Biblical Spirituality From The Early Church (part 3)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Today will be the third and final part of biblical spirituality of early

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Christians. We were looking at the Irish, the Celtic Church. We actually looked at one man for two

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Sundays, and we are going to look at four men today, Lord willing. We looked at St.

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Patrick. We looked at his life, his legacy, his following Christ historically, and what he did there as a role model to us.

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We want to look to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ to see how we can be discipled by one another as one brother or one sister follows the

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Lord faithfully in certain areas of scriptural obedience. We want to have them disciple us so we can grow and imitate

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Christ through the imitation of this brother or sister in the church, and we call that discipleship.

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And we highly encourage you do that within this body. So if you're not being discipled or if you're not discipling someone, we always ask you to find that and talk to one of the elders or the deacons here to see how you can get someone to disciple you.

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And as we look at church history, we can see some of these Christians in the past who have lived such exemplary lives in certain areas.

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They were not perfect. They're not Jesus Christ. And yet there are certain elements in the way they followed

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Christ that we want to learn from and examine ourselves in the light of scriptures and say, you know, some of these scriptures

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I've just been reading and passing through, but these men just bring it out in bright, bold colors, and ought

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I to be more faithful to the Lord in these areas as these men were. So we looked at St.

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Patrick. Patrick, the saint like one of us, also called St. Patrick.

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Today we're going to be looking at a foreman, Columba. How many of you here know

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Columba? One. How many more Irish people do we have here?

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He is actually one of the patron saints of Ireland, whatever that means in the

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Catholic Church. But he ought to be more famous, but he is not. But there are certain ways in which this man, too, modeled

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Christ that I think will be instructive for us today. We will see another man. This is chronologically. We have

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Patrick. About 100 years later, we see Columba. About 50 years later, in terms of ministry, we have

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Columbanus, who follows in Columba's footsteps. And we're going to see two more men who, time permitting, we'll get into.

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One of them is Cuthbert, and the other one is Bede. And we will see how these men follow

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Christ and also do not follow Christ and what are some things we can learn from and what are things we ought not to.

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But before we get to them, let's open with a word of prayer. Our loving and gracious Father, we thank you for giving us your son,

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Jesus Christ, that we may have a relationship with you, that we can be saved, and that we can be restored to fellowship.

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We thank you for your word that instructs us in all things. And we also thank you for your hand in the life of the church, that we can look back and learn from these men, especially the men that we're going to study today.

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God is so Lord that we would not blindly follow people, but rather we would examine ourselves in the light of Scripture and that we would be more faithful daily, that we would be more and more like Jesus Christ.

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In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, before we get into the four men, though,

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I wanted to wrap up something with Patrick. So we've seen a number of aspects of Patrick's life, but one of the things that stands out above everything else is his missionary zeal.

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Here was a man who was convicted, converted by Jesus Christ, and he wanted to pour out his life and missions.

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So he goes from Britain to Ireland and he preaches the gospel faithfully throughout his life. And I mentioned there were two passages.

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One of the passages I mentioned on the first week was Colossians 1. So if you don't mind, please turn to Colossians 1, 24 to 29.

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And this is a passage where Paul talks about his own ministry. He talks about how God called him and has used him as a missionary in the early church.

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And as you look at this passage, I think it is instructive to see how

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Patrick, in his own way, imitated Paul in this particular area of life in terms of being a faithful minister, a faithful servant of Jesus Christ.

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And these other four men we're going to look at are also going to be having some of the same zeal, some of the same passion as Paul did for Jesus Christ.

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And so we will quickly walk through this. So this can be in the back of your mind when we look at these four men.

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But we've already looked at Patrick, so this should remind you of how Patrick was faithful in these areas.

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So Colossians 1, verse 24 and following, he says right at the beginning,

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Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. Paul's ministry was a joy.

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His ministry was filled with suffering, but his ministry was characterized by joy. If you read the book of Philippians, you'll just see that.

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Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice while he's in prison. He has a great joy in the ministry he does, and that's the same characteristic you would see in Patrick.

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He was not doing this as, OK, I have to do this because, you know, I have no choice. We saw that last time.

