A. When we were going through some of my mother’s Christmas items and dividing them up between us kids, we found a box of love letters written between my mom and dad dating back to 1961. They had a great love for one another for many years before her death. Those letters are important. My dad had tears in his eyes. Letters are important. In our day we don’t write to one another often. We email, text and facebook each other, but many years from now our kids probably won’t find copies of those to look and know how much love has been shared between people.
B. Throughout the NT we as Christians have been compared to things like salt, light, sheep and branches. But in our text we are compared to letters. The purpose of a letter is to carry a message from one place or person to another. The problem comes when our attitude affects the message of our living letter. There are some attitudes that hinder getting the message of Jesus Christ and the freedom of living in the Holy Spirit. The attitude of a Big I and a little u, the attitudes of non-commitment, selfishness and pride all hinder the message that we as living letters are to bring to a lost and dying world.
C. So Paul begins this small section by saying, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.”
D. You see, Paul was willing to have his ministry judged by the lives of the Christians in Corinth. That is putting a lot at stake. People fail, people disappoint, people fear and run away. But Paul said that they were his letter – known and read by everyone. When people look at you and your life they can make some judgment calls on me, the elders, the Bible class teachers and the fellow Christians within this congregation. We are representatives of this congregation to the community. If we are seen as a cold congregation, stuck-up saints or cranky Christians, whose fault is that? If we are seen as helping hands to the community, loving lives for the hurting, and saving saints to the sinners, who has done the work?
I. Living Letters Convey A Message
A. First of all a letter is written to convey a message.
God has designed every believer to be a deliverer of good news. It is the news that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We were designed to convey the mind of Christ to men, telling them that there is a reality in serving a true and living God. Let this mind be in you that is also in Christ Jesus. Man may refuse to listen to the gospel but they cannot ignore your testimony of a consecrated Christian life. You ought to “let your light so shine, that men may see your good works and glorify the father which is in heaven.”
B. Everybody seems to be worried about wars and economy, but nobody seems to be worried about the day my Lord shall come. You better set your house in order, because he may be coming soon and he’s going to hit like a bomb when he comes. The message you and I carry is an urgent message. Telling somebody that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. The message that we carry is a message of life and death.
II. Living Letters Are A Message To Be Read
A. The point that Paul makes about being a living letter is that a letter is known and read by all. Listen to this poem:
B. How many of you went shopping early in the morning on Black Friday? How many of you met someone that morning that was not in the best of moods? Let me ask this question, what type of mood were you in as you stood in line for a $13 crock pot or some electronic gadget?
C. Now let’s take that one step farther. Let’s suppose you were not in a good mood after getting up at 4:00 a.m. and standing in line outside the door of your favorite store. Let’s suppose that your attitude was visible to some of the people in line around you. Would you want them to know your name? Would you want them to know you are a Christian and you attend this congregation? I have heard of situations where people got very angry with strangers in line on Black Friday only to meet them for the first time in the church foyer on Sunday morning. That makes for an awkward situation.
D. But you are the letter the world is to read about what it means to be a Christian. Most unbelievers will be introduced to saving message of Jesus Christ by a person first and the Bible second. You are God’s letter – known and read by everyone.
I am my neighbor’s Bible
He reads me when we meet;
Today he reads me in my home-
Tomorrow, in the street.
He may be a relative or friend,
Or slight acquaintance be;
He may not even know my name,
Yet he is reading me.
Conclusion:
A. So, I want to let you know this morning that every man, woman, girl, or boy is an open letter for Jesus Christ. Every Christian is an advertisement for the kingdom of God. We judge the shop keeper by the goods that he sells. We judge the craftsman by the articles he produces. We judge the church by the disciples it creates. Therefore men judge Christ by his followers. The greatest handicap in the church is the unsatisfactory lives of professing Christians. That’s why God tells us to be Holy. He has designed us to be living letters to a dying world.
B. We are to be messages of hope to people in hopeless situations, letting the world know that there is still hope in Jesus. When you put your life in Jesus Christ, there is a new hope, a new joy, and a new existence. A saved man will not want to ruin his body, but will want to make his body a "living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1).
C. This morning I remind each of that we are living letters – known and read by all. The result of our ministry read on the tablets of human hearts. I am confident that we a congregation of Jesus Christ desire to be a message of salvation, a message of love, a message of forgiveness, a message of commitment, a message of purity in doctrine, and message that is understood by everyone who spends time around us. Let us spread that message loud and clear, let the message ring out from you and me as we stand and sing.
