Christian Unity

Burlington - Christian Unity – January 28, 2024

Scriptures: Luke 24:44-48, I Peter 3:15, John 17:13-23, Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-35, James 4:1-12

Good morning. We’re going to jump right into scripture first thing this morning, if you don’t mind, from Luke. Remember Luke knew Peter, Paul and Mary… and James, and John, and so when we read from Luke, Luke gathered the testimonies of as many witnesses of Christ as he could and then put them down in the format that we can read today, 2000 years later. After the crucifixion, the resurrection and then the 40 days that Jesus walked on this earth it’s time for Him to ascend to the Father. He’s walking and talking with the disciples, who don’t recognize him as Jesus until he says, “Peace be with you.” They’re scared, and Jesus calms them, and then eats with them. Not a ghost, or some floating spirit, but the resurrected Lord. And Jesus says, as quoted in (SLIDE) Luke 24:44-48 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Let’s pray this morning (Lord open our hearts, our minds, our spirits to what your Word has to teach us this morning that we might carry it forward every day in our lives).

(SLIDE) For the past four months we’ve been working through a series of sermons, based on scripture, that should tie to what it is that the Church of God, based out of Anderson, Indiana, not the Tennessee based Church of God or one of the other 50 plus Church of God variations there are around the world. What we believe about God, the Bible, the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Spirit, the different types of ordinances folks practice, membership, whether or not women should be in ministry and leadership.

All of these discussions we’re having and forgive me if sometimes it seems that what I’m saying is that in the Church of God we’re right, or I’m right, and everyone else who claims to be a Christian but believes something even slightly different is wrong. That’s not only untrue, it’s just wrong thinking. (SLIDE) We’re going to stand on 1 Peter 3:15. That God will continue to do a work that he started over 135 years ago in this community, in this region, through the Burlington Church of God. 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

It is not my job or yours to condemn or harshly judge others. Other people, other denominations, other congregations, other movements of Christianity. That’s His job both now and at the end times right? My job, your job, is to be prepared to share the Gospel. We are to be ambassadors for Christ. To serve others, just as Jesus Christ came not to be served, but to serve.

Pastor Tim Mackie, whom you may be familiar with if you’ve ever watched the Bible Project. And if you haven’t, you should. (SLIDE) Their website is bibleproject.com and all their videos are available for free to everyone. They’re also on YouTube. I was watching a lecture with Tim Mackie and Pastor Tylor Staton at Bridgetown Church just recorded this week. They’re both pastors of different non-denominal churches in Portland Oregon. That’s also where Warner Pacific University of the Church of God (Anderson) is based. And of the many things I learned listening to Tim and Tylor as a someone who is trying to grow in the word and in my service to the Lord, was this wisdom from Tim about the bible and this life we’ve been given.

There’s something bigger going on and in the terms of the biblical story what that something bigger is, is that you and I were made to receive love that comes from an infinite source of love and then to reflect that love out into the World by bringing order where there's chaos and by bringing healing where there's hurt. by sharing love and generosity where there is lack and where there's hate, this is the human calling to be images of God in the world and we do an okay not very great job of that.

(SLIDE) So, as we work through to the end of February, here’s where we’re going. Last week’s discussion concluded with the critical understanding that there aren’t any scriptural reasons women can’t serve in ministry simply because they’re female. The Lord God made both male and female in their image, the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (SLIDE) And we no longer live under the Mosaic law, but in Christ Jesus by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. And in Christ there is no longer slave or free, Jew or Greek, male or female, there is one body of Christ. One God. One Son. One Holy Spirit. We believe in the trinity, but there is one church under God. And every blood washed one is welcome here. I used the example last week that some folks might say a reason for keeping women out of ministry is that Jesus only picked male disciples. That point in a debate doesn’t hold water. Doesn’t hold Holy Water in any sense. Just like Jesus only picked Jews to be his disciples as well.

(SLIDE) After the service last Sunday I was asked why Jesus only picked men to be His disciples during those three, three and a half years. And without going deeply theological commentary, if you remember what we discussed last week or you’ve studied middle eastern culture history, women didn’t have many rights at all. In fact, in much of the middle east, they still don’t today. At the same time, Jesus wouldn’t have called someone else’s wife to leave their family and serve with Him, just as he wouldn’t have called someone’s daughter that He wasn’t betrothed to, and wasn’t going to marry, to serve either. The controversy of a Rabbi, a Teacher, calling a married or unmarried woman to leave their work and family and follow him 2000 years ago? Well, it’s not hard to see how even more controversial that would have been than Jesus was. How divisive what Jesus was teaching, saying, doing, and promoting was to the powers that ruled at the time. They wanted to kill Him. And they did.

