LIVING LETTERS

Living Letters

Shelby G. Floyd

April, 2008

In the Bible God's people are compared to a lot of different things. We are compared to salt, light, a building, an army and many, many more metaphors. Have you ever thought of yourself as a letter? If so, what kind of a letter are you? Are you a letter that people would like to read, or a letter that people would like to return in the mail? Hopefully we are not that kind of a letter.

We are living today in what we call the communications revolution. Some think that its impact is going to be even greater than the industrial revolution. While I was down at Bradenton, Florida I went to my favorite bookstore and bought a good history book by H. G. Wells. I started reading about the beginning of civilization. You know the evolutionist always tell us that the earth is billions of years old, but when I open my history books they always start with Egypt and Mesopotamia and the Sumerians about 6,000 years ago. One of the first chapters I read was how writing got started with pictographs, ideographs and hieroglyphics. Then writing continued to develop until we have our modern writing today. Then I got to thinking and laughed to myself. You know we have come all this way and now with the computer age we are going back to the pictographs and icons. You just click on an icon or a picture and that is actually how writing was started. So we have come all this way and now back to the icons in communication.

Our text today is taken from Paul's second letter to the Church at Corinth. He compared the Corinthian church to a letter written in his heart, and on their hearts, to be known and read by all men. Today we are going to take a look at that text. We are going to compare the Heartland Church of Christ, and all of us individually as members to letters that would be known and read by all men. I encourage you to always bring your Bible with you and follow along with us to make sure that we are preaching the truth. To the Corinthians Paul declares, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:1-3). We are going to explore that thought and make our application to it as a congregation.

THE BIBLE IS GOD’S LIVING LETTERS TO US

First, I want to point out that God has sent us his Living Letters through Christ and the apostles.

God Gave Moses the Living Oracles for Israel

In Acts 7 we read of Stephen, one of the men that were chosen to wait upon the tables, who was also a great evangelist. He preached a great sermon in Acts 7, almost like the sermon that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. In this sermon, about halfway through it, he pointed out that God gave the living oracles to Moses to give to Israel. He promised that God would raise up a prophet like Moses and God would give his message to man through him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). Who was that? It was Jesus Christ. Notice Stephen calls God’s word “living oracles.” (Acts 7:38). Some translations have “living words,” which means the same thing. So God gave the living words to Moses and then God would give living words to Christ, who would be the prophet that would be raised up that would be like Moses. Jesus Christ is like Moses. He is prophet, He is priest, and He is king. Notice what Stephen says in Acts 7:37-39: "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us. "But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.”

Israel Rejected the Living Letters of Moses

It is sad that God’s people rejected Moses and the living oracles or living words that God gave to them through Moses. Let us make sure that we don’t make that mistake today with Jesus Christ the prophet that was raised up like Moses. Today God speaks to us through Christ. (Hebrews 1:1-4). People under the Old Testament resisted the Holy Spirit by resisting the living oracles given by the Holy Spirit. Today if we reject this message of the Holy Spirit, which is the New Testament we are actually rejecting God and rejecting the Holy Spirit. If we accept, trust and obey the words of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament then we accept, trust and obey God and His Living Spirit. Stephen says near the end of that sermon in verse 51: “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” So we resist the Holy Spirit when we resist the words of the Spirit, the living words, the living oracles of God.

The Gospel is God’s Living Letters for us Today

According to my Bible, God's word is living and powerful to accomplish what God intends for it to accomplish, even our salvation. Romans 1:16-17: is one of the premier passages in the Bible. Paul says to the Church at Rome: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” The word there for power, is dunamis--dunamis, from which we get the English word dynamite. God's word is the dynamite that will blast sin out of our lives and humble us where we will trust and obey God's word. God’s living letters are alive and powerful.

God’s Word is Sharper than a Two-edged Sword

In Hebrews 4:12-13 the writer points out that God's word is living, it is alive, it is quick, and it is powerful: "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." That is how powerful God's living word is. Some people call it a dead letter. But why is it that people who don't believe the Bible will try everything in world to put it down and destroy it? They can never do it, because it is alive. It is powerful, it is living. I think that the songwriter has captured the idea of God's living oracles, God's living words when he said,

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made.

