AN UNPREACHED SERMON (203)
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Most preachers will tell you that in the course of researching and preparing a sermon, something attracts the attention that they want to explore further. It happened to me this last week. Preparing to preach on Titus 1 for an engagement this coming Sunday, and looking into other references about Titus, I came across two people I had never noticed before. I was all the more intrigued by them because they are nameless. The two people can be found in 2 Corinthians 8:18, 22. Once my original sermon was finished, I set myself the task of exploring further these two Bible characters without a name. Both are accorded high praise but remain anonymous.
“The brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the Gospel” (v18)
“Our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest in many matters...” (v22).
These are the two men delegated by Paul to accompany Titus as part of a three-man team taking relief money from the Macedonian churches to Jerusalem.
The Christian church owes a tremendous debt to a whole host of unnamed people who stepped up to play their part, but seem content to avoid any publicity or celebrity. The example that springs to mind is the unnamed lay preacher who filled in for the minister who didn’t turn up on 6 January 1865 in Colchester. The snow was so bad that morning that a 15year old boy called Charles Haddon Spurgeon couldn’t get to his normal place of worship. So, he turned in to a Primitive Methodist Chapel, where only a handful of people had made it to the service, and sat under the gallery. He was the only stranger there. The stand-in preacher was no great orator and just kept repeating his text (Isa 45:22) without adding much by way of content. At one point he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist can, directly at the teenager (“Young man, look!”), and the words struck right to Spurgeon’s heart. There and then the boy was converted and later filled the London Metropolitan Tabernacle with thousands attending his preaching. The Colchester Chapel has a plaque commemorating the incident and mentions Spurgeon, but the substitute preacher gets no mention at all.
God can use the most adverse of circumstances and the poorest of preachers to bring about His long-term purposes for both individuals and nations. I’m rather glad that the two people who went with Titus to Jerusalem aren’t mentioned by name. Each in his own way is a reminder that no single person is the sole reason for the success of God’s work. We are all in this together, named or unnamed. We can speculate on who these two people were, but in the end, it makes no difference. Although we do not know who they were, we are told what they were like, and by putting the two of them together we can build up a fourfold picture of them.
THE FIRST MAN (v18).
He was a famous preacher.
He was well known among the congregations of Antioch, Ephesus and Berea. Had he been alive today, he would have had lots of followers on social media. Perhaps a conference speaker able to pull in the crowds as a kind of Christian celebrity. But none of these things make a preacher famous. The only thing that matters is the content of the message he declares. “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:6). When Joseph Parker was the minister of London’s City temple, at the height of his fame he received an invitation to be the anniversary speaker for a very small, rural congregation. He declined the invite with a curt postcard: “An eagle does not perch on a sparrow’s nest!”. That reflects badly on Joseph Parker and not on Joseph Parker’s Lord.
He was a Gospel preacher.
The message must always be more important than the messenger. Gospel preachers do not convey their own ideas or opinions. Their message centres in the life, birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. One of our Scottish psalms says it all.
“His Name forever shall endure, last like the sun it shall;
Men shall be blessed in Him, and blessed all nations shall Him call.
And blessed be His glorious Name to all eternity:
The whole earth let His glory fill, amen, so let it be”
THE SECOND MAN (v22)
·He was an earnest worker.
There was a passion and zeal about him. He believed what he said and acted accordingly. His personality came across as someone who meant business. The forthcoming mission was something that fired him up and he was eager to undertake the task. In God’s work he recognised the importance of being earnest.
He was a tested worker.
He had proved himself in other spheres. The word translated as “tested” was often used in relation to testing coins to see whether they were genuine. This man rang true. There was an authenticity about him and Paul could vouch for his character and the quality of his work.
The various congregations on Crete were privileged to have these three men overseeing the work with their distinctive gifts: the organiser, the preacher and the supporter. Blessed are the congregations that have such gifted people within them.
FOR ALL PREACHERS AND THOSE WHO LISTEN TO THEM AND WORK WITH THEM
I do not ask that crowds may throng the temple, that standing room be priced.
I only ask that as I voice the message, they may see Christ.
I do not ask for churchly pomp or pageant, or music such as wealth alone can buy.
I only ask that as I voice the message, Christ may be nigh.
I do not ask that others sound my praises, or headlines spread my name abroad.
I only pray that as I voice the message, hearts may find God.
I do not ask for earthly place or laurel, or of this world’s distinctions any part.
I only ask when I have voiced the message, my Saviour’s heart.
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