! But why?
Why wouldn’t Sam-I-Am’s friend taste the green eggs and ham? (The Eggs are GREEN) Had he
ever really tasted green eggs and ham? NO! But they couldn’t be good! They were not normal! I mean,
they were green! They couldn’t possibly taste good!
I talked this week to another preacher whose younger brother had come to live with his family for
a few weeks. The preacher had come downstairs and told his kids he was going to make omelets for them
that morning. Then he offered his younger brother an omelet. “NO” his brother replied.
So the preacher shrugged his shoulders and went into the kitchen to cook omelets for his kids.
After a few moments, his brother came into the kitchen and sheepishly asked: “What’s an omelet?”
He’d never tasted an omelet before and he wasn’t sure he wanted one now. Whatever it was had a
strange name. It couldn’t possibly taste good!
That’s why many people reject Christ. They’ve never really “tasted” Him. They are convinced that
He is “different.” They know that He’s not like you and me. He’s the Son of God. He’s risen from the
dead. He’s sinless. I mean, how could a person who is sinless relate to what it is like to be us? I mean …
really!
Many folks are already quite convinced that they are sinners, but what they cannot fathom is how
a sinless Savior could care about them!
Another reason that they might not want to try our Jesus is because of people that they know who
claim to be Christians. Did you know that sometimes we are our own worst enemies? I heard once that
there are two reasons that people don’t want to hear the Gospel. The first reason is that they have never
met someone who is a Christian. The second reason is because they HAVE met someone who is a
Christian! OUCH!
This Jesus is not “normal” like we are so He can’t possibly taste good!
And so, repeatedly, they’ll turn us down when we talk to them about Jesus and the church.
Paul tells Timothy: A time is going to come when people “…will turn their ears away from the
truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:4) Dear ones, it is my opinion that the time Paul talked about
is upon us!
People are going to turn you down a lot when we try to talk to them, but get used to it, it’s part of
the deal. But we should never give up presenting people we care about with the simple message: Taste my
Jesus. Try Him and you may, we say!
Which leads to the 2nd thing we learn from Sam-I-Am - Keep it simple.
“Green Eggs and Ham” is a poem written by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) to challenge himself. He
wanted to see how many simple one-syllable words he could use to tell a story. Of the 50 words he used
in this poem 49 have only ONE syllable (Boat, Goat, Tree, etc. – the only multi-syllable word was
“anywhere”).
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This simple story has only one message: “Taste my green eggs and ham. Just try them and you’ll
see they taste good.” Sam-I-Am kept it simple.
Our message is simple: “Taste Jesus… try Him!!! If you do you’ll see He tastes good.”
This invitation is nothing other than what Jesus said: "I am the living bread that came down from
heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world.” (John 6:51)
“Taste Jesus!” That’s our message. Nothing else matters except getting people to taste our Jesus.
When folks really trust Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they are never disappointed! Oh they may get
frustrated just like you and I do when we can’t seem to get God to do our bidding, but that is not Who
God really is! That is a misrepresentation right out of the pit of hell. It is a lie that God exists to do our
bidding! NO! Rather we exist to do His bidding.
Those who really accept Christ into their lives and experience the marvelous transformation that
He brings will testify that Jesus is good! He is very, very Good!
Every year at the University of Chicago Divinity School, they stage a picnic lunch where they
invite in some great theological mind to lecture while the students and faculty of the University eat their
lunches.
One year they invited Dr. Paul Tillich. I don’t imagine most of you know who that is. I was
required to read his works in college and seminary. He was a notable critic of our faith and claimed to
disprove the resurrection. At that particular picnic, Tillich spoke for 2 1/2 hours. In his speech, he
“proved" that the resurrection of Jesus was false. He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He
concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, he maintained that the church
teaching on a risen Jesus was just so much groundless emotional mumbo-jumbo.
Then he then asked if there were any questions.
After about 30 seconds, an elderly African American preacher stood up in the back of the crowd.
"Docta Tillich, I got one question," He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and took a bite.
"My question is a simple question," He took another bite. "Now, I ain’t never read them books you
read..." another bite ... and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original languages"... another bite ... "I don’t
know nothing about Niebuhr and Heidegger"... He finished the apple and then said, "All I wanna know
Mr. Tillich – was this apple I ate - was it bitter or sweet?"
Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in a scholarly tone: "I cannot possibly answer that
question, for I haven’t tasted your apple."
The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at
Dr. Tillich and said calmly, "Neither, sir, have you tasted my Jesus!"
THAT is our message! That is what we learn from Dr. Seuss today. Keep it simple. It’s not about
the church, or church history, or the preacher … NO! It’s about Jesus!
I want you to know that there are all kinds of “scholars” out there who have rejected God’s truths
for the myths of modern theology and heretical scholars. These are the “experts” you’ll often see on “The
Discovery Channel” and the “History Channel.” Many Christians hear these “experts” and think to
themselves:
• I can’t read the Bible in the original Greek/Hebrew
• I haven’t read all the great commentaries on Scripture.
• And I’m not a great theologian … but then again, neither were Peter, James and John.
