THE HANDS OF CHRIST
AND OTHER IMAGES
by Robert C. Shannon
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part One
Fairest Lord Jesus
The Hands of Christ
The Feet of Christ
The Knees of Christ
The Face of Christ
The Heart of Christ
Part Two
A Picture Album of the Church
Pictures drawn by Jesus
Images from Daily Life
1. The Church is a Building
2. The Church is a Flock
3. The Church is a Vineyard
Pictures Drawn by the Apostle Paul
Images from Family Life
4. The Church is a Bride
5. The Church is a Family
Pictures Drawn by the Apostle Peter
Images from Community Life
6. The Church is a Royal Priesthood
7. The Church is a Kingdom
A Picture Drawn by Peter and Paul
An Image from Life Itself
8. The Church is a Body
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Part Three
Imaging the Holy Spirit
Sweet Heavenly Dove
Water, Wind, and Fire
The Extraordinary in the Ordinary
When the Holy Spirit Wears a Human Face
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FAIREST LORD JESUS
In 1956 Cleo Purvis was the minister of the Kenwood Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
He gave a series of devotional messages on radio station WHAS, and received so many requests
for copies that he printed them in a little book called Christ and the Common Man. That little
book has been an inspiration for me to try to put together my own book on the same topics. I
have tried to draw on his book as little as possible and to indicate it when I did. But some of his
phrases like “tear washed feet” and a “shining face” were so good I could not avoid using them.
This book is not protected by copyright, for I hope it will be used by others who will take these
sermons, improve on them, and preach them.
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THE HANDS OF CHRIST
The hands of Christ seem very frail
For they were broken by a nail.
But only they reach Heaven at last
Whom these frail broken hands hold fast.
-John Richard Moreland
On Easter evening Jesus appeared in an upper room where His followers were gathered. When
they doubted, He showed them His hands and His feet (Luke 24:36-40).
What did they see when He showed them His hands?
They Saw Ordinary Hands.
They Saw Extraordinary Hands.
They Saw Symbolic Hands.
I. THEY SAW ORDINARY HANDS.
Hands are Remarkable. They are remarkable in what they can do. The hand is an amazing
instrument. It has 27 bones. It has 35 powerful muscles. It has 4 different types of nerve
endings.
I knew a man who cut off his thumb. Later he cut off his forefinger. This time he kept it. The
doctor said it could be put back on. The man said, “Can you put it over here where my thumb
used to be? Then I can pick up a nail or a screw?” The doctor thought he could--and he did.
Some say that humanity’s achievements are due as much to that opposing thumb as to his larger
brain.
Hands are remarkable in what they reveal. I have no faith in palmistry. Neither your past nor
your present is written in the lines on your hand. But the hand does reveal much. It tells you if a
person is nervous and bites his nails. It tells you if a person is well groomed and gives attention
to details. It may tell you if a person is married, or went to college or joined the lodge. It may tell
you if a person smokes. And many a person’s profession is written on the hand: the dentist has
soft hands, the farmer calloused hands. The mechanic and the carpenter bear witness to their
work in their hands.
Mark 10:16 says: “He took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”
What did they feel when He put his hands on them?
They Were Calloused Hands. He worked with the rough tools of His trade. Often He drove a
splinter into His hands. He knew what it was to work. He knew what it was to have a customer
who would not pay. He knew what it was to have a customer you could not please.
There was no advertising in that time and place. If there had been His slogan might have been:
“Jesus of Nazareth, Carpentry. My Yoke is Easy.” He must have made many yokes. A well made
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yoke will not injure the shoulders of the ox. We can be sure that whatever He did, it was done
well. He continued in this trade until He was thirty years of age. Why wait?
It was a culture that did not value the wisdom of youth. Thirty was the age that priests began
their duties. He was to be a priest--a better one than any they had known. It is also possible that
He had to support a widowed mother as well as His siblings. So He was for years a carpenter
and must have had calloused hands.
II. THEY SAW EXTRAORDINARY HANDS.
I wanted to say He had creative hands, but I was afraid you might take me literally. Both
Genesis 1 and John 1 declare Jesus to be the co-creator of the universe. But He did not do it with
physical hands. The Bible says, “He spoke and it was done” (Psalms 33:9. See also Psalms
148:5 and Hebrews 11:3). Acts 7:50 quotes Isaiah 66 and says, “Has not my hand made all these
things?” But that is poetry and not to be taken literally. Still we may think of the contrast. He
went from making worlds to making chairs and stools and ox yokes.
He Had Care-giving Hands. More than once He smoothed the tangled locks of little children.
They came to show him a bruise or a scratch.
He Had Healing Hands. Mark's gospel records in quick succession the healing of Peter's motherin-law, of a leper, a little girl who died, one who was deaf, another who was blind, and still
another demon-possessed.
He touched blind eyes and they could see. He touched deaf ears and they could hear. He
touched silent tongues and they could speak. He touched twisted limbs and they were
straightened. Once He touched a leper! No one did that! Imagine going for years with never a
kiss, never a handclasp, never pat on the back, never an embrace. While He often healed without
a touch, when He healed the leper He made it a point to touch Him! He touched the untouchable
and He cured the incurable. He has healing hands still today. Many a hospital has been built by
His followers and serves in His name.
A poem says, “Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today.” Of course, it is not
true. He may want to work with our hands or through our hands. But Christ is not like that
famous statue of Venus de Milo, both arms cut off, with no hands.
He Had Preaching Hands. Some of us gesture a lot. It seems that if you tied our hands we could
not speak. We cannot imagine Jesus not gesturing. When He spoke of the lilies of the field He
must have pointed to them. When He spoke of the birds of the air or of the sower who went
forth to sow, surely He made some sweeping gesture. When He said “Give me a coin” did not
His hands preach, as well as His voice? Once He wrote in the sand. Twice He cleared the
temple of those who had defiled it. When He said, “Woe unto Thee,” did He not point a finger of
accusation? And in the moment of His leaving, on the Mount of Ascension He lifted up His
hands and blessed them.
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He Had Beckoning Hands. It's on the last page of the Bible: “Come unto me.” He has open
hands of invitation. He never says to the repentant sinner, “Stand back!” Always, He says to the
sincere, “Come.”
He Had Praying Hands. You are familiar with that painting by Albrecht Durer. It has appeared
on books and framed prints, on pens and pencils, on bookends and bookmarks. Durer used his
own brother's hands as the model. There was not enough money in the family for both to study
art. The brother went to work and Albrecht went to art school. Though the model for the
painting was Albrecht’s brother, the inspiration for the painting was Jesus.
He Had Tender Hands. They were never lifted against anyone. They were never turned into the
clenched fist of anger. They never struck any man. They always were used to help and never
used to hurt. They never did a single selfish act. Always they were helping hands.
He Had Crucified Hands. We are all familiar with the painting of Jesus in the dress of His day
and around Him are children dressed as they do in our day. One child is asking Jesus, “What
happened to your hand?” You know what happened to His hand! You know why it happened to
His hand! Jews keep saying that Christians blame them for the death of Jesus. If you grew up in
the church as I did, you know that is not so. Always we were taught that we were to blame for
the death of Jesus.
Years ago in Europe some people blamed the Gypsies for the death of Jesus. Since many of
them were metal workers, some said they forged the nails that were driven into the hands of
Jesus. That gave them an excuse to persecute the Gypsies. But we know that we were to blame.
Our sins nailed Him there.
He had created every tree and now they pinned Him on one of them. He had created every bush,
and now the thorns from one of them were pressed into His brow. He hid the iron ore in the
earth and now that iron is driven into His hands and feet. The hands that were never lifted in
hatred were nailed by hatred. The hands that were never used in vengeance were nailed by
vengeance.
And we understand that it should have been our hands pieced by the nails and our brow pierced
by the thorns. Jim Heaton was a merchant and a part-time preacher in western North
Carolina. In his spare time he started 14 new churches! They called him Big Jim Heaton
because he was six feet four inches tall. And every time he preached about the cross, Big Jim
Heaton cried!
They Are Hands of Partnership. His hand is clasped in yours to touch a lonely world. Perhaps it
is a leper who needs His touch and yours. Perhaps it is a friendless person who needs a helping
hand. It may be a big thing. It may be a small thing. It may be a hand to say God bless you or
God loves you. It may be an uplifted hand to say, “Stop.” It may be a finger to point the way.
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You will recognize the hand reaching down in partnership. It has a distinguishing mark. We
expect to have a perfect body in Heaven with no scars. But we hope it is different with Jesus. We
hope the hymn is right: “We shall know him by the print of the nails in His hands.”
III. THEY SAW SYMBOLIC HANDS.
Hands have always been symbolic. We speak of hands on learning and hands on work. We vote
with a show of hands. We gesture with the hand. Deaf people talk with their hands. Blind
people read with their hands. The hand has become symbolic of work. One who works on a
farm is a farm hand or a hired hand. If he does well he is called a good hand.
We had a friend who had to have her hand amputated due to a rare infection. She joked about it.
She said someone said, “Lend me a hand.” She did and the person kept it. She had another joke
about it. She said her boyfriend went to her father and asked for her hand and he gave it to him.
We do speak of giving one's hand in marriage, and in the wedding ceremony we always ask the
couple to join hands. Sometimes we have a prayer circle and we all join hands.
An insurance company says, “You’re in good hands with Allstate,” but they are not going to
come out and fix your car personally. It is not meant to be taken literally, but I am sure it's good
insurance and you are in good hands with Allstate. You are in better hands with Jesus.
An old hymn says:
There are days so dark that I seek in vain
For the face of my friend Divine.
But though darkness hide
He is there to guide
By the touch of His hand on mine.
Oh the touch of His hand on mine!
Oh the touch of His hand on mine!
There is grace and power In the trying hour
In the touch of His hand on mine.
-Bessie Brown Pounds
In a literal sense we live in a world where people have lost touch. I understand why my dentist
wears gloves. I understand why my dental hygienist wears gloves. I understand why my doctor
wears gloves. I do not understand why my auto mechanic wears gloves. What does he think he
is going to catch from my car? A bad case of burnt valves? Is he afraid he'll go home and start
using oil?
When we want to maintain a connection with someone, we say, “Let’s keep in touch.”
In Stockholm, Sweden, a woman was pinned beneath a street car. Rescuers had to get some
heavy equipment to free her. While they waited a young man crawled under the car and held her
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hand until rescue came. Later she said, “I never knew a touch could mean so much.” One could
preach a powerful message on the theme: “The Power of a Touch.”
You remember the first electric touch of the hand of someone you came to love. And over the
years the touch became more precious, until at last one hand was cold and the other was warm.
We remember the comforting touch of mother’s hand, the firm guidance of father’s hand.
We will never touch the literal hand of Jesus. We will never touch that calloused, crucified hand,
but we do not hesitate to sing:
Precious Lord take my hand Lead me on, help me stand.
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.
Through the storm, through the night Lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord Lead me home.
-Thomas A. Dorsey
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THE FEET OF CHRIST
The foot is a marvel of creation. There are 26 bones in each foot. There are 33 complex joints in
each foot. It’s no wonder some doctors specialize in the foot.
The average person in a lifetime will walk between 150,000 and 200,000 miles--that is 6 to 8
times around the earth. It’s no wonder my feet hurt!
The Foot Is Proverbial. We often say, “He put his foot down.” Sometimes we say, “He put his
best foot forward.” The Bible says, “How beautiful are the feet of him who publishes peace.”
We measure distance in feet.
The Foot Is Instructive. Sherlock Holmes could look at a footprint and tell you the height and
weight of the man who made it and where he bought his shoes. Reflexology is the idea that all
the nerves in the body end in the foot--and by manipulating the foot one can affect the health of
any part of the body.
When we talk about the feet of Christ we mean his entire body and His whole life of blessed
example. It will be instructive for us to look at the footprints of Jesus and at the feet that made
them.
In Luke 24:39 Jesus said to His disciples, “Behold my feet.” What did they see when they
beheld His feet?
I. THEY WERE TRAVEL-WEARY FEET.
Once He rode a donkey. Three times He rode in a boat. The rest of the time He walked. He
walked cobbled streets and dusty lanes. He had no orthopedic shoes. He had no running shoes.
He had no orthotics. He wore open sandals and sometimes His feet must have hurt. We all know
that when your feet hurt you hurt all over.
II. THEY WERE TEAR-WASHED FEET.
It only happened once. Twice Jesus’ feet were washed by a woman, but they were two different
events. The first occurred in Galilee, the second in Bethany in Judea. The first occurred early in
his ministry, the second late in his ministry. The first was in the home of a Pharisee. The second
was in the home of a leper. Yet people confuse the two and suppose them to be varying accounts
of one event. It does happen that both hosts were named Simon, but that was a very common
name. There are nine different Simons in the New Testament. The last washing is described in
Matthew, Mark and John. The one that interests us here is in Luke chapter seven. And it is only
on this occasion that His feet were washed with tears!
It was the custom to leave one’s sandals at the entrance to a house. It was the custom to sit on
cushions, the knees bent and the feet extended behind the body. It is likely that this feast was in
a courtyard and thus it was easy for the woman to come in unnoticed, step behind Jesus and
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anoint His feet. Thinking of His holiness and her sinfulness, she is moved to tears. And then
tries to wipe away the tears with the only towel available to her, her own hair.
It is a mark of kindness that she is a nameless woman. She was not Mary Magdalene, as is
sometimes supposed (Mary Magdalene is introduced to us in the next chapter of Luke as a new
character--and as a person of wealth and standing). She had many sins. Some assume she was a
prostitute, and the loosened hair suggests that, but we are not told. We often assume that they
were large sins, but maybe she only had many small sins. In any case she was tired of carrying
the burden and she knew what to do with her sins. She brought them to Jesus.
Some people try to hide their sins, but that is rarely successful. Some try to anesthetize
themselves so they no longer feel the pain. Some try to bear them alone. She did none of these
things. She brought her sins to Jesus--and so should we.
III. THEY WERE CROSS-TORN FEET.
When they nailed Him to the cross, they pierced His feet. We all know how it hurts when the
Doctor puts a needle in the foot. How painful it must have been when the spike was driven into
the feet of Jesus. It has been pictured in two different ways. Some artists painted the cross with
two spikes, one through each foot. Others drew the picture with the feet crossed and one spike
through both. In fact, the difference created a minor controversy among believers. We don’t
know and it really doesn’t matter. The pain does matter.
Studdert-Kennedy was so moved by the cross-torn feet of Jesus that he put it in one of his
poems:
When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged Him on a tree.
They drove great nails thru hands and feet
And made a Calvary.
There were four wounds that day and each one is instructive. They wounded His head, His
hands, His heart and His feet. They wounded the head that never thought an evil thought.
They wounded the hands that never did an evil deed. They wounded the heart that knew no
hatred except the hatred of sin, and they wounded the feet that never strayed from path of duty.
V. THEY WERE TRIUMPHANT FEET.
After His resurrection, Jesus met two women near the tomb and they held him by his feet. They
could not have mistaken someone else for Jesus. They knew those feet. They had followed them
for years. But Jesus had work to do, and it was after all not really seemly for them to do that in
public, so He told them to cease. But that Easter morning those women saw triumphant feet.
There is a passage in the Psalms (8:4-6) that says God has put all things under His feet. That
verse from the Old Testament is quoted three times in the New Testament (Ephesians 1:22, I
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Corinthians 15:25 and Hebrews 2:8)! There is in the Cairo Museum a footstool belonging to the
Pharaoh of Egypt. Carved on it are pictures of his enemies. When he propped up his feet,
Pharaoh pictorially had his enemies under his feet. But Jesus literally has put all His enemies
under His feet. If all things are under his feet, we should fall down at His feet as they did long
ago.
For some it was a place of prayer. In Mark 5:22 the father of sick girl falls at his feet in prayer.
In Mark 7:25 it was a woman with a sick child. Whatever our need, we need to bring it to the
feet of Jesus.
For some it was a place of learning. It was once common to describe studying with a great
teacher as sitting at his feet. The phrase may come from an event in Luke 10:39 where Mary of
Bethany is said to have sat at the feet of Jesus when He taught.
For some it was a place of gratitude. That was the case with a leper Jesus healed (Luke 17:16),
and with one demon-possessed whom Jesus set free (Luke 8:35).
For all it is the place of obedience. He has feet you can follow. He never put His foot over the
threshold of dens of iniquity. He did put his feet inside rooms of sickness, and grief. There is a
lovely song, “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked.” You can do that without a ticket or a
passport. Another song says, “How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Saviour.”
If you follow the footprints of Jesus they will lead you to the place of baptism. You cannot say
you follow Jesus and refuse baptism. He walked 70 miles to do it. He had to persuade John to
perform it. It is not insignificant!
His feet will lead you to the place of worship. On the Sabbath He went to the synagogue, “as His
custom was!” In a small Southern city on a Sunday night a lady was taken suddenly and gravely
ill. Her neighbor rushed her to the hospital. The hospital said, “She needs to see our
neurosurgeon but we can’t reach him.” This was before everybody had a cell phone. They said,
“We can’t reach him and we don’t know where he is.” The neighbor said, “I know where he is.
It’s Sunday night. He’s in Church.” She was right. He was summoned and the patient survived.
If some emergency occurred at the time of worship, would anybody know where to find you?
His feet will lead you to the place of service. The Bible says that He went about doing good.
Many people today recognize the letters WWJD. They stand for the question, “What would
Jesus do?” The question comes from a book by Charles M. Sheldon. The title of that book is, In
His Steps!
Longfellow wrote:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
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A cynic wrote his own version of that poem:
I left my foot prints in the sand
As I was told to do
But moving tides of night and day
Washed the silly prints away
I was a fool to think they’d last
Or think the sands would know I’d passed.
But His did last. They are indelibly stamped on our world. No one has had a larger influence:
no writer, statesman, politician, financier, inventor, or leader. His footprints are indelible. And
they always lead in the right direction. Before the fall of communism, some Bible smugglers
were trying to get God’s word across a communist border. To avoid detection they walked
backward in the snow so it would appear they had gone the other way. But the foot prints of
Jesus will always lead you in the right direction.
The oldest advertisement in the world is in the ruins of Ephesus. It is a set of footprints pressed
indelibly into the pavement. They once led to a brothel! But you can safely follow the footprints
of Jesus. They will never lead you into sin. They will ever lead you into service.
You can safely follow Him. You cannot safely follow any other religious leader. Surely we
know that. They are human and they make mistakes. But you can safely follow the footprints of
Jesus Christ. An old song says:
Footprints of Jesus
That make the pathway glow;
We will follow the steps of Jesus
Where’er they go.
- Mrs. M.B. Slade
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THE KNEES OF CHRIST
O Adam was a gardener
For God who made him sees
That half a gardener’s proper work
Is done upon his knees.
Cleo Purvis wrote: “The knee is the only joint of the human body which has been cushioned. It
was not by accident that the Creator capped the knee. It was, I am sure, in the mind of man’s
Maker that the knee be used often to pay homage to Him. Therefore, man never stands higher in
the assizing eye of God than when he is on his knees.”
Three times within 24 hours Jesus is on his knees.
I. JESUS ON HIS KNEES--SERVING John 13:5
There was a practical side to it. He washed their feet because their feet were dirty. They walked
dusty lanes in open sandals and their feet were dirty. It was the custom to do this at the door, but
in the Upper Room there was no one else to do the job. Christianity is always exceedingly
practical. We do not have to make it practical. It is practical. Read the Sermon on the Mount.
Read the Book of James.
Here Jesus is accepting responsibility. It is always the case that great leaders accept
responsibility--even if it is not in their job descriptions.
There was a man who lived in Charleston, South Carolina, who took a walk every morning along
the Battery. He was upset by the litter he saw along that scenic street, litter dropped there the
night before by careless people. He thought, “Somebody ought to pick up that litter.” Then he
realized that he was somebody. And so every morning on his walk he picked up the litter and
disposed of it properly. He is one of the most well-known journalists of our time, James
Kilpatrick. Though his name is a household world in journalism, he did not think it beneath him
to do what needed to be done--to accept responsibility.
Still today in former communist countries you can see part of the unhappy legacy of Marxism.
Most people live in apartments, and a visitor noticed that the apartments were almost always
clean and orderly. But the hallways, the elevators and other common areas were almost always
dirty. Nobody accepted responsibility for that, even though they used it every day! Communism
had taught them to do only what was required and to do nothing that was beneath their position
in life.
Perhaps one reason we avoid such responsibility is that we are simply inundated by the needs
around us. We cannot help them all, so we help none. But even though we cannot help
everybody, we can help one, and we should!
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I wonder if any of the twelve in that Upper Room thought that perhaps he should accept the
responsibility. Or did someone look at another and think, “He should have thought of that.”
There were two sets of brothers there: Andrew and Peter, James and John. If you know anything
about sibling rivalry you might suppose that one of them said to himself, “My brother should
have thought of that.”
I hope there was one who said to himself, “I should have thought of that. The need was obvious.
It was plain there was no servant there to do it. I should have thought of that.”
Jesus did not say to them, “You should have thought of that.” He did not rise after dinner and
say, “Now, men, something has happened here tonight that should not have happened. You
should all be ashamed of yourselves. I am ashamed of you. You saw a need and not one of you-not one of you--rose to meet it.” But Jesus did not do that. He simply rose and did what needed
to be done. He accepted responsibility.
There was an instructional side to it. Jesus said that they ought to do as He had done. The
twelve were still learning. The lesson was not given in a sermon or a parable, but the lesson was
there to be learned.
In one church the leadership nominating committee asked a certain man if he would be willing to
be nominated to serve as a deacon. He declined. Later the committee found that they were one
short in names to be nominated for elder. So they went to the same man and asked him if he
would be willing to be nominated to serve as an elder. He said, “I’ll be glad to.” He was
unwilling to accept the serving role but happy to serve in the leadership role. That made it plain
that he was qualified to do neither!
What were the twelve doing before this act? They were arguing among themselves. What were
they arguing about? They were arguing about power! It's still that way among the disciples of
Jesus. Christians quarrel over power. Oh, there is often a veneer of something else over the
argument, but it is really about power. Churches split over power. Often they present another
reason, but it is almost always about power. What were they thinking, then, when Jesus washed
their feet?
And Judas Iscariot. What was he thinking? What contradictory emotions must have stirred
within him as he looked down at the bowed head and wet hands of the one he had betrayed.
What was Jesus thinking when He washed Judas’ feet? He knew, of course, what had happened.
He knew what Judas had done. What thoughts and what powerful emotions must have stirred
within Him as He washed the traitor’s feet!
General William Booth was the founder of The Salvation Army. One man said that he was a
king among men so long as service is the badge of royalty.
There was a symbolic side to it. Humility is written large over this scene. We have always seen
it as the supreme example of humility.
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It is the wheat that is heavy with grain that bows to the earth. It is the tree that is heavy with fruit
that bows to the earth. It is the person who bows low to serve who stands tall in the kingdom of
God.
An American businessman was traveling in the Far East, in a country where leprosy is still a
huge problem. His host knew that there was an American nurse serving in a leper hospital there
and he thought the businessman would like to see it. He showed him the buildings, the wards,
the patients with their open running sores. The businessman said to the nurse, “I wouldn’t do
what you are doing for a million dollars.” She said, “Neither would I!”
In one town they were building a home for the homeless sponsored by Habitat for Humanity. The
volunteers had nearly finished the house and so the superintendent of construction decided to
stay at night on the building site in the trailer they used for an office. Sometime in the night he
heard a sound coming from the new house. When he went to investigate he found a man on his
knees under the sink. It was one of the workers who said, “We’ve got to get this house finished.
