“And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” [1]
Fairmeadows Church met at seven o’clock each Wednesday evening for a prayer meeting. One evening, rather than going to the prayer service, I left my home armed with some tracts and my New Testament to knock on the doors of several homes located in the vicinity of the church building. That evening, I was invited into several of those homes where I presented the message of Christ, inviting the residents living in those homes to put their faith in the Risen Son of God. There was generally a positive response from those with whom I visited that evening, and as result of my visits several families begin attending the services of the church.
However, all was not well in Zion. One particular deacon complained to the Pastor that I was not co-operative. He was aggrieved that I had not attended the prayer meeting of the congregation. This church leader had the temerity to complain that I was not supportive of the church. This deacon was more focused on the numbers attending any particular service than he was with fulfilling the commands given by the Saviour to His disciples. This man complained to the Pastor that I had actually gone visiting in the homes of unchurched people! My Pastor supported what I had done, responding to the deacon’s complaint in measured tones, “Perhaps it would be a good thing if more of our people would go visiting rather than merely coming to a prayer meeting.”
The Pastor’s response to that deacon’s complaint obviously was not the response the man was seeking, but it was a biblical response that should have been evident with even a casual understanding of Scripture. This is especially true in these days when governments are seeking to shut down all congregation gatherings for worship. Christians rightly chafe at the restrictions prohibiting meeting in assembly, and the more so when we see people shopping at Costco and Walmart, dining out at local restaurants, or even buying cannabis at the local pot stores. We struggle to accept what is seen as governmental intrusion into the sacred realm of worship. We who confess Christ as Lord of life are willing to be good citizens; we are prepared to co-operate to the extent possible and within reason. However, the shutdowns increasingly appear unreasonable, especially as more scientific studies are released. We were told that government was following the science, but it appears that governments have selectively listened to favoured scientists.
Christians now appear to be growing restive. Church leaders are placed in the uncomfortable position of being compelled to provide guidance to challenges they have never faced before and for which they are untrained. This raises the question of how should the saints respond to the enforced disruption of what has been rather comfortable? How should followers of Christ handle the heavy-handed threats imposed by politicians who are fearful of making a wrong decision? To find an answer that honours God, I recommend we study the response of the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Jerusalem during a time of governmental disruption of the activities of the church.
DISRUPTION OF THE FAITHFUL — “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria” [ACTS 8:1b]. What is meant when we read, “on that day?” Clearly, Doctor Luke means us to understand that some particular event is in view. We need to understand what was happening to have the fullest grasp of what happened if we are to make a valid application to our own situation.
You are quite familiar with the assault against the faithful as persecution, present from before the birth of this new Faith, broke out in the form of open war against the followers of the Risen Christ. The religious leaders had executed the Saviour. Not content with that travesty of justice, these same leaders pleaded for Pilate to post guards because they claimed to fear that disciples of this teacher, whom they had executed, might somehow break into His tomb and rob his body. Like craven politicians who are not content with engineering a political coup, who then manufacture an impeachment in an effort to ensure that the one ousted will never be able to run for office again, these religious leaders were intent on ensuring that Jesus of Nazareth would stay in the tomb!
However, on the third day, His tomb was discovered to be empty. The religious leaders knew that something momentous had taken place, so they suborned the Roman guards to concoct a story that the soldiers had been overpowered by frightened followers of the crucified Galilean who had stolen His body.
Now, those erstwhile timid followers had begun boldly preaching in the very city where this Jesus had been killed. What was worse, multitudes were giving ear to what these rude fishermen and tax collectors were saying. People were flocking to this new Faith which the religious leaders derisively called “The Way,” and even a large number of the Jewish hierarchy had turned to embrace this Faith. Something had to be done.
Incarceration of the leaders of The Way had not worked quite as well as the Jewish leaders had hoped. Threats of further incarceration and even threats of beatings seemed incapable of deterring these ignorant and unlearned followers from persisting in their foolish adherence to The Way. The Jewish Council was in turmoil when, at just the right moment a brilliant rabbi arose to stifle this newborn Faith.