But Peter and James and John didn’t appeal to “scholarship” when talking to people about Jesus,
they simply told folks how Jesus tasted to them.
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John writes in I John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim
concerning the Word of life.”
John’s saying: “We’ve tasted of Jesus! And He tastes really good.”
And when he preached, John invited people to taste this same Jesus that he had.
So, let me get back to what we have learned from Green Eggs and Ham. 1st we need to realize
we’re going to face rejection from time to time but seeing our loved ones come to Christ is worth it. 2nd
we need to remember to keep it simple.
And the 3rd truth we learn is – We need to stay “on message”
Sam-I-Am never strayed from his objective – try my green eggs and ham. He kept repeating his
offer, over and over and over again. He stayed on message.
Now, there are times when Christians get “off message.” They try to sell their friends on
something OTHER than Jesus. They’ll try to get people interested in:
• how good their preacher is,
• the beauty of their building
• their marvelous youth program
• how moral their congregation is
• or how upscale and important their members are.
And they get so caught up in attracting people to the “impressive” things about their church they
forget the simple message – “taste Jesus.”
If a church doesn’t make that their central focus, their preacher’s sermons are meaningless, their
building is just an empty shell, their music program has no purpose, and their morality has no foundation.
Taste Jesus … and everything else will be OK! It is all about bringing people into a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ!
I once read of a preacher in a large congregation in Florida who announced a special men’s
meeting in his church, proposing to give the men a chance to air their objections to Christianity. Over
1,200 showed up.
The first objector said, "Church members are no better than others."
Others said things like "The ministers are no good," "there are hypocrites in the church,” "the
church is a rich man’s club," "Christians don’t believe the Bible anymore," etc. All in all there were 27
objections to Christianity.
When they were through, the preacher read off the whole list … then he tossed it aside: "Friends,
you have objected to preachers, to church members, to the Bible, etc., etc., but you have not said one word
against my Master!"
Then in a few simple words, he preached Christ to them as the faultless One. When he gave an
invitation and 49 men responded.
The problem for that crowd had been that they’d never been asked that simple question: Would
you taste my Jesus? They had tasted of preachers, and teacher and churches galore, but they’d never truly
tasted of Christ. Need I tell you there is quite a difference?
Now, just because we need to keep our message simple, doesn’t mean we can’t get creative. SamI-Am kept changing his approach: Would you could you on a train, would you could you in the rain?
Would you eat them with in a box, could you eat them with a fox?
He always tried something different to get his friend to taste his green eggs and ham. He tried
suggesting different places: in a house, on a train, in a tree, in a car
So … try introducing people to Jesus in different settings:
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1. At church is a natural one
2. But many people here today came to Christ because of a study in their house.
3. You could invite your friend over to your house for a cookout, or play a game, or to watch a
religious movie. As the relationship grows and as you can create an opportunity, tell them about Jesus.
4. You could invite them to a Christian concert
5. Or on a church trip or other event designed to share the Gospel.
But always keep in mind: your main objective is to get them to taste Jesus. When the event is over,
it is OK to talk about the event, the artist or music, etc., but get to Jesus ASAP.
One seminar I went to asked a simple question: If you didn’t like Opera … what would convince
you to go to one? How many of you here this morning like Opera? OK. Then what would convince you to
go? Free tickets? Probably not. A fancy meal afterwards? Possibly. But the main reason you would go is
because someone you liked invited you to come with them.
And would you go with someone who could barely stand that kind of music themselves?
Or would you prefer to go with someone who was so excited about it that they hardly ever missed
a performance?
Think about it. Especially when you consider asking someone to come to a church event with you.
Have you tasted my Jesus?
Back in the 1800’s a skeptic promised a famous British preacher named Alexander Maclaren
(1826-1910) that he would attend his church for 4 Sundays and give the Gospel a chance. Maclaren told
the skeptic that during those sermons he’d present reasons why he should believe in Jesus.
The skeptic was true to his word and showed up each Sunday - listening intently to the sermons.
After the fourth message he stepped forward to become a Christian. Maclaren was delighted but he
couldn’t resist the impulse to ask which of the four sermons brought about this decision.
The skeptic replied, "Your sermons, sir, were helpful, but they were not what finally persuaded
me." He said that after church one Sunday as he was helping an elderly lady on a slippery walk, she
looked up into his face and said, "I wonder if you know my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is everything in the
world to me. I would like you to know Him too."
For that woman, there was only one theological question to ask: “Have you tasted my Jesus?”
It is never as difficult as we make it out to be! Like Sam-I-Am, expect some to reject your efforts,
but continue trying. Keep your story simple, and stay with the simple question: “Have you tasted my
Jesus.”
Sam-I-Am might say it this way. “You do not like Him, so you say! Try Him! Try Him! And you
may. Try Him and you may I say."
There is an urgency about this matter. That is what Paul wrote to Timothy. Jesus is coming, sooner
than we might think. And when He does, the dividing line for all humanity is this: have you experienced
Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Eternity hangs in the balance for your loved ones and friends. We
hold the Gospel in one hand and the command to share Jesus in the other.
Jesus is up to the challenge! Are we?