HEROES OF THE FAITH – MOSES
DR. JIM DIXON
EXODUS 3:1-15, HEBREWS 11:22-29
NOVEMBER 12, 1983
Some time ago a film was made called the “VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED.” It told a true story of 967 Jewish refugees who on May 13, 1939, made a voyage from a German harbor to an island called Cuba. Those Jewish refugees thought that they had bought their freedom. They had sold their possessions and paid the Nazi government. They were placed aboard a ship called the S.S. St. Louis and there they were to escape, they thought, the persecution, the growing persecution in Nazi Germany. They would escape the concentration camps. They would be taken to a whole new world. They would be taken to a whole new life. But when they got to Cuba, they were denied access. They were denied entrance and their hope began to despair. And so, they came to the United States, and they sought entrance here. In a very delicate international moment, our country refused them entrance and some of the Jews onboard that ship, in total despair, attempted suicide. Other attempted mutiny but they could not overpower the German crew, and finally the German captain, a man named Gustav Schroeder, took those 967 Jewish refugees back to Germany. In the subsequent years, some of them were placed in concentration camps. Some of them were burned in Nazi ovens. And what those Jews never knew was that the entire voyage had been orchestrated by the Nazi government. They had previously arranged that they would be denied access to Cuba and the Nazi government knew that no other country would dare take them. They had taken the money of those jews and in return had given them a false hope. It had truly been a “voyage of the damned.” That true story provides a parable of what life is like in this world apart from Jesus Christ.
Apart from Jesus Christ, life in this world is a voyage of the damned. It is a voyage going back and forth between joy and sorry, going back and forth between hope and futility, and it is a voyage that ultimately culminates in death. But we who believe in Jesus Christ, we who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life are on a different voyage. We are on a ship called the church of Jesus Christ, and this is a voyage that brings us to abundant life, to eternal life. It is a voyage that is destined and foreordained to bring us to the shores of paradise. And yet a lot of Christians aboard this ship called the church do not understand what God wants us to do with our life. We’re not called to simply sit back and enjoy the cruise. We’re called to minister to one another onboard and we’re called to pull into the ports of the world and to seek to rescue the perishing. We’re called to invite the peoples of the world onto the ship called the church of Jesus Christ because the Bible says that “God is not willing or wishing that anyone would perish.” God has called us – each and every one here – into ministry.
God called Moses and told him to go the land of Egypt and there he was to rescue a people in bondage, and he was to bring them to the promised land. God calls each and every one of us here to rescue the perishing, to rescue those who are in bondage and to bring them to the promised land. The Great Commission as given by Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 28 is oftentimes quoted but it is rarely followed. In the Great Commission as given by our Lord Jesus in Matthew 28 just before He left this earth, He said to us “Go ye into all the world and make disciples.” He called us into ministry.
This morning I have two teachings from the life of Moses, and the first teaching is this. God has called us into ministry and this call is not based on our worthiness. Few people have ever felt less worthy of ministry than Moses did. We see how God came to Moses in a flame of fire in the midst of a burning bush. He spoke to Moses and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. And God said to Moses, I have seen the affliction of my people. I have heard their cries. I know their suffering and I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians. Come and I will send you to Pharoah that you might bring forth my people, the Sons of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Sons of Israel out of Egypt? And God said to Moses, I will be with you. Moses said, well, what should I say to them? Whom shall I say has sent me? What is your name? God said I am who I am. Say to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Say to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you for this is my name forever and thus shall I be remembered in all generations. Moses said to God, but I have an uncircumcised tongue. I’m not eloquent in speech. I speak slowly. I speak cumbersomely. And God said to Moses, who made your tongue? Who made your mouth? Is it not I, the Lord? I will give you the words to say. Moses said, Lord, I pray thee. Send some other man. God said, I’ll send Aaron, your brother, with you and he will be your mouthpiece and he will speak for you, and I will anoint his mouth and I will anoint your mouth. And Moses said, but God, the people won’t listen to me. And so, God took the rod from Moses’ hand, and He turned it into a serpent on the ground and then he returned it to a rod. He took Moses’ hand, and He made it leprous and then He made it whole. And God said, by such signs, they will believe you and if they do not believe you will take water from the Nile, and I will change it to blood before their very eyes. Moses said “well what about the Pharaoh? He won’t listen to me. God said “I know that he will not let you go unless he is convinced by a strong hand. Therefore, I will stretch forth my hand and I will smite the land of Egypt. You will be as God before Pharaoh, and I shall make Aaron your prophet. And finally, after all that debating, Moses said he would go, and he went down into Egypt and he said to Pharaoh, “Thus sayeth the Lord – Let my people go.”