Saul of Tarsus, a rabbi who had studied under Gamaliel and risen rapidly through the ranks, unleashed a persecution against these ignorant worshippers of the crucified Galilean. Saul began by throwing many of the followers of The Way in jail—men, women, sex was of no concern to him. If they were foolish enough to worship this dead man, then they needed to be taken out. Beatings and torment were part of his arsenal to dissuade these foolish people from continuing to pursue this terrible course.
This bitter man, Saul, had engineered the first seriously violent push to extirpate this new religious movement. He had not only advocated and perhaps participated in the show trial of one of the so-called “servants” of this movement, a man named Stephen, but he had been present when the mob rushed past the bright lines that had so far prevented them from going beyond beatings and incarceration in order to stone Stephen. The enraged rabbi had actually approved of all that was taking place at that time, even voting in favour of Stephen’s execution [see ACTS 26:10] and then encouraging those who committed that murder by watching over their personal effects as they carried out the dreadful deed of killing this man. Saul of Tarsus was guilty of advocating and engineering a judicial murder of an innocent man because he could not answer him!
“That day” witnessed the first of many judicial murders. The saints had been experiencing pain to this point, but now the pain was about to intensify, growing to a ferocious fury leading to death for many. Those who followed the Risen Son of God were about to be compelled to walk through the flames. Yet, has God not promised,
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.”
[ISAIAH 43:2]
Now, the followers of The Way were about to put to the test for this divine promise. And what was about to be unleashed would challenge these young saints, pushing them to the limit. What began that day was but the birth of persecution that continues to this day. The bitter attack unleashed on that day continues to this present moment.
It is a truth that is sometimes forgotten in this day, but the Faith of Christ the Lord was born in the midst of opposition. Upheld by God’s mighty right hand, the Faith grew despite the illogical violence of those who stood in opposition on that day. Surprisingly, it was that violent opposition that God would use to compel the church to move out of its comfort zone. Had there been no opposition, it would have required decades, perhaps centuries, for the Faith to move beyond Jerusalem. Without the opposition, we would likely have no Faith of Christ the Lord as we now know it; and if the Faith did somehow exist, world headquarters would be situated in Jerusalem and we would all make regular treks there to see what to do next. But there was opposition from the very first!
The text before us in this hour describes real disruption—not mere inconvenience such as we are presently experiencing—but genuine disruption. These early saints had no earthly promise of rest, no possible way of knowing whether they would be allowed to continue earning a living, no prospect of even meeting for united worship without interruption from people intent of destroying them.
The churches of our Lord have never been permitted to conduct their ministries for long without disruption. Even such positive social ministries as feeding the hungry, providing for the adoption of orphans, or providing health care are threatened. Those who opposed the Faith in that distant day, like those who stand in opposition to the Faith in this day, appear to think that they can extirpate the Faith by stamping it out. However, much like someone stomping on a campfire will only scatter the glowing embers that can then ignite the dry tinder surrounding the campsite, those who seek to stamp out the Faith only spread it farther. The tinder composed of hungry hearts hear the message of life and witness the grace of God’s people as they tell of the Lord’s work in their lives, and these hungry hearts embrace the Saviour as their own Master. It is impossible for tyrants and enraged religionists to rid themselves of those who love freedom and long for salvation.
The history of the Faith is a recitation of churches growing comfortable and resting on their lees, conducting their ministries without interference until they are unable to do so. There will always be those who hate the Faith and seek to destroy even the mention of Christ the Lord. Inevitably, if the churches are doing what they are appointed to do, they will be disrupted by authorities or by society itself. It is only when we accommodate the world that we exist without serious interruption of our services.
New Beginnings Baptist Church of Dawson Creek stands as one of many in a long lineage of churches that have endeavoured to follow the Risen Saviour. Ours is not the first church to be challenged to respond appropriately to events swirling about us, nor shall we be the last church to be so challenged. Our brothers and sisters in multiplied locations have experienced disruptions to their opportunity to unite for worship during the entire time we have existed as a congregation. We need but recall the pressure against worshipping the Son of God in Iran. However, none of our leaders have been imprisoned for worshipping Christ. Or recall governmental efforts to co-opt the faithful in China. None of our sisters have been run over by bulldozers to stop the destruction of a church building. Even in places as diverse as Nigeria or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, meeting for regularly scheduled services as a congregation can be challenging at best.
