Odds and Ends

Blast from the Past - Mark found an old (!!) tap from a 1978 Sunday evening in Wollaston with a foreign student, Livingstone Abali singing. He sounds refreshingly 'different' but if you listen carefully to his book-learned English he is genuinely praising the Lord. He was a very bright scientist. Wish I knew where he is today . . . . Did you know that "waterboarding" may have its first reference in the Bible? Benhadad, king of Syria, died because people soaked a thick cloth in water and put it over his face. (See 2 Kings 8:14-16) and remember-- you saw it FIRST! . . . I continue to hear from people that we knew "way back" due to Face Book--if I don't always respond it is because I am a bit overwhelmed by the various options in FB. For example, this is NOT first posted there, but on my "BLOG" which is also something Mark set up for me to pontificate on . . . I'd be glad to hear from you as well... Bless you this Friday! Russ

Audio Sermons

My son, Mark, had maintained a web page of sermons and stuff for me for quite a few years, which I deeply appreciate. Now he has added audio sermons, and I believe him, but for the life of me I can't get my AOL Google to bring it to life on my screen. If you can access the page (simply Google my name - Russell Metcalfe- and go to the sermon page that pops up) see if you can access the audfio sermons and let me know, someone--please? Thanks... Russell

Higher Law

July 26, 1992 (am) OBEYING THE HIGHER LAW Romans 7,8Lesson: Romans 7: (12) so then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. ... (14) For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. ... (16) ...I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. (21) I find then a principle (law) that evil is present with me- the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the Law of God in the inner man, (23) but I see A DIFFERENT LAW in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (25) With my mind (I am) serving the law of God, but ... with my flesh the law of sin. Romans 8:2 ..the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.The Story of Naaman and Elisha It was all going very well indeed. The career was ahead ofschedule- there had been victory after victory, and promotion afterpromotion, and now Naaman had been made Chief of Staff and General ofGenerals. He was on top of his world! Then-- he noticed a few strange sensations in his hands; he sawsome white spots on his wrist. After a few days he went to see thedoctor. He was shocked by the report! The report was: "You are aleper!" This statement, this diagnosis changed all of Naaman's life.It was a death sentence! Sooner or later it would become commonknowledge, and he would be shunned, outcast, and the result wascertain deformity and death! The Bible says, "Naaman was a greatman-- BUT he was a leper!" But what makes this story worth telling is that even though thispagan general had a sure sentence of death, and by all the laws ofnature was doomed to die, HE HEARD A WORD OF HOPE, A MESSAGE ABOUT A HIGHER LAW. This word of HOPE came from the most unlikely place! It camefrom a little slave girl-- a little girl from Israel that had beencaptured in one of Naaman's conquests. The little girl evidentlycared about Naaman, and she said to her mistress-- "I WISH NAAMAN COULD GO TO ISRAEL-- THERE IS A MAN THERE WHOKNOWS GOD-- AND WHO COULD CURE HIM OF HIS LEPROSY!" It wasn't much-- but when you are desperate you don't need muchto send you looking. The little girl told her mistress and themistress told Naaman and Naaman told the King of Aram-- and the kingsaid, "GO FOR IT!" So Naaman, the conqueror of nations, the general of generals,assembled a small caravan of camels and valuables and headed for Samaria and the court of the king of Israel. When Naaman arrived in Samaria, the capital city of the NorthernKingdom, he wasted no time. He went right to the top! When he gotthrough stating his reason for coming, King Jehoram (wicked Ahab'swicked son) was absolutely beside himself. "I'VE COME TO ISRAEL BECAUSE I'VE HEARD YOU HAVE A CURE FOR LEPROSY!" Everyone knew that there is no cure for leprosy, but here stoodthe general of one of Israel's traditional enemies, making animpossible request. Naaman was a fearsome sight to all the neighborsof Aram, and Israel in particular. "AM I GOD?" asked the king to his subjects. "WHO DOES THISRAVING MANIAC LEPER FROM SYRIA THINK I AM? HE IS SIMPLY PICKING A FIGHT WITH US! HE INTENDS TO DESTROY ISRAEL!" Naaman, for his part, was in no mood to fight or argue. Hedidn't think there was much hope, anyway. He simply gave the word andthe caravan wheeled about and turned to go back toward the north andeast. Just about that time a man came running through the crowd. Hisname was Gehazi, and he was the servant of Elisha the Tishbite, aprophet of God. [ Now Elisha was not exactly well-accepted at court. His styleof worship was obsolete, and his idea of direct contact with God wasnot too sophisticated. And Elisha was not always civil to KingJehoram! But somehow Elisha had got word of the king's problem, andso he had sent his servant with a message to the king. ] "SEND THE GENERAL OVER TO ME!" It took the king about ten seconds to decide that sendingGeneral Naaman to the prophet would be a good idea. He didn't knowwhere the prophet lived, but Gehazi was willing to guide him. So theentourage turned and left the palace. When they arrived at the home of the prophet Gehazi went in andfound Elisha. I think Elisha was in the back garden. [Elijah was a rugged man, an outdoorsman, fond of camel skin coats and honey and locusts. But Elisha was a city person, smooth and civilized, and yet not one bit less fearless or straightforward than his illustrious teacher had been. He was not over-awed by the power of Aram's armed might outside his