The apostasy of the world in the realm of religion and politics, John 18:12-38

Hillary Clinton achieved a great measure of notoriety during the Benghazi Hearings for her response to questioning regarding what really happened during the massacre, by asking her accusers, “What difference does it make?”  Some would say that this statement of seeming indifference at the loss of the US Ambassador’s life and three embassy personnel’s lives was a key factor in her recent loss in the election.

And while that incident has very little to do with today’s message,  as I studied the text this last week, and considered the importance of the truth of Christ upon our lives, I found myself hearing that shrill question repeated in the back of my mind. What difference does it make? Is the truth really that important? That is the subject we have been looking at for the last couple of weeks as we have studied the arrest and now the trial of Jesus.  The subject has been the contrast of truth versus apostasy.  Remaining stedfast in the truth, versus caving in to natural wisdom or human preferences which subvert the truth.

And for the last couple of weeks we have looked at various responses of the church when the truth engaged with the hostility of the world.  The disciples initial response when Jesus was arrested was the fight or flight syndrome. Most of them fled into the darkness, Peter tried to fight.  Both responses were natural, but both were the wrong response.  The truth as evidenced by Christ’s response is stedfast, it is grounded in the word of God.

Then last week we looked more closely at the denial of Peter, his attempt to fight in his own cunning and strength resulted in eventually blaspheming and denying the Lord.  That action is what is called apostasy in ecclesiastical terminology.  And we looked at four steps by which the church - not the world, but the church - can turn from the truth to apostasy as evidenced by Peter.  They were reliance upon your own wisdom and strength,  a distancing of oneself from God, a desire for friendship and acceptance by the world, which finally culminates in blasphemy and denial of the Lord.  And we often see this apostasy mirrored today in the church.

Now this week, as we follow the events recorded by John, we see another view of apostasy, the apostasy of the unsaved, or the apostasy of the world. Christ manifested the truth of God to the world, but the world turned away from truth, deliberately choosing apostasy.  Truth is what was on trial then, and it is what is on trial in our modern culture as well.  And we who love the truth find ourselves on trial as well.  As Jesus in vs.37 says, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  You are either of the truth, or you are in opposition to the truth.  And I believe the world who is antagonistic to the truth has echoed the question made by Hillary, “What difference does it make?”  Truth is under attack.  Apostasy is championed, in both the religious and political realms of this world.

Even a cursory look at the problems headlining our society today reveals  the dilemma of our modern culture, which is summed up in  Isaiah 59:14 which says, “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.”  Today truth has stumbled in the street.  Apostasy seems to hold sway in the world and it threatens to overwhelm the church.  The world loves darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, they hate righteousness, and they love wickedness.

But while we can expect such a sentiment from the world who is in rebellion against God, it is even more disconcerting that the same question is asked by the church at large, if not directly, then indirectly.  Is truth worth standing for?  Does the truth really matter?  Is the truth worth dying for? Is the truth worth separating over?  Or do we just throw up our hands as Pilate did and say, “What is truth?”

I would submit to you that the truth is all that there is.  It is the most important thing.  Not conformity to religion, not conformity to the status quo, not conformity to political correctness.  Jesus said, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  So truth is important.

Even the founders of our country understood that our heritage as Americans depended upon the truth.  The Constitution begins, “We hold these truths to be self evident…”  They acknowledged that truth was derived from our Creator.  But I’m afraid that though they made a good start, they stopped far short of the truth.  True life and freedom can only come when we believe and accept the gospel which is the truth of God given by Christ Jesus.  As Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 

So as the church, we must believe all the truth, and nothing but the truth.  It’s so important that as a church truth must be paramount in our focus.  We cannot allow false teaching to creep in.  Because like leaven, a little leaven leavens the whole lump, a little falsehood dilutes the truth so that it loses it’s power to set you free.  A little lie serves to keep you in bondage.

The truths or doctrines of our faith are like railroad ties, underlying the steel rails of the track.  If you start removing some of the ties, soon the rails are no longer able to keep the train on track, and you end up with a train wreck.  But the world doesn’t see truth like that. They see it as a restriction on their freedom.  They hate it because it makes them feel guilty.  They want independence from God, even though such freedom leads to destruction.  So they want to overthrow the truth, and are hostile to the truth.  The world is at enmity with God.

In our text today we see this attempt by the world to subvert the truth concerning Jesus Christ.  Truth is on trial, as I said previously. And the world is characterized by two entities in this passage; religion and politics. Those are the two elements of the world we are looking at today in this story.  Religion and politics. First let’s consider religion. Not the church(the true believers) but religion.Religion is man’s attempts to reach God.  Christianity is God reaching down to man through Jesus Christ.  

So in this passage, religion is identified with Annas, the father in law of the high priest, who was Caiaphas.  John doesn’t tell us much about Jesus’s trial with Caiaphas, but other gospels fill in those blanks.  However, as I said in previous messages, John isn’t interested in a chronological biography here, he is giving us his gospel.  And so the message I believe he wants to get across to us is not necessarily every detail of Christ’s trial, but the overarching view or goal of the religious bureaucracy, which was their animosity and hatred of the truth of Christ. 

John focuses on Annas, because he is the real manipulator behind the Jewish religious facade.  Caiaphas, who is the high priest that year is his son in law.  But Annas, who had once been the high priest himself, is the godfather so to speak.  Annas is the one who is in charge of all the concessions which were in the temple; the money changers and the sellers of doves and sacrifices.  All of that was known as the bazaars of Annas.  He was the godfather of what Jesus referred to as a “den of thieves” when He made a scourge of cords and cleaned out the temple.

And remember, Jesus did that twice. At the beginning of His ministry and then after His last triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus cleaned out the temple.  And that operation had exposed and called out the corruption of the religious system of the Jewish temple and the priesthood which was complicit.  See, what they did was they fleeced people who came into the temple to present their sacrifice.  Annas had inspectors there who inspected the animal or birds that the person had brought to be sacrificed. And of course, the law required that such had to be without spot or blemish.  So when the inspector would look it over, he would find fault and say that it had some sort of defect and could not be sacrificed.  So then the only real option was for the person to buy one of the “perfect” specimens that the bazaars offered, which of course cost much more money than what you could buy the same for elsewhere.  And to make it even more odious, these theives had another aspect to their racket that included money changing.  They said you couldn’t buy the sacrificial animal with Roman money, because it had Caesar’s image on it, and that amounted to idolatry.  So you had to exchange your money for Jewish money, which again cost you a hefty commission.  So they had quite a racket going on, enough to make the Mafia jealous.

