Lost and Found
Matthew 18:10-14
Introduction: The famous “Johnstown Flood” of May 31, 1889 was likely the single most newsworthy item in American history between the assassination of Lincoln and World War I. At 3:10 p.m. on May 31, 1889, following a full-day of unprecedented heavy rains, a 450-acre man-made lake, detained by a fifty-year-old earthen dam and owned by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club (the exclusive reserve of a select group of Pittsburgh’s crustiest upper-crust), ruptured its barrier and its liberated waters raced down the South Fork Creek, into the Little Conemaugh River, on its way to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, some 15 miles downstream. It took about 40 minutes for the lake to empty completely, but it did so with the force of the Niagara River at its famous falls. The estimated 20 million tons of water roared through the narrow confines of the mountain valleys at speeds sometimes in excess of 40 miles an hour and with a roiling wall of water and debris at times more than 70 feet high. The water scoured the valleys and hillsides to the bare bedrock, uprooting massive trees, shattering and pushing along all man-made structures: houses, stores, railroad beds and equipment, telegraph and telephone poles, stone and wooden bridges, plus uncountable tons of soil, loose rocks and huge boulders, and livestock and people and whatever else was in the path of its irresistible plunge downward as it descended some 500 feet in the 15-mile race to Johnstown. Before the flood, Johnstown was scarcely known outside of Western Pennsylvania. Some 50 miles east of Pittsburgh at the junction of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh rivers in a wide mountain valley, it had grown in its century of existence to about 10,000 souls (the nearby valley communities pushed the area’s population to about 23,000 or perhaps a bit more). The biggest employer, and indeed the town’s economic anchor, was a large steel mill which had been the largest in the entire country in terms of production in the 1870s and early 1880s. The lower parts of town had been subject to flooding by the converging rivers with some frequency in the past, but the water at its deepest rarely rose to more than six feet. The houses in the “better” and higher parts of town never had flooded, beyond having occasional standing water in the streets. At 4:07 p.m., the juggernaut of water and wreckage crashed into Johnstown (already experiencing serious flooding in the lower parts of town due the heavy rains), and swept unstoppably over the whole town and over its several sister towns. Whole houses and businesses, and whole blocks of houses and businesses were torn loose and shattered by the impact. The wave collided with the hillside at the far side of town and returned as a massive wave of backwash surging through the ruins in the opposite direction; leveling most of what little had survived the first impact. From start to finish, the devastation took a mere ten minutes. After dumping some of its load of mud and rock and wreckage on Johnstown and collecting a new load from the town itself, the water resumed its downhill course, slamming with incredible impact into a stone railroad bridge close to the ironworks. Huge quantities of debris were jammed next to and into the bridge, mounding as much as 80 feet high and all but entirely blocking the escape path of the flood waters (and incidentally trapping in the tangled mess some 80 living human beings). This left the town underwater until the flood eroded a new path around one end of the bridge, and began once again sweeping onward, this time with the floating ruins of Johnstown, including people clinging to rooftops and planks and whatever else they could hold on to, who were hoping against hope to find rescue somehow further downstream. In the rushing waters were the corpses of hundreds of Johnstown’s citizens. Towns and villages all the way to Pittsburgh recovered bodies, and in many fewer cases, rescued victims. The immediate outpouring of aid was heartening. At a public meeting in Pittsburgh the day after the flood, $48,000 in relief funds were collected in 50 minutes. Ultimately, over $3,000,000 were collected across the country and even in foreign countries. Material aid in the form of food, clothes, medicine, tents, tools, building materials came in by the hundreds of train carloads. Thousands of workers came to help clean up the disaster. Clara Baron and her Red Cross organization stayed for five months. The official death toll ultimately was fixed at 2,209. One third of the corpses were never identified and hundreds of missing were never recovered. Human remains from the flood were found as late as 1906. Ninety-nine whole families perished; 396 children age 10 or less died; 98 children lost both parents; 124 women were left widows; 198 men were made widowers. It took five years to rebuild the town. In the three hours before the dam gave way, three urgent warnings were telegraphed from the town near the lake down river to Johnstown and points in between, and indeed all the way to Pittsburgh. And all three warnings were callously disregarded by those who were responsible to inform others. Had the warnings been taken seriously and the word spread abroad--and had the hearers heeded the warning--, the loss of life would have been a mere fraction of its actual toll, though the material loss would have been virtually the same. This calamity drew vast armies of news reporters and photographers. Newspapers across the nation issued special edition after special edition as the news came in in bits and pieces. Magazine articles by the score were written and sermons by the thousands were preached. There’s nothing like a good disaster to spark human interest. As Gibbon remarked, “History is indeed little more than a record of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.” At least those are the things that get the most attention. And this was a combination of crime, folly and misfortune in vast dimensions. “When they say peace and safety, sudden destruction comes upon them.” Though there was some small concern that day about flooding in the lower parts of town due to the heavy rains, yet nearly the whole of Johnstown was content to watch the rains, go about their business, do their shopping, converse with their neighbors as on any other ordinary day. “Until the flood came and took them all away,” to cite another text from Scripture. Being unaware of imminent danger does not negate the reality of that danger, nor slow its approach. David G. McCullough’s The Johnstown Flood (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968; 302 pp.) Like the people of Johnstown many todaycarelessly go around unaware of the imminent danger of dying unsaved and spending an eternity in Hell. They are not seeking deliverance because they are unaware they are lost. Before one can be delivered they first must see they are in peril of being lost for eternity.
