A PRAYER FOR THE CARTHAGINIANS
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 24: 14
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world
as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come”
Matthew 28:18 - 20
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20. and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Revelation 7:4, 9-17
Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel . . . After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”
Verse 13
Then one of the elders asked me,
“These in white robes—who are they,
and where did they come from?”
I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation: they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Ephesians 3:14.
For this reason I kneel before the Father,
15. from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
16. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18. may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp
· how wide
· and long
· and high
· and deep is the love of Christ,
19. and to know his love that surpasses knowledge
—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according
· to his power that is at work within us,
· to him be glory in the church
· and in Christ throughout all generations,
forever and ever! Amen .
______________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION:
For over 100 years, Great Britain held India as a colony. As in most colonies, the colonizing country takes more out of the colony than it gives back. This parasitic relationship by a country that is supposed to be a Christian nation was a negative witness to India . The Indian people were treated as inferior to the Europeans and exploited, especially by the English as a source of cheap labor, exploitation of natural resources, and taxation.
The day finally came when the Indian people had a champion; a brilliant Hindu lawyer, who became a spiritual leader, named Gandhi. When asked by his Christian friend, Bishop Andrews of the Church of England, why he did not become a Christian, Gandhi replied, “I was tempted to become a Christian, but when I saw the arrogance of how Christians treated people of color, I decided to remain a Hindu.” What an indictment!
· (You see, As a brilliant young Indian lawyer practicing in South Africa, Gandhi was thrown off a train to make room for an Englishman, because he was considered an inferior being “a man of color.”)
Come forward a few decades . . . It was Gandhi who led the Indian people in a peaceful revolt to break the yoke of English power .
When E. Stanley Jones, a well-known missionary to India , had the opportunity to meet with Mahatma Gandhi, the great Hindu leader of the 1940s, he asked a searching question of India ’s revered leader; “How can Christianity make a stronger impact on your country?”
Gandhi very thoughtfully replied that three things would be required:
· First, Christians must begin to live more like Jesus.
· Second, the Christian faith should be presented without any adulteration.
· Third, Christians should emphasize love, which is at the heart of the gospel.
Gandhi’s insightful suggestions are the key to effective evangelism around the world.
As messengers of God’s love, we are to be human mirrors who reflect without distortion a growing likeness to our Lord; we are not to walk in “craftiness”, but in love.
The Bible says, in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” This morning I ask you – members of the First Baptist Church of Carthage , “Is the image of Christ in your life blurred?” Or let me ask you another way. Is there enough evidence in your life to ‘convict’ you of being a Christian?”
If our lives reflect an image that is spiritually blurred, the truth of saving grace may not be clearly communicated by the way we live.
We are also to share the biblical essentials of our faith clearly. We must not handle the Word of God “deceitfully” and our lives are to be marked by love for God and others (1 John 5:1-2) (2 Corinthians 4:2).
Let us be sure that we reflect a clear image of Jesus’ likeness, the truth of God and love.
It starts with a deep love for God’s presence in our personal lives and then that love reaches out to our sphere of influence and ultimately to the world.
Sometimes when a pastor is preparing a sermon from the Scriptures, the text virtually explodes with interconnected meanings throughout the Bible as related texts light up. Thus was the case this week. I just need to share my findings with you.
You might remember that a few weeks ago I told you that the Letter to the Ephesians was really a letter written to circulate among the churches clustered at the western end of what is now the country of Turkey . In fact, the oldest manuscripts of the letter are simply addressed “To the saints. . . . . the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Hence, I took the liberty to entitle this sermon, “A Prayer for the Carthaginians.”
The apostle Paul starts his prayer for the Ephesians in Eph. 3:14 with this:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father,” So I asked myself, “For what reason?” The answer was. . . the new relationship of Jews and Gentiles in Christ. The boundary between Jew and Gentile has been broken down.
15. from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
When we turn to the biblical records, we discover that families feature prominently both as the recipients as well as the agents of salvation blessing.
To begin with, the family is regarded as divinely instituted by God.
Look at Ephesians 3:15. In fact all families owe their descent and composition to their Creator. By redemption, the Church—God’s own people—is described as “ the household of God”(Eph 2;19) and the “household of faith” (Gal. 6:10 ).
It is the family or the household that pledges its allegiance to God. Joshua as the head of his own household declared, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).
It is interesting to observe that the feast of the Passover was a family meal (Exo.12:3-4). The head of the family was to recite and reenact the great drama of Israel ’s deliverance at this family gathering. How is the spiritual leadership in your family?
16. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
HOW DOES THAT COME ABOUT? This week I reread a little book written in the 1700s by a French monk, by the name of Brother Lawrence. Its title is, “The Practice of the Presence of God.” It is an easy read, because Lawrence was a simple man, who knew God intimately and developed a very effective prayer life, one that filled his life with the joy of the Lord and easy for any of us to copy.
It is in our church library. (You know that little book shelf of dusty books in the session room I have been trying to get someone to take charge of or at least use?)
I am inviting you all to line up and read this little green book. It will open your eyes to great possibilities. The book is in the same volume with Andrew Murray’s classic, “With Christ in the School of Prayer .” Murray is a little stiff and arcane and needs a language revision
Brother Lawrence declared, “If I were a preacher, I should above all other things, preach the practice of the presence of God; and were I a director, I should advise all the world to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy, too” (P.38).
If you want this church to survive as much as I do, I beg you follow my lead in this. It will be a unified start. Someone has said, “The journey of a thousand miles is accomplished one step at a time.”
17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18. may have power, together with all the saints , to grasp
· how wide
· and long
· and high
· and deep is the love of Christ,
19. and to know his love that surpasses knowledge
—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
It is only “with all the saints” that we can begin to comprehend all the full dimensions of God’s love.
20. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according
· to his power that is at work within us,
· to him be glory in the church
· and in Christ throughout all generations,
forever and ever! Amen .
This church could be the starting place of a great fire of revival that would sweep through Carthage and the surrounding counties. It does not depend on the pastor alone, but on the collective will of our church families. Pray about this. One day soon we are going to take a vote. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:14).
It is time for us to become very serious about our relationship to Jesus Christ and to each other in the Body of Christ. Let us pray.
