Gospel of the Holy Spirit

Today's Sermon: Acts 10:24-35 - No Favorites with God

2011-08-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Acts 10:24 The following day Peter arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

The more I read about the centurion Cornelius, the more I like him. He’s had an amazing spiritual experience. He’s been sought by God and given a special vision. He’s a man who’s used to power and authority. He understands the need for structure, command, and hierarchy. No one else in Caesarea has been given this divine vision. No one else has been approached by God in such a holy, sacred and powerful manner.

The reason that I really like Cornelius is because of his response to all of this. He could have let it all go to his head. He could have lorded it over the people around him by declaring that he was specially chosen by God. Cornelius could also have kept this deeply personal and profound spiritual experience to himself. The centurion could have convinced himself that he was highly favored by God and kept himself aloof from those around him. But Cornelius didn’t make any of those choices. Instead, he sent for Simon Peter as he was instructed and while he was waiting, he gathered together his relatives and close friends.

His family and friends must have been really important in Cornelius’ life. He goes through this remarkable life changing event. He knows that it comes from God and he feels that something new, something wonderful, something important is about to happen. He wants to share these blessings with the people who are closest to his heart. He doesn’t want all of God’s goodness for himself. He wants his loved ones to experience these blessings too.

So, even before Cornelius hears the Gospel from Peter, he has already begun the process of evangelization. He has reached out to his family and friends so that they may also be attracted to and blessed by God.

This is something that we should all take note of today. We all come to church on Sunday mornings to be forgiven by God for all of our sins; to be cheered and challenged by His word; to be blessed by the presence of His Holy Spirit and to be deeply loved by Jesus Christ. We receive all of these blessings of grace and goodness, holiness and healing, but what about the family members that we’ve left at home? What about the good friends that we love dearly? If we had a heart like Cornelius, we would be inviting them to fellowship and faith all of the time. Why should we be the only ones in our families and circle of friends to be offered salvation? Why are we so fixed upon getting everlasting life for ourselves, that we forget or neglect or reject the opportunities to invite our loved ones to be with us?

Cornelius wanted to get his life absolutely right with God, but he just didn’t want for himself. He wanted all of his loved ones to receive the bounty of blessings that were coming his way. He didn’t see himself as being one of God’s personal favorites. He saw himself as one of God’s joyful servants and he sought to bring his loved ones to that bliss.

Acts 10: 28 He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

Simon Peter has also had an epiphany. God has changed his heart about who can be chosen by God for salvation. When Peter sees the crowd of folks gathered in Cornelius’ house, he immediately tells them that he is breaking with the traditions of his people. Jews were not supposed to enter into the home of a Gentile. So many impure and unclean objects, people, and practices inside a Gentile home would have polluted any God-fearing Jew for a long time.

But Peter’s vision from God has opened up his heart and mind to new possibilities with God. He is no longer bound to the kosher laws or Jewish ways. Peter is beginning a new ministry to the Gentiles which God has initiated. The Gospel is not just meant to be heard by back-sliding Jews; Christ’s message, which has been laid in Peter’s heart, is for everyone who is willing to hear it whether they be Jewish, Greek, or Roman.

Sometimes I have to drive my daughter Lauren’s car. You know that she’s in Boston studying for her Master’s degree in international social Work at Boston College. Anyway, she couldn’t take her car, so it’s left at our house and every couple of weeks or so, I have to drive it in order to keep it running and the batteries charged. I must admit, I’m really embarrassed to do it because of the hippy type bumper stickers that she has on the car. But there is one that really impresses me, which simply reads: “God Bless every nation.” Lauren is such a global person and a world citizen that she does not say “God Bless America” like her Daddy does. She believes that God’s blessing is not exclusive to our nation and so she prays for the whole world to be blessed.

This is what Peter had to learn from God so long ago. As a Jew, Simon Peter his people and nation were specially chosen, blessed, and embraced by God. He believed in their exclusive access to God and that because they were His Chosen people, they were His favorites on Earth. But through the rooftop vision, Peter was told by God that all people on earth were His. As Peter expressed it to the crowd in Cornelius’ home: God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.

Now it could be said by some people that this statement of Peter’s means that everyone is categorically a child of God’s grace, no matter who they are. I would entirely agree with that interpretation. The fact that we are all called by Christ to be part of His worldwide church proves that beyond a doubt. But notice this: this is about who we are as human beings; this is not about what we do as human beings.

God recognizes us as being created beings who are His children; but just because we’re created by God and can claim to be His children does not give us the absolute right to be given salvation. That is not something that we are entitled to because of who we are; that is something sacred that only Christ can give to us when we recognize that we are not just created beings, but also sinful beings who have separated ourselves from God by the wrong choices that we make, the selfish lifestyles that we lead, and the defiant deeds that we do.

Acts 10:34-35 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.

The recent riots in Britain may be the birth pangs of a whole generation that neither fears God nor does what is right. Humanism, secularism, and universalism – of people believing what they want, doing what they want and getting what they want – have engulfed the hearts and minds of an entitlement generation that turns to savagery and violence, anarchy and defiance when they don’t get what they want, when they follow their own ways instead of God’s, and when they are truly ignorant of what is right and what is wrong because those who raised them gave them no boundaries, no manners, and no faith.

When Peter talks to Cornelius and his people, he states that God does not show favoritism but accepts people from every nation who fear him and do what is right! Peter does not say God accepts people from every nation. He qualifies his statement with two boundaries that need to be kept. To be accepted by God, we need to fear, revere, be in awe of God and then we need to do what is right.

This is the message of the Gospel to the gentiles. This is the message of Christ to us. We cannot live our own way and expect God to turn a blind eye to what we sinfully do. There is no where in scripture that states that God tolerates sin. If that was the case, then Christ need not have gone to the cross because His crucifixion was demanded of God as the price for our sins. Jesus did not die for us; He died for our sins.

The right thing to do with that information is to humbly realize that we have caused the death of Christ. And in that act of humility, we need to turn away from our sinful choices and turn towards God’s righteousness. If we fail to do this, if we think that we can live like those rioters in Britain with no respect and awe for God, if we believe that we can freely live as we like and not as God wants, then we are no better than those stupid rioters in the UK.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German theologian, who was tortured and executed by the Nazis towards the end of World War II wrote from his secret journal in jail on August 14, 1944 'God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill all His promises ... leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.'

Peter may not have wanted to give up on his traditional Judaism, but God led him along a new path.

Cornelius may not have wanted to give up on his original Roman beliefs and lifestyle, but God changed everything for him, his family and friends.

We may not want to give up our worldly ways, our cultural choices, and our free and easy lifestyles, but if we want to be saved from our sins, forgiven our mistakes, and granted everlasting life than we must repent in order to be restored, fear God in order to be found, and do what is right by Christ in order to be redeemed by Him. As always, the choice is left to us.

Prayer

Acts 6:8-15 For or Against the Holy Spirit

2011-02-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

Acts 6:8-15 Stephen Seized - For or Against the Holy Spirit

8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

There’s an old black and white British movie called “The Man Who could Work Miracles.” It’s based on a short story of the same name which was written by HG Wells, one of the greatest science fiction writers of the 20th century. The plot is a bit like Bruce Almighty because an ordinary man is given almighty powers to do anything he wants by two angels. They want to see what would happen to the world if a man who didn’t believe in miracles was given the power to do anything that he liked.

Through trial and error, the hero of the story begins to realize how much power he has, but instead of using it for the common good of humanity, he ends up satisfying his own needs. He gets everything that he wants and ends up becoming impatient with the whole world. When he has to wait a whole day for something he desires, he decides to stop the entire world; after all, if he has to wait, then the rest of humanity should wait along with him.

Unfortunately, he forgets that the world is revolving at 2000 miles per hour, so when he commands the whole planet to stop, it’s like pulling the brakes on a high speed train. Everything and everyone is shot into the sky and ends up in space. The whole world is destroyed and the angels’ experiment is an epic failure. They decide to go back in time and stop the man from receiving the gift of unlimited divine power.

I wonder what we would do if we were given the gifts of God’s grace and power? Would we perform great miracles and wonders that would bring glory to God, or would we use that power to enrich ourselves and embrace our desires? Would we work for ourselves and go against the work of the holy spirit, or would we remain humble enough to use those gifts for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom by working with the Holy Spirit?

In today’s passage, we continue the gospel of the Holy Spirit and get to read about the man called Stephen. He has been chosen by the church’s leaders, the Apostles, as a deacon. But he has also been given great gifts by God which he doesn’t use for himself. Instead he performs great wonders and miraculous signs among his people, showing them that God is powerfully present with them through Jesus Christ His Only Son.

I wonder if Stephen was tempted to do otherwise. The people and authorities would have loved him to use those gifts to kick out their Roman oppressors and liberate the Jewish people forever. The mobs would have loved that and the religious clerics would have been ecstatic. If they could get rid of the Roman tyranny and emperor’s dictatorship, the Jewish people would all have been in seventh heaven. But Stephen didn’t use God’s gifts for himself or even for his people; he used them to advance God’s Kingdom and Christ’s ministry. He was not about to go against the Word, way, and work of the Holy Spirit in order to appease the people, his culture, or those who felt victimized. Stephen was chosen by God through the apostles to do Christ’s work. Nothing or no one would convince him to set that aside.

