Luke 10:10-16
"Are you the one?"
I've asked myself that question thousands of times through the years.
You see, all of the answers I need in life always come through people. Everyday people I meet along the way.
All the truly important things in life I've learned the hard way. God knows I'm a blockhead sometimes, and blockheads need some serious shaking up in order to guide them, give them direction or simply let them know when to get out of the way.
I've learned that God sends people to me. Some as a friendly reminder that there are beautiful people who, like flowers along the road way, make the journey easier to travel.
But many unknowingly have a message for me, a story to tell, directions or answers to my prayers.
So, you'll have to believe me when I tell you this, every time I meet someone I say to myself, "Are you the one?"
Expecting that at any moment anyone can be God's messenger, I try desperately to pay special attention to who they are and what they have to say.
No, they don't step in front of me and announce "God has sent me. He told me you are a blockhead and I need to make sure you understand what He wants you to do next!"
I wish it were that easy.
Sometimes people step in and out of my life like on a ride in an elevator or standing in line to buy a cheeseburger. Their smile, frown, comment, or actions often times trigger a story, or confirm I'm on the right path.
Sometimes the most important messages come from the most unlikely sources.
Like today.
I was speaking to a wonderful couple who were sharing their own experiences with hospice. The woman spoke about how peaceful her brother's death was and told me that she missed him very much. He had passed away less than two years ago.
"He was a tough man, but I would yell at him and he'd listen. I miss yelling at him," she said.
"I hope that when I'm gone someone will miss me. I think that is the greatest accomplishment in life. To have such an impact on others that, upon your passing, they would feel the emptiness," I said.
Then, I heard someone say, "You used to be the host on PBS television weren't you?"
"Yes, I was," I replied.
"Well, I miss you! You see you're not there now and someone misses you. You don't have to die to be missed," he said.
"Are you the one?" I thought.
Most anyone would think he was a highly unlikely source of God's guidance. This old man wore a dirty sport coat, heavily stained pants, messy hair tucked under a hat older than I am and generally looked like a homeless man just passing through.
But I know better. This may very well be the one to deliver an important message to me today. I've been anxiously waiting for one.
He had the warmest smile hidden slightly by his aged, wrinkled face. He told me how much he had enjoyed watching me on television. I wasn't listening to what he said. I am uncomfortable with praise. But his eyes spoke volumes to me.
"Do you have a minute?" he asked.
Believing he was about to say something of utmost importance to me I replied, "I have all the time you need, my friend!"
He then reached in one of the two large shopping bags he was carrying. Pulling out a black binder, he went on to show me a plan he developed for the "future growth of our downtown."
His work was clear and concise. The ideas he had made perfect sense. His handwriting was neat and legible.
Then it hit me. He could have been God Himself standing there with a message to save the world, but because he looked like the least significant, most unlikely source to deliver anything of value, no one would ever pay attention to him.
He was intelligent, bright, organized... but old and poor. If anyone spoke with him at all, it would most likely be out of pity, missing anything of importance he had to say.
They would humor him.
They would ignore him.
They would pass him by, perhaps even avoid him all together.
In doing so they would miss an incredible opportunity to learn something important.
The message was -- "the messenger!"
We have seen already the instructions for the going out of the workers and the instructions for when they come to a town. Now we come to the instructions for when others reject the message given. When someone rejects the gospel message they are rejecting the sender and not the messenger. There are three truths concerning the rejection of a messenger.
The first truth we see is that when a people rejects the Spirit the future generations will be affected. Beginning in verse 10 Jesus tells the disciples when a city does not receive you go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ By wiping off the dust of the city from their feet, they are proclaiming a complete absolving of their responsibility to that city. They have come to proclaim Christ and offer the Kingdom of God to them, but because of their rejection of them and their message they are being cast away from the kingdom. As we look further into the passage we see that they are being sentenced to a judgment without Christ standing on their behalf. We know the fate of Soddom. Tyre and Sidon were destroyed during the time of the destruction and captivity of Israel. The fate of these cities was not one of reward but one of destruction which was their judgment. Jesus is saying that whatever cities rejects these messengers will not be rewarded but will be punished and receive greater judgment than these cities. The decisions that the leaders of these cities make will affect the lives of everyone else within the city. Who would be the ones to reject these messengers? It would be the adults, the elders, the ones who are the rulers of the cities. Very unlikely that there would be children and infants as the ones deciding whether or not these messengers would be accepted. The decision these leaders make will affect not only the children but also the children yet to come.