Caiaphas, being the High Priest, was complicit in this scheme of course.  It was a family business, after all.  They were made extremely wealthy by it.  But the High Priest was by this time a political appointment.  The Romans recognized the degree of control and authority of religion in Israel, and so they had taken over the appointment of the High Priesthood in order to make sure that whoever was in that position followed their wishes and worked with them.  And Caiaphas and his father in law Annas had managed to ingratiate themselves to the Roman authorities through graft and behind the scenes deal making.  So that’s who these guys were.  They were using religion for personal advantage.  Truth had stumbled in the streets, because there was no righteousness in the leadership.  They cared more about political correctness, about keeping the powers that be happy, and about garnering wealth  than they did about truth.  In fact, Caiaphas was the one who had said in vs14, “It is expedient for one to die on behalf of the people.”  Unbeknownst to him, God was prophesying through him that Christ would die for the sins of the poeple.  But from his perspective, what he was really saying, was it was expedient to sacrifice truth, to murder Jesus, for the sake of their religious enterprise.

So Annas, starting in vs.19, begins a mock trial of Jesus in the middle of the night.  It was totally illegal and improper.  There were no witnesses there to bring charges against Him. And as you look at his line of questioning, you notice that he doesn’t accuse Christ, but that He wants to get the Lord to say something which they can use to incriminate Him.  They ask Him about His disciples and about His teaching.  

It’s almost as if they are more concerned about how many people Jesus has in His church, and how many services they are holding, than whether or not Jesus is speaking the truth or not. So Jesus answers him saying, “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.”

Here is what is happening; the ruling party of the Jews have already issued a verdict upon Jesus.  He is to be killed, to be crucified.  They have already determined that He has to be done away with.  They have no charges in regards to Him teaching anything that isn’t true, or scriptural, but their issue is that He challenges their authority and their ability to exert financial gain from their religion.  So there is a conflict between their religious traditions and Christ’s teaching of truth of God and their only solution is to silence Christ by killing Him.

Listen, there are similar conflicts going on in the church today.  There are traditions, practices, that have been passed down from generations and are considered essential to church health and wealth.  And if you don’t conform to the country club mentality, then you are ostracized and even sometimes attacked.  You are put on trial by the religious community because you don’t conform to the church paradigm which is practiced by most churches.  Truth is sacrificed for the sake of continuity, for the sake of conformity, for the sake of prosperity.  And when you don’t adhere to that template because you don’t see that specified in God’s blueprint for the church then you are subject to hostility and denunciation.

And as we see in the case of the High Priest’s appointment, there is a similar situation in the church today over leadership that is not according to the calling of God.  I read a blog the other day from a pastor, lamenting the number of pastors he knew that had recently quit the ministry.  They talked about things like burnout, and lack of appreciation, or conflicts with membership or committees.  I don’t deny that pastors can get burned out, or that they can suffer from loneliness or depression just like any other person does. I am sometimes a victim of such things myself from time to time. But what I think is perhaps the root of the problem is that there are a lot of pastors today that have been called by churches, but not necessarily called by God. They may have been appointed by a seminary, but not appointed by Christ.  If a pastor has a clear call of God to preach the gospel, and pastor the flock of Christ that Christ has given him, then I think that such a man will not likely quit the ministry due to feeling under appreciated.  I think far too many men are called according to a popularity contest held by the church’s pastor search committee, and in order to maintain that approval rating, they have to conform to what the people want them to do, rather than their first priority as to what God would have them do.  And that lack of a divine call upon their lives is equivalent to what Jesus referred to as a hireling, and not a true shepherd, who abandons his sheep when trouble comes.

I will say this as well, when the church starts to dismiss certain truths of scripture in favor of cultural preferences, then you should expect a continued decline into apostasy to follow shortly afterwards.  For instance, when churches opt to disregard the clear teaching of the Bible in regards to women in ministry because it is no longer fashionable, then it should come as no surprise when those same denominations eventually move to include homosexuals into the clergy. One need only look at the predominate Presbyterian and Episcopal denominations to see how one denial of truth soon leads to another and so on until it is completely corrupted.  A little leaven soon leavens the whole lump.

Well, the response to Jesus’s rebuke of the High Priest earned Him a slap in the mouth.  Vs22, 

When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is that the way You answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?”

Jesus comes back to the truth.  If I’m telling the truth, why do you strike Me? The reason is that they hated the truth.  They didn’t want to hear the truth.  And I believe that is still the prevailing sentiment today in organized religion.  People don’t want to hear the truth, if it opposes what they want to believe.  We have seen that lately in the political arena as well, haven’t we?  The riots the other day at Berkley University.  They don’t care about the truth.  So they strike out, they riot, they break things and cause damage in order to prevent or intimidate  people from speaking the truth.  And as Jesus indicated, they break laws in order to try to convince others that they are unlawful.

We have seen such attacks even here in this church.  We speak the truth, and eventually someone gets their pet principles stepped on, but rather than seriously seek to know the truth, they go out of their way to attack the pastor, and demean him to as many people in the community as they can. Such is the nature of apostasy.  But Jesus is the example of how we are to react to it.

There is one other aspect of  the apostasy of religion that is illustrated here in vs 28, “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.”  What this indicates is a commitment to ceremony at the expense of truth.  The hypocrisy of these Jews is really astounding.  They don't want to be defiled, and so they will not enter into the hall of judgment because the hall of judgment is in the hands of Gentiles. God hadn’t told them to do this, this was their tradition.  So in their minds,  to enter into the hall of judgment will bring about the possibility of defilement.  It’s ironic that they are so  scrupulous about the little details of tradition, but totally unconcerned about the vast sin of the murder of the Son of God.

Now, what makes it even more significant is that John says they didn't enter into the hall of

judgment that they might not be defiled, so they might eat the Passover. Now, isn't this amazing? Think of the irony of it. Who is the Passover lamb? Well Paul says in

1 Corinthians 5: 7 that Jesus Christ is the Passover lamb. He says, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” So they continue in their sin of murder, but publicly adhere to ceremonial cleanliness, in order that they might eat the Passover, while putting to death the Passover Lamb.  