History follows some fairly predictable paths. Because Stephen, like Christ before him, would not use his God given powers for the people, he made enemies of the authorities. They even went so far as to begin rumors, spread misinformation, and openly confront Stephen. Traditional Jews grew hostile towards him and tried to diminish his ministry by attacking him and his message in public. Stephen became a target of the reactionary forces in Jerusalem, but no matter when, where or how they confronted him, they could not stand up against him because the wisdom of the Holy Spirit spoke through him.

A recent survey of church groups across America is showing a large decline in mainstream denominations. Even some large mega churches are beginning to feel the pinch of Christians leaving their humongous campuses. It seems that America is rejecting the old traditional religious comfort zones that we have built amongst us for the last one hundred years. As denominations like the PCUSA scramble to appease the culture and try to be relevant, there is one large group of churches that is still growing: the Pentecostals.

Is it just mere coincidence that those churches which place a higher emphasis on the presence and works of the Holy Spirit in worship, ministry, and mission are still growing? Has both the grace of God and His power been transferred from traditional church groups to those churches who honor Christ’s teachings and dynamically express their faith in the Living and active presence of the Holy Spirit?

If the current trends continue then by the end of this century mainstream denominations will be read about in the history books and not experienced in our present form. The Church will be missional and spiritual, dynamic and powerful in ways that we cannot even begin to comprehend. Our seminaries will become secular centers where people can research and study all manner of religions. And if you think that will never happen, let me tell you this: I graduated from the Divinity Faculty of Glasgow University in Scotland. The faculty had been in existence for more than seven hundred years. There is now no Divinity Faculty at Glasgow which was exclusively used to train people to become ministers; it is now the Department of Religious Studies which is part of the Faculty of Arts and the dean of the department is an Islamic woman.

It won’t happen here? Seven hundred years of history was cast aside in Scotland – most of our seminaries here are less than 200 years old.

But let’s get back to Stephen. When the forces against him couldn’t contradict his wisdom, they resorted to lies, deceit, and false accusations. They had, after all, managed to silence Jesus of Nazareth in this way, so why not try the same tactic with one of his pain-in-the-neck followers. They persuaded some people to turn up and say bad things about Stephen. I guess if those biblical events were happening today, they would have bussed them in from all over the country to shout and protest – it’s amazing how many loud voices can be bought even today with money. They accused Stephen of blasphemy which was a quick way of stirring up the people and bringing about a stoning or a lynching.

They accused him of going against the Law of Moses which was standard practice for setting up a show trial. If enough people took up the chant of blasphemer, then things would get out of control very quickly and Stephen would end up dead. It’s the oldest reactionary move in history: destroy the opposition by continually telling lies. If enough lies are told over and over again, then the people buy into it. The ring leaders are rounded up or slaughtered on the spot. History repeats this again and again and again. Sadly, we’re seeing it take place all over the world right now. Heaven knows what kind of state we’ll all be in by the end of this year.

So what if Stephen was brought up on trumped up charges of blasphemy almost 2000 years ago? What has that to do with us, our faith, and our world? Two words: Said Musa.

What? What’s a Said Musa? Said Musa is a Christian in Afghanistan who is being tried for blasphemy in an Islamic Court under the authority of the Afghan government which we are propping up with our own soldiers and service people.

Musa was one of about 25 Christians arrested on May 31, 2010, after a May 27 Noorin TV program showed video of a worship service held by indigenous Afghan Christians; he was arrested as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy. He converted to Christianity eight years ago, is the father of six young children, had a leg amputated after he stepped on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army, and now has a prosthetic leg. His oldest child is eight and one is disabled (she cannot speak). He worked for the Red Cross/Red Crescent as an adviser to other amputees.

He was forced to appear before a judge without any legal counsel and without knowledge of the charges against him. “Nobody [wanted to be my] defender before the court. When I said ‘I am a Christian man,’ he [a potential lawyer] immediately spat on me and abused me and mocked me. . . . I am alone between 400 [people with] terrible values in the jail, like a sheep.” He has been beaten, mocked, and subjected to sleep deprivation and sexual abuse while in prison. No Afghan lawyer will defend him and authorities denied him access to a foreign lawyer.

Any and every human being who is imprisoned, abused, or tortured for the free and peaceful expression of their faith deserves our support, but Musa is also a remarkable person and Christian. In a letter smuggled to the West, he says, “The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behaviour with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head.”

He added a thing much more important to him, that they “mocked me ‘he’s Jesus Christ,’ spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day. . . . Please, please, for the sake of Lord Jesus Christ help me.

He has not, in fact, even appealed to be released, only to be transferred to another prison. He has also stated that he is willing to give his life for his faith. “Please, please you should transfer me from this jail to a jail that supervises the believers. . . . I also agree . . . to sacrifice my life in public [where] I will tell [about my] faith in Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, [so] other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith.”

That, my dear friends, is a real Christian. Like Stephen, Said Musa is field with the Holy Spirit and will not surrender to his peers, his surrounding culture, his Afghan society.

The questions that we should all be asking this morning are these: Are we dying to appease our culture or are we giving our lives to Christ? Are we Christians in the world or are we a church of the world? Are we for or against the Holy Spirit?

Acts 5:1-11 To Whom Does It Belong?

2011-01-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

A Podcast of this sermon can be heard at the following link:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/stushie/Acts_05-01-11.mp3

Acts 5:1-11

1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. 3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." 9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." 10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Of all the passages in the New Testament, this is the one that I like the least. In fact, I don’t like it at all. It seems so judgmental, unjust, and completely over the top. It comes under the category of using religion to destroy other people. It just doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jesus, His Joy, or even the Gospel.

But then I look at it closer and I realize that this event has everything to do with Christ and in particular His views on greed, insecurity, and money. Poor Ananias and Sapphira suffer from the same character flaw: they don’t trust God with their needs. They want to squirrel away some of their resources to look after themselves, which normally isn’t a bad thing. The trouble is they also want to appear as very generous, charitable, and saintly people to the faith community.

It was Sir Walter Scott who once wrote these famous words:

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we set out to deceive.

Ananias and Sapphira have seen Barnabas give over to the Jerusalem church all of the money he received from some land that he sold. He gave it for the benefit of the faithful community to feed the thousands of people who had become Christian converts in Jerusalem. They had nowhere to stay; they had no work to do; they were separated from their families, but every one of them had needs of food, shelter, and clothing. If the Young Church was going to survive, it had to meet the needs of the faithful. The ministry came from Christ, but the Church and its people were the mission to be supported, financed, and cared for.

Those who had extra resources were counted upon to help the rest. Barnabas sold his land because it was surplus to what he needed. He was praised in front of the whole Christian community for his benevolence, his kindness, and his generosity. He did not seek this attention or blessing from the Church. He just wanted to help others in the community, so he helped by giving away what was surplus to his requirements and giving the proceeds to the Church.

Now, please don’t get the impression that I’m trying to make us all feel guilty about what we give to the church and what we keep for ourselves. That’s not the point of this passage. We give to the Church because we cheerfully want to support the work of Christ that is going on here at Erin. We don’t do it out of duty, obligation, or coercion. We give because we are glad to do so. We give because we are thankful for our salvation. We give because the work of Christ is being done in many different ways at our church.

So this passage isn’t about donor guilt or controlling our charity. It’s much deeper than that because it causes the instant death of two people. It’s a matter of Life and faith, as opposed to lies and death.

You see Ananias and Sapphira commit the unforgiveable sin of lying to and grieving the Holy Spirit. They give their gifts and make a public show of themselves, telling everyone that just like Barnabas, they have also sold some land and they are giving all the proceeds to the church.

But this is not true. Instead of giving it all, they kept some back from themselves. Rather than giving all, they want all the glory given to themselves. They conspire together before the gifts are made. They decide to go through with this deceit and this causes their tragic downfall.

Initially, Ananias makes the gift. He doesn’t do it quietly or secretly. We are told from the scripture that he lays his gift at the feet of the apostles. This doesn’t mean much to us today, but in those days laying your gifts at the feet of someone in authority, also meant that you were giving over your life to their service. So when Ananias is giving over his wealth to the apostles, he’s also making a very public gesture to those around him, that he’s giving his whole self to God, to Christ, and to the church. In other words, he’s making a solemn vow to God through the way in which he is actually making the presentation.

Outwardly, he’s making a public promise to follow and serve Christ and the church fully. Inwardly, he’s letting his pride ruin his promise and he is disrespecting God with his deceit. Publicly, everything looks perfect; personally, Ananias is deluding himself but he is not fooling God at all.

Like everyone I know, I love the Charlie Brown cartoons that Schulz drew years ago. I can remember one cartoon where Lucy and her brother Linus are holding hands and cheerfully smiling at each other. Normally, they would be fighting and arguing with each other. When Charlie Brown encounters them, he soon realizes that they are only being nice to each other because Christmas is coming and they want to get on Santa Claus’s good list. When Charlie Brown confronts their hypocrisy, all that they have to say is this: “Santa Claus is an old goofy man; we’re a couple of smart young kids. He’s no match for us.” To which Charlie Brown just shakes his head and says: “Good grief!”

Perhaps Ananias thought that he was looking out for himself and providing for his wife in a good way. Perhaps both of them believed that God would understand and forgive their debts. Whatever the case, the chief apostle Peter gave both of them an opportunity to repent of their lies and seek God’s grace. Sadly, they both opted for deceit and because of this, they dishonored the Holy Spirit which led to their untimely sudden deaths.

