SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

1ST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 30, 2018

 

Title: “Seizing Our Opportunities”

 

Text: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16 RSV).

 

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20.

 

Tomorrow night we will stand on the edge of a new year.  It is my thinking that many here today are wondering what the New Year will bring.  Some of us are wondering the new year would bring joy or sorrow, increase or decline, grief or happiness, the list goes on.  One thing I would remind you of is the New Year could be a time of new beginning when we leave the past behind and turn the corner.  The fact is there is little we can do about the past, yet many spend their time living in the past, seeking to relive its joy and sorrows only to come to the realization that there is nothing we can do physically.

We certainly cannot return to past glories or grief.  The past is gone. God is going to hold us accountable for the past.  The only way we can deal with the past is through the Cross of Calvary and to realize the child of Bethlehem was to become our redeemer, shedding His blood for all the bad things we have done, that we can realize a position that we have been justified by Christ before Almighty God.  This means that I can sleep at night secure in the knowledge that my past is forgiven, my present secured, and my future certain. So no matter what way the wind blows, I am centered in Christ and in Him I am anchored in life and certain in death which leads to eternal life.

Since this is the last Sunday in 2018, I wanted to bring a message that would encourage us as we wrap up one year and prepare to enter another.  My mind was drawn to the words of Paul the apostle in Ephesians 5:15-16. Actually I found myself using these words to critically appraise my actions in the past year and encourage myself through the difficult ones.

In today’s text Paul was calling on the disciples of Jesus Christ in the city of Ephesus to walk in a manner worthy of their calling (Ephesians 4:1-16), to walk differently from the pagan world about them (verse 17-24), to walk in love (4:25-5:2).  During our Bible studies of the Book of Ephesians, those of us who attended learned that in the first part of Ephesians chapter five, Paul urged them to walk in the light as sons of the light (Ephesians 5:5-14). In the words of our text, he encouraged them to walk with wisdom, seizing every opportunity to render service to God and to others.

Billy Graham told a story about a conversation he had with president John F. Kennedy shortly after his election.  In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Billy explains the impact of a miss opportunity to hear what the president had to say.

According to the book, the president elect Kennedy stop the car and turned to Minister Graham and said, “Do you believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? I most certainly do,” answered minister Graham.” Well, does my church believe it?’ They have it in their creeds.’They don’t preach it,’ he said. They don’t tell us much about it. I’d like to know what you think.’

Minister Graham explained what the Bible said about Christ coming the first time, dying on the Cross, rising from the dead, and then promising that he would come back again. Minister Graham asked the president, “Are we going to have permanent world peace.” The president said, “We’ll have to talk more about that someday.” And he drove on.

Several years later, the two met again, at the 1963 National Prayer Breakfast. At that meeting, minister Graham remembers having the flu. After giving his short talk, and the president gave his, they walked out of the hotel to his car together, as was always our custom. At the curb, the president turned to minister Graham. “Billy, could you ride back to the White House with me? I’d like to see you for a minute. Minister Graham told the  President he had the fever. Not only was he weak, but he didn’t want to give the president the flu. He asked the president, “Couldn’t we talk another time? It was a cold, snowy day, and I was freezing as I stood there without my overcoat,” minister Graham wrote in his book. The president accepted graciously.

But the two would never meet again. Later that year, Kennedy was shot dead. Graham wrote that His hesitation at the car door, and the president’s request, haunt him still. “What was on his mind? Should I have gone with him? It was an irrecoverable moment.” We all have miss opportunities to serve God and humankind in the past that we cannot recover.

 

Paul issued a call to walk in wisdom over against the folly of a pagan world.  Here, wisdom is not an intellectual achievement but it is a mind set in which one seeks to do only those things that are pleasing to God.  We are to snatch up all opportunities that are available for doing God’s will. Paul uses the commercial vocabulary of the marketplace to describe the intense activity that he was encouraging each of them and us to put forth.

Some people watch the stock market with intense interest because they are eager to seize bargains.  They try to buy at the ri9ght time and sell at the right time in order to experience a profit. The apostle Paul was encouraging this type interest, energy, and ingenuity concerning spiritual opportunities for service.  We are to seize an opportunity for service in the same manner that we would seize a bargain in the marketplace. The early Christians outlived, outthought, and outdid their contemporaries. That is what our present generation needs.

This test is a call to a serious acceptance of our stewardship and time.  Not one of us has as much time as we think we have. It is much later than we think.  Our opportunities are rapidly slipping away from us. Each of us has an equal amount of time everyday, and each must make the most of it.

Orville Kelly was the founder of an organization called Make the Day Count.  Kelly founded this organization after discovering he was terminally ill with cancer.  The purpose of the organization was to help those who were fatally ill face the realities of both their disease and their remaining time.  We need to stress the importance of the present and become intensely aware of the value of life and time. This would help us to learn what really matters and what doesn’t.  What matters is how we live our lives. In our text, Paul is urging us to live our lives with wisdom. Why should we live a life of wisdom?

Life is a gift. Verse sixteen gives us the answer as to how we should live our lives.  It calls us to “make most of our time.” To make most of our time is to understand what we do with our lives.  It is talking about the relationships we form, the work we undertake, the good things and the bad things in life, and the joy and the sorrows.  The life that we live is associated with time. The time we live is loan to us by God, so is the life we have. It is a gift given to us by God.

The book of James is a practical gospel. It is down to earth about daily living.  This book relates the teaching of Jesus Christ to the affairs of daily life. In the fourth chapter of this book, James the half brother of Jesus Christ talks about those who are spiritually short sighted: “Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade and get gain”: whereas you know not what shall be tomorrow.  What is your life? For you are a vapor, that appear for a little time, and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “if the Lord wills, we shall both live, or do this or that” (James 4:13-15).  From an immediate context, one can see that James question is one that emphasizes the brevity of human life to those who look at time instead of eternity.  Life is short.  If this gift of life is short, how seriously should it be viewed? How desperately should it moments be treasured?

We should view it seriously seizing every opportunity to serve God. Moses lived 120 years (Deuteronomy 34:7). He lamented that man’s day “are soon gone and we fly away” (Psalms 90:10).  There is no one among us who has reached the maturity of his life and has not reflected on the times of his youth as if it was but a moment ago? Play around the yard, walking down a dusty road to the fishing hole, the smell of mother’s baking bread-where has time gone?

Perhaps, though, the most haunting of all thoughts is the reality that we’ve let life slip away quickly, having neglected so many grand opportunities for advancing ourselves spiritually and for helping others. Oh, if we could but rescue some of those times.  Let us rescue those times by seizing the opportunity to know God more fully. Let us know, love and serve God this new year. God made and fashioned each person in his own image and after his likeness (Genesis 1:26-27: 9:7). In verse 17 of our passage this morning, Paul says, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” It is important to know the purpose of your life.

When one reflect on the fact that life is a gift from God, one cannot ponder the purpose of his existence.  Church, Isaiah declared that man was fashioned to glorified his maker (Isaiah 43:7). Why do we live as if God has no claim on us?  On the contrary, Solomon, in the weaning days of his life explored the purpose of his existence. In retrospect, Solomon surveyed the folly of his youth in search for happiness.  All the solution he sought prove to be fruitless. Solomon concluded that the purpose of life is to reverence God, and submit to his command (Ecclesiastes 12:13). There is no way we can find contentment.

As we entered the new year, let us seize our opportunities by treasuring the gift of life.  Let us seize the opportunity of using our life to extol God. Read your Bible, find time to spend with God through prayers and devotions.  Serve God by serving your church and humankind. In such a pursuit, we will find that which is blessed both in time and eternity. I wish you a happy New Year, and God bless you!

 

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

DECEMBER 23, 2018

Title: “Christmas Means Listening to Jesus.”

Text: “In these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Hebrews 1:2 RSV).

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 1:1-4.

The first four verses of Hebrews 1 serves as an introduction to the whole epistle.  These verses set forth major doctrines of Christianity. The different ways in which God spoke through the prophets bring to the fore a major theological theme in Hebrews, namely, the relationship between the Old and the New Testament.  It talks about God’s prophecies about the coming of Christ communicated through the prophets. God communicates through Jesus Christ in our day and time. What does the coming of Christ means for us? What does Christmas means for us? Christmas means many things. Christmas means giving, sharing, loving, singing, and fellowship. But Christmas also means listening to Jesus Christ, to what God has to say through His birth.   The big question is, “ do you listen when God speaks through Jesus?

The faith of the Old Testament and the faith of the New Testament is that the God we worship is the God who communicates with his creatures.  The Bible is a record of God’s events of self disclosure in which he has sought to communicate with his people. One way in which he communicates is through his natural creation (Psalms 19:1-4).  Another way God communicates is through what we call conscience. People have a sense of “oughtness.” God communicates through a universal moral law to people’s consciences.

