Sermons on Biblical Characters
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Clovis G. Chappell >> Sermons on Biblical Characters
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12 SERMONS ON BIBLICAL CHARACTERS
BY
REV. CLOVIS G. CHAPPELL, D.D.
RICHARD R. SMITH, INC.
NEW YORK
1930
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
SERMONS ON BIBLICAL CHARACTERS. II
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
I THE MISSING MAN--THOMAS
II THE GREAT REFUSAL--JONAH
III THE ROMANCE OF FAITH--PETER
IV LOVE'S LONGING--PAUL
V GOING VISITING--JONATHAN
VI THE WOMAN OF THE SHATTERED ROMANCES--THE WOMAN OF SYCHAR
VII A GOOD MAN--BARNABAS
VIII THE INQUEST--PHARAOH
IX A SON OF SHAME--JEPHTHAH
X A CASE OF BLUES--ELIJAH
XI THE SUPREME QUESTION--THE PHILIPPIAN JAILER
XII THE MOTHER-IN-LAW--NAOMI
XIII CONFESSIONS OF A FAILURE--THE BUSY MAN
XIV A MOTHER'S REWARD--JOCHEBED
XV A GOOD MAN'S HELL--MANASSEH
XVI A SHREWD FOOL--THE RICH FARMER
SERMONS ON BIBLICAL CHARACTERS
I
THE MISSING MAN--THOMAS
_John 20:24_
"Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when
Jesus came." Did you notice the name of this man who was missing? Who
was it when the little company met after the crucifixion that was not
there? There was a man expected who failed to come. Who was this man?
When the little company gathered in the upper room behind shut doors
there was one chair that was vacant. Who should have occupied that
chair?
Well, in the first place, it was not Judas. He was missing. He was
not there, it is true, but he was not expected. Judas had already
betrayed his Lord. Judas had already been whipped and scourged by his
remorse of conscience clean out of the world. Judas had gone to his
own place in the great Unseen Country. Judas was not there, but he was
not expected to be there.
Who was the missing man? It was not Pilate. We no more expected
Pilate than we expected Judas. Pilate had had his chance at Jesus.
Pilate had had an opportunity of knowing, of befriending Him, of
serving Him. But Pilate had allowed his own interests to get the
better of his conscience. Pilate had chosen the friendship of Caesar
and had spurned the friendship of the King Eternal. So we did not
expect Pilate to be present in this little company of the friends of
Jesus who met on the resurrection side of the cross. Who was the
missing man? It was not Caiaphas. He, too, had stood in the presence
of Jesus, but his envy had made him blind. And he shouted "Blasphemy!"
so loud that he drowned the voice of his conscience and the gentle
whisperings of the Spirit of God. No, it was not Caiaphas, nor any of
the indifferent or hostile crowd that we miss in this meeting.
Then, who was this missing man? And we read the text again and we find
his name was Thomas. That is a very familiar name. Oh, yes; we
remember Thomas quite well. It was Thomas who was missing. Now,
Thomas was expected, for he was a member of the little band of
disciples. He was one of the Twelve. He belonged to the Inner Circle.
His fellow Christians had a right therefore to expect him. Yet Thomas
was not with them.
It is a sad day ever for any congregation when its own membership begin
to absent themselves from its services. It is a sad day for any
congregation when those who compose it can be counted on to be there at
the social function, there at the place of business, but cannot be
counted on when the interests of the Kingdom are at stake and when the
Son of God goes forth to war. Believe me, no community ever loses
respect for a congregation till that congregation loses respect for
itself.
And did you notice when it was that Thomas was absent? "Thomas was not
with them when Jesus came." What an unfortunate time to be away! What
a great calamity to have missed that service of all others! There was
the little despondent, despairing company of ten meeting behind closed
doors. They were sorrow-burdened and fear-filled. But Jesus came, and
Thomas, the saddest and bitterest man of them all, was not there.
Of course he would have gone if he had had any idea what a wonderful
service it was going to be. If he had even dreamed that Jesus would be
there, of course he would not have missed it; but he expected the
meeting to be a very dull affair. He felt confident that whoever else
was there that there would be no Christ. He expected that Peter and
James and John and the rest would meet there and talk of a glorious
past that had gone forever. He would have said, "Yes, I know what they
will say. They will tell how Jesus called them at the beginning. They
will tell how they forsook all to follow Him. They will tell of the
great dreams that they dreamed, of the high hopes that they cherished.