They were guilty of selfishly putting themselves first and seeking to be honored for being selfless. They wanted to wallow in their sin and yet still be treated as saints. They wanted to be glorified whilst at the same time they greedily fed themselves. They wanted Christ’s cake and to eat it all at the same time.

We all do this. We are guilty of putting ourselves, our needs, our opinions and ideas ahead of God and others. I saw an example of this the other day. A driver in front of me had a bumper sticker with an American flag and a yellow ribbon to remember our troops. This is not a bad thing to have, in my opinion, but it was what was written underneath that bothered me. You see the words “Faith, Hope, and Victory” were written under the flag. It was an alternative to the Apostle Paul’s words – Faith, Hope, and Charity. Charity, the gift of God and the blessing of grace to others through the Holy Spirit, was being replaced with a military attitude of winning. In other words, God’s grace was being displaced for a jingoistic partisan belief in Victory – at all costs.

Now I’m sure that the person who had this sticker didn’t think of it as a displacement of God, but that’s what was taking place. Even although supporting our troops is very important, as Christians we cannot let our partisan beliefs displace God and diminish the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The whole Ananias and Sapphira event is so tragic because they had forgotten one crucial thing: everything belongs to God. We never really own anything, we just possess things for a while. Whether its land or property, possessions or collectables, the one true reality is this: when we died, we can’t take any of it with us. Ananias and Sapphira thought that they could set aside a little something for themselves to keep themselves secure, but like the Big Barn Builder of Christ’s parable, they died that tragic day and everything was completely taken from them. Whatever future plans or rainy days that they kept the money for, none of it was ever going to be spent in their lifetimes.

(Prayer)

Sunday 7th November, 2010 - Judge for Yourselves - Acts 4:13-22

2010-11-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

(Sorry for the lack of sermons. The new construction is affecting my routine. I'll try to post the older sermons later in the year.)

Today's post is the sermon I was going to preach this morning, but had to give cliff notes due to heater being broken...:)

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Last week, we left Peter in the company of Christ’s religious enemies, boldly declaring (through the presence of the Holy Spirit) that Jesus was the only way to salvation. I challenged all of us to carefully consider what was being said by Peter and to apply that challenge to our own thoughts about Christ.

Today, we get to read the response that Peter received from the Sanhedrin Council, which you could call Jerusalem’s Grand Jury. It was uniquely made up of both members of the religious moralistic right – the Pharisees – and of the progressive academic left – the Sadducees. Both of these opposing groups had come together to face a new foe – the Christians – a radical grass roots movement that was beginning to upset the status quo.

Both sides in the Sanhedrin were shocked by the simple courage that both Peter and John displayed. These were uncultured and uneducated, unsophisticated and ignorant men. Luke even uses the Greek words ‘agrammatos’ and ‘idee-o-tace’ to describe them, which can be interpreted to mean ‘illiterate idiots’, or as the Scots and some Southerners would say, “Peter and John were a right pair of eejits.”

The Sanhedrin didn’t know what to make of them. On the one hand, they were two coarse and common fishermen from the boonies of Galilee, who were just a comical novelty to the sophisticates of Jerusalem. But on the other hand, a miracle had taken place in which a well-known crippled beggar had been completely healed in the name of a religious rabble-rouser whom they had sent to be crucified by the Romans.

18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

Peter and John were annoying to the temple priests; they were offensive to the self-righteous lawmakers; and they were a potential threat to the recent peace that Jerusalem had experienced after Jesus was killed. The Sanhedrin had to do something quickly and effectively, so they opted for the usual punishment that all reactionary authorities use against radical movements: they threatened Peter and John and censored them from speaking or teaching at all in the name of Jesus.

You know on this day (Nov 7) in 1793, the illustrious leaders of the French Revolution abolished Christianity in their land. They wanted to do away with Christ and set up their own religion where Human Reason, Intellect, and Enlightenment were glorified and worshipped. They tried to replace God entirely by putting their own achievements on pedestals and deifying their own deeds. They even had 2000 churches destroyed and Christian leaders either executed or exiled. But within a decade, their revolution was dead and within a generation, the church was re-established across France.

It seems to be that when Christ and His followers are ridiculed, oppressed, silenced, and censored, then an amazing thing happens: the Church goes underground and begins to grow at an amazing rate. This is what is happening to Christ’s church in China – so many millions of people are becoming Christians annually that within 25 years Communism in China will go the way of that in Europe – it will fail and it will fall – and up from the ruins of a misguided 20^th century idealism, the Christian church will emerge triumphant.

The Sanhedrin thought that they had solved their problem by censoring Peter and John. Little did they know, however, that their troubles had just begun.

19 But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.

In another Holy Spirit filled statement, Peter pushes back against the pressure and conditions that the Sanhedrin was imposing upon the two fishermen. He boldly and defensively, but not defiantly, informs them to judge for themselves what is right or wrong in the eyes of God about their situation. As for Peter and John, they simply insist that they cannot help speaking about what they have seen and heard. In other words, they know the truth about the miracle and no amount of priestly oppression or clerical censorship will dissuade them from preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Every generations of Christian believers since then has had to deal with the same issue. It comes to us in different forms, at different times, through different cultures, and in different circumstances, but the challenge is always the same: will Christianity cave in to societal pressure and seek cultural acceptance, or will it boldly declare the Gospel Truth, even although it may be unpopular?

My friends, the courage of Christianity is found in the faithful lives of ordinary believers who do not give in to peer-pressure, but instead they display divine power in their dedication to Christ. They simply know what is honestly right in a world gone horribly wrong.

Peter and John, by the powerful in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, knew that simple truth on the day they faced the Sanhedrin. On the other hand, the religious leaders had surrendered their hold on God’s truth, in order to appear to be politically correct to the Roman authorities. In their efforts to maintain the status quo and to appease their rulers, they relinquished their divine right to spiritually lead the nation. Peter and John had spoken the truth; they had performed the miracle in Jesus’ Name: they could not deny this, nor could the Sanhedrin…and what was the outcome of their faithfulness to Christ?

V20 All the people were praising God for what had happened! Amen.

Sunday 19 September - Acts 2:29-41 A Good Day's Work

2010-09-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

It just seems like yesterday, but I can remember when the Disney movie, “Mary Poppins” was first released in Scotland. I was seven years old at the time and everybody I knew wanted to see Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke sing and dance and laugh on the big screen. Sadly, I also knew that I wouldn’t get to see it because my Dad was unemployed at the time. In fact, it would be three years later, when my Mom worked as an usherette at a downtown cinema, that I would get to see it for the first time.

The movie was released in Scotland during Easter. To coincide with this, my local Glasgow newspaper had a young actress dress up as Mary Poppins and she went throughout the city subdivisions distributing chocolate Easter eggs. The newspaper even printed where she would be and so on Easter Sunday in 1964, I got up early and quietly left my home to walk about a mile to where Mary Poppins was meant to be. I waited and waited and waited. But Mary Poppins did not come and eventually I went home empty handed and completely dejected. I found out later that Mary Poppins had given away all of her Easter eggs in other subdivisions, so there was no point in coming to where I was. It’s funny, but even today 45 years later when I see parts of the movie on TV, I still remember my disappointment.

The Jewish people had waited for hundreds of years for the Promised Messiah to come into their land and rid them of their enemies. The Christ, the Anointed One, chosen and sent by God, would restore their dignity, their status, and their place at the top of the world as God’s Holy and sacred people. The messiah would solve all of their problems and making them feared and respected by all the nations around them. They waited and waited and waited.

And then their Messiah came, but instead of following Him, they fought with Him. Instead of rejoicing, they rallied against Him. Instead of crowding around Him, they crucified their Messiah. They had missed the moment; they had misunderstood; they had made a major mistake.

When Peter preached to them on the day of Pentecost, he didn’t beat around the bush or mince his words. “This Jesus, whom you crucified, has been made Lord and Christ by God.”

The people in Jerusalem were horrified by what Peter said. They knew that Jesus had been a great teacher, a miracle worker, and a prophet. But now they were being told that the Holy One, whom they had been waiting for across the centuries and generations, had actually been this person Jesus whom they had sent to His death. They had destroyed the One who was meant to deliver them from their enemies. They had falsely accused and executed the Messiah who was meant to embrace and free them.

The terrifying thought that must have crossed their minds was this: if we killed the Holy One who was sent by God, God will be mad at us and will probably destroy our nation. He will give us into the hands of our enemies and everything that we have striven for over the past five hundred years will be gone. (In fact, this actually did happen about 43 years later when the Romans completely Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple). So they asked Peter what they could do to avoid God’s displeasure and wrath. To which Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

That message was not what they wanted to hear. They wanted to be told how many sacrifices at the temple could be made to make them clean. They wanted to be able to repeat many of the psalms in order to be absolved. They wanted to know what religious rituals and temple rites they had to perform to appease God’s wrath and make things better.

Instead, Peter tells them to change their ways and turn their lives around completely. He insists that they ask Jesus, not God or a priest, for forgiveness. And to cap it all, Peter uncompromisingly informs them that they all need to be baptized – in other words to humble themselves and make a public act of contrition, that would identify them with Jesus, in front of the priests who arrested Christ and the Roman authorities who executed Him.