There is ongoing opposition to worshippers of the Christ in India and in Viet Nam and in Myanmar. It requires courage and stamina to be a Christian in many places throughout our world; but standing in the face of the challenge against being an open follower of the Christ has characterised the faithful throughout the millennia.
What should be of interest to those of us currently struggling to respond appropriately to the restrictions imposed on us by government regulations is that we are actually experiencing a situation that is more the normal condition for the people of God than that which we have enjoyed for the past number of decades here in the western world. When we survey the vast sweep of church history, it is readily apparent that governments and societies have sought to control the churches of our Lord, especially those congregations that were evangelical and independent.
Churches that “go along to get along” may be ignored or may even be tossed a bone by governmental bureaucrats; but the congregation that seeks to honour God will always be a threat. The charge was levelled against the earliest followers of the Christ, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” [Acts 17:6b]; and that same charge will be levelled against the people of God who seek His face in this day. Nothing much has changed.
And yet, I must caution our people in light of what has been said to this point. Here is the thing we must never allow ourselves to forget, this is the truth to which we must not yield at this point—the restrictions we now face are not focused on us because of our Faith. To be sure, some people imagine that the restrictions imposed on us are unique to us because we are Christians. Small business owners might be less inclined to accept such a view. Without question the regulations are in many instances heavy-handed and they have not been imposed with any degree of fairness. The restrictions have been selective in many jurisdictions, seemingly imposed without rhyme or reason. What cannot be said is that the restrictions are directed exclusively against the churches.
We naturally chafe at the governmental view that churches are non-essential. But when has that not been the case? Governments have never been enthused to accept the churches as essential, until there is a crisis. Then, governments remember that churches can function as adjuncts to government, providing counselling, functioning as distribution centres for essential goods, providing temporary shelter for displaced people. However, no government has ever accepted that the preaching of the Gospel is essential. In the estimate of government, worship of Christ is optional and not essential. It is that message of life in the Son of God that threatens government control of the lives of the people!
SCATTERED THROUGHOUT JUDEA AND SAMARIA — “They were all scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria” [ACTS 8:1b]. Rather than focusing on the fact that these first believers were scattered, focus on the response when they were scattered. “Those who were scattered went about preaching the Word” [ACTS 8:4]. This is critical to understanding what was happening and why I say that God was working in the midst of times of extreme testing. What were the final instructions the Risen Saviour delivered to His disciples? Look at His final instructions as recorded multiple times in the Gospels.
Here is a recitation of His charge that should be immediately familiar to all. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:19-20].
Peter’s memory of that command is somewhat more brief, but no less important. Thus, Mark, Peter’s amanuensis wrote, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” [MARK 16:15-16]. What a wonderful, powerful promise is committed to us as followers of the Christ. Those who believe will be saved!
How is that for a promise that as we do what the Lord has commanded, our witness will have an impact! Oh, to be certain, there will be times that as we proclaim Christ, those who hear will reject what we say. Never mind! God is glorified in any case. That is what the Apostle said when he wrote, “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” [2 CORINTHIANS 2:14-16a]. Nevertheless, we are doing what we are commanded to do, and God is glorified.
Doctor Luke has recorded the words that the Risen Saviour spoke, and what he wrote informs us, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” [LUKE 24:46-48]. How can we be silent about what we have witnessed? We live in a world that is perishing—we cannot be silent.
Of all the recorded presentations presenting the Saviour’s charge to the believers who would follow Him, that which John has provided is the most concise. John wrote, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” [JOHN 20:21].
I cannot help but wonder whether the words, “Peace be with you” are meant as a benediction only; or is it possible that Jesus was making a declaration that because we accept the fact that we are sent we will enjoy peace? Reading what John has written, it seems eminently possible that peace comes as we accept who we are in Christ and as we accept responsibility to go even as He has sent us. The Master walked in peace because He accepted Who He was in fulfilling the will of the Father. In a similar fashion, we will walk in peace as we accept the appointment of the Father.
Of course, we must not ignore the command as given immediately before the Saviour’s ascension. Gathered before the Master on a hill outside of Jerusalem, Jesus commanded, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” [ACTS 1:8].