These people need to move in.” That man on his knees under that sink in the middle of the night
was the former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
Someone said that knee-ology is better than theology! In fact, knee-ology is a part of theology. It
is theology we learned in the Upper Room.
II. JESUS ON HIS KNEES--SEEKING Luke 22:41
Jesus was constantly at prayer. His was a lifetime of prayer. He prayed before every significant
event in His ministry. He prayed at every turning point. He prayed at every crossroads. When
He was baptized, He prayed. When He chose the twelve, He prayed. When they brought little
children to Him, He prayed. When He preached, He prayed. When He healed, He prayed. When
they tried to make Him a king, He prayed. He prayed before a simple meal in someone’s home.
He prayed before that symbolic meal in the Upper Room. He prayed on His way to the cross.
He prayed on the cross. He prayed after the resurrection. And Jesus is praying still! The Bible
says that even now in Heaven He makes intercession for us at the right hand of God.
Jesus got up early in the morning to pray. He stayed up late at night to pray. He prayed in
private. He prayed in public. It was Lee Carter Maynard who said, “When Jesus prayed in
public He was very brief. When He prayed in private He prayed all night. We usually reverse the
process.”
Jesus had confidence in prayer. At the grave of Lazarus He prayed, “Father I thank you that you
have heard me.” Then He added, “You always hear me.” We need to have that same confidence
in prayer. We may not always get what we want. We may not always get what we suppose that
we need. We may not get everything we ask for. But it is never the case that God does not hear
when we pray.
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Jesus had confidence in the God who answers prayer. His prayer here, in Gethsemane, moves us
more than any other--except perhaps for His prayers on the cross. Read about it again sometime
and note the intensity of those prayers. Then read His prayers on the cross. Notice that even in
that extreme moment Jesus still believed God was His Father and still believed God hears
prayers. When you face some Gethsemane or Golgotha in your own life you should know that
God is still your Father and that God still hears your prayers.
One minister had led several tours to the Bible lands. Always when the people returned he asked
them what part of their trip was the most moving. Some would say it was the Sea of Galilee.
Some would say it was the Garden Tomb. Most of them would say it was Gethsemane.
There is a tradition about James, the half-brother of our Lord. It is that his knees were hard like
camel’s knees because he spent so much time in prayer. Where did he learn to pray like that?
Surely he learned it from Jesus. He learned it just as the twelve did. They said to Jesus, ''Teach
us to pray.” It was not the case that they were strangers to prayer. They had prayed all of their
lives. But when they heard Jesus pray they knew that they could learn something about prayer
from Him.
What was He seeking in the Garden in prayer? Not wisdom. He had that. Not knowledge. He
had that. Not character. He had that. Perhaps he was seeking to reinforce His connection with
the Father before the ordeal of the cross.
In the city of Copenhagen, there is a statue of Christ by the famous sculptor Thorwaldsen. It is
in the prayer garden of a church--the hands of Christ lifted in benediction, His head bowed in
prayer. Some tourists were visiting there when the lady who cares for the church said to them,
“If you really want to see the face of Christ you must get on your knees.” And all of us see
Christ best when we are on our knees.
III. JESUS ON HIS KNEES—SUFFERING Mark 15:15
I do not want to be too graphic here. I have heard it done. I have heard preachers describe in
chilling detail the whips the soldiers used and how the flesh was torn. I don’t want to do that.
After all, the Bible is quite restrained in its description of these events and we do well to do the
same. On the other hand, I do not want to sanitize the cross. Our Catholic friends say we have
done that. They paint the pallor of death on their crucifixes. We have an empty cross. They say
we sanitize the cross, but we deny the charge.
We say the cross is empty because of the resurrection. We say that physical suffering is not
limited to Christ. Even crucifixion is not limited to Christ. We say the purpose is limited to
Christ. We say it is not how He suffered, but who it is suffering on that cross and why! It was
said that the great painter Fra Angelico could not paint the crucifixion scene without crying, and
that should be our response, too.
It was in communist Romania that a preacher was called in by the authorities, questioned, and
beaten. He went home dismayed that God would let that happen to him. Then he realized that it
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was the week before Easter and suddenly everything was changed. When he was called in again
for questioning he said to the interrogator, “I want to thank you for something. The last time I
was here you beat me and it was the week before Easter. You beat me in the same week that my
Saviour was beaten, and you could not have given me a greater honor than that.” So when we
suffer, whether physically or in some other way, we find comfort and even meaning in it when
we think of the suffering Christ.
A young minister was visiting one of his members who was in the hospital. The man was in great
pain. He said to his minister, “You don’t know how much pain I am suffering.” The minister
agreed that he did not. Then he added, “But Jesus does. He endured suffering on the cross and He
understands.” A look of comfort came over the face of the patient. When we suffer it helps us, in
ways we cannot really understand, to know that Jesus suffered.
Isaiah saw that suffering beforehand and wrote: “By His stripes we are healed.'' That is a kind of
riddle. If you went to the doctor and he said he could cure you by beating me you would look
for another doctor. But when we think deeply about it we understand the riddle. “By His stripes
we are healed.''
Just as Isaiah spoke of it beforehand, so the apostles spoke of it afterward. Paul said, “We preach
Christ crucified.” He not only spoke for himself, but he also spoke for his colleagues. They did
not preach the cross because it was a popular theme. Today too many choose their themes based
on what people want to hear. We should choose our themes based on what people need to hear,
and what God wants them to hear.
They needed to hear sermons on the cross though it did not appeal to either Jews or Gentiles. To
the Jews it was a stumbling block, and to the Greeks it was foolishness. But to all who believe it
is the power of God. We need to hear sermons on the cross, not just sanctified psychology.
Some congregations are fed a diet of sermons so general they could be used in any church,
mosque, synagogue or Lions Club. Certainly sermons should be practical, but there should be a
firm foundation in the facts of the gospel: the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Of the three places where Jesus was on His knees, two can be identified. The Upper Room
cannot. Tour guides will take you to a memorial Upper Room but it is not the place where Jesus
washed the disciples’ feet. Gethsemane can be easily identified. It is thought that some of the
olive trees there are so old they must be growing from the roots of trees that were there at the
time of Christ. The Pavement has been identified. A church has been built over it. It is very
likely the exact place where Jesus felt the whip.
However, the meaning of all three can be identified. The first shows His love for his friends. The
second shows His love for God. The third shows His love for His enemies. His last miracle was
for an enemy. He healed the ear of the servant in the Garden. It is almost the case that His last
prayer was for His enemies.
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When we think of Jesus on His knees, there often comes to mind an old and lovely song:
Kneel at the cross.
Christ will meet you there
Come while He waits for you.
-Charles E. Moody
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THE FACE OF CHRIST
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth
Will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
- Helen H. Level
The apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 4:6: “For God who said, ‘let light shine out of darkness’
made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.”
Cleo Purvis began his sermon on the face of Christ with a story about the novelist Harold Bell
Wright. He said that Wright always kept on his desk a picture of the Christ. His best books were
written while looking upon the face of the God-sent One. In like manner we write the choicest
chapters in the book of our life by ever keeping before us the face of the Christ.
It is a difficult task to keep before us the face of Christ. We have no real pictures of the face of
Christ. Carl Sandburg wrote about the face of Christ: “What man could ever paint chisel or
carve it? When finished it would float and gleam, cry and laugh, with every other face born
human...for the face of Christ would hold what every man sees, hears, smells, touches, tastes.
And it would be very old and very young.”
So we have only an artist's conception of the face of Christ. Unless, of course, the shroud of
Turin is what some say it is--the burial garment of Jesus. The shroud is a burial garment. The
materials used for embalming have created an image on the cloth. It is of a tall person with a
prominent brow, a firm chin, and a pointed tufted beard. Since it was found in the year 1360, it
is not very convincing. The first picture we have done by an artist dates from the eighth century,
so we don't know much about the face of Christ. We do have that strange description in the
Book of Revelation, chapter one, but it obviously is not intended to give us a picture of the
physical appearance of the Christ.
We do know something about the face of Christ. We know it was a face like ours: two eyes, two
ears, one nose, one mouth. He was not like some extra-terrestrial being conceived by
Hollywood. He was not like your third-grade teacher, who had eyes in the back of her head. He
had a face like yours.
Artists have tried to fill in from their own imaginations what they think the face of Christ looked
like. Hoffman, who did a very popular portrait of Christ, said that he was practicing with the
church choir when suddenly there came to him exactly how he would paint the face of Christ.
Sallman said that he despaired of painting the face of Christ, and then one night he woke up in
the middle of the night with a clear idea of how he wanted to picture Christ. Ben Stahl said he
just couldn’t paint the face of Christ. So he painted the body first and when he had finished the
form he knew just how he would paint the face of Christ.
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More than one writer has noticed that what resides in the heart is written on the face. One said
that what a man thinks in his heart he advertises on his face. Because we know something of the
life and character and heart of Jesus, we do know something about His face.
I. HE HAD A SMILING FACE.
Before World War II, the Japanese believed that the emperor was divine, and no human could
look on his face. So when he came through the streets in a parade or procession, they cast their
eyes down and looked at the ground, not at the face of the emperor. But men saw the face of
Jesus.
It was a smiling face. Why else would Jesus have been invited to so many banquets and parties?
Have you seen that portrait of Jesus called “The Laughing Christ?” It is a wonderful picture of
our Lord with his head thrown back obviously roaring with laughter. Of course, the Bible never
says that Jesus laughed. It does say that Jesus wept, and if He wept surely He must have
laughed.
II. HE HAD A SHINING FACE.
We prevent it with powder and paint, but Jesus had a shining face. When Moses came down
from the mountain, having spent forty days with God, his face shone. What must have been the
case with Jesus who had been with God for eternity! Once we caught a glimpse of it on the
mountain we call the Mount of Transfiguration when his whole being shone as the light.
That was a physical shining but we are thinking of a spiritual shining. Of course, you know I do
not speak literally when I say He had a shining face. I speak rather in the same way as that
prayer in the Old Testament. Everybody knows the Lord’s Prayer in the New Testament, but
there is also a Lord’s Prayer in the O1d Testament. It is in Numbers 6:22-26: “The Lord said to
Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons: This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘the
Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”
Spiritually, Jesus’ face was always shining. Just as the moon always reflects the sun, so the face
of Christ always reflected the love and graciousness of God. Purvis wrote: “Little children saw
gentleness in His face and ran into his open arms; the troubled saw tranquility in His face and
rested their burdens on Him; the sorrowing saw solace in His face and bowed for His blessing;
the sin-laden saw forgiveness, and begged for His mercy.”
There is a theory that you can see a person’s character on the face. It may be partly true.
Certainly we have seen dissipation on faces, but no one ever saw dissipation on His face.
Certainly we have seen innocence on faces, and everyone saw that on His face. You never saw
worry or fear on His face. You always saw courage and serenity there.
Once, people saw anger on his face. It was not anger at what anyone was doing to Him. It was
anger at what some were doing to God’s House. He was stirred by the way some had profaned
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God’s temple. They not only turned it into a market, they turned it in to a market that cheated
and defrauded. If you brought your own lamb it was never good enough, but they would sell you
another, buy yours at a small price and then sell yours to the next worshiper. They exchanged
foreign money, but always at a huge advantage to themselves. That exploitation of sincere
worshippers in the very temple of God angered Jesus, and we would have been surprised if it had
not.
No one ever saw petulance on His face. He had praying lips and preaching lips, but never
pouting lips. He never complained. Oh, I know He once said the birds had nests and the foxes
had holes, but He had no place to lay his head, but I am sure He did not whine when he said it.
Isaiah saw the lips as a summary of the life. Jesus had pure lips. Nothing passed through them
that was unholy, unworthy or unkind.
III. HE HAD A SEARCHING FACE.
He had all-seeing eyes. Sometimes we pass people without seeing them, but Jesus saw people.
More than that, He saw through people. He saw the potential in them that others did not see. He
was both near-sighted and far-sighted. He saw people in the light of their future and He saw
them in the light of their present situation.
He did not see them through colored glasses. He did not see them through lenses that distort. He
did not have glaucoma which eliminated peripheral vision. He did not have macular
degeneration that eliminates central vision and leaves a dark spot in the middle. He saw them as
they were, not as they pretended to be. He also saw them as they could be.
Jesus could see farther than anyone else. There are two islands in the Bering Sea that are on
different sides of the International Date Line. One island belongs to Russia and one to the
United States. You can see from one to the other. If you are on the U.S. island on a clear day
you can see the Russian island. It is today on the U.S. island but it is already tomorrow on the
Russian island. You can see all the way to tomorrow! Jesus could see all the way to the future
and predicted it. He could see all the way to eternity and described it for us.
He had sensitive ears. It is common for hearing to become less acute as we grow older. There is
also a very rare disease in which the opposite occurs. People who are afflicted with this strange
malady have hearing that becomes painfully acute. They must soundproof their houses. The
radio must be at its lowest volume. People who speak to them in a normal voice seem to be
shouting.
Jesus had acute hearing. He heard the cries of the suffering. He heard the sighs of the
disappointed. He heard the sobs of the sorrowing. He heard the unspoken thoughts of men.
He heard the voice of God! But He never heard the voice of temptation, except in the most
superficial sense. A radio must be tuned to proper frequency to hear a station and the ears of
Jesus were not tuned that frequency.
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IV. HE HAD A STEADFAST FACE.
The Bible says He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. He was safe in Galilee, but not in
Judea. In Galilee He had popular support. In Judea his enemies waited for Him. He knew that
in going to Jerusalem He was going into the hands of His enemies. Thomas knew it, too.
Thomas said, “Let us also go and die with Him.” Never think of that apostle as “Doubting
Thomas.” Think of him as “Courageous Thomas.” The courage of Jesus was even greater. The
cross was His destiny and He knew it. No prophet died except in Jerusalem. So He steadfastly
set His face to go there. Throughout His life He steadfastly set His face to do right, and to do
good, and He would not shrink from it now.
The whole story of missions concerns men and women with a set face. Behind a set face Carey
went to India, Morrison to China, Judson to Burma, Gardener to Patagonia, and Moffatt to
Africa. Behind a set face Lincoln freed the slaves. Behind a set face Churchill rallied his country
to oppose Nazism. Behind a set face the apostle Paul marched across the map of Asia and
Europe with the gospel.
In Acts 2 we learn that early Christians continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and
fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer. In I Corinthians 15:58 we are urged to be
“steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” The apostle Peter warns us
to be steadfast because our enemy, our adversary, the Devil is lying in wait for us (1 Peter 5:8).
The apostle Paul told the Colossians, “I beheld your steadfastness” (Colossians 2:5).
Jesus had a set face because He knew His purpose. Some go through life knowing their purpose.
Others may go through life never knowing their purpose--yet fulfilling it all the same.
V. HE HAD A SMITTEN FACE.
That smiling, shining, steadfast face was a smitten face. They slapped Him. Do you remember
when someone slapped your face? Maybe it was a long time ago, but you can recall the sting of
it still. And it has become a proverb. When someone treats us in an unkind way we say, “It was a
slap in the face.” Why did they play that game of blind man’s bluff? Was it not enough that
they were going to execute Him, and execute Him in the most painful way possible? Why did
they do it? Not only did they slap Him; they spit in His face! The face that was never distorted
by hatred. The face that was never twisted by sin. The face that never looked on any man with
disdain. The face that knew only innocence and love and kindness. That is the face they slapped
and that is the face they spit upon.
It shows us the depths to which sin will go! It shows us the lengths to which love will go! For
Jesus did not spit back at them. He would not lose His dignity by treating them as they treated
Him.
The hymns of Fanny Crosby, the blind song writer, have blessed millions. None impresses us
more than the chorus she wrote:
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And I shall see Him face to face
And tell the story saved by grace.
For some people the first thing they will ever see will be the face of Christ! People who never
saw a sunset or a sunrise, who never saw a flower or a tree, who never saw another human being,
will see Christ. His face will be the first thing they will ever see! I want to see that face! I want
more than that. I want to look like that face. I want people to see Jesus in my face. I want a face
lift.
Someone adapted Anthony Euwer’s little poem to read like:
As for beauty I'm not a star.
There are others more handsome by far.
But me I don't mind it
For I am behind it.
It's the fellow in front that I jar.
Perhaps you never won any beauty contest. I never won any beauty contests. Come to think of
it, I never entered any! Even so, I share the sentiment of the song writer who said, “Let the
beauty of Jesus be seen in me.” Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story called “The Great Stone
Face.” It concerns a village over which there towered a rock formation that resembled a human
face. There was a legend in that village that someday there would come to that town a person so
pure and so good that his face would resemble the great stone face. A man grew up in that
village. He was a simple man, but a good and a kind man. And after many years some began to
notice that he resembled the Great Stone Face. He had gazed at it so long he came to look like
that face. Is it that way with Christ?
Some have said that when a husband and wife live together for many years they come to
resemble each other. That may make some wives nervous! It may be that it is only a similarity
of gesture or expression. But is it not true that the longer we live with Christ the more we look
like Him? In a small town church there was a minister so gracious and so good that one person
said, “I think God must look like him.” Nobody ever said that about me. Perhaps nobody ever
said that about you. Could it be that that preacher had spent so many years looking into the face
of Christ that he began to look like Him? The Bible gives us reason to think that it is possible.
In I John 3:2 the Bible says, “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we shall be like Him
for we shall see Him as He is.” We shall see Him as He IS! Not as we imagine Him! Not as
some artist has pictured Him. We shall see Him as He IS! And we shall be like Him!
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O to be like Thee!
O to be like Thee!
Blessed Redeemer,
Pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness,
Come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image
Deep on my heart.
- T. O. Chisholm
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THE HEART OF CHRIST
There is a picture of Jesus that is commonly seen in Catholic churches but almost never seen in
Protestant churches. It is called “The Sacred Heart of Jesus.” A young minister went to serve a
village church and was surprised to see that picture on the baptistery wall. He asked about it.
Someone said, “That picture was selected because the colors harmonize with the color of our
carpet.” He thought that was a good reason for selecting a picture. Then that person added,
“Both the carpet and the picture were paid for by the richest lady in our Church.” He thought
that was the best reason he ever heard for selecting a picture! It will be good for us to look at the
sacred heart of Jesus.
This is more difficult than considering the hands of Christ, or the face of Christ. It will be
difficult not because we lack Biblical material, but because we have so much Biblical material.
Out of many possible texts this one stands out. John 13:1: “Having loved His own He loved
them to the end.” Wherever we turn, we all understand that the word “heart” is used here as we
so often use it--not in the physical sense but in another and larger sense. On Valentine’s Day
many people will send a message about the heart, and they do not mean a pump. There used to
be a song: “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and it does not refer to the physical organ of
circulation.
So we shall use the word heart as it is so commonly used today. When the great African
missionary David Livingstone died, friends sent his body back to England, but they buried his
heart in Africa. The bodies of the Hapsburg emperors are all buried in the Capuchin church in
Vienna, but their hearts are in another place. When the poet Shelley died his wife buried his
body but kept his heart in a lined box.
We understand that the heart is only a pump and it is not that pump that we mean when we say,
“Give your heart to Jesus.” It is not that pump we have in mind when we wear heart-shaped
jewelry.
Physically, Jesus had a heart like yours, with the same number of chambers, the same auricles
and ventricles. Spiritually, His heart was greater than ours.
Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant. He was acutely aware of the situation.
He said he knew he was the first man to look on the beating heart of a living man. Today we
need to look at the heart of Jesus.
I. HE HAD AN ENLARGED HEART.
Physically, an enlarged heart is not a good thing. Spiritually, it is a great thing. It is true that
Jesus said He was sent only to Israel, but that was a strategy. At the end of His ministry He said
to go into all the world and preach to every creature.
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John Donne said, “Every man’s death diminishes me.” We have difficulty doing that. We hear of
a disaster, an earthquake, a tornado, or a plane crash, and we are relieved that no Americans were
involved. We find it difficult to have a heart as large as the heart of Jesus.
Now if God loved the world, then so did Jesus. He loved the unlovely. “God commendeth His
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
II. HE HAD A PURE HEART.
He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” He had seen God. He had come
from God. He would go back to God. A pure heart gives us a clear vision! His heart held no
false motives. He dealt honestly and sincerely with all. When a person is well intentioned, we
say that person has a good heart, and Jesus did.
There are two sides to the pure heart: a negative side and a positive side.
His was not a divided heart. The O1d Testament warns against a divided heart. The apostle
James warns against a divided heart. Jesus warns against trying to serve two masters.
His was not a deceitful heart. He never tried to trick people. He never tried to fool people. He
tried to motivate people, but He never tried to manipulate people.
His was not a proud heart. We may see many examples of humility, but Jesus is the best. He
washed the disciples’ feet. He cooked the disciples’ breakfast. He endured the humiliation
poured on Him. When they struck Him, He did not strike back. When they spit on Him, He did
not spit back.
His was not a hard heart. His hands were calloused but not His heart. Sometimes our hearts are
hardened out of sympathy. We see so much suffering and so much misery we think we cannot
bear any more. We harden our hearts out of sympathy in order to survive.
Others have hard hearts out of indifference. Criminals speak of what happened instead of what
they did. One man who had committed many murders was finally caught and imprisoned. He
expressed regret that he would not be able to walk his dog anymore! He expressed no regret for
the lives he had taken! But Jesus wept. It’s the shortest text in the Bible but it is deep and wide.
It’s an important verse. We don’t know why Jesus wept on that occasion. Lazarus had died, and
Jesus had gone to the cemetery with the survivors and friends. There Jesus wept. Why? Was it
because of the unbelieving crowd? Was it because of the grief the sisters of Lazarus were going
through? Was it because of Lazarus? After all, He was not doing Lazarus a favor when He
brought him back from the dead. Lazarus would have to die all over again. And for a while the
enemies of Jesus tried to kill Lazarus. We don’t know why but it doesn’t matter. What matters is
that Jesus cared. He was not indifferent.
His was never an irregular heart. Perhaps you know someone with an irregular heartbeat and
they must have treatment for it. Jesus was consistent in His teaching. What He told His
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followers, He told His opponents. What He taught at the beginning of His ministry, He taught at
the end of it. What He preached in Galilee, He also preached in Judea.
More than that, His life was consistent with His teaching. He did not indulge in the sins He
condemned. He did not avoid the virtues He praised.
There is a positive side to the pure heart of Jesus.
His was a loving heart. The Greek language has several words for love. The word Jesus used was
seldom used before Him but has been commonly used since. Many churches have an “Agape
Bible Class.” Agape love is Divine love, and it differs from romantic love or family love.
Romantic love is exclusive. Family love is exclusive. Divine love, agape love, is inclusive.
We see it in the young man who came to Jesus asking what to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus
recognized his problem at once and, says the Bible, “Beholding him loved him” (Mark 10:21).
We see it at the cross when Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
We hear that prayer and we think, “What of us who do know what we do.” We come at last to
trust the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiving love.
His was a trusting heart. On the mountain He prayed and said, “Father.” On the cross He prayed
and said, “Father.” At the grave of Lazarus He prayed and said “Father.”
III. HE HAD A BROKEN HEART.
When the spear pierced his side, blood and water came out. Literally, He had a broken heart. It
was broken long before that. When He was rejected by the people in his home town, the people
among whom He had grown up, His heart was broken. In the Upper Room when His followers
were quarreling, His heart was broken. In the court room when He could see only one of his
followers, His heart was broken. No wonder Isaiah called Him “a man of sorrows.” No wonder
P. P. Bliss began his hymn, “Hallelujah, What a Saviour,” with these words: “Man of sorrows,
what a name!”
We break His heart. The Bible says that when we sin, we “crucify afresh” the Son of God.
When we are indifferent to Him, we break His heart.