doorway. He did not need to satisfy any personal curiosity.] Elisha sent word by the servant, and never himself spoke a word to Naaman: "GO AND WASH IN THE JORDAN SEVEN TIMES AND YOUR FLESH SHALL BE RESTORED TO YOU AND YOU SHALL BE CLEAN." "There it is! Take it or leave it! You are offered healing- - atthe price of obedience and faith in God! At the price of doing as youare bidden, not as you think you ought to do!" The Bible says, But Naaman was furious and went away and said, "Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. (5:11-12)"IT'S TOO SIMPLE! IT'S TOO HUMBLING!" The message of finding the higher law is not unique to thisstory. That message is that WHEN WE COME TO THE END OF HUMANRESOURCES, IF WE WILL ACCEPT HIM ON HIS TERMS THERE IS GOD! We may think that we have life pretty much under control-- andyet we discover that we are sinners! Like Naaman, we are undersentence of death! The wages of willful sin is death! We seek help for the symptoms of our sinfulness- the damage itdoes to our lives. We go to church-- we ask for help in many acceptedchannels and we hear things like: (1) Sin is an outdated concept. There really isn't any sin anymore-- it is a combination of our environment and our inheritance. Wehave received a bad deal from our parents. Whatever feels good is allright to do. But somehow we KNOW that we are on a collision course with a justand holy God-- and that we are not prepared. or... (2) We are offered various human therapies which are helpful asfar as they go, but which can not reach to the depths of the real needof our lives, which is freedom from the power and guilt andcondemnation of sin. We are not just people who sin-- we are SINNERS! And THEN-- we hear the simple Gospel message: The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, shed on the Cross ofCalvary, cleanses from all sin! Christ died for the sinner! Or thispassage in Romans 10: (8-11) "the Word is near you, in your mouth andin your heart that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, andif you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead,you will be saved!" And our "sophisticated" reaction is like the ancient Arameangeneral, the leper named Naaman. "IT IS TOO SIMPLE!" NAAMAN'S STORY DOESN'T END WITH HIM GOING OFF IN A RAGE: His servants prevailed on him with common sense: "What can youlose?" So the general went to the banks of the Jordan-- maybe to the same place where later Jesus was baptized, who knows? He looked up on the banks and saw a crowd gathering to gawk. He knew that he was going to look stupid! But he turned and waded in- and into the current and dipped under the water.Nothing happened! He dipped again-- and again—still nothing! Nothing! But after seven times down, the seventh time up he looked—and—the white spots were gone!! Naaman came up out of the muddy river and headed, dripping, for hischariot. "Go back to that prophet's house!" he ordered the driver. The caravan wheeled around again and the caravan went back to Samaria and the prophet Elisha. And this time Elisha the Tishbite comes out. Maybe there is even a little smile on his face. "Here is a million dollars!" said the general, Naaman. "I won't take one red cent!" replied the prophet. (Evidently he wason salary, like Billy Graham; or else, he hadn't learned how to make abig prophet out of his ministry like some of the TV prophets.) The general rode away a man who is convinced of the power ofJehovah God!Summary and Application: I suppose that I have read this portion of Romans -speakingabout being bound by lower laws-- and then finding freedom in higherlaws-- a hundred times or more. It is NOT a simple, easy passage. Wethink as we read, "Why do you make it so difficult? Why don't yousimply spell it out in language that we can easily understand?" Two or three things come to mind when I think of 'easilyunderstanding' the Word of God. One is-- that the way of salvation is easily entered, simple tograsp, requiring only the obedience of faith to say, "Jesus is LORD!" But another is-- that we think that because eternal life is afree gift, then it does not require study and application and effort,like any other wonderful truth. We think in arrogance that we knowall that is to be known simply by our native intelligence. And thatsimply is NOT so! Paul speaks of the deep things which the CorinthiansOUGHT to have been grappling with, but they simply were going over andover the same elementary truths of arithmetic, not realizing thedepths of algebra and calculus and wonder that God had for them tounderstand and practice. And finally, along with this lack of willingness to study: Wethink that God should always bend to our way of thinking; we thinkthat we are the measure of understanding. But we must be willing toendeavor to follow God's teaching, and enter into His lessons. This, then, is a difficult passage. It expresses the deepest joyof freedom and life in God found anywhere in the Bible. But itdemands our full attention. We will not plumb its depths in thissermon together, and I hope that you will not solve its meaning thisafternoon and come back with all the answers tonight. But you canbegin, or you can continue-- as I am sure that we all are in somemeasure engaged in this "heart-of-Romans truth." Have you submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Are you evenNOW confessing with your mouth, and by God's grace, believing in yourheart? It is profoundly simple, and simply profound-- but the freedomand power of Romans 8 is for us all! We can obey God's HOLY law, andbe FREE from the "law of sin and death" as we submit to the "law ofthe Spirit of life in Christ Jesus!" Elisha said to Naaman, "Go, wash and be clean!" The Spirit says to you and to me: "Confess, believe, and be freefrom sin and condemnation!"PrayerHymn No. 465 Trust and Obey

