THE TRENTON BULLETIN

THE TRENTON BULLETIN

Trenton Church of Christ, Trenton, Florida

A few years ago I listened to a lesson on fear and the power of love where the speaker illustrated his point with his own child. It seems that he was greeting folks coming into worship one day when one of the visitors leaned over and spoke to his young son. The youngster promptly ducked his head and hid behind his mother as young ones do sometimes. Dad excused himself momentarily and took his son into a nearby classroom to explain to him about 1 Corinthians 13:5; love does not “act unbecomingly” or love is “not rude,” depending on which version you may be reading from. Jesus wants us to love people, especially these visitors; he explained to his young son not be rude to them. When an adult speaks to you, he continued, the loving and polite thing to do is to smile, shake hands, and speak back in a friendly way.

Frankly, I was amazed. This young father was training his son early in right actions towards others. Where I and many others would have passed off the behavior as just immature and bashful (fearful!), this young man had hit exactly on the principle Jesus taught in Matthew 25:14-30. Fear is not an excuse.

In Matthew 25 three servants are given stewardship of the Master’s money, “each according to their ability.” One is given five talents (a weight of gold or silver, i.e. a sum of money), another two talents, and yet another one talent. You know the parable. The one given five talents made five more. The one given two talents made two more. And what of the one given one talent? Verse 25 says he buried it to keep it safe and gave it back to the Master untouched and unused. He explained that it was because he was afraid, and we immediately understand how he felt.

We understand that fear paralyzes, it freezes us into immobility. We understand that fear panics. It makes us do things (like digging holes and burying talents) that we wouldn’t do if we thought about it for another person or in another situation. We understand that fear IS a sign of immaturity, like a young boy burying his head in his mother’s skirts. So we shake our heads and we understand this servant, just as we smile and excuse the youngster who hides behind his mother, and WE MISS THE POINT. Jesus was teaching that fear is NOT an excuse. The Master did not excuse the servant because of his fear; he labeled him. Jesus said that this servant was “wicked and lazy.” He was wicked because he didn’t do the will of the Master, and he was lazy because he didn’t do anything, and fear was no excuse.

Fear is no excuse showing love to those who visit our worship services by greeting them warmly. Fear is no excuse for failing to show hospitality. A man actively pursues his career and shows a talent for leadership, or decision making, or teaching, or accounting, or sales. Then he comes to church and sits quietly, refusing opportunities to get involved or learn new ways to serve. When pressed, he might laugh it off and talk about his fears. Jesus isn’t laughing, and fear is not an excuse.

You see, love overcomes fear. It casts out fear, 1 John 4:18. To admit to fear keeping us from doing what we know is right is to admit to a lack of love. We are like the disciples who sat next to Jesus in a boat tossed by the storm, and we are fearful. Jesus said they lacked faith; fear was no excuse for them. Do we get motivation, and love’s power, and even love’s definition in four different Greek words so that we can turn into wicked, lazy servants who allow fear to overcome our love? In 2 Timothy 1:7 the apostle says it is power, and love, and discipline that we have been given, not the fearful spirit of timidity.

Let me encourage you to look to Christ and what He wants of you for your motivation and do not focus on your own fears or how you may feel about something. Look for and use your talents, for this is how you love God and His Son. Fear is not an excuse. Do not be afraid any longer to be a happy, sharing, giving, transparent child of God. It’s about time some of us started looking life right in the eye, give it a big grin, and kiss it right in the mouth! Go boldly this week, without fear.

The apostles were promised they would be persecuted, and some would have to drink the cup of death (Matthew 10:25; 20:23; Mark 14:31,36; John 13:37; 15:20, 17:1); history and tradition also tell us that the apostles gave theirlives for Christ.

· James the son of Zebedee (James the Great) felt Herod’s sword in 44 AD., the first apostle to die (Acts 12).

· Philip, after preaching in upper Asia, was scourged, thrown in prison, and then crucified in 54 A.D. at Heliopolis in Phrygia.

· Matthew, after preaching in Parthia and in Ethiopia, was slain in A.D. 60 by a halberd at Nadabah, Ethiopia.

· James the Less, at 94 years, after being beaten and stoned by the Jews, “finally had his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club.”

· Bartholomew, after preaching in India, was “cruelly beaten and then crucified by the impatient idolaters.”

· Simon Zelotes evangelized in Mauritania, Africa, and Britain before his crucifixion in 74 A.D.

· Andrew’s service was in Asia; at Edessa he was baptized in suffering, being “crucified on a cross, the two ends of which were fixed transversely in the ground.”

· The beloved John, at the command of Domitian, was exiled “in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9). After being recalled from Patmos by Domitian’s successor, Nerva, John died peacefully (cf. John 21:22-23).

· After Paul had been stoned, left for dead, beaten with rods, jailed for years, he still aspired to “fill up . . . that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ” in his flesh (Colossians 1:24). He is said to have been beheaded by Nero in Rome.

· As to Peter, “Jerome saith that he was crucified, his head being down and his feet upward, himself so requiring, because he was [he said) unworthy to be crucified after the same form and manner as the Lord was.”

(Editors Note) The following discussion about Peter is found in John 21:15-23 - “So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.’ This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, ‘Lord, who is the one who betrays You?’ Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.’ Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?"

When I first open my eyes in the morning, I pray, Lord, open the eyes of my understanding; and while I am dressing I pray that I may be clothed with the robe of righteousness; and when I have washed me, I ask for the washing of regeneration; and as I begin to work, I pray that I may have strength equal to my day; when I begin to kindle the fire, I pray that God’s Word may revive in my soul; and as I sweep out the house, I pray that my heart may be cleansed from all its impurities; and while preparing and partaking of breakfast, I desire to be fed with the hidden manna and the sincere milk of the Word; and as I am busy with the little children I look up to God as my Father, and pray for the spirit of adoption … and so on all day. Everything I do furnishes me with a thought of prayer.

In April 1889, a son was born to an illicit union between an Austrian name Schicklgruber and a Bavarian mother. In the years that followed, this hapless child grew up without any influence for God. He had no mother influence to help him shape worthy ideals or God-fearing standards of conduct. After World War I, he drifted in and out of trouble as a reactionary leader in Bavaria. He finally succeeded in setting himself up as the unquestioned leader of the German people. In complete control, he launched the German nation and eventually the entire world into the bloody holocaust of World War II. Peoples and nations are still paying a tremendous price because of the diabolical ambitions of a man who grew up without the influence off a godly mother. His name: Adolph Hitler.

A few short months after the birth of Hitler, a God-fearing Kansas family welcomed the birth of a son. In the formative years of his early childhood, he came under the influence of a praying mother and father who imparted to him deep religious convictions. God was more than just a name in his home. This young man entered military service also. He thought of himself as a defender of freedom and justice rather than an aggressor spawned of evil ambition.

Eventually these two soldiers met on the battlefields of history. The outcome is well known to all. Hitler died in 1945 of suicide in the rubble of Berlin. Dwight D. Eisenhower was laid to rest only this year (1969) still a hero of his land.

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, and that a despised one. He worked in a carpenter shop for thirty years, and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his feet insider a really big city. He never traveled, except in infancy, more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He had no credentials but himself.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them betrayed him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went though a mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth; his seamless robe. When he was dead, he was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave through the courtesy of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of all human progress. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navy’s that were ever built; all the parliaments that have ever sat; and all the kings that have every ruled – put together have not affected the life of man upon earth like this one solitary life.

~ Contentment is not found in having everything but in being satisfied with everything you have.