Lessons from St. Patrick
Opening Illustration: Video of Ireland played with Celtic worship in the background.
Thesis: Patrick role modeled for the Christian community what it means to be a hero of the faith. His attitude in life showed us how to over come in this world. The key was draw closer to God. He also taught us that we have to follow the call of God because it will make a difference in this world. He became a hero by winning the Irish to Jesus Christ.
Introduction:
Read the prayer “From Patrick’s Breastplate “I Rise Today,” with Celtic music playing in the background.
I bind unto myself today the strong name of the trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.
I bind this day to me forever by power of faith Christ’s incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river, his death on the cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay, his ear to harken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach, his hand to guide, his shield to ward,
the Word of God to give me speech, his heavenly host to be my guard.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word;
praise to the God of my salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord!
Patrick’s life exemplifies Jesus command to reach the lost. The Gospels give us the following messages from the heartbeat of Jesus on the importance of doing the Great Commission:
Matthew 28:16-20
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in£ the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Mark 16:15-18
15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Luke 24:44-49
44He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
John 20:21-23
21Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Patrick’s life and ministry teach us to be open to the call of God in our lives. His beginning in Ireland did not dictate his future but it drew him into a love relationship with Jesus Christ. His relationship with Christ helped him to overcome adverse circumstances in his teen years. His ability to draw close to God and forgive had a dramatic impact on the Irish people. His willingness to follow God’s call makes him a hero of the faith.
Lets learn from this man of God and ask our self a few questions, “Am I willing to draw closer to God in turbulent times? Am I willing and able to forgive those who have caused pain in my life? Am I willing to follow the call of God and even give my life to those who enslaved me? If you do you could become a hero of the faith like Patrick.”
Historical Background of Patrick:
Patrick lived in the fifth century, a time of rapid change and transition. In many ways we might say that those times of turbulence and uncertainty were not unlike our own. The Roman Empire was beginning to break up, and Europe was about to enter the so-called Dark Ages. Rome fell to barbarian invaders in 410. Within ten years of that time, the Roman forces began to leave Britain to return to Rome to defend positions back home. Life, once so orderly and predictable under Roman domination, now became chaotic and uncertain. Patrick entered the world of that time (Joyce).
Partick’s biography is as follows: By Anita Mc Sorley
The uncontested, if somewhat unspecific, biographical facts about Patrick are as follows: Patrick was born Patricius somewhere in Roman Britain to a relatively wealthy family. He was not religious as a youth and, in fact, claims to have practically renounced the faith of his family. While in his teens, Patrick was kidnapped in a raid and transported to Ireland, where he was enslaved to a local warlord and worked as a shepherd until he escaped six years later. He returned home and eventually undertook studies for the priesthood with the intention of returning to Ireland as a missionary to his former captors. It is not clear when he actually made it back to Ireland, or for how long he ministered there, but it was definitely for a number of years. By the time he wrote the Confession and the "Letter to Coroticus," Patrick was recognized by both Irish natives and the Church hierarchy as the bishop of Ireland. By this time, also, he had clearly made a permanent commitment to Ireland and intended to die there. Scholars have no reason to doubt that he did. He died on March 17 the day we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Lets explore Patrick’s life and discover some spiritual lessons that we can apply to our lives.
I. He modeled for us the importance of following the call of God in our lives.
a. Patrick was taken as a slave at 16 from England by Irish raiders.
i. During his time of slavery he worked as a Shepherd and he says his faith grew. He turned to God for comfort. He had been raised as a Christian but he considered his faith to be nominal even at some points nonexistent.
1. He said, I would pray constantly during the daylight hours…and the faith grew…one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly less” Christian History page 12.
2. He had a close encounter with God in his slavery. He grew in the faith and learned to listen for God ‘s voice over his six years of captivity. He drew closer to God in captivity and one day he received a revelation from God to fast. So he did. He then received a message in the spirit to flee to a certain village and a ship would be there that would lead him to freedom. He escaped by ship as the revelation had said.
3. I Cor. 2:10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
b. He escaped by a vision from God
i. He escaped Ireland from a vision from God. The vision told him where to go and how to escape. He followed the leading of the Lord and escaped back to England
ii. After his escape he went and studied in France and became a priest and a Bishop after about 15 years.
c. God spoke to him to return to Ireland and when the Irish to Christ.
i. His call – After completing his studies in France Patrick returned home and received a call in a dream. The dream is said to have had a man standing on the shore of Ireland crying out for help. Patrick believed it was a message from God that he was to return to Ireland and evangelize them with the Gospel.
ii. Similar to Paul’s call.
1. Galatians 1:12 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
2. Galatians 2:2 2I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
iii. The Irish people would never have became Christian if someone like Patrick had not gone to them to share the message of good news.
1. Romans 10:14 14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
d. He returned to Ireland with the Gospel
i. He was the first in the Roman era to evangelize outside the Roman Empire with the Gospel.
ii. He returned to a place as he said, “I dwell among gentiles…in the midst of pagan barbarians, worshipers of idols, and unclean things.”
