Midlands Christian Church

September

Message for June 6, 2010

Posted on 21-06-10

MCC: 06.06.10
Text: Acts 21.17-26 (789)
Series: Moving Forward

Moving Forward—With a Spirit of Unity

Intro) A) I read this week about a soldier in Iraq who received a "Dear John" letter. To make it even worse, the writer ended her note dumping the fellow with this cold request: "Please return the photograph I gave you just before you shipped out. It is the favorite picture I have of myself, and I want to use it with my engagement announcement in our local newspaper."
He was devastated and couldn't hide it. When his buddies finally got him to let them in on his pain, they came to his rescue. They pooled all the photos of girlfriends and wives of the 175 guys in his company, dumped them into a shoebox, and sent them to the girl with this note: "Linda, please find your picture and return the rest. For the life of me, I can't remember which one you are" (Rubel Shelly, The Fax of Life, “Sharing Someone's Load,” For the Week of April 5, 2010).
B) While I’m not suggesting that the desire for revenge is admirable, one has to admit that soldiers have a rare capacity to pull together for a common purpose. Last week, we began a series of messages based on the final chapters of the book of Acts, chapters 21-28. We will be following the Apostle Paul as he moves forward from Asia to Jerusalem to Rome. As a church, and as individuals, we’re going to see how we can all be “Moving Forward” in faith. Last week, we discovered that we can move forward with a single-minded focus.
C) As we pick up the story this morning in verses 17-26 of Acts 21, we find that Paul has made his way from Asia to Jerusalem. He is greeted warmly by the Christians. On his second day in Jerusalem, Paul meets with the leaders of the Jerusalem church, including James, the half-brother of Jesus, and a group of elders. Almost immediately, Paul is informed that there is a rumor being circulated which threatens to split the church.
D) Have you ever gone back to work after a vacation only to be faced with a major crisis? You may have some idea of how Paul must have felt. He has finally reached his goal of Jerusalem. He has presented James and the elders an offering that Paul has spent some time collecting. And now he is faced with a crisis.
E) Yet, as the story continues, Paul and James and the other leaders of the church of Jerusalem make a courageous decision. Like the soldiers in our opening story, these leaders of the church pull together. They choose to move forward with a spirit of unity. As a church, we can do the same if we take three actions. For the note takers among us, each action has a key word with the letter “c.” First,
I) We Focus on Our Common Purpose
A) That’s exactly what the soldiers did as they collected the photos of wives and girl friends and that’s what the leaders of the church do as well. Look at verses 18-20: 18The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. 19Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law."
B) Anyone want to guess what the key word in that passage is? Or, perhaps, who is the key person in that passage? “God.”
1) Notice in verse 19 that Paul does not report in detail what Paul had done among the Gentiles. Paul reports in detail what God had done among the Gentiles. This was about God. 2) Furthermore, in verse 20 when the leaders of the church heard this, they praised God. The leaders of the church focused immediately and spontaneously on the One that they had in common, God. They realized that they had a common purpose, declaring the good news of Jesus Christ, and doing what they could to further God’s kingdom.
C) It’s pretty easy in the church to focus on our own wants and desires rather than on our common purpose. One minister wrote of his experience: “I was in a small rural church one time that had a major dispute about where the pies should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for the annual turkey supper. One woman actually left the church community because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the pies on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the refrigerator. ‘It's not the right way to do it,’ she said. ‘We've never done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that way now. I won't have any part of that kind of thing. Those new people are going to ruin this church. They don't know anything. They aren't even from around here’”(Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, Sermon: "Working Together").
D) I’ve heard many times that the seven deadly words of the church are the words that the woman uttered about pies: We’ve never done it that way before. It seems silly to make such a big deal about pies but it’s easy for us to make own wants and desires more important than the common purpose that we have as followers of Jesus. It may not be pies. It may be the songs that we sing. It may be pews over chairs. It may be having the Lord’s Supper before the sermon or after the sermon. The list goes on and on.
E) Our purpose statement here says that Midlands Christian Church exists to honor God by connecting people to God, others, and service through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything that we do here is about glorifying God and bringing people to a relationship with God. In the same way that it wasn’t about what Paul had done among the Gentiles, it’s not about me or the elders or the worship team or about any of us as individuals. It’s about our common purpose, honoring God by connecting people to God, others, and service through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
F) Some time after this experience, Paul wrote to his friends in Ephesus in what is our chapter four of Ephesians: 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Paul doesn’t give us any wiggle room. There aren’t multiple Lords, or multiple faiths. We have ONE Lord and ONE faith and he would say ONE purpose.
