RWJ/Pottersville UMC - 04/28/13 Sermon - “Kingdom Builders" The Early Church Series, Part 4 of 6

Sunday - 04/28/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC

Sermon: “Kingdom Builders” The Early Church Series, Part 4 of 6                                                                                      

Scripture Lesson: Revelation 21:1-6

                                             

Gospel Lesson: John 13:31-35

          Good morning brothers and sisters! What a joy it is to be with you on this the Sixth Sunday in this Easter Season. While Easter might seem like it was a long time ago at this point, every Sunday is a mini-Easter. Every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus overcoming death, and fulfilling the prophecy of being our Lord and savior. The Lord is truly good!

          After the Lord rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and after the Lord ascended to Heaven, he left his Apostles with the Holy Spirit. In fact, we are soon approaching the Christian holiday of Pentecost, were we will be exploring a little more of just what the Holy Spirit is.

          So as I said, after Jesus had ascended to Heaven the early church was left to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Jesus, as the Gospel of John reading from this from this morning specifically told the Apostles to “love one another” and to share the Good News with others. This first Christian Church, the early church was charged with spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. They were charged with building the kingdom. They were “Kingdom Builders”. Jesus told the Apostle Peter to “feed his sheep,” and he told his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. The only problem though, as I spoke about in the first week of this sermon series, was that our early brothers and sisters experienced heavy persecution. Many of our brothers and sisters today still experience persecution for professing the lifesaving message of our Lord Jesus Christ.

          Yet despite all of this, we are the largest faith in the world. Christianity makes up almost one-third of the entire population of the earth. The early Church was resilient, and they spread the Good News of Jesus Christ no matter what the cost. They were resilient. Our missionaries in China, our believers who are sneaking bibles into North Korea daily, are resilient. We will spread the Good News of Jesus, to the whole world.

          Last week, I talked about the power and the majesty of the early Christian Church. How the early Christian Church was full of “Signs, Wonders, and Miracles”. That in the early church the Holy Spirit was flowing, and powerful things were occurring all the time. People were getting baptized constantly, the church grew rapidly, and the kingdom was growing. Given this though, where did all of these new early Christians worship though?

          With this said, this morning I want to talk about how the early Christians, and even today’s Christians are “Kingdom Builders”. For this church that we site in right here for example, was built with the money, the sweat, the tears, and the prayer of those saints who have went before us. When many settlers arrived in towns like Pottersville and Johnsburg, they brought their Bibles, but they had no church. This is because, nothing was here yet. Perhaps soon after they arrived, they built their own homes. Maybe they had religious instruction and worship that occurred in their homes. Maybe neighboring farmers gradually over time gathered together in a barn or farm house to worship. Soon, someone likely stepped forward who was willing to lead the congregation as its pastors. Soon after this, the people of God in towns like Pottersville and Johnsburg said, “Let’s build us a church”. You see when people moved to a town like this, they likely didn’t have a fixed date that a church would be built. They were likely more focused on building their homes, clearing land for farming and building, and the church would come soon, but who would build it? Who would provide the lumber? Who would provide the nails, the tools, and etc.? “Kingdom Builders” brothers and sisters, our predecessors were “Kingdom builders”.

          In the scripture reading this morning from the Book of Revelation, it said, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed, and the sea was no more”. It went on to say that he saw the “holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,” and the scripture went on to speak of the glory of Christ’s second coming. The glorious coming, of when Jesus returns for us all. These promises that we have believed for centuries. The promises that we have and continue to build God’s church on.

          When looking at the first Christians though, they had a very different situation than today. Now don’t get me wrong, there are still places that know almost nothing of the Gospel of Jesus today, but people like the Apostle Paul went amongst the gentiles who had no idea what he was talking about. Today we have the internet, smart phones with instant internet access, mobile phones, and access to almost limitless information. So, while some have maybe never heard of Jesus today, the likelihood that they have at least heard a little bit of something about Jesus is significantly higher than in the early church.

          So consider this then, your Saul, the Jewish Pharisee in the Book of Acts, on your way to Damascus, to carry leaders to the Jewish synagogue or temple. He did this to persecute and hopefully destroy Christianity by the way. Yet the Lord spoke to him on that road to Damascus, and he soon after became a Christian. He then came back to Jerusalem, and reluctantly at first, they accepted him into the Christian Church. Then the Apostle Paul following the call of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit goes out to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The question though, is where does he go? What is the best method tell people the Good News of Jesus Christ? The answer is the Jewish Synagogues or Temples. I mean think about it, when Jesus preached, sometimes it was in the Jewish temple or the Synagogue. Many of the places that the Apostle Paul went in fact, such as Philippi, where we get the Philippians, and Corinth, where we get the Corinthians, were places where the Apostle Paul likely sought out a Jewish place of worship. The Apostle Paul then went other places like Thessalonica, where we get the Thessalonians, and Galatia, where we get the Galatians. When you look through the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, and all of the Apostles though, went out to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ.

