Have you ever felt that God was ignoring you? Matthew includes a little story in his gospel that shows us how we can get through to God.
MATTHEW 15:21-28: THE SILENCE OF GOD
INTRODUCTION
A pastor told me once about a woman he visited who was 104 years old. All her friends had gone to heaven, and she was left alone. She was tired of weakness and sickness; she was lonely. She wanted to be with Jesus, too. She said, “I feel like God has forgotten me.”
Have you ever felt that God has forgotten you?
You pray and nothing happens.
You read your Bible, but God seems to be far away.
You go to worship but you don’t feel anything.
You think, “Maybe God doesn’t care.”
You wonder, “Maybe I’ve believed a lie; maybe there isn’t a God after all.”
It is hard to deal with the silence of God.
A famous Christian author said, “I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.”
In Matthew’s gospel we have a story in the gospel about a woman who came to Jesus with a great need—and Jesus ignored her. When she persisted, he insulted her. But the story has a happy ending.
We find the story of this remarkable lady in Matthew 15:21-28.
I. The woman was a Canaanite, from a nation that was a traditional enemy of Israel. Israel had conquered their land some 1500 years before. The Old Testament says a lot of harsh things about the Canaanites.
A. She lived in what is now Lebanon—north, beyond the borders of the Holy Land.
How did she learn of Jesus? How did she get the idea that he was the Messiah, the “Son of David”?
We don’t know. We only know that one day when Jesus had left his own country to get away from the demanding crowds and the arguing and disputing of his enemies and to have a quiet time with his disciples, this pagan woman came with her urgent plea.
She cried out with her urgent plea: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.”
B. And Jesus ignored her.
How out of character this seems!
Elsewhere in the gospels we read that Jesus was the friend of sinners and outcasts, of the sick and needy, and all who needed healing.
“But Jesus did not answer her not a word” (v23).
The disciples knew how much Jesus needed rest and refreshment. They suggested he send her away.
Apparently her pestering of Jesus had gone on for some time.
Let us remember, when we read the gospels that we are reading only a sketch of what went on.
I once saw a movie about the life of Jesus. It used only the actual words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.
It didn’t seem realistic at all. Everything happened too fast.
Surely Jesus didn’t go around having three-sentence conversations with people and then walking away.
What we have in our story is just the gist of the conversation.
This woman evidently had just kept calling out to Jesus for some time, and Jesus had kept ignoring her.
And finally, the disciples, sizing up the situation, decided it had gone too far.
So they suggested Jesus tell her to move on.
II. This story troubles us. Why didn’t Jesus help her? What would we think of a doctor who refused to treat a patient of a different race? So let’s look at the story a little closer.
A. First of all, Jesus wanted her—and his disciples—to understand something very important about his mission.
Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Jesus would have only three years to get the “Jesus Movement” underway.
He didn’t have time to spend wandering through various countries as a medical missionary.
God’s plan was that through Israel he would bless the world.
That plan started with Abraham, back in the book of Genesis.
Then, after the resurrection, Jesus would send his disciples out to make disciples of every nation.
B. But the woman wasn’t discouraged by this information—nor did Jesus expect her to be.
She came and knelt before him—in the attitude of worship—and simply said, “Lord, help me!” (v25).
That’s one of the best prayers anyone can ever make.
A prayer we need to make over and over—maybe every day: “Lord, help me.”
C. And Jesus seemed to rebuff her: “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (v26).
The Jews had a lot of racial pride, and they used to call the Gentiles, “dogs.”
And the Gentiles returned the compliment by calling the Jews things just as bad.
But it surprises us to hear Jesus say such a harsh thing to the poor, desperate woman.
That’s because haven’t used our imaginations properly.
We need to imagine that we are there.
We need to see the look of Jesus’ face.
We need to hear the tone of his voice.
There was a tenderness in his voice, and maybe a bit of a smile on his face.
Jesus was teasing her to see how she would take these words.
Jesus was inviting her to argue her case with him.
D. She could have retorted:
“That’s not fair!” Or, “I’m just as good as they are!” Or, “Would it really be such a big problem for you to help me?”
No, she used her wits. When Jesus seemed to reach out his hand to push her away, she took hold of it to draw him close.
She picked up on the word “dog”: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table” (v27).
She was content to be a “dog” if she could be a dog at Jesus’ table.
III. Jesus was very pleased with her answer.
A. Her humility, her wisdom, and her faith overcame any reluctance Jesus may have had in the beginning.
Humility, wisdom, and faith delight the heart of Jesus.
He said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly” (v28).
Peter and Andrew and James and John had left all to follow Jesus.
But Jesus never said to them: “Great is your faith!”
The only other person of whom it is recorded in the gospels to receive this compliment was the heathen centurion who came asking Jesus to heal his sick son.
In these two stories we have a preview of the gospel mission that would begin at Pentecost and spread out to all the world.
B. This woman’s experience with Jesus was much richer because Jesus forced her persevere, and so to express her great faith.
I know a woman who, after she had taken care of her aging mother for many years, said, “Well, now God owes me one.”
The woman in our story knew that God didn’t owe her anything.
When God helps us—when God saves us—when God hears our prayers—it is pure grace.
We have no claim on him. He doesn’t owe us anything.
APPLICATION
Have you ever been ignored? It hurts, doesn’t it?
It’s even worse when God seems to ignore us.
I have known people who became so discouraged by unanswered prayer that they gave up on God.
They couldn’t bear the silence of God.
This story can be a parable to us of what to do when we feel ignored by God.
This woman could have gone home after she was rebuffed and said, “I tried. I went to him and begged him. And he refused me. I did what I could and it didn’t work.”
The Canaanite woman teaches us that it is earnest prayer, not casual prayer, that moves the heart of God.
Do you remember the story of Jacob—how he wrestled with the angel?
They wrestled all night, and the angel was winning.
But Jacob held on to the angel and said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26).
And he won the blessing.
This woman was like Jacob. She held on and she won the blessing.
CONCLUSION
The preacher and theologian Fred Craddock tells of a time when he went to a hospital to visit a friend.
He was walking down the hall when he came upon a woman with her head against a door; she was banging on the door with both fists.
“Let me in! Let me in!” she shouted.
When Craddock got to the door, he saw that it was the chapel.
He said, “Here, let me help you.” And he tried the door, but it was locked.
He finally found someone with a key and they went in.
She had evidently come to the hospital without any planning. Her clothes were not nice. Her hair hadn’t been combed. She was wearing flip-flops.
The woman had the look of desperation. She had the voice of desperation.
“I know he’s going to die, I know he’s going to die, I know he’s going to die,” she screamed.
“Who?” Craddock asked.
“My husband.”
“What’s the matter?”
“He’s had a heart attack.”
Craddock told her that he was a minister and asked, “Can I pray with you?”
And she said, “Yes, please.”
And Craddock began to pray. But the woman interrupted him.
She started praying herself. She just took over.
She said, “Lord, this is not the time to take my husband. You know that better than I do. He’s not ready. Never prays. Never goes to church. He’s not ready. And what about me? I don’t have any skills. I can’t find work. I dropped out of school to marry him.”
She was really talking to God.
“And what about the kids?” she said. “They don’t mind me now with him around. If he’s gone, they’ll be wild as bucks. What about the kids? This is not the time to take my husband.”
The next day Craddock went back to the hospital.
He saw the same woman. She had a nice dress on. She had combed her hair. She was wearing shoes. She looked fine.
Before he could ask, she said, “He’s better.” She smiled and said, “I’m sorry about that crazy woman yesterday.”
Craddock said, “You weren’t crazy.”
She said, “I guess the Lord heard one of us.”
Craddock said, “He heard you.”
Craddock comments: “She was desperate. She had God by the lapels, both hands, and was screaming in God’s face: ‘I don’t think you’re listening!’ That’s desperation.”
God likes it when we pray like we really mean business.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Finding Jesus (or Letting Jesus Find Us): Matthew 13:44: Buried Treasure
What could be more exciting than finding buried treasure? Jesus told a story about that.
MATTHEW 13:44: BURIED TREASURE
INTRODUCTION
I remember how, as a child, I enjoyed stories of buried treasure.
Do you remember how in Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck discover Injun Joe’s iron box full of gold coins in the cave?
And I remember a story by Howard Pyle—I think it was “Tom Crist and the Treasure Chest”—in that story a boy solves a mystery and finds Captain Kidd’s buried treasure.
Probably when you were in junior high school you read Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Gold Bug.” It was in a literature textbook called Prose and Poetry. Do you remember that they solved a coded message and then climbed up into a tree and dropped a little beetle made of gold through the eye-socket of a skull fastened up there. They dug in the spot where the bug struck the ground, and there they found the treasure.
Jesus told us a story about buried treasure to teach us a lesson about what is important in life. The story is told in just one verse.