My View on Holy Communion

Note the date- 17 years ago - but I endorse this today, January 12, 2009

April 5, 1992 - Wollaston

1 Corinthians 11:23-30

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto
you, That the Lord Jesus the [same] night in which he was betrayed
took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said,
Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in
remembrance of me.

25 After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when he had
supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye,
as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye
eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till
he come.

27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink [this]
cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of
the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of
[that] bread, and drink of [that] cup. 29 For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not
discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many [are] weak and
sickly among you, and many sleep.

GUESTS AT THE LORD'S TABLE

When the disciples came together for the Passover meal that we
call the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who was the host.
It was a borrowed room, but it was Jesus who made the arrangements,
and took care of the details, even though His disciples helped carry
them out. He even took the task usually assigned to the least or the
youngest: He washed the feet of those around that table.

The story is in Luke 22, how Jesus sent Peter and John to
prepare the large upper room, which they found by following a man
carrying a water pitcher. And if we will, Jesus always prepares a
table before us when we eat His meal together. Jesus is always the
Host at Communion!

Eating the Passover meal, or Seder, is a significant observance
in the schedule of every practicing Jew. It is both a solemn holy
time, and a warm and wonderful family time. I doubt if we Gentiles
can ever fully capture the warmth and the wealth of feeling that have
surrounded the Seder for centuries.

That night the disciples were guests at their Master's table.
They were together as family, with Jesus as the Host. This was a very
significant occasion, and Jesus wanted them to grasp the significance.

"With desire I have desired to eat this meal
with you," is the way that He expressed it. "I love
you! I want you to know that you are dearer than life
to Me!"

And we understand that on that holy night Jesus did something
else, something that had never been done before. He transformed the
Seder, the sacred Passover meal, with its Paschal Lamb and bitter
herbs and remembrance of Egypt and the wilderness and Canaan, and He
turned the focus of the meal on Himself.