Trans) There may be multiple places to correctly place pies but there is ONE purpose. And if we want to move forward with a spirit of unity, we’ll focus on our common purpose. Secondly,
II) We Demonstrate Concern for Others.
A) We get to the problem which is threatening the unity of the church in verses 20-24. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.
B) Here is the problem.
1) The elders tell Paul, “Listen, in the same way that God has blessed your work among the Gentiles, God has blessed the work among Jewish believers. But, Houston, ‘we have a problem.’ There is a rumor among the Jewish believers in Jesus. These Jewish believers are being told that you, Paul, are telling Jewish believers to throw away all of their Jewish customs.”
2) By the way, the rumor was categorically false. Paul was telling Gentiles that they didn’t need to be circumcised in order to become Christians. But he wasn’t telling Jewish believers to throw away their customs or their heritage.
C) Yet, this rumor is threatening the unity of the church in Jerusalem. So here is the solution that James and the elders propose. “Paul, we have four Jewish believers who need to go to the temple in order to complete a vow that they’ve taken. Go with them to the temple and cover their expenses to prove that you’re not telling Jewish believers to throw out their customs.”
D) How many of us know individuals who would have said something like this: “Listen, I don’t need to do this. This rumor is not true. I don’t have to go out of my way to do this. Who cares what these Jewish Christians think anyhow”?
E) But what does Paul do? He does exactly what the elders ask him to do. Why? Because Paul was concerned for the unity of the church and he was concerned for others. He cared about these Jewish believers.
F) We have several examples from Paul’s pen in which he deals with similar situations. If you’re one of those people who actually reads the Bible outside of church, read chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians this week and chapters 14 and 15 of Romans. In both situations, Paul deals with issues regarding food. In 1 Corinthians, Paul is dealing with believers who were struggling with those who ate food sacrificed to idols. They believed that these idols represented other gods. Other believers understood, with Paul, that there is only one God so eating food sacrificed to idols was no big deal to them. Yet, Paul says to them in 1 Corinthians 8.9: But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. In other words, “Keep the unity of spirit by demonstrating concern for others.” "Don’t jam your opinion down others’ throats." Any of you ever won an argument with your spouse only to discover that in winning the argument you damaged your relationship? Same thing here. We’re to demonstrate concern for others in order to keep the unity of the Spirit. It’s not about winning every battle but about caring for each other.
G) In Romans 14, the issue is not about food sacrificed to idols but about dietary restrictions. Jewish believers kept kosher. They didn’t eat Hot Dogs like we did yesterday at the Picnic.
1) But Paul invokes the same principle in Romans 14.1-3: 1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.
2) It strikes me that the person whom Paul calls “weak” in his faith was probably the person who had worshiped God longer. These Jewish believers in Jesus would have considered themselves to be the “stronger,” more “mature” believers but Paul calls them weak. Next month, I celebrate the 40th anniversary of my baptism. Sometimes, those of us who have been Christians the longest have more hang-ups than new Christians. So, if you’re a new Christian, you be easy on us old-timers. We have issues!
3) Time won’t allow us to look at more verses in Romans 14 except for verses 19-20: Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. Paul might write today, “Don’t destroy the work of God over the color of the carpet," or "over your opinion on a minor theological detail.” The principle is concern for others.
Trans) To move forward with a spirit of unity, we focus on our common purpose, demonstrate concern for others, and
III) Pay the Cost of Unity
A) You may have noticed that one of the suggestions that James and the elders make is that Paul pay the expenses of the men who were performing the purification rite. At first glance, that doesn’t sound like much. What expenses could there possibly be?
B) Lloyd Ogilvie points out that the last seven days of the rite were to be spent in the Temple courts. “A lamb was given as a sin offering, and a ram as a peace offering. There was a meat and drink offering, as well as a basket of unleavened bread and cakes. Paul’s participation as a sponsor required that he pay for the offerings and reimburse the men for their pay lost during the time away from their work” (Acts. The Communicators Commentary Volume 5. (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), 305). You do the math. You take these offerings, and add reimbursing a person for a week’s work, and multiply that by four, you’re talking about a serious cost.
C) Moving forward with a spirit of unity can be costly. For many of us, if not most, it doesn’t necessarily require a monetary sacrifice, though it could. But it costs us in other ways.
1) Sometimes we have the cost of keeping our mouths shut when we want to spout off.
2) Sometimes we need to pay the cost of being willing not to have our way on every issue in the church. It may be that the carpet isn’t the color that we would choose. Or, it may be that we don’t always sing the songs that we want to sing.