And as a modern application of that, let us be careful in the church if we accommodate sin, in order to not offend the world, so that we might practice our religion. Remember that Christ suffered and died for those sins.  And when we wink at sin, we embolden the practice of those sins, and cheapen the grace of God through licentiousness, disregarding the fact that God crushed Jesus to pay the penalty for those sins so that we might be set free from them.

The second aspect of the apostasy of the world that is illustrated here is the political realm.  Pilate is a prime example of the political aspect of the world.  Let me give you a little background on Pilate.  First of all, he married well.  He married Claudia, who was the daughter of Tiberius, the grand daughter of Caesar Augustus.  As a result of that marriage, he was appointed prefect of Judea, or what we might call the governor.  

Pilate was a politician, trying to please the Emperor of Rome on the one hand, and to placate the Jews on the other.  Yet Josephus and other historians tell us that he repeatedly irritated the Jews, and had more than once been rebuked by Rome for his treatment of the Jews.  So perhaps that is an indication of why Pilate seems to try to accommodate the Jews desire to crucify Christ, even though he found no fault in Him. Even his wife urged him not to have anything to do with crucifying the Lord. He was trying to please people, even if it meant he would have to sentence to death an innocent man.

I’ve come up with my own definition of the word politics. Politics is the art of compromise. It means one will jettison truth in order to reach a consensus.  Politics is in opposition to the truth.  Now in Pilates case, you get the feeling that he wasn’t happy being political, but he felt he had no other alternative.  Look at the predicament he found himself in. 

 Vs.29, “Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, ‘What accusation do you bring against this Man?’ They answered and said to him, ‘If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.’ So Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,’ to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.”

The predicament is this; Pilate is summoned to court to condemn Jesus, whom I believe it would have been next to impossible for him not to have heard of to some extent, and the judgment, crucifixion has already been determined, and yet there is no charge that they prove is worthy of death.  The religious leaders have put Pilate in a box. They know Pilate has been in trouble with Rome over his treatment of the Jews in the past, and he cannot afford another incident. So in order to appease the Jewish rulers, he must condemn Jesus to death.  But in his heart he knows that Jesus is not guilty of death.

I think a lot of people in the world find themselves in a similar position today in regards to Christianity or the church.  They recognize something about it which seems true and right, but the acclaim of the culture is that they condemn Christianity.  And at that point they have to make a decision; to please the world, or to please God.  Since they haven’t yet chosen to believe in God unto salvation, it is very unlikely that they will do so under duress.  They make the same mistake that Pilate did.  They try to escape making a decision at all.

vs.31, “So Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.’ The Jews said to him, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death.’  But the world will not let you off the hook so easily. The world requires allegiance to it’s doctrine, just as God demands allegiance to His doctrine.  In the words of Bob Dylan, “you got to serve somebody.”  You have to make a choice.

So Pilate asks Jesus directly, “Are You the King of the Jews?”  That was a start towards the truth.  But let’s see if Pilate is seriously seeking the truth, or if he is just seeking a way out.  Jesus answers him curiously; ““Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?”  

Jesus doesn’t need to ask Pilate questions, as He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart of man.  But what He is doing is asking a question to prompt Pilate to ask himself the right question.  So Jesus says, Do you say this yourself, or did others tell you that about Me?  Are you repeating what you have heard, or are you seriously inquiring to know if I am King of the Jews?  

Note Pilate’s response; Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?”  So he at once removes himself from the equation, putting Christianity aside as a nationalistic thing, something that has nothing to do with himself as a Roman.  And yet he cannot sweep this question of what to do about Jesus aside.  It is a question that everyman and woman must answer at some point in their lives.  Is He King of Kings, and Lord of Lords?  And if I say He is, then I must bow to Him and worship Him.  If I say He is not, then I will suffer the eternal consequence of my decision.

Jesus then answers in a way that does nothing to absolve Pilate of guilt.  But rather includes everyone regardless of his nationality. “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”  

Note that Jesus does declare that He is King, but not just of the Jews, but of a realm which is outside of the geography of nations and kingdoms of this world.  It is a spiritual kingdom as opposed to an earthly kingdom.

Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  Here is the purpose of Christ’s coming to earth as declared by Jesus Himself; to testify to the truth.  And here is the means of salvation; everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.  Hearing indicates more than listening however.  It indicates receiving, believing, and obeying the truth of Christ with all your heart and soul.  

Folks we need to understand this.  Jesus testified to the truth of God.  God is life and they that believe in the truth of God receives that life.  The very life of God; spiritual and eternal.  The truth has been given to you and now the choice of receiving it is up to you. Jesus is the way of life, the truth of life, and the source of life, even everlasting life.  But you have to receive Him and by extension His truth, and walk in it.

But the politician Pilate was still trying to duck the question.  And so are many in the world today.  The world echoes the disillusioned cry of Pilate; “what is truth?”  Truth was staring him in the face, and he would not receive it.  Oh, I believe Pilate saw it, just as clearly as Annas and Caiaphas saw the Passover Lamb standing in front of them.  But like them, Pilate cannot afford to receive it.  He loved too much the favor of this world to become an outcast with Christ.

Pilate thought he could please the world and still please God.  He said to Christ what is truth, thus hopefully excusing himself from receiving the truth, and then he goes out to the crowd and says I find no fault in Him.  He doesn’t want to make a decision either way.  But either you accept Christ as your Lord and King, or you condemn Him along with the world. Undecided is not an option in the Kingdom of God.  You are either for Him or against Him. You either believe Him, or you reject Him.  Pilate would ultimately find this to be true, and though he would wash his hands for eternity, he would never wash away the blood of Christ upon his hands.

Listen, don’t die with Christ’s blood on your hands.  Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost said in Acts 2:23, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”  It was your sins and mine that put Jesus to death.  And only by repentance and faith in Him can we be forgiven of it, and given a second life.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  Believe the truth today and be saved.  Hold onto to the truth today and be set free.  Walk in the truth and have life more abundantly.  Today you have seen the truth of Christ.  What will your response be? Will it be the response of religion?  Continuing to practice expediency at the cost of truth? Will it be the response of political correctness, at the expense of truth?  I pray you hold fast to the truth, no matter what the world or religion or political persuasion says.  