Can you understand how profane and embarrassing and sacrilegious
this would be for anyone but the Christ? But this WAS the
Christ! And this was a sacred moment, indeed! All the sacrifices and
symbols of the Old Testament were pointing to this sacrifice! The
Paschal Lamb became the body of the Lord. The cup became the blood of
the Everlasting Sacrifice.

That night Jesus ordained a new kind of Passover Supper. He
commanded his disciples to eat of it, and as often as they ate, to
remember His death, His shared LIFE, and His promise to come again and
eat with them in the Presence of God the Father. This is the
sacrament to which we all are invited this morning:

What, then, can we say about

I. THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENT [We can only know and understand of
God that which He chooses to reveal to us. The sacred MEAL OF
REMEMBRANCE for the family of faith will always be in great part]

A. A MYSTERY and

1. Any attempt to literalize or explain will certainly fall
short of the truth it conveys to those who know God.

[It is not wrong to use our minds in worship; there really is no other
way. But when we set our understanding, our "reason" as a condiion
for God's love and blessing we severely limit our capacity for
receiving God's grace.]

2. Suffice it to say that when we partake of the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper we encounter

B. A PRESENCE; and by faith we come closer to God than in any other
way. Some of our brothers and sisters make it a literal Presence;
others have other explanations.

1. There is something humbling and something of the acknowl
edgement that we do not have all the answers when we come to the
Lord's table. In our arrogance- the arrogance of our culture that has
put the "feelings" and "individual freedom" above every other good, it
is good that we look with saints across the ages and around the world
to this supper as

C. A SIGN AND A PROMISE; a promise of that which is inexpress
ible.

The church fathers and traditions of the ages testify that this
is a means of grace. We come to the table of the Lord, where HE is
the Host, not to dicate OUR terms, but to look to Him for assurance
that indeed He has come, and has died for us, and that He ever lives
on high to make intercession for us!

[But what may we expect this sacrament to BE, to DO for us?:]

II. THE FUNCTION OF THE SACRAMENT

Without pretending to explain the inexplicable, the scriptures
do help us understand what happens when we share at the Lord's Table,
where He is Host:

A. It is an exercise in OBEDIENCE. The command, the imperative of
the Lord was: "This do! In remembrance of Me!"

The disciples who heard their Lord say those words clearly
understood what He was saying and doing! They were to perpetuate that
moment when Jesus declared that He, Himself, was the Paschal Lamb.

And that commandment still stands!! The family still meets at
the Lord's table. We are here because we want to be-- but we are also
here because Jesus has commanded us to come! We gladly obey.

B. The Lord's Table is also an exercise in REMEMBERING.

Jesus said that night: " ...this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it],
IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME."

As long as we obey we will not forget. We dare not fall away from
the clear understanding that HERE, in the BLOOD and the BODY of the
Lord, the Paschal Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world,
HERE AND HERE ALONE LIES THE ONLY HOPE OF MANKIND FOR ETERNAL LIFE!

C. The Lord's Table is also a TESTIMONY, a SHOWING FORTH. It is a
testimony to three worlds that we depend on Jesus for life.

Jesus said: " ... as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, YE DO SHEW THE LORD'S DEATH TILL HE COME."

D. The Lord's Table is also a time of RECEIVING. It is a MEAL. It
may not be a physical feast, and there IS mystery involved; but when
we come to the Table we are fed.

Jesus said: " ... THIS IS MY BODY, which is broken for you:
... THIS CUP IS THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD ..."

III. THE RESULT OF THE SACRAMENT

A. WE WILL EXPERIENCE RENEWAL

The Lord's Table will a point of new beginning for us this day.
No matter where you are in your journey, here we recognize that we are
successful ONLY as we remain in Jesus, and that we are failures ONLY
as we leave His Presence,

Let us affirm that we are IN CHRIST, by faith, at this Table
today.

B. WE WILL KNOW A RE-CENTERING OF LIFE

It is easy to let the focus of our attention slip off Jesus
Christ! It is easy to look at PROBLEMS, or at PEOPLE, or at WHAT
MIGHT HAPPEN, or at WHAT DID HAPPEN ... and forget that what
Christians live for is to abide in Christ.

