Random Quotes & Articles to Provide Food for Thought
The church is saddened by our recent loss. One of our most valued parishioners has passed on — Mr. Someone Else. The death of Mr. Else creates a vacancy which will be quite diffi cult to fi ll. This is so, of course, because Someone Else has been with us for many years. During each of those years, he did far more than a normal person’s share of the work, the giving, and the commitment involved to make a church function. Many of our people cannot even imagine a time when Someone Else was not with us!
Whenever a task was to be done, his name was at the top of so many people’s lists. They’d often even say, “Someone Else will do it.” Whenever there was a need for a volunteer effort of any kind, individuals were certain that Someone Else would be ready and waiting to step forward.
Also, it was just common knowledge that this man was one of the most committed donors in our church family. Any time a financial need was announced, people just naturally assumed that Someone Else would take care of the need. Someone Else was truly a wonderful person; of course, if people are honest, they will acknowledge that far too much was expected of him. And so, we sadly realize that Someone Else is gone, and we cannot depend on him any longer. When you are asked, now and in the future, to increase your commitment, your willingness, and your giving, please remember that Someone Else can no longer fi ll that gap — it’s up to you!
John 1:29-36
I want to draw our attention tonight to the second half of verse 29: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” This is a very familiar verse to most of us I’m sure, but I wonder if our familiarity with it has deadened our sense of the greatness of these words. What kind of an effect must they have had on those who first heard them? Here was John the Baptist declaring that this carpenter from Nazareth was someone of worldwide and infinite significance. John the Baptist was declaring that all the prophecies and revelations of the Old Testament that looked forward to a Saviour and a deliverer had finally been fulfilled in this Jesus of Nazareth—the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
What did John the Baptist mean by calling Him the LAMB of God? Was he talking about His gentle, meek disposition? Was he referring to the fact that He was innocent and pure? Not primarily. Yes, Jesus IS meek and gentle, but John’s reason for calling Him the Lamb of God goes much deeper than a mere description of His disposition.
What would be the first thing to jump into the mind of Jew if someone began talking about the Lamb of God? Wouldn’t it be the lamb of the daily offering in the temple? In Numbers 28 the children of Israel were commanded to offer two sacrificial lambs every day—one in the morning and one in the evening. Day after day, day after day, for weeks and months and years and even centuries the daily sacrifice had been slain and offered as a sacrifice.
Or if was not the daily sacrificial lamb that those standing by thought of, then possibly they thought of the Passover lamb—that lamb which was slain and whose blood was sprinkled over the lintel and doorposts as a pledge of deliverance from the destroying angel. Every year at the Passover feast there would be a re-enactment of this ritual of the slain lamb to remind of their deliverance from the destroying angel.
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Luke 18:1-8
Hopefully you’ll remember that last week I spoke about prayer, about praying until we get an answer. My illustration was from the parable of the friend at midnight: how we need to be like shameless beggars if we really want to receive from God.
Tonight I want to speak about prayer again. This time I want to show that for prayer to be effective it must be UNCEASING. Once again I’ve chosen one of our Lord’s parables as an illustration—this time the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. In this case, Jesus tells us EXACTLY why he is giving this parable: “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” And as someone has aptly said, “One thing is certain: IF WE DON’T PRAY, WE WILL FAINT!”
The picture that Jesus paints in this parable would have been quite a familiar one to the Lord’s hearers. The widow in those days was perhaps the most defenceless person in society. Remember that Jesus in Matt. 23:14 accused the Scribes and Pharisees of “devouring widows houses.” And James tells us that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this, To visit the fatherless and WIDOWS in their affliction. . . .”
Notice our Lord’s characterization of the Judge: He feared not God, neither regarded man. If we have no fear or love for God, then we have little reverence or respect for our fellowmen. The story shows that the man had no real interest in dispensing justice. The man was absolutely lacking in nobility, finesse, and a true sense of justice. He had absolutely no regard for the misfortunes of this widow and the false accusations that were being made against her. There was nothing good in the man that the widow could appeal to. Her only hope lay in UNCEASING APPEALS. She pestered him and bothered him and came back and came back and came back until she received justice. Every other expedient was gone, except this one of continual appeals.
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Luke 11:1-13
My subject tonight is Prayer, and I want us to begin tonight by asking ourselves a few questions–like: “Do I pray out of a sense of duty–that as a believer it’s something I ought to do; or as a kind of Christian lucky charm, hoping that if I keep up my daily prayers everything will somehow turn out right? Or do I pray with the intention of getting answers; of actually receiving something from God? And do I stay with the thing and stay with God until I receive something from heaven?”
I’m afraid that personally I have to admit that a lot of the time my praying falls into the first category. Not that I’m denigrating praying out of a sense of duty–that’s much better than not praying at all. And I suppose the “bless so-and-so” and “help so-and-so” kind of prayers are heard in heaven. But at the same time I think we’ve got to take prayer into the realm of expecting something to happen as a result. In Psalm 62:5 we read “My soul, wait thou ONLY upon God, for my EXPECTATION is from him.” The Psalmist was clearly expecting something from God as a result of his praying.
It’s this thought of praying UNTIL we get an answer that I want to pursue with you for a little while tonight. Let’s look for a moment at the example of the friend at midnight that we just read in Luke 11. The picture, I suppose, seems a bit strange to us: a weary traveler arrives on your doorstep very late at night and you haven’t got a crumb in the whole house so you go to your friend’s house and batter down the door until he gives you some bread. That seems a strange way of carrying on to us. I wonder what kind of reception we’d get from some of our friends if we went battering on their doors at midnight wanting bread? It seems reasonable that if your house was burning down or something really drastic was happening, then it wouldn’t be out of place to go down the street and shout and bang on someone’s door for help. But the idea of doing that for just three loaves of bread seems incredible.
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