Introduction:
A. Today we continue our Wholly Devoted Series.
1. We are exploring how to be wholly devoted to God with all that we are and all that we have.
2. Let’s review the two verses that have provided the Scriptural foundation for the series.
a. Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
b. Paul wrote: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).
3. So far in our series, we have explored what it means to have:
a. A wholly devoted mind.
b. A wholly devoted heart.
c. A wholly devoted tongue.
d. Wholly devoted eyes.
e. And wholly devoted ears.
4. Today we want to explore what it means to have wholly devoted hands.
B. Let’s start with a couple of children’s jokes about hands.
1. Why did the one handed man cross the road? To get to the second hand shop
2. What did the boy octopus say to the girl octopus? I wanna hold your hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, and hand!
C. Hands are a truly an amazing creation of God.
1. Each hand is made up of at least 29 major and minor bones.
2. Each hand has of 29 major joints.
3. Each hand has 123 named ligaments.
4. Each hand has 34 muscles which move the fingers and thumb: 17 of them are in the palm of the hand, and 18 are in the forearm.
5. Each hand has 48 named nerves.
6. Each hand has 30 named arteries and nearly as many smaller named branches.
7. About a quarter of the motor cortex in the human brain (the part of the brain which controls all movement in the body) is devoted to the muscles of the hands.
8. Sir Isaac Newton said: “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.”
9. One person said, “We can land men on the moon, but, for all our mechanical and electronic wizardry, we cannot reproduce an artificial fore-finger that can feel as well as beckon.” (John Napier)
10. So, physically speaking, our hands are amazingly complex and useful!
D. It is also amazing what we can communicate with just our hands.
1. What does this hand gesture communicate? I love you!
a. A-ok or Okay.
b. Beckoning sign.
c. Clenched fist.
d. Fist Bump or High Five.
e. Crossed fingers.
f. Loser.
g. Talk to the hand.
h. Thumbs Up.
i. V sign – peace or victory
j. Vulcan salute.
k. World's Smallest Violin.
E. It is also amazing how the hand has made it into our communication through the use of idioms.
1. We say things like: “Give someone a hand,” which can mean to applaud or to help.
a. All hands on deck.
b. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
c. Cold hands, warm heart.
d. You will be eating out of my hand.
e. Get your hands dirty.
f. We are making money hand over fist.
g. You have the upper hand.
h. I know it like the back of my hand.
i. You are near at hand, or won’t lift a hand.
j. Leave it in their hands, or it is out of my hands, or my hands are tied.
k. You are my right hand man.
l. Don’t tip your hand, or wring your hands, or take matters into your own hands.
F. Have you ever noticed that you can tell a lot about a person from looking at their hands?
1. If you look closely to a person’s hands, can you estimate their general age? Are they young, old or middle-aged?
2. Can you tell if they are male or female?
3. What might you look for that would tell you what they do for a living? Are their hands calloused or stained?
4. What might you learn about them from the strength of their grip?
5. See, a person’s hands can really tell us a lot about them physically, but they also can tell a lot about them spiritually.
G. When we turn to the Bible we notice that the words “hand” and “hands” appear over 1000 times.
1. We read things like: “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart…” (Ps. 24:3-4).
2. Psalm 143:6 says: “I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.”
3. Psalm 63:4 says: “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.”
4. Proverbs 10:4 warns us: “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”
5. We are told that “The Lord hates hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17).
6. We are commanded: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need” (Eph. 4:28).
7. James commands: “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).
8. Jesus taught, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire” (Matt. 18:8).
9. Jesus also taught: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Lk. 9:62).
10. So you can see from this small sampling of verses that the Bible has a lot to say about the spiritual implications of our hands.
H. To help us learn how to have wholly devoted hands, I want us to spend the rest of our time considering the hands of Jesus.
1. If there has ever been a person who had wholly devoted hands, it was Jesus.
2. Let’s strive to follow His example.
I. The Wholly Devoted Hands of Jesus.
A. First, Jesus’ Wholly Devoted Hands were Holy Hands.
1. Jesus is the perfect, sinless Son of God.
2. This truth is declared clearly in the Bible.
a. 1 John 3:5 says, “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”
b. Quoting Isaiah 53:9, 1 Peter 2:22 says, “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
c. Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us…” (2 Cor. 5:21).
d. Hebrews 4:15 says, “but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”
3. Jesus’ hands were perfectly clean – they were in no way soiled by sin.
4. No one has ever lived a more holy life than did Jesus.
5. As the followers of Jesus, we must strive to walk in His steps and to have holy hands like His.
a. Obviously, our hands will never be as holy as His, but that must not stop us from having that as our goal.