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I'm bound by the Spirit. I am constrained. It would be sinful for me not to do this ministry. But it wasn't that he just had this bad, sour face and he was going about.

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He was in great joy because of the Savior who had saved him and the relationship we had with his father.

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And we heard about Trinity today. He had this Trinitarian understanding of God and this joy he had in God's presence was what was propelling him to great lengths of suffering.

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And it was never something that was bringing him down. He rejoiced in the midst of his suffering, just as Paul did.

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And then he says in continuing in verse 24, in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body.

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That is the church. This verse is a. It'll take me a lot of time to explain it in detail, but just bear with me as I explain what this means.

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This does not mean that Christ did some redemption and then Paul did the rest of the redemption that Christ didn't do.

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This is not talking about the redemptive work of Jesus Christ at all. This is talking about the afflictions. The the pain and suffering that the wicked world would like to inflict upon Jesus Christ.

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Jesus Christ has finished his work, is ascended into heaven, and the only object that can face the brunt of the world is the church.

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So the church is now going to face the same kind of sufferings that Christ is was intended for Christ.

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And that is not going to be fulfilled in the body. And especially the minister of the gospel is going to find himself as a target.

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And Paul found that you can see that throughout the book of Acts and through the rest of the New Testament letters. And Patrick was no exemption.

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We saw the times he was imprisoned, the times he was about to die. And he gladly took all those afflictions that was intended for Christ that came to him from those pagans and those particular points in history.

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And then was 25. I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known.

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Paul, on the way to Damascus, was called and commissioned to go to kings to go to different people that God had prepared him for.

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There was a stewardship that Paul was given. Paul said, Paul said, go and do this. And Paul was faithful.

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He went and did what was given him to do. Patrick. Likewise, we saw he comes back.

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He was a slave in Ireland. He came back. He could have just had a happy life. Nobody around him wanted him to go back.

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They said, you're foolish to risk your life like this. But he said, I've been given a stewardship and I have to complete what

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God has called me to do. And that was the same sense that we will see in these four men as well. And and and the stewardship was the word of God.

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It was we saw Patrick's writings. I just overflowing with the scriptures. And he was faithful in in communicating the truth.

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God's word, the scriptures faithfully to those whom he was ministering to. And then was twenty six and twenty seven.

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This was the mystery that was hidden for ages and generation now revealed to the saints. To them, God chose to make known how great among the

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Gentiles, Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. And what is this mystery that Paul proclaimed?

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Christ in you, the hope of glory. And this was marvelous.

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And Paul spent his entire life and gave up his life for proclaiming this truth. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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And Patrick likewise did. We saw how he saw this pagan lifestyle in which these

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Irish people were. And his heart was just broken for these people. And here was this great mystery. And he wanted to make sure that they heard the complete gospel was twenty eight.

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Him, we proclaim wanting everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

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We saw also that Patrick wasn't just, OK, I'm this firebrand evangelist preacher.

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I'm just going to do this huge course. And I don't care what happens to the church behind me. He established leaders so that the churches would function when he continued his ministry.

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He prayed and we saw this in a few elements of his prayer, but he was constantly in prayer for all these people who got saved.

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And he was with burden so that everyone would be taught, admonished.

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He was not ashamed of giving the hard truths. And the goal was all these Christians would mature in Jesus Christ.

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And then the last was there was twenty nine. For this, I toil, struggling with his energy.

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This is Christ that he works powerfully within me. End of the day, when you look back at Patrick's ministry and you say, oh, you know, the

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Catholic Church kind of puts this man up. And again, the tradition that follows somehow elevates human work to say,

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OK, here was a man who just did everything hard, burnt himself out.

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Let's kind of follow him. That was not the thinking of Patrick at all. And not was nor was it the thinking of Paul.

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Both of them knew what grace was. They both knew who it was that had called them, who it was that had equipped them and who it was that was working through them.