          Why would Paul and the other Apostles seek out the Jewish temples first though? Why would the majority of the Apostles seek out Jewish temples first in fact? Here is why, the Jewish people were the people of God. They knew the Lord, and they knew of the scriptures. The scriptures we as Christians today call the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Paul and the rest of the Apostles knew that in all these foreign places that the Jewish people knew the story about Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, and he knew that they also knew about how all of the prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, spoke of the messiah to come.

          In this way people like the Apostle Paul would seek out these Jewish temples or synagogues, and likely tell them things like, “the prophecies of Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah have come true. The Messiah has come, his name is Jesus Christ. Let me tell you of our Lord Jesus”. Often full synagogues or full temples would not convert all at once, but usually some would. These folks would then find a space, like a house, a cemetery, or underground sewers or catacombs to worship. I asked earlier in the service where the early Christians worshipped, and the places I just named were some of the places that they did worship. If the church had members of financial means, sometimes these members would have worship in their home, which is where we get the concept of the “house church”. As time went on, and as Christians were “Persecuted,” they grew through being “Resilient”, and by experiencing “Signs, Wonders, and Miracles”. Within a few centuries we would have beautiful cathedrals adorned with beautiful stained glass windows. While I have never been to Europe or the Middle East, I cannot even imagine standing in a church that could be over 1,000 years old.   

          So like the early church, we as settlers came into an area like this, luckily in our case already with the Christian faith, and we grew the body of Christ. Then we built beautiful churches like this. In other countries like China and Vietnam, these brothers and sisters are growing rapidly and churches are being built in great numbers. In our communities today, we have many people who don’t believe though, or who don’t want to be part of the body of Christ. Part of building the body is bringing these people into a place like this, so that they can be changed by the grace of God, and be made new by the power of the Holy Spirit. Become part of the loving body of Christ.

          So brothers and sisters while we have this beautiful church that the saints before us have built, the kingdom is nowhere near being finished built. We have so much work to do to build the kingdom still, for we need to be “Kingdom Builders”.

I would like to close this morning’s message with a story. This story is called “The Cave People,” and is taken from Max Lucado's “The Woodcutter's Wisdom and Other Favorite Stories”. Here is how the story goes:

“Long ago, or maybe not so long ago, there was a tribe in a dark, cold cavern. The cave dwellers would huddle together and cry against the chill. Loud and long they wailed. It was all they did. It was all they knew to do. The sounds in the cave were mournful, but the people didn't know it, for they had never known joy. The spirit in the cave was death, but the people didn't know it, for they had never known life.

But then, one day, they heard a different voice. "I have heard your cries," it announced. "I have felt your chill and seen your darkness. I have come to help." The cave people grew quiet. They had never heard this voice. Hope sounded strange to their ears. "How can we know you have come to help?" "Trust me," he answered. "I have what you need." The cave people peered through the darkness at the figure of the stranger. He was stacking something, then stooping and stacking more. "What are you doing?" one cried, nervous. The stranger didn't answer. "What are you making?" one shouted even louder. Still no response. "Tell us!" demanded a third. The visitor stood and spoke in the direction of the voices. "I have what you need." With that he turned to the pile at his feet and lit it. Wood ignited, flames erupted, and light filled the cavern.

The cave people turned away in fear. "Put it out!" they cried. "It hurts to see it." "Light always hurts before it helps," he answered. "Step closer. The pain will soon pass." "Not I," declared a voice. "Nor I," agreed a second. "Only a fool would risk exposing his eyes to such light." The stranger stood next to the fire. "Would you prefer the darkness? Would you prefer the cold? Don't consult your fears. Take a step of faith" For a long time no one spoke. The people hovered in groups covering their eyes. The fire builder stood next to the fire. "It's warm here," he invited. "He's right," one from behind him announced. "It's warmer." The stranger turned a saw a figure slowly stepping toward the fire. "I can open my eyes now," she proclaimed. "I can see." "Come closer," invited the fire builder. She did. She stepped into the ring of light. "It's so warm!" she extended her hands and sighed as her chill began to pass. "Come, everyone! Feel the warmth," she invited. "Silence, woman!" cried one of the cave dwellers. "Dare you lead us into your folly? Leave us. Leave us and take your light with you."

She turned to the stranger. "Why won't they come?" "They choose the chill, for though it's cold, it's what they know. They'd rather be cold than change." "And live in the dark?" "And live in the dark." The now-warm woman stood silent, looking first at the dark, then at the man. "Will you leave the fire?" he asked. She paused, then answered, "I cannot. I cannot bear the cold." Then she spoke again. "But nor can I bear the thought of my people in darkness." "You don't have to," he responded, reaching into the fire and removing a stick. "Carry this to your people. Tell them the light is here, and the light is warm. Tell them the light is for all who desire it." And so she took the small flame and stepped into the shadows.