Four steps to apostasy, John 18:12-18, 25-27

As I have previously pointed out, John isn’t presenting a blow by blow account of the arrest and trial of Christ.  By the time he is writing this epistle, the other three gospels have already presented all of the chronological events in detail.  Instead, what John is doing is specifically highlighting certain events in order to illustrate particular principles which he is attempting to teach.  And as we have seen from our previous studies, John is very focused on presenting the gospel as the truth of God.  He quotes Jesus reaffirming this principle again and again in statements such as “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  And “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by me.”  And another, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  Finally one more, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

In fact, 83 times in his writings John writes about either truth or what is true.  I firmly believe that for the apostle John, truth was the preeminent theme of the gospel.  So what I think he is doing here in addition to presenting the events leading up to Christ’s crucifixion is he is including a sub plot, which is contrasting the truth with the dangers of apostasy.  The truth of Christ is contrasted with the apostasy of Peter.  And Peter is representative of the church.  Remember, Jesus had said in Matt. 16:18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”  So the apostles, and especially Peter, are emblematic of the church because they are the foundation of the church.  And in this passage we are looking at today, John is highlighting the dangers of the church slipping into apostasy.

Apostasy means the abandonment or renunciation of belief, particularly religious belief.  So to become apostate is to abandon or renounce your faith, or the principles of truth which undergird your faith.  In 2Thess. 2:3, Paul speaking of the second coming of Christ says, “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first.”  The Bible teaches that in the last days there will be a great falling away from the truth. False prophets and false teaching will fill the church to the extent that Jesus said if it were possible even the very elect would be misled.  

And we know from church history that in fact happened. When Jesus speaks for the last time to the church in Revelation 2 and 3, which was also written by John by the way, He speaks to the seven churches in Asia, which were symbolic of the church universal, and in practically each of His messages to the churches, He emphasizes their need to stay true to His word, and warns them to repent of their apostasy, lest He remove their lamp stand from the Earth.

Now last week we looked at the first part of this passage set in the Garden of Gethsemane where the mob came to arrest Jesus along with the Pharisees and the Roman cohort.  And particularly we focused on the response of the disciples as an example of how the church often responds to a hostile world.  We talked about the natural response of the human psyche to fear or intimidation known as the  fight or flight syndrome which was exemplified by the disciples fleeing, and Peter swinging his sword and cutting off the ear of the High Priest’s slave. And if you will remember, my application contrasted the church’s natural response to the world as opposed to what should be the true response of the church as identified by Acts 2, in the first church of Jerusalem immediately following Pentecost.

In a similar fashion, I want to show a subsequent application to the church through the events recorded in this passage that may not at first be apparent from a superficial study of the chronology of events.  But if you will bear with me, I hope to show you how the denial of Peter and the trial of Christ mirror the choice confronting the church today, namely, remaining steadfast in the truth, and on the other hand, denying the truth, or becoming apostate.

So what we see from the passage is that really what  was on trial was the Truth. That becomes apparent in Jesus’s response to both Annas and Pilate later on in the chapter.  It was all about the truth that Jesus taught and represented.  Jesus was the Truth personified.  That is what the Pharisees and Sanhedrin hated.  They weren’t interested in the truth, they were interested in the law.  The law was their religion.  They had learned to manipulate the law.  They could take advantage of the law. They could enrich themselves through the law, administered through religion.  But Jesus focused on the truth.  The truth trumps the law because the law comes from the truth.  However, as I said, they were not interested in the Truth, they were interested in law, which was administered through their religion.  And sadly, we see today in the church that there is an emphasis on religion as they define it, but there is very little emphasis on the truth. Truth is relative today in our culture, and the church in it’s efforts to be relevant to the culture has become a mirror of the culture, rather than a reflection of Jesus Christ who is the Truth.

So John’s record at this point doesn’t focus so much on the illegality of the trial or on the Pharisees, but he seems to deliberately juxtapose Peter’s denial with Christ’s affirmation of Truth.  Twice John shows another side of what was going on, that which was happening in the courtyard below with Peter.  And I am proposing that his intention is to show the counterpoint to the truth of the gospel, which is apostasy, and how easy it is and possible it is for the church to fall into it.  

So without further introduction, let’s look at four steps to apostasy as illustrated in this text.  And I will give you each step in advance; First, the steps to apostasy begins with acting in your own wisdom, which leads to # 2, distance from God, which produces #3, a desire for acceptance from the world, and #4, results in blasphemy and denial.   That’s the four steps to apostasy.  

Let’s consider how this is illustrated in the text.  The first point, acting in your own wisdom we pretty much covered last week.  When confronted with the hostility of the mob, Peter did what he thought was right according to his own wisdom, according to his own strength.   When he should have followed the Lord’s example and looked to him as to how to respond to the attack of the mob, instead he acted in his own strength, according to his own wisdom, and it resulted in disaster.  He pulled his sword and whacked off the High Priest’s servant’s ear.  That was a bad move.  It could have been even worse had not Jesus healed the man’s ear.  Because as we see later, Malchus’s kinsman was sitting at the fire later in Annas’s courtyard, and he recognized Peter and called him out in front of the soldiers.  

We see this same attitude played out today in the church all the time, though perhaps in a little less dramatic fashion.  More and more we see the church relying of philosophy, psychiatry, science, survey’s,  and business practices in order to achieve their goals. The average sermon today is an impotent mixture of pyscho-babble and sentimentality, with a few jokes and a poem thrown in for good measure.  Rather than looking at how the Bible says we should approach things like marriage, or sexuality, or church organization, etc, we follow what science or business or common sense tells us to do.  But we need to remember that God has given us a blueprint for the church, and when we deviate from it to follow our own wisdom, we do so at our own peril.  

I want to point out another contrast inherent in this scene.  Peter decides to fight with his sword against the forces of darkness that are arrayed before him.  And though he manages to wound one out of possibly 50-200 armed men, it was not a very effective strategy.  And as I said earlier, if Jesus hadn’t stopped it and healed the servant, it would have probably ended badly for Peter.  But then notice the contrast of the truth.  In vs. 4, it says, “So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and *said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He *said to them, “I am He.” And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.”  

Here is the irony of the contrast.  Peter takes his sword and wounds one man, and potentially sets up a disastrous situation.  Jesus uses the sword of His mouth, the very word of God, and 200 men are knocked flat on the ground.  I believe that John shows us this contrast to illustrate that even the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men.  We must not neglect the word of God.  It is powerful even to the destruction of fortresses. 2Cor. 10:3 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”  The  efforts of our flesh in our wisdom and strength fail to make a difference for the kingdom.  Whereas God’s word is powerful and sharper than a two edged sword.  Because it is the truth of God.

