GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
MERCY AND HELPS
DR. JIM DIXON
AUGUST 13, 2000
ROMANS 12:1-8, 1 CORINTHIANS 12:27-31
In 1894, two people left Italy and came to the United States of America. Their names were Gabriel and Teresa, and they were husband and wife. Gabriel was a grocer and a barber. Teresa was a dressmaker. They had heard that America was the land of opportunity. They wanted to have children here and rear them in affluence. They did have children here. Gabriel and Teresa had seven sons and two daughters, but they had a difficult time putting bread on the table. Gabriel, through the years, held two jobs and worked long hours. Teresa worked long and hard as well, but they were poor. Gabriel died in 1920. He died after many years of hard work seeking to provide for his family. He died after a hard day’s work on 20th and Garfield Street at a pool hall where he was watching his son, Alfonso, 20 years old, shoot pool. He died of a massive heart attack.
Gabriel would not see the outcome of Alfonso’s life, and that was probably a good thing because Alfonso became one of the most infamous criminals this nation has ever seen. That same year, Alfonso moved from Brooklyn to Chicago, and he discovered that he could do more than shoot pool. Alfonso discovered he could shoot people. Historians tell us that Alfonso shot more than 60 individuals personally. He ordered the execution of 400 additional people. In 1925, Alfonso came to head the Chicago crime syndicate, and he was called the “king of the underworld.” He would ride through the streets of Chicago in his armor-plated Cadillac with bulletproof glass. Alfonso would sit in the backseat with silk pillows, smoking a large cigar. In the front seat, there was his chauffeur and his bodyguard who always had a Thompson submachine gun. People would line the streets to see his Cadillac go by. They would line the streets to get a glimpse of this mobster who was called “Scarface.”
In the year 1927, Alfonso made $105 million. America was indeed the land of opportunity. He made $105 million through the selling of beer and liquor during the era of prohibition. He made it through prostitution houses and gambling casinos. On February 14, 1929, Alfonso murdered seven people in what historians now call the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. It was 1931 when Alfonso was arrested and convicted of income tax evasion. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison, and he served eight of those years. He got out in 1939. He died in 1947, his body riddled with syphilis. All of you know that Alfonso was Al Capone.
Through all of those years, Alfonso was supported emotionally by his mother Teresa Capone. She outlived her son. When Alfonso was in prison in Atlanta, Georgia, Teresa moved there to live near her son. She visited him every single day. She brought him food and candy. When Alfonso was taken to Alcatraz, Teresa moved to the Bay Area that she might again live by her son. She visited him as often as it was allowed, and she brought him his favorite things. When Al Capone died in 1947, the media asked Teresa what she had to say about her son. She answered with five words. She said, “Al was a good boy.” She later acknowledged that perhaps he did horrible things, but she said, “I am willing to forgive them all.”
Perhaps Teresa Capone is an extreme example of maternal mercy. Certainly, Al Capone is an extreme example of human depravity and the fall of man. I think that when most of us look at a person like Al Capone, we feel relatively righteous. Perhaps when we look at people in general, we feel relatively righteous. But, you see, by God’s standards, we are not righteous. The Bible tells us that in the sight of a holy God, “all of our righteousness is like filthy rags.” The Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
We all need mercy. I think most people in this world, down deep, know that they need mercy. We want mercy from God. We want mercy from mankind. We want mercy from our parents when we’re young, and we want mercy from our children when we’re old. We want mercy from our boss at work. When a cop pulls us over for speeding, we want mercy. We all want mercy. But the Bible tells us that if we want mercy, we’d better learn to give mercy.
It was our Lord Jesus Christ who told the parable of the unmerciful servant. This unmerciful servant owed his master an incomprehensible debt equal to $30 million American dollars. He could not have paid that debt in his entire lifetime, not in many lifetimes. He came to his master. He fell down on his face, and he begged for mercy. His master, in loving compassion, had mercy and forgave him the entire debt. But then, that servant, Jesus said, “went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii, a few months’ wages. He seized him by the throat, and he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ When the master found out that this servant whom he had forgiven so much refused to forgive another, the master summoned him. The master said, ‘I forgave you all of that debt because you besought me. Should not you have had mercy upon your fellow servant even as I had mercy upon you?’ The master then threw that unmerciful servant into prison until he should pay all of his debt. He threw him into prison all the days of his life.” Jesus concluded that little parable by saying, “So will My Heavenly Father do to each and every one of you if you do not forgive your brother and sister from your heart.”