“Kingdom Builders” brothers and sisters. The early Christian Church and even us today are called to be “Kingdom Builders”. We are called to bring light and warmth into places that know it not. To bring Jesus Christ to a world that knows him not. For as long as there darkness and cold, there will be people who reject the light and the warmth of Christ, but we must continue on. For building the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is the mission of the Church, and it is what makes us all “Kingdom Builders”. In name of Jesus Christ I bring this message to you this morning. Amen.

RWJ/Pottersville UMC - 04/21/13 Sermon - “Signs, wonders, and miracles" The Early Church Series, Part 3 of 6

Sunday - 04/21/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC

Sermon: “Signs, Wonders, and Miracles” The Early Church Series, Part 3 of 6                                                                                      

Scripture Lesson: Acts 9:36-43

                                             

Gospel Lesson: John 10:22-30

          Good morning brothers and sisters! It’s a pleasure to be here worshiping with you this morning, on this the Fourth Sunday of Easter. In this season we celebrate the death and the resurrection of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. While Jesus was raised to new life almost 2,000 years ago in the spring, this time of the year for many of us bears signs of new life. Many of us awake at this time of the year to song birds, budding flowers, and newness. We see brown lawns begin to turn green, we see neighbors cleaning whatever the winter has left on their property, as they allow the new life of spring to come forth. In this Easter season then, we celebrate new life.

          In doing this sermon series that I am doing on the early Christian Church, we have already talked about how the early Christian Church, and even some of the present day Christian Churches are persecuted. Last Sunday, we talked about how the early church was resilient. How they grew rapidly and how they kept the faith in the toughest of circumstances. How our ancestors made great sacrifices to build these very church buildings that we are sitting here this morning. We talked about men and women who had such a drive to serve Christ that we are the largest faith today, in the entire world. When you attack us, like the recent Boston attacks, we respond, we come together. We are resilient, are we not?

          In continuing with talking about the early Christian Church though, today I want to talk about the power of the early Christian Church. For the early Christian Church was full of “Signs, wonders, and miracles”. Well you might be saying to yourself, just what are “Signs, wonders, and miracles?” These visions from God, these things that we see that are unbelievably incredible, and miracles of healing and power, that we cannot explain. To provide a good example of this, let us look at the scripture that was read from the Book of Acts from this morning. Once again, the Book of Acts, or the Books of the Acts of the Apostles are the many things that the apostles did after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. This includes the 40-days that Jesus appeared to the apostles before his ascension into heaven. In this morning’s scripture from Act 9, it discussed a female disciple name Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek. There were many founding mothers and female disciples in the early Christian Church, in fact.  In this scripture, it talked about how Tabitha was “devoted to good works and acts of charity”. Yet the scripture tells us that, “At that time she became ill and died”. Tabitha or Dorcas was then washed and “they laid her in a room upstairs”. At this point another believer Lydda had heard that the apostle Peter was near Joppa, where she was, and sent for him.

          Peter then showed up, went to that room upstairs, to find a room of weeping people, and the late Tabitha laying there. The Apostle Peter then did something amazing. He said, regarding all of those mourners in the room, “put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body of Tabitha and said, “Tabitha, get up”. After he had said this, “she opened her eyes, seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive”.

          So as I starting to explain a little while ago, what are “Signs, wonders, and miracles?” The answer is this kind of stuff! The answer is an apostle of Jesus Christ, raising Tabitha from the dead with the power of God. The early Christian Church was full of these types of “Signs, wonders, and miracles.” According to the Book of Acts scripture from this morning, this miracle became well known around the area of Joppa and many came to believe.

          In fact, I am talking about “Signs, wonders, and miracles” occurring that where so big, that sometimes full towns converted. Sometimes when this happened, hundreds or even thousands were baptized into our faith in one day’s time. While many people prefer the old method of baptism “down at the river” or in a lake, in some instances the early Christian Church baptized so many people, that only had the ability to sprinkle water on converts heads, due to the sheer number of people. This method also developed out of the need to baptize people in an “anywhere, anytime fashion,” as not everyone always has a river or a lake down the road.

          One definition of a miracle that I found for this morning, is “an event not ascribable to human power or the laws of nature and consequently attributed to a supernatural, especially divine, agency”. So thing happening that have no scientific explanation, like people living when they are told they will not. People who have stage four cancer and are told they will die soon, yet they fully recover. People who lived in the era of the early church, who witnessed the blind being made to see, the lame walking, the Holy Spirit being powerful, and seeing the majesty of God in abundance!