T.S. – Patrick’s call was from the Lord because he is credited for winning a pagan nation to Christ Jesus. The Lord gave him wisdom and insight in how to win the lost. Lets see what he did.
II. He won a nation to Jesus Christ and gave us insight and wisdom in how to evangelize others.
a. He was not afraid to face the cults and dangers of being a witness for Christ.
i. He faced his heaviest opposition from the Druids who practiced magic, and offered human sacrifices. Many of their writings refer to the need to kill that holy Patrick.
ii. Patrick wrote this about his early battles with the spiritual enemies of darkness. ‘Daily, I expect murder, fraud or captivity…but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God almighty who rules everywhere” (12,13-Christian History).
iii. John Eldrege shared in his book Wild at Heart that men need to be brave and face the battles that are in their lives. He states, “The most dangerous man on the earth is the man who has reckoned with his own death. All men die, few men ever really live” (169).
1. Patrick’s courage came as a result that he died to the Lord and followed him. This made him successful in Ireland.
b. He used their cultural beliefs to present the Gospel in a manner they could relate to.
i. He presented the Gospel with power and authority
1. He stood up to the Druids.
2. He believed in miracles and they happened.
a. One story tells us there was a confrontation between the Druids and Patrick. Patrick challenged the Druids to a contest in Tara performing miracles. There was a custom prior to Easter that whoever lit a fire would be put to death. A local king inspired by the Druids sent 27 chariots to seize Patrick. He prayed a prayer in front of the attackers and God destroyed the invading army. The king witnessing the destruction of his army came and bowed to Patrick.
b. In another incident supposedly the next day the Druids called a fog in to the land. When Patrick challenged them to remove it they could not. Patrick prayed to God and the fog lifted. Also it’s reported that flames consumed this Druid after the fog lifted.
c. The king became angry and Patrick warned him, “If you do not believe now, you will die with him (the Druid).” The king summoned his council and said, ‘It is better for me to believe than to die.’ And he believed as did many others that day in God (14).
ii. The shamrock – their belief of three. According to Christian History the Irish believed in a tri-faced god, for three was their magical number, and gods and goddesses often manifested themselves as three.
1. Patrick used the Shamrock to show the Irish how God was a Trinity by pointing to the three leaves on the Shamrock.
iii. The result of Patrick going to Ireland also was he abolished human sacrifice in Ireland.
1. The Irish where known for sacrificing prisoners of war to the war gods and newborns to the harvest gods.
2. They also believed that the seat of the soul was in man’s head so they adorned their temples and their belts with heads of their enemies. They also used the skulls for football like games and for cups to drink from.
c. He focused on the leadership of the day. The royalty!
i. Result their changed lives influenced the lives under them.
ii. Many of the royalty became priests, monks, and nuns.
d. He built and planted local churches and monasteries.
i. The monasteries were the center of learning in many areas of Ireland.
1. He followed the example of Ezra 7:10 10For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.
2. He studied to show himself approved unto God and stressed the same with his converts.
a. 2 Timothy 2:15 15Do 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.
T.S.- Patrick knew that his work was not done by just converting the Irish but that they had to be trained to renew their minds and to become mature followers of Christ.
III. He trained a nation by stressing the disciplines of Christianity
a. To Patrick prayer was an essential tool to be used by the Christians to overcome the world of darkness.
i. He tells of how under slavery he became a prayer warrior.
1. He understood the importance of prayer in one’s life.
a. He modeled the church of Acts.
i. Acts 1:14 14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
ii. Acts 2:42 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
iii. Acts 6:4 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
b. Fasting and other disciplines of self-denial where the keys to overcoming the desires the flesh.
i. The key to success in the Christian walk is self-denial. The ability to deny flesh and keep it under submission.
1. John Eldredge in his book Wild at Heart states this about the flesh, “Whatever specific terrain you are called to-at home, at work, in the realm of the arts or industry or world politics, you will always encounter three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. They make up a sort of unholy trinity.’
2. The flesh is the part of man that always wants the easy way out the most enjoyable way. The flesh will always tell you to please the senses that’s what life is about. The flesh has an ego and it wants to be control of our lives. It’s desire it seems is to defeat the spirit of man and drive us to total flesh domination.
a. The flesh always wants to be number one.
b. The flesh always wants things its way.
c. The flesh is focused only on itself.
d. The flesh is a part of us that needs to be controlled by the spirit.
3. John explains the flesh this way, “To put it bluntly, your flesh is a weasel, a poser, and a selfish pig” (144).
4. Romans chapter seven reminds us of this daily battle that must be overcome if we desire to faithfully serve God.
a. Romans 7:14 - 25
. 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
c. He stressed that believers are to be enraptured by God’s love and God’s words of love in Scripture.
i. He stressed Bible Study and meditation on the things of God.
ii. He did not want us just to know about God he wanted his converts to experience God in a personal intimate way.