They will tell of all the glad, radiant days that have 'dropped into
the sunset.' But they will have nothing to say to relieve the
bitterness of to-day or to fling a bow of hope upon the black skies of
to-morrow. So I will not go to the meeting to-day."
But the meeting was not dull. The meeting was not sad. The meeting
was not a lament for a glory that was passed, for a glad day that had
slipped behind them forever more. It was a service that thrilled with
present joys. It was a meeting that made the future to glow with
glorious possibilities. It was wonderful, because Jesus came. He came
then, and He comes still. Wherever hungry hearts come together who
yearn for Him and make Him welcome, there comes the blessed Christ to
stand in the midst. And therefore I would not absent myself from the
meeting together of the people of God. I would not because I want to
be there when Jesus comes, when the King comes in to see the guests.
"Thomas was not with them when Jesus came." I wonder why it was that
Thomas was missing. I wonder how it came about that he, the neediest
man among the apostles, was not there to receive the inspiration and
the uplift that came from this service. Why was he not there?
It was not, I am sure, because he was indifferent. There are many
to-day who have separated themselves from the services of the church,
from the fellowship of the saints, because of a deadening indifference.
They have become absorbed in a thousand other matters till they have
become doubly uninterested in the things of the church and in the
affairs of the Kingdom.
Thomas was not missing because he had found satisfaction elsewhere.
Thomas was not satisfied. Thomas was not happy. I doubt if there was
a sadder man in all Jerusalem than Thomas. I doubt if there was a more
wretched man in the wide world at that time than was Thomas. Thomas
had not turned aside from Jesus to satisfy his soul on husks. He had
not left Christ because his needs had been met and his thirst satisfied
at some other fountain.
Why was Thomas missing? He was missing because he had lost hope. He
believed that Christ was dead. He believed that the cause for which he
had stood was lost and lost forever more. He believed that right was
forever defeated; that wrong was forever enthroned. Over his head was
a blackened sky. For him there was not one single ray of light nor one
single gleam of hope.
If I had met Thomas on the streets of Jerusalem on that day and said,
"Thomas, I saw your friends going together to the Upper Room. Aren't
you going? Jesus might come while they are there," Thomas would have
answered, "No, I'm not going. Jesus will not be there. He is dead.
Don't you know if I thought I would see Him I would go? Don't you know
that I loved Him and love Him still better than life, but Jesus is
dead. Dead! Dead!
"I was in the garden when Judas kissed Him. I saw them lead Him away.
I saw the soldiers scourge Him. I saw Him crowned with the crown of
thorns. I was out on Calvary when the black night came on at midday
and I heard that wild, bitter cry. Oh! I will hear it forever more:
'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' I saw His head bowed and
I saw the brute of a soldier thrust the spear into His side. Don't
talk to me about seeing Jesus again. Jesus is dead."
The very bitterness of the sorrow of Thomas had driven him to despair.
He found it hard to believe always. Here he found it impossible. Now,
there are some folks who are sweetened by sorrow and made better.
There are others that are made bitter and morose and despairful. I
heard a man cry one day, an awful cry "Oh, I could curse God," he said,
"if I knew there was a God, for letting little Mary die!" For Thomas
everything had collapsed. There was not a star in his sky. There was
not a horizon in his life in which he might hope for a dawn. So that
he, the neediest man of them all, was not there when Jesus came.
And now, will you see what he missed. Truly, the man was right who did
not wonder what people suffered, but wondered at what they missed. And
just see what this man Thomas missed by not being in the little meeting
among the ten. First, he missed the privilege of seeing Jesus. He
missed the privilege of seeing Him who had throttled Death and hell and
the grave and had brought life and immortality to light through the
Gospel. He missed seeing Him, one vision of whose face would have
changed his sobbing into singing and his night into marvelous day.
He missed seeing Jesus, and failing to see Him, he missed the glorious
certainty of the after life. It is Christ, my friends, that makes
Heaven and the eternal life sure for us. It is He who enables men to
go down into the great silence without a doubt and without a fear. It
is He who makes us absolutely confident that there is a Home of the
Soul, that--
"There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign."
