Paradigm Shift part 1

Introduction

In his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, presents the concept of paradigm shifts, particularly within the philosophy of science. In it’s simplest form, a paradigm shift is a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions about a topic. Or, more basic, it’s looking at something in a completely different way than has been looked at in the past.

One classic illustration is the following picture...

The question isn’t simply what you see, but what you see first, then how difficult it is to see it the other way, since our presuppositions typically drive our viewpoint of a thing.

When I was in seminary, talk about paradigm shifts within the church were all the range. People were talking about changing our approach to music, to the way we dressed on Sunday morning, the atmosphere and ambience inside the sanctuary or worship center, the names of our churches (out with First Baptist and in with Relevance Church, Inspire Church, Oasis Church, etc.). These were just some of the examples of attempts at paradigm shifts. In many cases, they were not really paradigm shifts as much as a new coat of paint over an old structure, but in some cases churches shifted away from what was done in the past to a brand new paradigm. In some cases this was negative and in some it was positive. Regardless, the church has experienced many of these paradigm shifts throughout its history.

For example, the persecuted church eventually became the Imperial church; the Imperial church eventually split and eventually led to the Reformation; the church in the West further split into the denominational churches; and today we are seeing a widening gap between the evangelical churches and the more liberal and/or mainline churches. Paradigm shifts have always been a part of the church and will continue to be into the future.

But, over the next few weeks we will look at one of the greatest paradigm shifts for the church in its history. A paradigm shift that would have profound impact on the church for the rest of her history, and has a greater effect on us today than we tend to consider.

Up until this point, the Christian church was predominately a Jewish movement. Gentiles, for the most part, were not considered worthy of becoming followers of Christ, that is unless they first converted to Judaism. But now, something that Jesus promised would happen is about to begin. The Gospel is about to spread not just to Jews, but the Gentiles as well. And, the leader of the Christian movement, Peter, will experience a paradigm shift in his theology that will forever impact the Christian church.

Body: Acts 9:32-43

Verses 32-35

Remembering back to verse 31, after Saul is converted, the church experiences a time of peace and growth...

Acts 9:31 “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

Because of this, Peter is able to go to the coast to minister to the believers that were there.

These could have been a result of the persecution after the murder of Stephen, or as a result of the ministry of Philip...or maybe a combination of both?

Peter meets a man named Aeneas who has been stuck in bed for eight years because of some unidentified ailment.

It’s interesting that Luke doesn’t mention whether Aeneas was asking to be healed or not, just that Peter does it.

In fact, the focus of this passage is what Peter says: “Jesus Christ heals you...”

Peter makes it clear that he, Peter, wasn’t the one doing the healing, but that Jesus healed him.

Peter’s healing ministry is an extension of Jesus healing ministry.

Ultimately, Peter’s life is an arrow that points people to Jesus, not to himself.

This is why, for me, much of the modern faith-healing is nonsense. It is about the healer, not Jesus. The question always should be, who is this truly pointing to, who truly gets the glory, and is someone getting rich?

Aeneas’ healing causes the town to experience revival of sorts.

Of course, they were unbelievers coming to know of this miracle.

But not only in Lydda, but in the entire plain of Sharon, which is the area that extends north of Joppa about 40 or 50 miles.

And this will lead directly into the next miracle, which will lead to the paradigm shift I talked about earlier.

Verses 36-42

After being summoned by the believers, Peter travels from Lydda northwest to the seaport of Joppa.

In modern times Joppa is called Jaffa and in south of Tel Aviv.

This woman named Tabitha (Aramaic) or Dorcas (Greek) was a disciple in the truest since of a disciple.

Not only did she trust the Lord (the first, and most important step), but she showed that faith through acts of good works and charity.

A true disciple leaves an indelible impact on those around. They are missed when they are gone because they lived lives not for themselves but for others.

I believe Luke loved this story because Tabitha had a correct view of possessions and the Christian life. (Notice who was most heavily impacted by her death; widows. One example is the clothes she made for them.)

While not to focus of this text, I think any believer would be wise to follow the example of Tabitha...

Peter prays for a miracle, it happens and many people believe because of it.

Notice that Peter is again totally dependent on God here. This isn’t about Peter’s power, but about the power of Christ Jesus.

In writing about it, Luke even uses a clear link between Jesus and Peter:

In Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus raises Jarius’s daughter we see him using the Aramaic words, “Talitha koum” or “Little girl, arise.” Here Peter says, “Tabitha koum”, which is one consonant off.

Additionally, the miracle isn’t a spectacle; in fact he kicks everyone out of the room!

Can you imagine the joy that everyone felt seeing this dead woman raised to life?

Verse 43

Staying with Simon the tanner may seem like a mundane point, but in fact there is great significance for where things are headed.

