Dr. Rodney Plunket

Spreading the Good News of God’s Grace

It is a great story of grace. Let’s look at it together. It is found in Luke 5:1-11. Try and hear it as if you had never heard it before.

Luke 5:1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell dow n at Jesus’ knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus’ sermon and the miracle of catching so many fish caused Peter to become painfully conscious of his sinfulness. I think he just could not believe that someone obviously sent by God had favored him by preaching from his boat and granting him such an incredible catch of fish. All of that divine favor broke his heart and opened his heart to the power of God’s grace.

And that grace did not lie dormant within him. He followed Jesus. Yes, he also failed Jesus quite miserably when he denied Jesus three times just before the crucifixion. But again God’s grace manifested itself; he was redeemed from his sin and was raised up by God to become an incredibly influential leader in the early church––a life changed and blessed and empowered by the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A great story of God’s grace is told in John 9. It is the story of the man who had been born blind. Jesus heals him, gives him his sight; but Jesus heals him in such a way that the man does not see who it is who heals him. Jesus is very unpopular with the Jewish leaders; they do not want anyone to believe in this radical teacher. They tell the man who now can see that this Jesus is a sinner. The healed man stands up for Jesus and argues with the leaders. Eventually they ban him from the local Jewish synagogue. But I will always love this man’s response to the Jewish leaders’ efforts to get him to denounce Jesus. He says, "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." And the story is clear. He saw not only physical realities through his newly opened physical eyes; he also saw spiritual realities through the eyes of faith. The healed blind man saw what the religious leaders could not. He saw, as he says in John 9:33, that "If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." And, when he finally gets to see the Jesus who healed him, he says, "‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped [Jesus]" (John 9:38). Grace had given him sight. Grace had rescued him from the stinging charge that his blindness proved that he had been "born entirely in sins" (John 9:34). Grace delivered him, and he stood up for that grace even though it meant being ostracized by the religious leaders of his day.

Another story of grace is briefly told but equally powerful. Both Luke 8 and Mark 16 tell us that Mary Magdalene was a woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. But this same woman is blessed to be one of the very first to see Jesus immediately after His resurrection. Mary Magdalene is also in that group of special women who first report that resurrection of Jesus to the apostles. The grace of Jesus had transformed her life. Her love for Him took her to the tomb on that Sunday morning. Her love for Him allowed her to be one of the first to see Jesus alive again. Her response to Jesus’ grace was to spread the good news to the apostles. Grace transformed her, this demon possessed woman, into a chosen witness of Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. Sisters and brothers, that is the saving power of God’s grace; and it is that power that causes it to spread. It just pours out of the people who have received it. Mary Magdalene knew that she did not deserve the deliverance she had been granted. She knew it was a gift from God given to her by Jesus Christ. Her gratitude poured out and spread the good news of God’s grace.

There are so many other stories of persons whose lives were transformed by the grace of God. But we just do not have time to look at all of them. So I want to spend the rest of our time looking at just one of those stories of God’s grace, the story that is my personal favorite. It is my favorite because we know so much more of this story. It is the story of the apostle Paul.

The book of Acts reveals that the Saul who became Paul was the bitterest of all the opponents of the earliest church. He did everything he could to wipe it out. And he was on his way to wreak more havoc upon the church when Jesus appeared to him in a light from heaven. Jesus brought Paul to the living God, and Paul became an incredible vessel of God’s grace. I love the way that Paul looks back upon and remembers that grace. Please take your Bible and turn to 1 Timothy 1:12-17 and follow along as I read.

Paul’s life was transformed, and he never took for granted what God had done. He never stopped being awed by the grace of God. He was overjoyed all of his days by the munificence of God’s grace. In Ephesians 2:7 Paul refers to "the immeasurable riches of [God’s] grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." And earlier, in that same book, in Ephesians 1:3-8a, Paul writes,

Paul was full of joy because of the overflowing grace of God in Christ Jesus the Lord.

And he lived the remainder of his life spreading the good news of God’s grace. He traveled all over the Roman empire planting churches to the glory of the Christ who had won his heart and the whole of his life.

Acts 20:24 was a verse in our Scripture reading this morning. In that verse Paul said to the elders of the church in Ephesus, "I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace." Paul knew that he had been called to spread "the good news of God’s grace." His life was focused upon that ministry. His life had been wholly given to spreading "the good news of God’s grace."

I believe that the Strachans have been called to do the same in Glenrothes, Scotland. I believe that the Thomases have been called to do the same in Washington, England. I believe that the Talleys and the Moudys have been called to do that on the coast of Kenya in Africa. And I believe that the Triveñoses in the mountains of Peru have also received that calling. And it is a glorious calling. And it is an honor for us as a community of faith to share in that calling by supporting the spreading of the good news of God’s grace. God’s grace changes lives. God’s grace enriches lives. God’s grace brings people to his very heart.

And God’s grace defeats hatred because of the love that is essential to God’s grace. Remember what Paul tells us in Romans 5:5. He says, "God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." Integral to the reception of God’s grace is the reception of His Holy Spirit, and integral to the reception of the Holy Spirit is the reception of God’s love. God’s love is "poured," Paul says, "into our hearts."

Hatred is running amuck in our world. The hatred between different groups in Africa quiets down only to flare up into more death and destruction. Hatred in the Middle East continues to have its evil influence. The efforts to resolve the hatreds in Northern Ireland move with agonizing slowness. The hatred that has created the nightmare surrounding Kosovo seems to grow day by day. And then not far to our north we have all seen this week the hatred in Littleton, Colorado that has frightened our whole nation, frightened it to its very core. Sisters and brothers, hatred must be opposed, and the way we oppose it is by spreading the good news of God’s grace and love.

I met a preacher in Colorado a few years ago. He is a preacher in Fort Collins, CO. He told me of a man who visited his services. This man dressed mean. He looked mean. People who came to church that day were afraid to sit by him. He had an angry and vulgar phrase tattooed on the knuckles of his hands. But the message of God’s grace won his heart. Not long after his conversion he was in a small group, and he told about his life and how it had created so much hatred within him. He then talked about how ashamed he was of the vulgar phrase on his knuckles. The group spontaneously took up a collection so that he could have it removed. When the tattoos were gone he looked down at his hands and said something like this, "Now my outside is as clean as my heart."

The vulgarity was gone from his heart and his hands. The anger was gone from his heart and his hands. The hatred was gone. God’s spreading grace had conquered his embittering past. God’s love had been poured out into his heart. He was a new person of faith, a man of God by the grace of God.

That kind of life-changing power is why we must join hands with God as He spreads the good news of His grace. That kind of life-changing power is why we want to be a part of "Spreading God’s Grace to the Nations." That kind of life-changing power is why we seek to raise $95,000 next Sunday. We want to see the grace spread. We want to see the love spread. We want to see hatred nullified and defeated by the power of God’s grace.

If you are here this morning and are being called by God to receive his wonderful grace, we are here to assist you. Please come to the front ready to turn away from your sins, ready to confess Jesus as Savior and Lord, ready to surrender to Christ by being buried with Him in baptism. Please come now as we stand and sing.