But we marvel, as we see, even months later, Moses cries to God and says, “Lord, why did you send me?” Have you ever felt like that? Sometimes I feel like that. Lord, why did you send me. I think we all feel unworthy for ministry. But you see if we wait until we’re worthy, we’ll never enter into ministry. If you’re a child of God, and you’ve accepted God through faith in Jesus Christ, then you have been called into ministry and it’s not based on your worthiness. God loves you and He wants to use you in ministry.
Many years ago in World War II, a group of American soldiers were invading a German town, and by nightfall they had taken the town. They came into the city square of that German town and they found that a statue of Christ had been destroyed by artillery. That statue was knocked off its pedestal and it was laying in pieces in the midst of the city square. In the days that followed, those American soldiers, some of them Christians and some of them not Christians, put that statue back together. Piece by piece they glued it together. When they had put all the parts together, they saw that the statue was missing its hands, but they still put the statue of Christ back on its pedestal that night. And the next morning, when they got up and went into the city square, they saw that somebody had made a cardboard sign and put the cardboard sign at the foot of the statue of Christ. The sign said, “1 have no hands but your hands” and that’s true. There’s a sense in which Jesus Christ has no hands but your hands. He has left this earth and ascended into the presence of the Father. He sits on the right hand of the Lord God Almighty and He’s called you, living on this earth, He’s called you as a believer in Him, He’s called you into ministry. That call is not based on our worthiness. It is based simply on our willingness.
Thirty-five years ago, in the city of Philadelphia, there lived a man whose name was Walt. Walt was a tall man. He wore size 14 shoes. He was not a particularly good-looking man. He was not a particularly intelligent man. In fact, some people thought Walt was retarded. He only had a sixth-grade education, but he loved Jesus Christ. He went to his church one day and he asked the Sunday School Superintendent if he could teach Sunday School. The Sunday School Superintendent told him that he couldn’t so Walt decided that he would recruit his own Sunday School class and he’d form his own Bible study group. He began to walk around the streets of Philadelphia looking for boys. He found one little boy playing marbles on the sidewalk and Walt said to him — this little boy was a brat, and everyone knew it — Walt said to him. “How would you like to be in my Sunday School class and study the Bible with me?” The little boy looked up and said “Are you kidding? Get out of here!” Walt looked down at the little boy and Walt said, “How would you like to play me marbles?” If there’s one thing that Walt could do it was shooting marbles and this little boy — he couldn’t reject a challenge — and so he said “Okay.” Walt got down on the ground with that little boy and one by one he took the marbles from that boy. When he was all done, Walt had one a friend and that little boy looked up to him and he followed Walt wherever he went. In the weeks that followed, Walt found thirteen boys throughout the city of Philadelphia, and he became their friend, and he began to kind of take care of them and he took them in the summertime boating down the Delaware River.