Text: Matthew 13:44:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Did you know that in Iowa we have a law that if you find a treasure—even if it’s on someone else’s land—and if the one who buried it has died and no heirs can be found, you can keep the treasure?
Different states and different countries and different times have different laws. Evidently in Jesus’ country, the man had to own the land to keep the treasure. But that was no problem: the treasure was so valuable.
I. The surprise
A. Sometimes God seems to be hidden.
Sometimes he surprises people who aren’t looking for him but who stumble onto him.
Even some of us who were seeking God were surprised when we found him.
He wasn’t like what we expected. It was like coming upon a treasure in a field.
B. I can imagine what when the man’s plow (or shovel) hit the box of treasure, he was irritated. “Oh, those confounded rocks!” he probably said.
Just so, sometimes we find God when our life hits a snag.
A disappointment, a sickness, a busted romance, the death of a loved one…makes us turn to God, and we find out that he was there all the time—waiting for us to find him.
II. The “field” Jesus is telling about is the drab little corner of the world where we spend our life.
And in that unimportant farm or little town—in a Sunday school class, or youth group, or among family who love us, or maybe at an evangelistic meeting—we found the treasure, the Savior who was waiting for us to discover him.
I have found God hidden in a book…in the kind, generous action of a friend (or stranger)…in a moving sermon…in conversation with a friend...or maybe in the quiet of prayer or Bible reading.
I met a lady once who found God in a hymn. This lady came from Scotland. She told me that when she was a young woman working in a factory in Scotland, a Christian lady came to sing for the workers. And she sang this song:
“When my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see,
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in his hand.”
And through that song my friend found the treasure that was Jesus.
III. The man had to sell everything he had to possess the treasure.
A. God always costs something. Salvation is free; Jesus paid the price when he died for us
But to take hold of Christ we have to let go of the things that have taken his place in our lives.
Someone said, “God wants to give us something; but our hands are too full.” And that applies to salvation and all the blessings of salvation that God has for us.
B. The things the world thinks are so important—riches, reputation, pleasure, power—are only for this world. These are things that won’t last.
There has never been a man or woman who decided to follow Christ who didn’t have to give up something.
Paul said that he had once had everything he thought was important—learning, reputation, position—but when he found Jesus he was happy to count all those things as refuse so that he could gain Christ.
C. I wonder what this farm worker had to sell in order to buy the field. Maybe he owned a bit of land with a little house on it. Maybe had a few animals…and farm implements…and household goods.
But he sold everything that was dearest to him.
But that was no problem to him. Jesus says, “In his joy he goes and sells all that he has…”
IV. But the emphasis of the parable isn’t on what we give up but what we receive when we find God because the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven is incomparably more valuable than anything it costs us.
Here is what the treasure is…
Peace that passes understanding…
Joy that the world can’t give and the world can’t take away…
Companionship of the Savior every step of the way…
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”
Assurance that all things work together for good for those who love God.
Everlasting life, the promise of resurrection and life with God and his people in a far Better Country.
But especially, the treasure is Jesus himself, because when we have him we have all the rest.
CONCLUSION
Jesus is the treasure, and we have to have all of him…You can’t have just a part of Jesus.
Some people want just enough of what they call religion to get into heaven by the skin of their teeth.
But Jesus says, “That won’t ever do.”
The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Everything has become new.”
My purpose today is to remind you of our treasure in Jesus.
The more we think about what we have in Jesus, the more real that he becomes to us.
And the more real Jesus is the more exciting life is.
MATTHEW 13:44: BURIED TREASURE
INTRODUCTION
I remember how, as a child, I enjoyed stories of buried treasure.
Do you remember how in Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck discover Injun Joe’s iron box full of gold coins in the cave?
And I remember a story by Howard Pyle—I think it was “Tom Crist and the Treasure Chest”—in that story a boy solves a mystery and finds Captain Kidd’s buried treasure.
Probably when you were in junior high school you read Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Gold Bug.” It was in a literature textbook called Prose and Poetry. Do you remember that they solved a coded message and then climbed up into a tree and dropped a little beetle made of gold through the eye-socket of a skull fastened up there. They dug in the spot where the bug struck the ground, and there they found the treasure.
Jesus told us a story about buried treasure to teach us a lesson about what is important in life. The story is told in just one verse.
Text: Matthew 13:44:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Did you know that in Iowa we have a law that if you find a treasure—even if it’s on someone else’s land—and if the one who buried it has died and no heirs can be found, you can keep the treasure?
Different states and different countries and different times have different laws. Evidently in Jesus’ country, the man had to own the land to keep the treasure. But that was no problem: the treasure was so valuable.
I. The surprise
A. Sometimes God seems to be hidden.
Sometimes he surprises people who aren’t looking for him but who stumble onto him.
Even some of us who were seeking God were surprised when we found him.
He wasn’t like what we expected. It was like coming upon a treasure in a field.
B. I can imagine what when the man’s plow (or shovel) hit the box of treasure, he was irritated. “Oh, those confounded rocks!” he probably said.
Just so, sometimes we find God when our life hits a snag.
A disappointment, a sickness, a busted romance, the death of a loved one…makes us turn to God, and we find out that he was there all the time—waiting for us to find him.
II. The “field” Jesus is telling about is the drab little corner of the world where we spend our life.
And in that unimportant farm or little town—in a Sunday school class, or youth group, or among family who love us, or maybe at an evangelistic meeting—we found the treasure, the Savior who was waiting for us to discover him.
I have found God hidden in a book…in the kind, generous action of a friend (or stranger)…in a moving sermon…in conversation with a friend...or maybe in the quiet of prayer or Bible reading.
I met a lady once who found God in a hymn. This lady came from Scotland. She told me that when she was a young woman working in a factory in Scotland, a Christian lady came to sing for the workers. And she sang this song:
“When my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see,
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
And redeemed by His side I shall stand,
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in his hand.”
And through that song my friend found the treasure that was Jesus.
III. The man had to sell everything he had to possess the treasure.
A. God always costs something. Salvation is free; Jesus paid the price when he died for us
But to take hold of Christ we have to let go of the things that have taken his place in our lives.
Someone said, “God wants to give us something; but our hands are too full.” And that applies to salvation and all the blessings of salvation that God has for us.
B. The things the world thinks are so important—riches, reputation, pleasure, power—are only for this world. These are things that won’t last.
There has never been a man or woman who decided to follow Christ who didn’t have to give up something.
Paul said that he had once had everything he thought was important—learning, reputation, position—but when he found Jesus he was happy to count all those things as refuse so that he could gain Christ.
C. I wonder what this farm worker had to sell in order to buy the field. Maybe he owned a bit of land with a little house on it. Maybe had a few animals…and farm implements…and household goods.
But he sold everything that was dearest to him.
But that was no problem to him. Jesus says, “In his joy he goes and sells all that he has…”
IV. But the emphasis of the parable isn’t on what we give up but what we receive when we find God because the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven is incomparably more valuable than anything it costs us.
Here is what the treasure is…
Peace that passes understanding…
Joy that the world can’t give and the world can’t take away…
Companionship of the Savior every step of the way…
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”
Assurance that all things work together for good for those who love God.
Everlasting life, the promise of resurrection and life with God and his people in a far Better Country.
But especially, the treasure is Jesus himself, because when we have him we have all the rest.
CONCLUSION
Jesus is the treasure, and we have to have all of him…You can’t have just a part of Jesus.
Some people want just enough of what they call religion to get into heaven by the skin of their teeth.
But Jesus says, “That won’t ever do.”
The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Everything has become new.”
My purpose today is to remind you of our treasure in Jesus.
The more we think about what we have in Jesus, the more real that he becomes to us.
And the more real Jesus is the more exciting life is.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
A Life Well Spent: Genesis 12:1-4, etc.: What Will Be Your Legacy?
What difference will it make a hundred years from now that you ever lived? Maybe more than you can imagine.
GENESIS 12:1-4, PSALM 90:17, REVELATION 14:13: WHAT WILL BE YOUR LEGACY?
INTRODUCTION
A little girl in a church junior choir was chosen to lead a procession for a Christmas candlelight service.
She felt it to be an awesome responsibility to carry her candle and lead that long procession down the aisle of he church.
After the service she said to her mother, “I looked back and saw all those people coming behind me, and I was scared!”
Do you ever think of all the people who follow behind you—and will follow behind you to the end of time?
Some are members of our family; some are not yet born.
Yet how we have lived influences the lives and decisions of all who follow us.
It is a great responsibility to be leading such a procession.
Long before the people of God understood the truth of the resurrection to eternal life, they had a firm conviction that their legacy lived on in the lives of people who came after them.
We see this in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-4:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. …and by you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
We see this hope also at the end of Psalm 90:17:
"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us,
yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."
The psalmist hopes, as we all do, that the good he did has some kind of permanence. He hopes that his work will live after him.
In the New Testament, in the light of the truth of the Resurrection, we read this:
Revelation 14:13:
And 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.”