Do you fully understand what Peter is asking them to do? It would be the spiritual equivalent of burning the US flag and giving up our American citizenship in order to say “Sorry” to the rest of the world for our actions. The Jews in Jerusalem believed that they were exempt from this kind of act of repentance and contrition because they made special sacrifices, gave of their tithes, kept religious festivals, read the scriptures, and said their daily prayers. But those traditional rituals were just outward customary practices that showed they were devoted to their religion, but not their Redeemer.

I think that you know where this sermon is headed. We are no different from the people in Jerusalem. Peter is preaching to us just as much as he was preaching to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost. If those Jewish people way back then, who were so meticulous about their old time religion and keeping the faith, had to repent and change their lives completely, are we deluding ourselves today in thinking that we are exempt from repentance just because we come to church, say our prayers, sing our songs, and give our offerings?

When the great Reformer John Calvin, the Father of Presbyterianism, was writing about this passage, he urged his readers to make repentance and to seek Christ’s forgiveness each and every day. If church people were willing to do this, Calvin believed that they would become totally addicted to God and not to religious rites or superstitious beliefs.

Finally, we are told from this passage that Peter continually preached to the people for a long time. Luke writes in verse 40: “With many other words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

He could have been preaching to our world, our society, and even to our Western church today. We have so corrupted our beliefs, justified our mistakes, and so brazenly exhibited our sins that we are all in need of being saved from our generation. We are so far from Christ’s Truth that we have lost His Way and are in danger of losing His life. We crucify Christ through our careless ways; we nail Him to the Cross with our neglect of faith; we execute Jesus by embracing the world’s ways instead of Christ’s.

If we truly want our sins to be forgiven, we need to truly repent and change our ways. Half measures and half hearted attempts won’t cut it. It’s all or nothing with God. Almost persuaded, almost repentant, almost turned around won’t do it. Good enough is not good enough; that’ll do just won’t do at all.

In the end, three thousand people accepted what Peter had to say and acted upon his message. In one day, the local congregation in Jerusalem went from 120 souls to over 3000 members and became the first mega-church in history. It was a good day’s work for the Lord.

The question we need to ask ourselves today is this: are we ready to add ourselves to that number? Are we willing to accept Peter’s straightforward and uncompromising message? Will we make repentance and seek Christ’s forgiveness on this day, at this hour, in this holy moment?

Prayer.

Sunday September 12 - Acts 2:22-28 - Death Destroyed

2010-09-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

Years ago, I had a friend in Glasgow, Scotland, who lived his life for the gospel and Christ’s Church. Every day he was doing something connected to the work of Jesus, whether it was preaching or teaching, leading youth to Christ, or praying and praising God. In fact, one of my other friends once truly remarked: “If Robert didn’t have Jesus and the Church in his life, he would have nothing left.”

That’s almost like saying “If Knoxville didn’t have a university, it would be nothing,” or “If America had not cherished life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it would never have become independent.”

With regard to today’s passage, Peter’s first message could also be characterized in a similar way:

(i) That without the miracles of God in his life, the gospels of Christ would never have been written

(ii) that without the Crucifixion and Christ’s Death on the Cross our sins could never be forgiven and

(iii) that without the Resurrection of Christ, we could never hope for everlasting life.

With no miracles in His life, Jesus just becomes a Galilean itinerant preacher.

Without the Cross, Jesus would have lived to an old age and died in obscurity.

Without the Resurrection, Christ’s bones would have turned to dust long ago, leaving no mark upon the history of the world.

So without the miracles, without the Cross, and without the Resurrection, there would be no Gospels, no churches, and no faith called Christianity.

When Peter preaches about the miracles, wonders, and signs that Christ accomplished, Luke uses three important Greek words to describe them;

Dunamis = powerful works revealing the supernatural character of God …dynamic

Teras = deeds that inspire amazement, marvel, and awe…terror, terrifying

Semeion= signs that point to the spiritual truth about God and Christ…sermon

23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

So, as Peter preaches his message, he emphasizes the miracles of Christ first and foremost in order to connect with his listeners because for the past three years the people of Jerusalem have all been hearing and talking about this miracle worker from the North, Jesus of Nazareth.

The Big Fisherman then talks about the Cross of Christ and His manner of death. He doesn’t mince his words, so he puts the blame for Jesus’ execution into their hands, as well as the Roman authorities. This is either a very brave or an entirely foolish thing to do. Peter is identifying himself with Jesus, who was politically executed by the Roman militia. He could have been arrested on the spot for insurrection, open defiance, and inciting the crowds. Peter was also associating himself with a detested, defeated, and dead religious fanatic. The crowd could have turned upon him at any moment and stoned him to death.

But Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and he speaks with undeniable authority. Perhaps some of the gathered crowd had also been part of the mob that shouted for Christ to be crucified. Most of them, perhaps, had not raised their voices against Jesus, but when He walked through the streets of Jerusalem painfully carrying His Cross, they indifferent and uncaring. As John Calvin stated centuries ago,

“All of them had defiled themselves either with their silence, or else through their carelessness.”

Because Jesus died on the Cross, many Jews did not believe that He was the Messiah, the anointed King from God. This is why Peter preaches to them that Christ’s Death on the Cross was pre-ordained, pre-determined, and pre-destined by God. The Messiah had to suffer death in order to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the people. Jesus had to die to save them all from God’s wrath. Remember, without the miracles, there is no Gospel. Without the Cross, there is no salvation.

And this brings me to a very important teaching moment. Moslems refuse to accept that Jesus died on the Cross. Instead, they falsely believe that God whisked Christ away into heaven and that either Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene took His place. They deny that Jesus died at Calvary and, in so doing, they deny His capacity to sacrifice Himself for our sins. That is why we as Christians should not and cannot worship with Muslims. Without Christ’s sacrificial death, there is no salvation.

24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Without the miracles, there is no Gospel.

Without the Cross, there is no salvation.

Without the Resurrection, there is no hope of eternal life.

The third main point that Peter makes to the gathered crowd is that Jesus rose from the dead. “Death could not keep its hold on Him,” said Peter. To some of his listeners, this would have been absurd. Even today, more than 2/3rds of the world’s population cannot accept that Jesus rose from the grave. As one commentator once wrote:

“No religion stands or falls with a claim about the resurrection of its founder in the way that Christianity does.”

Or as John MacArthur, one of America’s best living preachers said, “The resurrection is the crowning proof that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Without it, His death becomes the heroic death of a noble martyr, the pathetic death of a madman, or the execution of a fraud.”

Peter’s own people could not accept that Jesus was their Messiah because He died. The Messiah was meant to rescue the Jewish nation from their enemies and re-establish their exalted place as the premier people on earth, the holy Chosen Ones of God. What they didn’t realize was that their greatest enemy was not the Romans or the Greeks, Herod or Caesar. Their greatest and most fearful foe was death which meant eternal separation from God. The death rate then, as it is now, and as it shall be until Christ returns, is one hundred percent. Everyone who ever lived in the past is dead. Everyone who lives today will almost certainly die. And everyone who has still to come into the world will also experience death, unless Christ comes back in our and their lifetime.

The Messiah delivers His people eternally by destroying the power of death. He liberates them to everlasting life through His supreme sacrifice. The greatest miracle, the greatest wonder, the greatest sign of God’s love is this – the Resurrection of Jesus.

So, to once again sum up Peter’s sermon: Without the miracles, there is no Gospel. Without the Cross, there is no salvation. And without the Resurrection, there is no hope of eternal life.

Hallelujah! In Christ alone, we have all three…J

Sunday September 5 - Acts 2:14-21 - The Sermonator

2010-09-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

One of the most remarkable things about the Book of Acts is the complete transition that the original disciples go through. Fifty days prior to the Day of Pentecost, they were a bunch of bewildered believers whose leader had been executed. They hid for their very lives and hoped to get out of Jerusalem safely. They were the biggest bunch of losers on the planet. All that they probably wished for was to get back home and put all of this “Jesus the Christ” stuff out of their lives forever.

And then the First Easter occurred which changed them completely, to be quickly followed by this amazing Day of Pentecost. These losers are now the biggest winners on the planet because they have hit the spiritual jackpot. They are filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. They speak in other languages and rush out from the Upper room into the busy streets of Jerusalem to begin their own ministries for Christ.

And the biggest loser of all, Simon Peter the Fisherman, who recently had been scared out of his senses by the accusations of a young maid which caused him to curse and deny being associated with Jesus, was now on point duty for the group and fearlessly preaching a courageous message. He was no longer just a fisherman, he had become The Sermonator! His life was not about catching fish anymore, but now it was about preaching the gospel and catching/fishing for the souls of people, just as Christ had prophesied three years ago.

It’s also important to note that the first work, the first act of ministry of Christ’s Church comes through a sermon. Throughout the centuries, the sermon has been the human vehicle for getting God’s Word out to the world. Peter begins a Christian process that will have a dynamic impact on the lives of billions of people across the ages. Without sermons, the Church would never have been known throughout the Roman Empire. Without preachers like Peter and Paul, people would never have known about salvation from Christ. Even our own Reformed denomination without the fiery sermons of Luther, the doctrinal preaching of Calvin, and the uncompromising messages of John Knox, would never have started or continued.

These days, it’s quite easy to debunk preachers and belittle sermons. Some say its old fashioned, irrelevant, and a poor way to communicate God’s truth. Some people complain that preachers preach too long, go off on tangents, and talk about obscure theological points that no one ever thinks about these days. Sermons were good for Paul and Silas, Peter and the rest of Christ’s gang, but this is the 21^st century, so you can email me, IM me, text me, tweet me, facebook me, and even skype me, but for goodness sake minister, don’t ever preach to me!

