As we enter November we take the opportunity to reflect and to remember the saints of Mount Bethel that has gone on to be with the Lord. We as a church are surround by a great cloud of witnesses, brothers and sisters that fought the good fight, kept the faith and ran the course that God ordained for their lives. So we remember and we are grateful for their efforts and work in ministry while God gave them a season. While it is significant that we remember their contributions to the history of our church we are further reminded that this is our season. This is our season, our season to be effectively engaged with our communities, our cities, our state, nation and world. In an ever shrinking world, via technology, the possibility of linking ourselves with people of lack faith in places where our feet may never walk is a reality. This is our season and the question is what impact did the church have on us, and of greater importance what impact have we had on the church. How will history record our time here, and most important what will God say about us and our work in ministry? It is not that difficult to see the shifts that have taken place in our nation and in our world in the last five years. How long does it take for emphasis to shift and to adapt to the changing community? Consider some of the major changes that we have witnessed and are presently experiencing, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the largest slump in the economic markets in most of our lifetimes, rising violence among our youth, the impact of HIV/AIDS, natural disasters in the American Somas as well as other places, the shift in the nuclear family model. It doesn’t matter how you expand on any of those concepts or ones not mentioned that reality is we live in an ever dynamic time. Things that may seem as a bedrock to our culture and has been consistent for years very well may change in the blink of an eye. The only thing that we know we can depend on to be true today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow is the theos of God which is comprised of, the word or God, the love of God, and the omnis of God. It is because we live in such a dynamic climate that we are at a minimum challenged to assess and evaluate if we are fluid enough to respond in this dynamic climate. Ask yourself this, can we still hold on to some of our fundamental works and yet be engaged in a way to make God real to a desperate community. Can we still do ministry the way we have always done ministry hoping that by being consistent we meet the needs of the dynamic community or are we obligated to operate out of a dynamic shift? How does our church look to a dynamic desperate community, and more importantly how can our church look to that same group of on lookers. That is our challenge and the question we will seek God about as we enter into the month of November.
1. Keep it real vs 19 The dynamic church is a church that puts itself on the line for the sake of bringing persons to Christ. Dirk P. Elliott’s work “Healthy Church Resources” clarifies his perception of a health church structure. He says that a Healthy Church is a church with a healthy characteristic of functional structures utilizes a church structure that is more free-flowing and permission-giving. A church with healthy functional structures will be risk-taking, willing to try new ideas and equally willing to cancel their implementation if they are not effective. The old paradigm of church structure called for the laity to manage the church with an attitude that if we try a new idea and it doesn’t work, we failed. The new paradigm approaches the idea with an eagerness to learn, and if it fails, then we learn from our mistakes and try again. A healthy church organizes structures around ministry and being faithful to the church’s mission and purpose. Many healthy churches have established a policy of asking three questions of any new ministry or program that someone wants to initiate. (1) Does it further the mission, vision, or purpose of the church? (2) Does it make new disciples or help people grow in their faith? (3) Is there or can there be a team to work in accomplishing this ministry? This takes on the concept of a dynamic church, a church that is willing to adjust and move toward the goal of empowering people through the word and work of ministry In our text Paul and Barnabas is at the end of their evangelistic outing when they are forced into Lystra. While they may have been driven there because of threats in opposition the power of God was made manifest in that place. The text tells us that while in Lystra they meet a man who was born crippled in both feet. The text says that after he had listened to Paul, Paul watched him intently discerned that he had the faith to be healed. It is in the aftermath of the healing that chaos broke out. When God healed the man the citizens of the town wanted to make sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas. It is not difficult to identify with the desperate community in our text. A community that wanted so much for something good to happen to them. A community that so desperately wanted to believe in something because what they were doing had not created any positive change. A community that so wanted to believe something that they would make gods of anyone that could deliver. You may think that this is the superstition of a first century culture and that in this day and age it just wouldn’t happen. Don’t fool yourself, there are those that are so desperate for a change, so desperate for good news, so desperate for a better tomorrow that they will say anything that will do anything hoping that change will take place. The challenge is to keep it real, when we are engaging culture it is not about us it is about Christ.