Did you ever think about your deeds following you?
Did you ever think that part of you will live on here on earth in the lives of those you have loved?--and maybe even in the lives of strangers?
I. Sometimes we are not even aware of something we do that others remember as an important milestone in their life.
A. Can you remember how a seemingly chance remark by someone you respected helped you make a decision that has made a big difference in your life?
Or maybe it was a kind action—or a good example that encouraged you or inspired you…
B. It is said that James Boswell, the famous writer often in conversation referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. That day stood out in his memory and he often thought about the things his father had taught him in the course of heir fishing together.
It occurred to someone to check the journal that Boswell’s father had kept to see what the father had said about that fishing trip from his perspective.
Here is what he found when he turned to that date: “Gone fishing today with my son. A day wasted.”
II. Christian believers are constantly aware that this life is not all there is, and we seek intentionally to pass on to others something that has enriched our lives.
A. The story is told that the great theologian Karl Barth was once asked by a colleague how he, with all his immense learning, could possibly believe the assertions of the Christian creed, he gave this reply: “Because my mother told me.”
This doesn’t mean that in the course of time Dr. Barth didn’t find out that some things his mother told him turned out not to be true—or that he found no evidence to support his faith beyond that his mother told him. But he surely meant that his mother planted the seed and that there was no other factor in his coming to faith more important than his mother’s influence.
By her faithful teaching Karl Barth’s mother passed her legacy on to her son.
B. The preacher and theologian Fred Craddock tells this story:
A young woman said to me, that during her freshman year at college she was failing in her classes, she wasn’t having any dates, and didn’t have as much money as the other students.
“One Sunday afternoon,” she said, “I was feeling so lonely and depressed that I went to the river near the campus. I climbed upon the rail and was looking into the dark water below…
“Then, for some reason or another I thought of the line, ‘Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.’”
She said, “I stepped back, and her I am.”
Craddock asked, “Where did you learn that line?”
She said, “I don’t know.”
Craddock said, “Do you go to church?”
“No…well, when I visited my grandmother in the summers we went to Sunday school and church.”
Craddock said, “Ah…”
C. D. L. Moody was the most successful evangelist of our grandparents’ time.
When Moody was still a small child his father died and his mother and ten children were left destitute.
When he was 10 his brother found him a job in a neighboring town where he would work through the winter months. The child’s heart broke as he left his family to live so far away.
At last he and his brother arrived at the town where he was to work. His brother saw his tears and pointed to a feeble, old, white-haired man and said, “There’s a man that’ll give you a cent; he gives one to every new boy that comes to town.”
Moody says that he planted himself directly in the old man’s path. As the man came up to them, his brother spoke to him, and he stopped and looked at the child. He said, “Why, I have never seen you before. You must be a new boy” He asked him about his home, and then, laying his trembling hand upon the child’s head, he told him that though he had no earthly father, his Heavenly Father loved him, and he gave the little boy a bight new cent.
Near the end of his life Moody said, “I do not remember what became of that cent, but that old man’s blessing has followed me for over fifty years, and to my dying day I shall feel the kindly pressure of that hand upon my head. A loving deed costs very little, but done in the name of Christ it will be eternal.”
CONCLUSION
Perhaps when you were a sophomore in high school you read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as I did.
Our teacher gave us our choice to memorize either Brutus’ speech at Caesar’s funeral or Mark Antony’s.
I learned Mark Antony’s speech—you know—the one that begins:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen,
lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
the good is oft interred with their bones.”
Antony is right that the evil people do lives after them.
But he is wrong that “the good is oft interred with their bones.”
The good that we do also lives on.
A famous saint named Bernard said this:
“Our deeds do not pass away as they seem to. On the contrary, every deed done in this life is the seed of a harvest to be reaped in eternity.”
My purpose in speaking to you in this way is to remind you that you also leave a legacy to those who come after.
You who have lived for God leave a legacy of good that enriches the lives of those who come after—family, friends, strangers—and will go on enriching lives until the end of time—and for eternity.
GENESIS 12:1-4, PSALM 90:17, REVELATION 14:13: WHAT WILL BE YOUR LEGACY?
INTRODUCTION
A little girl in a church junior choir was chosen to lead a procession for a Christmas candlelight service.
She felt it to be an awesome responsibility to carry her candle and lead that long procession down the aisle of he church.
After the service she said to her mother, “I looked back and saw all those people coming behind me, and I was scared!”
Do you ever think of all the people who follow behind you—and will follow behind you to the end of time?
Some are members of our family; some are not yet born.
Yet how we have lived influences the lives and decisions of all who follow us.
It is a great responsibility to be leading such a procession.
Long before the people of God understood the truth of the resurrection to eternal life, they had a firm conviction that their legacy lived on in the lives of people who came after them.
We see this in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-4:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. …and by you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
We see this hope also at the end of Psalm 90:17:
"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us,
yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."
The psalmist hopes, as we all do, that the good he did has some kind of permanence. He hopes that his work will live after him.
In the New Testament, in the light of the truth of the Resurrection, we read this:
Revelation 14:13:
And 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.”
Did you ever think about your deeds following you?
Did you ever think that part of you will live on here on earth in the lives of those you have loved?--and maybe even in the lives of strangers?
I. Sometimes we are not even aware of something we do that others remember as an important milestone in their life.
A. Can you remember how a seemingly chance remark by someone you respected helped you make a decision that has made a big difference in your life?
Or maybe it was a kind action—or a good example that encouraged you or inspired you…
B. It is said that James Boswell, the famous writer often in conversation referred to a special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. That day stood out in his memory and he often thought about the things his father had taught him in the course of heir fishing together.
It occurred to someone to check the journal that Boswell’s father had kept to see what the father had said about that fishing trip from his perspective.
Here is what he found when he turned to that date: “Gone fishing today with my son. A day wasted.”
II. Christian believers are constantly aware that this life is not all there is, and we seek intentionally to pass on to others something that has enriched our lives.
A. The story is told that the great theologian Karl Barth was once asked by a colleague how he, with all his immense learning, could possibly believe the assertions of the Christian creed, he gave this reply: “Because my mother told me.”
This doesn’t mean that in the course of time Dr. Barth didn’t find out that some things his mother told him turned out not to be true—or that he found no evidence to support his faith beyond that his mother told him. But he surely meant that his mother planted the seed and that there was no other factor in his coming to faith more important than his mother’s influence.
By her faithful teaching Karl Barth’s mother passed her legacy on to her son.
B. The preacher and theologian Fred Craddock tells this story:
A young woman said to me, that during her freshman year at college she was failing in her classes, she wasn’t having any dates, and didn’t have as much money as the other students.
“One Sunday afternoon,” she said, “I was feeling so lonely and depressed that I went to the river near the campus. I climbed upon the rail and was looking into the dark water below…
“Then, for some reason or another I thought of the line, ‘Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.’”
She said, “I stepped back, and her I am.”
Craddock asked, “Where did you learn that line?”
She said, “I don’t know.”
Craddock said, “Do you go to church?”
“No…well, when I visited my grandmother in the summers we went to Sunday school and church.”
Craddock said, “Ah…”
C. D. L. Moody was the most successful evangelist of our grandparents’ time.
When Moody was still a small child his father died and his mother and ten children were left destitute.
When he was 10 his brother found him a job in a neighboring town where he would work through the winter months. The child’s heart broke as he left his family to live so far away.
At last he and his brother arrived at the town where he was to work. His brother saw his tears and pointed to a feeble, old, white-haired man and said, “There’s a man that’ll give you a cent; he gives one to every new boy that comes to town.”
Moody says that he planted himself directly in the old man’s path. As the man came up to them, his brother spoke to him, and he stopped and looked at the child. He said, “Why, I have never seen you before. You must be a new boy” He asked him about his home, and then, laying his trembling hand upon the child’s head, he told him that though he had no earthly father, his Heavenly Father loved him, and he gave the little boy a bight new cent.
Near the end of his life Moody said, “I do not remember what became of that cent, but that old man’s blessing has followed me for over fifty years, and to my dying day I shall feel the kindly pressure of that hand upon my head. A loving deed costs very little, but done in the name of Christ it will be eternal.”
CONCLUSION
Perhaps when you were a sophomore in high school you read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as I did.
Our teacher gave us our choice to memorize either Brutus’ speech at Caesar’s funeral or Mark Antony’s.
I learned Mark Antony’s speech—you know—the one that begins:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen,
lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
the good is oft interred with their bones.”
Antony is right that the evil people do lives after them.
But he is wrong that “the good is oft interred with their bones.”
The good that we do also lives on.
A famous saint named Bernard said this:
“Our deeds do not pass away as they seem to. On the contrary, every deed done in this life is the seed of a harvest to be reaped in eternity.”
My purpose in speaking to you in this way is to remind you that you also leave a legacy to those who come after.