In the wintertime he’d take them sledding down the steep slopes of Sixth Street. He’d take them to the amusement park at Willow Grove and he’d take them hiking in Wissahickon Park. He became their friend. He would listen to their problems. He would listen to their struggles with girls. He’d even try to help them with their studies. He’d try to help them with their arithmetic though he didn’t really know how, and oftentimes the boys would say, “Walt, we don’t know the answer, but we know that that’s not it!” Walt would sit down with them, and he’d try to teach them the Bible and he’d use little sticks and twigs that he found on the around and he’d try to use those as visual aids to illustrate the Bible stories. Finally, after a time as the months passed, the love of Christ that was in Walt began to communicate with those thirteen kids and one by one, each of those kids accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That was 35 years ago, and Walt is dead today. He’s actually alive because he’s gone to heaven, and he lives with our Lord Jesus. But eleven of those thirteen kids today are in the full-time gospel ministry. One of them, the first boy that Walt saw, the one that was shooting marbles on the sidewalk, is Howard Hendricks. Howard Hendricks is Professor of Christian Education at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. It’s Howard Henricks who has written many Christian books such as “HEAVEN HELP THE HOME,” “SAY IT WITH LOVE,” and “BATTLE OF THE GODS”. He has a national radio broadcast, and it all began when a man named Walt was willing to reach out in love to a little boy who shot marbles on the sidewalk. Walt didn’t know very much but he understood this. As a Christian, he was called into ministry and that ministry was not based on has worthiness, but it was based on his willingness.
We have 190 people in this church who serve in the Sunday School and the children’s ministries and that’s amazing. One hundred and ninety of you working with children in this church. Some of those people are working with the kids right now in order that we might be in place. We thank God for all of you who have entered into ministry in the life of the church but there are more ministries out in the world than there are here. The kingdom of Christ needs Christians who are willing to go to the prisons. The prisons right here in metro Denver. Christians who are willing to use their gifts to lead songs, to sing a song, to give a teaching or even be a friend to someone who is confined there for Christ’s sake. The kingdom of Christ needs people willing to go to the inner-city missions, people who are willing to help the inner-faith and the inner-church task force as they seek to minister to the poor. The church of Christ needs dads who are willing to be a dad to fatherless children, willing maybe to be an older brother. The kingdom of Christ needs dads who are willing to be a dad to their own family. The kingdom of Christ needs Christians who are willing to see ministry as beginning in their own home and willing to be a dad or a mom or a husband and wife and willing to serve their family in ministry. The kingdom of Christ needs people in every walk of life, in every arena of the world. It needs people in the economic arenas, in the political arenas. It needs people in the athletic arena. It needs people who represent Jesus Christ and his love and are willing to minister. The kingdom of Christ needs people like Walt, people who are willing to reach out and be a friend to someone in their neighborhood, to someone at work. The kingdom of Christ needs people who are willing to actually form a Bible study in their home. Even though they don’t feel worthy, they would be willing to do something so bold as that and simply start a Bible study in their house and invite some friends. The kingdom of Christ calls us into ministry.
James says, “True religion which is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this — to visit widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from this world.” Jesus said You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have called you. I have appointed you to go and bear much fruit, that your fruit may abide.”
Sometimes people ask Bob and I why we don’t get more people into ministry, but you see, we can’t make anyone enter into ministry. We are simply called to share the Word of God. We’re called to proclaim it and to teach it, and the Holy Spirit is supposed to touch our hearts and He does. But you see we are free in our own wills, and we must decide as the Spirit calls us that we are willing to enter into ministry. So, we have this first message from the life of Moses. God calls us into ministry and that call is not based on our worthiness.
We have a second and final message this morning from the life of Moses and it is this God calls us into ministry and that ministry is not based on our power. It is not accomplished by our power. God spoke to Moses and God said, “Come and I will send you to Pharaoh that you might lead forth my people, the Sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” Moses did not have power to lead the Sons of Israel out of Egypt. The people of Israel were an agrarian people. They were rural. They were agricultural and the Egyptians were perhaps the greatest military people, the greatest military power on earth. How could Moses lead the people of Israel, deliver the people of Israel, from the hand of Pharaoh? He had not the power.