2. Support Each other vs 20 Effective ministry flows out of a passionate spirituality. Spiritual intimacy leads to a strong conviction that God will act in powerful ways. A godly vision can only be accomplished through an optimistic faith that views obstacles as opportunities and turns defeats into victories. The important issue here is not the way spirituality is expressed, but the fact that faith is actually lived out with commitment, fire and enthusiasm. The methods a church uses are really a secondary concern. A church that lives its faith with passionate fervor will experience success with many a method. Something unexpected occurs to the evangelism team. What they had avoided in Iconium catches up with them in Lystra. The text says that Jews came from Antioch. I want you to remember that the evangelistic effort that Paul and Barnabas undertook was commissioned out of the church at Antioch and yet here in our text it was Jews from that same city that created the uproar. I have narrowed down the origin of these Jews from one or two places. One they were Jews who lived in Antioch and was opposed to the church that they sent Zealots to quash what was stirred up by Paul and Barnabas. Another option is that they are Jews in the church of Antioch who followed them to make sure that Paul and Barnabas ministry was in alignment with the mission of the church. One option Jews opposed to the Christian moment, other option members of the church that came to keep Paul in line. It is a terrible thing to have folk that you thought would be on your side come up against you, to have folk whom you would have hoped would have supported the vision, undergird the ministry, prayed without ceasing, and yet they are stirring up stuff against you. Never mind the fact that the folk that wanted to make you gods on one day, now are stoning you, never the mind that folk that praised you out of one side of their mouth is cursing your existence The truth is there are people that is in your life that don’t want to see you succeed, don’t want to see your prosper, don’t want to see you blessed but God has a plan that the enemy can’t destroy The text says that the Jews from Antioch won over the crowds and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead. There are some folk that would leave you for dead. There are some folk that would wish the worst on you and except by the grace and mercy of God you would have been dead already. If they would have killed Paul then what would have died with him. The ministry to the gentiles would have died with him, the letters that we now read and cherish would have died with him, the legacy of a soldier of Christ would have not been told if the devil would have had his way. I want you to know that you too will never reach your potential except by the grace and the mercy of God. The text reminds us they left him for dead, but when the disciples surrounded him, he got up. When the saints of God come together and build one another up, encourage one other, pray for one another and watch what God will do.
3. Expand the ministry vs 22 Evangelism, or helping unchurched people connect with Christ, has taken on various forms throughout the years. Sometimes preaching is effective in helping people experience salvation. At times revival meetings have been effective, as have Camp Meetings. At other times methods of door-to-door witnessing (utilizing Evangelism Explosion or 4 Spiritual Laws tracts) have produced good fruit. Other methods have been tried over the centuries, many with positive results. However, as times have changed and the culture around us has changed, our methods need to change. The message does not change, simply the way we communicate that message. Many of the methods used in the past are not effective or bear little fruit. Today, evangelism is most effectively accomplished through relationships and meeting people’s needs. In focusing on Need-Oriented Evangelism, the church must clearly understand the neighborhood or community and realize the needs of the people. Likewise, a clear understanding of the gifts present in the church is necessary. From our text we find that after they dragged him out of the city he went back into the city. If you are going to encourage the saints sometimes you have to go back and claim what the enemy tried to take, you have to go back and declare what the Lord has for me it is for me. In our text Paul went back in the city the next day he left and finished the work that he had started completing the task that was placed at his feet. The the text says it again that he went back, back to Lystra, back to Iconium, back to Antioch. Verse 22 and 23 seems to be out of order, you would have thought it would have come somewhere in the middle of verse 21. In Derbe they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith. In Lystra they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith. In Iconium they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith. Everywhere you go you got to tell somebody about the goodness of the Lord and what God has done for you.
Wrap Up
"It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God."
