Where Is the Lamb?

What test can compare with that of being called upon to sacrifice the miraculous son of one's old age?

M. K. ECKENROTH, Instructor of Evangelism, SDA Theological Seminar

The following reflections by M. K. Eckenroth, teacher of evangelism in the Theological Seminary at Takoma Park, D.C., were stimulated by an ap­propriate sermon presented by Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo, professor of the Department of Religion at George Washington University. We feel indebted to Elder Eckenroth for his challenging thoughts, which pro­vide timely sermon ideas. Elder Eckenroth has trans­lated Pastor Sizoo's sermon into sound Adventist thinking. We wish more of our ministers would follow his good example by sharing their sermonic thinking with the field.—R. A. A.]

 

The incomparable experi­ence of faith exhibited by Abraham, as recorded in Genesis, the twenty-second chap­ter, causes one to examine his own experience and capacity for faith in the light of such a dem­onstration of trust in God. It is in this experience of Abraham, when he takes his son Isaac to the land of Moriah and there treks to the mountaintop to present an offering to the God of heaven, that we see faith made into life. The heart of the experience comes to a dramatic focus in the seventh verse, when Isaac inquiringly turns to his father and says, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb?"

One can hardly imagine what must have been the tense expectancy of that moment, when the aged father was called upon to ex­hibit an unprecedented faith in his God and translate it into the life experience of his son. It requires an excelling strength of character and a vision of the task God would have one do to compel young people to leave the home­land, go out from the presence of families and home ties, and depart for a land as did Abra­ham "not knowing whither he went." To be sure, that requires tremendous confidence in the call of our mission.

But what test can compare with that of be­ing called upon to sacrifice the miraculous son of his old age? Through the years Abraham had dreamed, hoped, prayed, that he might have a son. Indeed, in every sense of the word Isaac was the apple of his eye, the crown of his life, the treasure of his days; and now he was called upon to take the life of his own child with his own trembling hand. Except for the love of God in giving His own dear Son, there is not recorded anywhere such a dramatic test of love as this. The willing sub­mission of Isaac to this service and sacrifice is a striking example of the sterling nobility of his heritage. It is illustrated by the experi­ence of young ministers who were discussing their favorite translations of the Bible. One liked this one and another preferred another. Finally one preacher said, "I like my mother's translation best." "Your mother's?" asked the others quizzically. "Yes, she translated it into my life." After all, that is the essence of it.

Unquestionably, this incomparable story and incident in the life of Abraham was recorded and given to us that in these latter days we too might find the answer to our challenges through the eye of undimmed faith. Many per­plexing questions press in upon us and, as workers in a church facing the ordeal of the last days and surcharged with the greatest mission ever given to any people at any time, we must come under the compelling influence of that same spirit and discover the meaning of the required sacrifices of our day.

The Wood

We might well take this example of Isaac, when he questioned his father, and apply it in a very practical sense to our present-day experi­ence. Where is the wood? Thank God we have many material things! We find as a church and as ministers of Jesus Christ that He has given us amazing facilities that yield at our com­mand. At no time in our previous history have we had so many materials with which to work. Never has the Lord given to any group of ministers finer tools, designed, constructed, and sharpened to cut like a two-edged sword through the moral iniquity of today.

We have the materials pouring forth from the press, both secular and ecclesiastical. Never have we had a secular press more ready to use its voice in the spiritual rehabilitation of mankind. We have the materials of radio to penetrate into the darkest recesses of the earth. Even the expectancy of our forefathers could never have included the placing of such a magnificent tool as the Voice of Prophecy radio ministry within the hands of the church. And now comes the handmaiden of radio—television. It may be used as an instrument of iniquity by the world. Certainly it brings a real challenge to every Seventh-day Adventist today, and calls us to develop a commensurate degree of faith so we will be able to measure up to the challenge posed by this latest tool and turn the dial when a true Christian ought to. In spite of all the perversions for which the enemy of man's soul uses these materials, television has come, along with radio, to be the most penetrating and most effective instrument ever given to the church to prepare the way for the physical pres­entation of the truth in the personal contact.

