Visiting Prisoners

Matthew 25:36c

Visiting Prisoners

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Matt. 25:36c I was in prison and you visited Me.

 

Let me begin by talking about the world's most vulnerable prisoners. Global slavery is one of the most profitable industries in the world today.

At least 20 million are trapped as workers, including child-laborers, and prostitutes. Women and girls are 70% of those trafficked. Five countries account for 61% of the world's slaves: India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia. Millions of dollars are spent in the fight against human trafficking, but little of it trickles down to help the victims. (Info in this paragraph was gleaned from the New York Times Editorial Board.)

Lest we think this is a problem only far away, the FBI has trained local police in the Springfield/Branson area to deal with sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and pimps selling girls via the Internet. In our area, laborers are sometimes forced to work for low wages and extended hours.

I would be dishonest if I did not confess I sometimes feel the cause is hopeless, but I have to remind myself we tackled this issue before, and won. In the 300 years (1500s to 1800s) of the trans-Atlantic African slave trade, at least 35,000 slave voyages were made (we have records on them); 12 million slaves were brought over. We beat this trade primarily due to three men.

William Wilberforce fought slavery on the political front in Britain. In 1787 he set his face to end the trade. He spent the rest of his life, including almost 40 years in Parliament, fighting the trade. In 1807, a vote ended the British Atlantic slave trade. In 1833 slavery in the British Empire was ended. Wilberforce, who was told of the victory, died three days after its passage.

David Livingstone (1813-1873), a Scottish medical missionary to Africa, fought slavery on the spiritual front. He vowed vengeance on the slave trade, to fight it till the world could say, "Slavery shall be no more."

Facing death often in his travels, he asked, "Cannot the love of Christ carry the missionary where the slave trade carries the trader? God had an only Son and He was a Missionary. I am a poor imitation, but in this service I hope to live, and in it I wish to die." He did, dying on his knees in prayer by his cot. (A sermon by Spurgeon was in his hat.) They buried his heart in Africa; his body in Westminster Abbey. The final words of his last letter were, "May heaven's rich blessing come down on every one, American, English, or Turk, who will help to heal this open sore of the world."

Abraham Lincoln signed our Emancipation Proclamation. He wrote, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." He felt God meant for people to eat bread in the sweat of their own, not other people's, faces. When Lincoln first read the Proclamation to his cabinet, he said he was not seeking their advice. He had already decided what to do. He later said he had made a commitment to "myself and to my Maker."

We battled the evil of slavery before. Second is trying to help people fight it again. We can all be alert. The Victim Center hotline number is 417.864.7233. The National human trafficking number is 888.373.7888.

         Second works with organizations in the forefront of this warfare. F.R.E.E. is a faith-based nonprofit group that works throughout the USA (www.freeinternational.org). NightLight is an international group that reaches out to those negatively impacted by sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation (www.nightlightinternational.com). MNYBA Justice Ministries is a beacon of freedom in the New York City area (www.mnyba.org/ministries/justice-ministries). Missouri Baptist Children's Home reaches out to rescue victims of human trafficking (www.mbch.org). Our church has people who volunteer locally with www.go61.org.

In addition to helping prisoners of human trafficking, we can visit those in jails. Visiting prisoners was often easier to do in Jesus' day than it is now. To keep them from starving, acquaintances were regularly allowed to bring them food. When Paul was in prison in Rome, Onesiphorus searched for him, visited and kindly refreshed him; Epaphroditus brought a gift to him from the church at Philippi; Philemon's slave Onesimus ministered to him.

Apart from this practice of providing bare essentials for a friend or family member, prisoners in the old world were neglected. Visiting prisons as an act of compassion for a prison population at large may have never been heard of before Jesus advocated it. Prisons were repulsive squalors, hard to enter for even a loved one. To do it for a stranger was unthinkable. Then came Jesus! He taught us not to be ashamed of criminals. We are to love and care for them. Like all other sinners, they need to be changed by the Gospel, but how can we win prisoners if we demean them with a haughty demeanor?

I am grateful for those in our church who bless prisoners. For years several have faithfully served, sharing Jesus' love and the Gospel with the incarcerated here in our own area. They minister every weekend in the Christian County Jail, and one weekend quarterly in our Greene County Jail.

Some of our most honored and beloved heroes have worked among prisoners. Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) was an English prison reformer, often referred to as "the angel of prisons." Since 2001, she has been depicted on the Bank of England 5 pound note as reading to prisoners at Newgate Prison.

Deeply moved by hearing an American Quaker preacher, Elizabeth began collecting old clothes for the poor, and visiting the sick. To help the homeless, she opened a nightly shelter in London after seeing the dead body of a young boy in winter. She opened a training school for nurses; one of the people she influenced was Florence Nightingale. At Newgate Prison, she was horrified to find men, women, and children herded together like cattle; many had never had a trial. She began a school for children, taught women to sew and read the Bible, and set out to achieve significant prison reform.