That is it precisely—disciples are charged to be witnesses of all that the Saviour has done and of the salvation He offers to all who will receive Him. These first disciples were witnessing in Jerusalem. In fact, they had filled the city with their witness. That was the exact charge brought against these first disciples by the high priest, as he raged, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” [ACTS 5:28].
Here’s the problem that we so often ignore—partial obedience is disobedience. The disciples were somewhat obedient, they were witnessing to those living in Jerusalem, but the neighbours next door, the remainder of those living in Judea beyond the environs of Jerusalem, to say nothing of the neglected and ignored people living in Samaria, still had not heard the message of life! And don’t forget, beyond Samaria lay what is identified as “the end of the earth,” “all nations,” “the whole creation.” There was a big world that had yet to hear the message of Christ the Lord!
Don’t imagine that I am implying that God sent persecution in order to get the disciples moving, but it does seem reasonable to suggest that God used the persecution to move the disciples out of their comfort zone. What would it take to move us out of our comfort zone? What will be required for us to begin to fulfil the Great Commission?
I don’t mean to suggest that we need to try to circumvent CoVid restrictions that keep us from travelling to distant lands—you know, wild, exotic locales such as Texas or Alabama or Newfoundland; but I do wonder whether there are outreach ministries we can accept now to speak to a neighbour, to reach out to a friend or family member, to testify to a colleague at work? I wonder if there are steps we can—and should—take immediately to fulfil the divine mandate that God has given?
What is apparent from the divine record is that evangelism, proclaiming the Good News of Christ, was not a task restricted to “ordained” ministers. In fact, there was no such thing as ordination! Either a church accepts those whom God appoints, or a church does not accept those presenting themselves as spokesmen for the Lord God. Either a congregation recognises the work of God’s Spirit in appointing a man to direct the work of the assembly, to preach and to teach, or the congregation does not affirm that man.
It will serve us well to review what Paul has written, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” [1 TIMOTHY 3:1-7].
To Titus, the Apostle has written, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined” [TITUS 1:5-8].
I don’t want us to get lost in the weeds, but those who preach and teach are to be certified by the congregation that receives them. And it is the receiving congregation that is qualified to assess their character and calling because these men have worked among the believers for some time. Don’t wander off into error by insisting that only those who meet artificial non-biblical criteria are qualified to shepherd the flock of God. Character and calling are set as qualifying marks by the Spirit of God. You never see connections and credentials as qualifying marks for those who lead through preaching and teaching. Though this is not the point of the message today, it is an essential point to bear in mind.
What is apparent, and what must be emphasised through appeal to the text before us, is that evangelism lies within the purview of each believer. And, if you are a child of the Lord God, He will not permit you to continue in disobedience however much you may attempt to justify your disobedience. If you are a child of the Living God, if you are a redeemed son of God, you are responsible to carry the message of life to the whole earth. You are appointed to proclaim Christ wherever you are. And if God permits disruption to drive you outside of the four walls of the church building, you are still the church! You who believe are to prayerfully seek out opportunities to declare Christ as Master, and especially are you to do this when meeting in assembly is disrupted. Anticipate how you may seize the opportunity now before you to fulfil His Commission.
The Commission of our Lord, whatever iteration may be in view, commissioned all who are followers of the Risen Saviour. You and I, because we have placed faith in the Son of God, are responsible to tell others of what He has done. Christians are to apply creative thinking to the challenge of being effective in delivering the message of life beyond our immediate environs. We who are twice-born children of the Living God are charged to ensure that all about us, and even those who are living at a distant from us, have opportunity to hear of the life that is offered in Jesus our Saviour.
THE CHURCH IN OUR TOWN — “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” [ACTS 8:1b]. We are not being scattered throughout the regions surround our community, but we are being forced out of our routine of going to church. We are being driven out of our comfortable routine that has allowed a measure of ease in the midst of a dying world. Honesty compels me to speak some pointed truth at this time! We are inconvenienced; but we are not persecuted.
It is pitiful for us to attempt to compare the disruption we now experience with the oppression our brothers and sisters experience today. The discomfort we experience because we are proscribed from gathering at this time should not be compared to the beatings, the threats of death, the governmental intrusion into Christian life in so many countries of our world. Over three hundred forty million (340,000,000) Christians live in areas the are experiencing active opposition and oppression today. [2]
It is disheartening when I read the account of a sister in India who was driven from her village because she became a follower of the Christ, or to read of the installation of facial recognition cameras in the churches of China so the government can track who is worshipping, or to hear a pastor in Nigeria tell of raids against the Christians and the burning of the churches. And yet, how humbling to hear the words of a Nigerian pastor as he testifies, “Through the persecution, God is making the church grow.”