We have opportunity today to tell Jesus that we are depending on
Him, on His sacrifice, on His love. Tell Him that HE is at the center
of our lives and living!

C. WE WILL CONTACT A FRESH ENABLING. The Lord's Table is sacred,
and not to be manipulated for personal ambition, but at the same time
it is a powerful source of strength to each member of the Body to
carry forward in the Spirit of the Lord all that He intends for us to
be and to do.

From time to time we all need to have this fresh outpouring of
God's enabling grace. All across the centuries of the Church of Jesus
Christ, the testimony of the faithful has been: It is at the Lord's
Table where we receive new strength to continue in the faith.

It may seem that what you need is MONEY, or AN OPEN DOOR, or a
JOB, or AN ENCOURAGING WORD. And I do not in any way suggest that you
do not need these, and need them desperately. But at the risk of
sounding like a raving mystic, let me say that when we have Jesus,
when we are centered in Him, we have His promise of "all these
things." I am NOT saying that Holy Communion is the answer to all
your problems; I am saying that at the Lord's Table, as Jesus draws
near, we shall find His enabling grace. Invitation:

To all who will come-- to all who desire to draw near to God- -
to all who are drawn by the grace of God to partake-- this is the
Lord's Table, and YOU are welcome!

Only do not come irreverently! Do not make a mockery of that
which Christ has provided.

Come with heart-searching. Open your heart to the Spirit of
God. Ask Him to make you worthy to partake.

Come with your victories-- and lay them in gratitude at the feet
of the Host. It is through Him that we ar more than conquer or.

Come with your heart-aches and defeats! Come with your doubts
and fears! Come with your sin to the blood that speaks of pardon!

Read aloud together "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" (#283) as a
quiet prayer of the entire congregation BEFORE the distribution.

From the heart--two years ago - - good today

I have a deep concern- a heartache that at times is almost physical- for the future of my birthright denomination, the Church of the Nazarene. Call it the ravings and whining of an old man if you like, but what I feel is what I feel—I feel sometimes that my church has changed and left me somewhere.There is no way we could roll back the clock to a simpler time, with clear-cut lines of demarcation between the way Christians lived and believed and the “worldly people” who were as yet unsaved. Those lines in many instances were also culturally drawn, until the motivation for lifestyles could be blurred. All too often in the evangelical Christian community we looked at appearances: to be Christian was to do this and not to do that.Our understanding of holiness as an experience may have been at times naïve, or poorly presented. But there was at the heart of that experience a reality that called us to give up our center to God; to make unreserved covenant with a loving, holy Father. We were told something was ‘eradicated’ or that the body of sin, which was like a corpse tied to a criminal, was now removed, or that we needed to ‘die like a dog under the back porch.’ But in the sometimes crude descriptions or ‘holiness or hell’ sermons somehow we got the message that there was more to being fully saved than living in bondage to sin; we got the message that not only the guilt and penalty of sin was removed at Calvary, but provision has been made for the power of sin to be broken, and a life of commitment to God is possible.It is that commitment- that covenant that stands at the heart of what our denomination desperately needs. In all the celebration, and excitement and cultural awareness and ‘seeker sensitivity’ there is a note that needs to be sounded: we are being called to die to self, to forever abandon the selfish way, to respond to a proposition from a Lover who asks us to trust Him to be our all in all. The narrow way is not a celebration at first, but it is the only way.In our Nazarene hymnals (remember hymnals??) on page 484 is a modern-but-accurate ‘translation’ of a prayer John Wesley used . It begins “I am not my own but Yours…” It is very like vows we might use in a wedding ceremony-- a once for all promise to be true and faithful, mutually exchanged—a covenant! That is what holiness is- a mutual covenant with a loving God. When we are in covenant with God the battle becomes His battle- the work is His work- the praise is His.