G. A. Studdert-Kennedy preached in Birmingham, England, when he wrote this poem:
When Jesus came to Golgotha
They hanged Him on a tree.
They drove great nails through hands and feet
And made a Calvary.
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns.
Red were His wounds and deep.
For those were crude and cruel days
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And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham
They simply passed Him by.
They never hurt a hair of Him.
They only let Him die.
For men had grown more tender
And they would not give Him pain.
They only just passed down the street
And left Him in the rain.
And still it rained the winter rain
That drenched Him through and through
And still, “Forgive them
For they know not what they do.”
The crowd went home and left the streets
Without a soul to see.
And Jesus crouched against a wall
And cried for Calvary.
That preacher-poet reckoned that Jesus would have preferred the open hostility of Calvary to the
bland indifference of today!
First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida, used to put an old rugged cross on the lawn of
their church each Easter. It faced a busy downtown street. On the cross they put a verse from
the book of Lamentations: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” And that is the question we
all must face--not only at Easter time, but all the time. “Is it nothing to you?”
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A PICTURE ALBUM OF THE CHURCH
The Bible forbids graven images, yet the Bible abounds in verbal images. Nowhere is this more
apparent than when we study the church. Almost everything we know about the church is
conveyed to us in word pictures. They are drawn from every aspect of human experience. No
single image gives us an exhaustive view of the church, but seen together they do give us a
complete view the church. They also give us a winsome view of the church, so that our
understanding is more than doctrinal. It embraces both the head and the heart. We not only
come to know the church, we come to love the church. Paul wrote that Christ loved the church
and so do we.
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THE CHURCH IS A BUILDING
We say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Someone has pointed out that idea is conveyed
not in pictures but that in words!
Often Jesus used word pictures, and never more effectively than when He spoke about the
church. The first time Jesus spoke about the church He called it a building (Matthew 16:18). He
did not mean to be taken literally. In those days churches did not have buildings. There is no
record of a church building for the first two hundred years of the church’s existence.
I saw a sign in front of a house of worship in England. The sign said, “The church is people.
The building keeps the weather out.”
I. THE CHURCH IS A BUILDING.
The apostles picked up this figure of the church as a building. So the apostle Peter wrote: “You
also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house” (I Peter 2:4).
The apostle Paul used the picture in Ephesians 2:19, 20; Colossians 1:23; and I Timothy 3:5, 15.
But we must begin with the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:13-20.
It was a stunning announcement. Most congregations don’t like announcements. In Christian
camp they sing a little song that is a put-down of announcements. But announcements are
essential and this announcement was more than interesting. It was exciting.
Jesus chose the place carefully. He did not make this announcement at Bethlehem where He was
born. He did not make it at Nazareth, where He was brought up. Often Presidential candidates
go to their hometowns to announce that they are running for President. Jesus did not go to either
the place of His birth, nor the town of His youth.
He did not make this announcement beside the Jordan River, where He was baptized. He did not
make this announcement at Cana, where He performed His first miracle. He did not make this
announcement at Capernaum, the headquarters of His ministry where so many miracles were
performed.
He did not speak these words at Jerusalem, the center of power and the center of the Jewish
religion. He did not speak these words at Jericho, where the Israelites first entered the land of
promise. He did not speak these words at Megiddo, that towering fortress that overlooked the
land, and once had defended it. He did not go to Athens, the intellectual capital of the Western
world to make this announcement. He did not go to Rome, the political capital of the Western
world.
He chose Caesarea Philippi. Topographically, it was on high ground. Jesus never stood on a
place of higher altitude in His whole ministry. Doctrinally, this is high ground. We tend to put
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the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit first, and rightly so.
They are the highest ideas of our religion. But the doctrine of the church is also high ground.
The doctrine of the church is not some minor doctrine to be relegated to the periphery of our
faith.
This place was the headwaters of the Jordan River. Then, as now, life in that land depended on
the Jordan River. The river begins in a spring at this very place. So this statement is the
beginning of our understanding of Christian mission, and of our place in God’s plan.
It was a place of pagan worship. Jesus and the twelve could actually see the images still carved
on the rocks. Here where these gods had been worshipped, Peter said, “You are the Christ the
Son of the living God.”
Caesarea Philippi was named for two kings: Caesar and Herod Philip. Here the King of Kings
was honored by a great confession and outlined a great plan for his kingdom. He chose the place
carefully.
He chose the time carefully. The announcement was not made at His birth by angels. It was not
made at His baptism when God spoke and the Spirit descended. It was not made at the feeding
of the 5,000. It was not made on some feast day when Jerusalem was filled with the faithful. It
was not made when He raised Lazarus from the dead. It was not made at His trial before Herod
nor at His trial before Pilate. It was not made on the cross. It was not made on the morning of
the resurrection.
Any one of these times would have been a good time. A public relations expert would certainly
have picked one of them, but Jesus did not. You or I could think of very good reasons for
choosing one of those occasions.
He chose a time at mid point in His ministry. It was a time of learning. Jesus is teaching the
twelve. It was a time of confession. We cannot separate the words of Peter’s confession and the
words of Jesus’ announcement. It was a time of solitude when the crowds were not present. It
was a time for quiet reflection. It was a time of prayer.
He chose the audience carefully. This announcement was not made to His enemies. They would
have twisted it. It was not made to the general public. They would not have understood it. It
was not made to the multitudes. They were not ready to receive it. It was made to the twelve,
His closest associates in the work of the kingdom. Only they were ready to receive it and able to
understand it.
On this occasion (Matthew 16:20), Jesus said, “Tell no man!” At the end of the gospel of
Matthew He said for them to tell all men. At the end of the gospel of Mark He said for them to
tell all men. At the end of the gospel of Luke He said for them to tell all men. At the beginning
of the book of Acts He said for them to tell all men.
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He chose His words carefully. The verb He used was “build.” Building is a process. It is not
done in a day. It suggests a gradual process of creating something.
He used the future tense. “I will build.” He did not intend to do it immediately. As it turned out,
He didn’t even do it during His earthly ministry. That surprises us. We would have expected
Him to do it before the cross. If not then, surely after the resurrection, and before the ascension.
In fact, the church is not spoken of in the present tense until after Jesus had left this earth. (In
Matthew 18:17 the word congregation is probably a better translation. The Jews had a
congregation; they did not yet have a church.)
There are many reasons to believe that the church began at Pentecost. It was prophesied that the
church would begin in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:1-3 and Luke 24-48). It was promised that the Holy
Spirit would come to endow the apostles with special gifts (Acts 1:4). They were to wait until
this occurred. If the church began sooner than that, then it was a powerless church. Paul said the
church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). The apostle
Peter regarded Pentecost as the beginning (Acts 11:15).
Jesus used the personal pronoun: “I will build.” Why did Jesus say He would build His church
when it did not happen until He was no longer on earth in bodily form? It must have been that
He was going to do it through others. That's very instructive. It is Christ who builds the church.
No glory or praise comes to us. Christ builds it through us. So we must be available to be used
by Him; to be His construction crew.
Next, notice Jesus used the possessive pronoun, My. The church belongs to Him. We often say,
“My Church.” There is no harm in that. We are not claiming ownership when we say that.
I can say, “My country.” even if I do not possess one square foot of land. What is important is
not the words we say but the attitudes we take. Some people really do act as if the church
belonged to them. Their concern is what they want the church to be and do, not what Christ
wants the church to be and do. In fact, some assume that what they want is also what Christ
wants.
Then, note that Jesus used the word church. The Hebrew word He used was probably kahal-assembly. The Greek word that Matthew used when he translated Jesus words was ecclesia.
Ekklesia means literally “called out.” To the Greeks it referred to an assembly of citizens in a
free and democratic society called out by the herald that they might act on public business. The
Hebrew word, usually translated “congregation” (Acts 7:38), meant the community of Israel. It
was not a self-governing body, but a theocratic assembly, one controlled by God. When we put
the two together we have a fair idea of what the church really is. It is a community of people
who follow Christ’s orders when given, and otherwise are free to govern their own affairs. The
church is a theocratic democracy.
Not only did Jesus choose carefully the place, the time, the audience, and the words, He also
chose carefully the image. He said that the church is like a building.
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II. THE CHURCH IS A BUILDING, THEREFORE IT HAS AN ARCHITECT.
We have all seen buildings built without an architect. The moment you saw it you knew there
was no architect. Christ is the architect of the church. Not only does He build it, He designed it.
When you consider employing an architect you at other structures He designed. According to
John 1:3 and John l:l0, Jesus Christ was God’s partner in designing the universe. It is easy to see
how well that universe was designed. We can look up at the stars and planets, circling in their
orbits. We can look in the microscope at the protons and neutrons circling inside the atom. We
see the same design in the largest thing we know and in the smallest thing we know. We look at
planet earth and we marvel at the way in which each part works with every other part. The bee
gets his nectar from the flower and at the same time pollinates the plant so that there will be
flowers again next year. The tree casts its leaves and they turn to soil to provide nourishment for
the tree next spring. Hundreds of such examples are all around us.
In addition to its utility, the earth is marvelously beautiful. God could have made a black and
white world. Instead we live in a technicolor universe. The beauty all about us tells us that the
Lord is a great architect.
Then we look at ourselves. We see the way our bodies heal. We see the way they fight infection
and disease. Mankind is indeed marvelously made.
The one who designed our world drew a blueprint for the church. We would be foolish to use
another. St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome is the largest church building in the world. It was
designed by Michelangelo, but not built during his lifetime. Other architects tried to improve on
his design and nearly ruined it. So across the centuries men and women have tried to improve on
Christ’s blueprint for the church. That’s a great mistake. He gave us a perfect blueprint. Let us
heed spiritually the advice given to those Jews who built the tabernacle long ago and “Build all
things according to the pattern” (Exodus 25:40 and Hebrews 8:5).
III. THE CHURCH IS A BUILDING, THEREFORE IT HAS AN ARCHITECT, AND WE ARE
LIVING STONES.
Those are the very words of the apostle Peter in I Peter 2:5-8. In nature there is no such thing as
a living stone. There are igneous stones and sedimentary stones and metamorphic stones, but
there are no living stones. The nearest thing to a living stone is coral, which was once living but
is now dead. So the apostle speaks of something beyond nature when he says that we are living
stones.
We are not the foundation stone. That is Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 3:11). It is interesting that
Paul in I Corinthians says Christ is the only foundation and Ephesians 2:20 says the apostles and
prophets are the foundation.
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Of course, Biblical writers are not obligated to use a figure of speech to mean the same thing
every time it is used. The Bible says in one place that leaven represents evil and in another that
leaven represents good (Matthew 16:6; Colossians 5:7, Matthew 13:33). The Bible says in one
place that the Devil is a lion (1 Peter 5:8) and in another that Jesus is a Lion (Revelation 5:5).
The apostle Paul is under no obligation to always use the illustration of a foundation to mean the
same thing.
Happily, however, the image of a building accommodates both passages. Our buildings have two
foundations. The first, usually unseen, we call the footer. Above it, usually visible are the
blocks or stones that we call the foundation. The first illustrates Jesus. He is the ultimate
foundation of the church. When Paul wrote, Jesus was no longer visibly present. The apostles
and prophets were built on Him and constitute the second layer of the foundation. On top of this
the church is built.
In our days we need no other foundation. Christ is sufficient as the ultimate foundation: the
footer. His work was the first stage. It was done well and does not need to be done again. The
work of the apostles and prophets was the next stage. It was done well and does not need to be
done again. We do not need any apostles today and we do not need the Old Testament prophets
today. Their work has been done, done well, and done for all eternity. So today there are neither
apostles nor prophets (Ephesians 4:11). We continue to need evangelists and pastors and
teachers who build on that foundation.
In the Old Testament God is described as a Rock (Deuteronomy 32:4; I Samuel 2:2; II Samuel
22:2; Psalm 18:2, 31). We are not surprised to see Jesus pick up this terminology and apply it to
Himself. For in Matthew 16 Jesus Himself is the rock on which the church is built. He makes a
play on the similarity between the words stone and rock. He does not mean that Peter (a stone) is
the rock on which the church is built. If that were so He would have said “upon you I will build
My Church.”
If that were so He would not have changed the form of the words. The word for Peter is petros (a
stone) while the word for the foundation is petra (bedrock, a cliff, a ledge like the one plainly
visible when Jesus spoke). If the church is built on the apostle Peter, he was certainly not aware
of it (1 Peter 2:4-8).
So we sing:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in Thee.
We think of Jesus’ parable of the foolish builder who built on the sand, and the wise builder who
built on the rock (Matthew 7:24).
We are not the foundation, and we are not the cornerstone. Today cornerstones are ceremonial.
They are not integral to the structure of the building. That was not the case in Bible times. The
cornerstone was cut carefully so that it was perfect. By it the building was made square and
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level. This stone determined what the building would be. So we true up our lives by lining them
up with Christ.
Still we are important stones in this building. Every building has a variety of materials: stone
and steel, wood and glass. It would be a poor structure that was built of only one material. So,
in the church, there are many tasks to be done. We are not all fitted for the same tasks. Not
everyone can be a stained glass window. Some must be pillars of the church. Some must be
supports, hidden from view, but vital. Only if each does his part will the building be what it
ought to be.
Once I conducted a funeral for a lady who was a regular attender and faithful member of our
church, but who did little else. She didn’t sing in the choir. She didn’t teach a class. She held
no office. She had no gifts for these things. What she could do was come and smile--and that is
what she did. I wanted to make her funeral personal, but how? Then I found the text where
Jesus said of another woman, “She has done what she could.” That was this woman’s text. It
was in fact her obituary. It was her biography. God did not expect her to do what she could not:
but she could come and she could smile and she did. She did what she could. That is all God
expects of you or me: that we shall do what we can. But He does expect that.
There was a young woman in Kansas City who decided to take her own life. She decided she
would go to church on Sunday and the following week she would kill herself. She went to a rich
and fashionable church that Sunday. She decided to postpone killing herself. She went back to
church the second Sunday. She decided not to kill herself. She kept coming to church and
eventually she became a member. She sat down to talk with the minister. She asked him,
“Would you like to know why I came back that second Sunday?” He said that he would. He
thought he knew what she was going to say. He thought she would say, “Your sermon just
touched my heart.” But that is not what she said. She said, “Do you know that little oddly
dressed man with no teeth who stands around at the back door?” The minister knew him well.
In fact, he was something of an embarrassment to that rich and fashionable church. She said,
“When I went out of here that first Sunday, that little old man spoke to me. He said, ‘Come back
next Sunday. I’ll be looking for you.’” She said, “Al1 that week I kept thinking, ‘I can’t kill
myself. That little old man will be looking for me next Sunday.’” She said, “He’s the reason I
came back that second Sunday. He’s the reason I did not kill myself. He’s the reason I became a
Christian.”
There’s place for every worker
In the vineyard of the Lord
Where with all our powers united
We can toil with one accord.
There are needy hearts now waiting
For the help which we can give.
Let us guide them safely onward,
Let us show them how to live.
- Neal A. McAulay
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THE CHURCH IS A FLOCK
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke
12:32).
I. THE CHURCH IS A FLOCK.
When John the Baptist first introduced Jesus to the world he called Him a Lamb. When Jesus
introduced Himself to the world He called Himself a Shepherd! When Jesus first spoke of His
followers collectively, He called them a flock. Among the many pictures of the church in the
New Testament there are inanimate things (a building) and living things (a body, a bride). We
learn much from the metaphors drawn from inanimate things. We learn more from the
metaphors drawn from living things. The metaphors of sheep, flock and Shepherd are the oldest.
Then they were the most familiar. Now most of us are urban people and the figure is not familiar
at all but it is still instructive.
The prophets loved this picture. You can see it in Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 13:17; Ezekiel 34:3-12;
Micah 7:14; and Zachariah 9:16.
The Psalmist loved this picture (77:20; 78:52; 79:13; 95:17).
Peter and Paul loved this picture (I Peter 2:25; 5:2-4; and Acts 20:28, 29) as did the writer of
Hebrews (13:20). Jesus loved this picture. He spoke of sheep without a shepherd (Matthew
9:36; Mark 6:34). He described Himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). He spoke of the
Shepherd and the lost Sheep and the found Sheep, of sheep and wolves and of sheep and goats.
He spoke of other sheep and another fold (John 10:16), but promised that they would become
one fold. In this touching text in Luke 12, He speaks endearingly of the little flock that does not
need to be afraid.
We love this picture. The best known verse in the Bible is from Psalm 23: “The Lord is my
shepherd.” Probably the first chapter in the Bible you ever memorized was Psalm 23.
Possibly the only chapter you ever memorized was Psalm 23! And every Thanksgiving we hear
Psalm 100: “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
The church is a flock because we need to be together. Many animals exhibit the herd instinct.
None show it better than sheep. People show it, too. We need to be with other people. So we
form all kinds of clubs, associations and societies. We need each other. This need is met for us
spiritually in the church. We call that experience fellowship. The early Christians called it
koinonia. It was an old Greek word no longer in common use. The Christians dusted off that old
word, infused it with new meaning, and brought it back into common usage. They did the same
with an old Greek word for love: agape. To these old words they gave new and expanded
meaning, and to human relationships they gave new and expanded meaning.
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It was a fellowship that soon transcended all barriers of language, culture, color, and education.
Economic barriers and social barriers went down before it. Still today we feel the thrill of it
when we hear a familiar hymn sung in an unfamiliar language and we feel in our hearts what we
already knew in our minds: that all Christians are one flock.
During the days of Communist oppression in Czechoslovakia there lived a Christian brother who
spoke excellent English. That combination of factors put him under suspicion. He was
sometimes in contact with Christians from the West. Because he worked in a factory, he was
forbidden to maintain such contacts. He refused to follow the directive. He had to take a lesser
job at a much smaller salary, and move into his mother-in-law’s apartment in a different city.
Once the police raided his home and took every book from his library. Why did he insist on
keeping his contacts with Christians from abroad? He said, “I did not think I could survive
spiritually if I did not keep contact with Christians from other lands.” We need each other!
It is a marked flock. We brand our cattle. We put paint on our sheep and mark them. Christians
are a marked people. In the earliest days the marks were physical. Paul could say, “I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” He could show the scars. “Here is where I was stoned. Here
is where I was beaten with rods.” There are still some today who can do that. But for most of us
the marks are in the mind and on the heart. Is there one of us who does not have some scar from
Christian service?
More than that, we are marked in our character. It was said of those early believers that people
took notice of they had been with Jesus. They were marked by their character. They were marked
by their love. “Behold how they love one another,” they said. “By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples,” said Jesus, “if you have love one for another” (John 13:35). It is a marked
flock. The mark tells you where you belong and where you do not belong. It shows to whom
you belong and to whom you do not belong. That mark is a birth mark. You got it when you
were born again.
It is always a mixed flock. In those days sheep and goats grazed together. You can see it today
in Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and still in Israel. It is a mixed flock. We are not comfortable
with that. We’d get the goats out of the sheep fold. But in that parable of sheep and goats you
will notice that it is at the judgment that the sheep are separated from the goats. While the Bible
gives us the right to exercise church discipline, in Scripture you find it done very rarely. It is
only in extreme cases of serious fault that is publicly known and for which there is no repentance
that one is to be put out of the church (I Corinthians 5:1-5). There were many sinners in the
church at Corinth, but there was only one that Paul said should be put out of the church. His sin
was public. We do no favor to the church when we make private sins public! He refused to
repent. He flaunted his sin in front of the congregation and in the community. Perhaps once in a
lifetime we might encounter such a situation, but it is not a common situation. We should
usually leave it to Jesus to separate the sheep from the goats at the judgment.
One reason is that we cannot tell the difference between sheep and goats. Here the illustration
runs out, as all illustrations do. No illustration perfectly fits. Certainly any sheep can recognize a
goat. But is it not your experience that you have met someone you thought to be very sincere,
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only to find that that person was a hypocrite? And have you not also met someone you were
certain was a hypocrite, only to discover that the person was in fact very sincere; a sincere
failure, perhaps, but quite sincere?
In I Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul argues for the necessity of weak church members. “Those
members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary.”
When Jesus spoke these words it was a little flock. It did not stay little. Perhaps some would
have preferred that: to have their own little group of spiritually elite. But the flock must grow
larger. When Jesus spoke these words he was talking to the twelve. Soon there were 120. After
the resurrection there were 500. Soon the little flock added 3,000 in one day. Turn the next page
in the book of Acts. The number had grown to 5,000. After that the church was growing so fast
they couldn’t keep up with the count. The record continues: “the number of the disciples
multiplied.” That word “multiplied” occurs again and again (Acts 6:7; 9:31; 12:24). We speak of
additions to the church. They spoke of multiplications. The record uses words like “increased”
and “grew,” Not for long was it a little flock. The death warrant of many a congregation is
written in three words: “our little Church.”
If we count as a Christian everyone who says he is a Christian, then no movement on earth has
ever gathered so many followers. Now I am not going to try to decide who is a Christian and
who is not a Christian. If he says he is a Christian I will treat him as a Christian. I would rather
treat him as a Christian and later find out he is not than to not treat him as a Christian and later
find out he is! But if we count as Christians all who say they are Christians, then no movement
has ever had so many followers.
It may be, of course, that Jesus uses the word “little” in a special way. Many languages have a
“diminutive of affection.” In a Spanish-speaking family, “Papa” may be called Papacito. That
literally means “little papa,” but it is used without regard to size or stature and it truly means
“beloved papa.” The apostle John does this in his first letter when he writes to “little children.”
Of course, he is writing to adults, but he uses this as an expression of love. It may be the same
with Jesus in Luke 12:32. Numerically, they were at that time a small flock, but no matter how
large the numbers grew, they would always be the beloved flock.
II. THE CHURCH IS A FLOCK, THEREFORE WE HAVE A SHEPHERD.
Jesus claimed this role for Himself (John 10:11). He is the good Shepherd in contrast to the
hired shepherd who does not really care for the sheep, and who runs away at the first signs of
trouble or danger. He even gives His life for the sheep. To the apostle Peter, He is the chief
Shepherd (see I Peter 5:4 and 2:25). Hebrews 13:20 declares Him to be “that great Shepherd of
the sheep.” Certainly there are under-shepherds (Acts 20:28; I Peter 5:1-3). They are our earthly,
human leaders. In fact, in some languages the same word means pastor and shepherd. Undershepherds must never forget who owns the sheep! I knew a man in Russia who began his life as
a shepherd tending sheep for another, and who ended his life as a pastor, still tending sheep for
another.
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A visitor to a Christian mission in Haiti was taken to the native market. It was just a field where
people spread their produce on the ground. He wore no clerical garb, yet sellers kept calling to
him, “Pastor, buy my fruit! Pastor, see my vegetables.” They assumed that any white person
who would wade through that mud must be a missionary. What a compliment! So the undershepherd reflects the concerns of the Chief Shepherd. When the Chief Shepherd left earth for
Heaven, He left His twelve chosen apostles to continue in the shepherding role. As the number
of churches multiplied it became obvious that the apostles, so few in number, could not possibly
give proper oversight to so many widely scattered congregations. There was also the problem of
the vacuum that would be left as the apostles died. Someone would be needed to guide the
spiritual affairs of the churches. Those who served in this high office were called by at least
three names: elder, bishop, and pastor. The term “elder” was borrowed directly from the Jewish
synagogue where elders were in charge. The word means “older,” and implies a person of
maturity to be respected. The word “bishop” means “overseer” or “superintendent.” The word
“pastor” means simply “shepherd.” That congregations were to have both elders and deacons is
evident from Philippians 1:1 and I Timothy 3. A plurality of elders rather than one
superintendent of a congregation is implied in Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5.