How encouraging to hear a Chinese Christian testify, “We are so united together like never before. We are having a revival in our church.” “Oh, Lord, revive us here in Canada! Renew our faith and put steel in our resolve to serve You as You have appointed us to do!”
One can only marvel when we hear a follower of the Risen Saviour confessing, “We do not pray that God will take away the hardship, we pray that God should give us the grace to be able to stand.” Imagine, a believer who is actually persecuted, one who is actually suffering and not merely inconvenienced, asking the Saviour for grace to stand rather than asking God to take away the hardship! Each of us who follow the Saviour here in Canada should be humbled by such a prayer; it should instruct us in our own prayer life. It is humbling to think this could be the case. Can it actually be true that a brother in Christ, or a sister in the Saviour, who actually suffers is praying that God will give strength rather than deliver from the trial. How different from what we witness as a response in our own times of disruption! How this response instructs us in the way we should respond when we are faced with difficulties.
I recall a conversation that stirred my imagination on an occasion many years ago. It was while I spoke with a Baptist Pastor from Greece. He was the pastor of what at that time was the only Baptist church in Greece. The year must have been around 1977. Our family had only recently returned to Texas after a time in San Francisco. One beautiful weekend I attended an outdoor meeting at which this pastor from Greece was scheduled to speak. He was visiting in the United States, seeking to raise support for missionaries who would labour in Greece. I had the distinct privilege of speaking at length with this good man.
He spoke of the difficulties associated with conducting worship services in Athens. Since he was not a part of the Orthodox religion, he was able to conduct services only with official permission. The congregation could meet only in a building with no visible marks on the outside that would identify it as a church building. Any singing, or praying, or preaching could not be heard from the street. The pastor could deliver only a sermon that had been approved by the chief of police one week prior to the delivery of that sermon. A uniformed officer would be present in the service with a printed copy of the sermon to ensure that the pastor did not deviate from what was written.
If after witnessing to someone, that person complained, a Christian could be sued for proselyting—and the one bringing suit would be assured of winning the suit! If it was a child to whom the Christian spoke, not only could the follower of Christ be sued, but the witnessing was a criminal offence that would bring jail time. Being a Christian was clearly a challenge for this man of God.
As the pastor related these restrictions to me, I voiced my sorrow, commenting that I felt so very sorry for the limitations. My limited understanding led me to say that it must be dreadful to worship with such oppressive restrictions. “Oh, no,” said the pastor. “God is blessing. We have baptism in the Aegean Sea each Sunday afternoon. We cannot keep up with the numbers of people wishing to become followers of Christ.”
I was astonished. As we conversed, he explained that the redeemed worshippers were the church. They didn’t go to church; they were the church! As they ministered to their neighbours and to their friends, the Spirit of God was working through them. Government imposed restrictions had forced the congregation to return to the model provided in the Book of Acts, and the Spirit of God was at work through the people.
The pastor then made a significant statement that I have remembered ever since. He said, “We are praying for Christians in the United States, asking God to bless them so that they can again obey God.” Think of that! Repressed and restricted as they were, these saints of our Lord were yet praying for people who imagine themselves to be free. These Christians had discovered that the presence of the Spirit of God working among God’s holy people was an unstoppable force.
On another occasion, I was present to hear a similar message delivered by a Baptist pastor who had been jailed during the dark days of Communist rule of Romania. This brave man had paid a heavy price for standing with Christ throughout the latter days of that vicious regime. Few of us could identify with what he had experienced because of his faith. That day, as he spoke to an assembly of pastors, telling what it is like to stand when a government actively seeks to destroy the Faith by crushing those who adhere to that Faith.
His message was almost identical to that which I heard years before from that Greek pastor. The churches of Romania had long prayed for the churches found in the Free World, asking that God would bless them and make them strong. As he spoke, I wondered how many of my fellow pastors had prayed for the suffering saints of Romania, or how many had prayed for any of the saints suffering for the cause of Christ.