The writer of Hebrews declares that “in many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets” (Hebrews 1;1 RSV).  God spoke through holy men moved by the Holy Spirit. Through Moses, God gave the Ten Commandments, ten great principles by which an ordered and stable society can be regulated, maintained, and perpetuated.  These laws are self executing laws in that to ignore or to violate a single one of them is to break oneself on them (Exodus 20).

Through Elijah, God called the nation of Israel away from the waste and desolation of idolatry and urged them to worship the one true God (1 Kings 18:21-22).  Have you listened to the challenge of God through the prophet Elijah? Have you forsaken the false gods that always disappoint? Are you worshipping the one true God the one true God with all of your heart?

Through Isaiah, God spoke concerning his sovereign holiness.  Isaiah went into the temple to pray at a time when his mind was filled with thoughts of an empty throng because of the death of King Uzziah (Isaiah 6:1).  As Isaiah bow in reverent worship, God opened the eyes of his soul and let him see the eternal king sitting sovereign and supreme, majestic and holy, on the throne of the universe.  God revealed to the frightened young man that even though Uzziah was dead, Israel’s God was still on the throne. The God whom Isaiah saw was a holy God who could not tolerate sin. Isaiah acknowledged his own sinfulness and unworthiness, and immediately one of the seraphim came and purged away the filth of his soul by the means of a hot coal taken of the altar.  With cleansing there came a call to God’s service, and Isaiah volunteered. He heard what God was saying. Have you heard what God was saying through his prophet Isaiah?

Through the rustic shepherd prophet, Amos, God spoke to northern Israel concerning his own moral character and of the absolute necessity of his people being committed to righteousness and justice.  It was Amos who declared that a moral God places moral demands on his people, that a God of integrity requires integrity on the part of his people (Amos 7:15). Have you heard God speak through Amos?

Through Hosea, God spoke to the nation of Israel concerning his suffering, seeking love. Hosea is the evangelist of the Old Testament, the prophet through whom God revealed that there is hope in God’s grace when all hope seemingly has disappeared.  In Hosea’s domestic tragedy, God revealed his compassionate love for the wayward nation in the person of Gomer, the prophet’s wayward wife (Hosea 1:2; 2:5) How do you listen when God speaks? Have you heard what God was saying through the prophets of old?

The message of Christmas and the message of our Hebrew text declares that in these last days God has spoken through his Son, who was born of a virgin in Bethlehem.  Christmas means that we should listen to Jesus Christ as he speaks about God, for it is in Jesus Christ that God has made his full and final self-disclosure. Kindly walk with me this morning as we examine this passage in Hebrews, and understand how God is speaking to us through Jesus Christ this Christmas season.  So why should we listen to Jesus Christ?

Reading Hebrew 12, you will find out that God appointed Jesus Christ “the heir of all things.”  Jesus Christ is declared the goal of history. The kingdom belongs to Jesus Christ. John declared, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15 RSV).  It is important to know also that victory belongs to Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:6-11). Jesus Christ has fought the decisive battle of history through his coming in the flesh, assuming the form of a servant, taking on himself our guilt, and dying as a sacrifice for ur sins on the cross.  God exalted him by raising him from the dead and has lifted him to the position of supreme authority in this world and the world to come. It is through this One who is “the heir of all things” that God speaks.

People listen to people of power.  Powerful political and military leaders can command a crowd.  Those who have power in the world of finance can command the attention of businesspeople.  The inspired writer tells us that in Jesus Christ lied the creative power by which the universe was literally called into being, John declared.  “He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:2-3 RSV). In Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, he declared, “All things were created through him and for him” (1:16 RSV).

One other reason you should be listening to Jesus Christ is because Jesus Christ reflects the glory of God.  The word translated reflect is a strong word also translated “effulgence.” It refers to the radiance shining forth from a source of light.  Just as the radiance of the sun reaches the earth, so in Jesus Christ the glorious light of God shines forth to illuminate the heart and the way of humankind (Isaiah 49:3;1 Corinthians 4:6).  

Jesus Christ is the very image of the substance of God.  We see the images of great people on our coins. Just as the image on a coin exactly correspond to the device on the die used to make that coin, so the Son of God bears the very stamp of God’s nature.  To see Jesus Christ is to see what God is really like. Paul said to the Colossians, “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (1:19 RSV).

Jesus Christ upholds all things in “the universe by the word of his power.”  Jesus Christ upholds the universe not like the mythological creature Atlas who supported the dead weight of the earth on his shoulders but as one who carries all things forward on an appointed course.  Jesus Christ keeps the universe on schedule (Colossians 1:17).

Jesus Christ, the baby of Bethlehem lived his life, rendered his service, and finally sacrificed himself as an atonement for our sins on a cross.  For us to neglect to hear him speak concerning our need for the forgiveness of our sin is to miss what God is saying through Jesus Christ at this and every Christmastime.

As the perfect High Priest, Jesus Christ has entered into the most holy place as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.  He has borne the penalty for us all. On the basis of his sacrificial death for our sin, he is able to offer us the gift of eternal life..

As the One who has conquered death and who is alive forevermore, Jesus serves as our advocate, making intercession for us (Hebrew 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2).  It is not enough for us to sing beautiful Christmas carols and rejoice in a baby who was born long ago. Let us listen to what he has to say about God and let us respond to what he has to say about humankind’s deepest need.

Jesus Christ was born to be our King.  He merits the place of lordship in our hearts and lives.  Jesus Christ alone can be our Savior from sin. He has come offering forgiveness and a new life.  Have you heard his invitation “Come unto me” and respond by making him the Lord of your life? Jesus is a worthy and competent leader who says, “follow me.” Have you listened and heard him as he invites you to become acquainted with God?

How do you listen to what God has to say through Jesus Christ? Are you in some pain that makes you too uncomfortable to listen? Have you been too injured or have you become too angry to listen? Are you a fool who is too stupid to listen?  Are you a self-sufficient, sophisticated, conceited person who feels no need to listen? Are you preoccupied with things that you are too busy to listen? Are you too fearful and uncertain to listen? Or are you willing to listen to Christ now as he speaks words of assurance concerning the greatness of God’s love for you and the wonder of God’s plan for your life?  Let the Christ of Bethlehem become your King and Lord of your empire. Make him Lord so that you can experience the joy of being what God meant for you to be. I wish you a Merry Christmas. Happy Holiday. God bless you!

 

  

 

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

3RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

DECEMBER 16,2018

Title: “The Hinge of History”

Text: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

Scripture Reading Luke 2:1-10

 

The story is told how two friends had an argument that it was unfair that atheists had no recognized days for their religion as other religions did. The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, “Case dismissed.” The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling saying, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter, etc. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Hanukkah. Yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays.” The judge leaned forward in his chair and said, “But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant.”

The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.”

The judge said, “The calendar shows April 1st is April Fools Day, and Psalm 14:1 states: ‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.’Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.” This story brings to the fold similar beliefs by many that Christmas is not the birth of Jesus Christ, and Christmas is of no significance because Christ was not born on December 25.  The Bible however explains the opposite. Jesus Christ’s birth was foretold. He was born on a specific day and time. He was born at a specific place. Our text today tells us about the angelic announcement about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It tells us that His birth is the hinge of past and present events. It tells us that Christ’s birth is the hinge of history (Luke 2:10-11).

How remarkable is heaven’s announcement of the birth of Christ.  Not to Caesar Augustus in the city of Rome did the news come. Not to Herod the Great, nor to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was the announcement made, but “to certain poor shepherds in the fields as they lay” (Luke 2:8-9)  The angel’s announcement is the heart of the Christmas story.

Christ’s birth is the hinge of history, the dividing line. Every date affixed to a check or legal document is witness that the central events in history was the birth of Christ.  Our thinking is in term of either BC, “before Christ” or AD, anno domini, meaning the year of the Lord. this tells that Christ birth is true.

In this annunciation the angel tells us that Jesus’ coming may be regarded from different points of view.  These points of view authenticate the birth of the Savior.

Jesus’s coming has a universal dimension.  “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people” (Luke 2:10).  Christianity is for all people of all time. Jesus was born a world Savior. He so understood his mission.  Jesus Christ coming is the hinge of history in that the coming of Christ provides joint upon which everything binds. Thus Paul interpreted it.  In one of the most breathtaking passages of Scripture which appears in the opening of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle literally starts at the very beginning when he writes, “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (1:4–5). As Paul unfolds all of the blessings that believers receive, he anchors salvation in Christ with the repetition of a phrase: “In him …” Paul writes, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses … to unite all things in him…. In him we have obtained an inheritance…. In him you also … were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (vv. 7–13, emphasis mine). Paul repeats the refrain “in him,” which points us to the doctrine of union with Christ.