Well, as we see in Peter’s case, acting in your own wisdom leads to the second step towards apostasy, which is distancing yourself from God.  It’s really amazing that Christ demonstrates His divine power even in this hour of darkness, in both knocking the mob on the ground and healing the man’s ear, and yet the mob is unmoved.  They are resolute in their hatred and determination to put Jesus to death.  Their hearts are hardened. 

But what’s even more amazing is that the disciples, also seeing these things, and having seen so many other miracles that Jesus had done over three years,  are unmoved as well.  They run away.  You would think that they would have recognized that the safest place for them to be was with Jesus. 

I have said that from this pulpit many times and I will say it again this morning.  There is no safe place outside of the will of God.  And there is no safer place than to be in the will of God.  Yet how quickly we forget that.  The disciples thought that it would be safer somewhere else.  So they ran.  Peter, I will give him some credit, doesn’t run.  Instead he follows from afar, according to Matthew 26:58.  And so when Jesus is in the house of the High Priest, Peter is hanging around outside in the dark, outside the courtyard door.  

Over the last couple of months or so, I have had a number of people tell me that they felt as if they were far from God.  They didn’t feel close to God anymore.  They feel like God didn’t care, or didn’t love them anymore.  They felt distant.  And I will tell you what I tell them every time.  It’s an alternate version of the old adage; sin will keep you from God, or God will keep you from sin.  When you feel distant from God it’s usually because you have moved away from God, not vice versa.

It’s like the couple that had been married for 30 years, back in the day when cars had bench seats, not like the bucket seats we have today.  And the couple were driving down the road, and the wife looked over at the husband who was driving and said sort of reproachfully, “Remember when we used to take a drive when we were dating, and how you used to put your arm around me, and hug me close?  Don’t you ever miss that kind of closeness?  And the husband looked over at her on the passenger side of the car and said, “Well, I didn’t move, you did.” 

God doesn’t move to distance Himself from us.  Even when we are in rebellion against Him, He pursues us. The Lord is like the husband of Hosea, who watches and provides for his love from afar, waiting for her to return to Him, and never stops loving her.  James gives us the prescription for a healthy relationship with God in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”  

Distance from God usually happens as a result of a lack of dependence upon God.  You stop reading His word.  You start skipping your devotions.  You hardly pray.  Start missing church services.  It’s usually characterized by a desire to keep a comfortable distance from God, while all the while claiming to be in fellowship with Him.  You want to be free to make your own decisions, and then that leads to neglecting the word of God so that you can operate independently without a guilty conscience.  

Thirdly, distancing yourself from God leads to a desire for acceptance by the world.  We see this illustrated in Peter’s example.  There is an unnamed disciple in the text, who John says was known by the High Priest’s family.  Most commentators believe that this is John himself.  And so John realizes that Peter is outside the door, and  he speaks to the girl watching the door so that Peter can come inside.  I’m not sure that Peter really wanted to come inside.  But nevertheless, he more or less had to come in when John came to the door.  

But where he ends up is not back beside Christ as you might think.  He hasn’t felt enough remorse over his earlier actions so that now he just wants to be next to Christ again.  No, he just sidles over to the fire where the enemies of Christ are hanging out getting warm.  So it’s apparent where his sentiments are at this point.  There are two sides in this mock trial.  There is Jesus all alone, and there is everyone else.  Peter gains entrance to the house, but he chooses sides with the enemy.  He wants to keep his distance from Christ.

We see that in Christianity all the time.  There is a crisis in one’s life, and so they feel remorse that they were caught up in some crime, or put in jail, or totaled the car, or messed up their marriage somehow, but rather than come all the way to Christ, the natural tendency is to come only so far.  To hang on to their autonomy, to hang on to their sin.  The choice Peter should have made was to come all the way to Christ, even to the death if necessary, which was what he had boasted earlier that he would do.

So of course in our text we see that the enemy recognizes Peter as having been with Christ.  So they start to call him out.  First the slave girl says, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” And He said, “I am not.”  He denies being a disciple.  He doesn’t deny knowing Christ at this point, just denies being a disciple.  

I don’t think that Peter was afraid of this slave girl.  I think Peter suddenly is getting a clearer understanding of what Jesus has been saying all along about what it really means to be a disciple, to  suffer for Him.  I think it was easier being a disciple when they had this miraculous power to call down fire from heaven or cast out demons.  But now this hour belonged to the power of darkness.  And in this hour he begins to remember  how Jesus had just told them they would be persecuted and killed for following Him.  It suddenly is no longer theoretical, but an immediate possibility.  And maybe he realizes at this point that this being an outcast from society, being persecuted, being publicly ostracized was going to be part of what it means to be a Christian.  And at that moment, he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to commit to that.  

So he chose friendship with the world, which Paul tells us is enmity with God.  He found himself at odds with Psalm 1:1 which says, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”  

Acting in your own wisdom results in distancing yourself from God, which leads to a desire for acceptance from the world.  And we see that all the time in the church today among Christians.  Who at some point, come to realize that following Christ completely and being stedfast to the truth of God puts them in opposition to the world. It’s makes us an outcast, a fool for Christ. So  to appease the world we want to soften our stance on things that the Bible speaks clearly about.  We start to accept the dictates of the culture, because if we spoke out about adultery or homosexuality or evolution or a host of other subjects then we would become ostracized in our communities.  We could lose our job.  We might get “unfriended” on face book. We might get laughed at in school.  

And before we know it, we have moved from walking according to the counsel of the wicked to standing in the path of sinners, and before we are done we end up sitting down with the scoffers.  We find ourselves like Lot, who moved from living in the country near  the city of Sodom to living next to it, to finally moving downtown.  On the road to apostasy you get comfortable with the world, and uncomfortable with discipleship.  So you move further and further towards apostasy.  When you start to accommodate the world’s views in one area, it leads to another area, and soon it like yeast in a lump of dough it corrupts completely.