You who have lived for God leave a legacy of good that enriches the lives of those who come after—family, friends, strangers—and will go on enriching lives until the end of time—and for eternity.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Strength for the Journey: 1 Corinthians 15:58, etc.: True Happiness
Everyone wants to be happy, but most people are looking for it in all the wrong places. Here are the three things you need in order to be happy.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:58, 1 JOHN 4:7-12, & JOHN 14:3: TRUE HAPPINESS
INTRODUCTION
When I taught seventh grade I used to ask my students to write for me an essay: “My Goal in Life.”
As their compositions showed, my students weren’t very ambitious to make a great mark in the world—to find the cure for cancer or to explore the Amazon or to write great books or symphonies.
Most of the children wrote that all they really hoped for in life was to “be happy.”
They weren’t especially interested in fame or fortune or accomplishing great things. They just wanted “happiness.”
They didn’t realize—what all of us older people know—that happiness isn’t something you can find by seeking it.
You’ve probably heard the saying:
“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder.”
Not so many mornings ago I woke up—as I often do—long before time to get up and was thinking about life. I was considering what I had done with my life up to now and that soon my life on earth would be ending, and what would I have to show for it?
I was thinking about the pains and limitations of old age, and I was becoming sort of melancholy as I thought about how little time I have left.
I wondered: what do I really need to be happy?
Then something came to me that I had read many years ago. It was this saying,
”Happiness consists of three things:
something to do,
someone to love,
and something to look forward to.”
I thought about the wisdom of that saying, and it occurred to me that with Christ in my life I have all these things.
I. The first thing we need to be happy: Something to do: 1 Corinthians 15:58:
“Therefore my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
A. Many of you have been active in times past, serving God and serving other people. You have cared for your families, visited sick neighbors, taught SS, sung in choirs, given to those in need, served your churches and neighborhoods in 100 different ways.
B. But now it is different. The old opportunities are gone and maybe you have become discouraged because now you are no longer serving others but others are serving you. But now I want to remind you that there are still things to do for others and for God.
We can all pray—for our families, our friends, our enemies, the people of the world. When we watch our TVs and see the troubles of the world, we can pray for these people. We can pray for our churches, for our children and grandchildren and relatives out in the world that need help from our God. Someday we may learn that the greatest good we did in the world was by our prayers.
We can encourage others. Think of how often your day has been brightened by a friendly smile or a word of encouragement. You can be that person who encourages others by an expression of gratitude, a compliment, a listening ear.
We can still give. Maybe we can’t give as we used to, but we can still give something back to God. We can still give gifts to other people.
I had an aunt who lived to be 101. She lived in a nursing home for several years. She ordered several copies of a monthly devotional booklet. When the nurse aides came into her room, she gave each aide of her booklets.
They came to expect them and ask for them.
And most important—we can bear witness that God is real.
I think of a last visit to a friend as she lay in bed at the end of life.
She was not old but she had a disease that she knew couldn’t be cured.
She was not grieving. She was planning her funeral.
She wanted her service to be a witness to her faith in God.
At one point she began to laugh. She said, “I seem to always want to be in control. Here I am planning my own funeral!”
Even in her weakness she was keeping her faith alive.
That strengthened my faith. I thought: “If she is able to say that God is real, then he must be real!
II. The second thing we need to be happy: Someone to love. I John 4:7-12:
“Dear friends, let us love one another;
for love is of God,
and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God;
for God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world,
so that we might live through him.”
A. The great incentive to love is God’s love for us: John 3:16. Let’s repeat it together.
And if we truly love God his love will fill our lives and we will love others because they are dear to him.
B. Yesterday we had been married 50 years. Our children asked our friends and relatives to send us cards. We have been getting these expressions of love from people we love and it has been very humbling. We have a lot of people to love and so do you.
C. But let me remind you that love in the Bible isn’t just a feeling.
Love in the Bible is mostly a way of behaving—love is respect, kindness, courtesy, service, sacrifice, giving of what is dear to ourselves to others.
Love is for those who love us, and love is even for our enemies—Jesus said so. So when you pray for those who love you, also pray for your enemies.
That is what Jesus said. There is always someone to love. And there is always some way to show that love.
III. The third thing we need to be happy: Something to look forward to: John 14:3:
“Let not your hearts be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms;
if it were not so,
would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And when I go and prepare a place for you.
I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am you may be also.
A. Sometimes you hear the saying: “The best is yet to be.” That’s especially true for Christians. Psalm 16 tells us that “in God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.”
B. Some of us have walked with God so long that we’ve forgotten how terrible it would be to grow old without God. Think of what it would be like to have nothing to look forward to but ever-increasing weakness, pain, and forgetfulness.
C. Sometimes as I lie in bed and can’t sleep I think about what it will be like in glory—in the Paradise of God, the Father’s House, New Jerusalem.
No more tears, no more crying or pain or sickness or death.
We will sing and dance and sit down together to feast with the Lord.
Every pleasure we enjoy on earth will be translated to perfection in glory.
We will be re-united with loved ones and make countless new friends. We will share stories together.
We will have work and leisure and never grow weary or be bored.
It will be better than we can imagine now.
And, best of all, we will see Jesus face to face. We will walk and talk with him.
CONCLUSION:
People think they need many things to be happy. But we know that we need only three things, and they are things that we can all have if we are friends of the Lord Jesus:
Something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.
We are so blessed, we who are God’s children. Let us give thanks.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:58, 1 JOHN 4:7-12, & JOHN 14:3: TRUE HAPPINESS
INTRODUCTION
When I taught seventh grade I used to ask my students to write for me an essay: “My Goal in Life.”
As their compositions showed, my students weren’t very ambitious to make a great mark in the world—to find the cure for cancer or to explore the Amazon or to write great books or symphonies.
Most of the children wrote that all they really hoped for in life was to “be happy.”
They weren’t especially interested in fame or fortune or accomplishing great things. They just wanted “happiness.”
They didn’t realize—what all of us older people know—that happiness isn’t something you can find by seeking it.
You’ve probably heard the saying:
“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder.”
Not so many mornings ago I woke up—as I often do—long before time to get up and was thinking about life. I was considering what I had done with my life up to now and that soon my life on earth would be ending, and what would I have to show for it?
I was thinking about the pains and limitations of old age, and I was becoming sort of melancholy as I thought about how little time I have left.
I wondered: what do I really need to be happy?
Then something came to me that I had read many years ago. It was this saying,
”Happiness consists of three things:
something to do,
someone to love,
and something to look forward to.”
I thought about the wisdom of that saying, and it occurred to me that with Christ in my life I have all these things.
I. The first thing we need to be happy: Something to do: 1 Corinthians 15:58:
“Therefore my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
A. Many of you have been active in times past, serving God and serving other people. You have cared for your families, visited sick neighbors, taught SS, sung in choirs, given to those in need, served your churches and neighborhoods in 100 different ways.
B. But now it is different. The old opportunities are gone and maybe you have become discouraged because now you are no longer serving others but others are serving you. But now I want to remind you that there are still things to do for others and for God.
We can all pray—for our families, our friends, our enemies, the people of the world. When we watch our TVs and see the troubles of the world, we can pray for these people. We can pray for our churches, for our children and grandchildren and relatives out in the world that need help from our God. Someday we may learn that the greatest good we did in the world was by our prayers.
We can encourage others. Think of how often your day has been brightened by a friendly smile or a word of encouragement. You can be that person who encourages others by an expression of gratitude, a compliment, a listening ear.
We can still give. Maybe we can’t give as we used to, but we can still give something back to God. We can still give gifts to other people.
I had an aunt who lived to be 101. She lived in a nursing home for several years. She ordered several copies of a monthly devotional booklet. When the nurse aides came into her room, she gave each aide of her booklets.
They came to expect them and ask for them.
And most important—we can bear witness that God is real.
I think of a last visit to a friend as she lay in bed at the end of life.
She was not old but she had a disease that she knew couldn’t be cured.
She was not grieving. She was planning her funeral.
She wanted her service to be a witness to her faith in God.
At one point she began to laugh. She said, “I seem to always want to be in control. Here I am planning my own funeral!”
Even in her weakness she was keeping her faith alive.
That strengthened my faith. I thought: “If she is able to say that God is real, then he must be real!
II. The second thing we need to be happy: Someone to love. I John 4:7-12:
“Dear friends, let us love one another;
for love is of God,
and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God;
for God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world,
so that we might live through him.”
A. The great incentive to love is God’s love for us: John 3:16. Let’s repeat it together.
And if we truly love God his love will fill our lives and we will love others because they are dear to him.
B. Yesterday we had been married 50 years. Our children asked our friends and relatives to send us cards. We have been getting these expressions of love from people we love and it has been very humbling. We have a lot of people to love and so do you.
C. But let me remind you that love in the Bible isn’t just a feeling.
Love in the Bible is mostly a way of behaving—love is respect, kindness, courtesy, service, sacrifice, giving of what is dear to ourselves to others.