What shall we say of the materials given us? We possess the finest development of corre­spondence courses ever conceived or devised for the propagation of the gospel. In all of this we may take justifiable pride that the leaders in the cause of God have had the fore­sight to take these tools and use them in the magnificent task of proclaiming the gospel. Along with these the church has developed other tools and materials for the proclamation of the gospel, already conceived by faith by our pioneers, which now, after only one short cen­tury, stand forth as towering monuments of faith made real.

We speak of the institutions of the remnant church. Our medical institutions form a glo­rious link of mercy in our unexcelled, world­wide health and welfare systems. Here it is that the finest instruction in physical therapy is to be given to the world. Here it is that the sick, the physically wrecked and debilitated sons of men, are to come and learn the simple processes of how to live better. What a gold mine of treasure we have in this global system of in­stitutions dedicated to the alleviation of hu­man suffering!

But these are not merely tools. Through these means we may see the gospel in action. What shall we say of the schools that God has en­abled us to develop—institutions of learning with an unmatched sense of educational pur­pose, dedicated to the task of sending forth men and women into a benighted world with a torch of truth?

And what of our organization? Through the process of a few years God has enabled the Advent people to develop and bring about the most excellent achievement of ecclesiastical and church policy ever conceived in church organi­zation. We have successfully developed the most unparalleled financial solidarity for the develop­ment of the work of God in the earth. Again, the workers of the present-day Seventh-day Ad­ventist Church are ensured a social security excelling anything to be found in other re­ligious organizations. The church has grown; its areas of influence have broadened.

We have added to the structure of our work the various departments of the church. All of these are to be strong tools used in the hands of the workmen to carry the gospel. Today we have a minimum of forty-two offices to be filled annually by the nominating committees in our churches. This we consider to be the minimum requirement for the adequate staffing of the departmental organization of the church on the local level. (See Church Manual for list.) Yes, we might well say with Isaac of old, "Be­hold . . . the wood." Here are the materials, the tools, the "things" with which the church is to work. Unexcelled tools they are. Thank God for their possession!

The Fire

Isaac not only recognized his possession of "the wood," but he also said to his father, "Behold the fire." No one acquainted with the early history of the Advent Movement can doubt the absolute abandon with which the message was launched. Zeal and enthusiasm have gloriously characterized our functional program. From the very dawn of the emergence of the remnant people they went forth to the world with the deep conviction that they were to be the great restorers of the breach, they were to be the great continuators of faith and truth, and were destined to recapture the an­cient fundamentals of the apostolic church. Much of that zeal still characterizes our work; and in order to appraise the intensity of our program, one need only look at the quality and quantity of the publicity that is circularizing constantly among our churches in the form of bulletins of various shapes, sizes, and colors; promotional material from the simplest de­sign to the latest of the printer's art. Goals, charts, devices of all types, are given to our churches in order to stimulate a zealous propa­gation of the faith. Instruction inestimable is handed on to the ranks from one office and one department to another.

Yes, there is much fire—much movement; but even a fire must be fed. New fuel must be supplied, new sources must be explored, for no fire can consume without destroying itself. And the tragedy of all this is that too fre­quently competitive rivalries are engendered and are thus inevitably, slowly but definitely, extinguishing the flame of the impelling power that must attend the proclamation of the gospel. Only the maintenance of the foundation principle that works are the product of salva­tion and the result of one's love for Christ rather than the genesis of salvation or the source of love, will feed properly the fire of enduring zeal. The answer obviously lies not within the fire itself. Eventually the fire will die down.

Perhaps that alarming fact has not caused the general church as yet the agonizing con­cern that it should, or inevitably will, unless an examination of the most meticulous sort is made of this question. Evidences of the lagging flame are easily underestimated when we sim­ply view the figures on graphs or charts, re­ports, devices. Graphs may rise while percent­ages plunge downward unobserved by the sur­face viewer. For while the fire burns on, it dooms itself to become a smoldering ember unless the fuel that fanned the first flame be renewed and abundantly supplied. That pio­neer fire was the result of a conviction of destiny. A living Christ must be presented to the world. He is coming again, and there is no time for wasteful speculations or idle plan­ning. Such was the mid-nineteenth century passion.