 And thus his early followers.preached. They preached that through Christ everything else is possible, just ask (Matthew 7:7). Most of the world’s religions-Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism have a limited appeal, but Christianity has followers in all countries .  People everywhere need a Savior from sin and a hope for eternal life. Christ came to meet these needs.

As we come together today, we are conscious of being part of a great company, a worldwide fellowship.  Though in many lands Christ’s followers differ in language, in custom, in manner of celebrating his birth, the joy in the hearts of all Christians is the same.

Christ coming has a historical dimension.  

“Unto you is born this day,” the angel said.  “This day.” Jesus was born at a point in time.  Something happened, and that event is dated .This is not an abstract proposition; it is a historical fact.This is not an ancient legend or a bit of Jewish folklore; this is the record of a historical event, an event by which all others are dated.  The faith of Christendom is that at one point in history, God broke directly into this world. Our faith centers in what God has done. Seeing or failing to see this will shape our whole philosophy of history.

The Greek defined history as a series of non-unique, ever-recurring events.  They were saying that history repeats itself. Their cynical attitude was, “That which shall be has already been.”  But the birth of God’s Son assures us that they were wrong. History does repeat itself. History does repeats itself, it does recur in cycles, but nonetheless it is moving toward a goal, a consummation; and along the way there are great towering mountain peak.The highest of them is this, “Unto you is born this day.”  Isaiah the prophet also foretold it (Isaiah 9:6).

Jesus’s coming has a geographic dimension.

“Unto you is born this day in the city of David,” was the angel’s tiding “In the city of David.”  Jesus was born at a place on the earth, at a spot on the map you can pinpoint. Humanity has always wanted to believe that the universe has meaning, that something more than human power makes for righteousness, and that the world operates out of the framework of moral law.  In the historical appearance of Jesus, born at a certain time in a certain place, God assures us that this is true. Jesus was not born in some hypothetical place, in a dim and distant never-never land, but at a definite place, “the city of David.” Not only was Jesus born at a definite point in time, he was born at a definite place on the world’s surface.  The third fact confirms and support the second.

Jesus’s coming has a redemptive dimension.

“Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.”  How joyous was the good tidings of the angel messenger! There is born… a Saviour.”  Not only was he born at a specific time and place, but for a specific purpose, announced by God’s angelic message before his birth: “And thou shall call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from sins” (Matthew 1:21).  Always God is the initiator in the redemptive drama. In a way people did not suspect, God was invading human life.

The consciousness of Jesus’ redemptive mission bore heavily on his mind and heart and drove him on with an imperious sense of urgency never before known to mortal man (John 9:4).  Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

Jesus’s coming has a prophetic dimension.

“Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  This was “good tidings of great joy” indeed. None of the shepherds could have understood.  No devout Jew of that day, steeped in the religion of his fathers, could have misunderstood the phrase “which is Christ the Lord.”  This was the glad announcement that the promised Messiah and “King of David’s line had been born.

This was the hope that enabled the Jews to survive the shock of national destruction and to preserve their national identity during seventy years of exile and return to their own land.  This was the hope that enabled them to survive the persecution of the inter-biblical period and to throw of the yoke of the Greek oppressor, This was the hope that strengthened them in Jesus’s day and enabled them to endure the iron heel of Rome upon their necks.  The angel said, “This day that hope is fulfilled. The one born is “Christ the Lord.” God’s prophets had promised, and God kept the promise made through his prophets.

Beloved, that promise is to all, even to us.  This event at Bethlehem is no private matter. Let me emphasize in closing a phrase of the text that is near its beginning.  “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Hear him. That herald angel is speaking “unto you.”  God bless you.

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

2ND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

DECEMBER 9, 2018

Title: “The Miracles of Christmas

Text: “Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:18).

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25

When Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus in A.D. 353, who would have ever thought that it would become what it is today.

When Professor Charles Follen lit candles on the first Christmas tree in America in 1832, who would have ever thought that the decorations would become as elaborate as they are today.

It is a long time since 1832, longer still from 353, longer still from that dark night brightened by a special star in which Jesus the king was born. Yet, as we approach December 25 again, it gives us yet another opportunity to pause, and in the midst of all the excitement and elaborate decorations and expensive commercialization which surround Christmas today, to consider again the event of Christmas and the person whose birth we celebrate.

The real story of Christmas abounds with miracles.  The star we talked about last Sunday, the Magi; the angelic appearances; the annunciation by Gabriel to Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist; the annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds; the anthem of praise sang by the angelic choir; the magi warned in a dream not to return to Herod; Joseph directed by an angel into the land of Egypt and told to depart from Egypt, and warned in a dream about Archelaus, Herod’s wicked son and successor; the birth of John the Baptist when his parents were advance in age; the birth of Jesus, who had a human mother and not a human father.

The birth of Jesus Christ is the most meaningful and unique birth in the annals of time.  Christ existed from all eternity; he was in the beginning with God (John 1:1). He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).  The miracles of Christmas are manifold, and they have a message for us.  Let us hear what they have to say to us.

The miracles of Christmas speak of the miraculous conception.  There are many Scriptures to support the miraculous conception of Jesus’ birth: (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:26-27;  Galatians 4:4,5). Galatians 4:4 tells us, “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman…”

The angel Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come on her and the “power of the Highest” would overshadow her (Luke 1:35).  The figure is that of a cloud. The cloud of glory represents God’s power. The miraculous conception is plainly set forth in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.  The fact that Luke was a physician gives added meaning to the miraculous conception of Mary by the Holy Spirit. It is a miracle. It is the power of God acting in ascend with his laws.  “For with God nothing is impossible.”

This is something I want us to fully understand.  In Jewish culture, the Spirit of God was specially connected with the works of creation. It was through the Spirit that God perform His creating work.  Genesis 1:2 explains to us that in the beginning, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and Chaos became a world. By the words of the Lord the heavens was made. Psalms 33:6 tells us that all the host of the earth came into being by the breath of God’s mouth.  The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma meaning breath or spirit.  The Psalmist says in Psalms 104:30, “When you send out your Spirit they are created. This is what Job says, “The Spirit of God made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4).  

The Spirit is the Creator of the world and the giver of life.  So, in Jesus, there came into the world God’s life-giving and creating power.  That power, which reduced the first chaos to order, came to bring order to our disordered lives.That power, which breathed life where there was no life, has come to breathe life into our weaknesses and frustrations. We are really not alive until Jesus enters our lives. The conception of Jesus is a miracle.  What does this miraculous conception tells us?

The miraculous conception declares Jesus to be God.  Matthew 1:23 tells us that “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.  Doctor Luke puts it this way, “And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

The miraculous conception declares Jesus to be sinless. Jesus was born without an earthly father.  He lived without experiencing sin. He declared himself to be sinless when he said, “Which of you convicts me of sin” (John 8:46).  They could not lay one sin to his charge. Not one blunder, not one mistake, not one error did he commit, for Jesus was sinless.

The Miracles of Christmas speaks of the glorious incarnation.  The apostle John wrote of this glorious incarnation in John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.  This speaks of the humanity of Jesus. He became flesh and live among us. He became our neighbor. He was God in human flesh. Here, Jesus is God and man combining in one personality the two natures of God and man.  This incarnation of Jesus shows humankind capacity for God. We can know God as he reveals himself through Jesus Christ, the God-man.

The miracles of Christmas speak of wondrous salvation.  Jesus Christ came to save sinners.  In the annunciation of Jesus birth, it is written in Matthew 1:21, “And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shall call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save the world.”

Many of you believe in a physician when you put your case in the physician hands to cure you. You believe in a lawyer when you leave your case in his hands and trust him to plea for you.  You believe in a banker when you put your money in the banker’s hand to keep it for you. It should also be the same when you take Jesus to be your Savior. When you put your helpless case into his hands and trust him to do what you can not do yourself, that is save you from your sin, you should trust Him.

The story is told of one of the most notoriously bad characters that ever lived in New York.  He was Orville Gardner. He was the trainer of prize-fighters and companion of all sorts of hard characters. His reputation was so thoroughly bad that he was called “Awful Gardner.”

He had a little boy, whom he dearly loved, and this boy died. A short time after his boy’s death, he was standing at the bar in a New York saloon, surrounded by a number of his boon companions. The night was sweltering, and he stepped outside the saloon to get a little fresh air. As he stood out there and looked up between the high buildings at the sky above his head, a bright star was shining down upon him, and as he stood looking at the star, he said to himself, “I wonder where my little boy is tonight?” Then the thought came to him quick as a flash, “Wherever he is, you will never see him again unless you change your life.”