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

--F. M. Lehman

Even the Bible cannot contain God’s infinite love. In the New Testament it says that Jesus did and said many things that are not written. John in his Gospel said: “All of the books in the world could not contain everything that He said and did.” (John 21:25). That is true of God’s Love. Next, we want to notice,

THE VALUE OF LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

When we read out text there is a discussion of the need of letters of recommendation to or from the Corinthian Church. In the Bible we find that letters of recommendation were often given so that people who were moving would be accepted by another congregation of the Lord’s church. For instance Apollos is recommended in Acts 18:27. A letter of recommendation was given to Apollos when he traveled from one place to another. Phoebe is recommended in Romans 16:1, as she was one of the faithful Christian ladies in the early church. The Jerusalem Council gave a letter of recommendation to the Gentile churches and Paul and Silas carried and read it to the churches as they traveled around on the second evangelistic journey. In Colossians 4:10 we find that Aristarchus was one of the faithful ministers of the Gospel who had a letter of recommendation: "My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)”

Did Paul Need a Letter of Recommendation?

Notice that Paul asked the Christians at Corinth if he needed a letter of recommendation to them or from them. It is a rhetorical question and the answer is that he did not need a letter of recommendation to them or from them. I have a good letter of recommendation signed by all the elders of a congregation where I preached for over nine years. Members of the Lord’s church don't always need letters of recommendation, especially if they are well known as faithful servants of God. However, sometimes these letters can be good or bad.

Letters of recommendation are fallible and capable of being abused. In the Bible sometimes false teachers would come into a church and they would bring letters of recommendation. This could be bad for the naive and unsuspecting. Sometimes a church in order to get rid of a troublesome person may give him a good letter of recommendation and send him on his way. This is dishonest. How many times have we seen churches plagued by preachers who come with good recommendations? The Corinthian church knew all about Paul. He had spent a year and half there and started that church. After he left, false teachers came along and started bad mouthing him. They would bring their letters of recommendations and they would say, “Where are Paul's letters of recommendation?” So Paul writes a letter back and says, “Do we really need a letter from you or to you. We started this congregation and we built it up. You are in our hearts and our hearts are in you.” So that is what he meant by the statement there. Letters of recommendation can be good and they can be bad.

The elders here at Heartland are happy if any member ever moves across the country to another church, and you have been a good faithful member here, to give you a good letter of recommendation to take with you to let the church know that you are ready to get involved and go to work. Next, let us notice the identifying marks of any letter.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A LETTER

Somebody said, “There is something about the power of the printed word that gives a person’s message a feeling of legitimacy and authority.” Before I leave this earth, I want to put as much of my preaching and teaching on the printed page as I possibly can. I feel like then when I am dead, maybe like Abel; I can still speak through the printed page. The printed page is a powerful media. With the internet and computers it is just amazing how God's word can be spread, not only in the pulpits, but throughout the whole world if we will just use all of these wonderful tools that we have to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world. If Paul were alive today, he would be using all these avenues of communication.

A Letter is Written to Send a Message

What are the characteristics of a letter? First, a letter is written to send a message. Every believer should be a messenger of the Good News. You can send out cards and letters. When visitors come send a letter and get to know them. Call them on the phone and go to see them. We try to send a little note to everyone that comes here. That is not limited to just the preachers; all of us need to send a letter. We should convey the mind of Christ to all men. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The message that we have is an urgent message and should be delivered as soon as possible. Paul said to this same church at Corinth: "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.” (2 Corinthians 5:11). It is an urgent message, and the business of the King required haste. We need to be urgent in sending out the message of the Gospel and we can do that in a letter.

A Letter is Written to be Read

Secondly, a letter is written to be read. If somebody sent us a letter and we didn't even open it up and read it, that would not be very respectful would it? Paul said: "Christian people are like a letter that is known and read by all men." Since we have that kind of influence for Christ then we are to be like the salt and light. "Ye are the salt of the Earth but if the salt losses its saltiness, where with shall it be salted, it is no longer good for anything, but to be cast out and trampled by the feet of men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16). A letter is written to be read. Since we are like a letter, people are going to be reading us and we want to be a good message for them to read.

A Letter is Written to be Legible and Understandable

Third, a letter is written to be legible and understandable. Sometimes we will get a letter and it looks like a bunch of chickens have been scratching. They don't teach penmanship much in school anymore, but when we write a letter we should write it so that it is legible and understandable. The contradictory lives of many Christian people make the reading of their letter illegible and not understandable. We need to make sure if we talk the talk, that we walk the walk, so that our talk and walk harmonize and match each other.