6. What kinds of sin would cause us to have unholy hands? Certainly all kinds of sin, right?
a. What we want to avoid is allowing sin to become a habit and a lifestyle.
b. When we sin, and fall short of His glory, we must be quick to repent and turn away from sin.
c. We must come near to God for cleansing, as James suggested in the passage we read earlier, “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).
d. After we have received the cleansing of our sins, we must not return to them and repeat them, but must put them behind us with God’s help.
e. This is what we often call the sanctification process as we move from lives characterized by unholy and unrighteous behavior, to lives characterized by holy and righteous behavior.
7. So the first thing we learn about having wholly devoted hands is that we must strive to have holy hands – hands and lives free from sin.
B. Second, Jesus’ Wholly Devoted Hands were Working Hands.
1. The Bible does not supply much information about the first 30 years of Jesus’ life.
a. I’m sure we would all like to know more about His growing up years.
b. We would like to know what He was like as a teenager and a young adult in His 20s.
2. We cannot fill in all of the silent years, but we do know that they were working years.
3. We know that Jesus’ earthly father was a carpenter and that He learned the trade from Joseph.
a. The angry crowd of Nazareth once disparagingly cried out, “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?” (Mk. 6:3)
4. The hands of Jesus were not the hands of a scribe, rabbi, or priest (of course there is nothing wrong with having the hands of a scribe, rabbi, or priest).
a. Jesus’ hands were the strong, calloused hands of a hardworking carpenter.
5. During those years of humble, secluded labor, Jesus gave dignity to work.
6. Throughout the Bible we see that God upholds the dignity and blessing of work.
a. God made Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden to work and care for the garden.
b. The Proverbs tell us laziness is bad and diligence is good.
c. Proverbs 12:14 says: “From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.”
d. The Apostle Paul was not only an apostle and evangelist, he was also a tent maker, and when there was no financial support from the brethren, he worked his trade and provided for himself.
e. He said: “You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions” (Acts 20:34).
f. The woman of Proverbs 31 is a busy, hardworking woman.
1. “She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.” (vs. 15)
2. “She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.” (vs. 17)
3. “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” (vs. 27)
g. When Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, he told them: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands” (1Thess. 4:11)
h. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, he addressed the subject again, saying: In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
11 We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. 13 And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right. (2 Th. 3:6-13)
7. We see from those verses that wholly devoted hands are busy, hard-working hands.
8. The wholly devoted hands of Jesus were working hands and we want to be like Him!
C. Third, Jesus’ Wholly Devoted Hands were Praying Hands.
1. Throughout the Bible, we have this word picture of hands being devoted to prayer.
2. The hands are often lifted up in prayer.
3. As we discussed earlier, those hands in prayer should be holy hands.
4. Jesus certainly devoted His hands to prayer.
5. We often see Him get up early and find some secluded place to pray.
6. Before major decisions like choosing the apostles, we see Him spend the night in prayer.
7. And the most powerful of all the pictures we have of Him in prayer was in the garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion.
a. The Bible tells us: He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Lk. 22:41-44)
8. Oh to have praying hands like Jesus!
9. Hands devoted to prayer! Holy hands lifted up in prayer.
10. We learn that wholly devoted hands are praying hands.
D. Fourth, Jesus’ Wholly Devoted Hands were Compassionate Hands.
1. This is one of my favorite pictures of the hands of Jesus.
2. Jesus placed His compassionate, tender and loving hands on little children.
a. The Bible says, “And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” (Mk. 10:16)
3. Jesus reached out His compassionate hands and touched lepers and healed them.
4. Jesus reached out His compassionate hands and touched the blind, and the mute, and the deaf, and gave them back their sight, speech and hearing.
5. Jesus reached out His compassionate hands and touched the coffin of a widow’s only son and brought him back to life and gave him back to his mother.
6. Certainly we cannot do the healing miracles like Jesus could, but we can have the same kind of compassionate hands that seek to bring relief to the pain and suffering of others.
7. Wholly devoted hands are compassionate hands.
8. The next point goes hand in hand with the previous one.
E. Finally, Jesus’ Wholly Devoted Hands were Serving Hands.
1. I have to tell you that I was having a hard time on Thursday writing this sermon about wholly devoted hands being serving hands, because I kept getting interrupted by people who needed my help.
a. God does have a sense of humor! I realized the irony of it as I started to get frustrated and finally realized that I just had to go with the flow and not worry about it.
b. Usually by dinner time on Thursday, my sermon is done and some, if not all, of the powerpoint, and sermon handout are done.
c. This past Thursday, by dinner time, I only had two pages done of my 5 or 6 pages, and none of the handout and powerpoint.
d. But guess what? All the interruptions were opportunities to put serving hands into action.