And yet, God will continue to use this archaic, old-fashioned, and unsophisticated method to touch the hearts of millions of people throughout this planet today. In African mission huts and American mega churches, the Gospel will be preached. In small adobe churches of South America and medieval cathedrals across Europe, Christ will be proclaimed. In the illegal house churches of China and on street corners in busy metropolitan areas, God’s word will be actively expressed through sermons. Don’t ever underestimate the spoken power of Christ’s church on Earth. The world may want preachers and sermons to go away, but men and women across this planet will forever speak the truth of the gospel and of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, even though their hearts will be pounding and their voices shaking.

So what does Peter preach? How does it relate to his listeners? And what kind of message can we glean from this sermon today?

Firstly, Peter begins by refuting the claims that he and the disciples are drunk. “Don’t be absurd,” he more or less tells them. “It’s only nine in the morning. We are not drunk with the spirit of alcohol; we are filled with the Holy Spirit.”

And then Peter relates what he has just said with an 800 year old prophecy. The prophecy was first spoken by the ancient prophet Joel, who exclusively preached to the people and region around Jerusalem. The prophecy was first proclaimed when the land of Judah was plagued by locusts, sickness, and famine. The people believed that they had offended God by breaking his covenant with them, and so they were being punished for their sins. Joel’s role was to call them back to God through a time of repentance, which would lead to a new covenant with God and a fresh start for everyone.

The citizens of Jerusalem were very familiar with this prophecy, so Peter is claiming its fulfillment in what happened on that Day of Pentecost. He is saying to the crowd that the Holy Spirit can be poured out upon them too, and that they will prophesy, dream dreams and cast visions. This will happen if they will open their hearts and minds to what Peter has to preach, as well as receiving what the Spirit has to give.

When we first began to talk about renovating this church building that we all love dearly, we were all fearful about the process. We’d never done anything like this before and there were times when it felt as though the whole project would fall through because the burden seem greater than we could carry. But as time went on, we began to realize that this was God’s work for our generation, and that no matter how overwhelming it felt to us, God was and is more than able to carry us through this renovation, reconstruction, and renewal.

I don’t know about you, but each Sunday my heart soars as more parts of this project are completed. Through God’s favor, we are rebuilding this place and more people are coming to see what’s going on. As we add walls and rooms, we also grow in God’s Word and Spirit. As we reconstruct the entrance, we are also rebuilding our faith. It’s not only the pouring out of the concrete that is changing us, it’s the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. I talk to you constantly about the old Greek word ‘epiklesis’ which is the sanctifying of the church through the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit. Well, look all around you inside and outside of this sanctuary – you’re seeing epiklesis in action – you’re witnessing a sanctifying by the Holy Spirit before your very eyes!

As Peter ends the first part of his sermon, he quotes Joel’s words, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” This touches upon one of the biggest questions that people all over the world express: “Do we all go to heaven when we die?” Surely if this is a prophecy which has been fulfilled at the first Christian Pentecost, then it must mean that everyone is saved.

But if we play close attention to the words, we will realize that salvation only comes to those who know the Name of the Lord. You cannot call out that Name without knowing who to call. Or as that other courageous preacher in Acts once wrote in his letter to the Romans:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?

How can they hear without someone preaching to them? And what is the Name of the Lord? Simon Peter, the Big Fisherman and Great Sermonator, will explain it to us next week. To paraphrase the words of the Governor of California: “He’ll be back!”

Links

Biography on Saint Peter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter

History of Book of Joel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Joel

What is a sermon?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon

Home Study and Personal Reflections

1.         What made Peter stand up in front of the people in Jerusalem and preach?

2.         Why are sermons used by God to convey His message to people?

3.         What is the best sermon that you have ever heard? How does it affect your life today?

4.         What vision do you have for your life? What dreams are being realized at the church?

Sunday August 29 - Acts 2:1-13 The Day the Spirit Came

2010-09-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Christian Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in the Upper Room at Jerusalem has been described as “A turning point in the history of God’s kingdom” and as “A Spiritual Renaissance in the history of man.”

This amazing event which saw the Christian church being established on earth, took place on the Jewish festival of Pentecost. Fifty days after the Passover celebrations (7x7 +1), the Jewish people held another feast which had agricultural and religious connections.

Agriculturally, it was the time of harvesting the early crops of the season, so it was a celebration of the first fruits. Theologically, it was also the time when the Jews commemorated Moses bring the Law (Ten commandments) to the Hebrew people.

Symbolically, this meant that the coming of the Holy Spirit is both the first fruit of Christ’s Church on Earth and the promised fulfillment of the Law. This is the actual transition of the Old Covenants into the New Testament. As Christians, we no longer live in the time of religious law; we live in the New Age of the love of Christ!

John Calvin stated that this miraculous event took place on Pentecost in order to make the event more famous – Jerusalem was filled with many pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean and Middle East. In the great assembly of people, there would be greater fruit (testimony and witnesses) of the event.

This is why worshipping collectively at church each week is also important. We come here to worship God, but this is also a sacred time when we are spiritually inspired, empowered and equipped TOGETHER to make us more EFFECTIVE in the surrounding community (eg. 1x1 = 1 witness …140 x1 = 140 witnesses)

The crowd assembled in Jerusalem according to religious customs and Old Testament commands. Thousands of them would leave empowered and embraced by the Holy Spirit to begin the Church around the world.

NB EKKLESIA = Greek word for Church which means “those who are called out”

I preached from notes that morning and need to rewrite this. Updates will follow, as well as study notes.

Last Sunday - No sermon

2010-08-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

It was Rally Day at Erin last Sunday, so there was no sermon from me. This coming Sunday (29 August) I'll be taking up from where I left off. The passage for the week will be Acts 2:1-13 - The day of Pentecost.

Sunday 15 August - Faithful Witnesses - Acts 1:15-26

2010-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest issues that the Church is facing today is about the authority of the Bible. People question whether or not a holy book which sums up human history in just over six thousand years and took 1500 years to compile is relevant in the 21^st century. Because of this, traditional customs and values are constantly being scrutinized, challenged, and changed. What was good enough for Paul and Silas may be good enough for old time religion but, according to some, it certainly isn’t good enough for modern people.

Today’s passage from Acts deals with similar questions. Luke continues to write about the beginning of the Christian church as an apologetic, an answer, and as an historical and theological reply to those who were asking such questions as:

Where did Peter get his authority to preach? What makes the Gospel different from other religious messages? What really happened to Judas Iscariot and did Jesus make an almighty mistake in choosing him in the first place?

I’ve mentioned to you to look out for and watch what the Holy Spirit does throughout the Book of Acts. In today’s passage, several noteworthy things and teaching moments take place. Luke writes that Peter stood up amongst the Gathering and suggested that they find a successor for Judas. Peter believes that this is necessary to perfect their leadership number of twelve in order to maintain continuity with the twelve tribes of Israel.

Peter also states that Judas’ betrayal of Christ was foretold a thousand years beforehand, through the work of the Holy Spirit inspiring King David as he composed several psalms. This maintains the continuity of the first Christians with their Jewish roots, but it also showed them that the Holy Spirit had been working for centuries in the sacred history of Peter’s people in order to bring about salvation through Christ.

This is very important for us to understand and accept because it deals with the authority of scripture, which is one of our major issues facing our people today. The Holy Spirit actively inspired David to write words in his psalms which became fulfilled prophecies in Christ’s lifetime. The Holy Spirit did this and we need to remember that. As John Calvin wrote five hundred years ago, “Such manner of speeches bring greater reverence to the scriptures… (because) …they were directed by the Holy Spirit.”

This is why I personally think it that questioning the authority of the scriptures is not something to be undertaken lightly, or to glibly cast aside the Bible because of its cultural contexts. The great arrogance and mischief can arise when we question Biblical authority because we are in danger of saying and believing that we know better than the Holy Spirit about the Word of God. And that, my dear friends, was the very first temptation and sin in the Garden of Eden when the serpent tempts Eve beginning with the words “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1)

But why is Peter mentioning Judas at all and why does Luke fill in the details about Judas’ death?

Peter is bringing resolution for himself and the rest of the Gathering. Judas had been with them for three years. Despite his obvious faults, he was still one of them. John Calvin stated that “It is not to be doubted that the disciples did remember Judas with grief and sorrow.” In the midst of all their joy about the Resurrection of Christ, the shadow of Judas’ betrayal and tragedy of his death still affected them. To bring closure to their sorrow, they have to appoint a successor. To find relief from their grief, they have to accept that the Holy Spirit foretold this long ago.

Luke fills in the details about Judas’ death and his gory ending, not because he wanted to shock his readers, but because in Luke’s time there were already rumors surrounding what had actually happened to the traitor. Some misguided Christians, who would later be known as Gnostics, began to think that Judas did not commit suicide but that he nobly sacrificed himself by taking Christ’s place on the cross. Their stories are very similar to what Charles Dickens would write 1800 years later in his famous book “A Tale of Two Cities” where the anti-hero Sydney Carton dies at the guillotine in place of the hero Charles Darnay. No doubts the Gnostics of the past would love to have borrowed Dickens’ words and place them in the mouth of Judas Iscariot as he died on the Cross for Jesus: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

But this never happened, which is why Luke includes the gory details about Judas’ death – a fatal falling to the ground which causes his stomach to burst open and all of his intestines fall out – which happens when someone dies and dangles from a rope for a while and then the noose breaks. (This is also why in England traitors were hung and disemboweled).