Having seen Him once dead and alive forever more, we have no slightest
doubt of the truth of His promise that, because He lives we shall live
also.
By staying away that day Thomas missed the thrill of a great joy. Had
he been there he might have seen the Lord. This is not a possibility
in every service, possibly, but it ought to be. It is a possibility in
every successful service. I heard of a preacher once who thought that
what his congregation wanted was beautiful epigrams. He thought that
they were more hungry for bejeweled verbiage than for the Bread of
Life. He thought they were thirsting more for a stream of eloquence
than for the Water of Life. But he was mistaken. And once he came
into the pulpit to find a card lying before him on which was written
this word: "Sir, we would know Jesus."
At first it angered him a bit and then it made him think. And then it
sent him to his knees. And then it sent him into the pulpit with a new
message. And one day he came again into his pulpit to find a second
card before him. Picking it up, he read these words: "Then were the
disciples glad when they saw the Lord." Of course they were. Their
gladness was the gladness of the ten that met in the Upper Room. Their
gladness was the gladness that might have been experienced by Thomas.
It was intended for him, for he was the saddest and most wretched man
in Jerusalem. But Thomas was not there.
Thomas missed also the gift of peace. Jesus said to those present,
"Peace be unto you." And how Thomas needed that gift! Thomas was in a
fever of restlessness and wretchedness. He was whipped by a veritable
tempest of doubt and utter unbelief. And all the while he might have
had the peace that passeth understanding. He might have had the vision
of Him who stood then, and still stands, the central figure of the
ages, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest." Those present that day were blessed with the
gift of peace. They had "fervor without fever." They had motion
without friction. But Thomas missed it because "he was not with them
when Jesus came."
The disciples who were there were re-commissioned that day. Jesus said
to them, "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." With His
death everything seemed at an end. The great program that He had given
them seemed to have lapsed forever. A man said a few years ago, "Life
doesn't seem worth living since I found that Christianity is not true."
It was so with these men. They were men without a goal. But Jesus
came and recommissioned them, laid upon them again the high task of
conquering the world. And Thomas missed that great blessing because he
was not there.
Last of all, Jesus breathed upon them and said, "Receive ye the Holy
Ghost." These men were not only recommissioned. They received the
Holy Ghost. "He breathed on them." How close they came to Him that
day! How their hearts were warmed! How their hopes were revived! "He
breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And poor Thomas
missed also this benediction because he was not with them when Jesus
came.
It may be that you were once active in the church. It may be that you
were once a live and enthusiastic Christian. But little by little you
have slipped back. You have moved to strange places. Your life has
been thrown in great cities. And you have missed the fellowships of
yesterday out of your life. It may be that to-day you are no longer
found regularly among the worshipers in God's House. You are missing
something. Don't deceive yourself. As the saints of God meet together
Jesus still manifests Himself. And seeing Him, there comes to us a new
joy and peace, a new sense of the purpose and worthfulness of life.
Seeing Him there comes to us a new power for battle and for conquest.
But if we have missed Him, whatever else we have won, we have missed
about all that is worth while. Oh, there is one thing of which I am
absolutely sure, and that is that if I have Jesus, if His presence is a
gladsome reality to my heart, nothing else matters much. But if I miss
Him everything goes wrong and everything is disappointing. Darius is
in the palace and Daniel in the den of lions, but there is restlessness
and wretchedness in the palace and peace and joy in the lions' den. It
is the presence of God that makes the difference.
Thomas, because he missed receiving, also missed the privilege of
giving. When the other disciples came from that meeting, how radiant
were their faces! What a spring they had in their step! What joy
bringers they were! What a marvelously thrilling story they had to
tell! Freely had they received and freely did they give.
But Thomas. He had received nothing, therefore he had nothing to give.
He was a disappointment to his Master. For a whole week he went
doubting Him, mistrusting Him, when it was his privilege to have walked
into His fellowship and been as sure of His reality and of His nearness
as he was of his own existence.
In the second place, he missed the privilege of helping his fellow
disciples. What an encouragement he might have been to them! How it
would have strengthened the faith of those Christians who had not yet
seen the vision of their risen Lord to have seen the light even upon
the gloomy face of Thomas! But Thomas missed the privilege of giving.