Love is for those who love us, and love is even for our enemies—Jesus said so. So when you pray for those who love you, also pray for your enemies.
That is what Jesus said. There is always someone to love. And there is always some way to show that love.
III. The third thing we need to be happy: Something to look forward to: John 14:3:
“Let not your hearts be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms;
if it were not so,
would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And when I go and prepare a place for you.
I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am you may be also.
A. Sometimes you hear the saying: “The best is yet to be.” That’s especially true for Christians. Psalm 16 tells us that “in God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.”
B. Some of us have walked with God so long that we’ve forgotten how terrible it would be to grow old without God. Think of what it would be like to have nothing to look forward to but ever-increasing weakness, pain, and forgetfulness.
C. Sometimes as I lie in bed and can’t sleep I think about what it will be like in glory—in the Paradise of God, the Father’s House, New Jerusalem.
No more tears, no more crying or pain or sickness or death.
We will sing and dance and sit down together to feast with the Lord.
Every pleasure we enjoy on earth will be translated to perfection in glory.
We will be re-united with loved ones and make countless new friends. We will share stories together.
We will have work and leisure and never grow weary or be bored.
It will be better than we can imagine now.
And, best of all, we will see Jesus face to face. We will walk and talk with him.
CONCLUSION:
People think they need many things to be happy. But we know that we need only three things, and they are things that we can all have if we are friends of the Lord Jesus:
Something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.
We are so blessed, we who are God’s children. Let us give thanks.
Resurrection and Eternal Life: Psalm 90:14: Satisfaction with God
Everyone is seeking satisfaction somewhere or other. But what does the Bible say about where real heart-satisfaction comes from?
PSALM 90:14: SATISFACTION WITH GOD
INTRODUCTION
The story is told of a Quaker farmer who once advertised that he would give a piece of land to anyone that was satisfied. The offer had no response for some time. Finally a man came to see if the offer was still good.
“Sure,” said the Quaker, “are thee satisfied?”
“Yes,” said the man.
“If thee are satisfied,” answered the Quaker, “why, then, does thee want my field?”
Our lives are full of dissatisfactions, discontents.
Some people lack even the necessary things of life—food, clothing, shelter.
Some have everything they could possibly need, but they want more, more, more…
A child finished opening his presents on Christmas morning and said, “Is this all there is? If I had known this was all there would be, I wouldn’t have waited so long for Christmas.”
Some know that they have enough of this world’s goods, but they still feel within a discontent. Is this all there is to life?
Text: Psalm 90:14:
“Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
I. People live longing…
A. Children long to grow up so that they can have the privileges of adulthood…staying up as long as they like…things like that.
Young people long to be settled and secure…
Adults long for success…
In middle age, some people count the days until retirement…
In old age, people look back longingly. Sometimes they have regrets. They realize that the things they craved most were only shadows of good things…
In Psalm 4 the psalmist says, “There are many who say, ‘O that we might see some good!’”
B. But it isn’t in the blessings of this earth—wealth, health, friends, or success—that we find true lasting fulfillment.
Psalm 4, that I just quoted goes on:
“…Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, O Lord!
Thou hast put more joy into my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.”
The more I eat of the Bread of Life, the more I drink of the Water of Life, the more satisfied I am.
And the more satisfied I am with the Lord Jesus, the more my appetite grows for the fulfillment that comes from God alone.
II. The psalmist prays, “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love…”
A. Our greatest craving is to know and to feel that we are loved.
Human love is a foretaste of heaven.
But human love isn’t enough, because people come and go.
I have had many great friends in times gone by—but they have moved away from me, or I have moved away from them, and we’ve lost touch with many of them.
Some have died. Though I treasure the memory of their love and expect someday again to meet them again, I miss them.
B. The Hebrew word translated here “steadfast love” is a very special word.
The word is hesed, which is a word with a very broad meaning. We could translate hesed with all of these English words: love, loyalty, faithfulness, kindness, mercy…
The unfailing love of God is the love that all the human loves point to.
It is grace, a love that goes with us through the darkness, through the wilderness. Grace lasts forever.
III. “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
A. Rejoicing is the outward expression of joy. Some Bibles translate it, “…that we may sing for joy...”
B. Gladness is the inward expression of joy: the satisfaction of knowing that God is always near.
“So near, so very near to God,
I cannot nearer be,
for in the person of his Son
I’m just as near as he.
“So dear, so very dear to God,
more dear I cannot be.
The love wherewith he loves the Son,
such is his love for me.
CONCLUSION
I use this prayer in three ways:
1. “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
It is a prayer for each night, as I go to sleep. I look forward to enjoying God’s love in the next day of life.
Each day is a fresh start with God.
2. “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love” is a prayer for the dark times…
When we are walking through the valley, we pray for the dawn, the break of day, the dawn of God’s renewed goodness.
Sometimes we pray with the psalmist, “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation…” (Ps. 51.12).
3. And lastly—“Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love”—is a prayer looking forward to that time when all of God’s promises are fulfilled in their fullest measure…that time when I see my Lord Jesus face-to-face.
Another psalmist wrote these words, which speak to me also of that morning…
“Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
And
“As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with beholding thy form” (Ps. 16:15).
What an awakening that will be when we wake up in the Promised Land!
When we see Jesus satisfaction will fill our hearts—such deep and lasting satisfaction that we can’t even imagine in this life!
PSALM 90:14: SATISFACTION WITH GOD
INTRODUCTION
The story is told of a Quaker farmer who once advertised that he would give a piece of land to anyone that was satisfied. The offer had no response for some time. Finally a man came to see if the offer was still good.
“Sure,” said the Quaker, “are thee satisfied?”
“Yes,” said the man.
“If thee are satisfied,” answered the Quaker, “why, then, does thee want my field?”
Our lives are full of dissatisfactions, discontents.
Some people lack even the necessary things of life—food, clothing, shelter.
Some have everything they could possibly need, but they want more, more, more…
A child finished opening his presents on Christmas morning and said, “Is this all there is? If I had known this was all there would be, I wouldn’t have waited so long for Christmas.”
Some know that they have enough of this world’s goods, but they still feel within a discontent. Is this all there is to life?
Text: Psalm 90:14:
“Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
I. People live longing…
A. Children long to grow up so that they can have the privileges of adulthood…staying up as long as they like…things like that.
Young people long to be settled and secure…
Adults long for success…
In middle age, some people count the days until retirement…
In old age, people look back longingly. Sometimes they have regrets. They realize that the things they craved most were only shadows of good things…
In Psalm 4 the psalmist says, “There are many who say, ‘O that we might see some good!’”
B. But it isn’t in the blessings of this earth—wealth, health, friends, or success—that we find true lasting fulfillment.
Psalm 4, that I just quoted goes on:
“…Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, O Lord!
Thou hast put more joy into my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.”
The more I eat of the Bread of Life, the more I drink of the Water of Life, the more satisfied I am.
And the more satisfied I am with the Lord Jesus, the more my appetite grows for the fulfillment that comes from God alone.
II. The psalmist prays, “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love…”
A. Our greatest craving is to know and to feel that we are loved.
Human love is a foretaste of heaven.
But human love isn’t enough, because people come and go.
I have had many great friends in times gone by—but they have moved away from me, or I have moved away from them, and we’ve lost touch with many of them.
Some have died. Though I treasure the memory of their love and expect someday again to meet them again, I miss them.
B. The Hebrew word translated here “steadfast love” is a very special word.
The word is hesed, which is a word with a very broad meaning. We could translate hesed with all of these English words: love, loyalty, faithfulness, kindness, mercy…
The unfailing love of God is the love that all the human loves point to.
It is grace, a love that goes with us through the darkness, through the wilderness. Grace lasts forever.
III. “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
A. Rejoicing is the outward expression of joy. Some Bibles translate it, “…that we may sing for joy...”
B. Gladness is the inward expression of joy: the satisfaction of knowing that God is always near.
“So near, so very near to God,
I cannot nearer be,
for in the person of his Son
I’m just as near as he.
“So dear, so very dear to God,
more dear I cannot be.
The love wherewith he loves the Son,
such is his love for me.
CONCLUSION
I use this prayer in three ways:
1. “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
It is a prayer for each night, as I go to sleep. I look forward to enjoying God’s love in the next day of life.
Each day is a fresh start with God.
2. “Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love” is a prayer for the dark times…
When we are walking through the valley, we pray for the dawn, the break of day, the dawn of God’s renewed goodness.
Sometimes we pray with the psalmist, “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation…” (Ps. 51.12).
3. And lastly—“Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love”—is a prayer looking forward to that time when all of God’s promises are fulfilled in their fullest measure…that time when I see my Lord Jesus face-to-face.
Another psalmist wrote these words, which speak to me also of that morning…
“Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
And
“As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with beholding thy form” (Ps. 16:15).
What an awakening that will be when we wake up in the Promised Land!
