Show Me Your Back

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People are seeking relations. The most favorite programs on TV are Opera and Dr. Phil. Well, some people call Dr. Phil Saint Phil. These two persons mediate others to reconcile and compromise people’s problems and concerns so that the people may have right relations with one another. These TV programs are also very popular because Americans love to see others’ having a right relation. There are several reasons why we love to see others in right relations.

With these reasons we are seeking relations. Some of you bought a new car within 3 or 5 years ago. Most of you are still making payments. When you bought your new car, the car salesman was very kind and nice to you. Why? Simply because he wanted to sell the car. The car dealership is also happy and smiles at you when you agree to pay your payment and as long as you make your payment. But when you are a few months behind on your payments, you know what will happen to your car. Your relation with the car dealership is broken. Dr. Phil or Opera cannot help you on this matter.

I remember when I had my first cellular phone back in 1994. It was huge and heavy. It was designed to imitate a military communication system. I think it cost about 500 dollars. I want to show you what I have today. I have a smaller and lighter phone with more functions. Guess how much I paid for this smaller and lighter phone? It was free! As long as I pay my monthly service payment, the phone is mine and it is free. The company wants me to have the relation. When I am behind on my payment, my relation with the company is broken. So I will keep my relation with the company as long as I continue to make my payments on time.

Like the relations between you and the car dealership or between the cellular phone, Paul had relations with Jesus Christ. In the book of Acts 9, after he heard Christ’s voice on the way to Damascus, he built the relation with Jesus Christ. As I am paying my monthly service for my cellular phone in order to have relation with the company, Paul was willing to pay the price for his relation with Jesus Christ. What kind of price did he pay? Today’s New Testament lesson tells us about the price that Paul paid in order to have the relation with Christ. I want to share that with you today.

It is a Jewish punishment. The Jewish law lays down the regulations for such scourging. Deuteronomy 25:1-3, in verse 3 says, “Forty lashes may be given but not more; if more lashes than these are given, your neighbor will be degraded in your sight.”

The normal penalty was forty strips, and on no account must that number be exceeding, or the scourger was subjecting to scourging. Therefore, they always stopped at thirty nine. That is why scourging was known as “the forty less one.”

The lash was made out of the leather of a cow and it had three strips. So it stroke different parts of Paul’s body.

Mishnah describes that they bind his two hands to a pillar on either side, and the minister of the synagogue lays hold on his garments- if they are torn, they are torn, if they are utterly rent, they are utterly rent- so that he bares his chest. A stone is set behind him on which the minister of the synagogue stands with a strap of calf-hide in his hand, doubled and re-doubled, and two other straps that rise and fall thereto. The handpiece of the strap is one handbreadth long and one handbreadth wide, and its end must reach to his navel. He gives him one third of the stripes in front and two thirds behind, and he may not be strike him when he is standing or when he is sitting but only when he is bending down… and he that smites smites with one hand and with all his might. If he dies under his hand, the scourger is not culpable. But if he gives him one stripe too many, and he dies, he must escape into exile because of him. That is what Paul suffered five times, a scourging so severe that is was liable to kill a man.

Acts 16:22, “The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.” It is a Roman punishment. The attendants of the magistrates were called the lictors and they were equipped with rods of birch wood with which the guilty criminal was chastised. In today’s context, the rod is like a 2” by 4” pine wood. Paul was beaten by not one person, but by many people who were willing to strike him with all their strength. In order to protect his stomach and other parts of body, Paul had to minimize his body and turn his back to be beaten.

Three times that had happened to Paul. It should never have happened to him at all because under Roman law, it was a crime to scourge a Roman citizen, but when the mob was violent and the magistrate was weak, Paul, a Roman citizen though he was, had suffered this. Paul was willing to pay the price for the relation.

Acts 14:19, “Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead”

Put yourself in this position, please, if people are throwing stones at you, how can you protect yourself from the stones? I am sure that you will hide your head and squeeze your body small so that you will take the least amount of damage. Guess which part of your body becomes damaged the most? It is your back.

Paul’s back had scars and wounds because he sought the relation with Jesus. He was willing to pay the price for Jesus Christ.

We are launching a new era of CUMC. We have a new goal to build up the body of Christ by the grace of God. The steering committee by God’s guidance asks God to reach out to 100 new families by September 2006. In order to bring 100 new families I ask you to pray in a private, communal setting. When you are driving, when you are waiting in line at McDonald’s, or at any other fast-food restaurant, please, pray for 100 new families while you try to do the following.

· Find out who does not go to church on Sunday morning. (Think about them right now and pray for them )

· Take cookies, desserts, or food to the family. You pray what God wants you taking from cookies, deserts, or food. When you take any thing to the family, you may pray again.

· When they are talking, pray that God may open their hearts and minds to Christ at Cornerstone UMC.

· Send a card or a little note to the family about how grateful and thankful you are to have them at our church and how much you are looking forward to seeing them again.

Paul paid the price for Christ in order to seek the relation with Christ. Then we may reach out to our families, friends, relatives, and others by paying the price that I have already mentioned.

On April 19, 1989, Trisha Meili was a 28-year-old Wall Street investment banker on the fast track at a major Wall Street investment house. Then one morning, she decided to go for a jog in Central Park. In the park she was raped, beaten, bound and left for dead in a ravine in the park. Only the soles of her feet were unbruised. An eye socket was fractured in 21 places. Her scalp had multiple gashes. She lost 80 percent of her blood. She had severe brain damage. She could not breathe on her own. But she wanted to survive and eventually returned to her job at Salomon Brothers and was later promoted to vice president. But she wanted to reveal herself to public who she was as the victim of the park while many people were curious about her identity and to share the lessons of healing she had learned from her life-changing experience. So she left her job to become a motivational speaker. She had pain and suffering, but Trisha was willing to pay the price. She turns her back.

9 But if I say, "I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,"
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
NIV

21 To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!

What anyone else dares to boast about — I am speaking as a fool — I also dare to boast about. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
NIV

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