That takes us to the final point, which is a desire to be accepted by the world leads to blasphemy and denial of the truth.  Peter finds himself getting warm by the fire.  Notice that John repeats that twice in vs 18 and 25.  That accommodation of Christ’s enemies leads to Peter denying the Lord three times.  You will remember that Jesus prophesied that before the night was over Peter would deny Him three times.  Peter had denied such a possibility vigorously.  Once again you see this disregard of God’s word.  We think we can disregard God’s word with impunity.  But we cannot.  If the word of God convicts you, then you need to repent and ask God to forgive you.  Because when you disregard the conviction of the Spirit of God through the word of God your heart becomes hardened, and you give the devil an opportunity to destroy you.

In his later years, Peter illustrated that he come to appreciate the schemes of the devil and how he uses such things to take you down.  Peter writes in 1Peter 5:8, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  But at the point in our story, Peter had not learned that lesson yet. He thought he was good, he was strong, he could handle things himself.  But in fact, Jesus had warned Peter earlier that Satan had demanded permission to sift him like wheat.

Peter didn’t believe that he was weak, however.  He was confident that he could stand up to the devil’s temptations.  Peter exhibited overconfidence in himself, and a lack of confidence in God.  It would have been good for him to know  1Cor. 10:12 which says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”  

Well, as we see here, one denial of the truth leads to another lie, which leads to yet another lie. That’s the way sin is.  A little leaven soon leavens the whole lump.  And so we see Peter get deeper and deeper into sin, until he ends up not only denying Christ, but blaspheming and cursing in order to prove himself not a friend of Christ.  It’s really just incredible to watch the fall of Peter.

John 18:25 “Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” He denied it, and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, *said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Peter then denied it again.  (Matthew 26 tells us that Peter denied it with an oath, and then when asked again he resorted to cursing,)  and immediately a rooster crowed.

Most of us when confronted with the possibility that we would deny Christ would protest as Peter did that we would die before denying Him.  But that is in theory.  In actuality, it doesn’t often go the way we think it might.  Satan gets us to deny Him first by denying the Lord’s power in favor of our own.  We do it our way, kind of like Frank Sinatra.  We try to make it look like we are doing it for the Lord, but the bottom line is we want to deny Christ control over our lives and want to exercise our will and wisdom.  That leads to further distance from God, as we think we are doing fine, and don’t really need to depend daily upon God.  Skipping devotions or prayer time or church time becomes more commonplace as everything else starts to take precedence over the things of God. And that distance from God leads to a desire to find acceptance from the world.  Maybe that is even our original motivation.  We like the acclaim of men, so we seek out ways of pleasing the world, rather than pleasing God.  And then finally, that leads to down right denial of Christ.  

Oh, we may not be cursing God, or uttering blasphemies directed towards Christ directly, but in many ways I’m afraid we deny Christ in our relationship with Him, in His Lordship over us, we deny Him control over our lives, and we don’t trust Him to take care of us.  And if we don’t turn and repent of such things, it can lead us into outright apostasy.  We end up denying the truth of God.  We deny the truth of God’s word.  We fail to stand up for Christ when He is attacked by the world.  

I think the lesson to be learned from this story is that if apostasy can happen to Peter it can happen to the best of us.  Because, contrary to the way many portray Peter, I believe Peter was the best of us.  I believe he was passionate about following the Lord.  He loved the Lord.  He was faithful to the Lord.  He was an intimate friend of the Lord.  And yet, he fell from faith in denying Christ three times on the night of His crucifixion.  It is a tragedy that is possible for all of us.  And many of us have already done as bad if not worse at some point in our lives.  I know I have.  

But like Peter, I am a child of God.  Thank God my disobedience and denial of my Lord does not negate the fact that I am His child.  God is a God of restoration.  He came to seek and to save those that are lost.  And just as Christ made a point to meet with Peter specifically after His resurrection and reconcile Peter to Himself, so He will do with you and with me if we are truly His people and we are willing to repent.  If you don’t repent, Satan will use your rebellion to try to destroy you.  But if you turn back to God, He will heal you and restore you.

In Peter’s case, not only did Christ reconcile with Peter, but He still used Peter to be the foundation of the church.  Peter’s past mistakes did not disqualify him, but once he was reconciled to Christ he was used as the chief apostle of His church.  God has a plan to use us, even when we have been broken and beaten up by the devil and by failures.  The key is we learn to trust God, to let Him have control of our life, and we don’t trust in our own strength or wisdom, but trust in the word of God.  

Fight or flight, John 18:1-11

My message today is titled, “Fight or Flight.” And I hope that the reason for that being so named would be evident from the content of the verses we just read.  On the one hand we know from this text and the other gospels that all the disciples fled as a result of this incident, and on the other hand we see Simon Peter trying to put up a fight by taking out his sword and cutting of the ear of the high priest’s servant. Hence I have called it, Fight or Flight.  

Psychologists tell us that fight or flight is associated with a physiological reaction which occurs in humans or animals in response to a perceived harmful attack, or threat to survival. It is an automatic, instinctive response from our nervous system that activates our physical muscular system in order to help us survive.  It is natural.  It is instinctive.  It is normal.  But in the realm of the spiritual that which is natural and physical is not necessarily the kind of reaction that is in alignment with God’s purposes.

And we find that natural vs spiritual response illustrated in this text.  The disciple’s reaction to the mob coming to arrest Jesus was pretty normal.  It was a natural reaction.  Some fled, and some attempted to fight.  That is the way the body is engineered.  We are told in Mark 14 that even as the disciples fled, one  young man was caught and he slipped out of his clothes and ran away naked.  And of course, we know what Peter did.  He drew a sword to defend Christ.  He was going to fight the spiritual battle in his own strength, with his skill and determination.

I think that the church is often guilty of similar responses as we try to find our way in a hostile world.  We tend to try to use human ingenuity to accomplish spiritual goals.  But when we do so we fail to apply Ephesians 6 which we studied not long ago in our Wednesday evening Bible studies, which said we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in the heavenly places.  

Jesus made the same principle clear in this chapter, in vs 36. Jesus answered to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”  So if as Jesus indicates, our kingdom is spiritual, not physical, and our enemies are spiritual and not physical, then it stands to reason that the church’s strategies must be spiritual and not physical.

So Jesus and the disciples climb the Mount of Olives to engage in a spiritual battle, the battle of the will of man. It was in the Garden of Eden that man first encountered the spiritual warfare with the enemy of his soul. There the battle with Satan was lost by man, there he forfeited the rights of the earth over to Satan by yielding his will to Satan's will. Now Jesus enters another garden to do battle with Satan. The issue again is God's will versus the will of Satan.