Touched by the Spirit of God, he hurried from the saloon to the room where he knew his godly mother was. He went in and asked his mother to pray for him. She did pray for him, and she led him to Christ. He went home to where he kept a jug of whiskey. He did not dare to keep it and did not know what to do with it. Finally he took it down to the river, got into a boat and rowed over to an island. He set the liquor on a rock and knelt down, and as he afterwards said, “Fought that jug of whiskey for a long time,” and God gave him perfect deliverance. But what should he do with the jug? He did not dare break it, lest the fumes set him wild. He did not dare leave it, lest someone else get it. Finally he dug a hole in the ground with his heel and buried it. He left the island a free man. He became a mighty preacher of the gospel. It was through listening to him preach that Jerry McAuley (a convict turned preacher and founder of the McAuley Water Street Mission) was set to thinking, and that thinking afterwards led to his conversion.  Jesus came to save us.

This is one of the most wonderful miracles of Christmas: Jesus Christ came to save (Matthew 18:11).  Jesus Christ came to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:13). Jesus Christ to save bearing away our sins (John 1:29, 1 john 1:17). Jesus Christ came to save by his own blood (Ephesians 1:7; Col 1: 14).  Jesus Christ came to save because no one else could save us (Acts 4:12).

The miracles of Christmas speak of the miraculous conception.  The miracles of Christmas speaks of the glorious incarnation. The miracles of Christmas speak of wondrous salvation. Let the miracles of Christmas speak to your heart.  Let the Christ of Christmas be your Savior and your Lord. God bless you.

 

 

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Title: Christmas: Star and Scepter

 

Text: “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17).

 

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:1-12; Numbers 24:12-17

 

What blessings did Christ’s coming bring to the world? What blessings does he offer to our hearts now? A point of relevance is found in this story: In 1988, Anissa Ayala was sixteen years old and diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia. The doctors said that if she did not receive a bone marrow transplant after chemotherapy and radiation treatment she would die. Neither her parents nor her brother was a match, and they could not find a donor elsewhere. Her parents, both in their forties, conceived another child and hoped that its bone marrow would be compatible with Anissa’s.

To their great delight it was determined that this new baby was a compatible donor, and when Marissa Ayala was fourteen months-old they took some of her marrow and gave it Anissa. Anissa made a full recovery from the Leukemia and both sisters lead healthy lives today. In a very real sense Marissa saved her sister’s life. She says, “Without me being a perfect match for my sister, she would not be here.”

Jesus was born into this world for the express purpose of saving us. He is the one and only Saviour that can save all those who put their trust in Him. Christmas marks the day we celebrate His birth, and without Him we would not have salvation.

The answer from this text is a star and scepter, guidance and security, revelation and sovereignty.  What blessing do we need more today than light amid our darkness and power amid our weakness? What light can compare with the light of Bethlehem’s star, and what power can compare with the power of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?  The message of our text is carried in two figures, the star and the scepter.

The blessings of Christ’s coming is set forth by a star. Considering two distinct Scriptures together, our text (Numbers 2:4:17 and Matthew 2:1-2, you have prophecy and fulfillment, both symbol and fact.  “There shall come a star out of Jacob.” That is prophecy. “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matt. 2:1-2).  This is in fulfillment of prophecy. It shows Jesus Christ as the giver of light. Jesus Christ is compared more than once in Scripture to a sun (Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78). It is quite easy to see why Jesus is compared to a star. What did that star symbolize?

The first thing that star symbolize is that star was and is a beacon of hope, an announcement of hope’s fulfillment. Jeremiah spoke of “the hope of Israel” (Jeremiah 14:8, 17:13).The hope of Israel was a stock phrase in Jesus’ day used to refer to the coming Messiah.  Paul, imprisoned in Rome, used it in the past tense, “that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain” (Acts 28:20). That star over Bethlehem said, “Look! Hope is fulfilled! The Christ has been born! He is here! See his star!

That star was and is a symbol of revelation and light.  The prophet Isaiah said, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). After the birth of John the Baptist, his father, Zacharias, steeped in the messianic prophecies and led by the Holy Spirit, spoke of the visitation of “the day spring from on high, to give light to them that sit in darkness” (Luke 1:78-79.  In the first verses of his gospel, John says, “In him was life: and the life was the light of men. And the shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” ( John 1:4-5). The tragedy of the darkness that has settled down in our day is that it is so unncessary. The light has come. The light shines.

That star was and is a fixed point by which to steer, a faithful standard to guide us on our way to eternal life. Before instruments, charts, and radar, it was the stars that guided ships into the harbor.  The stars were fixed, stable, unvarying. This is the message of Bethlehem’s star:God is faithful.

That star was and is the only anchor for our faith.  If we are living in a stormy time when darkness often settles upon us, we know that above the darkness that stars of God’s love are shining, holding the world together.  Christmas brings hope, light, guidance, and faith.

The blessing of Christ coming is also set forth by a scepter.

An oriental monarch was always provided with a scepter that he carried as a symbol of his authority.  If, as a king sat upon the throne, one of his subjects came and bowed down before him, the touch of the king’s scepter was a signal to arise.  A scepter in the hand of a king meant authority and rule, majesty and power.

When Jeremiah said, “And a Scepter shall rise out of Israel,” he was saying a king shall come out of Israel.  And so say all prophets. Christmas is “good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10). What are the “good tidings”?

First, they say the king has been born.  When the strange visitors appeared in Jerusalem to ask, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”  Herod was troubled for fear of a possible rival. Being unable to answer, he called together the chief priest and scribes of the people. They cited an ancient prophecy, chapter and verse, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2).  Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a small town but it was famous and powerful. The name Bethlehem means “House of bread.” It was in Bethlehem that Jacob buried Rachel (Genesis 48:7). It was in Bethlehem that Ruth had lived when she married Boaz. Bethlehem was the home and the city of David (1 Samuel 16:1), and it was for the water of the well of Bethlehem David longed when he was hunted a fugitive upon the hills(2 Samuels 23:14-14).  The importance of Bethlehem is that being the city of David, it was from the line of David God was to send a great deliverer of his people as we find above in Mic. 5:2. This little city was to be the birthplace of Jesus, and it was so. The king has been born. A scepter has indeed risen out of Israel.

William Barclay explains how the traveller H. V. Morton visited the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.There was a great wall with a door so low, one had to stoop to enter it. Beneath the high altar of the church is a cave.  In the floor in the cave is a star with a Latin inscription:’Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.’

When the Lord of Glory came to this earth, he was born in a cave where animals were sheltered. The cave in the Church of the Nativity may be that same cave, or it may not be. That we may never know for certain.  But there is something beautiful in the symbolism that the church where the cave is has a door so low that all must stoop to enter. It is supremely fitting that people should approach the infant Jesus upon their knees. Indeed a Savior is born.

But again, the news of Christmas is that a government has been established, not will be, but has been.  The first truth of life is this: God rules! His sovereignty remains. All authority, in heaven and on earth has been committed unto the Lord and King who was born that day (Matt. 28:18).  A government has been established. “Of the increase of his government…there shall be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). Thank God the rule of this world is in his hands and not in the hands of mere humans.

And last, the news of Christmas is that the consummation of his kingdom is coming.  The king has been born? Yes, long since. His government has been established. All authority and rule is his, even now.  But there are still those who rebel against his rule, and it will not always be so. A time will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is King (Philippians 2:10-11).  That time is coming.

The coming of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament almost four hundred and fourteen times.  These messianic prophecies came to pass. It tells about the blessings Christ coming brings to the world. The coming of Christ as a blessing to the world is set forth by a star and a scepter.  It signifies hope and light. It signifies guidance and security. It is a blessing of faith. In this dark world of ours, which is fill with sin and hate, who knows what to do? Who knows which way to turn?  It is too much for humans, but not for God. As we prepare for the coming of our Lord, let us know that Jesus Christ is the reason for this season. God bless you.

    

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

 

Title: “The Stewardship of Gratitude”

Text: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits unto me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence all of his people.” Psalms 116:12-14

 

Scripture Reading: Psalms 116:1-19

 

This psalms is written against the background of a man who had experienced a severe sickness or some other situation of danger.  Having been delivered, he then gave thanksgiving for what the Lord had done and made promises of what he would do in gratitude for his deliverance. The question of the verse is a very proper one: the Lord has rendered so much mercy to us that we ought to look about us, and look within us, and see what can be done by us to manifest our gratitude. We ought not only to do what is plainly before us, but also with holy ingenuity to search out various ways by which we may render fresh praises unto our God. His benefits are so many that we cannot number them, and our ways of acknowledging his bestowments ought to be varied and numerous in proportion. Each person should have his own peculiar mode of expressing gratitude. The Lord sends each one a special benefit, let each one enquire, “What shall I render? What form of service would be most becoming in me?”

