Was Francis Right?
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:3-5
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
2 Timothy 2:15
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.”
Today we will be reading from Psalm 145
This sermon is a re-hash of the very first sermon I preached here in Arcade on Wednesday, October 6, 2010. Pastor Karenlee and I were on staff at Trinity Church of The Nazarene in Rochester, NY and we felt the Lord calling us to come to Arcade.
We did not want to leave Trinity. We loved the people of the Trinity church but we knew that the Lord would also cause us to love the people of Crossroads as well.
After our phone interview the church board voted 5 to 4 in favor of having us come down for an in-person interview and worship service with the congregation. (Fortunately the DS did not let us know the vote tally!)
So, on that Wednesday night in October ten years ago I spoke about a quote that is attributed to Francis of Assisi and today we will take a look at that quote and another one attributed to him and the question is this … Was Francis right???
Quote #1:
“Do all you can to preach the gospel and if necessary use words!”
Quote #2:
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some people will hear today.”
With those thoughts in mind, let’s go ahead and read Psalm 145
(Prayer for help)
Let’s just look at a few phrases from this Psalm …
- I will exalt You, my God the King;
- I will praise Your name forever and ever.
- Every day I will praise You and extol Your name
- One generation commends Your works to another
- They tell of Your mighty acts.
- They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty
- They tell of the power of Your awesome works
- I will proclaim Your great deeds.
And that’s just in the first six verses. And the last verse is like a huge exclamation point on the end of the Psalm when it says …
- My mouth will speak in praise of (Yahweh).
- Let every creature praise His holy name forever and ever!
Now, that’s just one little Psalm but this same sentiment is found throughout the Bible. So … what were the phrases attributed to Francis of Assisi again?
Quote #1:
“Do all you can to preach the gospel and if necessary use words!”
Quote #2:
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some people will hear today.”
Can the Gospel be preached without words?
Is there any such thing as a wordless sermon?
First, let’s look at the Scriptures …
Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26-40)
(Tell the story in your own words …)
What if Philip had obeyed the words of the angel from God and had just gone down to the road as instructed to look around for someone who needed help with some manual task. What if he never spoke to the Ethiopian? What if he had never explained what was written in Isaiah about Jesus? Were words necessary? Were words important?
What if all of the apostles went on their missionary journeys but they only did good deeds and never proclaimed the Gospel?
If that had happened Christianity would be gone from the face of the earth!
What if our missionaries went out and only served others with their deeds and never told them about the new life and the eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus?
What if you lived in a house next to a person who knew nothing about Jesus? And what if the neighbor on the other side of your next door neighbor was a kind and well behaved Jehovah’s Witness? And, what if you both were helpful and kind to the neighbor who lived between you? And what if the Jehovah’s Witness told them about the teachings of the JW’s and you said nothing but just kept doing good deeds?
Where would that neighbor end up, in your church or in the Jehovah’s Witness with all of its heretical teachings?
Are words only to be used “when necessary”?
Are actions alone truly a “sermon”?
Imagine if a friend of yours was on trial for murder and you knew that he had NOT committed the murder. You knew that you had an ironclad alibi for him but every time the defense lawyer asked you a question you just smiled at your friend and gave him a “thumbs up” sign or walked over and patted him on the back. How do you think that would go? Would you be of any value to your friend at all?
It is my great fear that many people, including some of the people of Crossroads, may take those simple phrases attributed to Francis of Assisi and use them as a pattern for their live while Jesus calls us to be His witnesses and His ambassadors!
You see, we have in our hearts the keys to the kingdom of God!
- We know that all of humanity was once hopelessly lost and dead in our sins. (Romans 3:23)
- We know that at just the right time God sent His One and Only Son for our salvation. (Romans 5:6)
- We know that Jesus, the Son of God, was tortured and died on the cross 2,000 years ago to pay the penalty for all the sin of all of humanity. (Romans 3:25)
- We know that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day in victory over death and the grave. (1 Corinthians 15:24-57)
- We know that if we come to Jesus in repentance for our sins and in faith believing we can be given the gift of eternal life. (Acts 20:21)
- We know that Jesus is in heaven right now as our Advocate before God the Father. (1 John 2:1)
Let me repeat! We have in our hearts the keys to the kingdom of God and to eternal life! And if we rely only on our actions to proclaim the kingdom of God it will not be proclaimed at all!
WE ARE TO BE WITNESSES IN WORD AND DEED!
The first thing we need is to have a love for God that surpasses all other desires in our life. That is our motive. Not just to make it into heaven but to bring honor and please our Savior. When Christ is the supreme desire of our hearts it will overwhelm any fear or doubt or any competing desire that may have ruled our hearts in the past.
This overwhelming love for God will be strengthened as we come to know Him more and more, as we become saturated in His Holy Word, as we meet with Him in prayer, as we meet with other believers who also have a burning desire to tell others about this hope we have in Jesus Christ!
As our love for God grows and our faithfulness to proclaim the Gospel increases His presence in our lives will grow sweeter and more precious day by day. This will be true in times of peace and in times of struggle and hardship as well. We will be living in the joy of the Lord which is our strength.
So, we know that words are extremely important to our witness for Christ and we also know that mean, hurtful actions can not only nullify our witness but they can cause harm to the cause of Christ.
So, what do we do? We can neglect neither.
Acts of godly love open the door of the heart to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Francis of Assisi is reputed to have said, “Do all you can to preach the gospel and if necessary use words!”
Perhaps we could modify it to say, “Do all you can to preach the Gospel by your words AND your actions.”
Why would we ever be so bold as to attempt to modify a saying by someone with so great a renown as Francis of Assisi?
We wouldn’t except for one reason; it more closely follows the Holy Scriptures.
Final thoughts and prayer.
