Body of Christ: Entrusting Faith

2^nd Kings 23:21-27; Luke 9:57-10:5; 2^nd Timothy 2:1-10

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

09 April 2004

There is more to life than living for ourselves. We show our knowledge as we instinctively honor such people as Mother Teresa, heroes of the American Revolution, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jim Elliott, and Oskar Schindler, who lived their lives for something greater than personal gain. They made sacrifices to provide for others—to live for a purpose greater than themselves. In so doing, they entrusted others with gifts that they held dear. Is our faith of enough significance to entrust and commend it to others? Is it worth sharing with those around us?

Josiah led Judah through a period of religious reform. He took up the task of restoring the Temple in Jerusalem and cleaning the nation of deviation from faithful service to Yahweh. He brought the people back to singular service to God, who had brought them out of Egypt and fashioned them into a people. As Josiah called on the nation to desist from their adherence to idol worship, fertility cults, witchcraft, and consulting the dead, he also reinstated the celebration of the Passover.

This festival was a clarion call to recognize their identity as the people of Yahweh. It was a celebration of how Yahweh had transformed them from being a rag-tag bunch of slaves in Egyptian bondage into a sovereign nation. In the Passover celebration, they remembered their history of slavery and hopelessness, recalling God’s intervention to free them and grant them a new lease on life. They sought to identify themselves with their ancestors who left their yoke of bondage behind them in Egypt. They took upon themselves the truth that if Yahweh had not intervened in the condition of their ancestors, they would still be slaves.

It had been many generations since the people had celebrated the Passover. It had been long years since they had focused on how Yahweh had fashioned them into a people and given them a new identity, hope, land, and future. They had forgotten the truths that had been entrusted to them by their own ancestors, beginning to live as though Yahweh had done nothing to provide for the nation. In their forgetfulness, they had drifted from dependence upon God and sought other ways to determine their future, lifestyle, choices, and direction.

Josiah called them to return to their roots. He called them to return to dependence upon Yahweh as their ancestors in Egypt had done. He called on them to lay their lives and their future in the hands and will of Yahweh. In doing so, he prepared them for trusting God to take them through the period of exile that was about to overtake them. He entrusted them with his own growing confidence in Yahweh, calling the nation to like faithfulness.

Jesus called on those who would be disciples to take seriously the responsibility of entrusting faith to others. From Jesus’ words, following Christ is an all-or-nothing proposition. There is no middle ground for a mediocre Christianity and faith that is less than vital. The challenge of the gospel is to allow Christ complete lordship—and entrust that same type of commitment to others. It is a faith that places less importance on one’s residence, family, friends, and provision for the future, casting one’s life upon God instead.

We are called to trust God completely. With God as our sole source of confidence, we are then to call others to join our journey of faith. We entrust to others the dependence that we have learned in Christ. We recall how God has changed our reality and very existence by granting us new life. We cast our all on Christ and call others to the same reality of faith.

This is what Paul referred to as he wrote Timothy, a young missionary pastor-teacher. He called Timothy to remember his charge to entrust the jewels of faith to others who would also be faithful to pass on their faith to others. He was to be sure to provide for future generations as he went about seeking those who would accept the challenge of the gospel. It would not be sufficient to teach people to accept the gospel for their own benefit, but to pass it on to others.

Paul categorized this task as a calling of utmost importance. Faith should take over one’s life as military discipline directs the life of a soldier. Faith should direct one’s actions in like manner as the rules by which an athlete must compete. One is to live faith in single-mindedness, discipline, and patient endurance. Crops do not produce fruit overnight, and faith must likewise become an investment in the lives of others to produce results in the long term. It must call us to a longer view than the present hardship and toil that we face.

Josiah called the nation to remembrance in the midst of impending doom. He called them to remember what Yahweh had done for them as their ancestors were rescued from slavery in Egypt. He called them to recognize the impact the Exodus had for their own lives. He called them to celebrate the Passover to teach their children, cultivating a vital faith in the future generations of Judah. After making the Exodus their own experience, they were to pass it on to others who would likewise appropriate it for themselves.

Is that not what the call to discipleship is all about? Is it not about extending faithfulness to others through action that gives vital reality to our dependence upon God? Is it not about living out the faith we proclaim, such that others see that our words are real? Is it not about modeling a living faith before our children, family, friends, and neighbors, so that they might recognize in us a faith worth passing on?

As parents, we are charged with sharing our faith with our children. Many of us are gathered here today as a result of the example and teaching of our own mothers. The gospel of Jesus calls us to take that same faith and seek out others who will likewise accept the responsibility to carry God’s grace to subsequent generations.

Is our own discipleship worth carrying forth? Is it worth being emulated and carried on by others? Is it sufficiently vital to ask others to accept its vitality for themselves and pass it on? If our own faith is not worthy of entrusting to others, it is not worth keeping for ourselves, either. When faith is a living reality, it is worth passing on. Do we have anything worth entrusting to others?

As the Body of Christ, we are called to extend faith to others. We are commissioned to share a life-giving dependence upon God with others who will pass it on as well. How can we live a faith that is worthy of being shared? That is the only kind that really matters.

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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