See, tanning was seen by Jews as an unclean profession because it involved contact with dead animals.

So already we see some of Peter prejudices coming down because of the importance of the Gospel.

Of course, staying with an unclean Jew is one thing; Peter perspective and prejudices are about to be turned completely upside-down! Next week, we will see that paradigm shift really start to take hold.

So What?

Not all paradigm shifts within the church are godly. Many, unfortunately, are a result of man’s ego, the depth of our sinfulness, and the influence of the world on the church. But, as believers, we are wise to ask the questions: Is this a godly paradigm shift? And, if so, what should I do about it?

How can we know if a major change is part of a godly paradigm shift?

Godly paradigm shifts happen when God’s people leave what’s comfortable.

We saw in this passage Peter leaving Jerusalem and going on a preaching tour to the ethnically mixed coast of Israel.

Aeneas is a Greek name, which suggests that he was a Hellenistic Jewish man.

Tabitha was also known as Dorcas, which suggests that she too was Hellenistic.

Then, Peter stays with Simon the tanner.

These are small things, to be sure, but we will see they are the beginning steps in Peter leaving his comfortable paradigm and entering something brand new.

Before long, Peter will be eating with Gentiles and arguing for their full participation in the larger body of believers.

But, it starts with a willingness to leave that which is comfortable and doing something brand new. Something uncomfortable and maybe even a bit scary.

This is true any time we are called to do something outside of our current paradigm.

We like our routines...

And yet, in order to effectively fulfill our calling as a church, we must continually ask ourselves, “How can we be more effective in reaching people with the Gospel?” This will almost always call for us to leave our comfortable places and do something different. (If you always do what you’ve always done...)

In truth, this doesn’t even hold water today. If we always do what we’ve always done, we will rarely get what we used to get. Because the people around us are changing. Their view of God, self, happiness, comfort, the church, what’s important, etc. are shifting to what they used to be.

We should never compromise biblical truth. But we must be willing to ask the hard questions: What are we doing that isn’t effective that can be changed? What aren’t we doing that we could do to be more effective at reaching people?

In my experience, this will always lead us out of our comfort zone.

Our church is at one of these times in our history. There are many wonderful things about this church, things I’d never really want to change. But, our children’s ministry isn’t growing. Our student ministry (youth) has seen clear growth, but I’m greatly concerned about our children’s ministry.

In order to address this, we are likely going to have to leave somethings that are comfortable and embrace something different that will eventually become something better. But, like Peter, it takes those initial steps forward.

Godly paradigm shifts happen when God’s people make their lives and ministry Jesus-centric.

This is vitally important, because as I mentioned earlier, not all paradigm shifts are godly paradigm shifts. A great many happen because of man’s ego or the undo influence of the godless world. These are not godly paradigm shifts because they are man-centric.

Godly paradigm shifts are always Jesus-centric. What does that mean? In these two passages we see two non-negotiables when it comes to being Jesus-centric:

Jesus focused.

Peter doesn’t make this Peter-centric. His focus is Jesus. Jesus is the one who is healing these people. Peter may be the hands and feet, but Jesus is the power.

A godly paradigm shift has, at its core, the focus that Jesus would be central. That people would know Jesus and follow Jesus.

It’s not about church growth, the ego of the leaders, or the church competing with other churches. It’s about people coming to know, love and follow Jesus.

It’s why I encourage people to pray for the other evangelical churches in our community and throughout the PNW. We aren’t competing with them. There’s too many lost people for us to worry about such things. If Timberlake, Castle Rock Christian Church, Castle Rock Nazarene Church and Toutle Christian Fellowship are seeing people come to know, love and follow Jesus, then the Kingdom of Christ is winning! Of course we want to see that happening here as well, but the results aren’t our purview. Keeping our ministry Jesus focused is. Doing all we can to help people know, love and follow Jesus is our work, just as it was Peter’s work!

Jesus exalting.

Notice that the result of Peter’s ministry was, in part, that other people heard about what was happening. (See verses 35 & 42 again)

That’s what happens when Jesus is exalted. Other people hear that something is going on.

Now, not all of those responses are good, per se, but they are happening.

Just this week, someone said to me, “You’re church has a lot of young people in it now, doesn’t it?”

This wasn’t a believer. And it was only partly true. I told her that our youth ministry was experiencing growth. She said, “I heard about that.”

That’s the kind of thing that gets a pastor excited!

When we set out to exalt Jesus in all we do, then other people will hear about it, believers and non-believers.

If we are to be truly Jesus centric, we must focus our attention on exalting Jesus and making Him the focus of what we do.

When we do that, we are well on our way to experiencing a paradigm shift that will have a real impact for the Gospel in our community.