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So that was the passion that drove Patrick. And I think as we just wrap this passage up, we want to maybe examine ourselves to say, you know, maybe

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I'm not called to be a missionary. Maybe I'm not even. An evangelist to the next town, but wherever God has placed me, have

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I the same kind of passion that characterized Paul, the same kind of passion for Jesus Christ that works itself out, that characterized

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Patrick and these four men that we will see. How can I be more faithful? And I think that's the goal of today's

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Sunday school as we wrap up the series. So with that, let's get into the first of these four men,

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Columbo. Columbo was born in five hundred and twenty one.

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He died five hundred and ninety seven. So Patrick, as we saw, was born in the end three hundreds, late three hundreds, and he died in the four hundreds.

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So about 100 years later, Patrick has come to Ireland. He's done his ministry. The churches are growing. And this is in Ireland that these men are born.

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All these four Columbo is the first one that is pretty well known.

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He is well known because he goes. Let me give you a quick overview of these four men and then we'll spend time on these men.

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Columbo was a missionary to Scotland. So he grew up in Ireland. He was faithful as long as he was in Ireland and he felt the call to go to Scotland.

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So he goes to Scotland and there he ministers and he ministers in a very unique way. And I think that's one of the things we need.

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Think of Patrick. We don't want to say I want to be Patrick because God didn't make you as Patrick. God made you as you.

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And he's placed you in a certain context and Columbus context is different. And he would have that same missionary passion as Patrick did, but in a very different way.

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We'll see how that happens. Columbo is another 20 years. He's born 20 years later after Columbo, but he continues

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Columbus legacy and he goes to Europe. He goes to France and then he does something even greater, if you will, in terms of magnitude and how he proclaims the gospel.

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Cut bird and bead. They don't actually go out of the country, but they are in in the aisles.

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But they proclaim the gospel. They're evangelistic within the regions in which they are there. And they're very faithful in preaching the word.

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And last week someone asked me this question because when we think of Patrick, we think of the

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Catholic church. The Irish church is heavily Catholic. But we saw how

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Patrick was not yet as Catholic, if you will, in terms of the teaching, the doctrines that come to characterize the

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Irish church later. But by the time we come from Patrick pretty much to beat, you will see some of the influences becoming stronger.

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So we'll have to kind of start to separate what's going on that's good and what is maybe not so good.

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Actually, maybe let me ask a question, because for those of you coming for the second service, this may still be a little early for you. There is no right answer here.

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So just just to hear your thoughts. So we have the early church. We have Jesus Christ come in and establish the church.

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Jesus Christ did everything perfectly. There was nothing sinful in him. If you can say that's the high mark of the church, you know,

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Christ establishes the church. And now we are in the 21st century and we have the church, whatever it is, you know, it has good.

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I mean, the Lord has been faithful to it and that it has its bad things where it's gone loose and away from the

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Lord. How do you see this line between these two churches? Do you see it as something that's growing up, coming down?

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You know, Christ established the church and it's just been downhill ever since. How do you how do you see the church? Yes. Excellent point.

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So Pam was saying the true church versus Christendom, because what is called the church sometimes is not the church at all.

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And it can it and the world tends to some come into the church and then corrupted.

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And then the legacy of that so -called church is downhill. But the true church, what you said is very true.

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It is spotless in the sense that positionally it is always it is redeemed.

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And so it is by the blood of Christ that Christ sees the church. Anyone else? Bruce. Excellent.

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Honestly, that's my position, too. You have different scholars who have different views in terms of how the church goes up or down.

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But that is true, because in one sense, God is faithful. It is not the men who make up the church or the women who make up the church that somehow uphold the righteousness of the church.

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And, you know, we are faithful to God. And therefore, God honors our righteousness.

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That's never the case. It is Christ who died for the church. It is it is God, the Trinitarian God.

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I have to be careful what I say. It is God who upholds the church through history. If God was not God said,

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OK, let's see what you do. First century, the church would have been gone. You know, we would not have been faithful unless God was faithful to us.

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And you can see throughout history. In fact, when we think of the Irish church, we think of the

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Catholic associations with it that we say, oh, you know what? The Latin church, the Roman church was probably more faithful.