H. L. Rudy, a vice-president of the General Conference, tells a very interesting story of a church that found itself plagued with a strange odor in the main auditorium of the building. The congregation did everything it could to find the source of the distressing condition. They examined the foundations, they broke holes in the walls and attempted to discover whether anything might be there to cause it. They examined the rafters, all to no avail. Finally, an expert was called in to give most meticulous examination to this problem, and in due course of time he rendered his report. In substance it said that the church was sound, the foundation strong and steady, the super­structure well preserved, the rafters were as sound as when the church was first constructed; all was well in the structure of the church. But the report concluded by saying that the source of the problem was discovered to be dry rot in the pulpit.

The observation Isaac posed to his father, "Behold the fire and the wood," is one of confidence in the efficacy of the fire and the wood; and in our application we might likewise exhibit this same faith. But we now come to the probing, piercing question asked by Isaac:

"Where Is the Lamb?"

Oh, fellow preacher of Jesus Christ, may that incomparable question strike deep within your soul today! Where is the lamb? What good in its finality is the fire and the wood when the lamb is absent? What preacher's heart has not been challenged by the words of the messenger of God:

"Many of our ministers have merely sermonized, presenting subjects in an argumentative way, and scarcely mentioning the saving power of the Re­deemer. Their testimony was destitute of the saving blood of Christ. Their offering resembled the offer­ing of Cain. He brought to the Lord the fruit of the ground, which in itself was acceptable in God's sight. Very good indeed was the fruit; but the virtue of the offering—the blood of the slain lamb, repre­senting the blood of Christ—was lacking. So it is with Christless sermons. By them men are not pricked to the heart; they are not led to inquire, What must I do to be saved? Of all professing Chris­tians, Seventh-day Adventists should be foremost in uplifting Christ before the world."Evangelism, pp. 187, 188.

We might well ask ourselves, "Where do the people of the world have a right to look in eager expectation for a revelation of the Lamb today?" Where will they find the gentleness of Jesus Christ? Where will they find the Saviour uplifted in word, in sermon, and in song?

"Lift up Jesus, you that teach the people, lift Him up in sermon, in song, in prayer. Let all your powers be directed to pointing souls, confused, bewildered, lost, to 'the Lamb of God,'  p. 185. (Italics supplied.) 

This is the searching analysis of our preach­ing, of our work: Can our congregations discover the Lamb in our services today? Does the compelling power of the sermon pierce into the soul of sinners because it is relaying the cry of the Lamb? Christ would rather die a thousand Calvaries than behold the lukewarm­ness of love toward Him.

Indifference

"When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree,

They drave great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;

They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,

For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

"When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by,

They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;

For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,

They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

"Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do,'

And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;

The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,

And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary."

      —G. A. STUDDERT-KENNEDY 

Copyrighted, Harper and Brothers. Used by permission.

Indeed, today so often the lamb is caught in the thickets of worldliness and man's uncon­cern, in materialism and with the substance and possession of goods. The bragging of the Laodicean lulls to sleep the worshiper whose dwindling fire and wood is all that he has brought with him for sacrifice, and he boldly declares, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Only the Lamb whose sacrifice is as sweet incense in the nos­trils of God can perpetuate the fire and the wood on the altar of service as meaning any­thing.

Oh, fellow preacher of Christ, let not the pressure of the times, the progress of promotion, the crush of campaigns, the mechanics of method, the synthetic claim of achievement, crowd out the recognition of our basic service to let the world behold the Lamb of God again! The solutions of the problems of the church and of the world are not found within the abstractions of life, but rather in its absolutes. The solution is not found in words, but in works of faith; not in liturgy, but in life; not from lips, but in loving; not in goals, but in God; not by spurs, but by the Spirit; not in promotion, but in emotion; not by com­petition, but by submission.

May God give us the courage to pause in the mad rush long enough to find the hand of God; it will still work through His Spirit in behalf of His people. Let us restore the sense of worship as the first fundamental task to be accomplished; for if sinners find the Lamb in our services, they will inevitably find the Re­deemer.

The objectives of the church in increasing its membership, expanding its influence, and reaching down into the pit and raising up fallen men to a higher plane, will be better realized and more perfectly achieved within the structural framework of the basic principles of worship. When this is done, works will then need to struggle to keep pace with the spiritual vitality of God's people. Gone then will be the days of prodding, coaxing, pleading for people to arise and redeem the time.

M. K. ECKENROTH, Instructor of Evangelism, SDA Theological Seminar

January 1956

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