An Englishman saved the lives of almost 700 children and told no one for 50 years. In the Bible, four men bring someone to Jesus’ feet. We don’t know their names, but their actions still speak to us, reminding us that even the humblest actions can have a life-changing effect.

<p>An Englishman saved the lives of almost 700 children and told no one for 50 years. In the Bible, four men bring someone to Jesus’ feet. We don’t know their names, but their actions still speak to us, reminding us that even the humblest actions can have a life-changing effect.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

The Unsung

Our Father in heaven, we're grateful for your presence with us.

We gather around the Bible asking for your spirit to be poured out.

We pray that you touch hearts and minds and lives and allow us to be impacted by your grace now.

Thirty-six minutes by train from London's Paddington station in England is the town of Slough in the county of Berkshire.

Now Slough is an unremarkable sort of place.

You can find nearly always something remarkable about virtually any part of Great Britain inasmuch as the country is so beautiful, it's so old, it's tremendously historic.

But for a place in a remarkable country, Slough is unremarkable enough.

In 1937, the poet John Betjeman wrote this about Slough.

He wrote, Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough.

There was evidently some concern about rural Slough losing its character as factories sprung up everywhere.

Not long ago, a man died in Slough who was anything but unremarkable.

In late 1938, Nicholas Winton changed his holiday plans.

Instead of skiing in Switzerland, He chose to visit a friend in Prague in what was then Czechoslovakia.

His friend had asked him to help him to work on behalf of Jews.

Jews who were feeling Hitler's noose tighten around their collective neck.

So he began an organization dedicated to saving at-risk Jewish children.

Assisted by Britain's House of Commons, Winton, facing as much red tape as you might expect or more if you're not somewhat familiar with the way these things worked back then, arranged for 669 Jewish children to escape Czechoslovakia and find refuge in Britain.

1 of those who paid tribute to Sir Nicholas Winton after his death was 1 of those very children who grew up in England and became a member of the British Parliament.

Winton was often compared to Oscar Schindler.

You've heard of Schindler, of Schindler's List.

669 children and their families, many of whom perished, might have disagreed with that statement.

But what's really interesting about Sir Nicholas Winton's actions is that the world would never have known about what he did had his wife not stumbled across a scrapbook in their attic in 1988, 50 years after the fact.

For 50 years, half a century, no 1 knew what this man had done.

He was subsequently honoured many times by the British government, the Czech government, by the British royal family, that's why he's Sir Nicholas Winton or became Sir Nicholas Winton.

50 years passed and nobody knew what he had done except for him.

He died 76 years to the day after a train carrying the largest cargo of escaping children left Prague bound for freedom, 241 of them.

Let's begin by turning in our Bibles to Mark chapter 2, to a remarkable passage.

You've seen that picture in your mind's eye before.

If you've allowed your imagination to wander a little further you've entertained comical images of Jesus being showered with dust and detritus – things that would gather on a roof, and you've realized that Jesus might not have minded his dust shower that much at all.

So let's begin reading in Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 verse 1, the Bible says, and again, he entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was noised that he was in the house.

When Jesus showed up, there was some noise.

Now, they weren't all there for entirely altruistic reasons, or to necessarily have their spiritual needs met.

But there were the genuine seekers there as well, and Jesus was there for them.

You know, prospectors might search and search for weeks and months and years trying to find gold.

In the old days they'd trek across the continent, spend time and energy and money quarrying their way through tons and tons of worthless rock.

But they did it because it was worth it when they found the gold.

Virologists and chemists and geneticists and pharmacologists and scientists spend years and years searching for breakthroughs that will lengthen life or relieve suffering, or simply provide some new scrap of knowledge that, added together with other advances, might push back against disease.

It might be years of seemingly fruitless searching, but they do it because they know that ultimately it will be worth it.

1 man, an oncologist at University of California Los Angeles, UCLA, dedicated his career to curing cancer.

But in spite of what he called his murderous resolve, 1 writer said, after many years it was all resolve and no result.

But there he was, experimenting, working in his lab, testing and testing and testing, and through hard work and serendipity and a multiplicity of various factors, the result of his work was something called Herceptin.

Not a magic bullet by any means, but definitely 1 of the most stunning advancements ever in the battle against breast cancer.

Anyone whose life is dedicated to the well-being of others will tell you it's worth the effort, it's worth the grind, it's worth the hassle, it's worth the headache.

You know that in ministry, not all roads are well paved, not all leads pan out, Not all Bible study interests are really interested.

Not all visitors to your local church come back again next week.

On the 1 hand, we work because we cannot tell the gold from the iron pyrite.

And on the other, because God knows that the exercise of being involved in ministry is as good for the minister as it is for the 1 being ministered to.

How many of those people Mother Teresa ministered to actually converted to faith in God?

The impact wasn't in the numbers, but in the action itself.

So for us, ours is to love, ours is to serve.

We do it as intelligently as we might, we give it our all, we give God our hearts as fully as we can, and Then we leave it with God.

When the Bible studies are all done, when the food is all being given to the homeless, when the last health screening has been done and the last evangelistic sermon preached, if we've worked with Jesus, if we've worked in His Grace, we've been more blessed than anyone.

Not long ago, I was at a camp meeting, and I met a young couple.

They started to tell me the story, and then I remembered.

Well, Simon had been baptized and 11 years later here he was still with church folks.

Then, after his baptism, he led his families in the ways of God.

His 3 daughters became active sharing their faith.

When a series of meetings is conducted, you know that the majority of people typically don't make a decision for Jesus.

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The Unsung

Transcript

Description

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Recorded

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Plenary

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1h 11m

Angelic Rescue Team

43m

Tell Them Now!

58m

Plenary

Occupy

52m

Plenary Session

A Touch of Faith

1h 57m

John Chung, Chelsy Jourdan, and Sebastien Braxton: Cubicles and Christ

Transitioning to the Spiritual

39m

Plenary

Committed

1h 58m

God’s Message Through the Missing Missionaries

1h 9m

Plenary

The Lost Sheep

56m

Sound Doctrine