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And maybe there is some problem here. No, that's not necessarily the case. You will see even in the

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Latin church men. When you think of the fundamental things between Catholic and Protestant, we think of grace versus works.

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Right. That's one of many things. And the issue of grace, even in the early church, before you had a so -called

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Catholic church, was a difficult subject for the Latin and Roman early church fathers.

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You read some of their stuff. It's not as solid as like Patrick.

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You know, 300 years later, you have trouble even in the early church when men try to articulate their teachings.

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And sometimes it wasn't that good. But you have men like Augustine. So you come to this roller coaster and he comes back and says it's all of grace.

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And even Augustine, we will see, has his own problems. Anyway, my answer is becoming too long.

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So my point is, you know, the church goes up and down, but underlying it all is

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God's grace and faithfulness. He's the one who holds it up. So with that mindset, let's come to Columba 100 years after Patrick and look at what he did.

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Columba was a unique individual because when Patrick comes, you have all these kings that he ministers to.

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So some of these men get saved. And Columba was actually a son of a king, a princess.

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His great -grandfather was like this founder of a dynasty. And I know you guys are, you know, have you heard this name?

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This was new to me when I studied. It's called O 'Neill. Someone said I should use

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Irish accent. I cannot. U -I. Sorry.

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I find it hard enough to try to speak in English. So the name is

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U -I -N -E -I -L -L. I don't know if it is famous or anyone's heard it, but apparently in Ireland, this was a big line.

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And he was born in this kingly line. And he decides early on that this is not the life for him.

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He could have been a king, but he'd rather follow Christ. And the path that takes him is down the priesthood.

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So you already have monasteries set up, the church set up, and the Catholic influences in terms of the way we are thinking of Catholic is already pretty heavy.

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So the monastic lifestyle is very strong. All four of these men are monks. And the priesthood is very similar to what we are thinking of that we would not fully acknowledge.

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But he goes to be a priest. He becomes a monk, and he serves in his early days.

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And he's famous for this monastery that he founds. It's in Iona off of Scotland. It's an island.

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But he's first serving in Ireland as a monk. And there is an event that changes his life.

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And we don't exactly know what happened here, but the famous story, and I think all of you ought to know this. If you know Columba, you need to know this story.

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This is most likely mythical. But the story goes this way. There's another giant in Ireland called

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Finian. He's a very well -known scholar. And it is believed that Columba studied under him. He was in Finian's monastery.

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And the story goes that Finian had this psalter, the entire Psalms, in his monastery that nobody else had access to.

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So Columba goes there in the night, secretly copies it so he can have a copy of it for himself. I don't know if some of you heard the story.

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Finian finds out, and he says, you can't do that. This is my psalm, and you can't be copying this.

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And so they both appeal to the king. And they go to the king, and the king establishes the copyright laws.

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And he says, well, that belongs to him. You better give him the copy that you made. And Columba walks out and says, this is

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God's word. You can't do this. And so there ensues a war between Columba's clan and this king.

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This king is a high king. And 3 ,000 of this king's men die. And how they died is even more fantastic, the myth goes.

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And so Columba feels so guilt -ridden for having caused the death of so many men that he needs to go and save as many men or more in a foreign land.

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Pretty fascinating story. Probably not true. But what comes out of the story, one thing is true, is this idea of the scriptorium.

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We talked about this last time. So these monasteries that Columba would establish, one of their roles would be to copy the scriptures.

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They will make more copies. And in fact, as we saw last time, what was dying out in the Roman Empire, where learning would be lost, libraries would be burned, here in Ireland, knowledge would be still kept alive, and especially the scriptures, for the next generation.

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But whatever the reason was, Columba wanted to go to another country and be a missionary.

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And to understand this for both Columba and Columbanus, you had to think it this way. In the early church, you had martyrs.

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Justin Martyr died for his faith. Polycarp died. Ignatius died.

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Paul and Peter died. These men stood up for their faith in a pagan land, and they got killed.

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In Ireland, these men wanted to follow Christ. They got saved. They were excited. And they said,

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I want to follow Christ to the full extent of my being, and I want to be martyred.