This in turn brings us to another question: did Jesus make a mistake in choosing Judas in the first place, or as John Calvin put it: “It seems a strange thing that Judas, who was chosen by Christ for such an excellent ministry, should fall so filthily.”

Did Jesus make a mistake? Well that’s like asking “Did God make a mistake in creating Adam and Eve?” The short answer to both questions is a loud and affirmative “No.”

The mistakes that were made by Judas, Adam, and Eve were all committed through their own free will and subsequently their own foolish choices. Judas fell away, not because he had been compelled to through prophecy, but only by the malice of his own heart. John McArthur, a great contemporary preacher that I admire, has this to say:

“Judas represents the greatest example of wasted opportunity in all of history.”

McArthur also goes on to say: “Although he was counted among the apostles and received his portion in their ministry, Judas was obviously never saved.”

“Judas was obviously never saved.” We all make mistakes and Judas tragically paid the price for his act of betrayal. He couldn’t live with himself or of the fact that he had placed Christ into the hands of His enemies. If Judas had been saved, he might have heeded Christ’s warning to him before the Last Supper. If Judas had been saved, he might have been able to go into hiding and come back to Christ after the Resurrection and plead for forgiveness. Had he been saved and if he had done that, Judas would have been shown mercy by Jesus and fully restored to God’s favor. But Judas was not saved and so he believed that God could not help him, nor could Jesus be gracious to him. And so the tragedy of Judas lies not in the sad fact that he committed suicide, but that he did not give Christ the opportunity to forgive him. He died in his sins, instead of being saved from them.

When Peter talks about the need to find a successor for Judas, he also lays out the conditions and qualifications for such a person. It would have to be someone who was with Jesus from the very beginning and who had seen the Risen Christ. In other words, it had to be someone who had remained a faithful follower of Christ, and an exclusive witness of his Resurrection. This new apostle would have to preach the Gospel and take the exclusive message of the Resurrection to other people. He would have to have been taught personally by Christ and have been an eye witness to the post-resurrection appearances of Christ. In other words, he had to validate his faith with personal accounts of who Jesus was and what actually happened after He rose from the dead.

This brings us to a very important point about sharing the gospel. Many misguided Christians believe that sharing the gospel is about good deeds, kind words, and nice acts of compassion. These are wonderful things to do on behalf of the church, but sharing the gospel is not about how many good deeds we get done in a day. Sharing the gospel has always meant one important thing – it is about telling a dying world full of dying people that Christ still lives! Without the Resurrection, there is no gospel, and without the constant telling of the Resurrection, there will be no salvation. As Paul the apostle once wrote to the church of Corinth, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

Finally, a successor is chosen. The Upper Room Gathering of about 120 people selects two candidates and leaves the final choice up to the Holy Spirit using the customary method of applying lots. This is the last occasion in the Bible that lots are used. After the Great Day of Pentecost, lots will no longer be needed because the Holy Spirit will directly guide the apostles and Christ’s church.

The use of lots is not like throwing dice or picking door prizes. The apostles use the lots as a sacred means of giving the final decision over to God. This is not spinning the bottle, the tossing of a coin, or hoping for a win. This is sacred nomination and final affirmation given by the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us that they say together a very special prayer: Then they prayed, "LORD, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry...."

Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, Matthias is chosen, whose name actually means “The gift of the Lord.” We don’t hear anything else about this new apostle in the Bible, but some ancient documents of the early church say that Matthias first preached the gospel throughout Judea and then he went down into Ethiopia and Sudan to preach to cannibals and pagans. He was eventually crucified, so Judas’s successor actually went to the cross for the sake of Jesus and his Gospel.

So what have we learned today? (1) The Holy Spirit has been at work for thousands of years. (2) Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so we should all be wary of believing that we know better than the bible. (3) If we are open to the Holy Spirit, then He will guide us clearly; but if we become divided, we will end up making bad choices as a Church and will suffer the consequences.

Prayer: Lord, You know everyone’s heart here today. Show us the way, through the Sacred Presence of the Holy Spirit, that our church should take to fulfill Your ministry and mission in this community. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Study Resources

Links

John Macarthur’s Bible Study page: “Grace to You”

http://www.gty.org/

Apostle Matthias Information

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10066a.htm

Home Study and Personal Reflections

1. What made Peter suggest that the Upper Room group needed to choose a successor to Judas??

2. What do you think about Luke’s account of Judas’ death? What makes us feel sorry for Judas?

3. How much of a priority is Christ in our lives? Do we ever allow other things to take His place?

4. Where does the authority of the Bible come from? Why should this make us cautious about criticizing the Scriptures?

Sunday 8 August - All in the Family - Acts 1:10-14

2010-08-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

Acts 1:10-14

A couple of years ago, when Evelyn and I took our youngest daughter Lauren to the airport to start her journey and mission trip to Tanzania, Africa, we waited with her up until the last possible second. We stood in line with Lauren to make sure that her tickets and luggage were validated. We walked her up to the security gate and hugged her just before she got into line. We watched her go through the security system and saw that she picked up her carryon bag and shoes. She then turned the corner and disappeared out of view. We just didn’t want to let go of her physically or emotionally until she was totally out of sight. And before the terrible events of 9/11, we once would have waited until the flight took off and watched the plane until it went up into the clouds.

The disciples felt the same thing. They peered intently at the sky until their eyes were sore. They didn’t want to lose sight of Jesus. They wanted Him to always be there. They didn’t want to give Him up emotionally because once He was gone from view, then the responsibility of His Mission and God’s kingdom would firmly be placed upon their shoulders.

Perhaps they were also hoping that Christ would change His mind, turn around, and head back down to Earth. If that was the case, then they were quickly given a reality check by the two angels who suddenly appeared beside them.

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

This was the first lesson that the disciples were given without Jesus being present after the Resurrection. This also became crucial to their ministries and mission, their preaching and message. Christ would return, suddenly and surprisingly. No amount of wishing would bring Him back before His appointed return, but when it did happen it would occur swiftly and suddenly, without words or warnings.

So this shaped their discipleship of Christ. They were to live their lives appropriately as Christ’s followers and in the strong belief that Jesus would return at any time.

Two thousand years have almost passed since that day of the Ascension and we have perhaps grown complacent about Christ’s Second Coming, but let’s seriously remember this: we are now two thousand years nearer to His imminent return than these first disciples ever were – should that in itself not make us more careful and circumspect about how we live our Christian lives? We are, time-wise, nearer to Christ’s Second Coming than any generation before us, so instead of being complacent, shouldn’t we be even more prepared?

I find it interesting to note that John Calvin, the great reformer, uses this passage to support his argument against the transubstantiation doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. They believe that the bread and wine in Communion actually becomes the real body and blood of Jesus Christ. John Calvin argued that because Christ ascended into Heaven, and would not return to Earth until God’s appointed time, His actual body and blood could never be present with us. If that was the case, then it would mean that Jesus had broken His promise and disobeyed God; it would also mean that the two angels lied. For Calvin, Christ’s Spirit is present with us in the preaching of the Word and the celebrating of the sacraments, but Jesus’ physical presence won’t ever be experienced on Earth again until He finally returns at the Second Coming.

Talking about returning, the disciples eventually walk away from the Mount of Olives and head back into Jerusalem. This is a very brave thing to do – they are headed back into the heart of enemy territory where Christ Himself had been arrested, tortured, and executed. At any given moment an informer, guard, or even a priest could have recognized them as Christ’s followers.

We are told from Luke that the distance was a Sabbath Day’s walk, which meant that it was only three quarters of a mile of a journey. They head upstairs to a large guest room which may have been the same Upper Room where Christ shared their Last supper together before His crucifixion. This location would help them to keep emotionally connected to Christ, in much the same way that we all feel when we visit a family home, a past workplace, or even an old church that we used to go to. In that room, they had shared Christ’s last moments of teaching and giving. As they broke bread together and prayed there, they must have re-experienced that holy and sacred time.

This is why I think it’s important to bring our families to church on a regular basis. We need to give them a sanctuary, a trysting place, a holy place of worship and prayer in their lives. It’s really important for them to feel spiritually loved and embraced by God in His House. And it’s especially important for our new college students and school leavers. They need somewhere to come back to and belong, to pray in and worship, especially during crucial times and major issues in their young lives. If it was good and healthy enough for the first disciples to return to the upper room, it’s also good for all of us to return to those holy and sacred places that have impacted our lives with the presence of Christ.

Luke mentions the names of the eleven disciples who return to the Upper Room. At one point, ten of them, excluding young John, had run away from Christ when He was being crucified. Now they all return together, obeying Christ’s last command to wait in Jerusalem. They did not know what was going to occur, but they also did not question Christ’s command.

For at least ten days, they would have met together in the room with some of Christ’s own family. This would have brought about some interesting group dynamics and an intense therapy session for all of them.

Think about it for a moment; Christ is gone, so the old wounds amongst them may have opened up. There was John and James, the ambitious sons of thunder who went to Jesus in secret and asked for favorable places of prominence in Christ’s Coming kingdom. They even caused an argument within the group about who was the greatest among them. Now with Jesus gone up into heaven, the old argument could have quickly resurfaced.