          The question I have for you then, is do Signs, wonders, and miracles” still occur today? I believe they do. In fact, I remember being on a couple of Christian retreat weekends, where I witnessed some. On one of these weekends, there was a man who a Vietnam veteran. He took all sorts of medications, and told the group of Christian men on that weekend that he has not slept the night through since he left South Vietnam in 1975. This man was a well decorate United States soldier, and his duty required him to see some pretty horrific things. One of the nights on this weekend, this man felt the presence of the Holy Spirit during worship, and during the church service he fell at the alter in the church. When this happened all of the men in the room stopped what there were doing and placed hands upon him and prayed, just as it says the early church did in the Book of Acts. This man had fallen to the ground broken, but like in baptism, he was raised to new life. The next morning when we all gathered in the chapel for morning prayers, this man reported to us that it was the first time in over 30-years that he had slept through the entire night. That he had made his peace with God that night and he finally felt forgiven for what he had done. For the first time over 30-years, he actually had peace. To me this was a miracle! Almighty God, with the power of the Holy Spirit healed this man, and as Jesus said, “come to me and I will give you rest”.

          On another one of these retreat weekends, a friend of mine who is a pastor of three churches in this United Methodist Conference had been suffering for a few months with some pain in his ribs. This made it hard for him to stand up and sit down, hard to sleep, and even hard to walk. One night on this retreat weekend, we laid hands on this pastor, this shepherd, this servant of the Lord, and we prayed for him. We then anointed his head with oil. The next day he came into the room walking fine, and informed us that his ribs no longer hurt, and that he slept fine!

          In the early Christian Church brothers and sister, people saw signs from heaven, amazing wondrous feats, and miracles of healing and power. The question is though do miracles still happen today? Can a Christian Church in America that is seen by some as getting small be revitalized? Can hearts be changed? Can people go from being angry, hateful, jealous, and mean, to being kind, loving, generous, and compassionate? I, Paul Winkelman who believe, say yes, yes they can! I say yes these things can and still do happen! All around the world right now “Signs, wonders, and miracles” are occurring, if we but believe and call upon the Holy Spirit.

          The early church was powerful, and people saw amazing things. I as a pastor want to recapture the power and the majesty of the early church. I want to see the power of God healing, I want to see marriages that are nearly broken to be mended, I want to see broken hearts healed, and I want to see people who doctors say will die, live! Because while doctors treat, Jesus Christ heals! “Signs, wonders, and miracles”. Do you believe this brothers and sisters? Is it possible in the present day to experience “Signs, wonders, and miracles?” Not only do I think it is possible, I have seen it!

I would like to close today’s message with a story, before we move into the Sacrament of Baptism.  This story is a true story, and it comes to us from Chen Guangmei of China. A country where our faith just so happens to be being heavily persecuted and oppressed right now. Here is the story:

I did not hear it coming. Suddenly a large goods vehicle hit me. Now as I fell to the ground the wheels of the 8-tonne truck went right over my body. One wheel after the other went over me as I lay there. But to my surprise, I felt no pain! You see, going home that night it was very dark. So the driver of that truck did not see me before his vehicle hit me. Now as I lay there, I wondered if I could move my body. To my surprise, I found I could move my legs. Then I found I could move my whole body. So slowly I began to move my body from under the truck.

Now as I did this, the driver of the truck appeared. He found it difficult to believe what his eyes saw, when he saw me still alive. Then as I began to stand on my two feet, his mouth dropped open in complete surprise. I said to him, “I am not hurt!” But he pointed to the marks of the truck wheels on my shirt. Yes, he could see the truck wheel marks on my shirt. The marks ran from my lower back to my shoulder there on my shirt.

Now when we reached home, my friends thought they must find I had suffered in some way. But they found I had suffered no harm. As people began to hear what happened, they came from far and near to see if it was true. Whenever they did this I showed them the wheel marks on my shirt. I then told them why I was not killed. I told them, “God wants to continue to use my life.”

So I hung my shirt outside my house for everyone to see what God can do for us. I told everyone, “You can also prove what the power of God can do for you.”

“Signs, wonders, and miracles” brother and sisters.  The belief that God is powerful, and that he can move mountains. What a miracle it is here this morning that we are baptizing 6-children into the faith. What a miracle it is that we are even here worshiping on this morning. So I close this message brothers and sisters by saying this one very simple thing, “believe and be changed!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.

RWJ/Pottersville UMC - 04/14/13 Sermon - “Resilient" The Early Church Series, Part 2 of 6

Sunday - 04/14/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC

Sermon: “Resilient” The Early Church Series, Part 2 of 6                                                                                      

Scripture Lesson: Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

                                             

Gospel Lesson: John 21:1-19

          Good morning brothers and sisters! Welcome to this the third week of this Easter season. This season in the Christian calendar, in which we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The season were we celebrate the empty tomb, the reality that “death was swallowed up victory,” and the realization, “that the grave could not hold the king”.