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Except nobody would kill us here. They were not foolish like some of the, there was another heretical sect that just did stupid things to get killed because we're

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Christians. Do you remember who it is? Anyway, so these guys didn't do that.

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They realized martyrdom is something that happens in God's sovereignty. You just don't go seeking for it. But they somehow felt like they were second -class citizens because they just didn't get to do the things that the early church went through.

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So they called the martyrdom of the early church as the red martyrdom. You give up your blood for Christ.

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And they said, well, the next best thing is the white martyrdom. So we'll give up our land.

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We'll give up, I mean, everything short of my life. I'll give up everything, and I'm going to go for Jesus Christ wherever he would lead me.

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And I said this in the youth group sometime back. Some of these men would do something. Young people especially,

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I am not recommending that you do this. But these men would be in Ireland. They'd take a little boat, raise up the sail, and say,

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God, take me where you will, and I'm going. And one thing that should impress you,

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I'm not saying you do this, but one thing that should impress you is the extent to which they were committed to God's sovereignty and their willingness to give their life to what

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God would take them to. So that's the sense that characterizes Columbine. And he's here.

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He says, I've served. He serves while a priest and a monk in Ireland.

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But now he's ready to go out, and he says, I want to go. He and 12 men leave

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Ireland and go to Scotland. And one other thing here, he became a priest.

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He very easily could have become a bishop. So already you have these hierarchical structures. But he cares nothing for this whole going up the hierarchy.

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He was a faithful minister of God, and he's now going to be a faithful missionary of God also. So he comes to Scotland.

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So Scotland is divided. We won't go into the politics, but he comes to this region. And when he comes to this region, this is kind of it's under another ruler who is not necessarily favorable to the group that is connected with these

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Irish people. So you have this clan, this kingdom, if you will, that's partly in Ireland, partly in Scotland.

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So he comes here, and they are under this other Scottish king. And he characterizes the same wisdom that Paul would in his ministry.

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He wouldn't just simply go and get himself killed, but he's not afraid of being killed if persecuted. Patrick, likewise, was very wise about where he went.

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He knew he was in danger, but he didn't just put himself unnecessarily in danger. And here is Columba, son of a king, and he sees the circumstances.

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He sees the need for missionary and activity that needs to happen here. And he's not just like me.

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You know, if I went somewhere, I'd just say, you know, let me just teach. I can't understand anything beyond just this thing.

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But God had equipped this man in such a way that he sees that he needs to be able to get some protection from this king.

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Goes straight to the king, gives him the gospel, and tells him about what he is here for.

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Plainly, openly, just like an ambassador of another nation would go. You know, you don't just go to another king's place and try to subvert his kingdom.

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He says, this is what I am, this is what I am here for. And the king listens to him. He's not converted.

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Only God can do the conversion. But he is so impressed by this man's piety and his sincerity and what he wants to do that he grants him the freedom to do what he wants in his own region.

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And what you will see is Columba establishes monasteries and ministers to the local people that will soon grow out.

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So the evangelism that begins where Columba starts will then spread out to the rest of Ireland also.

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One thing we will not spend time on is just the way in which

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Columba was called. Maybe we'll take some questions on this. We saw already that each of us is gifted uniquely.

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Each of you has a spiritual gift that the spirit of God has explicitly given to you.

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And here in our church, we make it very clear that it is not politics that we are about.

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You know, we don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. You don't vote. You vote all the time.

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It's not the central purpose of the church. Our church is to give the gospel. And when we think of missions, a lot of different images come up into our minds.

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And I'm not now talking about missions in terms of going to another country, but just in terms of being a faithful witness of Christ in the place that God has placed you to.

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And many a time, we get scared when we think of how we can be a witness, whether it is in our families, in our homes, in our whatever circumstances that God has placed you in.

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When you think of a man like Columba, Columba was, like I said, a son of a king. He knew how to handle kings, and he comes to this new missionary location, and he goes and talks to this king, does what he needs to do.

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And that's not just a one -time thing. There will be conflicts, and he will get involved. He was not afraid of getting involved, but that was not his primary function.

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You know, when there was a need, as a leader, he went and got involved. So what are some of your thoughts?