The people of Israel were a numerous people. There were 600,000 Jewish men living in Egypt. More than one million men, women and children living in Egypt. How could Moses lead a mass of people so great? He had not the power. The people of Israel were not a united people. They were united by blood, but they had no common moral and ethical standards. How could Moses bind together such a diverse people? He had not the power. The children of Israel were called to go forth into the wilderness and into the desert. In many places, there was no food and no water. How could Moses’ feed so many people? He had not the power. You see, the ministry of Moses was not accomplished by his power, but it was accomplished only by the power of God. It was God who delivered the people of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. It was God who sent ten plagues upon Egypt, culminating with the Angel of Death visiting the homes of the Egyptian firstborn so that the Pharaoh would let the people of Israel go. It was God who delivered the people of Israel through the Red Sea and brought them through, as if upon dry land, and when the Egyptians tried to do the same they were drowned. It was God who bound the people of Israel together as He gave His law supernaturally inscribed in stone to Moses on a mountain called Sinai. It was God who fed the people of Israel as He gave them manna from Heaven in the wilderness and they ate the bread of angels. It was God who let them drink from the supernatural rock. It was God who protected them 40 years as He surrounded them by His Shakina glory, and He went before them and behind them.
The ministry of Moses was accomplished by the power of God. And what’s true of Moses is true of each and every one of us. Whatever ministry God has called you to God wants you to know and acknowledge that that ministry is only possible by His power. This church is a little more than one and a half years old. It started with five staff, Bob and me and Susie Miller, Director of the Children’s Ministries, Everett Dye, our church administrator, Judy Fields, our office manager. Five staff people. It started with a $480,000 debt on this building. It started with a $25,000 monthly budget and no members. We didn’t have the power for a ministry like that.
I’ll never forget when the church started on March 7 of last year, Bob and I were sitting over in the office building. We’d never had a worship service here and we didn’t know what to expect. We knew we were kind of desperate because some of the men and women who were trying to keep this vision afloat were having a hard time financially themselves. We thought maybe there would be 80 or 100 people here. We didn’t know for sure. We knew we needed more than that because our debt was so great. I remember we were sitting over in the office building before the service and suddenly Bo Mitchell came running in and said, “You’re not going to believe this but there’s 400 people over there in the sanctuary!” When we came over here, we looked, and we saw the people and Bob and I were amazed at the power of God. God’s hand has been on this church from our beginning. Every Sunday Bob and I sit up here, and we look out and we say, “What are all these people doing here?” And we’re not stupid enough to think that we have anything to do with it. This church is built by the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” He has brought us together. He has called us to be a people. He has brought us together by His power and He will sustain us by His power. He is the source of ministry.
You know the name of God in the scriptures is the name “I AM” and that great name means He is the Source of Life, and He is the source of Power. Moses said to God, “What is your name?” God said, “I Am who I Am. Say to the people of Israel, I Am has sent me to you.” The Hebrew word is Yahweh, and it comes from a Hebrew verb meaning “to be.” This name simply affirms God’s existence. He is. Forever He is. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He owes his life to no one. He draws his life from no one He has life in Himself, and He is the Source of Life and the Source of Power. He simply is Jesus Christ said, “Even as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself and I give life to whom I will. Do not marvel at this. The day is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear My voice and those who hear will come forth and live.” He has power to give life. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Source of Life and the Source of Power. God is the Great I Am, and He wants us never to forget that. As Christians, as those who have come into a relationship with God and we’ve experienced this source of power and life through Jesus Christ, God wants us to acknowledge that in whatever we do, whatever service, whatever ministry we participate in God is the Source of Power.
God has called us to ministry as Christians. The call is not based on our worthiness. The ministry is not based on our power.
In the year 1900, Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer, put an ad in a London newspaper and the ad read like this, “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger. Safe return unlikely. Honor and recognition to all who survive.” Shackleton was amazed at the response. He said it seems like all the men of Britain wanted to accompany him on that dangerous journey.”
