Never The Same Again
Acts 15:4-19
Read the text--I want to talk to you one more time about change-- Specifically about this idea of our ability to relate to and engage the culture that we are a part of—
As far as I can see it there are a couple of kinds of churches- Book of Revelation does a real good job of outlining the different kinds of churches
1. The church that hides(John calls it the dead church or the loveless church)- This is the church that has gone underground- A lot of talk about the dangers of the world, a lot of talk about how we need to be separate and set apart- (all of these things are true, but the church that hides preaches them in a way that is out of balance)- Most of the sermons are about how the world just keeps getting worse and worse and how heaven is the only way the church will be able to escape-- The church that hides seems like a very spiritual place when you visit it, but when you stay around for a while, it starts to smell bad- Like a pool of water where fresh water is never added- New faces and new souls are rarely added to the church that hides and so it kind of smells bad and it is a very unhealthy spiritual atmosphere- Nothing going on--
2. The church that conforms- This is the church that engages the culture and likes it so much that they decide to be just like it- Boat/Skier on Sunday-- The conforming church instead of skiing behind the boat just jumps in and enjoys the ride- Everything the culture says is ok is ok with the conforming church- The standards for the church become whatever the standards of the culture the church is a part of- (John calls this church the compromising church)
3. The Overcoming Church(The faithful church)- John says in Rev. 3:8- that this church is one that “has strength, has kept God’s Word and not denied His Name”- Why did he say that “Because you kept my command to persevere”-
Persevere means to -- to persist at doing something even though there is opposition and discouragement— Being the overcoming church is not gonna’ be easy- you are faithful because you kept on going even though it was tough- This is the church that God is calling us to be—
It’s not gonna be easy to engage our culture- We get opposition on the outside and we get opposition on the inside-
The opposition we get on the inside is almost always about change- It is a question of change that brought Paul, Barnabas, Peter and James together in text that we read-- I want to illuminate a couple of things to you real quickly tonight—
This is a record of the First Church Council- The first church council was not at all about theology it was to answer this question- Should the church adapt itself to the new cultures it was engaging or should the new cultures adapt themselves to the culture of the church- The whole question was not about morality or doctrine, it was about change, would the church engage the culture or not—
Verses 4-6 are funny and sad all the same time- Explain- Personal story- Christian Rock concert- “did they speak in tongues”- we’ve got our own culture- spirit filled church- we’ve got our own set of hoops to make people jump through- “we know you’ve placed your faith in Jesus Christ, now here’s a whole ‘nother set of things you need to get started on-
That’s what happens here- “not good enough that people are converting they need to do it exactly like we do it”-
Interesting- living Bible - guys that said this ‘ those that used to be Pharisees- the heart of the Pharisee is not easily softened- I come from a heritage of Pharisees- I belonged to the first church of the Pharisee- I have seen it first hand- the Pharisees heart is much harder then the heart of the most evil sinner-- Former Pharisees- Must daily break up that hard soil, daily water it and soften it—
Here’s the question that is raised that is important for us-- Was the church required by God to preserve the Jewish culture?—
Did Gentiles need to do it the Jewish way in order to be saved?-- For us—Is there one sacred culture that we have to preserve, one sacred way of doing things, that we must do forever and ever amen!- The answer as we can see now as we go through it is - NO!
Read verses 7-10-- why are you making it hard on the Gentiles- why are you putting yokes on their necks- why are you weighing them down with stuff that isn’t important-
James agrees with Peter down in verse 19-
Now my primary point again tonight is not necessarily about the way we reach our world, even though that is important- I’m talking to you tonight about our willingness to change-- Our willingness to engage our culture-
What James is ultimately saying here is that the church was not to remain the same- The Pharisees, the legalists wanted everyone to worship and live the same way that they did- they said that there is only one way to be Christian and it’s our way—
James didn’t just say that there way wasn’t the only way- He said that kind of attitude was a contradiction to the mission of the church-
This council set the church up as a pliable and adaptive movement- the church was already experiencing growth but now the church exploded- it was from this point that the church became the church that has been changing the world for the last two thousand years—
The church that we are a part of was established on the promise of change- heart would be changed, families would be changed, cities would be changed, the entire history of humanity would be changed by those who were a part of this movement of God—
When we are changing, when we are adapting- should be cause for celebration -- to many times in the church when change comes- bothers people- makes us mad- even simple things
The way we do our guest registration- the last three weeks we’ve done it a little bit different every week- we are adapting- making an attempt to become very effective at how we take care of our guests- it’s annoying- don’t you know my name- my old church we just showed up and dropped our money in and left- why do we have to sign in- don’t have to do anything- trying new things- changing- adapting—
These are small things but God will also call us to change in big ways- sometimes asking us to leave behind what is very precious to us- those that things that are very sacred-- in order to accomplish his Work—
I made a statement on Sunday that God unwrapped for me a little more this week- want to close by sharing that with you—
The statement I made regarding change on Sunday was
If we are unwilling to move with the wind of God , we will be moved by the whirlwind of God—
We will be moved- one way to move is to journey into God’s future- that’s what I’m calling us to do as a church
The other way- The whirlwind method is the one that uproots us from all the securities we refuse to let go of—
Elijah is who I had in mind when I made that statement- Elijah is interesting because he has so many great victories- more than anybody Elijah knew the power and authority of God- He saw fire come out of heaven- He saw the altars consumed by the presence of God—
Then Queen Jezebel threatens to kill him and he loses faith, runs into the desert and wishes he were dead— This is I Kings 19
God caught his attention first of all by sending a devasting whirlwind- says it was so strong that is broke the mountain apart- shattered the rocks to pieces—
Then God sent an earthquake to shake the earth underneath Elijah’s feet-- then he sent a fire to demonstrate his power-- he shook everything that Elijah was standing upon- everything that Elijah was placing his trust in- but then God spoke to him in a gentle way—
He asked him a question that he always asks his people when they are hiding from the world around them- what are doing here?
The church was never meant to hide- never meant to go and hide in caves and pull the cloak over our faces- God told Elijah in I Kings 19:15- Go back the way you came- we are at a place as a church where we are going to have to go back to the world that we came from-
We are going to have to face the dangers and obstacles and challenges- scary things- stand in the middle of our world and call sinners to God--
The same God that changes our hearts and changes the world around us calls the church to change- when we refuse to change we refuse to obey- I don’t want to water it down anymore- here’s what’ really going on
The church is God’s agent of change through which his power is revealed- God showed his power in Elijah’s day by sending fire from heaven- his equivalent now is his church- that’s how his power is revealed--