Since the qualifications and duties are carefully outlined, it seems likely that the churches elected
their elders just as they did their deacons. The word translated “ordain” in this connection may
mean either “elect” or “appoint.” The method of selection, then, is not clearly defined, and there
have been some who contended upon the basis of Titus 1:5 for the right of evangelists to make
the selection. There is, however, no more reason to believe this than to believe that they were
elected by congregational vote, and certainly the latter is the wiser course. In fact, the root
meaning of the word translated “ordain” in Acts 15:3 is to appoint by stretching forth the hand,
thus offering good ground for the election of elders by congregational vote.
Indicative of the high regard in which elders or bishops were to be held is Paul’s admonition in I
Timothy 5:19: “Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.”
Those who held this high office were not to be made the objects of hasty and thoughtless
criticism or victims of careless and unfounded gossip. Who is qualified to hold such an office?
When we compare Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, we have a long list of qualities such a person
must possess. They might be summarized by saying that an elder must be qualified by physical,
mental, emotional, and spiritual maturity. He must be a man of the highest character. His own
life must be an example and above reproach, his home a model of harmonious Christian living.
He must be a man trained by experience, capable of exercising good and sound judgment.
He must be disciplined in mind, body, emotions, and soul. No one meets these qualifications
perfectly! Every leader falls short in one respect or another, but every leader must take these
standards as a goal and constantly strive to reach them.
The flock needs the under-shepherds and the flock needs the Chief Shepherd. The Shepherd is
needed because sheep tend to stray. They tend to stray morally. They need an example (I Peter
5:3). They need gentle guidance (Galatians 6:1, 2; II Timothy 3:1-17). They also tend to stray
doctrinally (Galatians 1:6-9). They need sound teaching (Acts 20:28-31; Titus 1:9; I Timothy
4:1-3:11; Timothy 4:3, 4: Titus 2:1).
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The Chief Shepherd is also concerned about enlarging the flock, and so must the under-shepherd
be concerned about enlarging the flock. He is touched by sheep that are without a shepherd
(Mark 6:34). Evangelism is inherent in this idea.
Christian unity is also a concern of the Chief Shepherd and the under-shepherds. He longs for
the day when there will be one flock and one Shepherd (John 1:16).
The Chief Shepherd knows the sheep. He calls them by name (John 10:14). He knows who you
are and He knows what you are.
The Shepherd counts the sheep. Think about that parable of the lost sheep. How did the
shepherd know one was missing in a flock so large? He counted them! Jesus knows how many
were present in my church last Sunday. He knows who was absent last Sunday. The under
shepherds should know that, too.
The Shepherd feeds His sheep and He leads His sheep. “He leadeth me in green pastures.” If
you have ever been to the Bible lands you know how hard it was to find green pastures. He leads
His sheep. Sheep have no sense of direction. The Monarch butterfly can fly from Canada to
Mexico without a map or access to the global positioning satellite. The next generation can fly
the return journey and land on the same milkweed in Canada that their parents left in the autumn.
They have a sense of direction. Suppose a stray cat shows up at your door. You can put it in a
box, drive fifty males and leave it. Within two weeks it will be back at your door! The homing
pigeon has an unerring sense of direction. But sheep have no sense of direction. They must be
led.
The under-shepherd must also follow the example of the Chief Shepherd in tenderness (II
Timothy 2:24-26; Luke 15:4-6). The picture appears first in Isaiah 40:11: “He shall feed His
flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and
shall gently lead those that are with young.” Still today there are places in the world where this
literal picture can be seen: a shepherd leading his flock, carrying a lamb in his arms. Always we
need to be able to see this symbolic picture of the Shepherd carrying the lost sheep. It’s reflected
in a song by Fanny J. Crosby:
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’er shaded
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations,
Sin cannot harm me there.
It meant so much to that flock, and it means so much to us today to know that we are safe in the
arms of Jesus!
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III. THE CHURCH A FLOCK, THEREFORE IT HAS A SHEPHERD AND WE ARE SHEEP.
Like sheep we need each other. You can raise a lamb all by itself but it will never thrive.
Perhaps you can be a Christian all by yourself, but you will never thrive. We need each other for
accountability. I need to know that what I do affects you and you need to know that what you do
affects me.
We need each other for comfort. I was called once to a home where death had come suddenly
and tragically. After I had stayed some time I decided I should leave. But I did not want to leave
the family alone. I asked them if there were someone I could call. They named a couple in our
church that surprised me. I never saw them sit together in church. They were not in the same
Sunday School class. They did not do anything together socially. I was so surprised I asked
them why they wanted me to call that particular couple. They said, “When we visited the church
for the first time that was the couple that visited us in return.” They were the ones they wanted
to come when they needed comfort.
Years ago we were having an intensive evangelistic campaign. Our members were out visiting
night after night. They had decision cards for people to sign, because we expected a large
number on Decision Sunday. Roy McKinney, one of our elders, and Fred Booher, one of our
deacons, were visiting a couple who had carried their church letter in the back of their Bible for
fourteen years. Roy McKinney urged them to move their membership, but they said, ‘‘No.’’ He
pressed the issue but they still refused. The two got up to leave. Then something came over Roy
McKinney and he said, “I just can’t leave here till you fill out this decision card,” and handed it
to the wife. Fred Booher handed one to the husband. They filled it out and the next Sunday they
became members of our church. A month later that man died. I was in the funeral home when
Roy McKinney walked in. The widow was standing by the casket. She ran across the room,
threw her arms around Roy McKinney and said, “I am so glad you made us move our
membership. I don’t know what I’d do now if you had not.” We need each other for comfort.
We need each other for encouragement. Many would say he was one of our greatest preachers.
When he left home to go to Bible college a lady in the church said, “I want to help you with your
education,” and she gave him fifty cents. He decided not to spend it. He just kept it as a
souvenir. He got lonely and homesick at college. He found the work demanding. He decided to
quit school and go home. But he put his hand in his pocket and there was that fifty-cent piece.
He thought, “I can’t go home. I can’t face that woman.” So he stayed and he became one of our
most effective preachers. We need each other for encouragement.
If we are sheep, then the church needs to be protected. Sheep can literally be scared to death. I
know of no other animal that can die from fright. So we have many fears. Some of them are
legitimate enough, and some are phantom fears of our own making. These phantom fears we call
phobias. There is claustrophobia: the fear of closed places. There is agoraphobia: the fear of
open places. There is acrophobia: the fear of high places, and astraphobia: the fear of storms.
There is mysophobia: the fear of dirt, and erythrophobia: the fear of blushing. (That’s not a
common one today, unfortunately). There is pantophobia: the fear of everything.
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And there is phobophobia: the fear of fear. Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself.” He also said that the four freedoms a nation should provide included
freedom from fear. But no government can give you that. Only God can give you that. “Fear
not,” God said to Abraham, to Hagar, to Isaac, and to Jacob. “Fear not,” said Jesus to the twelve
in this text. “Fear not,” said the Lord to the apostle Paul. “Fear not,” said, an angel to the apostle
John. John Witherspoon wrote, “It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of
man.” We live in a dangerous world, but we need not live in fear.
Notice this characteristic of sheep. They never attack each other. They may be attacked by
wolves from without. They are never in danger of attack from within the flock!
We are also like sheep in that we need to be fed. We read of green pastures in Psalm 23. We read
of feeding the flock in the words of Paul at Miletus and in the letters of Peter. After the
resurrection when Jesus met the disciples by the sea, He said to the apostle Peter, “Feed my
sheep.”
All illustrations come to a place where they do not fit. No picture exactly fits the church. When
Jesus used the metaphor of the flock to describe His followers, He did not hesitate to speak of the
kingdom (sheep know nothing of kingdoms). So when we speak of the feeding of the flock, it is
necessary to mix our metaphors even as Jesus did.
We need to be fed on both milk and meat. When we are immature Christians we must have only
the milk and not the meat, just as Paul wrote to the Corinthians (I Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12,
13). Peter also uses this figure (I Peter 2:2). When we become mature we can handle the meat of
the gospel. To be full-grown and strong we will need both milk and meat.
But in another way of speaking, we need only bread and water. Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus
is the Water of Life. Bread and water make a poor meal. It used to be said that prisoners were
sometimes given only bread and water. But in the spiritual sense, bread and water make an
abundant feast.
Whatever terms we use to describe the process, sheep need to be fed. We need food for the
mind, food for the heart, and food for the soul. We will find all three in Scripture. That is why
we are so often urged to read the Bible, study the Bible, and meditate upon the Bible (Psalm 1:2;
37:31; 94:12; 119:9; Matthew 13:23; Mark 12:24; John 8:31; 20:31; Romans 15:4; I Corinthians
10:11; Colossians 3:16; II Timothy 3:15; I Peter 1:23; 2:2; II Peter 1:4; 19-21; Revelation 1:3) .
As we need to be fed, we need to be led. It is so easy to get lost in the world. That’s the easiest
thing you will ever do. People get lost the same way that sheep in Jesus’ parable got lost. The
lost sheep never intended to be lost. He didn’t say, “I don’t like that shepherd. I’m going to go off
by myself and do my own thing.” He was just eating grass as sheep are supposed to do. It was a
lovely day. The grass tasted good, and he never bothered to look up. Finally he did look up and
the shepherd was gone and he did not know where to find him.
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God gives us more than food and shelter. He gives us a kingdom. Suddenly Jesus is not talking
about a Shepherd, but about a Father. Suddenly He is not talking about a pasture, but a kingdom!
We are only a little flock, but He gives us a kingdom! The kingdom is not won by work or
warfare. The kingdom is not ours by birth or inheritance. He gives it to us. And do not miss
this: It is God’s pleasure to give us the kingdom!
Do you find giving to be a pleasure? God does! The more we become like God the more
pleasure we find in giving: in giving our time, in giving our energy, and in giving our
possessions. No matter how much we give Him, it will never match what He has given us! He
has given us two folds. One on earth and one in Heaven.
We have come to call the place of worship a sanctuary. I like that term. It used to be in times of
political or civil unrest one could flee to a church building. Nobody would bother him there. He
found sanctuary there.
In my neighborhood the Civil Defense people have established a place to which you can go if
there is a flood or tornado or other disaster. It’s the church to which I belong. It is a sanctuary.
We have another sheep fold, of course, in Heaven. It is the Father’s pleasure to give us a
kingdom, says the text! He will lead us here through this world and He will lead us there. There
are some words that sum it all up. Those words are a prayer, a sermon, and a song.
Saviour, like a shepherd lead us:
Much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Thy folds prepare.
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus!
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are;
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Thou has bought us, Thine we are.
-Dorothy A. Thrupp
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THE CHURCH IS A VINEYARD
"I am the vine, you are the branches.'' Jesus (John 15:1)
See I Corinthians 3:9; I Corinthians 9:7.
I. THE CHURCH IS A VINEYARD.
The vineyard was familiar to those who heard Jesus preach. It was familiar in their landscape.
You could see the rows of vines on every hillside. They had been cultivating grapes for
centuries. It was familiar to them in their history. Even before they occupied the land, they had
been impressed by the great grapes it produced (Numbers 13:23). The vine became symbolic,
and today the emblem of the modern state of Israel is a picture of two men carrying a huge bunch
of grapes. It was familiar to them in their architecture. The front of their temple was decorated
with a golden vine. It was familiar to them in their Scriptures. In the Psalms Israel was
described as a vine which God had taken out of Egypt and planted in the Promised Land where
“it took root and filled the land” (Psalm 80:8). In the prophets the nation is compared to a vine
that yielded bitter fruit (injustice, oppression) when it should have yielded the good fruit of
obedience and righteousness (Isaiah 5:1-7).
Jesus uses the picture of His own work in Mark 12:1-12. Since Jesus says, “I am the vine,” is it
appropriate to say that the church is a vine? Yes, of course. The church is His body, and you
cannot separate a man from his body. The church is His bride, and the two became one. The
church stands in the place of Israel, whom Isaiah called a vine. In John 15 Jesus is saying that
He is the trunk and we are the branches. Trunk and branches taken together constitute a vine,
and vines together make a vineyard. The parables of Jesus suggest that the church is a vineyard
(Matthew 21:28-41).
The church is a vine because it is a living thing. It has often been said that the church is an
organism, not an organization. It needs to be said again. We have some non-living images for
the church, but they are partial and incomplete. We say that the church is a building, an
assembly, a kingdom. Each picture tells us something. But we learn more from the images of
the church that are drawn from living things: a bride, a flock, a family.
The church is a vine because it is a useful thing. Vineyards are beautiful with their well-ordered
rows, with their purple fruit in summer, with their colored leaves in autumn. But vineyards are
not cultivated for their beauty. The church is a beautiful thing. There is beauty in our
fellowship. There is beauty in our architecture. There is beauty in our music. Sometimes there is
beauty in a sermon. But the church does not exist for its beauty. It is intended to be a useful
thing.
The church is a vine because vineyards demand work. It is said that there are sixteen different
jobs that must be done in a vineyard. I don’t know how many jobs there are in the church, but
there are more than sixteen. In Matthew 21:28 there begins a parable in which a father said to
his son: “Go work today in my “vineyard.” Perhaps God says the same thing to us today. The
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book that describes the beginning and early days of the church is called Acts. It is not called
Ideas. It is not called Doctrines. It is called Acts.
What acts should the church perform? What is the work done in the vineyard? There is the work
of witnessing. The church makes known “the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10).
This results in the conversion of sinners and growth of the church (Acts 6:7, 9:31, 12:24, 16:5,
19:20, 28:31). It is the work of the church that its members build up one another (Romans 14:19;
Ephesians 4:12-16), and that they should comfort one another (I Thessalonians 5:11, 4:18; II
Corinthians 7: 13; Ephesians 6:22; Colossians 4:8). They’re comforted by one another and they
are comforted by the same message that converted them (Romans15:4). It is the work of the
church to care for those who are in need (Acts 11:29: I Corinthians 16:1-3; Acts 2:44, 45). It is
the work of the church to pray (Acts 1:14, 1:24, 4:31, 6:4, 6:6, 8:15, 9:40, 10:30, 12:5, 13:3,
14:23, 16:25, 20:36, 21:5, 22:17, 28:8). So we must work hard to take care of the vineyard. The
work is that of witnessing, edifying, comforting, caring for physical needs, and praying.
This care extends beyond the membership of the church. Everybody needs Jesus. But some do
not recognize their need for Jesus. So we move to meet the recognized needs of people. Then
we earn the right to be heard. Then we can show them their most basic need, their need for
Jesus. We care if people are hungry. We care if they are worried or troubled or confused. We
show by our caring that we love them. Then we can share Christ with them.
Some years ago there was a sitcom on American television. The main character had a sister-inlaw. She was always saying to him, “You want to know what your trouble is? I’ll tell you what
you trouble is.” We will not be successful if we go the world and say, “You want to know what
your trouble is? I'll tell you what your trouble is.” They will not respond to that approach. But
if we show them we care about them personally, then we have opportunity to lead them to Christ.
The church cannot sit idly by and wait for God to work out His will in human history. It is
undoubtedly God’s intent to use human instrumentality to bring about His objectives for the
church. The great work begun by the Christians of the first century and so nobly carried forward
in succeeding centuries must now be continued by our generation. For everyone who tries to
serve Christ there will be temporary setbacks and momentary discouragements. Despite these
pressures, the knowledge of ultimate victory will keep determination and enthusiasm high.
Certainly the church is interested in every aspect of human betterment. No church that takes
seriously the words of Jesus can ignore the naked, the homeless, the hungry. They are to be
clothed and housed and fed, not just in order to gain a hearing for what we have to say, but
simply because of the compassion of our hearts. It is because the church has failed its
responsibilities in this field that public charities were created. Social action is also an area of the
church’s concern. What men and nations do with respect to racial, economic and educational
problems reflects the degree to which our world knows and understands Christ. The church will
want to make its influence felt in these areas. How this shall be done may present some
interesting problems. Perhaps the best approach is to carefully and consistently reiterate the
basic Bible principles from which our ideas of freedom and justice have come. Perhaps we can
make certain that the church sets before the world an appealing example of what ought to be
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done. We will not always agree on the approach to these matters, but one thing is sure: The
church must bring its knowledge of Christ to bear upon the social concerns of its world. The
church must manage to do this without becoming another pressure group exerting political
influence. God intended that His kingdom, like leaven, should permeate and influence all of
society.
The prime objective of the church is to bear witness to the mighty acts of God. The preaching of
the gospel is its main business. While the church must be involved in numerous other important
and worthwhile endeavors none must overshadow this fundamental task. Preaching may be
viewed in both a formal and informal sense. The Bible attaches great importance to the public
proclamation of the good news.
Equally powerful and effective is the witness “from house to house” (Acts 20:20). The church is
engaged in the business of communication. She has a story to tell, a message to deliver. It is not
a message that the church has had any part in devising. It was delivered to us by others, and we
in turn must deliver it to those whom we may influence. God revealed Himself to man in Christ
Jesus, His Son, and through the Bible, His Word. To communicate that revelation to every
creature is the task of the church and of each of its bear witness to the members.
How will the church accomplish the manifold tasks before her? First, it will be necessary for
each individual member to accept personal responsibility. Church members will have to give
and witness and serve. They themselves will have to provide the funds for great educational,
benevolent, and missionary ventures. They themselves will have to provide the talent to man
these enterprises. Each individual Christian will have to witness at work and among his friends
and neighbors. Every workbench must become a pulpit and every home a center of evangelism.
Only if each member regards this as his individual and personal task, can the work be done!
The church is like a vine because it has a long life. No one really knows how long a vine will
live. I have seen a picture of a grapevine 333 years old. The vine appears to have no built-in
life-span. So the church is an enduring institution.
Jesus promised that it would endure (Matthew 16:18). The church has survived its enemies
across the years. The church has survived its friends. In spite of everything, and in spite of us,
the church goes on.
The church is a vineyard because it requires a watchman. So the Bible speaks of a tower in a
vineyard (Matthew 21:33). We read of wild animals that steal the grapes (Song of Solomon
2:15; Psalms 80:13). Thieves might come and steal the grapes. The figure of the watchman is
prominent in the Prophets (Isaiah 62:6; Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17). The idea is prominent in
the New Testament (Hebrews 13:17: Acts 20: 28; I Peter 5:2).
The church is a vineyard because, like vineyards of old, it is inherited (Deuteronomy 6:11;
Joshua 24:13; Nehemiah 9:25). So we often preach in a building we did not build, to a
congregation we did not gather--and always we preach a message we did not compose. The
church is a vineyard.
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II. THE CHURCH IS A VINEYARD, THEREFORE IT HAS DEEP ROOTS.
They are very deep roots. There are literary roots in Isaiah 5:1-7: “Now will I sing to my well
beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very
fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest
vines, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that
it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have
been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it
should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to: I will tell you what I will
do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down
the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down! I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor
digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain
no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah
His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but beheld oppression, for righteousness, but
behold a cry.”
So the church has historical roots in the experience of Israel. The church is the new Israel
(Galatians 6:16; I Corinthains 10:18) and in the church are fulfilled the promises made to the old
Israel. The roots are strong because they are grafted onto the old root stock. In Romans 11 Paul
is speaking of trees, not vines, but the idea fits here as well. Some years ago a disease hit the
vineyards of Europe. Cuttings were brought from America and grafted onto the old roots, saving
the vineyards of Europe. In a similar way the church as a vine was grafted onto the old root
stock of Israel.
There are deep Biblical roots--prophetic roots in Isaiah and Micah and Joel. Isaiah tells us where
the church would begin (2:2-4): Jerusalem. In Hebrews 9:16, 17, we learn when the church must
begin: after the death of Jesus.
The church has personal roots in Christ Himself (Colossians 2:7). Belonging to the church is a
personal relationship. John and Paul both emphasize this. It is not simply adopting a certain
philosophy. It is not merely adopting a certain way of life. It is not simply associating with a
certain group of people. We are rooted in Him. If we are not rooted in Him the storms of life will
destroy us. Sometimes in the sub-tropics a hurricane sweeps across the land. The palm trees are
easily uprooted. They have no deep roots. Oaks stand firm. Their roots are deep. We are rooted
in Him!
The church has eternal roots in the mind and purpose of God (Ephesians 3:10, 11). The church
was not put in as an after-thought when Israel failed. The church does not stand as a parenthesis
between Israel past and Israel future. The church is not a temporary solution until God restores
Israel and gets on with His eternal business. No, the church is rooted in the eternal purpose of
God. The church is a vineyard, therefore it has roots.
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III. THE CHURCH IS A VINEYARD, THEREFORE IT HAS DEEP ROOTS, AND WE ARE
THE BRANCHES.
It is on the branches that the fruit is found. If individual Christians produce no fruit, there will be
none. The fruit is borne by the members of the church individually, not by organizations, no
matter how Christian the organizations may be. Fruit-bearing is personal and individual.
What is the fruit we bear? It is, according to Scripture, in three things, that is, three kinds of
fruit. There is the fruit of character (Romans 6:22; Galatians 5:22 Ephesians 5:9). There is the
fruit of new converts (Romans 1:13). There is the fruit of good works (Co1ossians 1:10). If we
are truly connected to the vine, we must bear such fruit.
And if we are not bearing fruit, it may be that we have been cut off from the source of our
spiritual life, that we have in some way become disconnected from the vine. Hear again Jesus, in
John chapter 15: “The branch cannot bear fruit of itself. He that abideth in me bringeth forth
much fruit. Every branch that bearers not fruit He taketh away!” If we remain attached to the
vine, there is a mutual abiding (John 15:4). Those who abide in Him will take time to pray and
will see results from prayer (15:7). Those who abide in Him will experience a new kind of love
which they will share with one another and with the world (15:9). Those who abide in Him will
obey Him (15:10). Those who abide in Him will share His joy (15:11).
It must be a vine which the Lord has planted. Otherwise it will be pulled up (Matthew 15:13).
To be detached from the trunk is very serious. The wood of the grapevine is soft and can be put
to no useful purpose. You cannot build anything out of it. You cannot carve anything out of it.
It will not heat your home nor cook your meal. So it is gathered and burned. You can see it done
yet today wherever grapes are grown. To be detached from the vine makes us spiritually useless,
and there lies before us only the fire of judgment!
For those who do bear fruit, there is no occasion for pride. First, because it is Christ who makes
it possible: “Without Me, ye can do nothing,” said Jesus. Second, there is no room for pride
because we are grafted in. Like the olive tree Paul writes about in Romans, so in the figure of
the vineyard we see ourselves grafted onto an old root. When we win converts, when we are
holy, when we do good deeds, there is still no glory coming to us. In the bearing of fruit, said
Jesus, the Father is glorified (Matthew 5:16).
It is good to remember when and where Jesus gave us this text. It was the night of the Last
Supper. It was somewhere between the Upper Room and Gethsemane. What Jesus said in that
room was fresh in the minds of the disciples. He talked about a cup but He did not speak of it
being filled with wine. He used different words. He spoke of the fruit of the vine. And now
only a short time later, Jesus is again talking about the fruit of the vine. In the room, He talked
of physical fruit from a physical vine. Now He talks of spiritual fruit from a spiritual vine.
The Lord’s Supper is more than a ceremony. We do more than eat and drink in His memory; we
eat and drink in His presence. But it is also true that the Supper offers us a practical lesson.
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Jesus gives us the cup of communion filled with the fruit of the vine. In return, we offer Him the
cup of our lives, filled with the fruit of the vine.
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THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE
“Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make
her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself
as a radiant bride without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless.”