She sometimes stayed overnight in the prisons, and invited nobility to join her so they could see for themselves how wretched the conditions were. The King of Prussia once visited her in prison. Queen Victoria met with her often and contributed money to her work. Her brother-in-law, when elected to Parliament, became her champion in getting reform legislation passed.

Arnold Dallimore, in his epic biography of George Whitefield, recorded my favorite Christian prison-ministry story. Charles Wesley, in his zeal to find someone to witness to, began working among the condemned criminals at Newgate prison, one of the most notorious prisons of his time.

One fever-stricken prisoner listened intently as Wesley described Christ's suffering and death. The condemned man was utterly astonished. As tears trickled down his face, he cried, "What? Was it for me? Did God suffer all this for so poor a creature as me?" Three days later Wesley returned and found the man, though condemned, very happy. This encouraged Charles and gave him the courage to begin working in what was called "the condemned hole", a place where men were gathered just before execution.

The gallows at Tyburn was so large that it could accommodate the hanging of 20 victims at a time. The next group of 20 scheduled to die was kept in "the condemned hole". As Wesley descended to work with the men, he said, "I found myself overwhelmed with the love of Christ to sinners."

As execution day came nearer, Charles worked harder and harder with these convicts. He finally began letting himself be locked in at night with these condemned men. Through prayer and witnessing, fear and despair gave way to grace and joy in one life after another. By the day of execution, they had all proclaimed faith in Jesus. On that morning they were crowded in a cart and paraded to the gallows. Charles walked beside the death cart and finally was allowed to climb inside the cart. As the crowd jeered, Wesley spoke words of Biblical comfort to the victims, who began singing a song of Jesus' death Charles had taught them:

         Behold the Savior of mankind

                  Nailed to the shameful tree!

         How vast the love that him inclined

                  to bleed and die for thee!

'Tis done! The precious ransom's paid;

                  'Receive my soul,' He cries;

         See where He bows His sacred head!

                  He bows His head, and dies!

         Singing of Jesus' death seemed to strengthen them to face their own. As the ropes were placed around the prisoners' necks, Charles continued his ministering. He prayed with them, encouraged them, and kissed them. I especially appreciate this detail about the kiss. It was a powerful statement of affection. As the final moment approached they again began singing:

                  To the dear fountain of Thy blood,

                           Incarnate God, I fly,

                  Here let me wash my spotted soul,

                           From crimes of deepest dye.

                  A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

                           Into Thy hands I fall;

                  Be Thou my life, my righteousness,

                           My Jesus and my all.

         When the floor dropped beneath them, none struggled for life. Charles said he left them going to meet their Lord, ready for the Bridegroom. The spectators had been left speechless by the scene, and as the criminals flew off into eternity, Charles turned and preached to the crowd. He later wrote, "That hour under the gallows was the most blessed hour of my life."

We need to let this parable weigh heavily on us. You and I should ask ourselves, what have we done lately to help someone in need, someone who could never repay us? I'm grateful the deed itself doesn't have to be something huge; to Jesus, a widow's two mites mattered. They pleased Him.

Here's a major application I am trying to learn from this parable. Find people no one else cares about; it may even be people whom even we at first don't care about. Seek them out, get to know them, lose yourself in serving them. Once we reach this pinnacle of selfless love, we will at last begin reaching the place where Jesus wanted us to be.

 

The Bible: Strong Medicine

Matthew 25:36b

The Bible: Strong Medicine

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Matt. 25:36b (Holman) I was sick and you took care of Me;

 

These sermons about Beautiful Christianity, based on the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, have reminded me of three books I read years ago: two were written by D. James Kennedy, "What If Jesus Had Never Been Born" and "What If the Bible Had Never Been Written"; the third was written by S. I. McMillan, "None of These Diseases". Every Christian would benefit from reading these three books. They tell how history would have been totally different, much less compassionate, without Jesus and the Bible. I am especially indebted to Kennedy and McMillan for this sermon on Beautiful Christianity's influence on medical care in world history.

Due to the Bible's Old Testament standards, the Hebrews were light years ahead of other nations in matters of communal hygiene. Cleanliness and good diets were at the heart of Old Testament teachings.

These teachings proved helpful many times in world history. Maybe their best contributions happened in the Middle Ages, when leprosy and the Black Death were the scourge of Europe. Leprosy killed millions. Black Death, in the 1300s, killed 60 million people, one-fourth of Europe; some consider it to be the worst disaster ever recorded in human history.