The story is told of how gratitude prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life. Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts.

But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. After prayers and hymns, something landed on Eddie’s head. He knew that it was a seagull. He didn’t know how he knew, he just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under his hat brim without moving his head, he could see the expression on the faces. They were staring at that gull.

The gull meant food if they could catch it. And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. It sustained the survivor as food and bait to fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it.

And now from the story we know that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset, on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast everyone saw Eddie walking. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls, to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle…like manna in the wilderness.

This shows that gratitude takes on three forms: a feeling in the heart, an expression in words, and a giving in return. This tells us that for the benefits God gives us, we are stewards of gratitude to God. An “attitude of gratitude” shows that one is a mature person.  Ingratitude has been called the “thiefest of sins.” On this Sunday morning after Thanksgiving, let us reflect on the many goodness of God and examine our hearts to see the quantity and quality of our gratitude. Let us look at what the psalmist said he would do in appreciation for all that the Lord had done for him.

To fully understand this psalms in our quest to consider the things we want to render to God, we must first determined the benefits God has bestowed upon us. As one reads the psalm, one would see in verse 2 how God gives us a inclined ear.  God wants to hear from us. He is interested in what we have to say: our hearts, our needs, our struggles. The psalmist in Psalms 40:1 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” It is beneficial that God wants to hear our needs and concerns.  When God hears our cries, He answers with deliverance. The thief on the cross said simply, ‘Lord remember me…’ and the Lord answered, ‘This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.’

The benefits of the Lord is bountiful treatment. God didn’t just promised us life, but he promised that life would be abundant and full. It is the quality of life that is important to us, isn’t it? A mere existence is one thing, but a life that is full and rewarding comes from God.  Paul makes this clear in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in Glory by Christ Jesus. Through Jesus, God gives us the benefit of freedom from bondage. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?”

 One thing we as Christians can render to the Lord is to take the cup of salvation.  Verse 13 of this psalm urges us to receive His salvation. Acts 4:12 reminds us, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under the heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Salvation is a free gift. It is up to us individually to receive it or reject it.

Until we have seen ourselves as sinners and have received Jesus Christ as personal Savior, we begin at not beginning and toward no conclusion in developing our lives. Taking up the cup of salvation means one must first and foremost trust Jesus as Savior and developing a personal relationship with Him. Trusting Christ as Savior and becoming a Christian does not mean that we will automatically have all of the answers to life’s questions immediately, but it does mean that we will have a working basis whereby we, with the help of our Savior, can resolve the problems. Until people do become Christians, however, they simply do not have the inner working of the Holy Spirit to give them strength for the difficulties of life.

Taking up the cup of salvation is what we should render to the Lord for the benefits He bestowed upon us.  Paul taught in Romans 2:4 that it is the “goodness of God that leads to repentance.” When one of America’s greatest scientist was on his death, someone said, “What are your speculations now?” He replied, “Speculations? I have no speculations.” Quoting 2 Timothy 1:12 he said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have commanded unto him against that day.”  “What shall I render unto the Lord?”

In verse 14, the psalmist does not go into detail concerning the vows he had made.  Perhaps he had prayed in his crisis and promised that if God would deliver him, he would change his way of life in certain areas.  In all probability he had agreed with God that he was deficient in his bringing of sacrifices to the altar.

The story is told of a seminary president. He had been a successful pastor, told the seminarians at a chapel service of a professional man who was at the point of suicide because he had lost most of his investments. The preacher sensed the man’s need and said, “There’s only one hope for you. You have majored on the material, and now the material is gone, you have nothing left personally by way of resources.  If you want deliverance, get down on your knees with me and promise God that if God will give you strength for a comeback, you will dedicate a tithe to him of all that he gives you.” The man did it. His entire life was changed. His family life straightened up and his medical practice was good or better than ever. When we get right with God on matter of our finances, amazing miracles can take place in other areas of life.  When we make vows, we must keep them or we will be worse off than ever before. Jacob vow a vow at Bethel, but as far as we know, Jacob stayed twenty years in Haran working for Laban and seemingly ignored those vows. Stewardship is an important part of living. In fact, for the Christian, next to accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior, it is probably the most important element of our life.

As the psalmist thought about his great deliverance, he probably realized that his life had been lengthened in order that he might fulfill God’s purposes for him. We are on earth to realize and fulfill the purpose for which God keeps us here on earth.  This why Paul made it clear in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Throughout the psalms, the writer recognizes the relationship between himself and God.  Because of this, he has been given certain benefits by God and is therefore obligated to render certain services to God.  This relationship is so important that God is not yet ready for him to pass on to the other world. The psalmist here has become God’s servant, but he is also God’s friend. God being our friend calls us to be effective in our service to Him.  

The underlying theme of this psalm is that gratitude should characterize our lives before God. The private and personal blessings we enjoy, the blessings of immunity, safety, freedom, and integrity, deserves the thanksgiving of a whole life.  Gratitude is a touch of beauty. Gratitude enhances our character. The recurring theme in the book of Deuteronomy is “Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God which brought thee forth” (Deut. 8:11,14). Church, gratitude is found in the hearts of a person that take the time to count up past blessings.  The spirit of gratitude leads one to give one’s best to God in all areas of living. God bless you.

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

26TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

Title: “The Church: The People of God”

Text: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 RSV).

 

Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 2:1-12.

Gary Wilburn, the pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles told a story about a German pastor. “In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children: “Now thank we all our God. With heart and hands and voices; Who wondrous things had done. In whom His world rejoices.Who, from our mother’s arms Hath led us on our way. With countless gift of love. And still is ours today.”

This is the story of a man who knew thanksgiving comes from the love of God, not from outward circumstances.  Thanksgiving comes from the fact that God loves us. Because God loves us, he chose us a his church, his own people. Our thanks and gratitude goes to God. So let us learn together about how chosen we are as a church, and God’s people.

 

Our Savior, who was also a master carpenter, continues the process of building his church. The church is not a building, a structure made of brick, steel, stone, wood, or glass.  The church is not a place, a location, site, or address. The church that Jesus Christ is building is composed of people, living stones who are established in a spiritual temple so they can offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. These people are born again believers who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who have been baptized and have publicly proclaimed their faith in him as the One who died for their sins and conquered death and the grave.  These people are learning, studying, and listening people who are seeking to be his true disciples. They are worshiping people who bow before God in recognition of his supreme worth and their dependence on him for life and all things pertaining to their existence. The church Jesus is building is made of praying people who not only talk to God, but who listen when God speaks to them. They are a sharing people who give because they have received from God’s gracious hand.  They are also a serving people who follow the example of the ultimate Servant. They are a people who give thanks and show gratitude to God.

What does it means to be the church today? What is Jesus Christ trying to do in the world through the church that he organized and has perpetuated to this day?

We must understand who we are if we are to be all that God intends for us to be and to accomplish all that he has planned for us. The biblical writers spoke of the church in a variety of ways. In fact, the New Testament contains at least eighty different images to describe the nature, function, and ministry of the church.  If we survey these many varied images and functions of the church, we will be greatly aided in understanding what our Lord wants us to be.

One of the dominant New Testament figures of the church is “the people of God.”  Peter used this term to instruct and encourage the Lord’s disciples, who had been scattered abroad as a result of persecution and other factors. This morning we will look at his description of the church as the new Israel.  Peter speaks to the church as God spoke through Moses to the people of Israel when the covenant was established with them at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1-6).

In 1 Peter 2:9, it says, “You are a chosen race.” This is not a mere compliment.  It is a divine commission. On the day of Pentecost, God identified the 120 disciples who were gathered together in an upper room as the new Israel, the people through whom he would work to carry on his redemptive ministry in the world.

The sound of a rushing, mighty wind that came from heaven proclaimed the breath and life of God as abiding within this body of believers.  As God had taken the dust of the earth and breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul, so God was breathing his Spirit into these new disciples that they might become the living body Christ. The tongues of fire that lighted on the heads of the members of this infant church were the shekinah of the Old Testament, the glory of God’s presence on them.

In these miraculous events, God was announcing to the Jewish nation and to the Jewish exiles who had returned for the Feast of Pentecost that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, the new chosen people through whom God would do his work.  God never limited his blessings to those who were Abraham’s successors by biological descent. Through believing in Jesus, even Gentiles could be God’s chosen people.