-Ephesians 5:15-27
I. THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE.
In any family’s picture album the prettiest pictures are the pictures of the babies. After that the
prettiest pictures are the pictures of the brides. I have performed hundreds of weddings. Usually
I met with the couple beforehand. Sometimes I thought the bride to be a bit plain. Perhaps the
groom saw an inner beauty I did not see. However, when the day of the wedding came, and she
walked down the aisle in her wedding gown, she was beautiful. I never married a bride that was
not beautiful. Maybe that is the reason the church is described as a bride. The church is
beautiful.
There is a question in the Song of Solomon (6:10) that intrigues us. “Who is this that appears like
the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession?” Some say it is
Eve. Some say it is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some say it is Israel who is described in the Old
Testament as a bride. Many will say she is the church, the bride of Christ.
In Paul’s day the husband made the decisions and the wife was subject to him. Today, marriage
is more of an equal partnership. The relationship of the church to Christ is best illustrated by
marriage as it was experienced in Paul’s day, not as it is experienced in our day. As the bride of
Christ the church is subject to Christ in all things (Ephesians 24).
Have you ever wondered what would happen if in the middle of the wedding vows the bride said,
“No.” That did happen to a minister once. I don't know what they did. Probably they adjourned
the wedding and had a little conference, but the church as the bride of Christ must not say, “No”
to Him. The church must say, “I do” or better yet, “I will” to Christ.
Even in cultures where the wife has little power, she is still held in high honor. One of the
greatest events of a lifetime is the wedding feast. As the bride of Christ the church deserves
honor.
To refer to a wedding is appropriate because Jesus began His ministry at a wedding in Cana of
Galilee. The venue must have been deliberately chosen. Why? We can only guess.
Jesus could have begun His ministry at a funeral. There were good reasons for that choice. A
funeral is a solemn occasion and Jesus came to do serious business. A funeral marks the end of
something, and Jesus came to bring the old legal system of Moses to an end. A feast day would
have been a good choice. The Jews had several and one can think of many reasons for choosing
that as the venue for the beginning of His work. Why did He choose a wedding?
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Perhaps He did it because a wedding is an occasion of joy. So many of His parables are built
upon occasions of joy. A woman loses a coin and finds it and rejoices. A man loses a sheep and
finds it and rejoices. A man loses his son and when the son comes back home he rejoices. A
man finds a pearl of great price and he rejoices. A man finds a treasure hidden in a field and he
rejoices. His ministry was about joy and that may be the reason He performed His first miracle
at a wedding.
At a wedding two people are joined together and the two become one. Jesus came to join us
sinners to a holy God and that may be the reason.
II. THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE, THEREFORE WE ARE LOVED.
It is obvious that the apostle Paul loved the church. He wrote that Christ loved the church. If
you want to be like Christ you must love the church. I love the church.
It was the church that first widened my horizons beyond the little village where I grew up. It was
the church that taught me I could give my life to something larger than life. The church founded
the college where I got my education. It was in a church camp that I met my wife. Since I got
out of high school the only job I have ever had was to work for the church. The church has
bought every bite of food that has been on my table and every thread of clothing that I have
worn. I love the church.
Some today try to distinguish between Christ and the church. They want Christ but will have
nothing to do with His church. Suppose you invited me to dinner but said, “Don’t bring your
wife. You are welcome but we want nothing to do with her.” Do you think I would accept an
invitation like that? Of course I would not. Christ is not honored by those who say they will
follow Him but will not honor His bride, the church. Christ loved the church and Christ gave
Himself for the church.
Paul describes her as without stain or blemish. That is the way the church will look someday.
It’s the way the church will look in the future, but not now. Often people point out to me
blemishes on the face of the church. I have been in the church all of my life. I know more about
that than they do. I know blemishes they cannot see, but I love the church, warts and all.
The book of Revelation contrasts the bride with a harlot. A harlot is never honored, but the bride
is the object of honor. A harlot is never respected, but the bride is the object of respect. A harlot
is never loved, but the bride is the object of love.
There used to be a concept called “free love.” If you know anything about love you know that it
is not free. When Christ loved the church He paid a price for His love and if you and I love the
church then it will cost us something to give expression to that love.
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III. THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE, THEREFORE WE ARE LOVED, AND WE
ARE ONE FAMILY.
When you attend a wedding you will see at the front two or three or four young ladies beautifully
dressed but they are the bridesmaids. There is only one bride. Her dress is distinctive. Her
place on the platform is distinctive. Her part in the ceremony is distinctive.
If you visit Salt Lake City your guide will not mention the 27 wives of Brigham Young. Your
guide will talk about his families. It was not the intent of our Lord to have many families or
more than one bride. On the night before His death, on His way to Golgotha, Jesus prayed about
it. He prayed that all who believe in Him might be one. Christian unity is not just a hopeless
dream.
There is a town on the border between Czechoslovakia and Poland called Testin. The name
means, “I am so happy.” Behind the name is a legend. The legend is that there were two
brothers, one the ancestor of the Polish people and one the ancestor of the Czech people. They
fell out with one another. For a long time they were estranged. Then they met in that very place.
The two brothers were reconciled. It was then they said, “I am so happy.” It reminds you of
Psalm 133: “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”
The motto of the State of Kentucky is “United We Stand. Divided We Fall.” Look at the history
of the church and you will see that it is true. Look at the history of any congregation and you
will see that it is true.
Jesus began His ministry at a wedding. It will end at a wedding. Revelation 19:6-9 says, “'Then
I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of
thunder shouting: Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and
give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear [Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the
saints]. The angel said to me, ‘Write, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of
the Lamb.’” This is the only place the word “Hallelujah” occurs in the New Testament!
Notice that you must have an invitation if you want to go to that wedding. You can attend any
wedding on earth without an invitation--even if it is not an open wedding. You can eat the
peanuts and drink the fruit punch and get a piece of the wedding cake. The bride’s family will
assume you are related to the groom and the groom’s family will assume you are related to the
bride! But you must have an invitation if you want to go to this wedding.
The invitation is very broad. “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden,” said Jesus.
“Whosoever will, let him come,” is written on the last page of the Bible. It is a broad invitation.
On the other hand, the invitation is very narrow. “No man comes to the Father but by Me,” said
Jesus. In the chapter that follows this text we learn that only those in the Lamb’s Book of Life
will go to the wedding. In the chapter after that we read of those who are excluded and are on
the outside.
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We know that when we get an invitation we must respond. People who know nothing of the
French language know what the letters R.S.V.P mean. They mean please confirm or decline this
invitation. Usually the invitation will tell you how to respond: by mail or phone, or fax or email. If you read the book of Acts you will see how people responded at the beginning and we
should respond as they did: in faith, repentance and baptism.
If you want to go the wedding you have to wear the proper clothing. Fine linen has been
provided, bright and clean. Linen was the most expensive fabric of ancient times. It was worn
only on special occasions. What a perfect illustration of noble character and noble deeds.
There is a strange parable Jesus told of a man who came to a wedding without a wedding
garment and they threw him out. That used to bother me, but it was explained to me that
sometimes the host provided the wedding garment.
There used to be an upscale restaurant in Clearwater, Florida, called The Garden Seat. Men who
wanted to dine there had to wear a jacket. It’s a resort area and sometimes guests came without a
jacket. It was not a problem. The restaurant had a rack of jackets and they would lend you one
for the occasion. It was a bit like that in the parable Jesus told.
There is one thing more. You must identify yourself at the door. The last time I flew on an
airplane I went up to the counter, laid down my ticket and the agent said, “I want to see your
driver’s license.” I said “I don’t want to fly the plane; I just want to ride on it.”
We kept the old farmhouse that had been our family’s ancestral home, though no one was living
in it. Our daughter stopped by to get some items. She went in to the village where the man lived
who kept the key. She said, “I’d like the key to the Shannon house.” He said, “What key?” She
said, “'I’m Bob Shannon’s daughter.” He said, “Wait a minute and I'll get it for you.” It made a
difference who her father was.
It does not make any difference who your earthly father is. He may have been the best man in
town. That will not get you in. He may have been the worst man in town. That will not keep
you out. It does matter who your Heavenly Father is. It does not matter how much money you
have. It does not matter how much education you have. It does matter who you are.
The Transcendental Meditation cult built a resort in Watauga County, North Carolina. They call
it Heavenly Mountain. It is restricted. You cannot get in, but I am going to get in. I have
connections. I have a friend who works for the electric company. He said if I would put on work
clothes and ride with him in the company truck I could get in. If anybody challenges us at the
gate Glenn Grubb will say, “That’s all right. He’s with me. Let him in.”
There is a real Heavenly Mountain. When I get there Jesus is going to standing at the gate. If
anybody challenges my right to go in Jesus will say, “That’s all right. He’s with me.
Let him in.”
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THE CHURCH IS A FAMILY
“I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God.” That song, written by William and Gloria Gaither,
is a favorite of many. It’s a relatively new song, but it quickly became popular. I think the reason
is this. It expressed something we all had felt, but had not been able to put into words. We are a
family.
The apostle Paul speaks of it twice in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus. In Ephesians 2:19
he says we are “members of God’s household” and in 3:14, 15 he writes: “For this reason I kneel
before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”
I. THE CHURCH IS A FAMILY.
In one sense everyone made in God’s image is a part of His family--the human family. In
another sense only those adopted into the family are a part of the family. In 2:19 Paul contrasts
those who once were foreigners and aliens with those who now are citizens--more than citizens,
family.
I read a sermon once in which a preacher made the distinction clear. He said that he had a
daughter whom he had adopted. She had a biological father, a father in the generative sense.
However, he himself had provided her with food and shelter and clothing and love so that he was
the real father. In a generative sense God is the father of all humans but in the personal and
intimate sense He is the father only of those who accept their opportunity to be part of His
family. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the
children of God” (I John 3:1).
The church is a family because we have the same Father. It is not a family because we have the
same opinions. We do not have the same opinions. There are a good many things that we see
differently. Many of those things are superficial things out on the periphery of life. There are
also some important things that we see differently, but it is not having the same opinions that
makes us family. It is having the same Father.
In my human family I do not have a brother, but I do have a sister. We do not agree on
everything. Some of her opinions are different from mine and sometimes we discuss them. I try
to set her straight, but she does not always recognize the wisdom of my point of view. That does
not mean that we are not still in the same family.
We got in to that family the same way. There are two way to get into an earthly family. You may
get into an earthly by adoption. You may get into an earthly family birth. Either way you are
part of the family. There is one way to get into the heavenly family. You get into the family of
God only by faith in Christ and by submission to Him.
A few years ago our son was explaining this to his young daughter. He explained carefully the
two ways you could become part of a family. He went into considerable detail. When he
finished his daughter said, “Daddy, you just made that up, didn’t you?”
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My wife and I have five grandchildren. Some of them are adopted. I can’t remember which are
and which aren’t. It doesn't make any difference. They are all our grandchildren.
When the Bible speaks of our coming into the family of God, sometimes it uses the word
adoption and sometimes it uses the phrase born again. John and James loved to speak of being
begotten and being born again. The apostle Paul loved to use the word adoption. Why do we
have two different words for one thing? Why, because it is such a grand thing no one word
would be adequate to describe it. In some ways becoming a Christian is like being born and in
some ways becoming a Christian is like being adopted.
It is Jesus who taught us to address God as “Father.” A few times in the Old Testament God is
described as a Father but never addressed as “Father.” It is Jesus who taught us to pray, “Our
Father which art in heaven.” The apostle Paul took it a step further. He said, “We cry Abba,
Father.” Like us, they had two words for father. There was a formal word and an intimate word.
The intimate word was “Abba.” The nearest equivalent to that in English is Daddy. Now I do
not suggest we should call God Daddy. We have seen the play about Big Daddy and heard the
jokes about a Sugar Daddy and that word has some added baggage. We do not hear people pray
and say, “Daddy.” I did hear it once. It was a prayer offered by a young lady from the Ukraine.
She knew a lot of English but for her the word Daddy did not have all the extra associations it
has for us. It would sound strange if you and I prayed to Daddy, but on her lips it did not sound
strange at all. Though we will not likely pray in this way, it is important for us to think of God in
the most personal and intimate terms.
I knew a man once who did not have even one living relative. He did not have a brother or sister.
He did not have a niece or nephew. He didn’t even have a cousin, but he belonged to a very
large family. He belonged to the family of God
II. THE CHURCH IS A FAMILY, THEREFORE WE ARE CHILDREN.
We are all children. None are step-children. My wife’s great, great, great, great grandfather was
the bravest man I ever knew anything about. He married a widow with six children! Then he
and she had five children. He had his children and his step-children. In the family of God there
are no step-children. You and I do not have any half-brothers or half-sisters in the family of God.
It almost goes without saying that not one of us is an only child. Jesus did not teach us to pray
“My Father which art in heaven.” He taught us to pray, “Our Father which art in heaven.”
Because we are children we do all of the things that children do. We work together. In times
past everyone in the family had a job to do. Something remarkable happens when a group of
church members undertake some project that they have to do together. They build relationships
with one another.
Like children we play together. That's important, too. A young man came up in our church in
Florida. His name was Rick Starr. He went to preach for the Bethlehem Christian Church
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in Madisonville, Kentucky. He was the Starr of Bethlehem. If you had asked Rick Starr how he
became a preacher he would have told you it was because he wanted to play softball. We had a
church softball team. Some of Rick’s friends asked him to play on our team. We had a rule. To
play on the team you had to attend church at least two Sundays each month. For that reason only
Rick Starr came to our church, but when he came he heard something. What he heard he came to
believe and what he came to believe he gave his life to preach.
Like children we sometimes quarrel together. People are often surprised at that, and they should
not be. It is the nature of children that they sometimes quarrel. Our daughter has two girls and
when they were little they sometimes quarreled. One of them spent most of the summer with us
and I told her what she should say when that happened. I told her to say to her sister: “Sibling
rivalry! Sibling rivalry!” There is a little sibling rivalry in the church. God understands it and we
ought to understand it.
Like children we eat together. Church dinners are common, and they are important. Not
everybody understands that. Something happens when the family eats together. It is something
you cannot see and may find it hard to explain, but it is real. It is a mark of our solidarity. It is a
mark of our oneness. It is an expression of our love. Don’t take it lightly when the family of
God eats together.
That verse in Ephesians chapter 3 notes that we have a family name. My mother did not call me
Bob. She called me Bobby. It seemed to me that that was juvenile and childish and I did not
want to be called Bobby. You can see that right there I made the wrong choice in life. Think of
Billy Graham, Jimmy Carter, Billy Sunday. Think where I would be today if I had kept the name
Bobby.
I didn’t want to be called Bobby and my mother wouldn’t call me Bob. She called me Robert.
The reason was this. We had a distant cousin named Bob. He had died from lead poisoning.
The lead was administered by the county sheriff. She felt that he had brought disgrace on the
family name. We are Christians and we need to protect the family name.
III. THE CHURCH IS A FAMILY, THEREFORE WE ARE CHILDREN, AND
WE HAVE A HOME.
We have a home. In fact we have two homes. For eight years my wife and I were missionaries
behind the Iron Curtain. We had a small apartment in the mission house in Austria, but we kept
our home in Florida. We had a temporary home in Europe and a permanent home in America.
Every person in the family of God has two homes. We have our church home and we have our
Heavenly home. The first is temporary. The second is permanent.
It is odd but appropriate, that we call it our church home. I can go inside a church anywhere in
the world and feel at home, even if I don’t understand their language. I may not understand one
word of the sermon or the songs. I still feel at home. Even if it is a church that is a bit confused
on a point or two, I still feel at home. Sometimes I’m in a church that is confused on a lot of
points, but I feel at home. These people believe in Jesus. They are committed to Him.
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They are my kind of folks. I cannot imagine living in a community and not having a church
home.
We also have a Heavenly home--our permanent home. The home in which I grew up was not
only a home, it was the family home place. It was the house my mother lived in all of her life. It
was the house my grandfather built. It was the house to which all the uncles and aunts returned
on holidays. Someday all the family of God is going to gather in the eternal home place and we
are going to have a grand reunion. When Jesus talked about Heaven He called it home. “In my
Father’s house are many mansions.” It is a tribute to Joseph that Jesus grew up in the kind of
family that was a little bit of Heaven on earth. When He talked about Heaven He called it the
Father’s House, and you and I have come to think of it as home.
In 1852 in the city of Tunis in North Africa an American patriot died. In 1883 they brought his
body back to America. They buried him in Washington D.C. President Chester A. Arthur
attended the funeral, as did the members of the Supreme Court and dignitaries from the State
Department. He had led no army. He had commanded no navy. He had fought no battle. All he
had done was to write a song, a simple, sweet, plaintive song.
Mid pleasures and palaces
Though we may roam
Be it ever so humble
There’s no place like home.
- John Howard Payne
N.B. Vandall picked up on that song and wrote another song about heaven. Maybe you know it.
Home, sweet home!
Home, sweet home!
Where I'll never roam
I see the light
Of that city so bright,
My home, sweet home.
Can you see it, too?
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THE CHURCH IS A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD:
You, Too, Can Be a Priest
Of all the images of the Church in Scripture this is the least understood, and the most instructive.
Everyone is familiar with a building and a bride. Even urban people understand the images of a
flock and a vineyard. But most of us are only vaguely familiar with the Old Testament
priesthood that is the background for this text from the apostle Peter:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that
you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (I
Peter 1:9, NIV). He called us priests! That was a great compliment.
There are two surprises in this little text. The word “royal” captures our attention. The
combining of king and priest in the same office is very rare. There was a time in Egypt, when
their priests were kings. There was a time in the history of Israel when the two were combined.
It occurred in the period between the Old and New Testament. The Maccabees were priestkings. Revelation chapter one says that Christ has made us kings and priests (Revelation 1:6,
KJV), but the combination is rarely seen.
The second surprise is that every Christian is a priest. That is a basic doctrine of Protestantism:
the priesthood of all believers. Not all Protestant churches have carried it to its logical extreme,
but it remains a cornerstone of belief. It is useful, then, to compare the work of Christians with
the work of the Jewish priests.
I. PRIESTS HAVE SPECIAL DUTIES.
Priests handle holy things. There is always a danger to those who handle holy things. The
danger is that the holy will become commonplace, and the moment it becomes commonplace it
ceases to be holy! We handle a book that says on its cover Holy Bible. I had an aunt who kept a
Bible on her coffee table. She would never let anyone put a magazine or another book on top of
it. That is not what it means to say the Bible is holy. It does not mean that the paper is holy or
the leather binding is holy. It means that the message is holy. It is God’s message and must be
handled with reverence--and with care. We must be certain we never distort the message to suit
our own convenience, to suit our preconceived ideas, or to suit our conduct.
Often we refer to the Lord’s Supper as Holy communion. But holiness is not to be attached to
inanimate objects. In some churches the leftovers must be handled in a certain way. And
to spill the elements requires that the service be halted and elaborate rituals be performed. Such
precautions are not necessary. It is not the bread that is holy. It is not the cup that is holy. It is
the eating and drinking that is (or should be) a holy act. The person who comes to the table must
come with reverence and respect and with a desire to be holy. It is not that he or she is already
holy, but that he or she desires to be holy and comes in a holy manner.
In my home church worship was preceded by Sunday School. We used the Communion table to
hold the records from each class. The superintendent and the secretary of the Sunday School sat
behind it and reported on the day’s attendance. Then those books were cleared away and an
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elder came out with the communion which he placed on the same table. We did that until a
visiting evangelist came. He said that was wrong. He said it desecrated the table. So we quit
doing that--until the evangelist left town. Then we went right back to our old practice, for we
believed that we were right and he was wrong. It is not the wood of the table that is holy. It is
not what is on the tray that is holy. It is not what is in the cup that is holy. It is what is in the
mind and heart of the worshiper that is holy.
The Lord’s Day is holy. But we do not think that the day makes the man holy. We think the man
makes the day holy. By setting aside much of that day for worship and service he sanctifies it-and he sanctifies himself.
Baptism is holy. One should never make jokes about baptism. When baptism is done it should
be done properly. There are several reasons to believe that baptism should be immersion. First
your ears tell you that. With some words the sound gives the meaning. You can hear it in words
like whisper, clap, and thunder. We call such words onomatopoetic words. Baptism is such a
word.
Our English word baptism is almost identical to the Greek word. Listen to it. Hear the sound
“bap.” It sounds like a body hitting the water. “Bap!” Onomatopoetically baptism is immersion.
Your eyes tell you that baptism should be by immersion. The apostle Paul called it a burial
(Romans 6:4). You have seen a burial and you know what it looks like. And as a burial is done
solemnly, so baptism should be done solemnly. Metaphorically baptism is immersion.
Your mind tells you that baptism is immersion. Fifty-eight Greek dictionaries say that the Greek
word for baptism means to immerse. The word is used that way in Greek literature. Try to
substitute some other word where the word baptism appears. It doesn’t fit. Philologically,
baptism is immersion.
Theologically baptism is immersion. Paul describes the Red Sea crossing as baptism (I
Corinthians 10:11). Why? They were under the threat of death and from it they were delivered.
The apostle Peter calls the flood experience a baptism (I Peter 3:21). Noah and his family were
under the threat of death from which they were delivered. Only immersion carries this
symbolism. Only immersion poses a threat of death and then provides a deliverance from this
danger. Of course the threat is only symbolic. There is no real danger, but symbolism is always
important in religion.
It is also important to note that these priests with their special duties also did common tasks.
They kept the temple clean. They kept the lamps filled with oil. They lit the fires for the
sacrifices. They slew the animals. They held the highest position but they were willing to do the
lowest tasks.
II. THE CHURCH IS A PRIESTHOOD, THEREFORE WE HAVE SPECIAL PRIVILEGES.
Those Old Testament priests could go where others did not dare to go. They could do what
others did not dare to do.
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In fact, the whole Hebrew system reflected this. When Moses was at the burning bush, God said,
“Stand back” (Exodus 3:5). When the law was given at Sinai God said, “Stand back” (Exodus
19:12). The very architecture of their temple said, “Stand back.” There was an outer court for
the Gentiles, an inner court for the women, an inmost court for the men, a Holy Place and a Most
Holy Place. All of that was designed to say, “You are in the presence of God. Stand back.” It is
against this background that the letter to the Hebrews (notice to whom it was written) has this
verse, “Let us draw near” (Hebrews 10:22, Hebrews 4:16).
Only the priests could go into the Holy Place. Only the priests were to eat the sacred bread
placed there. Only the priests were to touch the sacred box, the ark of the Covenant. We, too, can
go where others cannot go. We can follow Christ into Heaven, our Most Holy Place (Hebrews
10:19-23). We too, can do what others cannot do. We have privileges that unbelievers do not
have. We have the assurance of answered prayer. We have the assurance of the Divine Presence.
We have the assurance of Divine guidance. We have a place at the table of sacred memory. We
are all priests.
In most churches the leaders preside at communion and pass the emblems, but there is nothing in
the Bible that reserves that work for them. Any Christian can do it, so long as it is done in a
reverent and orderly fashion. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that only a few can
perform baptism. There is no suggestion that one must be ordained to baptize. Any Christian
can do it. However, in most cases the minister does it. He does it because he does it better. To
perform baptism in a reverent and meaningful way requires some experience and practice. Since
the minister often does it best, it is logical for him to do it, but it is not a privilege conveyed to
him by ordination. We are all priests and we all have equal standing.
However, we are not the High Priest. Christ has reserved that place for Himself. The Jewish
High priest went once a year into the Most Holy Place with the blood of a lamb to secure
forgiveness for himself and for the people. Christ went once and for all in to the Heavenly Most
Holy Place with His own blood. He did not offer it for His own sins. He had none. He offered
it for our sins and secured our forgiveness. He was at the same time the Lamb who shed the
blood and the High Priest who brought it before the throne of God (Hebrews 9:12--10:22).
