Windows From History

Windows from History

Mark 8:34-38

Mk 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Mk 8:35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

Mk 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Mk 8:37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

Mk 8:38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Note:

This sermon gets no introduction. There will be a soloist who assists me throughout by singing the five verses of Francis Havergal’s hymn “Take My Life and Let it Be.”

At the conclusion the congregation will sing it during the invitation.

Window #1: Gladys Aylward (1902-1970)

Stanza #1

Mk 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Gladys Aylward (1902-1970)

As a teenager, Gladys read a magazine article about China that changed her life. She kept thinking about the millions of people in that distant land who had not yet heard of God’s love. She knew she had to tell them.

To do this, she was told, she would have to go to Missionary Training School. After finishing, she was informed that she was not qualified – she failed her exams. This setback did not derail her passion. She worked at jobs and saved her money. Then she heard of a 73-year-old missionary, Mrs. Jeannie Lawson, who was looking for a younger woman to carry on her work. Gladys wrote to Mrs. Lawson and was accepted if she could get to China.

On Saturday, October 15, 1932, at age 30 Gladys Aylward left Liverpool, England bound for China.

Upon her arrival in Yangchen she took up Ms. Lawson’s work and began learning the Chinese language; something the training school said she could never do. She began sharing the Gospel in surrounding villages. She began to take in orphans. Before long she had 20 young children under her care – not to mention the 30-40 wounded soldiers she cared for. Her ministry eventually grew to over 100 children.

She adopted china as her homeland and became a citizen in 1936. This was not motivated by politics or ideology but by love for Jesus. It afforded her a more effective venue to proclaim Jesus Christ.

When the war reaching its pinnacle in 1938 she smuggled her children out of China – it took 27 days. When they arrived in Sian the doctors were amazed. She had pneumonia, Typhus, malnutrition, and exhaustion.

She recovered by God’s grace.

At the end of her life Gladys wrote the following about herself: My heart is full of praise that on one so insignificant, uneducated, and ordinary in every way could be used to His glory for the blessing of His people in poor and persecuted China.

When the communist took over china Gladys was forced to leave. But she did not stop. God called her to work among the Chinese and she never disobeyed. Rather, she established refugee centers in Hong Kong and Taipei.

Gladys Aylward is a sterling example of taking Jesus at His word when he said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Window #2: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Stanza #2

Mk 8:35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into the musical family of Bachs in 1685. By the age of ten, both of his parents were dead. Early in his friction-filled life, young Johann determined he would write music … music for the glory of God … and this he did.

Most of Bach’s works are explicitly Biblical. Albert Schweitzer referred to him as The fifth evangelist, thus comparing him to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At age 17 Bach became the organist at the church; soon thereafter he was given charge of the entire music ministry.

During his ministry in Weimar, Germany he wrote a new cantata every month … EVERY MONTH! And during one three-year period he wrote, conducted, orchestrated, and performed (with his choir and orchestra) a new cantata every week!

No one had any idea what a mark Bach would leave. His legacy lives on some 300 years later. You can hear his music at will.