Back in the days when the settlers were moving to the West, a wise man stood on a hill outside a new Western town. As the settlers came from the East, the wise man was the first person they met before coming to the settlement. They asked eagerly what the people of the town were like.
He answered them with a question: "What were the people like in the town you just left?"
Some said, "The town we came from was wicked. The people were rude gossips who took advantage of innocent people. It was filled with thieves and liars."
The wise man answered, "This town is the same as the one you left."
They thanked the man for saving them from the trouble they had just come out of. They then moved on further west.
Then another group of settlers arrived and asked the same question: "What is this town like?"
The wise man asked again, "What was the town like where you came from?" . These responded, "It was wonderful! We had dear friends. Everyone looked out for the others' interest. There was never any lack because all cared for one another. If someone had a big project, the entire community gathered to help. It was a hard decision to leave, but we felt compelled to make way for future generations by going west as pioneers."
The wise old man said to them exactly what he had said to the other group: "This town is the same as the one you left."
These people responded with joy, "Let's settle here!"
How they viewed their past relations was their scope for their future ones.
Have you ever considered how what you teach your children will affect their lives? I am sure you have. Especially as your children now have their own children. Our strengths are likely to be strengths in the lives of our children and our weaknesses their weaknesses unless a concerted effort is made to overcome those weaknesses. Look at Amnon, David his father had committed a sin of great degree and Amnon does the same. David committed adultery and Amnon committed rape. We affect those who come behind us. Our decisions affect those who come behind us. The decision by the Bush administration to cut taxes will affect those who come behind them. The next president who chooses to raise taxes will have to deal with the consequences of making that decision whether they be good or bad. A church who puts into place unbiblical practices the next generation will have to deal with those consequences.
The second truth we see is when a people rejects the Spirit it is monumental. Notice especially that Jesus says that it will be better for Soddom on the day of judgment than for any city who rejects these messengers. What was about to take place was not some insignificant mission trip. This was to have serious consequences for the future. This was a serious moment for these cities. They would have seen miracles performed. They would have had an opportunity to repent. The miracles were to point to a higher power, to one who is greater than the messengers. To the Messiah because they were proclaiming the Kingdom among the people. The promised One and the promise of the Kingdom and provision for sin was now available to the people. He was there and the messengers were preparing the way for the Messiah. Their work was a part of the work of the Messiah among the people. To have rejected the message was to reject the work of the Spirit.
My dad was an agnostic for most of his adult life. When I decided to become a preacher, he hit the roof. He thought I was wasting my life and talents, and he would have preferred that I had chosen to become an engineer like him, or a teacher, or an historian.
His battle with God was surprising to me. As a teenager, he had excelled in Bible School and even had "First in the Class" certificates. His knowledge of the Bible was amazing, and throughout my years in seminary, he would deliberately argue with me about the existence of God. In fact, whenever I visited him at home, it would take us only about ten minutes to get into a theological tussle. Any peace that was in the house before I appeared was broken, and I usually left bitter and resentful.
I guess my dad felt let down by God. He had to care for my mom for many years without a break. As her insanity and ill health grew progressively worse, I could see the pain in his eyes and the stress across his face. I finally came to the resolution that when dad berated my beliefs, he was expressing his inward anguish and voicing his struggle with a loving God, who allowed innocent people to suffer.
In the last year of his life, my dad was diagnosed with a stomach cancer, which had progressed too far for treatment. The years had mellowed him, and our relationship was a lot better, even though we were separated by the Atlantic. When the hospice chaplain came to visit him and asked to pray, dad said, "Don't bother, minister. My son John's prayers are all that I need."
A couple of days before he died, we shared a phone call. He didn't want me to come over to Scotland until after he was dead. We talked about many things, and I told him how proud I was of everything that he did for our family. At the end of the conversation, Dad usually said, "Take care of yourself, son." This time, he spoke three precious words, "God bless you."
Those were his final words to me. He had made his peace with God at the very last, and in that acceptance, he was given life from the dead. We never know when the seeds of faith will bear fruit, but we share what we know of God with those we love and cherish, in the hope that one day acceptance of God will come.