And then there was Peter, who had proudly declared that he would have laid down his life for Christ, and yet he had been scared off by a mere girl, a serving maid outside the Sanhedrin.

Added to the mix, were Jesus’ own family members – his mother and his brothers. From the gospel passage that we read this morning (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35) we know that before His Resurrection that they didn’t fully support Christ’s ministry. At one point, they thought that He was crazy and anxiously sought to bring Him back home before He did Himself any damage.

So you have all these people, followers and family with major dysfunctions and they are gathered together, almost like a funeral party, to mourn Christ’s absence and grieve His disappearance.

But something almighty has changed them…and that change has occurred through the Resurrection. They have seen Christ alive after being dead, and so their lives will never be the same again. There is no ‘greatest’ amongst them because Christ’s greatness cannot be equaled. There is no denial amongst them, because they have seen Jesus with their own eyes and heard Him speak with their own ears. And there is no fear of craziness or insanity in Christ, because He has proved to them who He actually is – the Savior of the world and the Everlasting Son of God.

And so this time in the Upper Room becomes a sacred moment of peace and reconciliation, humility and fellowship, recommitment and restoration. They all joined together in constant prayer – praising God for what had occurred and communicating with Christ’s Spirit. They could not see Him or touch Him, but through focused and determined prayer, they could feel His presence with them as they spiritually connected to Him. They were beginning to become a family of faith. They were beginning to become what we would one day call ‘church.’

So to sum up, what have we learned from this passage today?

Firstly, that Christ will one day swiftly, surprisingly, and suddenly return, therefore we should live each day as Christians who expect His imminent arrival.

Secondly, that Christ invites and brings together failures of all kinds to become His followers, and that we each have a holy and human need for sacred gathering places.

And finally, that to become church, we need to constantly pray together, worship together, and just be together, so that we may experience fellowship as a true family of faith.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for returning to Heaven so that Your Church could be established and that we, two thousand years later, may be given the opportunity of being restored to God through the forgiveness of our sins. Help us to become a loving family of faith, a compassionate congregation, and a community church of disciples and followers, servants and messengers. In Your Holy Name, we humbly and thankfully pray. Amen.

Home Study and Personal Reflections

1. Why do you think that Jesus returned to Heaven and did not stay on earth to be with His disciples and family?

2. How can we live our lives each day as if we are anticipating Christ’s imminent return? How will that belief affect our everyday choices?

3. Where are the sacred places in our own lives? In what ways do we experience Christ and faith there?

4. How can we make our church more effective at making us followers of Christ and a true family of faith?

Other Resources

Mount of Olives

http://tinyurl.com/ydcefhb

Ascension of Jesus

http://tinyurl.com/5w4zfm

Being the Church 2 by William Loader

http://tinyurl.com/26sh3tl

Kids Pages –Jesus Ascends

http://tinyurl.com/2feg26j

Sunday 1 August - Serving by Waiting - Acts 01:1-9

2010-08-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

The best way to begin this two year study of Acts is to understand the basic questions of who, what, where, when, and why about the written word. I know that it sounds like Journalism 101, but it’s important to know what the background was of this remarkable book in order to recognize how it should impact our church and our lives today.

Who wrote the book is relatively easy to answer: it was Luke, the glorious physician, a convert to Christ, the writer of the third gospel and a travelling companion of the apostle Paul.

In one of the documents of the second century, we are given a brief biography of him.

“Luke was a Greek speaking native of the Syrian city Antioch, by profession a physician. He had become a disciple of the apostle Paul and later followed Paul until his martyrdom. Having served the Lord continuously, unmarried and without children, filled with the Holy Spirit he died at the age of 84 years.”

“Who is the book about?” is a question that has various answers. Firstly, the Book of Acts is about the work of the Holy Spirit and how His powerful presence established the Christian Church. Secondly, the book is about the ministries of Peter, the Big Fisherman, who was part of Christ’s original band of twelve, and also of Paul, Christ’s Chosen Apostle to the Gentiles, who were the non-Jews living in various communities and cities along the Mediterranean. Other characters and disciples appear in the Book of Acts, but Peter and Paul are the main heroes in Luke’s account.

Who was the book written for? Luke addresses this in the first verse – it’s written to a person called Theophilus. The name is Greek and it means “God seeker” or the “one who loves God.” Theophilus may have been a real person, esteemed by Luke for his influence and perhaps wealth. He may also have been one of Luke’s former patients. He could also have been someone who was being instructed in the faith, which may also mean that “Theophilus” is just a general term for anyone who wanted to become a Christian in the newly formed churches of the Mediterranean.

Now we turn to the question of What. What is the Book of Acts?

Firstly, it’s an historical document which relates the initial experiences of Christ’s disciples in the wider world after the Ascension of Christ. The Great Reformer John Calvin and the Father of Presbyterianism wrote that “if there was no Book of Acts, then it would appear in history that Christ’s ministry ended with His Ascension.” In other words, if we did not have Luke’s account, we probably would never have heard of Christ at all.

The Book is also an accurate historical document because Luke is very careful in listing the details, names, and powers of various rulers and governors in the Roman Empire. This adds authenticity to what is written and is also a valid insight into how cases and appeals, citizenship and authority were experienced in the first century.

The question of When the book was written has puzzled many biblical scholars. Some used to think that it was written centuries later after the events as an historical story in much the same way that authors today write about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and other patriarchs of the American War of Independence.

These days, most scholars agree that the book was written and completed about AD 63 – 1900 years before President Kennedy was assassinated and approximately 36 years after Christ was crucified. The conclusion that it could not have been written later than AD 63 is based upon several reasons.

Firstly, the Roman Emperor Nero began to persecute Christians in AD 64. Throughout the Book of Acts, Roman leaders and governors whimsically and sometimes favorably interview Paul on several occasions. After AD 64, this could not have been the case because the Roman authorities became hostile towards adherents of the Faith.

Secondly, both Peter and Paul were strongly believed to have been executed during Nero’s persecution. Because Luke is so detail oriented, he would certainly have contained those events at the end of the Book of Acts. Their deaths are not mentioned, so therefore we conclude that the book was written before AD64.

And thirdly, the Jerusalem Temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in AD70. If Luke had written his historical account much later, he would certainly have included such a cataclysmic event in his narrative because it had such a profound effect upon the young Christian community and was indeed a fulfilled prophecy that Christ had foretold during His Earthly ministry.

Where the Book of Acts was written has several answers. The first half of the book may have been written in Jerusalem or even Luke’s hometown of Antioch, where followers of Christ were called Christians for the very first time. Some of it may have been written later in Rome to help the Gentile Christians there understand the roots of their faith.

Curiously, the latter parts of the book read like a personal journal which Luke recorded as he travelled with Paul, which means that it was written on the go. As a writer myself, I believe that Luke used his journal as the source material for his descriptions of the events in Paul’s life. For some reason or another, (perhaps the outbreak of persecution?), Luke did not get around to editing the last part of the Book of Acts, which is why it reads more like a raw travel log rather than a carefully crafted and creative narrative for his readers.

Our last question, as a means of introducing us to the Book of Acts, is perhaps the most important of all – why did Luke write such a book, after all wasn’t the Gospel enough for any would be follower of Christ?

Several suggestions to this question have been made. Firstly, some suggest that when Paul was put on trial in Rome before the Emperor, Luke’s account was the actual defense document that was used to try to influence Nero to give Paul a favorable judgment. If that was the case, then it failed completely.

Secondly, the document may just have been Luke’s memoirs, written for himself and close friends to re-experience the good old days, in much the same way that we all experience past events when we read family letters or personal journals from decades ago.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the Book of Acts was a permanent historically written record of the initial events that saw the empowerment and establishment of the Christian church. It was meant to be read by future followers of the faith as a means to teach them about Christ, His message, the Holy Spirit, and God’s ever expanding Kingdom here on Earth.

It is this last suggestion that is so important to us today. As we read and study the Book of Acts, we will come to recognize and understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is revealed through the witness, testimonies, and stories of real people. It will help us to know what Christ did through the Holy Spirit long ago, so that we may see and know what He is doing in the church and world today. As Calvin also wrote, “Christ conquers the world with simple souls who become the voice of the Gospel…and the Holy Spirit is the power of the Gospel in the world.”

So that’s some of the background to the Book of Acts, but what can we quickly learn from today’s passage?

Acts 1:1-9

Firstly, the Book of Acts begins in the forty day period just after the Resurrection. Christ appears to His followers, giving them many proofs that He was alive, and teaching them about the kingdom of God. These signs and proofs were vitally important to Christ’s followers because whenever and wherever they preached the Gospel, the first question that would be asked is one that is still raised today: how do you know that Christ rose from the dead? And the answer to that question was deeply personal and meant that they would have to make a lifetime commitment to Christ: they would simply answer: “I know it’s true because I was there to see Him.”

Secondly, Christ commands them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. To a certain degree, Jesus is testing them and showing them that patience is a sacred means of serving God. Perhaps some of them, like Peter, wanted to immediately get out and tell the whole world about Christ’s Resurrection and Salvation. If they had done it without waiting, praying, and pondering then Christ’s ministry would have soon collapsed because they would have been doing it on their own strength. Waiting for the Spirit stopped them from being hasty and superficial. Waiting on God’s promise was a way of respecting Christ’s teaching and of truly giving themselves to God’s work.

