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I,
John, am the one who heard and saw all these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to
worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But
he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a
servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all
who obey what is written in this book. Worship
only God!” Then he instructed
me, “Do not seal up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is
near. Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm;
let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the one who is righteous
continue to live righteously; let the one who is holy continue to be
holy.” Revelation 22:8-11
I always loved
the bumper sticker that says, Wise Men Still Seek Him.
Apostle John
was a wise man, except for several times that we know about. In the Revelation he admits to two of those
times, when he prostrated himself at the feet of an angel to worship[1]. I believe God allowed John to record those
frail, human failures for our benefit.
If John could mess up, and still be used of God, there’s still hope for all
of us! Look what else wise people do...
Wise People Worship God
The angel
calls John’s name, and he is mesmerized by the splendor of heaven and the sight
of the throne. He responds badly by kneeling
in worship at the angel’s feet. But
John’s motive is to be reverent in God’s presence. It is much better, when you are in the
presence of a holy God, to err on the side of caution.
And we must
remember – worship is the response of a thankful heart.
Brother
Lawrence was a cook in a monastery. He
learned to press meaning into virtually every action of his day -- even the
menial tasks:
I turn my little omelet
in the pan for the love of God. When it
is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and
worship my God, who gave me this grace to make it, after which I arise happier
than a king. When I can do nothing else,
it is enough to have picked up a straw for the love of God.
People look for ways of
learning how to love God. They hope to
attain it by I know not how many different practices. They take much trouble to abide in His
presence by varied means. Is it not a
shorter and more direct way to do everything for the love of God, to make use
of all the tasks one's lot in life demands to show him that love, and to
maintain his presence within by the communion of our heart with his? There is nothing complicated about it. One has only to turn to it honestly and
simply.[2]
Worship is a
privilege as well as a responsibility to which we all should pay close
attention. We are called to live
in His presence. Christians are
accountable and blessed to stay in close communion with our Lord. Giving reverence is the whole idea of
worship. It begins with the believer’s attitude,
and extends to the believer’s acts. It’s
not hard if you desire in your heart to honor God.
The angel
rightly told John to get up off his knees; simply put, the angel said: knock
it off, John, I’m an angel, not God. I’m
a servant of God.
Worship is
simple once we are turned in the right direction. We must never forget that worship belongs to
God, alone!
Wise People Witness of God
Some people
treat the idea of witnessing for Christ as secondary at best. They point to the great churches across the
land, and the great evangelists. They
say: the job’s being done.
If our job, winning the lost to Christ, was done, or
even well along in progress, would we not see a decided improvement in the way
people behave? Yet, crime is on the
increase, hate is the order of the day, and morality is on the decrease.
We have a
long way to go in proclaiming the message of Christ crucified, risen, and
coming again! And we are the only
witnesses Jesus has!
The mission
of wise people is two-fold,
1.
SERVE WHERE YOU ARE
Then he instructed me, “Do not seal
up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is near. Revelation
22.10
John is
instructed to do differently than the prophets Daniel and Isaiah. They were told to seal-up what they saw.
The angel makes it clear to John that his task will be to spread this
word. This is a picture of wisdom,
sharing good news.
Being a witness
for the Lord is not as complicated as some make it. It is simply a matter of finding ways to make
Him a part of your everyday life.
That takes
many forms. Susie Hobert is a missionary
who believes that one of her responsibilities as a mother is to instill in her
children a burden for their lost friends.
And she has done an excellent job.
Ten-year old Ryan was driving imaginary race cars with his
friends. Several minutes later he came bounding into the house and yelled, Mom, you've got to come quick. Isabelle wants to accept Jesus into her
heart. Skeptical of the child's
sudden interest in spiritual things, Susie asked, Ryan, I thought you were playing race cars? We
were, Mom, but our cars wrecked. The
accident was real bad so I asked Isabelle if she would go to heaven if she
died. She said she didn't know. I told her how she could know and she wants
to ask Jesus into her heart.
There are many accounts in Christian history of people who have exhibited a strong commitment to continually sharing an effective witness for Christ. One of the ones that sticks in my mind so vividly is the crossed paths of a man only known as “Rigby” and pastor Alexander Whyte.
It was the
end of the 19th century that Alexander Whyte pastored a large church
in Edinburgh, Scotland. During that
time, a salesman by the name of Rigby would travel to Edinburgh regularly just
to hear him preach. He would often
invite other businessmen to accompany him to the services.