What finally brought these epidemics under control? The churches took over. They decided to enforce Leviticus 13:46, which said a leper "will remain unclean as long as he has the infection; he is unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp". Since this practice of quarantining the infected slowed the leprosy death rate, churches applied it also to the Black Death. As a result of this Bible admonition, millions of lives were saved.

My bias for the Bible makes me revel in these kinds of stories, but to be true to what Jesus was discussing in our text, our primary emphasis here should not be on details of scientific hygiene methods, but on compassion for the sick, an area in which Beautiful Christianity has shone brightly.

The Bible not only taught helpful hygiene; it also taught compassion. Through the centuries, during times of plagues, pagans often removed their dying loved ones from their houses due to a fear of death, and left them to their fate. Often it was the Christians who took in the castaways, nursed them till they died, and many times caught the fatal disease themselves.

Through the centuries, Beautiful Christianity's efforts at healing the sick have often been hindered by misunderstandings of bacteria, contagion, medicine, and disease. But even when we failed on the technical side, what we lacked in scientific knowledge, we usually made up for by advances in compassion and mercy. For instance, Mother Teresa, in her shelter in India, did not mainly emphasize applying medical cures; her primary focus was caring for the dying, for the terminally ill that medicine could not save.

Among Christ-followers, visiting and caring for the sick have always been common, but before Jesus, you could travel the entire Roman Empire, from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, and not find one pagan charitable asylum for the sick. Before Jesus, only useful people--soldiers, gladiators, slaves--ever received any medical attention. Common people had no place of help.

Hospitals were a hot topic of discussion when Constantine assembled Christian leaders at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The Council told Bishops to start hospitals in every cathedral city in Christendom. Taking this charge seriously, these Christian leaders spread across the Roman Empire, founding hospitals. Christ-followers have remained faithful to this task.

The oldest hospital in the world is Hotel Dieu (God) in Paris, founded by St. Landry in 600 A.D. The oldest hospital in the Western World is Jesus of Nazareth Hospital in Mexico City, established by the Spaniards in 1524.

What has been the piston driving this Christian obsession with caring for the sick? The compelling force has always been; it mattered to Jesus. One of His disciples gave as an eyewitness account, "Huge crowds followed Him, and He healed them all" (Matthew 12:15b). Jesus did not convey to His followers His ability to "heal” all, but He did loud and clear say to us in this parable how important it is for us to imitate His visiting and caring for the sick. For 2000 years, millions of Christians have followed His example.

Due to Jesus' influence, Christian Pastors, ministers, priests, doctors, nurses, nuns, monks, missionaries, and many other laypeople have brought medical help to the sick in essentially every nation on the planet. For many primitive cultures, their only lifeline to medicine has been connected in one way or another to Beautiful Christianity. The historian Ruth Tucker claimed Christian medical missions during the twentieth century was without a doubt the greatest humanitarian effort the world had ever known. For example, as late as 1935, at least half of the hospitals in China were run by Christian missionaries. By the way, this was the year our beloved Southern Baptist martyr-hero Bill Wallace was appointed a missionary-surgeon to China. I was blessed by his loving life. When I read his biography, as I neared his death, I fell off the couch onto the floor and, while weeping, read of his martyrdom with a deep sense of wanting to give my life completely to Jesus.

Hospitals were originally places where people received compassion more than medical help. With 19th-century developments in bacteriology by Louis Pasteur, a Christian, and antiseptic surgery by Joseph Lister, also a Christian, hospitals became much safer (Kennedy). Also helpful to making hospitals safer was the "Professionalization of nursing", begun by Florence Nightingale, a Christian. As medical science advanced, Beautiful Christian compassion marched alongside it, carrying it to every corner of the planet.

This tsunami of Christian mercy is a force to be reckoned with. Any unbiased analyst has to observe it with utter awe. W. O. Saunders said in American Magazine (November 1930), "Your agnostic is trememdously impressed by the power of your faith. . . .He is impressed by your wonderful charities, your asylums, your hospitals, your nurseries, your schools; he must shamefacedly admit that agnostics, as such, have built few hospitals and few homes for the orphans." The latter is now an overstatement, but its underlying sentiment is true; Christianity has provided the bulk of medical care around the world in the past 2000 years.

Forgive me my brashness, but would it be too crazy to say not only has Christianity provided the bulk of medical care, but also of all care? We have been known as those who care for the uncared for. This is what has made us what we are, from the earliest days.