Jesus said to his disciples on one occasion, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whenever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” (John 15:16).  Jesus had already declared, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (verse 8). God had called Abraham and later the nation of Israel to be his chosen people that they might be a fruitful missionary force in the world.  The nation of Israel failed to bring forth the fruit that our Lord desired, so he extended his call to all people. At this point in history, the church is his chosen people.

One becomes a member of the family of God not by biological descent but by a spiritual birth into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ (Mark 3:34, 1 Peter 1:23)

You are “a royal priesthood.” This is also not a mere compliment, it is a divine commission.  Through Moses God had told the people of Israel, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6).  A priest is a go-between. A priest is also a bridge builder. Looking at this passage, one would see that it does not teach an exclusive priestly clergy.  Instead, it proclaims the priesthood of every believer and the responsibility of every believer to help unbelievers come to know God as they come to know him in and through Jesus Christ.  As the people of God, we are to perform the function of a holy priesthood. We are to be instrument for bringing the message of God’s grace and love to a needy world. We are to be the kind of people through whom an unsaved world will be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our midst and through our efforts.  We have a responsibility to God and to the unbelieving world to be the meeting place where God can come into contact with them and where they can get acquainted with God.

You are “a holy nation.” This is not a mere compliment.  It is a divine command. To Israel God had said, “For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am Holy” (Leviticus 11:45)

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus declaring the divine choice of the church as the people of God: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4).

The word holy is not a familiar word in the vocabulary of modern people.  To the Hebrews it meant to be separate, distinct. It was used in reference to that which belonged to the Deity and to denote something different from the common and profane.  By his holiness God proclaims his difference from humanity. This can be illustrated by the fact that God’s house is different from other houses, that God’s day is different from other days, that God’s ways are different from human ways.  In calling us to a life of holiness and proclaiming us to be a holy nation, God is calling us to be different from ordinary people. We are not to be secular or materialistic.

The members of the church are called to a holy life, to a life different from that of the world, because they have voluntarily chosen to make Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives and to live by the the law of love.  We are to be different in the way we speak, labor, study, and serve. Because of the presence of the living Lord in our lives, all Christians, whether salespeople, doctors, mechanics, athletes, business people, students, spouses, and others, should be different from non-Christians.

To the degree that we are truly holy people, we will find ourselves to be “blameless” before God (Ephesians 1:4) To be holy does not mean that we will be cantankerous or peculiar or self righteous.  Instead, it means just the opposite: we will be so filled with love, grace, and the wisdom of God that we could not conceal our presence even if we are tired.

You are “God’s own people.”  It is a fact and a divine commission.  For Christians to claim that they are God’s people is something infinitely more than an egotistical boast.  Falsely proclaiming to be God’s people is blasphemy. To be God’s people is to be totally his possession.

The church is God’s personal possession.  That means that he is God, Lord, and owner.  His authority is recognized and his will is respected and appreciated.  We can measure the degree to which we are indeed his people to the degree to which we dedicate ourselves to the doing of his will and to the obedience of his commandments.

The church is God’s purchased possession (1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18-19).  Paul declared in Ephesians that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor; without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (5:25-27).  The church has been purchase by a loving God at a great cost.

The church is God’s precious possession (John 3:16).  This tremendous verse proclaims the greatness of God’s love for a lost world reveals to us how extensive God’s love is for those who respond to his grace and mercy.  Paul rejoiced in this love and tried to describe it in his epistle to the Romans (8:31-32).

God calls us to be a royal priesthood so that we declare the wonderful deeds of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. God has called us to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people in order that those who are without mercy may now receive mercy, that all outsiders might become insiders.  If you are an outsider, please realize that the great God of heaven is like the switch that makes it possible for the very life and love and grace of God to come into your life.

To use another metaphor, if your life is desolate and unfruitful, then God is like the stream that flows through an irrigation ditch.  Faith opens the gate to let the life-giving water flow out onto the dry soil to produce life and growth and beauty and fruitfulness. Let us thank God for loving us.  Let us thank God for making us part of his church. Let us thank God for making us a special people. God bless you.

       

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

25th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

NOVEMBER 11, 2018

Title: “Let us Just Praise the Lord”

Text: Psalms 100:4

4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

 

Scripture Lesson: Psalms 100:1-5

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

 

As we approach another season of Thanksgiving, it important for us to trim our focus on the most important person in our lives: God.  This is important because when we lift our hearts and souls, our total personality, in a pure offering of praise to God, we are linked with the universe and we are tune with the Infinite God. When we lift our hearts and souls in praise to God, it teaches us a valuable lesson about worship: It must never be haphazard or careless.  Our coming together for worship should never be “just church.” The worship assembly of God’s people must be a place where His children are ever searching their hearts and preparing themselves to lift up an offering of pure praise to their heavenly Father because of the work and the continuing ministry of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I invite you to join me this morning, as we learn about why we should just praise the Lord.

Although the writer of Psalms 100 is unknown, he was doubtless a man who had a proper understanding of the person of God.  This psalm is a call to praise and thanksgiving. It was a psalm sung responsively by worshipers as they approached the temple for worship.  It is a psalm that urges us to shout joyfully to God, acknowledge that He is God, and give Him thanks. Three things I want us to glean from this psalm are: God is worthy of our highest praise and adoration; Our praise should reflect the joy of knowing God; Our praise is gratitude showing we understand who God is..

Let us just praise the Lord because God is worthy of our highest praise and adoration.  In verse 1 and 2, the psalmist says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye land. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” The point the psalmist is making here is when a man’s heart has been filled with God’s grace, his countenance and lips should reflect it.  God is worthy of cheerful service. In real life, no one enjoys being serve by a mopped or depressed servant or waiter who finds his work a cheerless or irksome task. How often believers do things because they ought to. They prayed because they ought to. They attend worship because it is what they ought to do. Some of us tithe because it is what we ought to do.  In this day and age, some believers do things out of a cold sense of dutiful obligation rather than out of a heart flowing with gratitude.

God’s people must always sing joyfully to him in worship.  The great hymn writer John Watt in his hymn “We are marching to Zion,” penned these words, “Let those refused to sing who never knew our God; but favorites of the heavenly king must speak his praise abroad.”  When we sing praise to God, there is joy in our expression. Joy is the outward sign of an inner experience of grace. Gladness not grimness, smile not frown, is the distinguishing mark of anyone who is truly thankful for the goodness of the Lord.

In Luke chapter 1, we find Mary the mother of Jesus praising God because He is worthy of praise and adoration. Finding she was pregnant with the Savior of the world was not easy news to swallow.  But Mary, the young girl chosen to carry the baby Jesus, would exemplified great praise. Her heart was full of praise and out poured into the world. Mary said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.  For he hath regard the low estate of his handmaiden: for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed…”  Mary’s response to the news that she was chosen to bring forth the Christ signifies that God is worthy of our highest praise and adoration.

The story is told of a converted Hindu who gave the following address to a number of his fellow countrymen: “I am, by birth, of an insignificant and contemptible caste—so low, that if a Brahmin should chance to touch me, he must go and bathe in the Ganges for the purpose of purification; and yet God has been pleased to call me, not merely to the knowledge of the Gospel, but to the high office of teaching it to others. My friends, do you know the reason of God’s conduct? It is this, if God had selected one of you learned Brahmins, and made you the preacher, when you were successful in making converts, bystanders would have said, it was the amazing learning of the Brahmin and his great weight of character that were the cause; but now, when any one is converted by my instrumentality, no one thinks of ascribing any of the praise to me: and God, as is His due, has all the glory.”  This lowly Hindu gave God praise and adoration for making him the person God wanted him to be.

In verse 3, the psalmist says, “Know ye that he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”  From this verse, we can say that no one helped God during creation.  No one counsel or advise Him. God alone is God. God is a supreme Spirit who alone exist of Himself and is infinite in all perfection. God said to Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth” (Job 38:4)?  Isaiah 55:8-9 also tells us, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord, ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  God has made us. We have not made ourselves nor are we the current product of evolution. Because God made us, we are His.  He shepherds us as His people (Psalms 23:1).  He knows us intimately and is concern about our needs, even as a shepherd cares for his sheep.  Because God knows us intimately, we should also know God. If we know God, our lives should reflect the joy of knowing Him.  What is the joy of knowing God? What is the joy of the Lord?

The joy of the knowing God is the gladness of the heart. This gladness comes from knowing God.  This gladness is translated into praise. When Jesus Christ was born, the angels announced “Good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10).  All who find Jesus, with the shepherd of the nativity, finds the joy He brings.  Even before Jesus’ birth, he had brought joy as attested by Mary’s song (Luke 1:47).  Mary knew God. Knowing God reflected the gladness in her heart.