Here is my concern at this present time—we Christians have become so compromised by the comfort of our condition that any mild disruption of our comfort, (and the CoVid strictures put in place by our government are truly a mild disruption), causes us to immediately cry out that we are being persecuted. The sad truth is that we are not being persecuted—we are being inconvenienced.
I read the words that have been written in the Letter to Hebrew Christians, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood,” [HEBREWS 12:4], and I know we are not persecuted by these present strictures. No one of us has been beaten because of the fumbling response by multiple governments to this Chinese virus. We don’t know anyone who has been jailed because they refuse to docilely embrace the fears of a culture that stands helpless before its unseen menace. Still, a surprising number of the redeemed of the Lord bluster and complain, making wild boasts of what they will and won’t do. Brothers and sisters, this is not the way that a follower of the Saviour should respond to inconvenience.
Don’t misunderstand, don’t misconstrue what I am saying! I don’t like the strictures any more than you do. I find them troublesome and annoying, needlessly restrictive and ineffectual, to put the case somewhat mildly. I’m neither an apologist for nor an advocate for the lockdown, for wearing a rag over my face, or for standing two meters from others. As is true of a growing number of Canadians, I have questions concerning how the regulations are thought up. Moreover, I do recognise the potential for governments to seek to exercise even greater control over the lives of Canadians by restricting even more freedoms. However, I cannot accept that we are persecuted at this moment. Don’t try to transmogrify our momentary inconvenience into some sinister persecution.
Perhaps we need to hear again the Lord’s response to His Prophet, Jeremiah, when the Prophet complained about the opposition he was facing when he was standing for God in the face of a nation that was determined to turn away from obedience to God. The LORD rebuked his complaining saint, saying,
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”
[JEREMIAH 12:5]
We are running a race against mere men. Is that actually enough to cause us to stumble? We still enjoy a great measure of freedom. How will we respond when real trials come?
One of my favourite authors is A. W. Tozer. In one of his many books, he writes, “I once heard a Catholic priest lament the plight of another priest who had been thrown into jail in Nazi Germany ‘and forbidden to practice his religion.’ It sounded oddly humorous at the time; yet I can understand how a religion that lay mostly in external observances could be forbidden. If true religion consisted in outward practices, then it could be destroyed by laws forbidding those practices. But if the true worshiper is one who worships God in spirit and in truth, how can laws or jails or abuses or deprivations prevent the spiritual man from worshiping?” [3] How indeed?
Let me encourage you by pointing to some of our grave deficits as followers of the Son of God. We have neglected worship. I’m not saying that we don’t want to worship, but perhaps we have forgotten how to worship. We thought a liturgy could substitute for the presence of the Risen Saviour. We appear to have forgotten that Mary, in the presence of the Risen Saviour, was seized with awe when she recognised Him. We seem to have forgotten that Thomas, when meeting the Risen Saviour was awestruck when the Risen Lord manifested Himself to the doubting disciple.
I commend each one who is a follower of the Risen Christ, commit yourself to worship. When was the last time you found yourself lost in wonder, lost in awe, as you marvelled at the majesty of the Lord God? When did you last find yourself moved to tears, and falling to your face confess that God’s grace was beyond understanding? Isn’t it time that we again learned to worship? Perhaps these present strictures will permit us to slow down enough to worship as we know we need to worship.
And if we begin to worship, perhaps we can see that God has permitted this present pause in our hurried Sundays to remember our charge to do first things. With the aid of the Spirit of Christ, I suggest that it is possible that each of us can find some way to make the Great Commission vibrant and vital even in these days of lockdown and restriction. What is required first is a willingness to allow the Saviour to guide our thoughts and our hearts.
Opportunities lie open all about us. The choice is up to each of us. We can either complain that we can no longer go to church as we once did, in which case we are complaining that we cannot go to church. Or we can see the present disruption of our comfortable days inside the church building kept us from being the church. In this instance, we will be determining that we are the church. Which will it be? Will we complain that we can’t go to church? Or will we be the church. I know what I’ll do. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Open Doors, World Watch List - Open Doors USA - Open Doors USA, accessed 18 January 2021
[3] A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (WingSpread, Camp Hill, PA 1986) 147-148