When we see Jesus satisfaction will fill our hearts—such deep and lasting satisfaction that we can’t even imagine in this life!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: Acts 18:1-3, etc.: Aquila and Priscilla
We honor the heroes of our faith—people like Mary, our Lord’s mother, and Peter and John and Paul—people who play great roles in the gospel stories. But these people wouldn’t have been the heroes they were if it hadn’t been for many ordinary people who worked with them—mostly in obscurity—to help make them the great leaders they were.
ACTS 18:1-3, 18, & 24-26, 1 CORINTHIANS 16:19, & ROMANS 16:3: AQUILA AND PRISCILLA
INTRODUCTION
My great-grandfather—my granny’s father--came from England, and not long after he arrived he started a tent and awning business. His factory in Kansas City made covers for covered wagons, awnings, and tents of all kinds—tents for circuses, tents for the army, tents for evangelists, and tents for dwellings because in those days some people who couldn’t afford houses even lived in tents.
Did you know that the great apostle Paul was also a tentmaker?
Among the Jews, for a teacher to work with his hands and supported himself was considered an honorable thing to do.
If he worked he didn’t need to charge his students for his teaching.
Paul continued to support himself with his own labor even when he became a Christian and a missionary.
Some rabbis were potters, some were carpenters, some were basket makers, and Paul made tents.
Leather was much cheaper than cloth in those days, so Paul probably made his tents of skins.
Cutting and sewing leather was hard work and in Acts 20 where we read Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders, we read how he held up his calloused, work-worn hands and reminded them that he had not asked them for any support but said, “You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.”
We read that when Paul arrived at Corinth, on his second missionary journey he met a couple named Aquila and Priscilla, who were Jews and Christian believers, who took him into their own tent business as a partner.
The house of Priscilla and Aquila became a home-away-from-home for Paul and they became valued helpers in Paul’s ministry.
I. Acts 18:1-3: After this he [Paul] left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, lately come form Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them; and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and they worked, for by trade they were tentmakers”
A. Aquila and Priscilla had been living in Rome, but, because of some riots among the Jews, the Roman Emperor Claudius had commanded that Jews were to leave Rome. Aquila and Priscilla had left and had set up their tent-making business in the Greek city of Corinth.
And that is why they were in Corinth when Paul needed their help.
They took Paul into the business and into their home and for a year and six months Aquila and Priscilla worked together with Paul.
Paul would have spent much more time with Aquila and Priscilla making tents than he spent preaching in the marketplace or teaching in the synagogues. So they got to know each other very well.
And what is more important, Paul would have had time to teach them, conversationally, all he knew about Jesus and salvation.
It must have been wonderful to have heard the stories of his adventures.
It must have been wonderful to be able to ask him every question that was on their minds about the difficulties of living for God.
B. And we read later on in that chapter that when Paul left Corinth to go to Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla packed up their business and went along with him.
They had become his partners, not only in the tent-making business but also in the gospel.
II. The next thing we read about Priscilla and Aquila is later in that same chapter (vv24-26):
A. “Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.”
Apollos came from Alexandria, a great center of learning, and Apollos was a learned man and great speaker.
He was like one of those great preachers who tell you things you never dreamed of and hold your attention with stories and wise sayings.
So people loved to listen to Apollos, and many were convinced by what he said.
B. But Priscilla and Aquila had a problem.
The more they listened to this brilliant preacher, the more they were concerned that there were things he didn’t know that he needed to know.
Apollos knew that Jesus was the Savior and that he died for our sins.
He knew that he rose from the dead to assure us of eternal life.
But there was evidently something about Christian baptism Apollos didn’t understand.
Something they understood very well because they had heard Paul explain it to them.
They wanted to help Apollos, but, you know, it’s awkward to try to set a preacher straight.
Aquila and Priscilla didn’t disparage Apollos behind his back.
They didn’t tell their friends about his inadequacies.
They went to Apollos. We read, “They took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.”
I believe that means that they invited him over for dinner.
And I think they began by thanking him for his fine teaching—for all they had learned from him.
They commended him for his enthusiasm and for his love for the Lord.
And then—very humbly and respectfully—they began to fill him in on some of the things he needed to know—things Paul had taught them during that year-and-a-half when they had worked together making tents back in Corinth.
I don’t know who to admire more—Priscilla and Aquila, for their gentleness and tact, or Apollos for his humility in being willing to learn from people so far beneath him in education.
And evidently Apollos just drank it in and thanked them.
And he became an even better preacher and teacher.
So that when Paul wrote back to the Corinthians he could say, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
C. One thing that strikes everyone when they read about this godly couple is how they worked together.
Evidently Priscilla was as good a teacher as her husband Aquila.
They worked as a team.
That Priscilla was an equal partner is seen by the fact that in the later references Priscilla’s name is listed first.
Maybe she was the most knowledgeable. Maybe she was the better teacher.
III. The next thing I want to call your attention to is that Priscilla and Aquila had a church in their home.
A. They had a churches in their homes in Corinth, and in Ephesus, and later in Rome.
Paul, writing from Ephesus to the Corinthians writes, “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 16:19)
(She’s called Prisca here. Prisca was the more formal form of her name and Priscilla the diminutive—like James and Jim.
In the early days of Christianity the believers met in homes. They didn’t have church buildings. The house churches were small and they were scattered around the cities.
In the last chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul sends greetings to believers in at least 5 house churches. A scholar estimates that these little churches probably had from 5 to 30 members.
B. In this last chapter of his letter to the Romans Paul writes something else interesting about Priscilla and Aquila: “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house” (Romans 16:3-5).
I wonder how Aquila and Priscilla risked their necks to save Paul’s life?
Probably after their little church had gathered and read Paul's letter, Priscilla and Aquila's friends asked them: “How did you risk your necks to same Paul’s life?”
As we read Acts we read of many times when Paul’s life was in danger from enemies of the gospel.
Probably it was during a time Paul’s enemies were closing in on him—during one of these times of great danger—that Aquila and Priscilla hid him in their home or in some other way stood between him and his enemies—even though, in doing so, they risked their lives.
CONCLUSION
Priscilla and Aquila weren’t famous. They are just minor characters in the Bible story.
But the work they did was of great importance.
They gave Paul shelter when he needed a home away from home.
They brought him into their workshop and helped him support himself and his friends.
They listened and learned and passed what they learned on to others.
They stood by Paul in a time of great danger.
And they nurtured a church in their home.
A wise Christian lady said, “We can’t do anything great for God, but we can do something small with great love.”
As the old children’s chorus has it:
“There’s a work for Jesus, ready at your hand,
‘Tis a task the Master just for you has planned.
Haste to do his bidding, yield him service true;
There’s a work for Jesus none but you can do.”
Or as we sing in the famous spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead”:
“If you cannot preach like Peter,
if you cannot pray like Paul,
you can tell the love of Jesus
and say, ‘He died for all.’”
And that’s why I brought you this little message about Priscilla and Aquila, to remind you that whatever you have done for God in time past, or whatever you are doing for God even now, and whatever you are able to do for God in the future is important—more important than you can know until you get to glory and you hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
ACTS 18:1-3, 18, & 24-26, 1 CORINTHIANS 16:19, & ROMANS 16:3: AQUILA AND PRISCILLA
INTRODUCTION
My great-grandfather—my granny’s father--came from England, and not long after he arrived he started a tent and awning business. His factory in Kansas City made covers for covered wagons, awnings, and tents of all kinds—tents for circuses, tents for the army, tents for evangelists, and tents for dwellings because in those days some people who couldn’t afford houses even lived in tents.
Did you know that the great apostle Paul was also a tentmaker?
Among the Jews, for a teacher to work with his hands and supported himself was considered an honorable thing to do.
If he worked he didn’t need to charge his students for his teaching.
Paul continued to support himself with his own labor even when he became a Christian and a missionary.
Some rabbis were potters, some were carpenters, some were basket makers, and Paul made tents.
Leather was much cheaper than cloth in those days, so Paul probably made his tents of skins.
Cutting and sewing leather was hard work and in Acts 20 where we read Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders, we read how he held up his calloused, work-worn hands and reminded them that he had not asked them for any support but said, “You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.”
We read that when Paul arrived at Corinth, on his second missionary journey he met a couple named Aquila and Priscilla, who were Jews and Christian believers, who took him into their own tent business as a partner.
The house of Priscilla and Aquila became a home-away-from-home for Paul and they became valued helpers in Paul’s ministry.
I. Acts 18:1-3: After this he [Paul] left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, lately come form Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them; and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and they worked, for by trade they were tentmakers”
A. Aquila and Priscilla had been living in Rome, but, because of some riots among the Jews, the Roman Emperor Claudius had commanded that Jews were to leave Rome. Aquila and Priscilla had left and had set up their tent-making business in the Greek city of Corinth.
And that is why they were in Corinth when Paul needed their help.
They took Paul into the business and into their home and for a year and six months Aquila and Priscilla worked together with Paul.