          For this Sunday then, like every Sunday is a “mini-Easter”. You see this is the reason that most churches worship on Sundays, because this is the day that the Lord overcame death, and that he was resurrected from the dead. Since the first Easter happened in the year 33 AD, it has been quite some time since the first Easter. Shortly after this first Easter though, the Christian Church began growing rapidly. The Gospel of Jesus Christ began spreading far and wide, as Jesus had commanded.

          As we discussed last week, the early Christian Church was heavily persecuted, for preaching the name Jesus Christ. The early Christian Church, and even a portion of the modern day Christian Church in fact, still suffers oppression and great persecution for sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

          With all of this said though, this I do know, the Christian Church is not going anywhere. The only thing that will end the Christian Church is the victorious second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the scriptures say regarding the church, that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.

          You know I heard a Christian leader on the radio recently, and he was talking about a conversation he had with a person who believed in God, but yet rejected Christianity and all other religions. Yet this is what that person told the Christian leader, “I am convinced that the Christian Church must come from divine origins, because if it hadn’t how could it have survived for this long?” What a “stop you in your tracks” kind of question! Further, brothers and sisters this I also know, if the Lord does not return by the year 2033, which is 20-years from this year, the Christian Church will celebrate 2,000 years of “death being swallowed up by victory”. We will celebrate 2-milleniums, 20-centuries, and 2,000 years of the Gospel of life being spread and preached throughout the world. The salvation offered freely by Jesus Christ will have been present and available for 2,000 years!

          We don’t have an infantile or young faith then, rather we have an ancient, and an historic faith. For we as believers are “resilient”. I say this because, against all odds, shouldn’t this church or other churches have probably closed down by now? Yet here we are. Every year, this church and others often have just enough to get by, and praise God sometimes just a little more. How can that not be of divine origins? How can all of this just happen? Further, how can it just happen for nearly 2,000 years? We are “resilient”.

          This past Tuesday all United Methodist Clergy 40-years old and under, or “young clergy”, met with our new bishop, Bishop Marcus Webb, to discuss the church from the perspective of “young clergy”. In this discussion, people were asked to freely air there praises of concerns. Some of my young colleagues were concerned that they were too young to be pastors, and that people didn’t think that they should be in the roles that they were in, due to their age. Some young clergy expressed concerns over what they saw as a United Methodist Church in decline. Then I raised my hand and said, “Bishop, we are not in decline, we are entering into a period of rebirth, renewal, and revival. We are strong!”

          In realizing that I just blurted that out to the Bishop of all people, I was shocked when he came up after the meeting and thanked me for my honesty. Then before we left, he said to all of us, “Take your place of leadership in the church, and be the leaders that God has called you to be”. Our Bishop, a man who next year, yet again, will be preaching about half of the Sundays of whole the year, throughout this United Methodist conference to model his faith, his devotion, and his leadership. This bishop, who is the youngest United Methodist Bishop in the United States, and among the two youngest United Methodist Bishops in the world, encouraged us young clergy to lead, to love, and be “resilient”.

          “Resilient” brother and sisters, we are “resilient”. We believe when it’s hard, we believe even more when it is harder, and God always comes through does he not? How else could the early Christian Church start as a movement with our savior Jesus Christ and just a handful of people, and then grow to the largest faith in the whole world today. In fact, in the world today there are about 7-billion people, and about 2.2-billion people are Christians. Just to put that in perspective, this would be as many Christians as about 7-times the population of the United States. Christians make up about one-third of the whole world.

          So, a movement that started with the savior and less people than are in this church today, and nearly 2,000 years later, here we are 2.2-billion strong. For we are “resilient.”

In the early church, the Apostle Paul extended the gospel to the gentiles. You know who I mean by the Apostle Paul. You know, the former Pharisees named Saul as our scripture reading for this morning from the Book of Acts discusses. The one who was involved with the stoning of the Christian Stephen. The one whom Jesus came to in a vision on that road to Damascus. Then Saul entered Damascus, which is in modern day Syria, blinded. God then used Ananias to heal him, and this this underground place, which is now a church, is on this morning’s bulletin cover. This church is likely almost 2,000 years old. Church tradition also holds that the Apostle Thomas might have made it as far as India. You see the early Apostles went out with the good news, as did the early Christian Church.

Ultimately though brothers and sisters, what make us so “resilient” is love of Jesus Christ. Listen to this excerpt that I found about the early Christian Church. Here is what it said:

 “At no other time in the history of Christianity did love so characterize the entire church as it did in the first three centuries. And Roman society took note. Tertullian reported that the Romans would exclaim, “See how they love one another!” Justin Martyr sketched Christian love this way: “We who used to value the acquisition of wealth and possessions more than anything else now bring what we have into a common fund and share it with anyone who needs it. We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associate with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies.”

