In the 1908 London Olympic Marathon, Dorando Pietri, an Italian candy maker, led the runners with two miles left. However, when he entered the stadium, he turned the wrong way—a fault of the organizers corrected after those games. When he had been chased and told of his mistake, he turned and finished his lap.
As he neared the finish his strength began to fail. He staggered and fell twice, each time returning to wobbly legs. In heroic effort, and in slow-motion steps, he nearly reached the finish line when he collapsed just short. Race officials lifted and steadied him as he dragged his legs across the finish line. On review, officials decided he lost the race and rewarded the second-place finisher as winner. In the Marathon, you have to do it all by yourself! Not in Christian Discipleship. Jesus accepts us each as his follower; then joins us with the group of disciples called a church. Where we’re expected to carry our personal burden of self-denial as far as we can, while monitoring each other’s effort. When we see someone flagging in his steps, those still running strong stop and help. It doesn’t matter who crosses the finish line first so long as we each do our best AND help others do theirs. In summary, the Holy Spirit empowers all Christians to be as:
Each Christian ultimately gives an account for his own life, but all believers in the body should show a healthy concern to guarantee that should someone fail to cross the finish WITH US, it will be because he refused our help when needed, not because, in our effort to win, we ignored him in his need.
0 Comments
Matthew 11:25-30 encapsulates in one text Christ’s entire ministry. He wouldn’t turn away:
As we all ARE, though many deny it. As we all continue to be, though as many believe we’ll somehow improve our station, given enough:
The kind of people to whom Jesus reveals God have:
Every person can add his own impediment pinioning him inside his limitations. The Son of Man welcomes all like the people mentioned. They may come. They shall find in Jesus all they wanted to be, but aren’t. All they treasured, but hadn’t found by looking in the wrong places. All they Longed For, but failed to find within themselves, within culture, within career—SINCE THAT comes only from GOD in CHRIST. The sinless, perfect Jesus:
He always had throngs of adults listening:
A houseful of adults wanted to know which of them served as model citizens in his kingdom:
Breaking with tradition, when no one else would, Jesus touched the:
All of them unclean but, by his Grace pure/resurrected/seeing. Breaking with tradition, Jesus let himself be approached by:
He touched them all, or permitted them to touch him, and WERE healed, renewed, revived. Giving Christians a vigorous lesson on outreach. We should cultivate friendships with the unsaved:
Nor should we apologize for having their conversion as our motive. Jesus came as Savior; we can surely be bold telling the lost he came to save them. A single principle should guide those relationships:
When no one else would….
Jesus then crossed the line into the unthinkable:
Then, what made him completely abhorrent to the leaders, he accepted Levi’s invitation to a feast in his honor. Did he have no sense of decorum? Did he not know he would soon be known by the company he kept? Then…how far would the Nazarene go?…he actually associated with the other guests Levi invited…men like himself…in the employ of Rome…paid leeches…hated viscerally for their occupations. And Jesus, Jewish holy man as he proved, felt at ease in such company! All of which has a homiletical application: be careful who you win to Jesus…otherwise, they may be so committed they bring others like themselves to Jesus…and soon you find yourself speaking to, worshipping with, and spiritually united in a church of believers different from what it had always been! In two symbolic acts at the death of Jesus, God personally predicted the beginning of a new covenant between himself and humanity. Read Matthew 27:50-53 for the account.
First, the great tapestry that shielded the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies began to tear at its top and cleanly slashed its way 90 feet to the floor. Without saying a word, God declared his openness to all humanity:
Second, the equally symbolic, but publicly evidential, earthquake broke open the tombs of “many holy people” long or recently dead. Properly symbolic, they “came out of the tombs:”
However, properly sequential, they went into Jerusalem only after Christ’s resurrection proved theirs a FACT, not an ILLUSION, and:
There, seeing God on his Great Throne, with Jesus beside him on his equally Great Throne, our High Priest forever representing and interceding for his people eternally. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! And until you do, empower your people to evangelize widely and broadly, doing our part to increase that host ascending. Serendipity means the ability to find delightful surprises in unexpected places. This writer had a serendipitous experience one recent Lord’s Day.
