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Many of you will remember, I am sure, the comic Jimmy Durante. He was the man who talked about Umbriago and said things like, "My, what a revolting development this is," and sang that song, "Inka Dinka Doo," and always closed his show by saying, "Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." During the Second World War, Durante was making an appearance

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at a hospital for wounded soldiers. His schedule was very, very tight, and he was to be with soldiers for only about 15 minutes. When he got on the stage, however, he stayed almost 45 minutes. His manager, standing back in the wings, became very anxious because they were so far behind schedule, and when he finally came off, the manager said, "How is it that

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you stayed out there so long when you knew you were only supposed to stay for 15 minutes?" And Durante said, "Come and look at this." And he took the manager over to where he could see out, and in the front row were two GIs. Each one of them had lost an arm in the war, but they were clapping for Durante with the hand of one and the hand of the other. And

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Durante said he simply couldn't turn away from that kind of applause. Well I use that as an illustration to introduce what I'd like to share with you today, which is some thoughts concerning the noble order of Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus. In the end of the Corinthian letter, the Apostle Paul has some personal words for a number

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of different people. They make up the whole 16th chapter. But at verse 15 and following, he writes this, "Now brethren, you know that the household of Stephanus were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer." Then notice

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this verse, "I rejoice at the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence. They refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such men." I'd like to give that recognition today. Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus were those who filled the gap. They did what nobody else on hand could do. They supplied

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the deficiency. The two men there in the front row, each of them had only one arm and hand. They could not applaud for themselves. But together, each meeting the other's need, they could create applause. Those who are part of the noble order of Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus are those who see a shortcoming of one kind or another and move into the situation

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to do what they can do to help out. During Lent of 1985, we had a campaign here in the First Presbyterian Church to raise about $32,000 to put a wing on a hospital in the Cameroon. And for quite some time, the amount of money coming in to meet the goal was very, very little, very, very slow. And we became somewhat discouraged. Were we going to make the goal

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or not? It did not look good. Then one of the members of the church came to me and said, "I think this goal is very important. Whatever the other people do not contribute, I will make up the difference." Now, here was a person who has great abundance, great needs. And he was willing to move in to make up the defect. Now, it turned out that the members of the

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congregation contributed more than what was required, and we never had to call upon this man. But it was a grand thing to have this fellow ready to be a Stephanus or a Fortunatus or an Achaicus and move in to do what he could do to rectify the circumstance. Dick Shepherd was a famous clergyman in London, St. Martin's-in-the-Field. He developed a serious illness, and his doctors

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suggested that he needed a long time away, and he did not have the money for it. Some friends said that they would get together and that they would try to raise the money, but well, their interest waned, and the money was not forthcoming. Then one day he walked into his office, and there on his desk, neatly wrapped up, were pound notes that totaled

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exactly the amount that he needed, and on it a note that he should use this for the trip, but no signature. With a little simple detective work, he discovered that the amount of money had been brought to him by the church sextant, by the church custodian, who was a man who did not have affluent means. And he went to the custodian, and he said, "I

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know you don't have much. This must be almost all that you have, and you brought it in. I can't possibly accept it." And the church, they call him a verger over there, the church verger said, "You'd have taken it if it was from a gentleman," meaning you'd accept it if it was someone rich, but you don't want to take it from me because you know it's a

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large part of my income. And the pastor, whose name was Dick Shepard, replied, "Oh no, you are a gentleman, but I can't accept your generosity because it is so much." And he didn't accept it. The point is that this man was willing to do what had to be done to make up the defect, to make up the shortage, to fill in where nobody else was filling in. And that made

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him a gentleman. That made him a part of what I would call the noble order of Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus. I'd like to point out two principles that are basic to this noble order. The first one is this. Life as we understand it is built on the principle of supplementation. That is, we are made to be dependent upon one another. We sit here

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in this room, it's being heated, it's being lighted, the sound of my voice is being amplified, you used your telephone today, perhaps you used public transportation, you moved on streets and sidewalks that are put in by a caring society. We depend on each other tremendously. Our bodies are designed so that we have two eyes and two ears. We have two hands, we have

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two kidneys. Again and again, there is a pairing that is evident. If one fails, the other comes in to complete the picture. In Romans, chapter 12, the Apostle Paul says that Christians are to be like a body. Now an ear cannot see, and a hand cannot smell. Different parts of the body have different functions, but we are designed to move in a supplementary way

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to one another. What one of us cannot complete, the other is to complete. I saw two lepers once in Africa. One, because of his disease, had no legs. One, because of his disease, had no arms. They got along just fine. For the one rode on the other's back. He used the other man's legs. And the other, having no arms, with which to swat away the flies

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and do the other things that had to be done, such as lifting utensils to his mouth to eat, that was done by the other. Each, you see, completed the other's need. You think of a person like Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a great reformer. He was also a rather crude and abrasive man, but at his side was a very gentle fellow named Philip Melanchthon. And