I. You must be lost before you can be found.
A. Most People are unaware of their lostness.
B. Many feel they are o.k. because of their religion
1. Luke 18:10-12 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ’God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.”
2. Many have a nice comfortable, safe dose of spirituality in their lives to make them feel good and safe whenever their thoughts run deep about ultimate questions and eternal destinies.
C. Many feel they are o.k. because of their goodness.
1. i.e. The Rich Young Ruler – Matthew 19:16-20 “Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and your mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
2. According to a recent poll 88% of Catholics and a majority of Presbyterian and Methodist evangelizers [those who actively try to share their “faith”] believe that “if people are generally good, or do enough good things for others during their lives, they will earn a place in heaven.”
D. Many feel they are o.k. because their life is good and God’s not punishing them.
1. i.e. The Prodigal Son – Luke 15:12-13 “And the younger of them said to his father, ’Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal (extravagant) living.”
2. i.e. The Rich Man – Luke 12:16-19 “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ’I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’”
II. Not until one realizes their lostness can they receive help.
A. They must realize that Religion does not save.
1. Nicodemus was a religious man, a leader. He wore the right clothes, he knew his Bible and the Law, He tithed at least 10%. He fasted twice a week or more. He knew how to pray with the right words. And when he walked up and down the streets, people knew that Nicodemus was a man of faith. He was part of the religious elite - a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. Truly he was an extraordinary man. But note what Christ said to him…
2. John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
3. Do you look like a Christian?
Can people look at you and your life and see that you look like a Christian?
Do you read the Bible?
Do you attend a Bible Study group?
Do you use the right sort of words in your prayers?
Do you give more than 10% of your income?
Do you know the Church’s doctrine and the words to the hymns?
Do you wear the right clothes to church?
If you answered yes to all those questions, Congratulations! That qualifies you to be a Pharisee. A good, religious person but that does not make you a Christian or mean that you are saved! But just like Nicodemus as Christ said “You must be born again.” (John 3:7) – adapted from Bruce Stanley, Waitara Anglican Church 2008
3. Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
B. They must understand that Goodness doesn’t save
1. Romans 3:10-12 “As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
2. Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”
C. They must see their true condition.
1. The Prodigal Son – Luke 15:17-19 “But when he came to himself, he said, ’How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."
2. A person cannot be saved unless they admit that they are lost and without hope in this world.
3. Revelation 3:17 “Because you say, ’I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’--and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”
III. The best way make people aware of their lostness is to provide them with a lighted mirror with which to see themselves.
A. Consider the purpose of a mirror. Mirrors help us to really appraise ourselves. How do we look? Is our hair ok? Do our clothes match, are they wrinkled? Do we look acceptable to go out in public?
B. James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
C. God’s Word is an internal mirror which reveals to ourselves what we really are.
D. Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
E. Not only does it reveal to man his lostness but it tells him of the One who sacrificed all to save them.
F. Show video clip: ind-most-bridge-q7m (available from Wing Clips)
G. Man like those on the train goes along oblivious to their impending doom. God the Father not desirous that man perish sacrificed his son to provide a bridge to span the spiritual gap and save man. Man continues on unaware and oblivious. But unlike the video clip man ultimately will be doomed if he does not turn for his deliverance to the One who died that they might live and accept Him as Lord and Redeemer.