History shows that men and women in this world are looking for some cause to give their life to. Some service that they might give their life to Some service, some cause, bigger than themselves. Something that will raise them above the mundane, mediocrity of life. Something that will give their life meaning and purpose and there is no cause higher than the cause of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We’ve been called into its service.
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Alamo. I’m sure that very few of you have ever heard of James Bonham. James Bonham died at the Alamo on March of 1836. He is not as famous as Jim Bowie, not as famous as Davy Crockett, not as famous as Colonel Travis, but it was James Bonham who snuck out of the Alamo and made his way through the forces of Santa Ana. He marched 90 miles to the garrison at Goliad and there he sought reinforcements for the Alamo. He was denied reinforcements. He could have simply fled and saved his life, but he returned to the Alamo. He went back through the enemy lines. He returned to his friends and there he died in March of 1836.
History proves that men and women will give their lives for many causes, but you see, a strange thing happens when you give your life to the cause of the kingdom of Christ. You give your life, and you don’t lose it. You give your life, and He gives you life back. He gives you more life than you’ve committed to Him. As you commit your life to Him, He blesses you and He fulfills you and you find purpose and meaning in this life. That why He said, “It’s more blessed to serve than it is to be served. It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.”
I’m sure many of you have heard of Henrietta Mears and with this we will close. Henrietta Nears was a minister at Hollywood Presbyterian Church for many years, and we she was there, the church grew to 8,000 members. Some people attributed that growth to Dr. Lewis H. Evans. Some attributed it to Henrietta Mears. The truth is the growth of that church came from the power of God, but God used Henrietta Mears greatly. Henrietta Mears founded Forest Home Christian Conference center, one of the greatest Christian Conference Centers in the world today. Through Forest Home, thousands of men and women and boys and girls have accepted Jesus Christ and come to a new commitment to Him. Henrietta Nears, by the power of God, founded the Gospel Light Publishing Company, one of the largest Christian publishing companies in the world today. We use Gospel Light curriculum in this church. Henrietta Mears ministered to men and women, and her life touched, by the power of God, many people’s lives. Many people in ministry today attribute their call, their vision, their fervor for Christ to what they saw in her life by the power of the Spirit.
Lewis Evans, Jr., minister at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. gives such acknowledgement to Henrietta Mears in her life as he grew up in Hollywood Presbyterian Church. The same is true of Dick Halverson, one-time minister of First Pres. in Washington, D.C., now the Senate Chaplain. The same is true of Ted Nissen who is Pastor of the Colonial Presbyterian Church in Kansas City. The same is true of Don Moomaw who is Pastor of Bellaire Presbyterian Church in California. The same is true of Bob Munger, who pastored the University Pres. and the First Pres. Churches on the West Coast and who became Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary. The same is true of Dean Wolf who is Pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. The list goes on and on, the list of people who were called to the ministry and who had their lives touched through Henrietta Mears. And Henrietta Mears would often stand before people, and she would tell them this story.
She would say “During World War II, this country sought men who were willing to give their life for their country. This nation sought men who were willing to go into a mission from which they did not know if they would ever return.” She said, “They were called expendables.” She said, “I decided a long time ago that I would make my life expendable for Jesus Christ”, but she said “I discovered. something quite amazing. It is impossible to be expendable for Jesus Christ. You give your life away and He gives life back to you He gives you eternal life. He gives you abundant life. He gives you life in all of its fullness.” She loved to quote this passage of scripture spoken by our Lord when Jesus said, “He who come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me, for he who would save his life will lose it, and he who would lose his life for My sake and for the sake of the gospel will surely find it.”
You see, we are called into ministry. We are called into service. That ministry, that service is not based on our worthiness but on our willingness. And that ministry is not accomplished by our power but by the power of the one who lives within us through Christ. Shall we look to the Lord in a word of prayer.