Transcript
I’m going to be forced to reveal my age because Viviano suggested that I was almost as old as Senator Dole. And to set the record straight, I am not as old as Senator Dole. I’m only sixty-four.
And who would have thought that when I came to Dallas in the fall of 1954 that I would be preaching to you the day after my sixty-fourth birthday? What are the odds of that? And I’ve enjoyed all of the years involved. And thank you for being here this morning.
Let me ask you to turn in the Word of God to the Gospel of Luke chapter 23 and verse 50. Luke 23 and verse 50. Luke chapter 23, beginning to read at verse 50.
And behold there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their counsel. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before.
Evidently they grow heroes in Hoosier land. And certainly one of their heroes is seventeen-year-old John Waldron of Knox, Indiana. One Monday afternoon just this past April the twenty-ninth, John was on board a school bus that was carrying twenty-five passengers. Most of them were elementary school students.
As the bus was making its rounds in this section of northern Indiana, the substitute bus driver, Michael Browning, suffered a seizure. He was unable to grip the wheel. He was unable to speak. He was unable to guide the bus correctly. The bus missed two of its usual turns. It went down a little-used dirt road. It crossed a wooden bridge, almost tipping into the ditch. That’s when John Waldron went into action.
A security camera on board the bus caught him coming forward in the aisle from the rear of the bus. It showed children bouncing around in their seats and one child being bounced into the air above his seat by the rocky ride the bus was giving to them. When John Waldron reached the driver, he asked him if he was okay. And when he didn’t get any answer, Waldron bent over and removed the driver’s foot from the brake pedal and pressed the brake pedal down with his hand. Then he put the bus into neutral. And when the bus had come to rest in a field, he got on the bus radio and called his principal.
Needless to say, people in that area of Indiana did properly regard him as a hero. Six-year-old Jessica Young who was riding on the bus told investigators, “It was John who saved us.” The officials of the school were planning a ceremony in order to honor him. The footage from the security camera was played on national TV. Maybe some of you saw it.
But I think that the best compliment that John Waldron received was the compliment that his father, Curtis Waldron Senior, gave to him. And Curtis Waldron said this. He said, “I’m very proud of the fact that John was there and did what needed to be done.” Can you think of a higher compliment than that? John was there and he did what needed to be done.
Do you know what our problem is, folks? Our problem is this. Very often we’re there. Very often we are there. But all too frequently we do not do what needs to be done. We do not do what needs to be done.
And this morning I would like to talk to you for a few minutes about the subject of the marvelous opportunities, the amazing privileges that God often sets down right in our path during the course of our life here on earth. And I would like to talk about this subject under the following heading, “Be There, Do It.” And as you can readily guess, that heading is also the title of my message to you this morning, “Be There, Do It.”
Now I strongly suspect that almost all of you would agree that in the passage of Scripture that we read this morning we read about a remarkable opportunity, an amazing privilege that had never occurred in the history of the human race. This was an opportunity, my friends, that had never occurred since the beginning of the world. It is also an opportunity that will never occur again for men throughout all the endless ages of eternity.
It was a unique and special and wonderful opportunity. And what was it? It was the opportunity to bury the body of the Creator of the universe. Think about it for a moment. The person who is buried in this passage of Scripture is the same person of whom the Bible says this,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
And not only did the eternal Word of God, God’s eternal Son, live among us. He also died among us. And He also was buried among us. But because He rose from the dead, He will never die again. He will never be buried again. And the opportunity to bury the body of the Creator came only once in human history.
And the man who got this privilege, the man who got this opportunity, was a man that we know from history as Joseph of Arimathea. Or can I put it down into our everyday experience? The man who got this privilege was a man named Jose. He was a man named Joe.
How did he wind up with a privilege like this? What qualified him for this glorious opportunity? Let me suggest first of all he was a man of character. He was a man of character. And Luke tells us that he was a member of the council. That is, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest court in the Jewish land.
And the Sanhedrin was the very court that had condemned Jesus to death. And being a member of that court didn’t qualify Joseph of Arimathea at all for this opportunity. What qualified him for it was that he was a good and a just person. The Bible said he had not agreed with the decision of the Sanhedrin. He had not taken part in their wicked deed. Their action was unjust and evil. And he was a good and a just man.
Will you permit me to suggest this morning that one of the first qualifications for receiving important opportunities from God is that we should be Christian men and women of good character? Christian men and women of good character.