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with Luther's crude strength and Melanchthon's patient graciousness, an impact was made on the whole society, one completing the other. You think of the great French naturalist, François Hubert. Hubert was blind all of his life, yet he was one of the greatest naturalists of the early part of this century. Why? Because he married a woman named Marie Lulin. And

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Marie Lulin was his eyes. She saw everything and reported it to him with such accuracy and such detail that he became one of the great naturalists of his time. He later said that he didn't really become blind until his wife died. Now there, you see, is one completing the other. And that's what we're called upon to do. The noble order of Stephanus, Fortunatus,

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and Decaecus, says Paul, are those who make up the deficiency, who do that which cannot be done by any others. The second principle to notice about this order is that it always assists by a process of addition rather than subtraction. You do not find the members of this order attacking other people. I mean, if they go to a church and they find they

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are not welcome there, you do not find them being equally inhospitable or complaining about the lack of hospitality evidenced by a cold and uncaring congregation. Quite to the contrary. They go to the church the next week and they become the ones who welcome other people. They fill up the deficiency. They don't just sit back and grouse and gripe.

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They don't say, "There's not enough prayer in this church." They give themselves to a more active and aggressive life of prayer. When I was out in California, I did a preaching mission at the great St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. That's a huge congregation. And they occupy a magnificent plant. It's a very, very impressive circumstance. And

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I had prepared very earnestly for my ministry there. Can you imagine what it meant to me as I was standing in the hall with the host pastor, John Huffman, who used to be the pastor of this congregation, to have someone come up to me and say, "Just before the service, my wife and I, as soon as we heard you were going to be here," and that was in November,

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"we began praying for your time with us." Now, it puts a great deal of wind in your sails when you're going in to speak to someone when you know that two saints of God have been praying for you for three months for just this occasion. They don't complain about the fact that others do not pray. Instead, they pray.

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You see, when you really like something, you tell others about it. If you see a good movie, you tell other people about it. If you find a television show you consistently enjoy, you tell others about it. If you read a good book, you share the title with others. If you really care about what happens at Tuesday noon, you tell others about it. We, when we

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enjoy something or when we find something that thrills us or want to find something to thrill us, tell other people about it. We do not attack. We encourage. We assist. I've always loved the story of Walter Scott. You know, Walter Scott was the Scotsman who was distressed over the fact that chivalry had largely disappeared, and so he wrote a

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series of novels in an attempt to bring chivalry back to Scotland. When Walter Scott died, they had his funeral. He was buried on his own estate, and his horse was called Sybil Gray. That was the name of the horse. And the horse was walking behind the cortege on which the casket of his master was being carried. Now, Walter Scott, when he would ride every

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day, would stop at a certain place and survey a beautiful Scottish panorama, a magnificent view of the highlands. And as the funeral procession moved along, when Sybil Gray, the horse, got to that place, it stopped. The horse stopped. Its master always stopped there, and so it stopped. And then after a few minutes, it went on. And everyone in the funeral knew

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what was happening here. This is where Walter Scott always stopped. And they looked out and saw Scotland as he saw it and dreamed about it and wrote of it. He advertised, even after his death, that which he believed in, that which he wanted to tell others about. The noble order of Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus is made up of people who tell

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others good things, who do good things, who give themselves to reasonable service. They read the Bible and tell others about it. They go to worship and tell others about it. They are active in the things of Christ and they let other people know about it. Never in a braggadocios manner, but always to encourage them to be part of that that fills the deficiencies

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which we encounter in the human experience. You know, there's an amazing verse in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul says, and this is in the first chapter of Colossians, where he says that he completes in his own body the sufferings of Christ. Now, he does not mean that he died on the cross. When Christ died upon the cross, he said, it is finished.

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The work of atonement was done by him, completed by him. He needed no help from anybody. But what Paul means is this, that if Christ had died upon the cross and no one ever heard about it, no one ever told of it, the story was never shared. Well, it would have disappeared in the mists of antiquity, lost as an execution, unknown in a remote Roman province. But there

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were those, like Paul, who went out and began to tell the story. They were the Stephanuses and the Fortunatuses and the Achaicae. And these people went out, apostles and then missionaries. They shed their blood, they shed their tears, they gave themselves in witness. And as they did it 20 centuries ago, so they are doing it today. Here is the truth. We are to be

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so associated with Christ that we make up the deficiencies in one another's lives, in the life of the Church and in the life of the world. And when we do this, each and every one of us becomes, for eternity, a member of the noble order of Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaicus. Let us pray.

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O God, we pray that these words might be used by thy Spirit to some good purpose. If it is thy will, may they bring light where darkness was, peace where distress was, hope where hopelessness was, purpose where there was no purpose. Do this, we pray, in the name of Jesus. And may the peace, poise, and power of Jesus Christ be yours today and throughout

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all of your days. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]