Luke 16:20-25 is the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. After the rich man and Lazarus have been sent to their reward or punishment the rich man asks that Lazarus be sent to warn the rich man’s family to warn them of the coming judgment apart from Christ. The response is that they have God’s Word and therefore they have no need of any other warning. These cities have the warning according to the working of the Spirit. They have the warning of the Word of God as these are Jewish cities. They have the work of the Spirit through miracles to validate the ministry work of the messengers and the Messiah. To reject the work of the Spirit is monumental.
The third truth we see is when a people rejects the messenger they reject the sender. How many times has the messenger of bad news been treated as though they were the ones to have caused whatever calamity? The messenger is not the one responsible for the news. As a Christian we are not proclaiming our own words but we are proclaiming the words of the one who sent us. Amazing as you look at the cities on this list. Capernaum. The unofficial home base for Jesus during his ministry. It was here that Peter lived. His mother-in-laws house is there in Capernaum. If you go to the city today you will see a Catholic chapel erected over the traditional location of Peter’s mother-in-law’s house. They reject the message of Christ. Today the Jewish people for the most part reject the message of Christ. They reject him as the Messiah. Verse 16 says the one who listens to you listens to me. If they listen and heed the message of his people then they have listened to Christ. Then he continues the one who rejects you, rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the one who sent Me. To reject the message that we bring that these messengers were bringing is to ultimately reject the message of the Father. It is to ultimately reject the Father. When people reject the gospel they are not rejecting us no matter how badly they treat the messenger. Isaiah proclaimed to the people to repent and yet he was sawed in two. They rejected the Father.
One of the saddest things that I have seen in more than twenty years of ministry is when a person refuses God’s help and rejects His healing. I can remember being called to help one young lad decades ago, who was addicted to booze and drugs. He had a supportive, loving wife and a wonderful wee two year old son.
I had worked with him for a couple of years and he seemed to be steering his life back in the right direction. Whenever the manse needed painted or a room decorated, Evelyn and I would ask him to do it. He needed the money, and because the minister was willing to let him decorate his home, other people in the church gave this young decorator opportunities to do the same. He started to make a business for himself and things were looking up.
But then, in the midst of all of this joy and restoration, the specter of addiction eased its way back into his life. He tried to control it, and was successful at first. Because I had been an addict too, I gave him a lot of support. The sadness is that his addiction proved stronger than his friendship and faith, his family and his work. I pleaded with him, along with his wife, to get into a recovery program, but he wouldn’t do it. He enjoyed the booze and the drugs too much. Eventually, he lost everything – his wife and son, his business and customers, his church and faith.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “God helps those who help themselves.” You won’t find that in the Bible because God often helps those who can’t help themselves. But when people make bad choices and choose drugs and alcohol over friends and family, it’s very difficult for God to enable that person to recover. The young lad denied he had a problem and ended up deceiving himself, dividing his family and diminishing his faith. It was one of the saddest things that I have ever seen. And it still grieves my heart, when I see those same kinds of things happening in other young lives today.
The problem of rejecting the Father is in rejecting Him we would be rejecting all that He requires of us. We reject His requirement for righteousness. We reject His provision for payment for our sin. We reject His restitution for our redemption. To reject the Father is to reject His grace.
Al Braca worked as a corporate bond trader. He was also a deacon at his church in New Jersey. Though the 54-year old was a vice president of his company, he didn't like the work environment because it was completely out of sync with his Christian values. His wife Jean remembers: "Through the last 16 years, Al was on a mission and that was to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the workers there and all of the partners and customers that he had working on Wall Street. Over the years, even closer to his death, they started to call him the 'Rev', not because they loved him for what he was doing, but because of fact that he was faithful and was on a mission to give the Gospel out to people who would hear him. Whether they received it was really up to the Holy Spirit. On the morning of 9/11, he went to work as he usually did after spending the morning in prayer with the Lord. Because of his devotion to God and because of His faithfulness, he was there when these people needed him the most. Because of other men leaving messages to their wives and also e-mails, I found out that my husband had the opportunity of praying with about 50 men and women and I believe that many of them gave their hearts over to Jesus. Al really did what he felt God called him to do and that was to continuously die to self and give others the message of Jesus Christ." Al perished in Tower One of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. But not without being faithful to what the Lord had called him to do.
The Lord has called us to be his servants and messengers. How will you be different today knowing his truths concerning rejection and the message.
Will you live and proclaim faithfully in order to leave a faithful biblical heritage of the next generation for the church?
Will you allow the Spirit to lead and guide and do His work of proclaiming truth in the hearts of people?
Will you allow criticism and rejection of the gospel be an offense to God and not to yourself?