If you’re a Christian, you have been forgiven a massive debt, which you could never repay. Now, you have been called by Christ to forgive others. The Bible says, “Judgement will be without mercy for those who have shown no mercy.”
Some of us need to pray for the gift of mercy. The word “mercy” in the Greek is the word “eleeo.” “Eleeo” refers to “loving compassion.” Any kind of loving compassion is mercy, “eleo.” But this word was specifically used of “loving compassion expressed in forgiveness.” If you have a hard time seeing the best in people, you need to pray for the gift of mercy. If you have a hard time with bitterness and a hard time with begrudging others, you need to pray for the gift of mercy. If you have a hard time forgiving people, you desperately need to pray for this endowment of the Holy Spirit, this incredible gift called the gift of mercy.
I know the subject of forgiveness is very controversial. I also know that it is somewhat difficult biblically, but I want to take just a couple of moments to help you understand what the Bible says about forgiveness. In Matthew chapter 18, in verse 21 and following, we’re told how Peter came up to Jesus and said, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said, “I do not say to you, seven times, but seventy times seven.” Jesus wasn’t asking Peter to do the math. He wasn’t saying, “490 times.” All Bible scholars agree that what Jesus was saying to Peter was this: “There is no limit. You must always forgive your brother and sister.”
I think, in the Body of Christ, this has caused some confusion. I mean, does Christ want us to forgive everybody of everything? I think there is a sense in which He does. I think there’s a sense in which He expects us to forgive everybody of everything inwardly in our hearts. The Bible tells us not to harbor a grudge, not to keep a record of wrongs. The Bible tells us to have no root of bitterness.
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Sermon on the Plain, said, “Love your enemies.” He said, “Pray for those that abuse you.” He said, “Bless those who curse you.” I think there’s a sense in which, in your heart, you should seek to forgive everybody of everything. But that does not mean that you should go to a person who has sinned against you and pronounce pardon upon them. For that, they must express repentance. Jesus makes this clear. In Matthew 18, just before His dialogue with Peter about forgiveness, Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go to him. Tell him your grievance that he might repent. If he does not repent, bring two others with you. Express your grievance in the front of witnesses that he might repent. If he still doesn’t repent, tell it to the church so that he might be compelled to repent. But if he still doesn’t repent, don’t forgive him. Look upon him as an infidel.” That’s what Jesus says.
It’s tough to harmonize that with endless forgiveness, but I think it fits perfectly with what Jesus says in Luke 17. In that chapter, He says, “If your brother sins against you and repents, forgive him. Pronounce pardon.” “Even if he sins against you and repents again and again and again,” Jesus said, “pronounce pardon.”
I think if you seek to summarize the biblical data, you come to this conclusion: inwardly, in our hearts, we’re supposed to seek to forgive everyone of everything—never having a root of bitterness, never harboring a grudge, never keeping a record of wrongs, loving our enemies, praying for those who abuse us, and blessing those who curse us. However, we’re only to go to them and pronounce pardon if, in their heart and with their voice, they verbalize repentance. Never refuse to pronounce pardon on anyone who expresses repentance.
There are people in this room, I’m sure, who do harbor grudges, have roots of bitterness, keep records of wrong. You need to pray for the gift of mercy. There are people in this room, I’m sure, who inwardly have not forgiven people. They might be your parents. Maybe they’ve already died. They can’t repent. But inwardly, you need to let go of it. You need to forgive them within yourself. There’s a desperate need to pray for the gift of mercy. There are some of you who, when people come to you in repentance and say, “I’m sorry,” you still have a hard time forgiving them. We’re always to forgive when people repent. So, you need to pray, we need to pray for this incredible and wonderful gift, the gift of mercy.
There’s a second gift that I want us to examine this morning, and it is the gift of helps. The gift of helps is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. There are some Bible scholars who believe that the gift of helps is synonymous with the gift of service mentioned in Romans 12. This is an extremely important gift in the life of the church and in the body of Christ.
I read recently the story of Elizabeth Lee, who is eleven years old. She lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She was at a zoological amusement park in Anchorage, Alaska with her mother. There was a lion enclosure. She came up to the bars and she stuck her hands through. This 300-pound lioness named Cleo took hold of her arm and began to chew. There was panic everywhere as you can imagine. A State Trooper was there and saw this. His name was Frank Johnson. He knew he had to rescue this little girl. With no thought of his own safety, he went over the enclosure and into the area where the lions were, seeking to rescue this little girl. In the midst of the chaos, he suddenly realized he was going to have to use his weapon. He shot the lion twice, killing it. Unfortunately, one of the bullets also went into Elizabeth Lee’s leg.