III. THE CHURCH IS A PRIESTHOOD, THEREFORE WE HAVE SPECIAL PRIVILEGES,
AND WE MUST WEAR SPECIAL GARMENTS.
Those Jewish priests wore a robe of fine linen, embroidered in blue and purple and scarlet, and a
headdress to match. Across it they wore a sash with the words “Holiness Unto the Lord.” Never
did they go into the presence of the Lord without these holy garments. Those garments were
prescribed by God’s law and the wearing of them was mandatory.
Christians also have special garments. They are not physical garments but spiritual garments,
described in Colossians chapter 3: “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one
another....Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds
them all together in perfect unity.”
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Sometimes you can tell a person’s religion by his or her clothes. You can tell the Amish men
with their black suits, black hats, and beards. You can recognize Mennonite women with their
white prayer caps. You can tell an Orthodox Jew by his dress and the long locks of hair. You can
tell his wife by the scarf that covers her head. You can tell a fundamentalist Moslem woman by
her black robe and veil. So you can tell a Christian by his clothes. Not his physical clothes.
Christians dress about the same as most people. A Sunday School teacher gave good advice to
her class of teen-age girls. She said, “A Christian should not be the first person to adopt the new
styles, nor the last.”
No, you can tell a Christian by his character; his spiritual clothing. “All men will know that you
are my disciples,” said Jesus, “if you love one another” (John 13:35, NIV).
Near the Croatian city of Dubrovnik lies the Konavle Valley. The people of this valley are called
“the beautiful people.” They are not in fact any better looking than others, but they wear lovely
and elaborate costumes. Their manner of dress is striking, and it is thought that this is the reason
they are called the beautiful people. Christians are the most beautiful people in the world. It is
not because of their form or features. It is not because of their outward appearance. It is because
of their inner character. The apostle Peter wrote, “Your beauty should not come from outward
adornment,… Instead it should be that of your inner self” (I Peter 3:3, 4).
IV. PRIESTS HAVE A SPECIAL INSTALLATION.
Ceremonies are important. The wedding ceremony is important. The graduation ceremony is
important. The ceremony by which one is inducted into the military is important. The ceremony
of inauguration of a President is important. The naturalization ceremony by which an alien
becomes a citizen is important. Never dismiss ceremonies as matters of little significance.
The ceremony by which those priests were installed was significant and instructive. The blood of
a lamb was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of
the right foot. It was placed on the ear that they might remember to listen to the voice of God. It
was placed on the thumb that they might remember they were to do the work of God. It was
placed on the toe that they might remember they were to walk in the ways of God. Each of the
three acts was individually significant, but taken together the whole ceremony symbolized the
fact that the whole person was dedicated to the service of God.
The installation ceremony for us Christians, we who are all priests of God, involves the whole
person. That is why immersion is so significant. The only form of baptism in which the whole
persons participates is baptism. All of the individual is involved. The eyes are baptized. The
ears are baptized. The hands and the feet are baptized. The brain and the heart are baptized.
Surely it symbolizes that every part of our being belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the last night of his life David Livingstone wrote in his diary, “My Jesus, my Lord, my King,
I again dedicate my whole self to Thee.” Every believer should make the same dedication.
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THE CHURCH IS A KINGDOM
Ferdinand Hodler was a great Swiss artist. In Switzerland is a great mountain, the Matterhorn.
Yet that artist did not paint a picture of that mountain. He said the subject was too big for his
canvas. That’s the way we feel when we try to paint a verbal picture of the church. The subject
is too big for our canvas.
I. THE CHURCH IS A KINGDOM.
This is especially true when we think of the church as a kingdom. Still, Jesus in one breath
spoke of His followers as a church and also as a kingdom (Matthew 16:18, 19). In Colossians
the apostle Paul wrote of God who has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son
(Colossians 1:13). So though the picture is not familiar to us, we can still visualize the church as
a kingdom.
The idea was clearer when most governments were kingdoms. Today the official name of Great
Britain is The United Kingdom, but everyone knows it is not a kingdom. It is a constitutional
monarchy. The powers of the monarch are very limited. That is illustrated in the fact that there
is one place where the king or queen cannot go. It is the House of Commons. You can go and sit
in the visitor’s gallery. I can go and sit in the visitor’s gallery, but the ruling Queen cannot set
foot in the House of Commons.
So we must go back a bit and think about kingdoms as they once were, when the monarch ruled
with absolute authority. In fact the very word “Kingdom” means rule. The Kingdom of God
means the rule of God.
You will know, I am sure, that kingdom of Heaven is another way of saying Kingdom of God.
Kingdom of Heaven does not mean Heaven. In order to avoid taking the name of God in vain
Jews rarely said it at all. So Matthew, writing to Jews, uses Kingdom of Heaven in places where
Luke, writing to Gentiles, uses Kingdom of God.
If you read carefully all that Jesus said about the Kingdom you will notice that the Kingdom is
both visible and invisible; that it is both present and future. If you obey the rule of God you
become a part of the kingdom.
The Bible also uses the word nation (I Peter 2:9), but nations in the modern sense did not exist at
that time. It means we are the people of God. Still, some parallels intrigue us. Almost every
nation has a constitution; a document that defines citizenship and statehood.
The church has such a document--the New Testament. Do not be disturbed that the church was
in existence before the New Testament was written. The United States of America was in
existence before the Constitution was written. It is still the case that in both instances the
document describes and defines the entity for which it was written.
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II. THE CHURCH IS A KINGDOM, THEREFORE WE HAVE A KING.
Most people have never seen a king, but I saw a king once. At least, he said he was a king. He
said he was the King of All Nations. He came into the room wearing long robes. An assistant
followed him with his throne, which looked a lot like a folding aluminum lawn chair painted a
gold color. He said that God miraculously took Joseph from prison to being prime minister and
he was going to become President of the United States in exactly the same way. Obviously, he
was way out of touch with reality.
I saw a Queen once. I saw Queen Elizabeth II. They were celebrating her birthday in London. I
stood with hundreds along the avenue that runs from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of
Parliament. She came riding by in an open carriage. I saw the Queen! I don’t know if she saw
me or not.
Jesus is the King of Kings. That’s the title of the first movie I ever saw. It was an old black and
white film shown at our local school. It was a great title for Jesus is indeed the King of Kings.
The full title of the Shah of Iran was “Shahan Shah” which means King of Kings. However, he
was deposed and died in exile.
The poet Shelley summarized the rise and fall of kings in a poem called “Ozymandias.” He
pictured what once had been a grand statue. Nothing remained except the trackless legs, the
shattered face, and a pedestal that read:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings
Look on my works ye mighty and despair.
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
When Franco was dictator of Spain he often read his decrees from the royal palace, but he did it
standing beside the throne. He did not sit on the throne. Jesus did not hesitate to occupy the
throne of heaven.
When Joseph II inherited the Austrian throne from Maria Theresa he refused to have himself
crowned. They called him “the king with a hat.” Jesus did not refuse the crown of thorns on
earth, and He did not hesitate to wear the crown of glory in Heaven.
One of our great hymns says, “Crown Him with many crowns.” Another says, “All hail the
power of Jesus name,” and “crown Him Lord of all.” Earthly kings are all limited monarchs, but
Jesus is to be Lord of all. We do well to heed the song that is also a prayer, “Lord of my life, I
crown Thee now.”
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III. THE CHURCH IS A KINGDOM, THEREFORE WE HAVE A KING, AND WE ARE HIS
SUBJECTS
Now we can see why a kingdom is a better picture of the church than a nation. The people who
live in a nation are citizens, and they have a voice in making the laws they live by. People in a
kingdom are subjects, and they must do what the king commands. Subjects cannot do what feels
good or what seems right to them!
When Catherine the Great ruled Russia she noticed that out in the provinces her decrees were not
immediately implemented. She said it became a proverb, “Wait for the third decree.” Since
Jesus is King we must neither delay nor hesitate to obey Him.
We usually end our letters with a phrase our English teachers called the complimentary close.
Nowadays it is usually “Sincerely” or “Cordially.” It used to be that almost all letters ended with
“Yours truly.” Before that there was commonly used that odd phrase, “Your obedient servant.”
That must be our daily response to our King.
Whether you have ever seen an earthly King or not, you will someday see the King of Kings.
Every eye shall see Him. Those of us who believe will rejoice to see Him. Even now we rejoice
to think about it and we rejoice to sing about it. “We shall see the King someday.”
Tho the way we journey may be often drear
We shall see the King some day.
On that blessed morning clouds will disappear
We shall see the King some day.
We shall see the King some day.
We shall shout and sing some day.
Gathered ‘round the throne when He shall call His own
We shall see the King some day.
-L. E. Jones
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THE CHURCH IS A BODY
We don’t know much about the physical body of Christ. We don’t know if He was short or tall,
sturdy or thin. Since Christ was the ideal person spiritually, I have always thought He must have
been the ideal man physically--about my height and my weight. We do know this about the body
of Christ. Deny him food and he was hungry. Deny him water and he was thirsty. Deny him
rest and he was weary. Cut him and he would bleed. Wound him and he would die. That’s
about all we know concerning the physical body of Christ, but we know a lot about His spiritual
body, the church.
The apostle Paul chose the body of Christ to illustrate the church of Christ (Ephesians 1:22, 23;
4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1:18-20). Of all the images used in the Bible to describe the church, this is
the one that is universal. The pictures drawn by Jesus of a vine and a flock may be unfamiliar to
urban people. Even the picture of the church as a building might be unfamiliar to tent dwelling
nomads. Peter’s pictures of the church as nation or priesthood might not be plain to those who
are not well educated. Paul’s pictures of the church as bride and family and household are
certainly common to the experience of most of us, but life is the one experience common to
everyone on the face of the earth. While we learn from the pictures Jesus drew from daily life,
from the pictures Paul drew from family life, and from the pictures Peter drew from community
life, we are universally blest by this picture drawn from life itself!
I. THE CHURCH IS A BODY.
During His earthly ministry Jesus did all of His work through His physical body. He healed with
the touch of His hand or the sound of His voice. He taught with a voice produced by the same
mechanism as any other human voice. He traveled as any human travels, using His physical
body. People sometimes talk of having “out of body” experiences. However, you do not find
any “out of body” experiences during the ministry of Jesus. Only one is recorded, and that
occurred between His death and resurrection (I Peter 3:18, 19).
Would it be going too far to say that today Christ does all of His work through His spiritual body,
the church? Perhaps! We should place no limitations on our Lord. However it certainly appears
that most of the work Christ does in the world today He does through His spiritual body, the
church. Through the church the gospel is preached, doctrine is taught, the sorrowing are
comforted, the dispirited are encouraged and through the prayers of the church the sick are
healed.
There are so many parallels between the body of Christ and the church. As the soldiers wounded
the body of Christ, so have His enemies wounded the church. As Pilate ignored the body of
Christ, so have many ignored the church. But, thank God, as Nicodemus cared for the body of
Christ, so many have cared for the church.
They have found a previously undiscovered royal tomb in Egypt. It is from the era of the famed
King Tut. The inscription says that the tomb was created for “The Woman Who Nourished the
Body of God.” Since Egyptian kings regarded themselves as deities, is it is likely that this was a
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wet nurse who fed the baby king. But the phrase is striking. Change one word and you have a
description of many women who have served God across the years. Paul calls the church “the
body of Christ.” So we might call such a person: The Woman Who Nourished the Body of
Christ. Like those women who cared for the crucified physical body of Christ, so today
countless women care for the living spiritual body of Christ.
As the body of Jesus was subject to pain, so the church is subject to pain. “We share our mutual
woes. Our mutual burdens bear.” There is the pain of sympathy and the pain of empathy. Added
to this there is the pain of seeing people ruin their lives through sin. There is the pain of seeing
Christ rejected. It is unfortunate that some have been sold on the idea of a painless Christianity.
There is no such thing.
As the body of Christ was subject to injures so the church is subject to injury. Sometimes the
church is injured by its enemies. Unfortunately sometimes the church is injured by its friends.
We injure the church when we do not live up to its standards. We injure the church when we
fight and bicker. We injure the church when we divide it. The soldiers would not divide the robe
of Christ, but we have not hesitated to divide the body of Christ! Still, just as the human body
has within itself the means to heal its wounds, so the church has within itself the means of
healing. The Holy Spirit is in the church. When we bear the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance), they become the balm of
Gilead for the church.
II. THE CHURCH IS A BODY, THEREFORE IT GROWS!
We have all seen those tragic cases where the body suddenly stops growing, and there is a grown
man with the body of a child. Some of us are still growing. When I stopped growing up I started
growing out! I am still growing.
So God intended the church to grow. I spoke on this theme once in Yugoslavia. After I finished,
one of the elders gave a little postscript to my sermon. While I did not understand the language,
two words were plain. He was comparing quality and quantity. He said we must never sacrifice
quality for quantity. That was another way of saying, “We don’t want the church to grow. We
want no babes in Christ here. We want only full grown mature Christians like ourselves!” What
a warped idea of the church that is. God intended for the church to grow. Colossians 2:19 says
that as long as the body is connected to Christ, the Head, the church will grow! Of course, every
congregation cannot grow to the same size, or at the same speed. If you have several children
you know that they grow at different speeds. They did not all walk at the same age. They did
not all talk at the same age. Some churches are in small places with stagnant populations. They
will naturally grow more slowly. Not every church can add new members every Sunday, but
most can add new members every month, and any church can add new members every quarter.
Beyond that, a church can grow in prayer, grow in knowledge, grow in depth of character.
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III. THE CHURCH IS A BODY, THEREFORE IT GROWS, AND WE ARE ALL
MEMBERS OF THE BODY.
Like the human body the members of the church body do not all look the same. There used to be
two cartoon characters called Heckel and Jeckel. They sang a little song:
Heckel and Jeckel,
that’s our name.
Heckel and Jeckel,
we look the same.
The members of Christ’s body do not all look the same and do not all do the same things. If they
did the body could not function. We are not twins. We do not all think in the same way. Some
are analytical, some emotional, some practical. Still, we are all members of the body. In I
Corinthians chapter 12 the apostle Paul says that the weak members of the body are necessary!
In the human body, some parts seem less important, like the fingernail, but there are some jobs
that only a fingernail can do! I knew once a congregation in which every member attended every
service and every member gave ten percent to the church. That church no longer exists! It died!
We need weak church members. They are necessary.
Every part of the body has work to do. It is not all the same work. I saw once in a restaurant a
couple with no shoes on and with their feet on the table. I thought it strange until I noticed that
they had no hands. They were making a foot do the work of a hand. You can do that, but you
cannot do it very well. Paul says, “If all were an eye, where were the hearing?”
If you have ever known a person who has had a part of the body amputated they may have told
you they still experience sensation in the member that is missing! In the church, when a member
cuts himself off from the body, we all feel the pain. There is also something called sympathetic
pains in which the pain from an injury is actually felt in some other member of the body. The
opposite is also true. When one member of the body is honored, all share in the honor.
Now I must ask, What part of the body are you? Perhaps you are a tongue to preach or teach, or
just to encourage. Maybe you are an ear to listen. Counseling is largely listening. Someone said
that a psychiatrist is a paid friend. Sometimes all a person needs is a chance to ventilate feelings.
Possibly you are an eye to see what needs to be done, to see who needs to be helped. Maybe you
are feet to go. Many missionaries are surprised to find themselves on a mission field. Perhaps
you are hands to do. One church has a “Thursday Club.” It is made up of men who meet each
Thursday at the church just to see what needs to be done--and do it. Maybe you are a heart to
love. I don’t know which part of the body you are, but I do know which part of the body you are
not. You are not the head.
The church has only one Head. Christ is the Head of the Church. When our son was very little
he was sitting in his Sunday School class next to a first time visitor. I happened to walk by. The
visitor said, “Who’s that?” My son said, “That’s my dad. He runs this place.” I didn’t. Christ is
the Head and he governs the church.
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We must wonder if the body is a good illustration of the church. Our bodies are so fragile, so
subject to injury and illness. But it is not your body or my body that is an illustration of the
church. It is Christ’s body and men could not destroy it. As they could not destroy His physical
body, they have not been able to destroy His spiritual body, the church.
It has been attempted many times down the years. Most recently Communism tried to destroy
the church. The hammer and sickle came up against the cross, and the cross won. The Red Star
came up against the Bethlehem star and the Bethlehem star won.
In one town a new convert said to his preacher, “I am going to start reading the Bible and I am
going to start with the book of Revelation.” That made the preacher nervous. Mature Christians
have trouble understanding the book of Revelation. The next Sunday the man came out of
church and said to the minister, “I have been reading the book of Revelation, and I understand it.
We win.”
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IMAGING THE HOLY SPIRIT
Imaging has become essential to modern medicine. It began with the X-ray. It moved to the
fluoroscope, the sonogram, the M.R.I. and the C.T. Scan. In studying the doctrine of the Holy
Spirit, imaging has been neglected. Yet the pictures used to describe the indescribable may be
more helpful than anything else in helping us understand the most difficult doctrine in the Bible.
Of course, we must approach such a study with reverence. We are not going to draw pictures of
the Holy Spirit. We are only going to see them in our minds. No one picture is enough. Indeed,
all of them put together may not be enough, but they will help us understand a doctrine
sometimes neglected, sometimes distorted, and all too often only vaguely grasped.
May the pictures God gave us provide a clearer view and a deeper understanding of the Spirit
that, for us, must always be the HOLY Spirit.
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SWEET HEAVENLY DOVE
Sweet Holy Spirit,
Sweet heavenly Dove,
Stay right here with us
Filling us with your love.
-Doris Akers
My wife and I made four trips to the lands of the Bible, but I never felt so much like I had
witnessed an event in the life of Jesus as I did one day in Tarpon Springs, Florida. On January 6
of each year the Greek community there observes Epiphany, which honors the baptism of Jesus
by John. After a service in the Cathedral a procession makes its way to Spring Bayou. A cross is
thrown into the water and young men dive to retrieve it. The finder is supposed to have good
luck all of the following year. Thousands come to see this event. They sit on the grass around
the bayou. Looking at them I could not help but think of Jesus feeding the five thousand.
Just before the young men dive for the cross, a young girl releases a white dove, reminiscent of
the dove at the baptism of Jesus. I found it all very colorful and interesting but I was
disappointed to learn that the dove is not really a dove. It’s a pigeon!
I don’t like pigeons. I lived once in a parsonage that was infested with pigeons. They brought
mites into the house that harassed us humans. I tried to get the church board to get rid of the
pigeons. I kept inviting them over for a squab dinner. I don’t like pigeons.
I like doves. Doves like people, too. They like to nest close to a house. I’ve seen them build a
nest in the light fixture of someone’s front porch. I like doves.
It was a dove that was chosen to symbolize the Holy Spirit. There were many other possibilities.
There are 25 birds mentioned in the Bible. God might have chosen an eagle to represent the
Spirit. An eagle flies high and sees far. In Exodus 19:4 God says of His deliverance of Israel
from Egypt, “I carried you on eagle’s wings.” Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord…
will soar on wings like eagles.”
He might have chosen the hawk. The hawk is a symbol of watchfulness. “He was watching me
like a hawk,” we say. He might have chosen the sparrow. It was a sparrow that built its nest in
the house of God near the altar, leading to David writing Psalm 84.
In Psalm 50:11 God says, “I know all the birds of the mountains.” There was a great variety of
birds from which to choose. God chose a dove. We don’t know why.
The dove has a rich Biblical background. It was the dove that reassured Noah that the flood was
over. In Psalm 55:6 David longs to have the wings of a dove that he might fly away from his
troubles. In Solomon’s song the bridegroom compares the eyes of his bride to the dove. We
speak of the mourning dove, and so did the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Nahum.
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They sold doves in the temple markets, for the poor could use them as a sacrifice instead of a
lamb. Jesus said we should be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.
But the greatest honor paid to this little bird came one day on the banks of the Jordan river. John
was baptizing. Jesus of Nazareth came and He was baptized, too. The Holy Spirit came upon
Him that day in a special way. He knew it. But how could the people know it, too? Then the
Holy Spirit took the form of a dove and the dove lit on the shoulder of Jesus.
The event is described by all four gospel writers. Only a few events are found in all four
gospels: the feeding of the five thousand, the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper,
Gethsemane, and Golgotha--and the dove at the baptism of Jesus. We could read about it in
Matthew or Mark or Luke or John!
Luke 3:21, 22 describes it this way: “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was
baptized, too. And as He was praying heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on
Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My son, whom I love;
with you I am well pleased.’”
What did it mean when God made the dove the symbol of the Spirit? We can never know for
sure, but we can guess. Here are some possibilities
I. THE SPIRIT IS SACRED.
Jews didn’t hunt the dove and did not eat it. We do today, but they did not. In Genesis chapter
one the Spirit brooded over the chaos at the time of creation. Some say that at that time the
Spirit took the form of a dove. This is unlikely, since birds were not created until the fifth day.
Still, it is a lovely picture of the Spirit brooding, hovering, over the chaos. What was the Spirit
doing? Surely it was not an idle or purposeless hovering. In Job, in the Psalms, and in Isaiah the
Spirit is seen as the formative cause of life. Some say that the Spirit hovering over the universe
was impregnating the world with the germs of life. If this is true, then the One who impregnated
the natural world with natural life is the same One who impregnated Mary with Divine life and
who in our conversion begets in us spiritual life.
Can we not believe that that same Spirit hovers over the chaos of our present world? And is
there not a peculiar comfort in that image? For the natural chaos before Creation has been
replaced by a spiritual chaos. No other word adequately describes our world. It is chaotic. Over
it, the Sprit still spreads His wings!
Certainly the Holy Spirit is the active agent in conversion. He convicts the world (John
16:8). He gives life (John 6:63).
We know that the Spirit is Divine. He is described as eternal in Hebrews 9:14, as omnipresent in
Psalm 139:7-10, as omnipotent in Luke 1:35, and as omniscient in I Corinthians 2:10, 11. His
name is associated with the Father and the Son in the command to baptize and we use it today in
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the words we speak at baptism. The Spirit is Divine because one can blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 12:31 puts this in the category of an unpardonable sin.
My phone rang once in the middle of the night. A man said, “You must come to my house right
away. My wife is in a terrible state. She thinks that she has committed the unpardonable sin.” I
dressed hurriedly and drove through the night. It was my joy to assure that lady that I was
certain she had not committed the unpardonable sin. I am convinced that the unpardonable sin is
the lifetime rejection of Jesus. It is not a single deed done in a single day. It is not a single
thought that occurs in a single moment. It is not a word spoken in some idle moment of
conversation. I am convinced that the person who has committed the unforgivable sin is not at
all worried about it. Her concern was proof enough to me that she had not done it.
I knew once a farmer who was very profane. If he couldn’t catch his horses he would say that
Jesus had gotten into his horses. If it didn’t rain he would blame Jesus for the drought. It was a
spine chilling thing to hear, and a terrible sin, but it was not the unpardonable sin.
How is rejecting Jesus a sin against the Holy Spirit? It is the Spirit who convicts and convinces.
To reject Christ is to reject the witness of the Holy Spirit.
Still, the Spirit is sacred. The Holy Spirit is just that--holy. The Spirit is sacred because the Spirit
is the occasion of our conversion. The Spirit is sacred because the Spirit comes from the Father
(John 15:26). The Spirit is sacred because the Spirit speaks the word of God (John 16:13). The
Spirit is sacred because the Spirit points to Jesus (John 16:14).
John 14:26 says the Spirit is sent by God in Jesus’ name to teach the apostles all things and bring
all things to their remembrance. Can you repeat word for word the sermon you heard last
Sunday? Of course not. The apostles had a measure of the Holy Spirit you and I do not have.
They could write down the exact words of Jesus thirty years after the event.
The Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to write the Scriptures (II Peter 1:21), and it is through
Scripture the Spirit works for our conversion. See how the Spirit works in these verses:
In Acts 2:4 the Spirit fills the speakers, not the listeners! In Acts 11:14 it is by a message that
Cornelius will be saved! In Acts 18:8, Romans 10:14-17, and I Corinthians 1:21 it is through the
spoken words of men that the Holy Spirit acts for conversion (Ephesians 5:25, 26 also
emphasizes the importance of the word in conversion). If the Holy Spirit worked apart from the
word in conversion, then we would not need to send missionaries or print Bible or teach lessons
or preach sermons.
II. THE SPIRIT IS GENTLE.
The dove is the emblem of peace. It is so recognized all over the world. The dove is the symbol
of gentleness. It is so recognized all over the world. Jesus said “Be harmless as doves.”
The preaching of John the Baptist was sometimes harsh. He spoke of the axe, the sifting, the fire
that consumes. Jesus came preaching good news, not bad news.
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Gentleness is described as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23). In I Thessalonians 2:7 Paul
said that he himself was gentle. In I Timothy 3:3 he said that church leaders should be gentle. In
II Timothy 2:24 he said that servants should be gentle. In Titus 3:2 he said that all should be
gentle. In James 3:17 James said that heavenly wisdom is gentle. In Matthew 5:5 Jesus quoted
Psalm 37:11 and said that the meek would inherit the earth. II Corinthians 10:1 speaks of the
gentleness of Christ.
In medieval times the ideal man was the knight--the cavalier. In Latin America it was the
caballero. In England it was the gentleman--the gentle man.
I preached once on gentleness. I called it “The Forgotten Virtue.” One man in the congregation
got very angry. He had been trying to get his son to be more assertive and he didn’t like my
sermon. But only the strong can be gentle. If the Holy Spirit is gentle, then Spirit-filled people
must be gentle, too.
III. THE SPIRIT IS NEAR TO GOD’S PEOPLE.
The dove builds its nest near human dwellings. It has no fear of people. In fact, the dove likes to
be near us. So the Holy Spirit is not distant but within. So said the apostle Peter in Acts 2:38. So
said the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 12:13 and Romans 3:16. So said Jesus in John 14:17.
It used to be that you would sometimes make a telephone call “person to person.” That always
sounded strange to me. What else would you want to talk to except a person? But now we talk
to machines. We don’t like it, but we talk to machines.
The Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit is not an impersonal force. To say that the Spirit is a
person does not degrade the Spirit. It is just the opposite. The Spirit is not a human person. He
is a Divine person, but the Spirit is a person, not a force. So, in Scripture, you never find the
pronoun “it” used of the Holy Spirit. In Scripture the pronoun for the Holy Spirit is always the
personal pronoun, “He.”
Because the Spirit is a person, the Spirit communicates with us person to person. The Spirit
communicates with us the same way we communicate with one another. Some say the Spirit
communicates with us in non-rational ways. I find no evidence of that in Scripture. In fact I find
just the opposite. The Spirit communicated to the rational mind of Joseph, Bezaleel, Othniel,
King Saul, David, Azariah, Zechariah and Ezekiel (Genesis 41:38; Exodus 31:1-5; Numbers
11:25; Judges 3:9; I Samuel 10:6; II Samuel 23:2; II Chronicles 15:10; II Chronicles 24:20; and
Ezekiel 11:5).
Ashley S. Johnson, who founded Johnson Bible College, wrote a very significant but now largely
forgotten book entitled The Holy Spirit and the Human Mind. He showed conclusively that the
Spirit appeals to the mind, not the heart or the emotions or the will. While the Spirit sometimes
acts on the feelings, on the heart, that is rare. Gideon, Jepthah and Samson were motivated by the
Spirit. The Spirit brought anger to King Saul. These occasions are rare (Genesis 6:3; Numbers
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24:2; Judges 6:34; I Samuel 10:6; Exodus 31:3; Isaiah 63:11). Significantly, all of them are in
the Old Testament. If you will study every mention of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament you
will conclude that the Spirit appeals to the mind of man.
Sometimes you will see a dove on a lapel or on a church building. If it is there as a symbol of
peace, we should not be disturbed by it, but if the dove replaces the cross, we should be bothered
by it. The Holy Spirit did not die for you. Jesus died for you. It is to Him the Spirit points
(John 16:14). It is of Him the Spirit testifies (John 15:26). He does not testify of Himself! The
Spirit inspired Paul to say that in all things Christ should have the preeminence (Colossians
1:18).
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WATER, WIND AND FIRE
There is an old song called “Love is a Many Splendored Thing.” The doctrine of the Holy Spirit
is a many splendored thing.
We can best appreciate it by looking at the images of the Spirit. So often in the Bible we are
taught by means of pictures. Almost everything that we know about the church we learn from
word pictures. Much of what we know about God comes from word pictures. God is a
Shepherd, a Fortress, a Shield, and a Rock. The same is true of the Holy Spirit.
Three of these images are most fascinating. There are only four basic elements: earth, air, fire
and water. Three of the four are used to illustrate the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit is compared to
water and to wind and to fire.
I. WATER
Jesus met a woman at Jacob’s well who had two deep thirsts. She had the normal thirst for water
and she had a deep spiritual thirst. Jesus knew about both of them. He said if she came to Him
there would spring up within her a well of living water. He didn’t identify it on that occasion,
but later on He did. In John 7:37-39 we find Jesus at one of the great feast days in Jerusalem. It
was their custom at that feast to bring water from the pool of Siloam. That spring was the reason
Jerusalem was built in that place. The life of the city has always depended on that spring and on
that pool. So on the feast day they brought water from the spring up to the temple and they
poured it out before the Lord. When they did Jesus cried out: “If anyone is thirsty let him come
to me and I will give him living water.” John says He spoke about the Holy Spirit. So the Holy
Spirit is described as water. We can think of so many parallels.
Our physical life began in water and our spiritual life begins with the Holy Spirit. He convicts us
of sin (John 16:8). He convinces us about Christ (John 16:14; John 15:26).
We are surrounded by water. The continents are surrounded by the embracing arms of the oceans
and we are surrounded by the embracing arms of the Spirit. The greatest percentage of the earth
is water. The Pacific Ocean alone is 25% larger than the total of all the land surface of the
planet. The greatest percentage of your body is water. What a beautiful illustration of the Spirit
pervading our world and surrounding our lives.
We think at once of the fact that we use water for cleansing. It is the most practical solvent.
Maybe you heard about the boy who went to college to study chemistry. He came back and told
his father, “I’m going to be famous. I'm going to invent a universal solvent. It will dissolve
anything.” His father replied, “When you do, what are you going to keep it in?” Water is not a
universal solvent, but it is our best. It washes away the dirt that accumulates every day. So we
associate the Holy Spirit with cleansing as Jesus did in John chapter three. Nicodemus was told
he must be born again, born of water and of the Spirit (John 3:5). We associate the Spirit with
cleansing as the apostle Paul did in I Corinthians chapter twelve. “By one Spirit you have all
been baptized into one body” (I Corinthians 12:13). Naturally, baptism is closely connected to
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the Holy Spirit because the Spirit is the agent of spiritual cleansing. Romans 15:16 says we are
sanctified by the Spirit.
Water and the Spirit are alike not only as agents of cleansing, but they are also alike in that both
satisfy a deep thirst. When you are truly thirsty nothing else really satisfies. You can drink tea or
coffee or lemonade, but only water really quenches your thirst. So we have this deep inner thirst
for the spiritual that only the Holy Spirit can satisfy. We desire a close and personal relationship
with Deity. That thirst is satisfied in conversion for upon our conversion God gives every one of
us His Holy Spirit--not a gift from the Spirit, but that gift that is the Holy Spirit.
We can read in the book of Revelation the letter Jesus directed to be sent to the church at
Pergamos (Revelation 2:12-29). Pergamos was a fascinating city, a place to which people came
for healing. They came because of the water from a spring once thought to be sacred. They
drank that water. They bathed in that water. They believed their deepest physical needs were
met. They believed they were healed. So the Spirit comes to heal our sin-sick souls and satisfy
the thirsting of our hearts.
Like water the Spirit calms us. Paul wrote that we receive peace from the spirit (Romans 8:6
NIV and 15:13). Many think the Spirit excites us but the apostle Paul thought the Spirit calms
us. Water has this calming effect. When we are really upset we sometimes decide to take a long
soak in the bathtub. Our instincts were right. Hydro therapy is now a recognized treatment for
disease both physical and mental. There is something calming about water. People relax by
listening to a tape of running water, or sitting by the sea, or relaxing beside a lake, or listening to
the rain.
Many have likened the Holy Spirit to rain, but have based it on a misinterpretation of Scripture.
The Bible does refer to the former (early) and the latter rain. There are nine such references in
Scripture, but none of them refer to the Holy Spirit. Six are agricultural references and the
translation is often autumn (early) and spring (latter) rains. In three of the nine passages rain is
symbolic but not of the Holy Spirit (Job 29:23; Proverbs 16:15; and Hosea 6:3). Three are
symbolic, but none is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Any similarity we see between rain and the
Holy Spirit comes from our own understanding of the Spirit, not from any explicit Biblical
reference.
I’m also impressed by the fact that water seems to only thing that illustrates the Trinity. In I John
5:7, 8 there are three that bear witness in Heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And there
are three that bear witness on earth, the spirit, the water and the blood. It suggests to us that in
water we may have the nearest thing to an illustration of the Trinity. We must all confess our
ignorance when it comes to the Trinity. As human words fall short of describing God, so do
human numbers. Still, we are puzzled by the One in Three described in Scripture and in song.
The one thing that comes close to illustrating that is water. Water can be solid (ice), a vapor
(steam), or liquid, yet all three are water; water in three different forms. Of course they fall short
of illustrating the Trinity. All illustrations of Deity fall short. God is not “just like” anything.
God is unique. The Holy Spirit is not “just like” anything. The Holy Spirit is unique. Still this
example may help us to see different aspects of Deity reflected in different aspects of water.
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II. WIND
The second basic element that illustrates the Spirit is the wind. Someone said that the wind is a
plant’s only chance to make music. Again we think of Jesus talking to Nicodemus that night so
long ago. He came in the evening under the cover of darkness. They sat outside, probably on
the roof which served so often as a porch in those days. Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus some
of the deepest truths about the kingdom. And as so often happens after night falls in Israel, a
breeze began to stir the leaves on the trees. It made a perfect illustration. The wind blows where
it wants to. You can’t tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is the Holy Spirit (John 3:8).
There is a mystery about the wind, and there will always be a mystery about the Holy Spirit.
When we say everything that it is possible for us to say about this doctrine, it will still be a
mystery.
But don’t be disturbed by that. Where there is no mystery there is no religion. If we knew fully
all things there would be nothing to worship and no one to adore. We must have mystery. We
must stand in awe of things beyond our knowledge and understanding or there is no worship.
The wind and the Spirit alike are mysterious. We do know some things about the wind. We
know that it is a current of air molecules that flow from high pressure to low pressure. Anybody
can understand that. It’s a very simple thing, until you want to know if a hurricane will come
and when and where it will make landfall, or you want to know where a tornado will strike. The
meteorologist may tell you it will be in Texas, or even in east Texas, but which town will the
tornado strike? Which street will it go down? There is so much we do not know about the wind.
We know it is affected by the rise and fall of temperature. Hot air rises. Cool air falls. We know
it is affected by the topography of the earth. In southern California the Santa Ana winds come in
from the desert and move toward the Pacific Ocean, burning their way across the Los Angeles
basin. Still, there is so much we do not know about the wind.
Yet, we can build our windmills without knowing much about the wind. We can dry our wash on
the clothesline without ever understanding the deeper mysteries of the wind. We can ride in our
sailboat with only a little knowledge of the wind. The Spirit is like that. There are some very
complicated things about the Spirit and some very obvious things. You don’t have to know
everything about the Spirit for Him to convict you of sin, or point you to Christ or encourage you
in Christian living.
We can and should know some things about the Holy Spirit. We know the Spirit is a person. He
can be grieved. He can be blasphemed. We can lie to Him. We know He can teach. We know
He can guide. We know He can stir our memories. But there is still much about the Spirit in the
realm of mystery. Is the Spirit equal with the other two in the Trinity? The Bible never says. Is
it only God working through the Spirit? Is it only Christ working through the Spirit? We can
never know all there is to know about this subject. That may be the reason this doctrine of the
Holy Spirit has captured the interest of believers just as the wind captures the imagination of
man.
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Long ago in the heart of ancient Athens the Greeks built a tower, which they named “The Tower
of The Four Winds.” And in 1999 Houghton Mifflin published a book by Jan De Blieu entitled
simply Wind. In that book she wrote, “I marvel at its changeable nature, its many personas.
Nothing on earth so cleanses me or pushes me so near the brink of my physical limits. Nothing
else so reminds me of God.”
The Bible says in the Psalms that God brings the winds out of His treasury, and in Job that the
wind is one of God’s mysteries. In the Bible it was the east wind that brought the plague of
locusts in Egypt and the drought. It was the east wind that parted the Red Sea that the children
of Israel might cross, and it was the east wind that brought the quail to feed them.
In the book of Proverbs it is the north wind that drives away the rain. On Paul’s journey to Rome
the sea was calmed by the south wind and in Job the whole earth is calmed by the south wind
The west wind appears only once in the Bible. When the children of Israel were safely across the
Red Sea the east wind stopped and the west wind rose and the waters of the Red Sea came back.
From all four points of the compass the wind is blowing across the pages of the Bible.
The wind suggests power. Long ago we learned how to harness some of the power with our sails
and windmills, and now we use the wind to make electricity. In the deserts of southern
California you can see acres of windmills. They are there to generate electricity by the unseen
but easily felt power of the wind. In a violent thunderstorm more power is generated than in a
hydrogen bomb.
The apostle Paul wrote, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstrations of
the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power
of God” (I Corinthians 2:4, 5). It is not possible to overestimate the power of the Spirit. We may
not always agree on how the power is experienced or where it is felt or what the power of the
Holy Spirit does. On those we may sometimes disagree. But when we consider the immensity
of the power of the Holy Spirit there is unanimous agreement.
The Holy Spirit is beyond our control. We can harness the wind. We cannot harness the Spirit.
We cannot decide which way the wind blows or if it will blow at all. One hundred years ago the
Eskimos had a method for controlling the wind. Women with clubs and knives would beat the
wind. They would drive it into a great fire. Then their husbands would shoot the wind. After
that they poured water on the fire. As the wind tried to rise in steam they crushed it with a heavy
stone. Of course it was only a futile gesture, an empty ceremony.
We do not control the wind and we do not control the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit controls us.
And that is a fundamental point. If you imagine that the Spirit is a power given to you to use,
some lever to put against the world, some influence you can exercise--you need to look again.
Quite the opposite is the case. The Spirit is a power to use us, not a power for us to use! You
cannot see the wind and you cannot see the Spirit. You cannot stop the wind and you cannot stop
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the Spirit. You cannot control the wind and you cannot control the Spirit. You can use the wind,
but you can only be used by the Spirit.
The wind suggests change. My father was denied the benefits of a formal education, but he had
picked up a lot of information informally. As a farmer he was an intense observer of the weather.
The crops depended on it. When the wind came out of the east he would say, “There’s going to
be bad weather tonight.” He was rarely wrong.
The weather forecaster tells you from which direction the wind will come and how strongly the
wind will blow. The pilot of a boat and the pilot of a plane must know about the wind.
In the western states the wind makes sculptures out of sand and rock. The wind has changed the
course of rivers. The Cook Islanders had names for 32 different kinds of winds. A few names for
the wind are familiar in the Americas and in Europe. In the far west there is a wind they call the
Chinook which quickly changes the weather. In Israel the wind they call the sirocco blows in off
the desert and wilts the flowers and withers the grass in a single day. I myself have experienced
the winds they call the mistral and the foehn. The mistral does not blow from the sea to the land
but from the land to the sea. It blows where mountains come down to the very shore. The wind
roars down those mountains to the sea. It moans and shrieks and is quite unnerving. But in
Europe there is another wind. It blows from the Mediterranean Sea up to the continent of
Europe. It is the foehn. Often on television the announcer says that tomorrow the weather will
be foehnlich--foehn like. That warm air blows right up into the snowy Alps and melts the snow
and brings relief from the harsh winter cold. The wind always suggests change.
The Holy Spirit is involved in change. He was involved in the change from chaos to creation.
He is involved in the change from a lost sinner to a saved saint. Through life, as we struggle
against temptation, the Spirit is there to guide and instruct and bless.
In both languages of the Bible the same word can mean wind, breath or spirit. So Jesus breathed
on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). When He did that He gave them
something I do not have. The apostles were unique. They were uniquely chosen by Christ
Himself. They were uniquely endowed. But look at the combination of breath and wind and
spirit.
III. FIRE
We are not surprised to find the Holy Spirit associated with fire. Fire is found often in the Bible.
There is the cleansing fire in the book of Isaiah and the dramatic fire from the throne in the book
of Revelation. Fire is often found in nature. There is lightning--fire from heaven. There is the
volcano--fire from the heart of the earth.
John introduced Jesus as one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Is He talking
about one baptism or two? Scholars are not agreed about that. Do His followers receive the
baptism of the Spirit and His enemies the baptism of fire? Or is Holy Spirit baptism also a
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baptism of fire? We cannot say with certainty. Nobody knows for sure. But there is no
uncertainty about the fires of Acts chapter 2.
We are greatly impressed by those fires at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Notice that when that fire fell
they heard something. They heard the sound of a rushing mighty wind.
They had already heard something. In I John 1:1 John wrote of “that which we have heard, that
which we have seen…that which our hands have handled of the Word of Life.” What they had
heard was more important than what they were hearing on the day of Pentecost. What they had
heard from the lips of Jesus was plain instruction about life. Many want to hear the sound of the
rushing mighty wind of Pentecost but what we need to hear are the spoken words of the Lord
Jesus Christ recorded for us in the gospels.
Once I taught a series of lessons from the book of Revelation on Wednesday nights in our
church. There was a couple that had never before attended the midweek Bible Study. But when
I taught that series, they came every night. I followed that with a series of lessons about Jesus
Christ. They never came once. They were not interested in hearing what Jesus had said or done.
They were only looking for some solution to a new riddle or some unraveling of an old puzzle.
Perhaps they wanted to be able to say to other believers, “I know something you don’t know!” If
we are more interested in what’s going to happen than we are in what’s already happened we
need to reexamine our priorities. If we are more interested in His second coming than we are in
his first coming, we have a problem. What Christ has already done is far more important than
anything else we can study.
In Luke 24 there is the wonderful story of the risen Christ walking down the road with two
disciples who were prevented from recognizing Him. Why did Jesus do that? Was it some trick,
like Halloween? Once they got in the room would He pull off the mask and say, “I fooled you,
didn’t I? You didn’t know it was me, did you?” Was it that? No!
He did not do that to trick them or fool them. The explanation is in their words. When they
recognized Him and He left them they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked
with us in the way and while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). That’s the spark
that set the fire burning in their hearts. It was what they learned from the Scriptures!
Suppose Jesus had permitted them to recognize Him from the start, and then said, “Now let’s
have a Bible lesson.” They would have been in no mood for a Bible lesson. They would have
wanted to celebrate. They would have been so excited. Who wants to sit down and listen to a
Bible lesson when he has just met the risen Christ who was thought to be dead?
No, time was needed. They needed a calm atmosphere so that their faith could rest exactly
where your faith rests and that is on the word of God (Romans 10:17). Faith comes by hearing,
by hearing the word of God. That’s why they believed. It was because He opened to them the
Scriptures. That’s why you believe and that’s why I believe. Somebody opened to us the
Scriptures. It was because of that they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us?”
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So if you want the Spirit’s fire you must find it where they found it so long ago. You must
devote yourself to hearing again what Jesus has already said.
They heard something and they saw something. They saw tongues of fire. Surely it reminded
them of the fires they had seen all their lives on the temple altar. Surely it reminded them of the
fire Isaiah saw when he was cleansed and given his commission (Isaiah 6:6-8). Surely it
reminded them of the fire that fell from Heaven on Mt. Carmel (I Kings 18). Surely it reminded
them of the fire that Moses saw when the bush burned but was not consumed (Exodus 3:1-10).
Surely it reminded them of that pillar of fire that had led their ancestors across the wilderness
(Exodus 13:21). All through the Bible the figure of fire is found to teach us some dramatic
truth. The Holy Spirit is like fire in that it captures our attention and lights our way.
They felt something. Fire lights. Fire also burns. I recommend that we keep a respectful
distance between ourselves and the Holy Spirit. I know He is within us. I know He dwells in us.
I know He surrounds us. But mentally we need to keep a respectful distance. I read a book by
Lyndon Johnson. He wrote about the moment he became President of the United States. He
walked into a room where there were friends who had worked with him for years. They all stood
up. They had never done that before. People who had always called him Lyndon immediately
started calling him Mr. President. If it is proper to keep a certain respectful distance between
oneself and the President of the United States, then surely we should keep a respectful distance
between ourselves and the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is a member of the Godhead and the
third person of the Trinity then we need to accord Him some reverence and respect. We need to
keep a little distance. Fire lights but it also burns.
How does the Holy Spirit want to light our way? Is there any contradiction between the Old
Testament and the New? When David said, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto
my path” (Psalm 119:105), was he speaking only of his generation? Surely not. The Holy Spirit
has given us the Bible. He has moved in the minds of those who wrote it (II Peter 1:21). All the
guidance we need is there, already.
If it lights our way it reveals our wickedness. It comforts, but it also disturbs. Like fire burning
away the dross and leaving the gold, the Spirit purifies. Like fire cauterizing a wound, the Spirit
heals. The same word we use for putting out a fire the Bible uses for resisting the Holy Spirit.
We quench the fire. We must not quench the Spirit (I Thessalonians 5:19).
They heard something. They saw something. They felt something. They did something. They
did not just sit back and say, “Wasn’t it a wonderful show! Wasn’t it great to be there and
see the fire and hear the wind! My, I wish I had a picture of it.” No, they did something. People
who really have the Holy Spirit within and are acutely conscious of it are people who feel a
responsibility and a desire to do something.
It was so of those two from Emmaus. When the fire burned in their hearts they went back to
Jerusalem to tell others that Christ had risen (Luke 24:33-35). They went to worship and they
went to tell the story (See Psalm 104:1-4).
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If the fire of the Holy Spirit burns on the altar of your heart, you must worship and you must tell
somebody about the good news.
I was in Communist Romania one Easter. The Orthodox Church has a special service on
Saturday night before Easter Sunday. Thousands crowd every Orthodox Church. In spite of the
oppression they suffered on this night they were open about their faith. The church I visited was
packed with four or five hundred people inside and easily a thousand outside, on the lawn and
spilling out into the street.
At midnight all the lights in the church went out. Then a candle appeared in the chancel. Those
inside had each brought a candle and the ones in front lit their candles from that single candle in
the chancel. Then they shared a light with others sitting farther back. Soon the whole church
was bathed in light. Then the light was shared with those on the porch and finally with those of
us standing on the lawn and in the street. I bought a candle from a Gypsy working the crowd. I
got a light from a perfect stranger on one side. I gave a light to a perfect stranger on the other
side. They call that light the Easter fire!
Then, following their custom I took my lighted candle home with me. I carried it across the
lobby of a Communist hotel. I mounted it in an ash tray in my room and put it in the window.
Then I turned out all the lights. I wanted everyone who passed by to know that in that hotel
room there was someone who believed in the resurrection of Jesus.
