A long memory.
A living mission.

Opening question

“If God walked into this room today, who would recognize Him first?”

It would not necessarily be the smartest person, the strongest person, or even the most religious person. Again and again, Scripture shows God working through hearts that are humble, willing, and teachable.

The Lord opens Lydia’s heart

And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Acts 16:14 KJV

Reflection: Lydia listened. The Lord opened her heart, and she responded. A receptive heart becomes fertile ground for God’s work.

Create in me a clean heart

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10 KJV

Reflection: David’s greatness was not that he never failed. His greatness was that he returned to God with a repentant heart.

The rich young ruler

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

Mark 10:21–22 KJV

Reflection: Jesus loved him and invited him, but his heart clung to something else.

A heart burning within

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Luke 24:32 KJV

Reflection: When Christ revealed Himself, their hearts came alive. God’s Word still awakens hearts today.

Primary text

1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.

4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

6 And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

Mark 3:1–6 KJV

Introduction: There was a man there

Jesus walks into the synagogue. There are religious people there. There are people who know Scripture there. There are people who understand the Sabbath there. But there is also a man there.

His hand is still attached to him. It still looks like a hand. But it has lost the ability to do what a hand was created to do. Something can still be present without still being useful.

Can the same thing happen to a church? A church can still have a building, pews, a Bible, Sunday worship, and its name over the door. And yet the question remains: Can it still reach?

1. A man who could not reach

A hand exists to work, hold, give, receive, lift, and reach. His hand had not disappeared. It had withered. Churches can wither. Families can wither. Communities can wither. Ministries can wither. Faith can wither.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Isaiah 58:12 KJV

Old does not necessarily mean useless. Broken does not necessarily mean finished. Withered does not necessarily mean dead.

The question is not: How big are we? The question is: What can Christ do with what remains?

2. People who would not reach

They are watching Jesus, but not to learn. They are watching to accuse. Meanwhile, a hurting man is standing right beside them. Jesus gives them the choice: do good or do evil; save life or destroy it. They choose to do nothing. But Jesus does not present doing nothing as a third moral option.

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

James 4:17 KJV

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27 KJV

Biblical religion moves toward people.

3. Christ commands the withered thing to move

Jesus brings the problem into the middle of the room. He does not hide it or pretend it is not there. Jesus tells the man to do exactly what his condition says he cannot do. He does not say, “Stretch forth your good hand.” He calls for the withered one.

Christ’s command carries the possibility of Christ’s restoration. Jesus commanded. The man responded. Christ restored.

4. The church is Christ’s body

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1 Corinthians 12:27 KJV

If the church is Christ’s body, what are His hands doing? A hand is not useful merely because it is attached to the body. A hand was made to reach, lift, carry, give, pull somebody up, and work.

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Matthew 9:12–13 KJV

5. Old hands can still reach a new generation

Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

Psalm 71:18 KJV

Older members of a church are not leftovers from its better years. They are witnesses carrying things the next generation does not know yet: stories, Scripture, experience, failures, lessons, and testimony about what God has done. Give it to the generation coming behind you. That is reaching.