She was taken to the hospital, and she fully recovered; but later, her parent’s brought litigation. They sued the zoological amusement park for a “lion enclosure that did not have proper safety standards.” Then, the parents also sued the State Trooper, Frank Johnson, because one of the bullets went into their little girl’s leg. They said that he had been careless. It went to court. The courts ruled against the zoological amusement park. They said that the enclosure was indeed lacking proper safety precautions. The amusement park had to give $15,000 to the family, a relatively small sum.
The courts exonerated State Trooper Frank Johnson because of a law in the state of Alaska called “the Good Samaritan Law.” That law states that if you are sincerely seeking to help a person in trouble, if you are seeking to help a person who is wounded or hurt or in danger . . . if, in that process, some injury ensues . . . unless you are obviously guilty of gross negligence, you cannot be prosecuted. That’s “the Good Samaritan Law.”
It’s not only the state of Alaska that has “the Good Samaritan Law.” There are many states across the United States that have legislation which provides for Good Samaritan laws. Why? Because there are not enough Good Samaritans in the world, and we need to protect the ones we have. If you want a definition of the gift of helps, the gift of helps consists of being a Good Samaritan. If you have the gift of helps, you are oftentimes a Good Samaritan.
It was our Lord Jesus Christ who, in Luke 10, told the story of the Good Samaritan. He mentioned the Jericho Road, that 17-mile road that goes from Jerusalem down to Jericho. It descends 3,000 feet, winding through steep-cliffed valleys and desert crevices. It was a road where thieves and robbers hung out. Jesus said, “A solitary man was going down that road and came upon thieves and robbers who stripped him, beat him, and left him half dead by the side of the road.” Jesus said, “A priest was coming down that road. He saw the man but passed by on the other side. So, also, a Levite came to the place and saw this wounded man, but he just passed by on the other side.” Then came a Samaritan—a person the Jews referred to as a “half-breed.” He saw the wounded man. And Jesus said, “He was moved with compassion, went to him, and helped him, pouring on oil and bandaging him. He put him on his beast and then brought him to an inn where he took care of him. When he had to go, he went to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of this man. Here is some money that you might continue to take care of him. If you spend any more than this, I will pay you when I get back.”‘ That’s helping.
The word for “helps” in this listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the word “antilepsis.” The word “anti” means “to exchange,” to “to come in place of.” There’s a sense in which a person with this gift exchanges places and sees the other person’s predicament and need. They feel what the other person feels. The word “lepsis” comes from the Greek word “lambano,” which means “to take hold of so as to support, so as to lift up, so as to give assistance.” Throughout the history of the Church of Jesus Christ, the gift of helps—this spiritual gift, this Gift of the Holy Spirit, this endowment of God—refers to those people who minister to the weak, the needy, the wounded, the oppressed, and the poor.
We all need to pray for this gift. When was the last time you prayed for the gift of helps? I think the reason many of us do not pray for this gift (perhaps, for other gifts as well) is that we’re afraid that if we pray for it, we might get it. I mean, is that possibly true? We’re afraid that if we pray for this endowment of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God might actually give it to us . . . and then, we would have to stop and help people. But that’s what we’re called to do, to reach down, to take hold of the hurting and support them. “Antilepsis.” That’s why we invite you to be tutors with Whiz Kids and with Save our Youth. That’s why we invite you to help with Manna Ministries. That’s why we invite you to do so many things—because we’re called to be Good Samaritans. We need to pray for the gift of helps.
In La Cañada Flintridge, California, on Foothill Boulevard, there’s a church called the Church of the Lighted Window. It’s only a few miles from where my mother lives, only a few miles from where I grew up. At the Church of the Lighted Window, there was a pastor named Phillip Anderson. His sister was the head of the children’s division at a major Southern California hospital. She is a committed Christian.
Phillip went to see her at the hospital one day. She wanted to show him the section of the children’s division where they sought to help battered children. She wanted her pastor brother to see this. As they were walking down the halls in this section of the children’s division where the battered children were, they could hear crying and kids in distress. One little girl’s voice was heard above the others. Phillip asked about this little girl’s voice. His sister said, “Let me show you.” She opened the door where this little girl was. She was one year old, and she was screaming. She had cigarette burns all over her little one-year old body. She had swear-words burned into her body, the F-word and the S-word. All over her body, these words had been burned into her skin by her parents. Psycho-sadists. Some twisted pleasure they derived from torturing their own little girl, the very people who should have provided for, protected, comforted, and encouraged her. These were the people who turned on her. She was unable to trust anyone. Only one year old, and she was suspicious of any touch.
