Dr. Rodney Plunket

(NB.  Before reading the text of this sermon, please read 1 Timothy (1Tm) 1:12-17.  That passage was read prior to this sermon being presented, and this sermon text refers to that passage several times.)

The New Testament scholar William Barclay tells this story as part of his commentary on 1 Timothy (1Tm) 1:12-17:

In the days of [World War II] I knew a Polish airman.  He had crowded more thrilling hairbreadth escapes from death and from worse than death into a few years than the vast majority of men do into a lifetime.  Sometimes he would tell the story of escape from occupied Europe, of parachute descents from the air, of rescue from the sea, and then at the end of this amazing odyssey, he would always say, with a look of wonder in his eyes:  “And now I am God’s man.”

That Polish airman’s wonder at being in relationship with God is very similar to the wonder expressed by the apostle Paul in 1Tm 1:12-17.  That airman had, indeed, experienced much; but what filled him with wonder was being chosen by God.  Paul also had experienced much as a devout Jew.  He had risen high and was a valued Jewish leader due to his religious zeal, his fervor.  In Philippians 3:6 Paul declares that with regard to the kind of “righteousness” that “the law” could give, he was “blameless.”  But no religious experience, no religious achievement, nothing could equal the fact that Christ Jesus had chosen him.  Paul had persecuted the church.  He had tried to destroy faith in Jesus.  Yet Christ Jesus looked at him and said, “I can trust Paul.  I know he will serve me well.”

In the ninth chapter of the Book of Acts, we read how it happened.  Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus to persecute Christians there.  He was planning to capture those Christians and to bring them bound to the city of Jerusalem for trial and sentencing.  But the risen Christ confronted him in a blindingly bright light; and Paul’s life was transformed, transformed forever.

Paul’s reaction to Christ’s powerful call says much about his heart.  A proud person would have thought how special he or she must be if Christ Jesus had gone to all that effort.  But Paul’s reaction was amazement, amazement at the mercy and grace of Christ to consider him faithful and worthy of trust in spite of the fact that Paul had tried so hard to wipe out the Christ’s Church.  We hear that amazement most clearly in 1Tm 1:12-17, but in another passage that same sense of amazement is expressed.  Please follow along as I read 1 Corinthians 15:8-10:

Last of all, as to one untimely born, [Jesus] appeared also to me.  For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

And listen to the work that God’s grace generated within Paul.  In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 Paul refers to all that he experienced because of his service to the Christ.  He refers to great “labors, . . . imprisonments, . . . countless floggings . . .”  He says that he was “often near death.  Five times [he] received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times [he] was beaten with rods.  Once he received a stoning.”  He reports that

three times [he] was shipwrecked; for a night and a day [he] was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from [his] own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked.

Why?  Why did he serve to this extent?  I think the answer is obvious.  He was so filled with gratitude at the wonder of Christ’s mercy and grace.  He found it amazing; and for the whole of his Christian life that amazement, that wonder, that joy kept his heart, soul, mind, and body constantly open to the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit of Christ.

Listen again to the final verse read as our Scripture reading this morning, 1Tm 1:17.  There Paul writes, “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.”  Hear those first three words again, “To the King.”  God was Paul’s King.  God reigned fully in Paul because Paul was overjoyed with what God had done for him.  His sense of gratitude transformed his life and caused him to be as pliable as soft clay in the hands of The Potter, in the hands of holy God.

A minister in Burke, VA told a story that made it into our local newspaper back in 1998.  The minister tells of “working with several children and their parents on a Scouting award.”  One night the minister asked “why the children thought God created us.”  The little 4-year-old’s hand shot up and waved about frantically in the air.  He said, “I know!  I know!”  So the minister called on the little fellow and said, “‘OK,’ . . . .  Why do you think God created us?’  ‘Because, because God had this dream,’ he said excitedly.  “And it was the bestest dream God ever had!  And he made us to be his friends, to be in his dream!’”[1]

I started preaching every Sunday when I was a sophomore in college.  With that change in my life, my dad and I (Dad was a minister as well) began to have even more conversations about faith, the Bible, worship, etc.  In one of those conversations my dad surprised me a bit.  I knew that he felt strongly about using the musical instrument in worship; but he said that when he heard an instrumental song on the radio that had religious or spiritual themes, he would not sing along.  I just loaded that in my memory bank not knowing what I would ever do with it or what, if anything, it would come to mean.

Sometime later something happened to my dad.  At first I did not what it was.  But from talking to him I put it all together.  He was in the car listening to the radio when a song came on that began in such a way that Dad was prepared to be annoyed.  The song started with the words, “Why Me, Lord?  What have I ever done to deserve even one . . . ?”  That opening caused Dad to suspect that the song was about to complain about how God had given someone a bunch of bad things that were not deserved.  But that is not where that Kris Kristofferson song goes, as some of you who are as old as I am know.  Look at the words of the first verse and the chorus with me:

“Why Me, Lord”

Why Me, Lord?  What have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known?  Tell me Lord, what did I ever do that was worth loving you or the kindness you’ve shown?

(chorus)

Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it so.  Help me Jesus.  I know what I am.  But now that I know that I’ve needed you so, help me Jesus; my soul’s in your hand.

That song profoundly affected my dad.  He rarely bought music tapes, but he bought that one.  I bought the CD a few months ago myself.  “Why Me, Lord?” is the last track, so I assume that Dad listened to the others on his way to the final one.  One of the previous songs contains the line, “Let’s keep drinking ‘til we’re blind.”  Dad was a devout teetotaler, so I wonder what he did with that one.  But I know what he did with that last track.  He listened to it over and over.

I remember the first time that I knew that he was listening to that song.  He was in the downstairs kitchen area doing something.  Mine and my brother’s bedroom and that kitchen were really all part of one undivided room, so I heard the song playing, with its musical accompaniment, and heard Dad singing along.  All I could see was the back of Dad’s head, so I walked into the bathroom just so I could walk by Dad and see his face.  Dad was a very good singer, and he was singing with heart.  As he sang, tears were making their way over those handsome high cheekbones and running down his face.

That song touched Dad profoundly because it tapped into something that was huge within his heart.  Dad was always filled with wonder, awe, joy, and gratitude at the thought that God could love him, could save him, and could count him worthy to put into service in God’s Name.

Sisters and brothers, that is the feeling that we all should have.  Gratitude, wonder, awe––those feelings are to generate our service in the Name of God.  Profound joy at God’s work for us should empower our evangelism.

We should never have to serve in Christ’s Name out of a sense of obligation or requirement.  We should never have to serve our Lord out of a sense of guilt or because of the fear of Hell.  When feelings like those are dominant, we need to go to the deep well of God’s mercy.  We need to go to that well and drink deeply.  We need to revive our spirits with the wonder of God’s amazing grace.

If you have never tasted the sweetness of that grace, please come.  Come and receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord.  Please come and place your soul in His hands.  Please come now as we stand and sing.

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