Paul would have spent much more time with Aquila and Priscilla making tents than he spent preaching in the marketplace or teaching in the synagogues. So they got to know each other very well.
And what is more important, Paul would have had time to teach them, conversationally, all he knew about Jesus and salvation.
It must have been wonderful to have heard the stories of his adventures.
It must have been wonderful to be able to ask him every question that was on their minds about the difficulties of living for God.
B. And we read later on in that chapter that when Paul left Corinth to go to Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla packed up their business and went along with him.
They had become his partners, not only in the tent-making business but also in the gospel.
II. The next thing we read about Priscilla and Aquila is later in that same chapter (vv24-26):
A. “Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.”
Apollos came from Alexandria, a great center of learning, and Apollos was a learned man and great speaker.
He was like one of those great preachers who tell you things you never dreamed of and hold your attention with stories and wise sayings.
So people loved to listen to Apollos, and many were convinced by what he said.
B. But Priscilla and Aquila had a problem.
The more they listened to this brilliant preacher, the more they were concerned that there were things he didn’t know that he needed to know.
Apollos knew that Jesus was the Savior and that he died for our sins.
He knew that he rose from the dead to assure us of eternal life.
But there was evidently something about Christian baptism Apollos didn’t understand.
Something they understood very well because they had heard Paul explain it to them.
They wanted to help Apollos, but, you know, it’s awkward to try to set a preacher straight.
Aquila and Priscilla didn’t disparage Apollos behind his back.
They didn’t tell their friends about his inadequacies.
They went to Apollos. We read, “They took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.”
I believe that means that they invited him over for dinner.
And I think they began by thanking him for his fine teaching—for all they had learned from him.
They commended him for his enthusiasm and for his love for the Lord.
And then—very humbly and respectfully—they began to fill him in on some of the things he needed to know—things Paul had taught them during that year-and-a-half when they had worked together making tents back in Corinth.
I don’t know who to admire more—Priscilla and Aquila, for their gentleness and tact, or Apollos for his humility in being willing to learn from people so far beneath him in education.
And evidently Apollos just drank it in and thanked them.
And he became an even better preacher and teacher.
So that when Paul wrote back to the Corinthians he could say, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
C. One thing that strikes everyone when they read about this godly couple is how they worked together.
Evidently Priscilla was as good a teacher as her husband Aquila.
They worked as a team.
That Priscilla was an equal partner is seen by the fact that in the later references Priscilla’s name is listed first.
Maybe she was the most knowledgeable. Maybe she was the better teacher.
III. The next thing I want to call your attention to is that Priscilla and Aquila had a church in their home.
A. They had a churches in their homes in Corinth, and in Ephesus, and later in Rome.
Paul, writing from Ephesus to the Corinthians writes, “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 16:19)
(She’s called Prisca here. Prisca was the more formal form of her name and Priscilla the diminutive—like James and Jim.
In the early days of Christianity the believers met in homes. They didn’t have church buildings. The house churches were small and they were scattered around the cities.
In the last chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul sends greetings to believers in at least 5 house churches. A scholar estimates that these little churches probably had from 5 to 30 members.
B. In this last chapter of his letter to the Romans Paul writes something else interesting about Priscilla and Aquila: “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house” (Romans 16:3-5).
I wonder how Aquila and Priscilla risked their necks to save Paul’s life?
Probably after their little church had gathered and read Paul's letter, Priscilla and Aquila's friends asked them: “How did you risk your necks to same Paul’s life?”
As we read Acts we read of many times when Paul’s life was in danger from enemies of the gospel.
Probably it was during a time Paul’s enemies were closing in on him—during one of these times of great danger—that Aquila and Priscilla hid him in their home or in some other way stood between him and his enemies—even though, in doing so, they risked their lives.
CONCLUSION
Priscilla and Aquila weren’t famous. They are just minor characters in the Bible story.
But the work they did was of great importance.
They gave Paul shelter when he needed a home away from home.
They brought him into their workshop and helped him support himself and his friends.
They listened and learned and passed what they learned on to others.
They stood by Paul in a time of great danger.
And they nurtured a church in their home.
A wise Christian lady said, “We can’t do anything great for God, but we can do something small with great love.”
As the old children’s chorus has it:
“There’s a work for Jesus, ready at your hand,
‘Tis a task the Master just for you has planned.
Haste to do his bidding, yield him service true;
There’s a work for Jesus none but you can do.”
Or as we sing in the famous spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead”:
“If you cannot preach like Peter,
if you cannot pray like Paul,
you can tell the love of Jesus
and say, ‘He died for all.’”
And that’s why I brought you this little message about Priscilla and Aquila, to remind you that whatever you have done for God in time past, or whatever you are doing for God even now, and whatever you are able to do for God in the future is important—more important than you can know until you get to glory and you hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Living for Jesus: John 15:5: The Vine and Its Branches
We ask: “How can my life enrich the lives of other people?” Jesus tells us how in his parable of the vine and its branches.
JOHN 15:5: THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES
INTRODUCTION
A friend of mine at the University of Kansas was working his way through graduate school. He and his wife supported themselves by serving as live-in companions for an elderly retired botany professor.
The professor was an unhappy man because he kept asking himself and others whether his life had been worthwhile.
He wanted to believe that all the work he had done had benefited others besides himself and his family, but he wasn’t sure, and that made him think that maybe his life had been wasted.
As we come near the end of life, we all wonder what our life has counted for.
We wonder what we have done to make life better or happier for the people around us.
If we are believers we hope that our lives have blessed others.
We hope that some good we have tried to do will live on in the lives of others when we are gone.
Read John 15:1-11. In this passage Jesus tells his disciples the secret of how my life and your life may enrich other people. Let’s consider today, just verse 5:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him,
he it is who bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
I. Just as the branch depends on the parent vine for its life, so we depend on Christ.
A. cut off from the parent vine, the branch soon withers and dies.
Severed from Christ, we die—not physically, but spiritually
We die to all that’s good.
We die to eternal life, because eternal life in only in union with Jesus Christ.
United with Christ, we live and thrive.
C. This is what it means to abide in Christ—or, as some translations put it, to remain in Christ.
To abide in Christ is to live in constant dependence on him. That is faith.
To abide in Christ is to make it our aim to please him. That is obedience.
To abide in Christ is to desire Christ above all others. That is love.
To abide in Christ means to live constantly in Christ’ presence.
In Lloyd C. Douglas’ novel The Robe, Marcellus asks Justus, “Where do you think Jesus went?”
Justus replied, “I don’t know, my friend, I only know that he is alive. And I am always expecting to see him. Sometimes I feel aware of him, as if he were close by.”
Justus smiled faintly, his eyes wet with tears. “It keeps you honest,” he went on. “You have no temptation to cheat anyone, or lie to anyone, or hurt anyone—when, for all you know, Jesus is standing beside you.”
I’m afraid I should feel very uncomfortable,” remarked Marcellus, “being perpetually watched by some invisible presence.”
“Not if that presence helped you defend yourself against yourself, Marcellus. It is a great satisfaction to have someone standing by—to keep you at your best.”
An alcoholic patient was placed in a room with three other patients who did nothing but scream. When night came, he prayed to be able to sleep, but the screams continued.
Then suddenly he changed his approach. He began to pray for his three roommates.
“May God give you peace,” he said quietly over and over.
Finally the screams stopped. “Not only that,” the alcoholic reported later, “it was as if something broke in me. Praying for them released my own tension. I was free.”
A short time later he was well enough to go home.
To abide in Christ, learn his ways and listen to his voice.
We learn his ways and listen to his voice by reading our Bible and by going to church.
To abide in Christ we need to seek fellowship with other believers, and when we are with other believers to converse about the things of God.
We need each other. If we separate ourselves from other Christian believers we soon fall out of fellowship with Jesus.
We are like branches cut off from the vine.
A minister was calling on a member of his church who was seldom present for worship. The man said he really didn’t feel the need of going to church and didn’t feel that it helped him much.
The minister went over to the hearth where a fire was blazing brightly. With the tongs he picked out a coal and set it aside away from the fire. As he watched the coal grow quickly dull and coal, the man realized as no words could have why he need to fellowship with other Christians.
II. The point of the parable is that if we abide in Christ we bear fruit.
A. “Fruit” means to the good qualities that come into our lives from God.
When we abide in Christ, when we dwell with him and he with us, we produce in our lives, what the Bible calls the “fruit of the Spirit” or the “harvest of the Spirit”—in other words, God changes us into Christlikeness.
The Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit is—
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness (or generosity),
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
B. “Fruit” also means usefulness.
Solitary Christians do no one any good.
God uses his people to convey his love to others.
Goodness that reaches out to serve others in service spreads God’s love to other people.
Our work as Christian believers is to spread God’s love around us wherever we are, wherever we go.