At this moment in time, we are going through a similar experience. This church is in the process of being renovated, but a greater event will follow if we wait patiently for the Spirit. By the end of November, the contractors will have moved out and we will then want to move on ahead with the reinvigoration, resurgence, and resurrection of our congregation in this community. However, if we do this on our own, we will soon run out of steam and all this new building will be worthless to us. But if we truly wait, pray, and ponder for the Spirit, then there will come a time when we will know when, where, and how Christ wants us to use the betterment of our church for God’s work and kingdom in this community.

Finally, Christ tells His followers that He is appointing them as His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the Earth. They were to become His ‘martuses’, the Greek word for witnesses, from which we derive the term “martyrs.” They were to spend, give, and perhaps even sacrifice their lives for His ministry.

They were to be Christ’s martuses in Jerusalem, the heart of the conservative, traditional and religious powers of the Jewish people.

They were to be Christ’s martuses in all of Judea, the center of Herod’s authority and of Roman imperial power.

They were to be martuses in Samaria, the community of religious outcasts who were despised by the Jews and treated as heretics. They were the illegal theological immigrants in the Holy Land and enemies of God’s chosen people.

And finally, they were to be Christ’s martuses to the ends of the Earth. In other words, no one and nowhere were ever to be excluded from the hearing of the Gospel. All people everywhere, in any time and place, were to be given the message of the Gospel.

The questions that we need to ask ourselves today are these: are we willing to wait for the Holy Spirit? And where does Christ expect us to be martuses for Him in our everyday lives and to our local community?

LET US PRAY

Lord Jesus, we praise You for the inspired and historical writing of the Book of Acts. We pray that we may open our hearts and minds to the many messages that this sacred record contains. We also ask for patience and the ability to serve You by waiting for the Holy Spirit to come among us. Bless us now with Your love and compassion. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Home Study and Personal Reflections

1. Where do you see the Holy Spirit working in the life and work of our congregation?

2. How important is it to wait upon the Spirit’s guidance before we make important decisions?

3. Where should our church be witnessing to the people of this community?

4. How do we share our faith with other people? What would make us more effective?

Other Resources

How to be a Disciple by Dallas Willard

http://tinyurl.com/c7xae2

Scripting the Transformation by Amy Butler

http://tinyurl.com/33uu9xv

Bible study Questions by Ray Bucknell

http://tinyurl.com/2uuyx92

Kids Activity – eBible for kids – Jesus Ascends

http://tinyurl.com/332wt32

Sunday 25 July - Where Are We Going? - John 6:60-69

2010-07-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

I think that if the great patriotic writer of the American Revolution Thomas Paine were alive today and if he was a church member of a mainstream denomination, he might be inspired to write something like this:

“We are living in times that try the souls of loyal church people. The irregular attender and the nominal Christian will, in this present crisis, shrink from service of God’s Kingdom, but whoever stands by Christ now, deserves the love and thanks of future generations. Heresy, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What grace we obtain too cheaply, we will esteem too lightly: it is only sacrifice and cost that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; so it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as the BIBLE should not be highly rated.”

My friends, for some time now, I have been deeply troubled with the theological divisions that our national church is currently experiencing. I have wrestled with its present policies and latest decisions with regard to ordination and marriage. I have tried to be open to the bidding of the Holy Spirit and constantly prayed for guidance for what to do and say. I am at a loss because I feel that we are at a significant crossroads which may lead us either to greater glory or take us down a path which ends in a blind alley.

As I personally struggle with this, I wonder why God has blessed our wee church with all of this expansion and renewal. In the midst of both an economic and theological crisis we, as a congregation, have undertaken one of the biggest building projects in our history. We have been led to do this as an act of faith and I wonder what lies ahead for Erin church. It’s as if God is preparing us for a time when all of these issues will be resolved, therefore I believe He’s making us ready for what is yet to be revealed.

Today’s Gospel passage (John 6:60-69) is about a significant turning point in Christ’s ministry. His teaching is being questioned by His very own followers and at the end of the day, only a faithful remnant will remain of His Galilean entourage. His team will be divided and the number of his disciples will fall dramatically. Complaints will be made that Christ’s demands are too hard to live by or accept. The summer disciples and fair-weather followers will abandon Jesus, leaving him to even question and doubt the loyalty of the Chosen Twelve.

This is not a passage that many church people remember. We tend to think that Jesus was like a divine Pied Piper who went from town to town accumulating followers and disciples, so that when He at last came to Jerusalem, thousands of people were with Him. But here we get a picture of something entirely different. We have perhaps hundreds of people abandoning Christ because His demands for conforming to His Way were just too much for the crowds to endure.

I think that the common crowd wanted Christ’s miracles of restoration without His message of repentance. They wanted to live and make their own choices, instead of choosing Christ and live His life.

And that is precisely what is wrong with the mainstream church today. We want cheap grace without a godly commitment. We want prosperous lifestyles instead of living to please God. We want the church to reflect our culture and see to our needs, instead of reflecting Christ’s teaching and asking what does God need of us?

It is indeed a hard teaching and very difficult to be a Christian, but then again the symbol of our faith is a Cross, so who said it was ever going to be easy?

On 25 July, 1814 the Battle of Lundy’s Lane took place near Niagara Falls on Canadian soil. It was one of the bloodiest battles fought between British and American forces during the War of 1812.

No one actually won the battle and both sides were exhausted and depleted by the unusual amount of hand to hand fighting that took place. Most of the casualties, however, occurred through friendly fire. There was so much confusion on the battlefield that troops from either side were constantly firing at their own units. Leadership and strategy were ineffective from the command structure in both the British and Americans forces. At the end of the day, as the generals and commanders ordered retreat from both sides of the battlefield, it was obvious that there were no winners and that the real losers were all of the men who were killed or wounded in action at the heart of the battle.

This is one of my greatest fears for mainstream Christianity and in particular our own denomination. The antagonists on both sides of the theological divide are rupturing the whole church and it’s the people in the middle who are having their faith killed. As conservatives and progressives scramble to gain footholds and control of the national Church, a lot of church members are becoming disillusioned and spiritually wounded. The heresy that exists on both sides of the issues is killing and contaminating the ordinary simplistic faith of many people in the pews.

And of course, the media is having a field day by sensationalizing the whole process and not truly reporting what actually took place or what decisions have been made.

We need to rediscover leadership in the church and that is why I’m proposing that we study the Book of Acts together Sunday after Sunday for the next two years.

Why the Book of Acts? Well it’s all about the Early Church which was constantly led by the Holy Spirit. Time and time again in this wonderful book, we can read about the Holy Spirit inspiring ordinary people to do extraordinary things for Christ. In fact, I call the Book of Acts the “Gospel of the Holy Spirit” because the good news is that we as Christians are not left alone to work out what we should be doing in the world, we have a Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, and Guide who will actively help us be Christ’s church in our community.

My hope over the next two years is that we become so focused on what the Holy Spirit did for the New Testament Church in the past that we will be able to see where the Holy Spirit is leading Christ’s church into the future. If we do that then we will not be caught in the current theological crossfire, but instead Erin will emerge as a church that is intentionally led by the Holy Spirit and will become a resurgent missional community of the Presbyterian Church in this area.

So, starting next Sunday, we begin a new journey of Erin’s faith-life by experiencing the Book of Acts together. And at the end of the process, I believe that a new Holy Spirit inspired and Christ centered church will emerge and we will know that this is why God has called us to build in the midst of such troubling times that try all our souls.

At the end of the day, when many of Christ’s followers had abandoned Him, Jesus was left with the Twelve. In a very tense moment and a crucial crossroads for Christ, He dares to ask the Twelve if they will also go away. Even although Jesus is the almighty Son of God and has the whole power of the universe at His disposal, He cannot compel the disciples to continue to follow Him. They must make their own choices and do it of their own free will. The whole salvation of the world hangs in the balance.

And then the Big Fisherman speaks the words that every Christian should have written on their hearts: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?”

And that, my dear friends, is why we are all here. Schisms and divisions, heresies and hypocrisies will damage, disturb, and diminish the Church until Christ returns, but the Gospel will always prevail. As long as people are born, live, and die we will always be looking for everlasting life. And to whom will we go? To Jesus Christ our Lord, for He alone has the words of eternal life.

So where are we going? We are going on a journey that is led by the Holy Spirit. And where will journey end? With Jesus, in Eternity; for only He can get us there.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are all heartbroken for the divisions that damage Your church and we ask for forgiveness for our part in the process. We pray that You will allow us the Living and Sacred Presence of Your Holy Spirit in our church. We ask that You will teach us the lessons of the First Christians and lead us onward to a new journey of faith. In Your Holy Name, we fervently pray. Amen.

Questions for Home Study and Personal Reflection

1. What teachings of Jesus do you personally find hard to accept?

2. What kind of life does the Spirit give to you?

3. What must Jesus have felt when many of his disciples no longer followed Him? Does this event surprise you?

4. What are the words of eternal life that Peter says that Christ has? How do you apply those words to your own life?

Other Useful Links

Lectionary Bible Study:

http://www.lectionarystudies.com/studyg/sunday21bg.html

One Family Outreach Study

http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/John/jn_06_59-69.html

Catholic Word Study

http://www.word-sunday.com/Files/b/21-b/A-21-b.html

Seattle Sermons: Stumbling Blocks

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_stumbling_blocks.htm

Kids Activity

http://www.grassroots.com.au/Kidschurch/BdesertJesus.htm