Who Can Find A Faithful Man!
One of the blessings of a lifelong pastorate is the lifelong friendships we encounter, enjoy and benefit from. Seeing people marry, have kids, share sicknesses, happy times and even share the graveside which is a bonding that will even be appreciated in eternity. Through the years as members have come and some gone, there always seemed to be a nucleus we could count on! A group of people unaffected by every wind of doctrine, rumor and attack. The pain as well as the joy brought the sense that we were only getting closer to each other as we got closer to God.
God Himself put a premium on faithfulness when he admonished the leaders of the early church, "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (II Timothy 2:2). It is as though He was saying, find a man you can trust and entrust to him the treasures of the Word. In God’s mind this faithfulness was to stay intact and never diminish. We see the heart of our Lord in this aspect when He said, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).
In this Christmas season, I often come again to an undying admiration for the faithfulness of Joseph. Mary is with child of the Holy Ghost, expecting Jesus! It was understood throughout the community that she and Joseph were espoused and had not yet been joined. An impending scandal seemed imminent, yet the Bible says, "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily" (Matthew 1:19). He was determined to protect Mary. When the angel gave a very brief explanation of what was happening with Mary, Joseph was obedient to the heavenly plan and faithful to his precious wife. "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife" (Matthew 1:22,23). He was never ending in his loyalty, taking Mary all the way from the northern portion of his country to the south for our Lord’s birth. Then, when there was no room in the inn, he no doubt was the main harbinger of making the manger a comfortable and warm place for the birth of our Lord. When a death sentence was hanging over the head of the Christ child, he escaped with his young family to a foreign land, Egypt, until it was safe to come home to Nazareth. He was a carpenter. Of all the trades Jesus could have been interested in, He chose to followed in the footsteps of a faithful man, Joseph, "Is not this the carpenter's son?..." (Matthew 13:55). "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary..." (Mark 6:3). Until He was thirty years of age and began His three-year journey culminating in the experience of the cross, He was a carpenter. Imagine it! God imitating a human carpenter. God applauding the faithful character of a humble, faithful man. I wouldn’t want to stretch the connection of Joseph and Jesus too far, but I would not be surprised if in Heaven there are some furnishings that bear the trademark of a middle eastern carpenter, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2).
Our Lord esteems faithfulness throughout Scripture.
I. Our Lord Requires Faithfulness For Those Who Are Involved in Ministry in the Church.
"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithfu." (I Corinthians 4:2).
"And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry" (I Timothy 1:12).
II. An Earmark of Faithfulness Is a Controlled Speech.
A requirement of the Deacon’s wife is that she must be controlled in expressing accusations, "Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things" (I Timothy 3:11). Failure to comply with this holy behavior is rebuked in Scripture: "Against an elder (Pastor) receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses" (I Timothy 5:19). The damage is considerable according to the book of Proverbs: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..." (Proverbs 18:21).
III. Faithfulness May Be the Greatest Attribute that Accompanies Fellow Workers in the Service of the Lord and the Lack of It May Be the Most Detrimental.
The most famous Old Testament characters were known for their faithfulness, such as Moses: "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after" (Hebrew 3:5).
When all is said and done and we stand before Jesus, faithfulness is exalted, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matthew 25:21).
When absent in the life of a supposed servant, faithlessness becomes nothing less than treacherously painful and heartbreaking. "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint" (Proverbs 25:19). Allow the biblical examples to speak for themselves: Paul enters a man by the name of Demas into the “Hall of Shame” with these words which bespeak betrayal: "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia" (II Timothy 4:10). Paul was saying, when I needed him most, he deserted me; he left the ranks of the faithful. As this great Apostle comes closer to his approaching death he tells the impact of an unfaithful man when he says: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works" (II Timothy 4:14). It is as if Paul is about to leave this world and asks God to deal with Alexander so that even though he is gone, no more detriment will be done to the work of God, by the turncoat effect of an associate who was not real.
I have a Christmas wish today, that I want to let you in on; it is this: I’m praying for God to give Christchurch some faithful men. Men whose hearts are true. Men who are faithful to their Lord, their families, their church, and yes, even this unworthy pastor. The only way we shall advance is with a “few good men.” "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?" (Proverbs 20:6). This inspired wisdom of the ages says in essence, “I’m tired and weary of everyone bragging of their abilities when they are disloyal and traitors to any cause, even the cause of God, when things don’t go their way. This man is rare, but he is a jewel, a faithful man, one you can turn your back on in time of war and know he will cover you. But alas! Where is he? Who can find him?” My Christmas wish and prayer is for Christchurch to be a landing place for these few men of dedication, the Joseph types. A man like Joseph is so gallant and valiant for the truth, when God came to live on earth; he did so in this faithful man’s house. I personally believe many are already here; it’s time for them to rise to the occasion and be counted.
-Pastor Pope-