The Sermons of Malcolm Rowland

I have created this section to pass on the sermon notes of my Great Uncle Malcolm Rowland and will be sharing them from time to time, so that he might be remembered.

When my Father passed away, as I was clearing out his office, I found a small, old notebook. It turned out to be the sermon notes of my Great Uncle Malcolm, whom I have never met, but heard of from my Great Auntie Cis.

They had lived in the same house as I had visited her when I was a child, the only house which I have been to which I would describe as truly Victorian. From the furniture of mahogany and cut glass mirrors, to the pianola in the parlour, complete with an aspidistra and the coat and umbrella rack in the hallway. My Dad and I were always greeted by a Victoria Sandwich sponge cake every time we went, served on a red velvet tablecloth.

Born in 1922, my uncle died suddenly at the age of 20, whilst preparing to go to fight in the Second World War.

He never made it onto the battlefield, but died in a training camp in Wroxham, in Kent.

As far as I knew, until that point, my Dad had been the only Christian in our family and we all became Christians after that point.

But on discovering my Uncle’s notebook, I realised that there had been Christians in our family before, a Christian heritage I had previously been unaware of.

Exactly how he died I do not know, but I do know from his sermons how he had lived his young life up until that point, one of serving God as a youth leader in the Crusaders, teaching others to follow Christ.

I am honoured and blessed to know that he is part of my family’s spiritual inheritance, as indeed we are part of his and I honour him here by publishing his sermons for others to read.

Spiritual Lessons of J.M Rowland

5, Tichborne Street,

Leicester.

Matthew 1. 15-27

Lesson 1

The Healing of Jairus’ Daughter

To South Leicester Juniors, June 2^nd 1940

Mark 5.21 – 43

In verse 36. Jairus was afraid – afraid that while he was away, his daughter had died and now it was too late to fetch the Good Physician.

It is surprising how many people you meet as you grow older who are afraid of something or other.

People are afraid of all sorts of things – when we are young, we are afraid of bogies; I remember I used to hold my mothers’ hand very tightly when we met one of these motorcyclists all dressed up in mackintosh leggings and a coat and goggles over their faces because I was quite sure in myself that these were bogies of the worst type.

But you find people afraid of more serious things than bogies.

People are afraid of what we call the ‘Fifth Column’ in this country, ie spies; people are afraid of air raids and people are afraid of death.

And yet, if they only knew it, all these poor people who are afraid of something or other, can if they want, be absolutely free from their fears.

How?

Look at verse 36 ‘Be not afraid, only believe.’

‘Believe’ there means ‘trust’ or ‘rely’. The Lord Jesus says that if we will only trust Him, rely on Him, we need not be afraid of anything – no, not even death. 

I’ll tell you a true story to illustrate this.

There was one a little Chinese lad. I don’t know his name, so we’ll call him ‘Chang’, like all other Chinese boys and girls, was brought up to be very fearful of everything.

If he saw the lightning flash, he thought it was the gods getting angry; if he saw the branches of a tree move, he thought there was a devil in there and so on.

Poor Chang used to jump at every little sound and movement.

But one day he came along to a Mission School and began to learn about the Lord Jesus. He soon heard Jesus speaking to him and saying ‘Be not afraid Chang, only believe.’

And Chang took Jesus at His word and believed, and he soon found that all his old fears were absolutely groundless and that he could laugh at them now.

Now Chang wanted to show his appreciation to the Missionary for all he had done for him, so one day he came along to the Station with a sort of reed pipe or whistle and asked the Missionary if he could play for him.

The missionary said he was very busy, but that he would listen for a minute or so, and so Chang began to play.

Well, some people didn’t like the bagpipes, but this whistle was about 10 times worse than they were and the missionary had to put his hands to his ears and say ‘Yes, thank you very much Chang and now will you go and play it to the cat?’

Now Chang was a Chinese lad so he wasn’t at all insulted at being told to play his whistle to the cat, so off he went in fine spirits to find the cat. He found her asleep and commenced to play to her.

Well, she woke up, stood up, arched her back and finally made for the door – she couldn’t stand it.

Well some time later Chang was working in the rice fields near the mission compound when suddenly a leopard confronted him.

His first instinct was to be afraid and then he remembered – ‘Be not afraid, only trust me.’

He looked the leopard straight in the face trusting the Lord to save him and sure enough, the leopard slunk off. But it didn’t go off in the direction of its den; it went over the wall of the mission compound!

And Chang remembered that on the other side of that wall was the missionary’s baby son alone and unguarded. How could he save the baby? Then a thought struck him – ‘a leopard’s only a big cat; I’ll try my pipe on him.’

So off he rushed, entered the Mission by another entrance, grabbed his pipe and rushed to where the baby was.

He was only just in time, for there was the leopard with his two paws on the verandah, looking at the baby!

Chang began to play and do you know, exactly the same thing happened as when he played to the cat. The leopard looked at him, arched his back and made off for all he was worth!