A Pattern for Private Prayer

A Pattern for Private Devotions
This article was first published in the Herald of Holiness and reproduced for ENC Students for many years as the Fall semester began.
Dr. Russell Metcalfe is Pastor Emeritus of the Wollaston Church of the Nazarene, Quincy, Massachusetts
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, they were looking for a simple lesson in how to conduct their personal devotions. instinctively they were reaching for the heart of the faith-life, for everything stops or goes in relation to the quality of our prayer - everything worthwhile in the church, that is.
Have you ever outlined your personal devotions?
What do you do when you get alone with God? Do you just sort of "let it happen"?
Here is a suggested pattern for personal devotions, based on Jesus' response to the disciples' expressed need (which of course is "The Lord's Prayer"):
FIRST, before you actually begin: FOCUS! Just what is the aim, the purpose in your life? Why are you coming to the place of prayer? I find it helpful to repeat, not as a prayer, but as a "focus sharpener," these words:
God wants me to be primarily concerned with pleasing HIM, and not too much concerned with pleasing anyone else, no matter how good or godly. Think about that! It doesn't mean that you don't have varied and sometimes conflicting responsibilities -- as parent, as church worker, as citizen -- but in seeking to please God, you will more effectively do everything else that is needful.
THEN, ask God's blessing on the portion of scripture you READ. Just as you pause to ask the blessing on your meals, ask for insight and illumination in the Word. Use a notebook, and read with pen in hand. Jot down thoughts that occur, questions that arise, words you don't understand. Always write down the date, for as months and years slip by you will be able to trace God's grace in growth and blessing in your life. Read by some plan that does not limit your reading to just a few choice passages.
BEGIN your prayer time with PRAISE! Whatever you do don't give into the temptation to skimp on this part in order to get to the "important" part of the day's prayer. In fact, if you are heavily burdened take extra time in praising God. Be specific. I find it helpful to write out three things for which I wish to praise God; don't be afraid to tell God you appreciate His patience with you, or praise Him that you can see Jesus in fellow Christians. Praise Him for godly parents, for blue skies, for a warm home, for the person who introduced to Jesus, for being with you in hard times. Really tell God from your heart how much you love Him, and how you want to give Him praise!
NEXT comes SURRENDER. Yes, I believe in consecration and crisis experiences of salvation. I also believe that in a practical way I can give to God in a daily way what I surrendered when I was saved, and when I consecrated my all seeking sanctification. Give God THIS day! Ask Him to make your appointments! Offer to be His instrument, to be used of God. He will use you -- every single day!
Surrender any failures, too. Don't let temporary setbacks harden. Don't gloss over stupidity or carelessness. Ask for forgiveness -- and give forgiveness, too. Surrender any temptation to harbor resentment, ill will, or even moodiness.
Surrender is quite naturally followed by TRUST. But make it an active trust! Expect God! Expect a fresh infilling of the Spirit! Expect to be used during the day. Don't be surprised when you find yourself really ministering to someone's heartache. And finally, expect God to help you pray as you enter into the final phase of your devotions.
Expect His help as you make INTERCESSION. Pray, by name, for every member of your immediate family. Keep a list of those you pray for daily. Be sensitive and the Spirit will bring to your mind names and faces and needs. How much more keenness and power your intercession AFTER praise and AFTER surrender and EXPECTANT FAITH.
Finally-- get up and leave the place of prayer, but seek to go in the spirit of prayer and thanksgiving. Be thankful God has heard you. Be thankful He is with you. Let your whole day be the "Amen!"
If you haven't tried patterned devotions before try it for 30 days. Pray all you want, any way you want IN BETWEEN regular patterned devotins. But every day FOCUS, and then prayerfully, with your pen in hand, READ, and PRAISE and SURRENDER and TRUST and make INTERCESSION AND PETITION, with THANKSGIVING AND OBEDIENCE as you depart the place of prayer. It is the pattern Jesus gave. It works!
Permission to reprint or publish this material is GRANTED as long as the reprinting or republishing is not-for-profit. You can access more of Dr. Metcalfe's sermons at his scripturally indexed sermon archives web site.