2. Jesus had serving hands.
3. He said of Himself, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk. 10:45)
4. Of all the pictures of Jesus as a servant, none is more powerful than when He washed His disciples feet in John 13.
a. Jesus had gathered with the 12 for a very special meal – His final one before the crucifixion.
b. No servant had been assigned to wash their dirty feet upon their arrival.
c. None of the apostles had taken the duty upon themselves.
d. So during the meal, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, tied a towel around his waist and began to wash the feet of His disciples.
e. One by one, He performed this humble service.
f. Initially, Peter protested, but then relented and allowed Jesus to wash his feet.
g. Jesus even washed the feet of Judas, the one who would betray Him later that night.
5. The Bible says: When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (Jn. 13:12-17)
6. Oh how right Jesus was – what a blessing it is to be a servant and to have serving hands.
a. The only way up is down.
b. The only way to be filled is to empty ourselves.
c. It is more blessed to serve than to be served.
7. I read about an incident that happened when a wealthy Western woman visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and tried to make a monetary donation.
a. Mother Teresa declined, saying, “I can’t take your money.”
b. The woman said, “But I am very wealthy and can make a large donation.”
c. But Mother Teresa said, “No thank you. I don’t want your money.”
d. Exasperated, the woman stammered, “Well, what can I do?”
e. Mother Teresa said, “Come and see,” and she led the woman by the hand down into a dreadful shelter and found a desperately dirty, hungry child, and said that the woman could take care of this child.
f. The wealthy woman took a cloth and a water basin and bathed the child, and then she spooned cereal into the child’s mouth.
g. Later, the wealthy woman reported that this experience changed her life.
h. She had become part of something that money could not buy or fix or replace.
8. Monetary contributions are well and good, but writing a check is not the same as getting our hands dirty in humble, sacrificial service.
9. Perhaps you have never heard of Katherine Lawes.
a. Katherine was the wife of Lewis Lawes, warden at Sing Sing Prison from 1920-1941.
b. Sing Sing had the reputation of destroying wardens. The average warden's tenure before Lewis Lawes was two years.
c. “The easiest way to get out of Sing Sing,” he once quipped, “is to go in as warden.”
d. In his 21 years he instituted numerous reforms, but an important part of his success was due to his wife Katherine.
e. Katherine took seriously the idea that the prisoners are human beings, worthy of attention and respect.
f. She regularly visited inside the walls of Sing Sing.
g. She encouraged the prisoners, ran errands for them and spent time listening to them.
h. When she discovered one convicted murderer was blind, she taught him how to read Braille.
i. When she discovered a deaf-mute in the prison, she learned how to use sign language.
j. Most importantly, she cared about them. And as a result, they cared deeply about her.
k. Sadly, one night in October of 1937, the news spread through the prison that Katherine was killed in a car accident.
l. Katherine’s body rested in a casket in their home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison.
m. The prisoners petitioned the warden to allow them to pay their respects.
n. Lewis Lawes knew how much Katherine meant to them and so he said, “All right, men, you can go. Just be sure to check in tonight.”
o. The south gate of Sing Sing swung slowly open while hundreds of men - felons, lifers, murderers, thieves - men convicted of almost every crime conceivable, marched slowly from the prison gate to the to the warden’s home.
p. There were so many that they proceeded unguarded.
q. But not one tried to escape. If he had, the others may have killed him on the spot, because they were so devoted to Katherine Lawes, the woman who daily walked into Hell to show the men a piece of Heaven.
r. Every one of them checked back in to their cells that night. Every one of them!
10. That’s the power of hands wholly devoted to serving.
11. Serving hands take many forms, but all of them make a difference and they bring glory to God.
Conclusion:
A. I want you to take a look at your hands - What kind of hands are they?
1. Are they pampered, selfish, evil or unspiritual hands?
a. Or are they hands like Jesus’ hands?
2. Wholly devoted hands, like Jesus’ hands, are holy hands, working hands, praying hands, compassionate hands, and serving hands.
3. Mother Teresa once said, “If at the end of the day you want to examine your conscience, just look at your hands. What have your hands done today?”
4. God can help us to have wholly devoted hands like Jesus’.
5. Don’t you want to have hands like Jesus?
Invitation Song: “O to Be Like Thee.”
Resources:
Holy Hands, Sermon by Kenneth Sauer, SermonCentral.com
The Hands of Jesus, Sermon by Larry Jacobs, SermonCentral.com
We are His Hands, Sermon by Darrin Fish, SermonCentral.com
