Title: Ordinary People in The Hands of a Mighty God

Date: 2008-05-04

Reference: Luke 24: 50-53

This last Thursday was Ascension of the Lord Day on the church calendar. We remember how Jesus led his disciples out to Bethany where he raised his hands and blessed them. As he was doing this he left them and was taken up to heaven.

Matthew adds the great commission.Before leaving the disciples Jesus said: “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.”

At Christmas time we celebrated the entrance of Jesus into our world. Ascension comes full circle as Jesus returns to heaven. Jesus told his disciples he would not leave us alone but would provide the power and inspiration we need to continue to work. Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to the church which he did on Pentecost Sunday.

The church is build on the foundation laid for us by a previous generation of faithful disciples. Today the torch of faith has passed to us. It is up to us to carry the light of Jesus Christ into the world around us, just as Jesus instructed us to do.

There is a story from the 3rd chapter of the Book of Acts about how Peter and John healed a man. The two Apostles were going up to the Temple to pray. A man who had been born lame was being carried to the temple door where he sat and begged each day.

The man was Peter and John entering the temple and he asked them for money. Peter said: “Look up at us.” The man stared at them and thought he was going to get something. Peter said: “I don’t have silver or gold. I will give you what I have.

In the name of Jesus Christ get up and start walking.” Peter took him by the right hand and helped him up. At once the man’s feel and ankles became strong and he jumped up and started waling. He went with Peter and John into the Temple walking and jumping and praising God.

The Apostles didn’t have money to give b ut money was not what the beggar at the gate needed most. He needed salvation for his soul and healing for his body. Money could never have provided either of those needs. Through the power of Jesus the man was completely healed. The disciples made a huge difference in this man’s life by giving him what they had. That is what we are called to do as well.

One can do a lot with a little that is totally dedicated. I often think of Sylvia Spencer who was a resident of Hover Manor and a member of LPUMC in Longmont. Sylvia, at the end of the month, didn’t have a dime to spare. She was a faithful tither but didn’t have a lot of money to share. But she had three ministries. She walked all over town collecting cans for the church. She made quilts that she called comforters and she baked pies. The quilts she made were rough looking things, nothing beautiful at all. But they were very warm and functional and many children in Romania and migrant children in Weld County received the gift of warmth from Sylvia Spencer. I still have a couple of her comforters we pull out each Winter. Each time I see them I think of this dear little lady.

Mrs. Spencer also baked pies and put them out of Sundays for people to take home. The donations she received from her pies she donated to missions. Sylvia salvaged the makings for her pies from trees around the neighborhood.

I will always remember the afternoon the director at Hover Manor called and told me to get 82 year old Sylvia down out of an apple tree. She had climbed up there to pick fruit for her weekly offerings. She was pretty indignant when we suggested she really didn’t have any business up that tree. Sylvia Spencer, like the Apostle Peter, had no silver or gold but she did have piles of material scraps, aluminum cans and fruit and she gave the Lord what she had. That’s how God works.Ordinary people in the hands of a mighty God doing extraordinary things.

I can only imagine how overwhelmed the Apostles felt that day in Bethany when Jesus left them. They must have remembered how Jesus prayed for them earlier saying: “Father I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you. My followers are still in the world. Keep them safe. I don’t ask you to take them out of the world but keep them safe from the evil one. And I am not praying just for these followers but for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me.”

We are called to give what we have. What Peter offered the beggar was worth much more than all the silver and gold in the world. Peter gave what he had. We are not called to worry about what we don’t have. We are called to be faithful in sharing what we do have. John Wesley called this the two legged Gospel. “To walk and run with the Master” said Wesley “takes personal faith in Christ and social responsibility.” Scripture says if we love Christ we will express that love in acts of kindness to people around us. In this way we have shown our love for Christ, by feeding the hungry, clothing the shivering, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick. I hope we will never forget what Jesus said: “When you do it for one of the least of my children, you have done it for me.” It is so important for our preaching and teaching to be combined with acts of loving ministry in the lives of God’s people around us. We give what we can and what we should of our time, talents, and money.

Peter said: “I will give you what I have.” Peter didn’t withhold what he could do, because he was unable to do what the beggar had requested him to do. In ministry, remember the great commission of Christ and do what you can. Give what you have. Remember life is a coin. You can spend it any way you wish but you can only spend it once.

Christ is counting on you and on me. The Kingdom of God depends on the faithful involvement of the individual. Each person cooperating with God. We need to get out of God’s way and make ourselves available to God’s leading. Ordinary people in the hands of God can accomplish extraordinary things. We do what we can in the hopes that one day we will stand before God and hear those words.”Well done, Good and faithful servant.”

Our offering of money to God is symbolic. It is important and very necessary but symbolic. This day we have once again presented our tithes and love offerings to God. At the same time we offer ourselves as living offerings to God.

All believers are important to God and to His work. There are no small persons in the Kingdom of God and there are no small contributions in the Kingdom of God. We won’t all be famous preachers, missionaries, Recording artists or authors. But anyone of us can be used by God to open the door for others to become effective in the service of Jesus Christ. Someone once said: “Not all of us will be doors, but we can all be hinges. Hinge people have no idea what impact their words and ministries will have. Hinge people may not know the results of their ministries until they get to heaven.

What makes life significant? I am very fond of a poem by Thomas Stanley.”To leave the world a little bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition. To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” We know what we are is God’s gift to us. What we become and what we accomplish is our gift to God.

What are the things for which we will be remembered? Whose life is different, enriched because of you. The final results of our lives will be written in what we did for God and for God’s people.

Jesus said: “Go and share with the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them and teach them all I have taught you.” Jesus knew that giving enlarges one’s heart and makes it youthful with an even greater capacity for loving and giving. Selfishness impoverishes the heart and narrows it’s horizons. The more one gives the richer one becomes.

Money is certainly part of our giving, part but not all. Christ uses whatever we bring. By our faithfulness we become answered prayers in this world of ours. When we learn to say as Peter did.”I will give what I have,” miracles can happen. Miracles will happen. Peter could have given the man at the gate money. Money is what he asked for and it would have satisfied him for a while. But Peter gave what he had which was the gift of healing, walking, leaping, and praising.

What gifts will we bring? What do we have in our hands?

God will use whatever we offer to make this world a better place. This plan of God has not changed since the day Jesus ascended back into heaven leaving the ministry of the church in the hands of his followers. May we be faithful as they were faithful.