(SLIDE) They just couldn’t kill the truth Christ brought to this earth or keep him from being resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit. Make sense? After the Last Supper, and before His arrest in the Garden at Gethsemane we read in Luke 22 and Mark 26 that Jesus prayed. You remember the scripture “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” But the testimony of the disciple that Jesus loved, John, gives us a much more detailed prayer. I put most of that on the back of the bulletin for you to use in praying scripture this week at home.

(SLIDE) John 17: 13-23. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. (SLIDE) 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (SLIDE) 20“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (SLIDE) 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

(SLIDE) How important do you think, is the example that Jesus throughout the Gospels sets for us in the need for prayer. If we’re following His example, the time Jesus spent alone with the Father in prayer, is critical to our understanding of the word, to our ability to walk in the Power of the Holy Spirit, to do all that He calls each of us as individuals, and together as believers, to do in serving each other. In serving Him. Let’s just look at these last four verses again.

(SLIDE) 20“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Notice. 20“I do not ask for these only, the disciples and followers that were with Him at that time, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, through the testimony that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Paul and others would share at that time, and still today . . . 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Christ was praying, asking the Father that not only would “The Way” as the early church was called, be one, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. That you and I, that all followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in reading the word of God, in hearing the word of God, would be united. One with the Father, one with Jesus Christ, and one with the Holy Spirit. They are always in unity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

(SLIDE) We read last week in Acts how after the Ascension they returned to Jerusalem to the upper room, men, and women together. They prayed and chose Matthias over Justus, but they’re in Unity in choosing Matthias. Acts chapter 2 the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and Peter gives a sermon explaining God’s plan in sending Jesus Christ to us and His resurrection from the dead. Luke closes out Chapter 2 of Acts with this testimony. (Slide) Acts 2:42-47 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. (SLIDE) 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

And they were in Unity. Verse 44. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. (SLIDE) We still attend church and break bread together on a regular basis today, don’t we? Currently we’re on a break from Wednesday night’s meal and a message for a short time due to the weather. But getting together over some holidays. We’re having a valentine’s day luncheon after service in two weeks downstairs in the fellowship hall.

(SLIDE) When someone graduates high school, trade school maybe, or college. When someone gets married or becomes pregnant and then brings a new life into this world, and when someone we know or love passes from this world to spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord, we gather and break bread. We’ll open the fellowship hall in a week on Monday, for Marc Hiesrodt’s family to gather for an afternoon lunch. We share narrative stories when we gather you might say, just like we read in the bible. Stories about what we’ve experienced, and what we remember, what we heard and what we saw.

(SLIDE – Hands raised) That’s exactly what was happening here in Acts. When Peter preached 3,000 people became saved, became followers of Christ at the day of Pentecost. And now that they’ve come to believe in the risen Savior, they want to know. Did you see Him after the resurrection? Wait, you were with Him for three years while I taught? What did He say? What did He do? Is that man who was blind, that women who He healed from a blood disease, the cripple who now can walk again, wait, is Lazarus here somewhere? Can I hear His testimony. (SLIDE – circular hands) Those oral testimonies are the beginning of what becomes our bible today, right? 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Sounds like the hippy communes we might remember from the 1960’s and 70’s. Yet just the thought of how the Holy Spirit is moving within the beginnings of God’s church, of the way, the truth and the life is spreading just fills me with a sense of unspeakable joy. They were in Unity. They were together and had everything in common. Yet, the early church, as the church today, is made up of people isn’t it. People are strange when you’re a stranger. Faces look ugly when you’re alone. Sorry, that’s Jim Morrison, not scripture.

Unfortunately, just like when we wandered away from the Lord in the Garden Eden and lost that personal, direct, intimate relationship with God our creator. And the Israelites couldn’t obey the law. The gentiles didn’t even know there was a law from the Most High God who created us. The early church, just like the church today, is made up of people. Imperfect people.

(SLIDE) How many of us remember Men in Black? The first movie in 1997. Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith. Will Smith plays a New York police officer, and Tommy Lee is a man in black. Not to be confused with Johnny Cash. Will Smith’s character has just seen aliens for the first time. The two of them sitting in Battery Park in front of the Harbor and have this conversation. All right, kid, here's the deal. At any given time...there are around 1500 aliens on the planet......most of them right here in Manhattan. And most of them are decent enough. They're just trying to make a living. -Cabdrivers. -No, not as many as you'd think. Humans, for the most part, don't have a clue. Don't want or need one. They're happy. They think they have a good bead on things. But why the big secret?-People are smart. They can handle it. -A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago...everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago...you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.