A good example of this comes from the ministry of Hermas the Shepherd, who ministered soon after the New Testament era. In his day, a rich young Roman nearly died, but recovered, and gratefully prayed, "If a human being could in any way repay You, I would willingly give up all my wealth!" Hermas the Shepherd heard the prayer and took the wealthy healthy man to a poor family's house where there was nothing but misery. The father was sick, the mother was crying, the children were naked and begging for food. The rich young man was shocked at the distress he was seeing. Hermas said, "Here is an altar for your sacrifice. Behold here the brethren and representatives of the Lord!" The rich man undertook the care of the family; they came to call him an angel of God. Hermas' counsel then still applies today, "Ever turn your grateful looks toward Heaven, and then to Earth."

This Parable forces us to seriously consider how well we are doing in showing Beautiful Christianity. When did we last do hands-on feeding of the poor, or giving drink to the thirsty? When did we last do something to help a stranger, or clothe a poor family on the far side of town? When did we last do a kindness for a sick person or their family, or do something special, as we will consider in our next sermon, for someone in a local jail or in prison, or for their family? These questions matter because they are questions we will face on the last day. I would rather ask them of myself now, and rectify my failure, than to wait for the last day, when I can do nothing about it.

 

The Bible's "One anothers"

When Shane Segars was our Teaching Pastor, he would from time to time say we could build wonderful Christian communities if we merely observed the “one anothers” of the Bible. I was reminded of this recently when I read a list of them compiled by Pastor Tim Keller. I now have this list in my prayer folder to pray over a few on the list each day. I thought you might be blessed by it too. Enjoy.

Practice 1 – affirm one another
• Romans 12:10 – “Outdo one another in showing honor”
• James 5:9 – “Do not complain about one another”
• Romans 15:7 – “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you”
• 1 Corinthians 12:25 – “Have equal concern for each other”
• 1 Peter 5:5 – “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another”
• Romans 16:16 – “Greet one another with a holy kiss”
• Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind and compassionate to one another”

Practice 2 – share one another’s lives
• Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love”
• 1 Peter 4:9 – “Offer hospitality to one another”
• Galatians 6:2 – “Carry each other’s burdens”
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11 – “Encourage one another”
• Hebrews 3:13 – “Encourage one another daily”
• Colossians 3:16 – “Teach and admonish one another”
• Ephesians 5:19 – “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”
• Romans 12:16 – “Live in harmony with one another”
• 1 Corinthians 1:10 – “Agree with one another”

Practice 3 – minister to one another 
• James 5:6 – “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other”
• Romans 15:14 – “Instruct one another”
• Ephesians 4:2 – “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love”
• Colossians 3:13 – “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another” 
• Galatians 5:26 – Don’t provoke or envy one another
• James 4:11 – “Do not slander one another”
• Hebrews 10:24 – “Spur one another on toward love and good deeds”
• Galatians 5:13 – “Serve one another”

Chad Mathes, Greg Gaumer, Seth Shelton

Here is a thumbnail sketch of the last three of nine church planters I will interview Sunday night before we enjoy our Italian meal together.

Red Tree Church (2012) meets in an elementary school on the west side of Springfield. It is reaching young families far from God through a variety of outside-the-walls activities. They have seen 32 professions of faith in 2015, and 68 since their launch in 2012. They average 75 in 5 different small groups, 140 in worship, and are launching a new church in Wentzville. Pastor Chad Mathes will update us on Sunday night.

Redeemer Church (2012) meets at the Boys and Girls Clubs Henderson Unit located in the Grant Beach area of Springfield. With about 130 in worship attendance, the Lord has led Redeemer to be a church which makes disciples of the entire city while located in the area of greatest need. Pastor Greg Gaumer will be here for the interview Sunday night.

The Way Church is led by Seth Shelton and meets on the south side of Springfield at 903 W. Katella. The church is made up of worshipers that lead others to worship. They are a servant community called to serve others selflessly and missionaries who have been given the honor of proclaiming the gospel message wherever they live, work, or travel.

David Stone, Jonathan House, Andy Thornton

This blog features three more of the nine church planters I will interview Sunday night. I look forward to this special time with these wonderful servants of the Lord. By the way, I am also looking forward to the Italian meal after church.

Harvest Hill Baptist Church (2011) in Strafford recently commissioned Craig and Maggie Coppen­barger to start Valor Church near Whiteman AFB. David Stone, transi­tional Pastor, will be with us Sunday night to tell us how Harvest Hill is continuing to be a powerful force in Strafford for the Kingdom.

Life's Journey Church (2011) in Ozark is discipling 130 people, and averages 75 in Sunday worship. They had 5 professions of faith this year. The church is led by Jonathan House, who will give us more insights into the church Sunday night.

The Pursuit Church (2011) has merged with Webster Park Baptist Church on the northeast side of Springfield. Andy Thornton and J.R. Gann share pastoral responsibilities for what is now called The Church at Webster Park. The congregation of 175 is multi-generational and is reaching people through missions and ministry outside the walls of the church. Andy will tell us more Sunday night.