Paul Rader was a man who lived earlier in this century. He was noted for his commitment to God and his commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ and his concern for lost souls. He had a friend who was a banker in the state of New York to whom he had often witnessed the gospel. But this banker had never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the free gift of everlasting life.
And one day Paul Rader had the distinct impression that God wanted him to go and talk to this man again. So he got on board a train and he traveled to the city in New York State where the man worked. As he rushed up to the bank, he saw his friend the banker standing in the doorway of the bank. And when the banker saw him he said, “Rader, I’m so glad to see you.” He said, “I wrote a telegram begging you to come but then I changed my mind and didn’t send it.” And Rader said, “That’s all right. Your message got through to me by way of heaven.”
And that very hour he shared once again with this banker the good news that Christ had died for his sins and that all he needed to do to go to heaven was to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that very hour the banker did exactly that. But no sooner had he done so than he gave out a very strange gasp and he collapsed into the arms of Paul Rader. And he was dead.
He had not only been standing in the doorway of the bank. He had been standing in the doorway of eternity. And because Rader was a man who was in touch with God, God gave to Rader the vast opportunity that anyone would ever have to share the gospel with this banker. And because Rader seized the opportunity, there will be another soul in the kingdom of God.
And my dear Christian friends, if you expect God to give you opportunities that are really valuable and worthwhile, then you have to be there with good Christian character. And you have to be willing to do what God wants you to do.
Now please don’t think that it was an easy matter for Joseph of Arimathea to take charge of the burial of Jesus Christ. I mean, to do this he had to go openly to the Roman governor who had crucified Him, Pontius Pilate. And remember that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin who had just finished condemning Jesus as a heretic.
With the Sanhedrin, would his fellow council members appreciate the fact that the man they had just turned over to Pilate for crucifixion as a dangerous blasphemer, would they appreciate the fact that one of their own number went to Pilate and wanted to bury Jesus? Of course they would not appreciate it. And Joseph of Arimathea had every reason to fear their anger, to feel their hostility, to fear the possibility that as a result of what he was willing to do they might kick him off the council. And they might do worse than that.
But brushing aside all of these fears, the Bible tells us that this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. May I suggest that another qualification for receiving opportunities from God is not only that we should be men and women of character but that we should be men and women of Christian courage? Christian courage.
Many years ago when South Africa was still a British colony there was a man in South Africa by the name of Afrikaner. He was a member of the Hottentot tribe which came from an area of South Africa known as Mamakrivan. He was a dangerous desperado. He was wanted by the authorities. The governor at Cape Town had placed a 500 reward on his head, dead or alive. And 500 in those days was an awful lot of money. Afrikaner and his men were the terror of South Africa.
But one day a British missionary by the name of Robert Moffat announced that he was going to go to Afrikaner’s tribe and preach the gospel. The people in Cape Town figured they’d never see him again. And they warned him that Afrikaner would take his skull and turn it into a drinking vessel. But brushing aside all of these fears, Robert Moffat went to Afrikaner’s tribe and he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And guess who his first convert was, folks? Afrikaner himself. And some time later Robert Moffat took Afrikaner back to Cape Town and presented him to the governor of Cape Town. And the governor was astounded to see this dangerous desperado transformed into a humble Christian. And the governor exclaimed, “What a miracle! It’s the eighth wonder of the world.” And it was a miracle, my friend. But it was a miracle that God was willing to perform as a result of the courage, the courage of a dedicated missionary who seized the opportunity to preach the gospel of Christ in a tribe where nobody else wanted to go.
And if you and I expect God to set before us really important and significant opportunities, folks, we not only need to be men and women of character. We need to be men and women of courage who have deep confidence in the power and provision of the living God.
You know, years before he became President of the United States, Jack Kennedy wrote a book. And it had one of the best titles I’ve ever heard for a book. The title of the book was “Profiles in Courage.” And what we’re doing this morning is trying to draw a profile of the Christian man or the Christian woman who is likely to get significant opportunities from God.
And there’s one more feature of this profile that we need to look at. You see, Joseph of Arimathea was not only a man of character and courage. He was a man who had a vision of the future. And Luke tells us that he was also looking for the kingdom of God. And it is pretty clear that because he looked forward to the kingdom of God he had come to the same conclusion that the thief on the cross came to. That Jesus was the King.