Confessing Christ as Lord: Faith

John 20:27-31

The story of Thomas is very important, or it would not be at the climax of the gospel. But what does it mean? (In a way that is an arrogant question, since it implies I KNOW the answer.) I can tell you a part of what I believe it means, and what it certainly means to me.
Why Thomas, here at the end? If this book is written so we might believe in Jesus Christ the Messiah, is Thomas the ideal believer?
The list of those coming to living faith in this chapter begins with the writer, John himself, who entered the tomb and believed on the spot! Then comes Mary Magdalene. Then the Eleven, locked in the meeting room, but without Thomas, who for some reason was absent. And now at the very end, Thomas. Are we to strive to be like Thomas? Or, perhaps, we should be like John who was the very first to believe-- he told us himself-- even before he saw the risen Lord?
What this says to me is that John is not holding up either himself or Thomas as models for us to follow. Rather, John is telling us that whoever or wherever we are, if we want him, and if we seek him in love, Jesus will find us and let us know he is alive. In the next chapter Jesus finds Peter in a different way, and restores him to fellowship. But that is another story.
"These are written that you might believe..." All these testimonies-- this entire book is to tell us that the risen Lord is as good as his word. "Go back carefully to the beginning and read what I've written," says John. "'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...' Read again with faith that entire story of Jesus... see how he spoke like no other man... see how he had authority over life and death and creation... see how he lived and how he died and how he has risen again... read that story, John says, read and believe! Believe and have life!"

It doesn't really matter if you come like John, or like Thomas, or like Mary Magdalene, or like Peter or Paul-- the important thing is to be able to say, "My Lord and my God!" Sometimes it seems like we are all expected to be giants of the faith. But Thomas helps us understand that the good news is for everyone-- great and small. It is not limited to a certain temperament or personality type.
Some of us come emotionally, with tears for wasted years. Some come as little children, and never know the dramatic conversion. Some seem to be able to simply quietly believe, and know they are alive in Christ. Some struggle and agonize and pray, "O God, please give me a sign!" And yet the important thing is that synapse of faith, that spark of recognition that finally says, with Thomas and every other true believer, "My Lord and my God!"
That statement is the climax of the entire Gospel. "My Lord and my God!" comes as the confession we all are to make! That confession by Thomas precedes the text "But these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing ye might have life in his name."

Two other elements of great importance are linked with this confession in this climactic chapter of John's Gospel.

Jesus breathed on the company of disciples, and said to them: "Receive the Holy Spirit!" Faith in the risen Savior is not just a matter of being persuaded of an historical fact, but it is to be a present relationship with a God who is as near to us as our very breath. The presence of God indwells every believer. "Receive YE the Holy Spirit!" It is an inevitable result of believing in Jesus Christ the Messiah!

Jesus also told that little company, the nuclear beginnings of the church, "Go and forgive people's sins!" As we understand that, it was not some confessional power, but a way of saying that if we believe in a risen Lord, and if he is present with us in his Holy Spirit, then our assignment is sharing the good news that God has already forgiven the sins of the world, and that life is to be had for the asking.

But it begins with this inner persuasion: I have met the risen Lord! I know he is alive! I bow before Him! You, O Christ, are my Lord and my God!" That faith enables us to "be more than we are!" It may not be just for giants of the faith-- but Christ comes to live in us, and helps us through the reality of life. And as we stay close to Him, He lives out through us if we will but let him.
As a Post Script:
Some scholars seem to hold Thomas up, if not for scorn at least hold him up, as a poor role model. We are not to be like "doubting Thomas." who needs more and more proof-- we are to be like John who believed immediately. Thomas was not "a giant of the faith" like Peter... or so some say.
But there are in existence in India to this day Christian churches who worship God in the name of Jesus Christ, and who venerate this very same St. Thomas. For however scholars may scorn Thomas's need for proof, it seems that while St. Paul traveled west with the good news of a God who cares, St. Thomas traveled east and preached as far as India where he established the church of Jesus Christ, and where he was finally martyred for his faithfulness to Jesus.
When we say by the Holy Spirit, "My Lord and my God!" the risen Lord Himself enables us to "be more than we are" in our own strength. He gives us his Spirit. He enables us to share his grace. He is with us this very hour.