I cannot rob myself without robbing you. I cannot starve myself
spiritually without helping to starve you. I cannot sin alone. If I
do that which lowers my spiritual vitality, by that very act I help to
lower yours also. "Thomas was not with them when Jesus came," and he
missed a double blessing, the privilege of receiving and the privilege
of giving.
But Thomas, in spite of his failure, succeeded in the end. Tradition
tells us that he died a martyr for his love and devotion to his Lord.
How was he saved? How was he brought to the joy and usefulness that
are born of certainty? Thomas, you know, was a doubter. A very
thoroughgoing doubter he was. How then, in spite of his doubts, did he
find his way into the fulness of the Light?
First, Thomas was not proud of his doubts. He did not look upon them
as blessings or as treasures. There is a type of doubter to-day who
does. I have heard men speak of "my doubts" as if they were very
priceless things. But no man is of necessity the richer for his
doubts. I know that doubt may become a doorway to a larger faith.
Still, I repeat, no man is of necessity the richer for them. For
instance, no man is the richer because of his social doubts. The man
who does not believe in his fellow man is poor indeed. The man who has
doubts about the inmates of his home suffers something of the pangs of
hell. And the man who doubts God can hardly consider himself the
possessor of a prize to be coveted. Thomas doubted, but he was not
proud of his doubts.
Thomas was not only not proud of his doubts, but was thoroughly
wretched on account of them. And being thoroughly wretched because of
them, he was willing to be set right. He wanted to believe. It seems
to me that any man would. Thomas was eager to be made sure that the
Christ he loved was really alive. He yearned for certainty.
Thomas was not only willing, but Thomas was reasonable. When he sought
to be sure of Jesus he put himself in the best possible position to
learn the truth. When he wanted to be made sure of Christ he did not
seek knowledge at the hands of the enemies of Christ. He did not ask
information of those who were confessed strangers to Christ. So often
we do. We get in the grip of doubt and straightway we turn from the
fellowship of those who know the Lord to the fellowship of those who
confessedly do not know Him. We read those books that strengthen our
doubts rather than those that strengthen our faith. But Thomas was
wiser.
"Thomas, we have seen the Lord." That is what Peter and James and John
and the rest said to Thomas after this wonderful service that Thomas
missed. And what was the answer of this doubter? Did his face light
up as he said, "I am glad to hear it"? Not a bit of it. He said,
"Except I see in His hand the print of the nails and put my finger into
the print of the nails and thrust my hand into His side I will not
believe." And what Thomas meant by this answer was simply this: "There
is nothing that you can say or do that will make me believe at all. I
simply cannot believe and cannot be made to believe that Jesus has
risen."
Now I do not think that his fellow disciples argued With him. Really
it would have done no good. They simply left him to his own thoughts.
And I fancy that those thoughts ran something after this fashion: "What
they say is not true. They are mistaken. Of course they are. They
must be. And yet they certainly believe in the truth of what they say.
God grant that they are right. There is nothing that I would not give
to know."
Then what did this honest and earnest doubter do? Listen! "And after
eight days again the disciples were within and Thomas with them." Yes,
Thomas is a doubter. But he is an honest and hungry-hearted doubter.
He is willing to give himself every opportunity to know the truth. He
says, "I will turn my face toward the east. Then if there is a dawn I
will see it." And what happened? The dawning came. The sun rose,
"even the Son of righteousness with healing in His wings." "Then came
Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be
unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger and behold
my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be
not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto Him,
My Lord and my God."
Thomas became absolutely certain. It is my firm conviction that that
same certainty is your privilege and mine. I believe that Jesus spoke
the simple truth when He said, "If any man is willing to do His will,
he shall know." However little you may believe at this present moment,
if you will be loyal to what you do believe, if you will follow the
light that you have, it will bring you into the brightness of the day.