One Sunday
morning he asked a fellow traveler to go to church with him. Reluctantly, the man said yes. When he heard Whyte's message, he was so
impressed that he returned with Rigby to the evening meeting. As the preacher spoke, the man trusted Christ
as his Savior.
The next
morning, as Rigby walked by the home of Pastor Whyte, he felt impressed to stop
and tell him how his message had affected the other man's life. When Whyte learned that his caller's name was
Rigby, he exclaimed, You're the man
I've wanted to see for years!
He went to
his study and returned with a bundle of letters. Pastor Whyte read Rigby some excerpts – all
telling of changed lives. They were men
Rigby had brought to hear the gospel.
Like the Samaritans who had been led to Jesus by the woman at the well,
these men believed in Him because of the word of Rigby.
When God’s
witnesses live a life-principle of intentionality…a constant awareness of our
responsibility to use any means, and any opportunity to share the Gospel, God
does that which is super-natural, he
takes our efforts, to serve where we are, and live, and sees
to it that the world beats a pathway to the kindness.
Our mission
is to serve where we are, and:
2.
SHINE WHERE YOU ARE
Let the one who is doing harm
continue to do harm; let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the one
who is righteous continue to live righteously; let the one who is holy continue
to be holy.” Revelation 22:11
There is a
very startling truth presented here. The
principle is,
People die as they have lived.
Witnessing
is a matter of a saved person simply displaying with his or her life, or
telling with his or her words, what the Lord has done for them. The startling part of that principle is unsaved
people will do the same thing…in the opposite direction…fully
ignoring God’s grace and providence.
I have seen
that principle (people die as they have lived) as a pastor for
the past 40 years, both in people whom I’ve tried to lead to Christ, and even in
the church. You cannot hide (for long)
what you think of Jesus. And there are
consequences to ignoring His claim on your life and witness.
People who,
all their lives, decide against Christ (in favor of selfishness) also decide
against salvation. Choices in the
spiritual realm are forever. To
think that a person could live an unjust, filthy, unrighteous, unholy life, and
then decide
to become a Christian so he won’t go to hell, stretches the whosoever will invitation a little
too far.
The positive
injunction in this passage is for Christians to shine, as a matter of focus for
their witness. Some of us are bashful
about that.
William
Barclay said, Christianity is
something which is meant to be seen. As
someone has well said: ‘There can be no
such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the
discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.’ A man's Christianity should be perfectly
visible to all men.
Keith
Miller, in his book, A Second Touch, tells of a businessman who one
night turned his life over to Jesus Christ.
The next morning he was late for his train. In his hurry, he bumped into
a small boy with a puzzle in his hand, scattering the puzzle pieces across the
sidewalk. Instead of rushing on, he
stopped, stooped down, and helped pick up the puzzle while the train moved out
of the station. After he had finished,
the little lad looked up into his face and asked, Mister, are you Jesus? Then
said the man, I realized that at least in
some small way, Christ truly was in my heart.
A member of
a church I served once said loudly, and clearly, before a group of believers
that his religion was a private thing.
I’ve thought about that often since hearing it years ago. There are only three possibilities of what
that meant:
a. He’d never truly committed his life
to Christ, and therefore did not know the full extent of God’s gift of grace,
and did not understand his eternity would not be in glory with God, so he had
nothing to say. Let’s face it, you
cannot be a witness to something that never happened.
b. He was truly a Christian who was also
introverted and afraid he’d be ridiculed; he just couldn't bring himself to
speak up.
c. He was still a baby Christian. I use the term “baby” because he’d been baptized
about 40 years prior. He’d never grasped
the reality that when you’ve been saved, you grow into
Christ, and you grow-up to serving Christ because you have
recognized your responsibility to share what God has done for you.
I tend to
think it was this third possibility that was what was wrong with the man’s
thinking. He was in his 60’s and had
never accepted any responsibility for serving in his church. You may not start out preaching in the
pulpit, but you can certainly start somewhere in serving. You leave the spiritual diapers behind.
God made
certain the Gospel is so simple that everyone can understand it, and can
recognize when they’re around it. The
only thing He hasn’t written in stone is our response, whether we will share it
with lost people. That, He wants to be a
response of love.
Every one of
us in this room who has truly been saved is responsible to grow-up, and grow-into
shining witnesses for Christ. The
apostle Paul gave us God’s word on that truth:
Now
these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their
responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and
build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue
until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we
will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full
and complete standard of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13
Wise people
still seek Him. Those who love Him
respond by growing-up in Christ, and growing-into serving and shining for Him.
And we do
that by sharing Him with others.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
[2] Brother
Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, E. M. Blaiklock
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982) p. 85.
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