One morning R.C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was feeling. “I’m burdened this morning!” was his reply. But his happy countenance contradicted his words.  So the questioner exclaimed in surprise, “Are you really burdened, Mr. Chapman?” “Yes, but it’s a wonderful burden–it’s an overabundance of blessings for which I cannot find enough time or words to express my gratitude!” Seeing the puzzled look on the face of his friend, Chapman added with a smile, “I am referring to Psalm 68:19, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah,’ which fully describes my condition. In that verse, the Father in Heaven reminds us that He daily loads us with benefits.” The joy of knowing God rest in the fact that we are always grateful no matter what our circumstances.  

Verse 4 tells us, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praises: Be thankful unto him and bless his name.” In all of life’s journeys, the Psalmist is telling us that we have only one person to thank, God. Our praise shows gratitude to God.  Our praise shows the One we are worshipping. Our praise show the One we strive to pleased. A story is told of a famous violinist who was to perform at a concert hall of world renown. As he stood before the packed house that night and played his violin, he mesmerized the audience with his prowess and skill. As he lifted his bow off the string on his final note, the hall erupted with thunderous applause and he was given a standing ovation. He looked at the crowd for a moment and walked off the stage only to return to render an encore performance. To the amazement of the masses gathered there that night, his encore performance was even more beautiful and flawless than the first.

He looked to the audience and left the stage for the second time, but was beckoned back by the deafening roar of the multitudes that once again stood to their feet in adulation. He gave yet another encore number, leaving the audience fumbling for words that could describe what their eyes and ears just experienced. This sequence was repeated several more times until finally this virtuoso of virtuosos finished his piece, looked to the audience, nodded his head and simply walked off the stage while the ferocious cheers could still be heard long after he exited.

Reporters pressed outside the violinist’s dressing room, waiting to catch a word from the man who had just given the performance of a lifetime. As he emerged from the small room, one reporter asked the question, “Sir, why did you give so many encore performances? You could have stopped after the first and everyone would have been amazed.” The violinist stopped and replied, “For the very first time in my career, my master, the one who taught me to play the violin, was in the audience. When I finished my performance, everyone stood except for one person. I played again, and everyone stood to applaud except for him. I continued to play. On the conclusion of the last encore I looked into the seats and I noticed that everyone, including my master, was standing and applauding. It was only then that I was satisfied that I had done a good job.”

Church, who are you living to please? Is your life focused on receiving the praises of men or are you striving to please your Master, God? If we strive to please God, let our praise shows it.  Let us enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Let us give God thanks and bless His name. “Let us Just Praise the Lord.” Let us praise Him with a grateful heart! God bless you.  

 

 

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

24TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Title: “Loved Beyond Measure”

 

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:13

“But now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three: and the greatest is love.

 

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

 

A story is told in “Chicken Soup for the Soul about a very unusual military funeral in California in December of 2013. Sgt. First Class Joseph Gantt, who fought in both World War II and the Korean War, was laid to rest. He had been captured in Korea in 1950 and died the following year. But his body was not returned for many years, and his death was never confirmed by the North Koreans.

His wife, Clara, waited for decades for her husband to come back. She regularly went to meetings with government officials seeking any information about what had happened. Clara even bought a house and had it professionally landscaped so all Joseph would have to do when he came home was go fishing. She was ninety-four years old when his remains were finally brought home for a military funeral with full honors. It wasn’t the homecoming she dreamed of, but she finally knew his fate. Clara told a reporter who interviewed her, “He told me if anything happened to him, he wanted me to remarry. And I told him ‘No, no.’ Here I am, still his wife, and I’m going to remain his wife until the day the Lord calls me to glory”

True love, godly love is not temporary or transient. Love is a commitment that is meant to last. Love is not based on everything going right or always being happy. Love is not an emotional feeling but rather a choice of the will. Casual commitments do not produce a foundation for deep and meaningful relationships. Instead we should love others as God loves us—with an unfailing love that never ends.

This is what our text is about today.  Paul is addressing the church at Corinth. In this great “Hymn of love,” Paul is treating love as a grace and not a spiritual gift.  Paul is treating love here not as love toward God, which is the highest form of love; not toward those who give us gratification, which may be merely selfish and sensual emotion, but the attitude of the heart and mind toward all mankind which we should cherish and cultivate.  If we will consider love as a virtue in Paul’s writing in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, then we will agree that love is a necessity and love is permanent. Love is a necessity and love is permanent because God loved us beyond measure.

In verses 1 through 3, we will see that love is a necessity.  To the church at Corinth, speaking in tongue was the most prized and most spectacular gift. There were much danger of such meaningless utterances because of the prevalent spirit of faction and pride.  In our day and age, preachers, defender of the faith and many others who are blessed with eloquence, do so without sympathy and kindness nor love. Paul reminds them that one can have the ability to make eloquent speeches, or prophesy, but without love one might be utterly deficient in Christian character. We can say this in this day and age: We may possess knowledge of divine truth and have great ability in the exposition of scripture, if we do not have love, we are nothing.  We may show the most confident faith in God, yet, if we lack love, we are nothing.

Paul is clear on love as a necessity if life in any sphere is to be of value or profit or meaning.  Prophecy and faith, charity and sacrifice are all useless unless the person’s actual motive is love.  Without love Christian profession is a pretense. Christian service is fruitless. Without love all relations of life are imperfect, all activities heartless and futile and vain. In the deepest sense, not to love is not to live. In Luke 10:25-37, we find the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus Christ when He was tested by an expert of the law as to how a person can obtain eternal life, Jesus referred him to the Scripture for an answer. The answer found instructed the expert to love God and love his fellow human. Jesus Christ then told him in Luke 10:28, “Do this and you will live.”  How do you know how to love God and humankind? What shows in our character that we have love?

Many have tried to define love.  Love may be difficult to define; it is not difficult to discern.  In our Scripture under consideration, Paul is not attempting to define, analyze or describe love.  Paul is showing concern. The state of the Corinthian church was one disturbed and divided by the way in which its spiritual gifts were being exercised and regarded and employed. The church today is no different from the church at Corinth. There are issues that divide us. From doctrine to polity, we all have our disagreements. Polarizing politics have crept into the church and sowed seeds of division and hate. Our own personal feelings towards others have been a hindrance to the flow of love.  What are our responsibilities in face of dwindling love. We should do what Paul does here. What Paul does here is picture love in action. Paul tells us what love does and feels. Love is being patient. Love is being kind. The KJV renders verse 4 as, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind.” These two phrases describes the essential operation of love. Love makes one patient in enduring evil, active in doing good. It does not give place to bitterness and wrath. Love harbors no resentment. Love does not return evil for evil.  It forgives, not only seventy times but seventy times seven. Love is not storing up memories of wrong, of indifference, of contempt, of grievances, of wounds, or making a record of the injuries we received from others. This is not the way of the love which is in Christ. These two phrases helps us understand that God loved us beyond measure so He is always patient and kind toward us.

In his book, Moments for Mothers, Robert Strand wrote about the conflicts of a family in Glasgow, Scotland. After years of rebellion, a daughter finally rejected her parents, their values, and their faith. She set out on her own to enjoy a life without restraints, but soon became enslaved to her liberated choices.

Years of misery followed as she lived on the streets, sold herself for pennies, and depended on rescue missions for survival. Because of her self-imposed detachment from family, she didn’t know her father died, or that her mother never quit looking for her. One day she saw a picture that her mom had posted in each of the city’s homeless shelters. Scrawled across the photo of her mother were the words, “I love you still… come home!”  In wonder and disbelief she set out for her home in hopes that she was indeed still loved. By the time she arrived it was the middle of the night. Her heart raced as she stood on the porch and prepared to knock, but her countenance suddenly changed when she tapped on the door and it crept open. She ran to her mother’s bedroom in fear that someone had broken in and harmed her. She desperately reached for her mom and the woman awoke quickly to embrace her wayward daughter. When the young woman explained her fears about the open door, her mother replied, “No dear. From the day you left, that door has never been locked.”  God loved us beyond measure, so He never closes the door on us.

From this story, we see that love creates charity toward all the faults and failures of one’s fellowmen.  Love is a virtue in us that caution us not to rejoice in the unrighteousness of others. In other words, we are never happy when others go wrong.  A person who does not have love is one who will find secret satisfaction in discovering the moral weakness or hidden wickedness of another. If we have love, we will not be eager to spread an evil report about another person. Love is powerful and will not allow us to be happy in the wrong of others.  This is because love believes all things that are good. Love cherishes faith even in persons who are under suspicion. Love enables us to bestow trust on our fellow humans and to take them at their highest and their best.