Remember the thief on the cross, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And evidently Joseph of Arimathea recognized that Jesus was the King. And he could not permit the King to be buried like a common criminal. He could not allow the King to be cast into a common grave.
And so once he got the body from Pontius Pilate, he did the best he could to give it a burial that was worthy of a King. Instead of wrapping it in cheap coarse grave clothes, he wrapped that body in fine linen. He placed that body in a tomb that had been created at great expense in labor. It was cut out of the rock. The Gospel of Matthew tells us it was probably his own tomb, the one in which he expected to be buried. And therefore it was a tomb nobody had ever lain in before. Never defiled by any other human body.
Insofar as he could do it, he gave Jesus the burial that was worthy of his kingship. And it is clear, isn’t it, that not only was he a man of character, a man of courage, but he was a man of commitment. And he was committed to the King, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And if we expect to get significant opportunities from God, we also must be committed deeply to Jesus Christ our Lord.
Years ago Paderewski, the famous piano player, one would almost say he should have been called the king of piano players, Paderewski went to a town in Connecticut. On the afternoon of his arrival he took a walk. And as he was walking down a certain street he heard music being played on piano. And so he followed the sound of the music and he came to a house. And above that house there was a sign that read like this, “Miss Jones, piano lessons, twenty-five cents per hour.”
Now that doesn’t sound like much to us but in those days twenty-five cents meant a lot more than it does today. And he stood there for a little while and he heard the person inside trying to play a piece by Chopin and kind of making a bad mess of it. So he went to the door and he knocked on the door. And Miss Jones came to the door and she recognized him instantly as Paderewski. And she invited him in.
And he sat down at the piano and played the piece by Chopin for her. And then he actually gave her an hour of his time trying to correct the mistakes that she was making when she played the piano. Well, a few months later Paderewski was back in the same town again. And he was walking down the same street and he came to the same house. And guess what the sign above Miss Jones’ house said this time? “Miss Jones, pupil of Paderewski, piano lessons, one dollar per hour.”
Now obviously Miss Jones thought she was a lot more valuable to her pupils because she could claim in a real sense to be a pupil of the king of piano players. Did you know that the word disciple means a pupil? A Christian disciple is a pupil of Jesus Christ. He’s a student of the Son of God. And it is the dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ who is really useful in the hands of God to serve other people.
And my dear Christian friends, do you want God to give you significant opportunities? Or do you just want to spin your wheels while you’re here in this world? Well, if you want really important opportunities, obviously you have to be a person of character, of courage, and very especially of deep and profound commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Quite a long time ago James Haldane was the commander of a fighting vessel called the Melville Castle. In one particularly bloody engagement with the enemy he ordered some men to come up on deck to replace the men on his ship who had fallen. But when these men came up on deck they were horror struck and drew back because of the bloody and mangled forms of their comrades who had fallen in combat.
So Commander James Haldane began to swear and curse at them viciously. And he wished that they would all be in hell. But after the battle was over and it was successfully engaged, a Christian soldier came up to James Haldane. And with respect he said to his commander, “Sir, if God had answered your prayer just now, where should we all be?”
You know, those simple words were like an arrow of conviction to the heart of James Haldane. And they led eventually to his salvation. And he became a preacher who served the Lord in the preaching of His Word for fifty-four years.
But that’s not all, folks. That’s not all. James Haldane led his brother Robert Haldane to the Lord. And Robert Haldane became a writer and a well-known commentator on the Bible. In fact, if you go over here to the seminary library I think you can find some of Robert Haldane’s commentaries on the Bible.
And that’s not all. Robert Haldane led to the Lord a man named Felix Neff who was a leader and preacher among Christians in Switzerland. And undoubtedly hundreds and thousands of people were blessed through the ministry of these men.
But what would have happened if that Christian soldier had not seized the opportunity to speak a word to his foul-mouthed, cursing, swearing commander? And my Christian friends, who can tell what will be the ultimate outcome of you taking the opportunity that God gives you to do something significant for him?
But let me remind you, if you’re going to get those opportunities from God you must be a Christian of character, courage, and commitment to Jesus Christ. And if you are, wherever there is something for you to do, God can be sure that you are there and able to do it.
So what’s my advice? Very simple. Very, very simple. Here it is. Be there. Do it.
Shall we pray? Father, there’s so much that we do in life that is not worth doing. Help us to be people who desire and then are ready to do the things that really matter. Make us men and women who seize the opportunities You give to us. We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.