After reviewing the message one last time I went to put the Bible (B) and Message Folder (MF) in the usual carrying bag. Lo, and behold, no room existed. Judy had filled it with materials needed for worship. Should I carry B and MF separately? I had for many years. Should I ask Judy to make room? But she still ate breakfast. Instead, I removed from the bag what prevented inserting the B and MF, then snugged in both. Then came the serendipity—from which we also get our word serene—I found I could fit the other stuff around B and MF. A parable had its nativity! Putting the essentials of worship in the bag first gave room for the auxiliary materials. Practical meaning: if we put God in Christ first, we’ll enjoy the balanced daily life all want but so few have by failing to do so. As Jesus said in the Parable of the Soils, trying to grow a Christ-centered life in thorny soil results in unproductive discipleship Matthew 13:22. Having one’s mind cluttered with inferior intentions stifles the Spirit’s work. It’s like little Jughead in the Snuffy Smith cartoon. He stood at the door ready to depart for school—pockets and hands full of THINGS, including a frog. Aunt Loweezy asks him if he has his books. “Balls of fire, auntie”, he replies, “I can’t think of everything.” By having SO MANY earthly interests, many people don’t think of God. The meaning of this parable is, then: put God first and fit everything in life around Him! Having him first will monitor any interest we may have. It’s amazing how Jesus fills us so completely we lose interest in the many things spiritual emptiness will find to STUFF us, without nourishing, us! The unilateral decisions by God Almighty have caused more than a few to pause and catch a breath. His execution of Uzzah, guilty only of excessive zeal for the Ark, offers one example II Samuel 6:7. The Master’s denunciation of a fig tree with leaves but no fruit is another Matthew 21:18-19.
The short answer to Uzzah’s death is obvious: God repeatedly warned the Israelites to treat his sacred objects with scrupulous reverence. Numbers 4 records a number of warnings against:
In that sense, and for a distinctively historical reason, GOD warned Israel, “Touch me not.” However, the shorter answer is:
That’s a warning to our culture:
Furthermore, and a warning to Christians:
Indeed, the one temptation to which we should never fall is to:
Saved humanity has a single advantage over the unforgiven: we, like King David, can:
Which leads us to believe that God alone is the judge of what God does, says, promises or threatens. That leaves us confident to believe, without apologizing, for any exercise of God’s sovereignty in history. That he can do whatever he sees fit and it will always be RIGHT! A lobsterman Charles Kuralt met in Boothboy, Maine, told of being with his father from a young age.
But what he remembered from those days were:
Like other people, including the unsaved, Christians face adversity. What distinguishes believers from unbelievers is our trust in God the Father:
Our Father in heaven continues to love and care and carry us “through it all” to robust, formidable witnessing of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:31-39 never ceases being our spiritual bulwark no circumstance alters, disappointment shatters or personal or national catastrophe weakens! Yours for an indomitable discipleship by having God as our Father, Christ as our Savior, Lord, Elder Brother and Advocate at God’s Throne and the Holy Spirit’s never-failing inspiration and guidance in daily life. Amen. Finding no answer in himself from the tragedy, David necessarily sought advice from Abiathar, God’s High Priest. Did he:
The priest necessarily related the wrong:
The burden lifted from the king like a bird from its perch. He soon issued new instructions that brought the Ark into the city. Let’s summarize: What David didn’t do that SO MANY people have done, and continue to do, when:
Nevertheless, despite the disaster priestly sin allowed to occur:
He remained faithful to God by remembering:
Believers CANNOT allow mortals to interfere with our faith in God. Thus, the way to turn adversity into an opportunity is:
Those two decisions made and kept will save us:
We’ll always be reminded of God’s faithfulness to us—and never forget how often we fail God. Amen. Fini Understand David’s unexpectedly negative response to Uzzah’s death from a review of his reign to that point. He had known only God’s benefactions:
The person who gets accustomed to winning as a habit takes defeat harder than the one tempered by failure as strengthened by success. For the first time since ascending to Israel’s throne, David felt God’s:
However, two perspectives led him to re-think the entire experience:
Which led to the second perspective:
Now…just so we appreciate David’s character, Saul would never have considered himself to blame. Whatever trouble came to Israel under his rule, he blamed:
David instead interrogated himself; had he been wrong:
But NO; from ancient times God wanted his people to:
|
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|