I watched as little points of light appeared below; lights from candles carried by other worshipers
returning from more distant Orthodox churches. I wanted to open the window and shout down to
them, “Hello, brother! Hello, sister.” But I couldn’t speak Romanian, and besides, that would
have been a foolish and dangerous thing to do.
Notice this. They took the Easter fire home with them. We who have received the Holy Spirit
fire must not leave that fire at church. We must take it home with us. We must share the fire
with someone else--and then we must take the fire home with us.
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THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY
And this our life...finds tongues in trees,
books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones,
and good in everything.
-William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
We often see the extraordinary in the ordinary. In the Bible the Holy Spirit is compared with
some very ordinary things, yet the Holy Spirit is the most extraordinary Person we meet in
Scripture. The Holy Spirit is like the anointing oil. We are to receive something (I John 2:20).
The Spirit is like a fruit tree. We are to give something (Galatians 5:22). The Spirit is like new
clothing. We are to wear something (Luke 24:49; Colossians 3:12-14). The Spirit is like a
notary seal. We are to know something (Ephesians 1:1-3; 4:30). The Spirit is like a down
payment. We are to anticipate something (II Corinthians 1:22, 5:5; Ephesians 1:13, 14).
I. WE ARE TO RECEIVE SOMETHING.
John calls the Spirit an anointing oil from God (I John 2:28). Here we encounter the most
controversy. Believers are not agreed as to what we are to receive in our generation. The
argument boils down to this question: Are all of the spiritual gifts in the New Testament intended
for all times or are some of the gifts intended only for that earliest time and the others intended
for all time? The controversy centers around I Corinthians 12:7-11, “Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the
Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge, by means of the same
Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another
miraculous powers to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to
another the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of
tongues. All these are the work of one and the same spirit and He gives them to each one just as
He determines.” (NIV)
It is interesting that this list is found in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. When Paul wrote to the
Romans he gave a list of spiritual gifts, but he did not mention these miraculous gifts (Romans
12:6-8). When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he gave a list of spiritual gifts, but he did not
mention these miraculous gifts (Ephesians 4:11-14). These miraculous gifts he mentions in no
other letter except the letter to the Corinthians.
Corinth was not a model church. I grew up in Corinth, Kentucky. The town was named for the
Corinth Christian Church. I don’t know why they named that congregation Corinth. Of all the
churches in the New Testament it is the least attractive, except perhaps for the one at Laodicea.
I could go right up the road and go to the Antioch Christian Church. I could understand why
they chose that name. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. I could go a little
farther and visit the Lystra Church of Christ. Lystra was the hometown of Timothy and I could
see why they chose that name. I could go still farther and go to the Mt. Olivet Christian Church
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and I understood why they chose that name. I would not have been surprised if my ancestors had
chosen the name Phillipian Christian Church or Ephesian Christian Church or the Colossian
Christian Church, but somebody named it Corinth Christian Church, after that troubled
congregation in Greece.
In that congregation, filled with jealousy, immorality, demon worship, and abuse of the Lord’s
Supper they highly prized the miraculous gifts given by the Spirit. Two of them seem to be the
most talked about today, and perhaps a discussion of the two will apply to the rest. The phrase
“gift of healing” is more precisely translated “gifts of healings.” Both the nouns are plural. I
understand that to mean that every healing is an individual gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of
healing is given to the person who is healed. I do not understand that to mean that some
individual has been given the gift to heal people and others have not.
Another gift generates the most controversy; it is the gift of tongues. Tongues means what it has
always meant and that is languages. When we speak of the language we learned in childhood we
call it our mother tongue (in I Corinthians 14:2 the word unknown before the word tongues is in
italics in the King James Version. In that version they used italics to show that that word was not
in the original Greek but was added by the translators to make the meaning clear. The word
unknown does not appear in the Greek text nor in other English translations). The word tongues
means languages. When the church was in its infancy, there was a need for the gospel to be
spread rapidly. The infant church had great enemies. There was no time to waste. So God gave
people the gift to speak in languages they had not learned to speed the progress of evangelism.
I am convinced God only gives His gifts in response to need. When Jesus was on earth He
healed those who were sick not those who were well. He did not perform a miracle on the well
so that they would never get sick. Healing was in response to need. The need for the gift of
tongues does not exist today in the same way it did in the beginning.
At one time, some American Indians communicated by means of smoke signals. They no longer
do that today. They send a fax or an e-mail. The need for smoke signals no longer exists. You
have probably received an e-mail recently, or a message by fax machine, but I doubt if you have
received a telegram lately. We don’t need telegrams anymore.
God and the Holy Spirit give their gifts in response to need. In a congregation where all speak
English there is no need for another language. In such a setting why would God give somebody
the gift of tongues? You would expect Billy Graham to have the gift of tongues. If there is
anybody who seems to need that gift today it is Billy Graham. He has preached to more people
in more places all over the world than anybody in the history of Christianity, and he does not
have the gift of tongues. He uses a translator.
I was in Russia near Moscow and met an American from a denomination in America that
practices speaking in tongues. He says God has given him that gift, but every time he stands up
to preach in Russia he preaches in English, just like I did and he uses an interpreter to translate
into Russian just like I did! It seemed to me that there was an obvious discrepancy between what
he claimed and what he did.
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Some say it is not languages in every passage. They say in some cases it is a prayer language.
This is a relatively new interpretation. It began with the advent of the tape recorder. Once you
had a recorder you could record what people were saying. You could study it and determine if it
was any known language. Up until then everyone said it was a foreign language. Then the
explanation changed. Of course, no one knows all languages, but all fit into certain families of
languages and you can identify that.
I sat in a little mountain restaurant in the U.S. and listened to a conversation at the next table.
They were speaking Polish. I do not understand Polish. I can say in Polish, “Hello, thank you,
and good-bye.” I did not understand what they were saying, but I knew they were speaking
Polish. I asked them if that were the case and they said, “Yes.” I said, “I knew it was one of the
Slavic languages and I thought it was Polish.” Languages fit into families and linguists can
identify them.
So it is possible to study the tapes and discover if it is a real language. At that point many said,
“It is a prayer language, an ecstatic speech.” I remain unconvinced. This is the reason. NonChristian religions practice the same thing. Moslems are a good example. Also, you can find
churches far to the right and far to the left, whose doctrines contradict each other, both claiming
that God has given them through the Spirit the gift of tongues.
Why would God give this gift to people who obviously are teaching false doctrine? Both groups
can’t be right. They could both be wrong, but they couldn’t both be right. They are teaching
doctrines that contradict each other and yet both of them claim they have been given the gift of
tongues.
Paul was writing to Christians at Corinth. Near Corinth was the Delphic oracle. There was a
cave at Delphi. Certain gases in this cave caused people to hallucinate. The priests of that
religion put a woman in the cave. Under the influence of those gases she would go into a trance
and make unintelligible sounds. The priests stood at the door of the cave. For a fee they would
“interpret” for you what the woman was saying. Those heathen priests had a good network of
informers and their interpretation often seemed to be correct. Delphi and its practices were well
known all over Greece. That is why Paul wrote to a Greek congregation at Corinth, “I forbid a
woman to speak in tongues in the church.” In Greece speaking in tongues would be identified
with the Delphic oracle and people would think Christianity was the same as that heathen
religion.
The subject of speaking in tongues occupies far more attention today than it did in the New
Testament. The book of Romans gives major attention to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (5:5; 7:6;
8:2-16; 8:23-27; 14:17), but does not mention tongues. The same is true of II Corinthians (3:3;
3:18; 5:1-5) and of Galatians (4:6-7; 5:22, 23). Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit “without
limit” (John 3:34, NIV; Acts 10:38), yet Jesus did not speak in tongues. He is my example. Still
we have received much from the Spirit: gifts of administration, wisdom, teaching, preaching,
leading and serving in many ways. The anointing oil says we are to receive something.
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II. WE ARE TO GIVE SOMETHING.
In Galatians 5:22 the apostle Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit. That suggests the Spirit is
like a tree and we are to give something. Notice that those who have the Holy Spirit are not like
an ornamental tree. We are not in the church just to be admired. Nor are we shade trees. We are
fruit trees.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and
self-control. The first three are inward: love, joy, peace. The second three are outward: patience,
gentleness and goodness. The last three are both outward and inward: faith, meekness and
self control.
Some say there is just one fruit characterized by these nine things. Others say there are nine
different kinds of fruit on the tree. It makes little difference which view you take. In Florida
sometimes you can see a citrus tree grafted so that it will produce oranges and grapefruit and
lemons and tangerines all on the same tree. As I understand it the Holy Spirit makes us like that
tree, producing all these different fruits.
If the Spirit-filled person produces all these fruits, then he or she will not be divisive. The Holy
Spirit is not divisive. Paul spoke of the unity of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not divide
believers nor does the Holy Spirit lead others to divide believers.
Sometimes I meet people who say they have the gift of the Spirit, but they obviously do not have
the fruits of the Spirit. If they do not have the fruits of the Spirit I find it hard to believe they
have the gift of the Spirit.
If we are to give something then we must get over our preoccupation with receiving gifts. We
must get over this preoccupation with ourselves. I am not so much interested in what the Holy
Spirit has done for you as I am in what the Holy Spirit has done through you. That is far more
important.
Sometimes we are like children proudly displaying their extravagant gifts. “Look what I got for
Christmas!” I’m just not comfortable with that kind of attitude.
III. WE ARE TO WEAR SOMETHING
In Luke 24:49 Jesus says we are to be clothed with the Spirit. You know the story of Colonel
Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken empire. He always wore a little goatee and mustache,
and a white suit. There is a reason. When he first went into the fried chicken business he could
not afford to pay for advertising. So he decided he would be a walking advertisement for his
business. You and I are walking advertisements of the Christian religion. When we put on the
clothing of the Spirit we put on the virtues the Spirit wants to bring into our lives. People look at
us and say, “Now that is what a Christian looks like.”
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In Colossians chapter 3:12-14 the apostle Paul describes our new clothing: “Therefore as God’s
chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, meekness,
gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievance you may have one
against another.”
We have to wear this new clothing because when we became Christians we became new
creatures (II Corinthians 5:17 KJV). The clothing that fit the old creature did not fit the new
creature. Have you ever seen a dog wearing a sweater? When you saw it you knew that clothing
was designed for a different creature than the one that was wearing it. These virtues are the new
clothes we are to wear every day.
I grew up in a poor family. I had one suit which we called my Sunday suit. That was the only
day I wore it, unless there was a funeral. We cannot just put on our new clothes on Sunday and
then wear something else the rest of the week. We must wear them every day. They will never
wear out. They will never get soiled. We can wear them every day.
Now, I must tell you these new clothes are not really new. They are used clothes. They were first
worn by Christ. He gives us His new clothing. What an example He was of compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience and forgiveness. When He was on earth He wore
these clothes. They were the clothes He wore in Heaven before He came to earth. They are the
clothes we will need in Heaven. They are suitable for the climate of earth and they are suitable
for the climate of Heaven.
We moved from Florida to Austria. We soon found that clothing suitable for the climate of
Florida was not suitable for the climate of Austria. This clothing is suitable for earth and
Heaven.
Living in Austria near Vienna, an international city, we found that often we could tell what
country people had come from by their clothing. We could identify Americans. Stripes on
neckties made in America are different from those on ties made in Europe. In America the stripe
begins high on the right and goes down to the left. In Europe it is just the opposite! I don’t
know why, but it is true. We could identify people from eastern Europe versus people from
western Europe. We could identify British people and people from New Zealand. We could tell
by their clothing the country from which they had come. With Christians it is different. Our
clothing tells the place to which we are going.
I used to spend some time in the airport in Tampa, Florida. You would see people with coats and
gloves and you would see people with shorts and straw hats. You knew that the ones wearing
coats had come down from the North. You knew that the ones in straw hats had come up from
the islands. You could tell by their clothing the place from which they had come. With us it is
the opposite. You can tell by our clothing the place to which we are going!
We have a saying, “Clothing makes the man.” It is not true, of course. Clothing only reveals the
man. If you see a person very careful about the way he dresses you think, “There is someone
who pays attention to details. He is careful about little things.” If you see a person who is casual
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about the way he dresses you think, “There is a person whose mind is on great things. He has no
time to waste on little things.”
In Florida people rarely wore coats. Occasionally, though, we would have a cool Sunday and
people would wear coats to church. Then you could tell how long they had lived in Florida.
Some of their coats were new and you knew they were recent arrivals. Some were a little out of
style and you knew they had been there a while. Some were hopelessly out of date, and you
knew they had lived in Florida for many years. Just as physical clothing reveals something about
a person, so our spiritual clothing tells people something about us.
In life there is an expectation regarding the way people dress. When you get on an airplane you
expect the pilot to be dressed in a uniform. If he were not you would get off the airplane! There
is a certain way you expect your physician to dress. There is a certain way you expect a nurse to
dress. The world expects us to wear these clothes of Christian character. The world has a right to
expect that of us. I admit the world expects too much of us. The world expects us to be perfect
and we have never claimed that. We have only claimed that Christ was perfect. But because the
world expects too much it does not follow that the world does not have a right to expect
something. It has a right to expect that you will look like a Christian and that your clothing will
fit you. Some Christians look like their character clothing was two sizes too small, or a size too
large!
My wife was always a good manager of money. She said, “When we buy our daughter a new
coat, we will buy one a little bit too big for her. Then she can wear it for two winters.” So the
first winter it was a little too big and the next winter it was a little too small. She never had a
coat that fit her. Our spiritual clothing must fit. We dare not alter the clothing to fit ourselves.
We must alter ourselves to fit the clothing.
Before Paul writes of putting on our new clothes he writes of taking off our old clothes. We
cannot put the new on over the old. I saw once in a London park a homeless woman and she was
wearing all the clothing she had, one garment over another over another. We used to travel that
way on the airplane when we went from America to Europe. We put as much clothing as we
could in our suitcases. Then we wore the rest, one over the other over the other.
You can’t do that with this new clothing. Paul says we must take off the old before we can put
on the new. Colossians 3:8 says, “But now put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the
old man with his deeds” (KJV).
III. WE ARE TO KNOW SOMETHING.
Ephesians 4:30 says we are sealed. It is like a notary seal. A notary seal gives a person
assurance; because of that seal we know that the document is real and valid (II Corinthians 1:22).
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Again and again in his first letter the apostle John says, “We know.” In II Corinthians the
apostle Paul wrote, “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have
a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.”
The apostle John wrote, “We know that we have passed from death unto life.” We sing that
song: “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,” and “I Know Whom I Have Believed.”
In the latter years of her life my aunt attended a very legalistic church. She said something to me
that was very sad. She said, “I don’t know if I’ll get to Heaven or not.” She was one of the best
persons I ever knew. She had been taught so much legalism that all of the certainty had gone out
of her life.
IV. WE ARE TO ANTICIPATE SOMETHING.
II Corinthians 1:22 says the Spirit is an earnest (deposit, pledge, guarantee). The idea is clearly
that of a down payment. The word appears only three times in the New Testament and always
refers to the assurance that there is something yet to come.
Today we buy things on the installment plan. We pay some money down, get the item and then
keep making regular payments. They did not have that in New Testament times, but they did
have earnest money--money given to assure that a proposed financial arrangement would be
completed.
Years ago I knew a man who had a house he wanted to rent. A newcomer to the city looked at
the house and said he would like to rent it. He took out some money. The owner said, “What’s
that?” He said, “That’s the earnest money to make sure you hold the house for me.” The owner
said, “Oh no! No! My word is good. Is your word good?” Surprised the renter said, “Well, yes,
my word is good.” “Then,” said the owner, “that’s all I need.” Business used to be done like
that in small towns across America. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.
God wanted us to have the Holy Spirit as a down payment, as earnest money. There is more that
is yet to come.
There is a poem by Robert Browning that says, “Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be.”
I have some reservations about that song. I saw a sign on the back of a car. It said, “Zero to 60 in
15 minutes.” That’s the story of my life. I was age zero and 15 minutes later I was age 60.
I will not say, “Grow old along with me.” I might say, “Become mature along with me.” I will
say to you, “The best is yet to be!”
God wanted us to know that we have not yet experienced the best. Certainly it is wonderful to
have the presence of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, but there is far, far more yet to come.
One of those things that is yet to come is our eternal home. Every believer has two homes. We
have our church home and we have our eternal home. Isn’t it interesting that we call the church
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where we hold membership our church home. We ought to cherish our church home. We ought
to cherish our church family. But we know that everything on this earth is temporary. Our
permanent home is in Heaven. We know that it is there for us, because we have already received
the guarantee, the earnest, the deposit. We have received the Holy Spirit.
Only God could have explained to us the extraordinary subject of the Holy Spirit in such
ordinary images. “He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.” We ought to be
thankful that God has conveyed this knowledge to us in ways we can comprehend. When we
talk about the Holy Spirit we ought to take God as our example and use the ordinary to explain
the extraordinary.
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WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT WEARS A HUMAN FACE
A diamond has 58 faces. That is why it sparkles so. There are not 58 faces to the Holy Spirit,
but there are several. Sometimes the Bible chooses an occupation and uses that occupation to
teach us about the Spirit. That is what I mean when I say that sometimes the Holy Spirit wears a
human face. In the courtroom of life He is our attorney (John 14:15). In the sickroom of life He
is our Comforter (Acts 9:31 KJV). In the workroom of life He is our Helper (Romans 8:26). In
the prayer room of life He is our Intercessor (Romans 8:26, 27). Thus the Holy Spirit enters
every room of life!
Of course, the Holy Spirit is Divine, not human. When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person
we mean a Divine person, as God is a person and as Jesus is a person. In the Bible the Spirit
speaks (Revelation 2:7; Acts 8:29), the Spirit prays (Romans 8:26), and the Spirit grieves
(Ephesians 4:30). In the Bible the Spirit has a will (I Corinthians 12) and a mind (Romans 8:27).
The Holy Spirit can be insulted (Hebrew 10:24), lied to (Acts 5:3), and blasphemed (Matthew
12:31, 32). These are qualities that mark a person, but the Spirit is a Divine person and we mean
no disrespect to say that sometimes the Spirit wears a human face.
I. IN THE COURTROOM HE IS OUR ATTORNEY. John 14:15
There are two courtrooms we want to look at. In the courtroom of life He is the prosecuting
attorney (John 16:7, 8), “He will convict the world.” Imagine that you have been arrested.
You are brought to trial. You sit down at the defense table. You look over at the prosecutor’s
table and there sits Perry Mason, or Matlock. How are you going to feel? In the courtroom of
life the Spirit is the prosecuting attorney. He brings the indictment against us. He does not do
this in the final sense of judgment, but in the immediate sense of evangelism. We no longer use
that great term that says people are under conviction. We ought to. Many become Christians
because it seems like a nice thing to do. We must show people that they are under the judgment
of God. They must be conscious of their sins.
In the courtroom of eternity He stands not at the prosecutor’s table but stands beside us at the
table for the defense. John 24 says He is our comforter. “Counselor” is one translation. The
word means one who stands beside you. This literally happens in our courts. When the accused
stands up his attorney stands up beside him.
Sometimes it is translated Advocate. The word is used only in John’s gospel and in the first
letter of John (I John 2:1). In many European countries they still use the word advocate for a
lawyer. Over time the term has come to mean someone who consoles, comforts or encourages.
When you go to court it is certainly comforting to have your counselor.
The Bible says the Spirit is in us, with us and by us. We should not suppose that one of those
words rules out the others.
The Spirit is also in the courtroom as a witness (Romans 8:16). He testifies on our behalf. He is
in some sense a character witness. This does not mean that we are to base our confidence on
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feelings. Feelings are changeable and unreliable. We need to distinguish between conversion
which takes place in us and pardon which takes place in heaven. When someone in prison is
pardoned that takes place in the Governor’s office for him. He will not feel his freedom until he
learns of his pardon. That is why we need the Bible to reassure us that we have met the terms of
pardon.
II. IN THE SICKROOM HE IS OUR COMFORTER. Acts 9:31
The prophet said, “Comfort my people.” A teacher of preachers said that every sermon should
have a note of comfort because in every congregation there is someone with a broken heart. He
could have said in every pew there is someone with a broken heart.
There is a wonderful story of a little boy who came home from Sunday School and was asked the
subject of the lesson that day. He said it was, “Don’t be scared, you’ll get your quilt.” His
parents were baffled until they learned that the lesson had really been, “Fear not, your Comforter
will come.”
Not every sick person will be healed, but every Christian sick person will be comforted. A
minister once went to visit a lady in the hospital who was terminally ill. She knew it and
everyone else knew it. When he arrived she already had a visitor. The patient was crying and
the visitor said, “Now, now, don’t cry. Everything is going to be all right. God is going to take
care of everything.” Then she left the room. The minister sat down beside the bed, took the
patient’s hand, and said nothing. After several minutes the patient said to her minister, “You are
such a comfort to me.” He had not said one word! He had not minimized her situation. She had
every right to cry. His presence was what comforted her. That is the way the Holy Spirit
comforts us in the sickroom of life.
III. IN THE WORKROOM HE IS OUR HELPER. Romans 8:26
There is a familiar motto: “God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.” The gospel, of course, is
the opposite of that. God helps those who cannot help themselves. Alcoholics Anonymous has
its famous twelve steps. The first one is an acknowledgment that they are powerless before their
addiction and must have help.
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:26 that the Spirit helps us when are weak. He goes on to
specifically apply the thought to prayer, but surely it has a wider application. The Spirit was a
help to Gideon when he mustered his forces to go against the Canaanites (Judges 6:34). The
Spirit was a help to Samson when his life was in danger (Judges 24:6). The Spirit was a helper
to King Saul when he became the first king of Israel (I Samuel 10:10). The Spirit was a helper to
David when he was anointed as the second king of Israel (I Samuel 16:13). The Spirit helped
Bezalel in the work of building God’s temple (Exodus 31:3). The Spirit helped Simeon to be
patient when he was waiting for the coming of the Messiah (Luke 2:25).
The Holy Spirit leads us. Jesus promised the apostles that they would be guided by the Spirit
(John 16:13). The apostle Paul said that we are led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14). We have an
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example of that leading in Acts 8:29.
We must be careful here. Surely the Holy Spirit will not lead us in a way that contradicts
Scripture, for the Holy Spirit helped most when He inspired the writing of the Bible (II Peter
1:20, 21). I do not question anyone’s experience, but we cannot base our doctrine on your
experience or my experience or anyone else’s experience. I do not try to explain another
person’s experience. My job is to explain Scripture, not every event reported to me.
What a comfort it is to know that when we work for Christ we do not work alone!
IV. IN THE PRAYER ROOM HE IS OUR INTERCESSOR. Romans 8:27
Like the apostles we do not know how to pray as we ought. Sometimes we cannot find the
words. Then it is good to know that we have someone who prays for us. Romans 8:27 gives us
this wonderful promise that the Spirit prays for us. Some of our smaller churches have a long list
of people who need prayer. Sometimes there are more names on the list than people in that
building. It is a great compliment to a congregation that people want them to pray on their
behalf.
An older woman entered a village church and asked for two bulletins. That seemed strange, but
it was not. She mailed one each week to a former minister who was in a nursing home. Could
she not mail the one she used in the service? No, she had to keep that because she was going to
pray for everyone on the prayer list!
One minister said that every Sunday morning when he entered the pulpit he knew that at that
very moment his mother was praying for him. It means so much to know that people are praying
for us. It means more to know that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that inspired the Bible and led the
apostles, is praying for us.
The Holy Spirit enters every room of life, but He comes by invitation only. He will not force His
way in.
Come Holy Spirit I need you,
Come, sweet Spirit, I pray;
Come in Your strength and Your power,
Come in Your own gentle way.
- Gloria and William J. Gaither
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