But the disciples react in the flesh instead of according to the Spirit.  So Christ rebukes Peter in vs.11 saying, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”  The Lord Jesus had known ahead of time how all this was going to come about.  He knew that Judas had planned to betray Him there.  And yet He did not try to avoid arrest  by fleeing from the soldiers or by planning a defense.  Instead, we are told that Jesus went boldly out to meet the mob.  I’m sure it would have been possible for Jesus to have easily eluded them in the dark in this olive grove.  But that wasn’t the Father’s will.  And Jesus had prayed in the prayer recorded in Luke 22 that He was concerned that the Father’s will be done, and not His own.

John’s record of this time in the Garden of Gethsemane is selective.  He doesn’t make an attempt to mention a lot of what the other gospel writer’s have already written about. Out of all the events that transpired in the garden, John emphasizes the fact that Jesus initiates His own capture. He doesn’t mention the night spent in prayer, or the sweat drops of blood that Christ spilled as He prayed.  He doesn’t mention the disciples falling asleep.  He doesn’t mention Judas’s kiss of betrayal.  And what we can deduce from that is that what John does record is to illustrate certain facts that he felt served his greater purpose. As he said in chapter 20 vs.30, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  So John emphasizes that Jesus went boldly forth to offer Himself as a sacrifice by doing the will of the Father

That sacrificial love is illustrated in vs.8, in which Jesus says in effect, “Take Me, and let these go.”  That is the same sacrificial love that takes Jesus to the cross for us all. In bearing our judgment for sin, He said the same thing to the Father's justice.  “Take Me, and let these people go.”

So what John has given us is selected to teach us certain truths.  Now there are many applications that one could get from this passage.  But there is one particular application that I would like to make, which may seem like a stretch perhaps, but which I think is appropriate. Rather than doing my normal exegesis of each verse, I want to use this text to make an application that I feel God has laid on my heart this morning; and that is the purpose of the church.  I see in this situation an illustration of how the church is to respond to the demands of  a hostile culture.  

Now I feel this application is  justified because these 11 disciples represent the church.  We know from other scriptures, particularly Ephesians 2:20, that the apostles are the foundation of the church.  And at this point there is very little else but the foundation.  Christ has spent the last three years building the foundation, teaching the disciples concerning the kingdom of God.  

You will remember that Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:18, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”  So the disciples were the foundation stones upon which Christ would build His  church, and Christ is the cornerstone.  But the main point I want to emphasize is they are the church at that point.  Eleven guys, and they have all sorts of shortcomings, and they are facing all sorts of challenges, and their response is often completely wrong and yet Christ has chosen them to be the foundation of His church.  

So the Lord will use this situation and others like it to teach them so that when Jesus is no longer with them in person, they will know how to lead the church and so that the church will not only survive, but thrive.  The disciples will learn from even their failures how to continue Christ’s ministry.

On this particular night, it must seem to the disciples that the gates of hell are prevailing against the church. And so while Peter attempts to take matters into his own hands, and the other disciples flee into the darkness, Jesus stands firm knowing that He is acting according to the Father’s will. 

However, notice that Jesus's promise to the church that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, is conditional.  His promise is conditional upon the fact that it has to be His church, and He has to be the builder of it.  If He is, then there is the promise that hell will not prevail against it.  But if it is not His church, and He is not the builder of it, then there is no such promise.

As a pastor, I am routinely asked from time to time about our plans for this church.  What are our goals?  What is our long term plan?  Where are we going with this thing?  I guess those are valid concerns.  But I can’t help but feel that they are often prompted by unbiblical expectations.  And that is because the Christian community today has a picture in their mind of what they think church should be, what the church should look like.  That vision may have been influenced by many factors, such as what seems to be working elsewhere, what church was like when they grew up, or what they’ve been told the church has to do to reach our modern culture.  

And I can tell you that from a pastor’s perspective that answering this question isn’t easy for me either.  There are dozens and dozens of books out there which purport to tell you how to build a church.  Or what a successful church should look like.  Rick Warren wrote a very popular book many years ago now which has had a tremendous impact on the modern evangelical movement, called “The Purpose Driven Church.”  There are a lot of things in that book that sound good.  But there are also some things that I feel are misdirected. Namely, that there is a formula, a tried and true business style model for how to build a successful church.

Whether Rick Warren intended to imply it or not, the average church pastor who uses that book as a template does so hoping that it will result in building a large church.  Because Rick Warren has a huge church and he used that formula.  And because large numbers are what practically everyone thinks is emblematic of a successful church.  How many people you have, how many Sunday morning services you conduct, what kind of programs you have and so forth indicates how successful you are.  

But for the most part I have eschewed such handbooks for church growth. Instead, about three years or so ago, or maybe longer than that now, I began a study in the book of Acts on Sunday mornings because I wanted to address some of these fundamental questions concerning the church.  And what better source is there to determine how God builds His church than to study the first church in Jerusalem from the book of Acts.  However, that was a long time ago, and some of you weren’t here at that time to benefit from that study.  

So I want to go back to Acts chapter 2 in order to refresh our minds.  If we are going to have a church which is Christ’s church, and which is built by God, which will stand against the gates of hell, then I can think of no better example than the church in chapter 2 of Acts which was birthed by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  And first of all we note that 3000 people were saved on the day of Pentecost.  That means that if you’re going to have a church that is built by God, and protected by God, then it must start with a saved congregation.  The church is the congregation of the saints.  

Church buildings that are filled with unsaved people aren’t actually Christ’s church. The people may be the social pillars of the community, they may have all the trappings of the church, they may look like what we think churches are supposed to look like, but if they are not made up of born again saints then they do not constitute the church according to God. That eliminates a whole lot of so called churches right there. Nice people practicing religion does not constitute a church.  People who have received and believed the truth of the gospel are granted righteousness, resulting in salvation. So a saved congregation is the first prerequisite.  

And then in Acts chapter 2 we find in one verse the purpose of the church, as designed by God, and given to us.  Acts 2:42 gives the divine blueprint they followed: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Those are the four essential elements that make up the actual function and life of the church.  