And 2000 years ago, our Lord and Savior asked us to live in Unity with all other believers in Jesus Christ. Imagine as the Holy Spirit moves and we spend time in the Word, what you and I will know tomorrow. Tommy Lee’s character is speaking truth about our human weaknesses, frailty, our failing, the stumbling, often the pride that gets in the way of Christian Unity. Within a church body, and across various church denominations.

We’re not talking about differences between world religions, or for example, the fact that Saul, a very smart man who knew the law and the prophets like the back of his hand, pursued, imprisoned, and killed Jesus followers before meeting Christ on the road to Damascus. The conflict between the Sadducees and Jesus followers as Peter and John are arrested in Acts 4 and brought before Annas the high priest, the religious rulers, elders, and Jewish scribes in Jerusalem.

Yet look at how this testimony in chapter ends in (SLIDE) Acts 4:32-35 32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

This scripture will come up again next week as we continue to talk about Unity and Stewardship. (SLIDE) Already though we see in the early church, that by the Power of the Holy Spirit they are one heart and soul. That’s so different from the conflicts we’ve seen ever since the church fully began to grow, and argue, and divide, at times for very good reasons, in these 2000 years since the resurrection.

(SLIDE) Among the New Testament letters the first one written if we were looking at a timeline was James. Roughly 10 years after Christ’s ascension. Let’s remember that James was the oldest of Jesus’ siblings, and we know that because he’s listed first by Matthew listing Jesus’ four brothers and two sisters. I’ve said before that James didn’t believe in Jesus while he was healing and teaching for three, three and a half years. Even after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. James didn’t believe his brother was the Christ. It’s in 1 Corinthians 15:7 we read that after the resurrection Jesus appeared to James before he went to the disciples. There’s a special relationship there. That’s when James believes Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the risen Lord. James, with Peter becomes an elder, a leader in the Church in Jerusalem. Paul in Galatians describes James as a man of high reputation, a pillar of the church. A pillar being foundational, strong, and sturdy, steadfast in holding the building together.

In the book of James, a couple of years before the conflict in the church over whether gentiles could be saved by Christ, that you and I could become descendants of Abraham, there’s some conflict going on between human beings who disagree about what God wants, how to live that out, how to put that into practice, and how to treat each other. What we don’t know from James is what group of believers, or what church he was writing to. But they were not unified. They were in conflict with each other. And James is very angry here.

(Slide) James 4:1-12 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Enmity, by the way, means an intense long-lasting hatred towards someone. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Wow. Just. Wow. I think Jesus said it in fewer words when He said “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

We’ve just begun to talk about Unity within the church today. I’m going to wrap up with a quick confession here. Nearly 40 years ago, when I began to work at the Assembly of God, like many who were fallen and had come back to the Lord, I was on fire. Studying all the time. Attending church and home bible studies 4 days a week. And within my foolish and jealous heart, the Catholic church was pure evil. And the Baptist church has some teachings we’d consider, well just wrong. I mean pick a denomination. If it wasn’t the Assembly of God, then it wasn’t the one true church of Jesus Christ. And you weren’t saved unless you could speak in tongues. That kind of thinking? That’s hogwash. It’s wrong. It creates disunity in the body of Christ.

Then the Lord introduced me to Catholic friends who speak in tongues. There are charismatic Catholics. (SLIDE) There is One God the Father. One Son in Jesus Christ, and One Holy Spirit. And there is one Church, with many labels, and many practices, but the core remains the same. What must I do to be saved? Confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior with your mouth, and believe God raised him from the dead. Then this day salvation will come to you and your household.

We’ll continue talking about Unity, and Stewardship next week. But we are not in competition with the Burlington 7th Day Adventist church around the corner. Or Our lady of Fatima, the First Congregational United Church of Christ, Our Savior Lutheran Church, the Union City Assembly of God. Head east, we’re not in competition with Tekonsha Church of God, which isn’t part of the Church of God we belong to, The First Baptist church, Coldwater Bible Chapel or the Tekonsha UCC. Right? We’re in competition with the enemy of our Lord and Savior. The one who destroys lives, destroys families, and keeps people from experiencing the peace, joy and love that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Let’s pray.