You remember how Horace Bushnell, while a student at Yale, felt that he
was in the way of a great revival that was sweeping through the
University. He did not want to stand in the way of this revival and
yet he was an unbeliever. He did not feel that he could come out on
the side of Jesus Christ for he did not believe in Christ. "What then
do you believe?" a voice within him seemed to ask. "I believe there is
an absolute difference between right and wrong," was the answer. "Have
you ever put yourself on the side of the right to follow it regardless
of consequences?" was the next question. "I have not," was the answer,
"but I will." So Horace Bushnell kneeled there in his room and
dedicated himself to the service of the right. And what was the
result? After he had been a preacher of the Gospel in Hartford,
Connecticut, for forty-seven years he said, "Better than I know any man
in Hartford I know Jesus Christ."
When I was a lad I was overtaken by darkness while some eight or ten
miles from home. The night was intensely black, so much so that I lost
my way absolutely. I found myself after some hours in a dense forest.
I made up my mind to dismount from my horse and sleep on the ground, as
I saw no chance of finding my way home.
But I had no sooner dismounted than the lightning began to flash and
the thunder to roar and I was warned of an approaching storm. A little
later the storm burst upon me. And I mounted and rode on through the
dark, not knowing whither I went. At last, far past midnight, I saw a
speck of light in the distance. That light did not look at all like a
sunrise. It was as small as a needle point. And yet I followed it
because it was all I could see on the black bosom of the darkness. A
little later I found that that light was shining from a window in my
own home. A little later still I found my anxious mother behind that
light waiting for the home-coming of her boy.
Now, I did not have much light to begin with. It was pathetically
meager. But as I followed it it led me home. Thomas had but little.
Bushnell had but little. But they were willing to be true to the light
that they had. And being true to it, they found the fullness of the
light. For it was true then as it is true to-day, "if any man is
willing to do His will, he shall know."
II
THE GREAT REFUSAL--JONAH
_Jonah 1:1-3_
There is doubtless not another book in the literature of the world that
has suffered more at the hands of men than the book of Jonah. It has
been tortured by its enemies and wounded in the house of its friends.
We have been so prone to give our attention to the non-essential in the
book rather than the essential. We have had such keen eyes for the
seemingly ridiculous and the bizarre. For this reason it has come to
pass that you can hardly mention the name of Jonah to a modern audience
without provoking a smile. Thus Jonah, coming to us as an evangelist,
is mistaken by many for a clown.
Now this is a calamity. It is a calamity in the first place because
the book of Jonah is one of the gems of literature. There is not
another book in the Old Testament that is more fragrant with the breath
of inspiration. There is not another book more radiant with the light
of the divine love. It is a wonderful gospel in itself. Therefore it
is a great pity that we have turned from its winsome wealth to give
ourselves to the unedifying task of measuring the size of a fish's
throat.
Did you ever hear of the hungry men that were invited to a feast? When
they came within the banquet hall they found the table spread with the
viands of a king. But the table was a bit out of the ordinary.
Therefore, there arose a discussion over the material out of which it
was made. These guests began heated arguments also over the method of
its carpentry. And they argued so long and learnedly and well that the
food went utterly to waste and they went away more hungry than when
they had come.
There is a story of a prince who loved a beautiful peasant girl. In
spite of his royal blood he determined to marry her. To seal his
pledge of marriage he sent her a wonderful engagement ring. It was a
gem so marvelous that it was said the stars shut their eyes in its
presence and even the sun acknowledged it as a rival. But the girl was
more interested in the beautiful box in which it was packed than she
was in the ring. And when the prince came he was humiliated and
disappointed to find her wearing the box tied upon her finger while the
jewel had been neglected and forgotten and utterly lost.
Now there is real jewelry here. Let us forget the rather queer casket
in which this jewel comes while we examine the treasure. "The word of
the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Ammittai, saying, Arise, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for its wickedness has
come up before me." "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah." There is
nothing crude about that statement. There is nothing in that to excite
our ridicule. That is one of the blessed and thrilling truths of the
ages. To this man Jonah, living some time, somewhere, God spoke. To
this man God made known His will and holy purpose.
And God is speaking still. The word of God is coming to men and women
to-day. There is not a single soul listening to me at this moment but
what at some time in your life there has come a definite and sure word
from God. You have felt the impress of His Spirit upon your own
spirit. You have felt the touch of His hand on yours. You have seen
His finger pointing to the road in which you ought to walk and to the
task that He was calling upon you to perform.
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