Phillip Anderson said he could not look on this little girl. The sight was so tragic that he turned his head away; but his sister went up to this little girl and took her in her arms. She held her. The little girl, at first, screamed even more because she was suspect of any touch. But as Phillip’s sister began to just tap her on the back, to comfort her and whisper in her ear, the little girl began to calm down. In just a few minutes, this little one-year old girl was asleep in her arms. Phillip said his sister does this all the time with kids in that hospital. She does it as a calling, and she knows she has a gift from the Holy Spirit of God, an endowment of the Spirit “to reach down and lift up so as to comfort.” She does it every day. It’s her calling and her life.
We have many diverse callings, but we’re all called in some measure to do this, not just with children but with the elderly and with people of all ages. There are people in our neighborhoods who are hurting, people at work, people right here in our church. How desperately we need to pray for the gift of helps and also for the gift of mercy.
A few years ago, Barb and Drew and I went to see a movie called “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” The movie did not receive the Academy Award for Best Picture although it was nominated. After the movie, Barb and I and Drew discussed it. We all felt like maybe it was a little over the top in its effort to tug on emotions, but in places, it really worked. The word “opus”—I think some people saw the movie and never knew the meaning of the word “opus”—is the Latin word for “work.” It generally refers to creative work. In the realm of music, it refers to musical works, compositions, and orchestra performances. In fact, the plural of “opus” is the word “opera.” Today, the word “opuses” is also the plural of “opus,” and that’s grammatically correct. It refers to “a work,” particularly a creative or musical work.
In the movie, Mr. Holland’s work was high school music. He worked with high school kids, and he led the orchestra. At the end of the movie, he’s retiring. They have this assembly to honor him, and all of his former students are there in a hodgepodge orchestra that he gets to conduct one last time. It’s in that context that he realizes that his real opus, his real work, was not the music he wrote or even the symphonies he conducted. His real work consisted of these kids, these lives, these people that he came alongside through the years and had the privilege of helping. Those people, the people he helped, were his symphony.
I’m a pastor. Part of my call is to preach the Word of God. I take it seriously, and I seek to prepare faithfully. Yet, I know that sermons are not always effective. I read a story just this last week about a second-grade classroom. The teacher told the second graders that it was a special Sunday and they were all going to leave their classroom and go into the big church. The teacher said to the kids, “As we go into the worship service, we all need to be quiet. Why do we need to be quiet?” The second graders didn’t know. They were looking at each other. Finally, one little hand went up. The teacher called on this little girl, and the little girl said, “Because people are sleeping?” I know that that might be true. I mean, I know that when sermons are preached, sometimes people do sleep. In fact, Dave told me a little earlier a little fact I didn’t know. If you laid all the people end-to-end who have slept in church services through the years, they would all be a whole lot more comfortable!
Anyway, I know that during a sermon, some people sleep. I think some people who are not sleeping do not necessarily pay attention. Some people who do pay attention, sometimes suffer from “reversia,” where you change but then revert back to former patterns. We all suffer from that. But I also believe that by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, good takes place. I believe that. I trust that. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t believe that. I also know that when my life is done, the key is not going to be the number of sermons I’ve preached, or even the quality of those sermons. I mean, I really believe that when it’s all said and done, what Christ is going to be looking for is the number of people that I was willing to stop and help.
I don’t know what your opus is. I don’t know what your career is. I don’t know what your job is, but I do believe your real work in Christ and my real work in Christ is to help people. That’s at the very heart of it. I mean it’s a huge part of it. We’re all called to help people. That’s our opus. The lives of the people we’ve helped—that’s our symphony.
Some of you are in the first quarter of your life. Some of you have reached half time. Some of you have reached the third quarter of your life. Some of you, in sports terminology, have perhaps reached the two-minute warning. When you look back or when Christ looks back with you, what’s your opus? What’s your work? What’s your symphony? I think you’ll agree that a big part of it is the people you stopped to help along the way. Are we doing that?
Let’s pray for the gift of helps. Let’s pray for that. Let’s pray for the gift of mercy, that we might be the congregation Christ wants us to be. Let’s close with a word of prayer.