My people were barbarians, just plain dangerous, before Jesus rescued them and saved them from sin. You have to go back a few years because the gospel came to my people a long time ago. It’s a pretty amazing story. My people came from England, and though you might not realize it, before the missionary-evangelists came to English soil, the people there were dangerous. Here’s how it happened.
In the year A.D. 596 a follower of Jesus named Augustine led forty others from the European Continent to England in order to preach Jesus to the barbarians who lived there. The closer they got the more frightened they became. They had reason to be afraid. There was every possibility they would not survive the encounter. Augustine even asked for permission to abandon the missionary journey and return home. Denied permission, the missionary band braved the danger and journeyed into uncertainty.
When finally they arrived, rather than face a violent death, they found tremendous response to the message of Jesus. Even King Ethelbert was open to the gospel message. The Holy Spirit moved in the hearts of thousands. One-by-one they were born again, passing from death to life. And get this: on Christmas Day of the year A.D. 597, 10,000 barbarians were baptized in Canterbury, England! Even today one of the most famous church buildings in the world is the Canterbury Cathedral, and the leader of the Church of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury. This all goes back to Augustine’s ministry over 1,400 years ago when my English ancestors, and many of yours, were rescued from barbarism and hell itself through the ministry of Augustine and his missionary band.
One thing I know about you is that your people, like mine, were barbarians before they knew Jesus. It doesn’t matter from whence they came, they were barbarians before Jesus was brought to their land and entered their hearts.
When I served in Oklahoma, now considered a “Bible-belt state,” I learned an interesting story from its early history. In 1718 a traveler named Harpe passed through the eastern part of what is now Oklahoma. He spoke of meeting native peoples called Tayavayas, who were quite friendly to him. They gave him many gifts, including an eight-year-old Apache slave boy with one finger missing off each hand. It seems the Tayavayas had eaten two fingers, marking the boy as food. They told Harpe they wished they had more to give him, that they had 17 others, but they had made a feast of them.
That’s how it was in Oklahoma before the missionary-evangelists came. And many of the first Jesus-followers in Oklahoma were Native Americans who came to Oklahoma through the “trail of tears.” The first Baptist church in that state was bilingual, speaking both Creek and English.
I thought of these stories recently when I was preaching on one of the most glorious, transformational truths ever revealed: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Each of us individually, and our people collectively, were barbaric in many ways, enemies of God, before we submitted to the Savior who spilled His blood for our sins. While I was in rebellion against Him, while I was shaking my fist in the face of God and demanding my glory, not His, even then Jesus died for me.
The word “commends” is a special word. “God commends His own love.” The word is in the present tense, meaning God’s love is presently, and continuously, being poured out toward us. God’s love is alive and fresh and powerful and is at this moment being poured out toward sinners. How do we know God loves us like this? We know because Christ died for us. Jesus died in one brief hour a long time ago, but that death has an eternal power. His blood spilt in ages past has present power to wash away sins. Jesus’ blood provides a covering of righteousness even now. Jesus shed His blood one time, in one hour, and ever since that day, God has commended that shed blood into the heart of every sinner, every barbarian, who comes to Jesus in faith.
Have you baptized any barbarians lately? Remember, if you don’t reach the barbarian down the street, he might marry your daughter! He might work for you or you for him. Or maybe the barbarian is your own child. God already loves them. And He has experience saving and baptizing barbarians.