CONCLUSION
It is told of St. Catherine of Sienna that she was admired for her raptures and spiritual ecstasies, but St. Francis de Sales, who writes about her, says that what most impressed him about St. Catherine is that as she worked in her father’s kitchen—turning the spit, looking after the fire, cooking the meals, kneading the bread, and carrying out the most menial chores—is that she did everything with a heart full of burning love for God.
He writes that Catherine used to imagine, while cooking her father’s meals, that she was another Martha doing it for her Lord. She saw Our Lady in her mother and the twelve apostles in her brothers as she served them.
With thoughts like these, Francis says, she encouraged herself to serve in spirit the heavenly court and to carry out her lowly tasks with great delight, seeing them as the will of God.
A nursing school graduate took a job in a long-term care facility.
One of her first patients was a woman named Eileen. Eileen’s major health problem was that she had had an aneurysm burst in her brain, leaving her totally unconscious as far as anyone could see, and apparently unaware of anything that was going on around her. It was necessary to turn Eileen every hour to prevent bedsores, and she had to be fed through her stomach tube twice a day. Eileen never had visitors--there was apparently no one who cared about her.
One of the other nurses said, "When it's this bad you have to detach yourself emotionally from the whole situation…." As a result, more and more Eileen came to be treated as a thing, with people just going in and doing their work and then leaving again as quickly as they could.
But this young nurse decided that she, in living out her Christian faith, would treat this woman differently. She talked to Eileen, sang to her, said encouraging things to her, and even brought her little gifts.
On Thanksgiving Day, however, the young nurse came to work reluctantly, wanting to be home on the holiday. As she entered Eileen's room, she knew she would be doing the normal tasks with no thanks whatsoever. So she decided to talk to Eileen and said, "I was in a cruddy mood this morning, Eileen, because it was supposed to be a day off. But now that I'm here, I'm glad. I wouldn't have wanted to miss seeing you on Thanksgiving Day. Do you know that this is Thanksgiving Day?”
Just then the telephone rang and the nurse turned away from the bed to answer it. As she was talking, she turned to look back at Eileen.
“Suddenly,” she said, “Eileen was looking at me, crying. Big damp circles stained her pillow and she was shaking all over.”
That was the only emotion that Eileen ever showed, but it was enough to change the attitude of the entire staff toward her. Not much later she died.
The young nurse closed her story this way: "I keep thinking about her….It occurred to me that I owe her an awful lot. Except for Eileen, I might never have known what it's like to give myself to someone who can't give back.
That young nurse had learned the secret of abiding in Christ and her life was bearing fruit for God.
JOHN 15:5: THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES
INTRODUCTION
A friend of mine at the University of Kansas was working his way through graduate school. He and his wife supported themselves by serving as live-in companions for an elderly retired botany professor.
The professor was an unhappy man because he kept asking himself and others whether his life had been worthwhile.
He wanted to believe that all the work he had done had benefited others besides himself and his family, but he wasn’t sure, and that made him think that maybe his life had been wasted.
As we come near the end of life, we all wonder what our life has counted for.
We wonder what we have done to make life better or happier for the people around us.
If we are believers we hope that our lives have blessed others.
We hope that some good we have tried to do will live on in the lives of others when we are gone.
Read John 15:1-11. In this passage Jesus tells his disciples the secret of how my life and your life may enrich other people. Let’s consider today, just verse 5:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him,
he it is who bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
I. Just as the branch depends on the parent vine for its life, so we depend on Christ.
A. cut off from the parent vine, the branch soon withers and dies.
Severed from Christ, we die—not physically, but spiritually
We die to all that’s good.
We die to eternal life, because eternal life in only in union with Jesus Christ.
United with Christ, we live and thrive.
C. This is what it means to abide in Christ—or, as some translations put it, to remain in Christ.
To abide in Christ is to live in constant dependence on him. That is faith.
To abide in Christ is to make it our aim to please him. That is obedience.
To abide in Christ is to desire Christ above all others. That is love.
To abide in Christ means to live constantly in Christ’ presence.
In Lloyd C. Douglas’ novel The Robe, Marcellus asks Justus, “Where do you think Jesus went?”
Justus replied, “I don’t know, my friend, I only know that he is alive. And I am always expecting to see him. Sometimes I feel aware of him, as if he were close by.”
Justus smiled faintly, his eyes wet with tears. “It keeps you honest,” he went on. “You have no temptation to cheat anyone, or lie to anyone, or hurt anyone—when, for all you know, Jesus is standing beside you.”
I’m afraid I should feel very uncomfortable,” remarked Marcellus, “being perpetually watched by some invisible presence.”
“Not if that presence helped you defend yourself against yourself, Marcellus. It is a great satisfaction to have someone standing by—to keep you at your best.”
An alcoholic patient was placed in a room with three other patients who did nothing but scream. When night came, he prayed to be able to sleep, but the screams continued.
Then suddenly he changed his approach. He began to pray for his three roommates.
“May God give you peace,” he said quietly over and over.
Finally the screams stopped. “Not only that,” the alcoholic reported later, “it was as if something broke in me. Praying for them released my own tension. I was free.”
A short time later he was well enough to go home.
To abide in Christ, learn his ways and listen to his voice.
We learn his ways and listen to his voice by reading our Bible and by going to church.
To abide in Christ we need to seek fellowship with other believers, and when we are with other believers to converse about the things of God.
We need each other. If we separate ourselves from other Christian believers we soon fall out of fellowship with Jesus.
We are like branches cut off from the vine.
A minister was calling on a member of his church who was seldom present for worship. The man said he really didn’t feel the need of going to church and didn’t feel that it helped him much.
The minister went over to the hearth where a fire was blazing brightly. With the tongs he picked out a coal and set it aside away from the fire. As he watched the coal grow quickly dull and coal, the man realized as no words could have why he need to fellowship with other Christians.
II. The point of the parable is that if we abide in Christ we bear fruit.
A. “Fruit” means to the good qualities that come into our lives from God.
When we abide in Christ, when we dwell with him and he with us, we produce in our lives, what the Bible calls the “fruit of the Spirit” or the “harvest of the Spirit”—in other words, God changes us into Christlikeness.
The Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit is—
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness (or generosity),
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
B. “Fruit” also means usefulness.
Solitary Christians do no one any good.
God uses his people to convey his love to others.
Goodness that reaches out to serve others in service spreads God’s love to other people.
Our work as Christian believers is to spread God’s love around us wherever we are, wherever we go.
CONCLUSION
It is told of St. Catherine of Sienna that she was admired for her raptures and spiritual ecstasies, but St. Francis de Sales, who writes about her, says that what most impressed him about St. Catherine is that as she worked in her father’s kitchen—turning the spit, looking after the fire, cooking the meals, kneading the bread, and carrying out the most menial chores—is that she did everything with a heart full of burning love for God.
He writes that Catherine used to imagine, while cooking her father’s meals, that she was another Martha doing it for her Lord. She saw Our Lady in her mother and the twelve apostles in her brothers as she served them.
With thoughts like these, Francis says, she encouraged herself to serve in spirit the heavenly court and to carry out her lowly tasks with great delight, seeing them as the will of God.
A nursing school graduate took a job in a long-term care facility.
One of her first patients was a woman named Eileen. Eileen’s major health problem was that she had had an aneurysm burst in her brain, leaving her totally unconscious as far as anyone could see, and apparently unaware of anything that was going on around her. It was necessary to turn Eileen every hour to prevent bedsores, and she had to be fed through her stomach tube twice a day. Eileen never had visitors--there was apparently no one who cared about her.
One of the other nurses said, "When it's this bad you have to detach yourself emotionally from the whole situation…." As a result, more and more Eileen came to be treated as a thing, with people just going in and doing their work and then leaving again as quickly as they could.
But this young nurse decided that she, in living out her Christian faith, would treat this woman differently. She talked to Eileen, sang to her, said encouraging things to her, and even brought her little gifts.
On Thanksgiving Day, however, the young nurse came to work reluctantly, wanting to be home on the holiday. As she entered Eileen's room, she knew she would be doing the normal tasks with no thanks whatsoever. So she decided to talk to Eileen and said, "I was in a cruddy mood this morning, Eileen, because it was supposed to be a day off. But now that I'm here, I'm glad. I wouldn't have wanted to miss seeing you on Thanksgiving Day. Do you know that this is Thanksgiving Day?”
Just then the telephone rang and the nurse turned away from the bed to answer it. As she was talking, she turned to look back at Eileen.
“Suddenly,” she said, “Eileen was looking at me, crying. Big damp circles stained her pillow and she was shaking all over.”
That was the only emotion that Eileen ever showed, but it was enough to change the attitude of the entire staff toward her. Not much later she died.
The young nurse closed her story this way: "I keep thinking about her….It occurred to me that I owe her an awful lot. Except for Eileen, I might never have known what it's like to give myself to someone who can't give back.
That young nurse had learned the secret of abiding in Christ and her life was bearing fruit for God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)