“Clement, describing the person who has come to know God, wrote, “He impoverishes himself out of love, so that he is certain he may never overlook a brother in need, especially if he knows he can bear poverty better than his brother. He likewise considers the pain of another as his own pain. And if he suffers any hardship because of having given out of his own poverty, he does not complain.”

“When a devastating plague swept across the ancient world in the third century, Christians were the only ones who cared for the sick, which they did at the risk of contracting the plague themselves. Meanwhile, pagans were throwing infected members of their own families into the streets even before they died, in order to protect themselves from the disease.”

          Imagine a love like that. Imagine really living the Gospel of Jesus Christ like that. The early Christian Church was “resilient,” and we are also “resilient”. In fact, the early Christian Church invented the public hospital as they took in the sick and the poor. If continue to recapture this power of the early Christian Church, I believe that the fires of revival will continue to burn strongly across this great land of ours, and Lord willing the whole world.

          I would like to close with story from this week in the news that really touched me. It is about a United State Metal of Honor recipient, who served in the Korean War. This metal, which is the highest military honor one can receive, was awarded just this week, to Captain Emil Kapaun. Emil Kapaun, was also known as Father Kapaun, was a Roman Catholic Army Chaplain who served during the war. Here is his story:

“Among the dying, Capt. Emil Kapaun traded his watch for a blanket at a North Korean prison camp—and cut the blanket up and made it into socks for fellow prisoners. President Obama awarded Kapaun (pronounced Ka-PAWN), an Army chaplain who died in that prison camp in 1951 at age 35, the Medal of Honor Thursday.

The son of Czech immigrants to a small Kansan town, Kapaun enlisted during WWII and was dispatched to the Southeast Asian theatre of war, where he gained a reputation for just appearing wherever the fighting was. He returned home, received a master’s in education from Catholic University, and picked up as a parish priest in Pilsen, Kan. But Kapaun re upped for military service in 1948. “Serving in those parishes…it didn’t work out,” Kapaun told a fellow prisoner in the bleakness of the North Korean camp. “I mean…my God, Bob! Have you ever had to deal with one of those women’s committees of a church Altar Society?”

In Korea, Kapaun resumed his constant presence under duress. When enemy fire rendered his jeep inoperable, he took to riding a bicycle along the front lines. One of his fellow prisoners, Ray M. Dowe, Jr., wrote in the Saturday Evening Post in 1954 about the chaplain’s rides: Helmet jammed down over his ears, pockets stuffed with apples and peaches he had scrounged from Korean orchards, he’d ride this bone-shaker over the rocky roads and the paths through the paddy fields until he came to the forward outposts. There he’d drop in a shallow hole beside a nervous rifleman, crack a joke or two, hand him a peach, say a little prayer with him and move on to the next hole.

Kapaun was awarded the Bronze Star in Korea for heroism in August 1950—the chaplain ran through enemy fire, dragging soldiers to safety—months before his detention.

But he was captured, uninjured, by the Chinese military in 1950, after refusing to leave wounded soldiers. The chaplain pushed away the weapon of a Chinese soldier standing over an American with a broken ankle, and the two were taken on the Tiger Death March to a North Korean prison camp, Pyoktong, with Kapaun carrying the solider for a time.

At Pyoktong, prisoners lived on less than 500 grams of millet a day and might die at three or four a night in a room. Kapaun turned old t-shirts into bandages, and snuck out to wash old bandages and old garments for the suffering. He was called “The Good Thief,” delivering stolen food retrieved on trips inside guards’ areas. He recited American menus for starving prisoners, and led officers in “America, the Beautiful” and the national anthem (“God Save the Queen” for Brits in the camp). He fixed leaking water pouches with burned down soles of rubber boots; held a sunrise Easter Mass; and became a huge problem for the Chinese guards who were trying to indoctrinate the prisoners, saying “Where is your God now?” In the moments Father Kapaun would say “Right here.” (Walt) Mayo one day heard a Chinese officer lecture Captain Kapaun. The Chinese officer said “Don’t ask God for your daily bread,” the officer said. “Ask Mao Zedong. He’s the one who provides your daily bread.” “If this is an example of God’s daily bread,” Kapaun said, “then God must be a terrible baker.”

“He joked with them, and said prayers for them, and held them in his arms like children as delirium came upon them,” Dowe wrote in 1954. “But the main thing he did for them was to put into their hearts the will to live. For when you are wounded and sick and starving, it’s easy to give up and quietly die.”

Kapaun fell ill in the spring of 1951. Despite an apparently improved condition, guards took him away to a dingy, dark building to die alone. En route, Kapaun asked God to forgive the Chinese guards. “Tell them back home that I died a happy death,” he told fellow soldiers. Kapaun was declared a “servant of God” by the Roman Catholic Church, and he might even be considered for sainthood.