But what will be the case when dark days come when we are compelled to cease trusting? What will love do then?  Even in such crisis love does not despair. Even under the burden of of delay, it holds fast, hopes on, bravely perseveres, and courageously endures.  Love hopes in all things. In a illustration of love someone wrote, “If I work at a soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity; but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

The story is told of the unwavering love of Gladys Kidd. On May 2, 1962, she placed a dramatic advertisement in the San Francisco Examiner, “I don’t want my husband to die in the gas chamber for a crime he did not commit. I will therefore offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid, or housekeeper to any leading attorney who will defend him and bring about his vindication.”

Vincent Hallinan, one of San Francisco’s best lawyers saw the advertisement, felt pity, and contacted the woman. He took on the case and ended up getting the innocent man released from all charges. Afterward, the attorney refused the lady’s offer of ten years of service, noting that he was satisfied to have saved an innocent man from death.

Love does not seek a reward.  Love is a grace. It is a grace difficult to imitate, counterfeit, or conceal.  Church let us understand that more than the exercise of any gift, the operation of love would unite and edify the church of Christ.  Under the complete control of love, the humblest life becomes a radiant source of strength, of help, of harmony. With the victorious power of love, Jesus Christ will bring to us our destined age of glory. As Christians, we will know a stronger kind of love, a love that gives the ultimate sacrifice. God bless you.   

 

 

SERMON BY THE REVEREND AMOS MCCARTHY

22ND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

OCTOBER 21, 2018

 

Title: “The Golden Rule for Human Relationships”

Text: “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

 

Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:1-12

 

I am sure that all of us have shopped at J.C.Penney at some time or the other, but I want to tell you something that you probably didn’t know about this store. It used to be known as “the Golden Rule store”. In fact, when Mr. Penney first started, his first several stores were called that.  Mr. Penney did not like to use the word “employee.” He called those that worked for him, “Associates”. He treated them just as well as he would like to be treated, too. He was able to take a general store in 1902, and build it into a multi-billion dollar business, because he actually lived the Golden Rule.

Mr. Penny tried his best to always treat people like he wanted to be treated. He treated them with love, respect, kindness, understanding and encouragement.Do you try to treat others in your life like this – or not? Our normal instinct is to think that we would be nicer to others if they would show these attributes to us, isn’t it? But, that’s the Problem. Jesus didn’t say, “Treat people with the same Respect that they treat you.” He said, “Whatever you want men to do to you, do to them.”

We should let the words of Jesus Christ dwell in us as the guiding principles for the abundant life in the here and now.  Only as we take seriously his teachings can we hope to experience the changes He sought to bring about in the lives of His followers.  The words of our text have been called the Golden Rule. It calls for action on the second of the greatest commandments, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  It is only a summary statement of all that Jesus said about our treatment of our fellow humans, but it expressly says that it covers all that the law and the prophets taught about the matter.  In this one verse our Lord gives us a great guiding principle that would settle a hundred different points of difference that constantly arise to upset human relationships.

The critics of Jesus have collected the great savings of other religious leaders and have come to the conclusion that Jesus made no distinctive contribution to this Golden Rule.  The great Hebrew master Hillel said, “Do not do thy neighbor what is hateful to thyself.” The great Greek philosopher Socrates said, “What stirs your anger when done to you by others, that do not to others.”  Yet another great mind, Aristotle said, “We should bear ourselves towards others so we would desire they should bear themselves towards us.” The great Chinese teacher Confucius gave what someone has called the Silver Rule.  He said, “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” There is one radical difference between the Golden Rule enunciated by Jesus and the above guidelines articulated by some of the world’s greatest teachers.  The Golden Rule of Jesus is positive and active while their statements are negative and passive. While they would say, “Stand still, do not do to others what you would not want them do to you,” Jesus approaches the matter from a positive and creative standpoint.  Jesus says that we should “go and do what we would have others do to us.”

The significance of the Golden Rule is that it presents a challenge.  The challenge of Matthew 7:12 is based on the great truth of God’s goodness expressed in verse 11: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”  It is based on the fact that God is good, and He showers on us the best of heaven. Even so, you are to give good things to your neighbors. We cannot expect to receive the good gifts of God if we do not serve as a channel through which His merry and grace flow out to bless the hearts and lives of others.  We are to treat our fellow human beings as we desire to be treated by our heavenly father. Pious talk and righteous looks will accomplish nothing if we do not treat our fellow humans in terms of what is right and generous. We must be absolutely sure that we do not let the conduct of others determine our treatment of them, but rather we must let God’s treatment of us determine the manner in which we relate ourselves to others.

In other to teach His disciples how to make practical the Golden Rule, Jesus Christ demonstrated what He taught.  Jesus demonstrated that His love for his disciples was unmerited. You see church, we live in a performance oriented society in which people come to a feeling of personal worth because of their performance.  This makes it difficult for us to understand unmerited love. Jesus loved His disciples not because they were lovely, but because He was loving. The source of His love was in His own heart and in His relationship with the Father God.  His love was not pulled out of Him toward them because they were exceedingly lovely. Jesus’ love was unmerited in that He took the initiative in manifesting goodwill toward others. This is the kind of love we are to demonstrate toward others.

Jesus manifested divine love in different ways to different people.  There was no stereotyped manner by which he expressed God’s love. He could talk to a public figure like the Pharisee Nicodemus under the curtain of darkness. He could approach a hated publican like Zacchaeus on a city street filled with community citizens.  He could stoop down and write in the sand, refusing to look upon the shame of a woman who had been accused of adultery. Our Lord in tenderness could bless and pray for children. His love was always expressed in an appropriate manner. As His followers, we must seek to appropriately manifest our concern for others.

Jesus thought of success and greatness not in terms of mere noble sentiments, but in terms of deeds of kindness and helpfulness to the unfortunate .  He was a worker, a servant who ministered to the needs of people. At a time when Peter wanted to stay on the mountaintop, our Lord insisted that they depart from the place of spiritual ecstasy and move down into the valley of human need because there were suffering at the foot of the mountain.  Our Lord calls us not into the sheltered cloister to spend our total time in prayer, but rather He calls us into the fields that are ready unto harvest to be His laborers.

Jesus demonstrated this love and the Golden Rule through forgiveness.  On the cross of Calvary, Jesus demonstrated in practice what he had taught by precept.  He had insisted on His disciples practicing forgiveness toward those who mistreated them even to the point of forgiving seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22).  Jesus believed in forgiveness that was free, full, and forever. Genuine Christian love does not harbor hate and carry a grudge. Genuine Christian love will manifest itself in forgiveness.

Jesus continued to love even when His disciples were unloveable in their responses to Him and in their treatment of others.  Paul was able to rejoice greatly joined in singing a doxology of praise to the permanence of God’s great love revealed in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:38-39).

There is a story of a young boy who had been invited to attend a friend’s birthday party and was eagerly awaiting the day he could go. On that day, however, there was a near blizzard outside, and his father thought it was too dangerous for him to walk the short three blocks to his friends house, and it was much too dangerous to drive the boy. The little boy reacted with tears and begged his father to let him go. Finally, the father recanted and gave his permission. The boy bundled himself up started walking down the street. The wind and snow blew so hard against him that what should have only taken 10 minutes took nearly an hour.  Finally, the boy got to the house. As he rang the doorbell, he looked back to see the shadowy figure of his father disappearing into the snow. His father had followed every footstep to make sure the boy was safe.

It is all about sacrifice, isn’t it? When we are able to sacrifice what we want; what we need; what we think; so that we can freely give to someone else what they want or need, we have proven ourselves successful as a Christian.

In demonstrating the Golden Rule, Jesus saw life as an opportunity to serve, to help, and to minister.  He saw it as a goblet to be emptied rather than a vessel to be filled. His sacrificial life and His substitutionary death on the cross illustrate the great truth He expressed when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

In a world filled with hate and torn by strife, modern followers of Jesus are urged to love each other by the same measure with which Christ loved his disciples.  The love Jesus commands is not a shallow emotional kind of love. Instead, it could be defined as a persistent, unbreakable spirit of good will that is always devoted to the highest good of others.  

Note that in this commandment Jesus moves beyond the measure of love listed in the second great commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). In this condensation of the commandments that are concerned with our relationship to others, Jesus declares that the measure of love we have for ourselves is the measure by which we are to love our neighbors.  In the new commandment, Jesus declares that His disciples are to love each other, “even as I have loved you.”

Finally, the commandment to love is Jesus’ foremost command to His disciples.  Love is the supreme gift of the Spirit. Only as we let the Holy Spirit do His work within our innermost being can we fully respond to this commandment of our Lord (Romans 5:5)  Paul declares love to be the greatest of all the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). Because of Jesus’ command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, each of us needs to relate to each other in terms of love even as Jesus has loved us. God bless you!