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What are some of the ways in which you think you should be able to use your gifts in those areas where you are a witness and be faithful?

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Before I get your responses, one thing I want to lay out very clear. You don't need to be a

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Columba to do that. So I'm not in by any way implying that you need to be doing X, Y, and Z. There's only one thing you need to be doing, and that is know what the gospel is and be faithful to proclaim it faithfully.

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But what are some of the other ways in which you could be more effective, if you will, in witnessing to the gospel in the places where God has placed you?

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If you can maybe give some examples of how God has gifted you, that would be even better, rather than hypothetically answering.

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Yes. Excellent. Very good. And again, a very difficult circumstance where, you know, in a teaching, you're not supposed to bring it yourself, but you can always answer a question, be willing to do that.

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Any other examples? Can you say the quote again?

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What was that, blood? I'm more afraid of blood on my hands than blood on my face.

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Great reminders in terms of what the responsibility is. And, yeah, thank you.

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So let's keep moving on. So although Columba was a kingly descendant, and his ministry was more of establishing these big monasteries, going out there, getting the word out, and it's almost like a founder of a movement in the way in which he starts these churches in Scotland.

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But ultimately, he was a person who was in love with God.

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All these works were an outflow of the love that he had for God. So in the exterior, he was a pretty bruised guy.

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You probably didn't want to be around him because he needed to get something done. He wanted God's glory to be proclaimed in Scotland, and he was just not afraid of anybody.

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He would just get out there and proclaim it. And his methods, if you will, were far from polished.

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He was just, I'm here. Let's do it. What's preventing you from doing it? And Columba, as we will see, is even more so.

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But we do not want to somehow think it is just getting this kingdom of God expanded, and ultimately, it has to be the relationship that these men have with God that ought to cost those works that come out of it.

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And Columba was genuinely one of those men who was personally kind with those who were ministering to him.

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So he would minister. He would pray for those who were in. So it wasn't just a monastery where we are isolated. They were ministering to the people who were around those monasteries.

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So these men would go out and pray for them, and he himself would. He had compassion for robbers who were rehabilitated.

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He would give them opportunities for them to get back into the society, if you will, give them the gospel, not really like a legalistic, you're out kind of thing, although that's the kind of mindset we think of monastics.

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And there is a sense, and I think that's what I was not sure whether to pick up or not. There is a sense in which the

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Irish were very penitential. They had this idea of penance. And when you said this idea of blood on the hands and blood on my face,

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I don't want us to somehow think, you know, this isn't, we ought to do it because there is a penitential sense involved.

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But let's actually talk about this. We may not get too far, but that's fine. When we think of responding to the grace of God, the

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Irish, let me just give you a quote, and then we'll talk about this in a bit. Celtic Christians believed that what they did in life affected their salvation, and therefore they were highly penitential.

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These guys did fasting and poverty, and they understood that, they believed that active penance in life helped their spiritual journey.

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Now, we may have some visitors here. Let me just step back and say we don't ascribe to any of that in the sense that we have to do something in order for God to grant us salvation or love us more because God loves us completely in Jesus Christ.

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It is all of God's free gift that we are saved. There's nothing we can do to add one iota to our salvation. We are saved by grace through Jesus Christ.

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We're now talking not in terms of justification, in terms of sanctification. What ways in which can our lives exemplify the grace that is placed in us?

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If you just look at that aspect, what are the motivations that drive us toward being faithful to God?

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Let me actually give you one more thought, and then I can get some response. Many of you might have heard the Puritan words, you know, pray until you pray.

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How many of you have heard that? Yeah, what that means is, you know, make sure you stay in prayer until you are genuinely communing with God.

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You know, it's not just I've just come, given my list, and I walk away. And Columba, this is what, 580, and he said, pray until tears come.

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And his idea there was, you know, pray until you genuinely can recognize who you are before this

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Holy God, recognize the need for his absolute grace, and that's the level, that's the extent to which you need to pour yourself out in prayer.

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Don't just do your five times of prayer, whatever the monastics had, and then walk away.

