VOICE OF THE CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 287, 31 August 1931, Page 5

VOICE OF THE CHURCH

“ALL OUT FOB CHRIST’ Workers Unto the Kingdom The Rev. Janies McCaw for his sermon in Knox Church, Lower Hutt, yesterday morning chose for his text Colossians iv. v. 11, "J’psus Which is called Justus.” “There is scarcely a name mentioned in St. Paul’s Epistles,” he said, "but will repay careful study. ‘Jesus Which is called Justus’ is only mentioned once, but he is immortalised in these words, and he probably never knew it. ‘Send my love to the Christians in Colosse,’ he said as Paul was finishing his letter to them. Jesus was a common name in Jewish households before Our L<srd was so named, and that fact suggests to us what a humble name was given to the Son of God. Yet He who bord that name was to save His people from their sins, and He was indeed Justus, the Just One. No parent has ever dared to call his son ever since by that holy name. “The Apostle Paul had for long been desirous of visiting Rome. He had prayed continually that this desire of his heart should be granted. He wrote to the Christians there, ‘I long to see you.’ It must have been therefore a great disappointment to him to find on arrival that the Church was .rent with factions. The Jews who composed it were mere halfwayhouse Christians. They had embraced Jesus Christ as the Saviour from sin, but only for the Jewish nation. The Gentiles were shut out unless they came through the gate of Judaism. Paul declared the gosipel of Christ was the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, but also to the . Greek. The men of faction opposed Paul. determinedly, and filled his heart with grief. They demanded a restricted Gospel. This was to make the Cross of Christ of no effect. .And the apostle, in defence of his Gospel had well nigh to stand alone. Only three men were completely loyal to him, Aristarchus, Marcus, and ‘Jesus who was called Justus.’ What a superman the great apostle must have been, and'how like •his Master when in His great hour of need all His disciples forsook Him and fled.i And of the three men Paul names, He says: ‘These only are My fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God, who have been a comfort unto Me.’ Let us gather one or two lessons. “Concerning Paul and his . convert ‘Jesus called Justus,’ both magnified the Lord in their Christian behaviour. Both were Pharisees of the Pharisees ere they turned to Christ. In all they did they were out-and-outers. They were all out for Christ. They would not confine God’s favour to any church or to any nation. And because ‘Jesus called Justus’ took his stand beside Paul he would be hated of all men for Christ’s sake. He broke away from his past. He embraced a newer and grander faith, he engaged in a new service, and found all his desires satisfied in the love of Christ. Both men could say, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ “How grateful should a minister be who has-a loyal and willing band of officers like ‘Jesus called Justus, Marcus and Aristarchus, men who really hazard their lives for the Gospel. A minister who does not give thanks to God continually for such men, should be placed in a charge for a year or two where he has to plough as lone a furrow as Paul in Rome, until three mighty 'men became his fellow workers unto the Kingdom of God, and became his only comforters. But they were worth a thousand who were only helpers in name. “Notice, too, these men were labourers unto, not in the Kingdom of God, for the Kingdom was not then, nor is it yet fully come. But they laboured for the establishment of God’s Kingdom, iu every heart. Are we all here labouring unto that end? If we are not doing so we, may cease praying “Thy Kingdom Come.’ “What was the hindrance that kept the halfway-house Christians from fully accepting Christ? It was largely race pride and race prejudice. Can any good thing come, out of Nazareth? said Jesus’s •owp people when He began His public ministry. That prejudice followed Christ to the Cross. It hindered Christ's Kingdom whereyer Paul preached the good news. It is doing the same Satanic work to-day. How often do I hear to-day something like this, ‘I don’t hold with foreign missions; we have • plenty of heathen at home.’ .“The same prejudice is working hard against .the League of Nations. It says, ‘There are Churches working for the League we cannot work with. And what is the use of going into a League with a heathen people? What is their signature worth?’ Let us have a League offensive and defensive with all men, for the League of Nations is assuredly working unto the Kingdom of God. Give it -your prayers and whatever help you can render it. And in all quarters keep a look-out for something to do—lend a hand —working'unto the Kingdom of God.;'