          The Gospel of John reading from this morning was about when Jesus told Peter, “Feed my Sheep.” Father Kapaun was a Peter in the Korean War. Father Kapaun, like many of us, was “resilient”. He stood on the promises of almighty God, and nearly 2,000 years after the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, we sit here today, still proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. For we are “resilient.” In his name I bring this message to you today. Amen!

RWJ/Pottersville UMC - 04/07/13 Sermon - “Persecuted" The Early Church Series, Part 1 of 6

Sunday - 04/07/13 RWJ/Pottersville UMC

Sermon: “Persecuted” The Early Church Series, Part 1 of 6                                                                                      

Scripture Lesson: Acts 5:27-32

                                             

Gospel Lesson: John 20:19-31

          Good morning brothers and sisters! Welcome in the name of the risen Lord to this the second Sunday in this Easter Season. Last Sunday we celebrated the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrated Jesus overcoming the grave and the very snares of this world.

          While last Sunday was the glorious and powerful resurrection of the Lord, this Sunday we find ourselves in the very first days of the Christian movement, after the resurrection. While Jesus will make himself known to many like the Apostle Thomas, or the Apostles on that famous “Walk to Emmaus” in the Book of Acts, he will no longer be present in his fullness, all day, every day. He will however, reveal himself here or there in the flesh for the next 40-days, and then he will ascend to heaven. Jesus will then no longer appear in the flesh after this ascension, until he comes back in final victory in his second coming, as the Book of Revelation lays out.

          Jesus had told the apostles to await the Holy Spirit. That they will not understand the fullness of God, until they encountered the Holy Spirit. They will receive this very soon, and then it will occur more fully on the coming day of Pentecost.

          So once again, to recap, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead at this point, and the majority of the apostles fled when the crucifixion happened. Other than the women who followed Jesus and other than Jesus’ “beloved apostle,” who could have been John, none of the apostles were at the foot of cross during the crucifixion. In the gospel story from last Sunday, Mary found the empty tomb, and then she went and told Simon-Peter and the others. Simon-Peter and the other apostles were in hiding, out of fear of persecution.

You know we all have our “low ebb” times in our faiths, and I can imagine that from Good Friday to the empty tomb on Sunday morning that it was an incredibly broken and a lost time for the apostles. For Christ was brutally murdered. “What do we do now,” they must have thought on the night of that Good Friday and the next day on Saturday. “Should we preach the Good News?” “Should we not, they may have thought.”

          The tomb was empty though, and because of this Simon-Peter and the others realized that they must tell people of this Jesus of Nazareth. That they must share the “Good News” of Jesus Christ with the entire world, as Christ commanded them to do so. There is only one major problem with this though. The world then and much of the world even today, doesn’t love Jesus Christ. In fact, some of the world today persecutes Jesus Christ and his followers. The early church brothers and sisters, from the time of Peter and the Apostles in fact, were no different. The early church was persecuted. Church tradition holds that all of the apostles, except for maybe one were martyred for the Christian faith. That they were each executed for proclaiming the name Jesus Christ. My question though, is if they really thought that Jesus Christ was a fake, would they be so willing to die for him? Would you?

          Due to this, I decided on this Sunday to begin a 6-week sermon series on the early Christian Church. Who they were, how they functioned, and how they grew. The early Christian Church in fact, grew like wild fire, and it did so amidst heavy persecution. In fact, from the statistics I have read sometimes the early Christian Church doubled in size in a mere 10-year period of time. Yet the early church was heavily persecuted, and countless Christians were slaughtered just for proclaiming the name Jesus Christ.

          In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles scripture from this morning, it said, “When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” This name that the apostles were teaching in was of course the name Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

After being told all of these things by the council and the high priest though, Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by handing him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. Then the apostles went on to say, “And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him”.

          You know, I don’t know if anyone has had a chance to watch it, but I have really enjoyed the History Channel’s mini-series called, “The Bible”. This mini-series as many of you might know ended last Sunday on Easter, and it has been the most watched television show of 2013, thus far. In the last episode from “The Bible”, this scripture from this morning from the Book of Acts was played out, as the high priest questioned Peter and the other Apostles, persecuting them for professing the name Jesus Christ.

          As another example of how Jesus Christ periodically appeared during his 40-days after the resurrection, we have an example in this morning’s reading from the gospel of John. In the gospel reading it said, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you”. After this he showed the apostles his hands and his side from his crucifixion, and the again, Jesus said, “Peace be with you”. Jesus then said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. “When he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”.

          This scripture of course, tells the story of Thomas saying, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nail and my hand in his side, I will not believe”. Thomas was not present during this appearance of Christ, where he breathed the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Jesus then appeared a week later to the apostles, and told Thomas to put his finger in his hands, and his hand in his side. Jesus than said, “Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas then said, “My Lord my God!” Jesus responded to Thomas by saying, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”.