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You need to stay there and, you know, be in God's presence until you genuinely can understand your need for God's grace.

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So, with that said, what are some of your thoughts in terms of this response of the Christian to God's free grace that is given, and how should it manifest itself?

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Excellent. So, the idea that we are slaves of Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

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It is the sense that my life belongs to another. And we, many of us know this in our head, you know, that this is who we are in Christ.

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But I think when it comes to living this out, we need to let the scriptures inform us. We need to let ourselves follow

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Christ more faithfully in those areas where we say, you know, this is sufficient response of gratitude for God.

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And I think as in this culture that we live in, I think we have become a lot more self -centered than God -centered.

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Good answer. Did I see another hand? Yes. Yeah, gratefulness, thankfulness, and appreciation.

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And they need to characterize our lives constantly. And all of us know in the flesh, this is not easy.

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You know, today you may be here in church. You may hear this thing, and we'd be like, okay, you know, I'm going to be doing this through this week.

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I need to be more faithful in my Bible reading, in my prayer. You know, I want to pray like Columba did. And then, you know, maybe we might do it today, tomorrow, and then the third day it'd be like, okay, you know,

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I need to watch this TV game. And, you know, a prayer that I haven't prayed. Tears are not coming. I need to turn on the

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TV. I don't know, whatever it is that the flesh will come up with. I'm not saying you need to pray until tear comes.

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This, I think, was abused a lot, especially because of the mindset that they had. Then the externals then drive the internals.

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I need to tear up before I can somehow love God. And that's not the case. Excellent. And that's exactly what

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I was trying to go toward. Because part of the spiritual discipline, you know, when you know, when you're saved, you say, you know, what does the

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Bible tell me I ought to do? You know, reading the Bible, praying, ministering to the saints, all these things we know.

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And as the love of God constrains us, we are transformed day by day into the image of Christ.

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And when you know something is true and you don't feel like it, you say, I want to submit to God in this area.

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I want to discipline myself. I want to grow in this area. You want the spirit of God to enable you so you will become more and more like Christ.

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And like you said, over a period of time, these things then become a part of your fabric. You don't now have to think that hard to go and witness to someone.

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The first time you God, you just pray the Lord comes back again. But now, you know, it becomes a lot more of a part of you that you don't really have to work at it in terms of letting your mind and your the rest of your being be one in that sense.

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And the emotions do follow. I mean, we don't let the emotions lead us, but God enables us in all these elements.

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So you know what? Let me do this. Let's just take a historical review for the next five minutes. So you have at least an idea of who this man is.

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And then we will we will finish up. So let me skip a few things so we can let me maybe just take tell one more thing about Columbia.

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So Columbus background, his personality, the place he was born in, he is like a if you want an image, it's like a warrior monk.

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You know, you're here with a Celtic blood. He is a kingly line and his allegiance.

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He would still serve his tribe in some fashion, which I think is a little more than what we would probably say is

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OK. But his allegiance went from the nation or the tribe and the kingship to the gospel in Jesus Christ.

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And he committed himself just as fiercely and passionately for the gospel. You know, one of the things that we value in our spirituality is, you know, obedience, loyalty, submission.

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These are all biblical terms that characterize how we ought to be before God and before church leaders, before one another, in terms of how you are to characterize.

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So you think of Galatians five, you know, this is the fruit of the spirit that need to come out. Columbia shows us that and also another element to it.

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And the elements that you see in his life are things like courage, strength, outspokenness, decisiveness and standing up for convictions.

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And the context in which he stood makes perfect sense. And I think today, as you go out into the world, that's one of the things you want to be thinking of, too, because you do need to have this inner character of gentleness and love when you when you give the gospel.

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But you also want to be bold, unashamed of the gospel in the way you're speaking. You need to find those opportunities in which to present the gospel.

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But you do not have to be ashamed of the gospel in the way you proclaim it. However, God uses you in the context where you are.

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We are out of time. We just have five minutes. Any questions so far? We've been rushing through. We don't need to finish everything

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I had. All right.

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Then maybe just let me give you a one, two minute review of Columbanus, because he's a pretty fascinating character. So Columbanus was actually not like Columba.