To be saved is to become a disciple of Christ.  That’s what Jesus’s mandate was to the apostles as recorded in Matthew 28:19. Go into all the world and make disciples. And a disciple is a learner, a student.  So then the first order of the church is to teach Christ’s doctrine. To teach Christians how to live as Christ would have us live according to what Christ had taught them. This was the primary responsibility of the apostles.  And in Ephesians we read that as the church goes forward, Christ gave to the church first apostles and prophets, then evangelists, and then pastor’s/teachers.  So if we are going to pattern ourselves according to God’s blueprint for the church, then the church must continually devote themselves to the teaching of the word of God.  And we do that not just so that we might have an intellectual knowledge of doctrine, but so that we might know how to live as Christ taught, and that we might be obedient to that truth.  That is sanctification, being saved, being conformed to the truth of God.

A godly church then is made up of saved people who apply themselves to the teaching of the word, and then are obedient to the word, so that they might be witnesses to the world.  The purpose of teaching is that we might be conformed to the image of Christ.  That we might become in practice like Christ.  We have become righteous by justification through Christ, now we must be sanctified in practice like Christ.  We must be obedient to what we are taught. It is to no advantage whatsoever if we meet to have what is called a worship service, but there is no evidence of the transforming power of God in our lives.  If the church is filled with people living in adultery, filled with people who are living in sin, who are still enslaved to sin, then what kind of witness is that to the world?  It’s a useless exercise in self righteous religion.  The purpose of the church is to make disciples that look like Christ and act like Christ as they live like Christ.

We conform to the image of Christ because He was conformed to the image of the Father.  He was obedient to the Father’s will.  Hebrews 5:8 says, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”  That’s what Jesus was referring to in His rebuke of Peter.  He had prayed in the Garden in Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”  He was apprehensive in His flesh, but when the mob came, Jesus was obedient to the Father’s will saying to Peter; “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”

Listen, we can learn from this example that God’s purposes are not always apparent to men because they are not according to the natural man.  His purposes do not always lead to our immediate exaltation.  His purposes sometimes takes us through thorny ways before we meet the joyful end. As the hymn writer says, 

“Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”

So the first priority of the church is continually devoting yourselves to the apostles teaching.  That’s the word of God.  Because the word of God has power to transform lives.  Programs don’t have that power.  Music doesn’t necessarily have that power. Activities and outreaches don’t have that power.  But God’s word is powerful and sharper than a two edges sword, able to pierce the heart and soul, and reveal the inner thoughts and intents of the heart.  

Now I don’t want to neglect the other three essentials of the church; fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.  But the teaching of the word is what is the priority, and then fellowship comes from the sense of unity we have in the truth.  Our church name is the Beach Fellowship.  It means communion, with God first and then with one another in the truth of God.  We talked about that last week; Christ prayed for unity.  And we discovered that unity is found in the truth.  Not in organizations, but in truth.  

And then the breaking of bread could be referring to the Lord’s Supper.  But in all likelihood it was just as simple as the daily taking of meals together.  Vs.46 says they were breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” Eating and sharing together is a basic form of fellowship.  That’s why we have dinner every Wednesday night before Bible study.  We believe it promotes fellowship.  It is sharing in the physical comforts to meet physical needs, so that we might be able to reach spiritual needs. 

And of course prayer is the last vitally important component.  I spoke about prayer at the beginning of chapter 17.  And for three weeks we studied Christ’s prayer as a template for our own.  As I said then, if we are a praying church, then all the other disciplines of the church would be elevated.  But even in prayer, it must be in truth.  Prayer must be grounded on Biblical truth, or it is not effective prayer.

When you have those four vital aspects of the church in effect, then you will see the result noted in Acts 2:43 which says, “everyone had a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” Though we no longer see the same kind of miracles and wonders of the apostolic times, God’s power still remains on display. What could be more miraculous than giving life to people who are dead in sin? He heals people of their hurts, puts broken homes back together, and brings people out of the bondage of sin to Christ. In short, He transforms lives. When the church follows God’s design, He will do marvelous and powerful things in individual lives before a watching world.

But it has to start with a saved congregation who submit to the teaching of the word of God and then are obedient to the will of God in their daily lives.  Even though many times in the Jerusalem church to obey God meant that they would experience suffering.  We too suffer many times if we are going to be obedient to God.  We suffer perhaps the loss of a job which does not honor God.  Or we suffer the loss of friendships that are of the world or that are ungodly associations.  There are lots of ways that we might suffer, but through thorny ways, God leads us to a joyful end.

The church that is willing to suffer with Christ is a church that experiences a sense of awe or reverence for the Lord.  That’s what is meant by they felt a sense of awe.  It doesn’t mean they were oohing and ahhing over the drama of the  miracles.  It means that they felt a holy reverence for the Lord.  They had a reverence for the holiness of God.  And if you read further in Acts, you will see the Lord’s response against Ananias and Sapphira who did not revere the Lord as holy nor His apostles.  So God struck them dead in the middle of the church because God desires reverence.

And then there is one more point that I would like to make from the example given to us in Acts.  It says in Acts 2:47  that “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  If you want a formula for success in the church there it is.  You start with God saving men and women, and then the church being transformed and sanctified by the teaching of the word of God, add fellowship and prayer and then you add to that the reverence for the holiness of the Lord, and you end up with God adding to the church day by day those that were being saved. That’s God’s church growth plan.  

It has nothing to do with building projects.  It has nothing to do with appointing committees or Sunday School directors.  It has everything to do with being saved according to the truth, then  taught the truth of the word and then being obedient to it and living it out in the community.

Listen, I don’t think I need to belabor this point this morning.  I’m convinced most of you are here today because you want to follow Christ’s teaching.  You want to be transformed, to be set free, and to be a witness to the world of the saving power of Christ.  But neither do I want you to be discouraged or distracted by what the world might tell you is important.  The disciples acted on their instincts, they acted in their own strength, and they acted out of an emotional, natural response.  And they found themselves at odds with the purposes of God.  After the resurrection, Jesus will spend the next 40 days to help them understand the principles that He had been teaching them so that they would be ready to take charge of His church when He left to go back to His Father.

But we have an advantage that they didn’t have. We have the advantage of learning from their mistakes.  We have the advantage of the complete revelation of God right in our hands.  So the teaching of the word is the first priority of this church.  Because it is everything we need for life and happiness.   As 2Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”  

Let’s not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the scriptures tell us, and let us continually devote ourselves to the teaching of the word of God through pastors/teachers “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”  That is how the church is supposed to look.  That is the plan of God for the church.  That we all grow to mature men and women, being conformed  to the full measure of the image of Christ.