Lipprosses and friends in Glendora Church – Roger far left, Anthea far right.By Roger Lippross
I’ve titled this sermon, “An Ordinary Christian.” Let’s face it, that means most of us, eh?
Or does it?
Perhaps we all have great dreams early on in our Christian lives of maybe becoming another Peter or Paul or like some of the great heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11.
Lipprosses and friends in Glendora Church – Roger far left, Anthea far right.That’s what makes me think of Trophimus. He is mentioned only twice in the New Testament and most famously for being sick. That’s in Titus 4:20, “I left Trophimus who was ill at Miletus.” He becomes a negative example, living proof that not everyone gets healed and that Christians can indeed get sick. Acts 21 tells us Trophimus was Paul’s travelling companion from the great city of Ephesus and was later accused of defiling Judaism by going into the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. A Gentile in the temple was a scandal and Paul was arrested and badly beaten for this apparently false report.
I can’t help but think that Paul’s fairly ordinary assistant named Trophimus was pretty embarrassed by all this.
But one thing we all need to keep in mind is no matter who we are in this life, God loves us. Trophimus may have had a talent for obscurity but God had him at the top of his memory. How do we know this?
In spite of this title, Lewis always stuck up for the average person.That’s because as David recorded in Psalm 139 God knows all about us and knows all of us. “You discern my thoughts from afar,” David said in this great psalm. “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”
That is scary in some ways, that God knows us this well.
He knew us in the womb and “formed our inward parts” as David said.
This should be great encouragement to us for it shows God does not consider us just “ordinary Christians.” In fact there are no ordinary people. God sees all, knows all. Those Christians who are being executed in Kenya and Egypt and Iraq are on his mind. God knows all about us and thinks about us through the day. Like when my son Geoffrey was growing up while I was away on a business trip for three weeks.
“He reached up and touched the latch to the door” my wife told me on the phone.
“You mean he is really really growing,” I responded, very excited to think of what my son was doing. He was progressing. He was growing.
Well, we don’t often think of it often, but we are God’s favorite people. We are his number one concern. He knows about us and cares about us. In that sense we are special. We are very special indeed. God not only loves us but he is concerned about our future. That future includes “bringing many sons to glory” as it says in Hebrews 2:10. That verse is a thumbnail sketch of God’s ultimate Plan.
This is all too wonderful for me as David stated in Psalm 139:6. God’s plan involved “bringing many sons to glory” and yet it is startling to realize he has his eye on every sparrow. As Jesus said, His eye is on the sparrow, and how much more someone like Trophimus and us. For Jesus told us in no uncertain terms that we are of much more value than many sparrows (Luke 12:7).
Thank God for that and that we are special to him in his enormous plan of salvation no matter how ordinary we think we are.
We should all be encouraged by this. We are not ordinary in Gods eyes. You dear reader are one of his children. he died for you so he could bring you to glory. He will do it ! He will not let you or Trophimus go.