The early Christian Church though was heavily “Persecuted”. To better illustrate this, let me give you some statistics about this persecution. From some brief research I have done, here is what I have found, “The total number of Christians martyred in the early church is unknown. Although some early writers speak of "great multitudes," modern scholars tend to believe the actual number is not so great as is sometimes imagined.” There was a lot who were killed though. Further, “Out of the 54 emperors who ruled between 30 and 311 AD, only about a dozen went out of their way to persecute Christians”. These were of course the Roman Emperors.

Here is what this source also said, “It has been calculated that between the first persecution under Nero in 64 AD to the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, Christians experienced 129 years of persecution and 120 years of toleration and peace. The Roman persecutions were generally sporadic, localized, and dependent on the political climate and disposition of each emperor. It has been estimated that more Christians have been martyred in the last 50 years than in the church's first 300 years.”

Of course the world at this time was not nearly as populated, but many Christians, particularly in the Roman Empire died brutal death for professing faith in Jesus Christ. One early Christian Apologist named Justin Martyr said, "Though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but, the more such things happen, the more do others in larger numbers become faithful." This source went on to say “In the face of persecution, many Christians chose to die before they would deny their Lord. Those who did so came to be called “martyrs,” which means "witnesses." Martyrs, just like the early Christian leader Justin Martyr, who was “Martyred” for the faith.

So we know that a lot of early Christians were persecuted and killed for their faith in Christ. The question then is, “How does this relate to us today?” Let me read some rather chilling statistics about the more recent years of the history of Christian persecution. Here is what I found, “163,000 Christians die every year for their faith. Half of all the Christians who have ever died for their faith did so” in the 1900’s alone, “some 35 million” people. “15,000,000 of these were Orthodox or Catholic Christians who died under the Soviet regime between 1917 and 1980, primarily in prison camps.” According to another source, “In the 20th century, Christians have been persecuted by various groups, and by atheistic states such as the USSR and North Korea. The Christian missionary organisation Open Doors (UK) estimates 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in Muslim-dominated countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They also face persecution in atheistic states like North Korea in which there is no religious freedom. A recent study, cited by the Vatican, reported that 75 out of every 100 people killed due to religious hatred were Christian.”

So we have been persecuted brothers and sisters, from day one. I want close this morning’s message, with a true story about the persecuted church. This is a true story from 2011. It is called, “Shouwang Church Members Arrested Weekly in China”. Here is what the article says, “One of the largest unregistered Protestant churches in Beijing was subjected to weekly arrests when it began worshipping outdoors on April 10, after authorities pressured landlords to keep them out of their purchased and rented properties. Leaders of the 1,000-member church said the landlord of their venue had been under mounting pressure from authorities to terminate the lease, and the government also prevented the church from using the premises it had purchased in late 2009. Shouwang had paid 27 million yuan, or about US$4 million, for the second floor of the Daheng Science and Technology Tower in northwest Beijing’s Zhongguancun area. Authorities interfered, and the property developer refused to hand the key over to the church.

The members of the church’s governing committee, two pastors and three elders, and other major co-workers have been under house arrest for the whole or much of the time since April 9. Hundreds of other people, including many Shouwang parishioners and some members of other churches in Beijing and other cities, were detained for between a few hours to two days. The church was unwilling to be subject to the controls and restrictions of the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), as it disagrees with TSPM beliefs and controls. Many unregistered evangelical Protestant groups refuse to register with TSPM due to theological differences, fear of adverse consequences if they reveal names and addresses of church leaders or members or fear that it will control sermon content.

Shouwang signed a rental contract with a new landlord on Dec. 17, but the landlord terminated the contract due to pressure from “the local police station, the housing management office and leaders of various government agencies,” church leaders announced to members on Dec. 23. Church leaders had arranged to have an indoor meeting on Sunday (Jan. 1) in a room leased from the Beijing Parkview Wuzhou Hotel on Dec. 17, but due to police interference and the cancellation of the lease, they continued meeting outdoors for services – with the arrests also continuing.

          “Persecuted,” brothers and sisters. The Early Christian Church was persecuted for proclaiming the love and the salvation found in Jesus Christ. Today, the church is still persecuted for doing the same. Perhaps in this country, we too often take for granted that we can worship God and proclaim Jesus Christ freely, and not be killed for it. For we as Christians do not seek harm, suffering, or pain upon anybody. Instead we simply want people to be changed by the life changing power found in Jesus Christ. We as people of Christian faith should seek to coexist peacefully with all people, and with all religions, and amidst all of this seek to spread the love of Jesus Christ to all people. Yet for this, we have always been persecuted, and I doubt that will end anytime soon. In the name of Jesus Christ I bring this message to you, amen!