When Our Deeds Follow Us

Revelation 14:13

INTRODUCTION

“What we do in life echoes throughout eternity.”

A couple of weeks ago we were studying the Book of Proverbs in a Bible class at church.

A verse from Proverbs that struck me was in 10:7: “The memory of the righteous is a blessing.”

The first person on my list of people whose memory is a blessing is my Granny Sommerville.

We loved to go to Granny’s house in Kansas City. We lived in another town about 50 miles away, so we didn’t get there often.

(Grandpa Sommerville, had died when I was too little to remember him.)

Granny lived in a three-story house. During the Depression the families of one of an uncle and an aunt lived on the first two floors.

Granny lived on the third floor. It was exciting to kneel on the sofa and look out of the dormer windows and see the rooftops below.

Granny had a whole box of toys—a wind-up train, blocks, games…I don’t remember what else.

I collected stamps. Granny corresponded with missionaries she supported. So sometime during our visit she would call me to her desk and go through her foreign correspondence and give me stamps from her missionary friends in the Belgian Congo, China, The Dominican Republic, and other countries around the world.

Before we’d sit down to lunch at Granny’s house, she’d take us to her pantry and we could each pick out a jar of jam from her collection to use during the meal. She had jams from fruits we had never heard of, like boysenberry. Granny always made us feel loved.

Granny loved Jesus too. She was an good example for us of a godly woman.

Her example helped make the faith of Christ attractive to us.

There are many other people in my past whose memory blesses me—even though most of them been with Jesus for years and years.

I. Each of our faith comes to us through other people.

A. In 2 Timothy 1:4-5 Paul wrote to his young friend this way: “As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.”

Our knowledge of God has come from believers in our past—our parents, teachers, pastors, friends, or maybe even the authors of books that helped us find and know God.

I don’t think any of us would be followers of Jesus if it just depended on knowing theology.

It’s not enough to know the “way of salvation.”

We have to see faith lived.

And because we saw the faith lived out by people like my granny, we have come to faith.

B, Think of the long chain of believers who brought the faith to you and me from the time of Jesus—for 2000 years people have been living for God and telling others, and worshiping and praying and loving and serving.

And they were blessed by the faith of believers before them, and so on, all the way back to the time of Christ.

We know the names of only a few of the people who brought the knowledge of Jesus down through the ages until it reached us.

Some people are proud that they are descendents of admired people of the past like George Washington or William Bradford or William Shakespeare.

But for each of us our important ancestors are the ones who carried the torch of the knowledge of God down through the ages.

II. Now I want to switch gears and talk about us.

A. Each of us has also influenced those who come after. Even if you’ve had no children, you’ve been an influence for God.

Some of you have been Sunday school teachers. Some of you have volunteered at hospitals.

Some of you have served your church in hidden ways.

Because you are a Christian believer you have stepped up and done things that needed to be done.

Some of you were teachers or nurses or salespeople or housekeepers.

Some of you have done your job as unto the Lord. He has been honored by your work. People have noticed.

Maybe you didn’t think it was a Christian witness, but people were watching.

They were forming their idea of what it means to be a Christian by watching you.

Probably there will be people in heaven because of you.

They may be people who you don’t know you influenced at an important time in their life.

Maybe they don’t even remember the time you drew them toward God by a kind action or a word of encouragement.

B. I want to read a verse from the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation. It’s in chapter 14, verse 13: “I heard a voice from heaven saying, “’Write this; Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them!’”

“For their deeds follow them”! Your deeds follow you—and will follow you.

John is writing to believers who were suffering for their faith. He tells them about some who have been faithful even unto death.

But even though these people are no longer on earth, their good deeds are still blessing people on earth.

The influence of a good person goes on for ever.

I read a quotation from a Scottish Theologian from long ago. He wrote: “The smallest work for God lasts forever, whether it abide in men’s memories or no” (Alexander MacLaren).

Even though no one remembers the good you do, its influence goes on and on—for all eternity.

Every good thing we do affects eternity.

Every good action we have ever done has eternal consequences.

I’m talking to you in this way because sometimes when we get old we wonder whether our lives have really made a difference.

I think your life has.

Out of all the dozens of people in Village Ridge, you are the few who have enough interest in your faith to show up today.

You are the people who have loved Jesus, and served God by serving others.

Maybe you’re a one talent Christian, but you have used your talent for God.

C. Jesus told a parable about the last judgment in which men and women came before him at his throne of judgment. Maybe they are afraid because they don’t know what to expect.

But Jesus—the judge—surprises them by saying: ”Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?”

And the king will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers or sisters, you did it to me.”

Think about the people in your past to whom you owe your knowledge of God. Do they know the part they played in your life?

Probably not. Some were teachers and pastors and parents and friends and co-workers and the authors of books you read—too many to remember. Many influenced you in ways you weren’t aware of—and here you are, a child of God, on the way to glory—because of their influence.

I believe that someday we’re going to meet all those people to whom we owe our spiritual welfare and we are going to be able to thank them.

And likewise people will meet us, to whom they owe so much, and they will be able to thank us. And won’t that be a happy time?