Several weeks ago I preached on Philippians 4:2-4 from the sermon series I have called, “Discovering Real Joy.” I have entitled this sermon as “Discovering Real Joy: Get Along in the Lord.” In this message I first talked about Paul challenging Euodia & Syntyche, 2 women in the church with whom he had spread the gospel, to simply get along. Paul took this a step further and challenges us to not just get along but to get along with each other in the Lord. The final point of this sermon is to get along in the Lord with all gentleness. Here is an excerpt of the sermon from the second point of getting along in the Lord: “This is Jesus’ church and we are all a part of the same body of Christ and that should and must transform all of our relationships with each other! When Leonardo da Vinci was painting the Last Supper, he had an intense, bitter argument with a fellow painter. Leonardo was so enraged that he decided to paint the face of his enemy into the face of Judas. That way the hated painter’s face would be preserved for ages in the face of the betraying disciple. When Leonardo finished Judas, everyone easily recognized the face of the painter with whom Leonardo quarreled. Leonardo continued to work on the painting. But as much as he tried, he could not paint the face of Christ. Something was holding him back. Leonardo decided his hatred toward his fellow painter was the problem. So he worked through his hatred by repainting Judas’ face, replacing the image of his fellow painter with another face. Only then was he able to paint Jesus’ face and complete the masterpiece.”
It is a great illustration which makes a powerful point. It was my intention then to elaborate further on this story here in my blog. As I then researched this story further on the internet I then discovered, much to my surprise, that we know very little about the circumstances surrounding the models that Da Vinci used for Jesus and the disciples. Most of the great stories are nothing but folklore. I could have let it go and said nothing about it. No one has questioned the illustration but I could not let it go! I have a strong commitment to making sure that the information that I use in my sermons is accurate and not just great, emotional stories. We as preachers can sometimes be guilty of developing a sermon around a great story instead of finding a story to illustration a point from the Bible. Sometimes we can go to the extent of embellishing a story to make it a little more powerful. I have little or no respect for this kind of preaching! This lacks integrity and can even be guilty of manipulating people and not trusting the work of the Holy Spirit to transform people through the preaching of God’s Word.
In this age of internet and email stories of all kinds circulating this raises the question of what is true and what is not. Just this last year as a tornado ripped through our Central Florida community and almost immediately an email was forwarded of a remarkable picture of one of those tornadoes approaching our area. It was a phenomenal picture. As a matter of fact, it was so amazing that I had a hunch that it might not be true as it was one of those too good to be true stories. I then researched it on the internet and quickly found that it was another forwarded email hoax. We all have received the emails with all the fanciful stories only later to find that there is little or no truth in them. I encourage you to click on this link and read this short article called “Touched By An Urban Legend.” It is an excellent article which sheds light on this issue.
As Christians our goal should be to pass on the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth because we know the truth will set us free! Therefore, the next time we send or receive an email or are tempted to use a great story in a sermon let us first do all that we can to make sure that it is accurate! Then pass it to me because I am always looking for a great illustration for my sermons!!!