Prayer - The Lord's Prayer

The CHANGE Wrought by Sanctification

What happens when a Christian responds to the challenge of Romans 12:1,2 to make a total and complete consecration and with abandon presents all things to the pleasure and disposal of a loving God? Growing up in the holiness movement that calls 'second blessing holiness' or 'entire sanctification' the 'cardinal doctrine' I knew all the answers to this question before I really knew the question. Often the answers were presented dogmatically, and with the blithe assurance of sincere ignorance. I truly believed that people who were sanctified wholly never got really angry. They didn't wear lipstick or wear much jewelry. They kept a strict Sabbath-type Sunday. Their lives were pretty much circumscribed by their holiness church. They didn't go to the picture shows or permit their children to dance, even in gymn class. They had rules and regulations every bit as strict as the Amish. Maybe I'm painting a picture unique to my perspective . . . I don't mean to be too pejorative-- it was a way of life with its own measure of fulfilment. Lots of things have changed in the "holiness movement." The legalism is long gone. "Holiness people" look just like any and everyone else. We keep a "convenient" Lord's Day. I have not heard any preacher claim that entire sanctification eradicates anything for maybe 45 years. As a matter of fact I can't recall too many sermons insisting on a clear-cut consecration subsequent to a clear-cut repentance, confession, justifying experience. But in spite of all that I still heartily believe in the kernal of truth I learned in the holiness movement. I believe in the call to holiness. I believe in what John Wesley preached as GOING ON TO PERFECTION. I believe I am sanctified because I have given myself to God. I understand this as something like-- but even more profound-- something like I believe I am married because I said some vows and heard some vows and gave myself to Helen and she gave herself to me and from August 27, 1954 to this moment I have been married. Covenant. Two-sided. With this sanctification-- early on I gave myself to God without reservation as best I knew how. I don't pretend that I knew then nor do I understand now all that this consecration meant. But because I knew it was God's will, and His Word I made a Romans 12:1 type of surrender to God and have never ever taken it back. Covenant. Two-sided. Have I ever sinned against Helen in these 54+ years? Well, I've had to ask her to forgive me lots of times. I may have been thoughtless or even selfish at times-- so, yes, I suppose I have. Have I ever one time been unfaithful to Helen? No, I have not, by the grace of God! I will be true to those vows, God helping me, until we are parted by death. Have I ever sinned against God in these nearly 61 years? (January 1948 was when I made those beginnings with God!) Well, I've had to ask God's forgiveness lots of times, too. It is in the Lord's Prayer--did you notice? But HAVE I EVER BEEN UNFAITHFUL TO GOD? Never one time have I removed one item from His hand. I may have plowed ahead sometimes-- or lagged behind-- but I have not rebelled. I am HIS! I AM sanctified! I WAS sanctified when I first came to repenance in that I was redeemed and included in the Family. But when I made that full consecration without reservation, I belonged now not from fear of hell but from trust in God's love. But I also am BEING sanctified-- in the sense of being made more and more like Jesus. One day I WILL be sanctified-- when the human weaknesses of emotion and ignorance and sins I cannot even see are taken away. So-- the question remains- what changes have taken place-- or what changes are supposed to take place in the character, nature, soul of the believer who is a living sacrifice? This morning I read again the 17th chapter of Genesis where God visited Abram and challenged this man of God to go on to perfection. When Abram responded in affirmation of the covenant already made (see Genesis 15) God changed his name to Abraham. Significant. Very significant. Abraham went on to become almost a picture of God! The Father of Faith. Well, I've raised more questions than I've answered. I don't see our holiness movement going back to legalistic ways, and in most respects that is a great plus. As an old man I can even live with drums and guitars and projection screens and casual dress in worship, although I really feel like I dress in my best for worship for good reasons. But I really yearn to see in our holiness people a deep hunger after God and holy joy that comes from total abandon to Him that is manifested in the totality of life. The fullness of God's Holy Spirit is available when in simple faith people make covenant with Him with no reservation or qualification-- simply an eternal "YES!" to God for time and eternity. We holiness people have been exposed to the concept of that deliberate covenant making, but it goes without saying that covenant is more than words. Many Christians in many denominations have come to the place in their walks with God where consecration became both deliberate and entire, complete. They live in the Spirit. Their 'names have been changed'. What is that change?