Hands Of Grace

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Hands Of Grace

Tuesday, 21 June 2011 06:26

June 19, 2011

“HANDS OF GRACE”

John 4:7-14

By Pastor Ole Lillestolen

What image comes to your mind when you think of Jesus? My goal these years has been to create an image of Jesus, of God, in your minds. I’m not a salesman type of evangelist. I’m more of a plodding image builder who sees his job as helping you develop an image of Christ in your heart so that as you go through times of decision and crisis you will recognize that, how, and why He is there for you.

I have for many years now used a phrase which I think captures a good part of the image of Himself which Christ would have us have cemented in our hearts and that phrase is, “Hands of grace.” My prayer is that whenever we come to moments where we realize we need to look to Jesus that ‘the Jesus we see’ will be a Jesus reaching out His hands of grace to lovingly receive us so that He can share His grace with us freely.

We easily build wrong images of all kinds of people and of Christ, but my best reading of the Bible has convinced me that our God reaches out to us constantly with hands of grace, and it is because of this image of God that I am able to rest in the belief that even though I constantly fail Him, He will never reject me and withhold His grace from me when I come to Him for help and forgiveness. In John 6:37 Jesus tells us, “the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” You don’t ever need to worry that you will get the cold shoulder from Jesus!
The Bible is full of images of Jesus’ hands of grace. Our text tells us about Jesus going to a Samaritan village, which would be like Him going today to a Palestinian village. He went there specifically to visit with a woman who was having a tough time, especially in marriage.

Many of you know the story well, how when she came to the town well He asked her for a drink, something Jews would never ask of a Samaritan woman! But, when she expressed her surprise, Jesus told her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

That wasn’t what she expected from this stranger, especially from the look of Him! He had been a carpenter up until this point, not a lawyer! His hands were hard and calloused from all of the hand work He had done with his ‘hand-powered’ tools. But, there was no malice in those hands, and Jesus told her, “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Reminds me of a chorus we used to sing in Sunday School: “It's bubblin', it's bubblin', it's bubblin' in my soul. I'm singing and shouting since Jesus made me whole. Folks don't understand it, but I can't keep it quiet. It's bubblin' bubblin' bubblin' bubblin' bubblin' day and night.” I’ve met a lot of people who don’t have any bubbling in their soul, but this is what Jesus offers us, freely, and the woman at the well was so excited that she went and told her whole village about His offer of grace!

Central to all of this is that Jesus is willing and able to forgive us our sins. He told people back then that their sins were forgiven and people couldn’t understand how He could do that. I don’t understand completely what it means that He can forgive my sins and cleanse me because I have not only sinned against Him, I’ve also sinned against people right here on this planet! How can He forgive my sins against them?

I’ve come to understand that His forgiveness doesn’t remove my responsibility to those I’ve sinned against. If I’ve stolen from someone I need to give it back to them. If I’ve hurt someone, I need to apologize and try to make it right. If I’ve led someone down the wrong road I need to try to help them get on the right track again. We want to turn God’s forgiveness of our sins into some kind of act which wipes the slate clean, but God’s forgiveness is not an escape from responsibility here and now! Yet, one of the most important things this has come to mean to me is that when I receive His forgiveness I a no longer alone in having to deal with the consequences of my sin before others.

When I was a little kid I accidentally broke a window in the house across the street. I was scared and ran home to tell my dad what happened and I would have loved it if he had said, “That’s o.k.! I forgive you so you can just forget about it.” He didn’t. He told me that I had to go over and apologize and offer to pay for the window. I didn’t have much in the bank because I was only about eight years old, but he said, “I’ll go with you and I’ll pay him for you.” That made all the difference in the world for me. My dad was going with me to this scary man across the street so I could apologize for what I’d done!

There is never a sin Jesus will not forgive. There is never a sin Jesus will not reach out His hands of grace and walk with me in fulfilling my responsibilities because of my sin! 1 John 1:9 reminds us, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It may only take a moment for Jesus to forgive me, but it often takes a whole lot longer for Him to cleanse me, and it is awesome to me that He reaches out His hands of grace to me to both forgive and to cleanse!

There is so much about Jesus’ hands of grace that we can explore. It was those strong hands of grace that overturned money tables where money grubbers were taking advantage of people coming to the temple in Jerusalem to seek God’s grace in their lives. The priests and money grubbers had set up a system of offerings that required people to exchange regular currency for temple currency and the skimming was horrible! So, Jesus used His hands of grace to drive these obstructionist people away for that day.

A woman who was caught in adultery was dragged in front of Him to put Him on the spot because the law required her to be stoned to death. From God’s perspective, adultery is a sin that devastates society and it needs to be treated as such. But, when they dragged her in front of Him He knew that there was a lot more to this than just that she was an adulteress. So, He said, “Sure, kill her! Let the one of you who is without sin throw the first stone!” Only, when God wants to make us squirm He can do it, and one by one those who were accusing her left. When they all left Jesus told her that He would not condemn her, but that she should “go and sin no more!” He gave her another chance!

Jesus is the God of second chances as pictured in the parable of the Prodigal Son. This son demanded his share of his inheritance and left to experience life, but instead of building a life with what his father gave him he blew it all and, with no job or prospects, he slinked back home to papa for help. Papa reached out with arms of love to welcome him back into the household as if he had never left, so he could start over! And Jesus holds out His hands of grace to give and help us make use of second chances!

Is there a part of your life you would dearly love to be able to leave behind? We might be worthy of His condemnation, but if we look to Jesus with eyes of need and sorrow when we have created a mess in our lives, He will hold out those hands of grace to us and offer to help us walk a different path!

Jesus is awesome! He healed the sick, raised the dead, stilled the storm, fed thousands, made the blind to see, created you and me and everything else! But, like doubting Thomas, we so often do not see that He is holding out hands of grace to us, hands which are loaded with everything we need in life! If we do not see it, though, it is because we do not look. What I have tried to do for these 24 years is to encourage you to look to see those hands of grace reaching out to you! Do you see them?

Some years ago I wrote a song about Jesus’ hands of grace and to close I’d like to share it with you again. Listen please to the words.

Hands Of Grace

1. He had the rough and calloused hands of a carpenter's strong son, Filled with pow'r to bruise her body as He listed sins she'd done. Yet, those hands seemed so inviting holding water from her well. And she knew that they could free her from her guilt and fear of hell.

Chorus:
Oh, those hands of grace are open wide to welcome sinners home, Like the father's hands that welcomed His lost son, who'd ceased to roam. And those hands of grace keep knocking at hearts' doors kept shut by sin, Gently urging helpless souls to cry, "Lord Jesus, please come in!"

2. His strong hands turned the tables oe'r and drove money changers out, from a temple where they'd cheated folks who'd come with fear and doubt. Then, as others told of sins one did, to see if He'd throw stones, He forgave her sins and wrote in sand, to drive them to their homes.

3. His hands were nailed up on a tree when He died to set us free. But, they broke the bonds of cruel death and He rose, as we can see, Like the one who doubted others til his own eyes saw the scars, But, then recognized the maker of our earth and all the stars.