1. Mike Bickle explains it this way, “At one time, I thought that being anointed in ministry would keep a person’s heart encouraged in God. Now I’ve learned this is simply not true! A deeply satisfied soul, a personal sense of meaning and significance and a rich treasure store of the divine pleasure can only come through the intimate knowledge of God himself” (2).
2. Mike adds, “But burnout occurs when we do not experience the pleasure of the Christian life found in a love relationship with God” (54).
d. He had an artistic nature which helped him to stress the Psalms and music.
i. The Irish people who became known for their art work and poetic work. The Irish Christians where known for memorizing the Psalms and quoting them daily.
e. He taught the people to be open to hearing from God in dreams and visions.
i. So what makes Patrick a mystic? Following taken from McSorley.
1. First, as recounted in the Confession, most of the major events in Patrick’s life are preceded by a dream or vision. The visions were usually simple—almost self-explanatory—but they were also very vivid and carried enormous emotional impact with Patrick. The first vision, which he received after six years of servitude in Ireland, came by way of a mysterious voice, heard in his sleep. "Your hungers are rewarded: You are going home," the voice said. "Look, your ship is ready." Indeed, some 200 miles away, there it was. (Patrick was nothing if not tenacious.)
2. The second vision—the one that came to him after he’d returned home and that called him back to Ireland—was equally straightforward. Victoricus, a man Patrick knew in Ireland, appeared to him in this dream, holding countless letters, one of which he handed to Patrick. The letter was entitled "The Voice of the Irish." Upon reading just the title, he heard a multitude of voices crying out to him: "Holy boy, we beg you to come and walk among us once more." He was so moved by this that he was unable to read further and woke up. But the dream recurred again and again. Eventually Patrick tells his dismayed family of his plans to return to evangelize Ireland and soon begins his preparations for the priesthood. What is interesting about this dream calling Patrick to his lifelong mission to the Irish is that it comes not as a directive from God, but as a plea from the Irish. It is also significant, O’Donoughue says, that "the voices in the dream do not ask for preaching or baptism but only that Patrick as one specially endowed should come back and share their lives, come and walk once more with them." In other words, at least according to his recollections decades later, Patrick wasn’t commanded to bring civilization or salvation to the heathens. He was invited to live among them as Christ’s witness. When he finally returns to Ireland, he proceeds to treat the barbarians with the respect implicit in his dream. From the outset, Patrick feels humbled and honored that God has selected him to convert the Irish. Apparently he never doubted that he would be able to do so.
3. Patrick even came to see his own kidnapping as a grace, Cahill says. From the time Patrick sets off on his 200-mile journey to his "waiting ship," he is convinced "once and for all that he is surrounded by Providence and that he is really in the hands of God. And that is what gets him through the rest of his life. That is what enables him to do the incredible thing that he does by returning to the barbarians." And that closeness to God in no way diminishes as the years progress.
4. "Patrick was a mystic who felt the presence of God in every turn of the road," Cahill says. "God was palpable to him, and his relationship to him was very, very close." In fact, he says, it was very much like the relationship in the Bible that Jesus has with God the Father. "It is very familiar and comfortable, and that is how Patrick saw God at work in the world."
f. He stressed that you could see God in nature and if you loved nature you loved His creation.
i. Cahill says, "The early Irish Christianity planted in Ireland by Patrick is much more joyful and celebratory [than its Roman predecessor] in the way it approaches the natural world. It is really not a theology of sin but of the goodness of creation, and it really is intensely incarnational."
Conclusion:
Timothy Joyce noted, “Patrick, then, is an intensely human person and not a plaster saint to admire from afar. He offers us a Christian vision of life honed out of his own experience and trials. He offers us a challenge to live our own Christian life today in changing and turbulent times. He comforts us when we are criticized and ridiculed. He gives to us the Celtic vision of the intimate presence of God in creation, in the Church, in people and in Scripture. He is a model for us, giving us an example to follow as we struggle to live authentically our own Christian lives in our own difficult times.”
Patrick’s life and ministry teach us to be open to the call of God in our lives. His beginning in Ireland did not dictate his future but it drew him into a love relationship with Jesus Christ. His relationship with Christ helped him to overcome adverse circumstances in his teen years. His ability to draw close to God and forgive had a dramatic impact on the Irish people and the success of his life. His willingness to follow God’s call made him a hero of the faith.
Lets learn from this man of God and ask our self a few questions, “Am I willing to draw closer to God in turbulent times? Am I willing and able to forgive those who have caused pain in my life? Am I willing to follow the call of God and even give my life to those who enslaved me? If you do you could become a hero of the faith like Patrick.”
If you learn to be like Patrick you have the benefit to really start living right were you are at. You really start to live when you take your eyes off the circumstances of life and draw closer to God. Then you will learn to recognize God’s voice. This spiritual maturity will lead you out of bondage and slavery to freedom. Then as you continue to draw closer to God through study, prayer, and spiritual disciplines you will be called upon by God to do a ministry for Him. Who knows maybe you could win an entire nation to Christ? Maybe you could win a generation to Christ? Maybe you could win your family to Christ? The benefits to you will be eternal and the most rewarding thing you could do with your life.