3) Often times, the most important cost that we need to pay in keeping the spirit of unity is the cost of time. We need to spend time with others in order to get to know them better. We also need to take the time to listen to others so that we can understand them, especially if we may disagree with them. Paul was willing to pay the cost so that the church could move forward with a spirit of unity.
D) From time to time, we teach a class that we call “Connecting to Midlands Christian Church.” The class is an overview of what we believe and what we do. Towards the end of the class, we suggest that there are four expectations that we have for members of the church. Expectations 2-4 are: We will share the responsibility of our church, We will serve the ministry of our church and we will support the testimony of my church. All of those are important expectations. But here is our number one expectation for members of Midlands Christian Church: We will protect the unity of our church by acting in love toward the other members, refusing to gossip, by following the leaders. Each of those is a price that we pay.
1) First, we act in love toward the other members. If you join this church, you're going to find out real quick it's filled with human beings who are just like you—imperfect. And you're not going to like everybody that's a member of this church. But you've got to love them! That's the cost.
2) The second cost is that we protect the unity of the church by refusing to gossip. Ephesians 4.29 says, Don't let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what builds up other. What destroys churches more than anything else is gossip. Gossip is when you're neither part of the problem, or part of the solution but you're talking about it, or you are part of the problem or the solution but you’re talking about with someone who isn’t: that’s gossip. When you share information about a problem and you're neither part of the problem nor part of the solution and you talk about it, you are gossiping.
So, we pay the cost of not gossiping. If we have a problem with a person or we hear something about another person, we go directly to that person and talk to them. You don't go talking to somebody else about somebody else. In some instances, you may need to call the minister or one of the elders and ask them what’s happening.
3) The third cost is that “we protect the unity of the church by following the leaders." Hebrews 13.17 says, Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them that their work will be a joy and not a burden for that would be no advantage to you.
This church is not led solely by her minister. We are led by a godly team of committed elders and we’re to submit to them. That’s a hard cost for us Americans. We tend to rebel against authority. We’ve been doing it since our forefathers and mothers rebelled against the English. But we are called to submit ourselves to the elders. If we have an issue with the way the elders are handling a particular situation, we go to the elders directly. We don’t talk behind their backs and we don’t spread dissension.
Jean Vanier is the founder of L'Arche, an international organization which creates communities where people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them live in Christian community. Vanier once said, “We must never forget that Satan is the adversary of love and community. He hates communities where people are growing in love and in the knowledge of Jesus. He does everything he can to sow discord, to create divisions, and finally to destroy community" (Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson, Walking the Small Group Tightrope (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), quoted by, Gordon MacDonald, Leadership Weekly, Tuesday, January 06, 2004). Satan loves for dissension to spread. But we’re called to pay the cost to keep the spirit of unity.
Conc)A) In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Martin Savidge of CNN, an embedded reporter with the 1st Marine battalion, was talking live with four young Marines near his foxhole on April 2, 2003. He had been telling how well the Marines had been looking out for him since the war started. He talked about the many hardships the Marines had endured and how they all looked after one another. He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders for them to use his video phone to call home.
The 19-year-old Marine next to him asked if Savidge would instead allow his platoon sergeant to call his pregnant wife whom he had not been able to talk to in three months. Savidge was visibly moved by the request, shook his head yes, and the young Marine ran off to get the sergeant.
Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned to the three young Marines still sitting with him and asked which one of them would like to call home first. The Marine closest to him responded without a moment's hesitation, "Sir, if it is all the same to you, we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key, Florida, who was killed on 3-23-03 near Nasiriyah, to see how they are doing."
At that, Martin Savidge broke down and was unable to speak. All he could get out before signing off was "Where do they get young men like this"( Robert L. Maginnis, military analyst for Fox News and Moody Radio's Primetime America; submitted by Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville, Illinois)?
B) My friends, those young men understood how to keep moving forward with the spirit of unity. They understood that they had to focus on their common purpose. They obviously demonstrated unbelievable concern for others. And they were willing to pay the ultimate cost. What if we did the same here at Midlands Christian Church? What if people in Lexington saw a church which was moving forward with a spirit of unity and they asked themselves, “Where do they get people like this?”

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