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He was a son of a commoner. He girls chase after him when he's young and a nun says, you know, join the monastery.

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You can escape that. And his mom was like, no, no, no. And he's like, no,

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I need to follow God this way. Once again, we do not approve of that. We don't believe in monasteries.

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Monkery, as Luther would say, that is not the means to honor

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God. But this man in his time, that's the way he did. And Columbanus writes a lot.

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So we can actually read some of the stuff that he has written. And he he serves very faithfully.

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In fact, one of the leading students in his time. And at some point he gets this bug, if you will, of this white martyrdom.

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He just has to go. And his leader tries to convince him, but then realizes this is something that is a deep conviction and has to go.

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And he goes to France, not France, the continent. At that time, you don't have all these nations.

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And it's a pretty dangerous place when Columbanus comes there. Columbanus once again understands the lay of the land.

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He knows what's going on. And then he finds one area and he goes there and he establish a monastery. And the way these guys did it is so unique because he has, again, 12 guys.

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He goes to travels and as he goes, he's giving the gospel. And if people would not listen, you know, he gives keeps gives the gospel and keeps going.

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And wherever there is reception, he stops there. The minister to the people, they establish the people there and then they move on.

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So that's the means by which they go. So this traveling is not like some pleasure trip. They are just going that witnessing and where they have a hearing, they establish churches.

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So he establishes about four monasteries in a place. And then you would see the fruit that comes out of this as other people would come from these monasteries and then take the gospel further.

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But he comes there and you have these established Latin bishops. And, you know, these monasteries have to be under these bishops.

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And Columbanus comes to this land and it's almost like coming back to America. You know, the the gospel came from the continent to to Ireland through Britain.

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And he comes back to the mainland and he sees these people are dead. And he's like, OK, we have a lot of work to do.

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So all these bishops and stuff, you know, they're just looking for politics and power. And he's I don't care what you say.

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He he is pressurized into coming to this whole council and do all this stuff is

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I will not come. He writes straight to the pope and says, grant me protection. This is what I'm doing. And the pope grants him protection.

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And, you know, and then he would challenge the popes on some of their false issues, issues that he disagreed with.

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He was not ashamed of just confronting whoever was there as long as he saw that was contrary to the gospel.

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It wasn't just the bishops. He would go to the king. This king has given him a place to do this ministry. So come and bless my son.

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He does exactly like a John the Baptist. This son, this is what you've done is immoral. Absolutely not.

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Can the king is incensed, go into exile, kick him out. So he goes, waits for a little bit, comes back again to give the preach.

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And the king finds out and he's like, how dare you come into my place. So he gives up, sends some soldiers, marches

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Columbanus and his group all the way across the continent to the ocean, puts them on a ship and he tells the soldiers, make sure they get out there.

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So they go there, they go on the ship. Columbanus is heartbroken and he's praying to God says,

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God, I don't want to go back. I want to serve you faithfully here. The ship runs aground.

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They get out, come straight back. But this time he finds another region. So, you know, he doesn't get kicked back out again.

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But and he does that over and over again. Another king gives him permission to teach.

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He's an Aryan. And what what does Columbanus do? He's preaching Trinitarian messages like the one you heard this morning.

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I mean, all his messages are Trinitarian. He has he would not compromise the gospel just because, you know, it gives him an audience.

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So I think, you know, as we look back at men like this, I mean, they have a lot of warts. And I was going to show that even

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Augustine, whom we respect, had a lot of flaws, too. We take what was good in this in Augustine and these men.

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And we want to be challenged in our own lives that we would be faithful to God as these men were in their day. Let's pray.

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A loving and gracious father. We thank you, Father, for the lives of these men that have been preserved for us.

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We know that what they did, they did because of your grace and your power.

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And, Lord, we know that you are still working in the lives of each and every one of us here today.

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We thank you for the grace that you've given us to be faithful to you. We pray, Father, that day on today, we would be more and more aware of you, that we would spend our time in your presence and go forth.

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Constrained by your spirit to be faithful to the gospel in a lost and dying world.