THE HEARTLAND CHURCH IS A LETTER FROM CHRIST

In the last place, I want us to make application of our lesson today. At the Heartland Church of Christ, each Christian in this congregation is to be like a letter from Christ, to be known and to be read by all men. Paul said that the Corinthian Christians were a letter written on his heart. In my study I noticed that some scholars say that it can also be on their heart. So either way, I believe that each one of you is written on my heart. I believe that each one of you have written on your own hearts a letter from Christ. We may be the one that proclaims the message in the pulpit, but God is the author and the Holy Spirit is the scribe, because Paul says it is written by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on living hearts. So that is what we seek to do each Sunday is to write God's message on your heart.

The Contrast of the Old and New Covenant

I want us to notice the contrast between the Old Testament, which was written upon the tablets of stone on Mount Sinai and the New Testament that is supposed to be written upon our hearts. Jeremiah writing about 500 or 600 years before Christ talked about the contrast between the Old Covenant given to the Jews and the New Covenant given to Jews and Gentiles today. The Hebrew writer quoted Jeremiah verbatim:

Hebrews 8:6-13

But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

NIV

We are not under the Old Testament today. We read and study it to learn history, but we are under the New Covenant. That covenant is to be written upon our hearts by the Spirit of the living God. The Holy Spirit operates in conversion and sanctification through the word of God—the sword of the Spirit.

Our Life is Our Letter for Christ

Paul’s recommendation of the Corinthian Christians was not letters but lives. When I was talking about living letters you knew what I was really talking about. I am talking about each one of you and your life. A lot of people in the church are strong on theology, but sometimes we notice they are not to strong on lifeology. Our lifeology ought to match our theology. What we preach we ought to practice. They go hand in hand. Paul’s letter of recommendation of the Corinthians was their lives known and read by everyone.

The authenticity of “Living Letters” are often suspect when our lives cannot stand up to close scrutiny. People are going to be watching us and listening to us. I want to say right here by way of commendation to all of you who are members at Heartland that over the past year or so we have had two large contributions given to this church by outsiders, who are not even members of this congregation. When we inquired why such large contributions, the answer was they were impressed by the people at Heartland by the way you represented yourself when a family was going through serious surgery, when they were going through a death of a parent and the way you reached out to them in love, concern and compassion. Thank God for the Heartland church. We thank God for all of you who are the living letter that people know, read and see. Visitors read us in a good way and we want that to continue. You are our letters. You are the letters of Christ written not on tablets of stone, but on hearts and lives. It would not be good if we had to carry a couple of large stones around with God's word written on them. They would be heavy, you couldn't put them in your pocket or suitcase, but we have the word in a book that we can carry around that can be transferred onto human hearts where you live it day by day.

Each Person is Writing a Letter

Our letters are alive, because they are people who are living Christian lives. Each one of us is writing a letter. We are writing the Gospel, the Good News. The word Gospel means Good News. Jesus came and died, shed His blood and was resurrected. Behold, He lives for forevermore and He wants to take us to Heaven with Him. Each one is writing the Gospel everyday. I ask you this question: “What is the Gospel according to you? How are people going to read you?” I think the answer is well expressed in this poem.

You are writing a Gospel,

A chapter each day,

By the things that you do,

And the words that you say,

Men read what you are,

Whether faithless or true,

Say what is the Gospel according to you?

Friends, can the world see Jesus in you? Can they see the Savior's love in the things that you do? Are you living the life that is faithful and true? Can the world see Jesus in you?

Today, in a lot of countries Christians are being arrested and put to death or put in jail. If you were to go to some countries your life would be in danger if you said you were a Christian. And who knows but that it could happen in this country someday. We do not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.

So I ask you the question, if you were to be arrested by the authorities for being a Christian and brought up before the tribunal, would there be enough evidence to convict you as a Christian? When they read your letter would they say this is a genuine Christian? All of us are to be letters written by the living Spirit of God on human hearts to be known and read by all men. When we go out in our work place, neighborhoods, and our places of activities how are people going to read us? Are they going to look at us and say that person is a hypocrite, they talk a good talk but they don't walk the walk? Or are they going to say that person is a genuine Christian, I like what I see and what I observe and I want what they have. I want to find out what it is all about, and I want to bring into my life what I see in their life. All of you are the best evangelists we can have at Heartland. Friend, would you become a living letter for Christ to be known and read by all men?*