“Welcome the Madness” (Acts 17:1-15; 1 Thess. 1:1-10)

Sunday, August 23, 2015

    

           I was discussing our church with my dad.  He is a committed Christian, a deacon of many years in his church, a veteran Bible study leader, and someone whose theology is very practical.  As we talked and I described where I believe God wants us to focus, I admitted I was having trouble bringing my ideas together. 

When I told him we’d be looking Paul’s Thessalonian letters, he said without hesitation, “How a ‘Prescription for Life’?”  Brilliant!  Thanks Dad.

          Pharmacist and students in the pharmacy school worship in our church family.  Among us are doctors who write prescriptions for patients.  And every one of us has been to the doctor and had a medication prescribed. 

Over the next seven weeks, we will hear ideas, actions, and life-orientations prescribed from God’s word.  The purpose of this Biblical medicine is spiritual fitness.  We want to be healthy in our faith.  We want our witness to the Gospel to be robust.  When we say, “Jesus is Lord, his coming signals the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, and people can have life in his name,” we want to know what we mean.  We want to know the implications of living out such statements.  We need to understand what it means to follow Jesus.

The first prescription in this program is an assigned reading.  Read 1^st Thessalonians, 2^nd Thessalonians, and Acts chapter 17.  This prescription has unlimited refills.  You cannot take this too much. 

In 1^st Thessalonians 1, the three authors, Paul, Silvanus (called Silas in the book of Acts), and Timothy, express their profound thanks for the church in Thessalonica.  Specifically, they write, “We always give thanks to God … remembering … your work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3).  If you are familiar with 1^st Corinthians 13, often referred to as the Love Chapter, you recognize the ending - faith, hope, and love.  These virtues, absolutely necessary for a disciple of Jesus, are highlighted in 1^st Corinthians 13 and also here in 1^st Thessalonians 1.  The church in Thessalonica was marked by these virtues and by actions that were fueled by their faith, their hope, and their love.

The New Testament is full of letters written by Paul in association with Silas and Timothy.  These are the earliest New Testament documents with 1^st Thessalonians being the first New Testament book written, sometime between 10-20 years after the resurrection. 

The book of Acts tells the narrative of the early church.  When you follow the prescription and read 1^st & 2^nd Thessalonians and read Acts 17, you will see the story told in different ways.  Luke, the author of Acts and one of Paul’s travel companions, had an audience in mind when he wrote and he highlighted certain elements in the story to appeal specifically to his readers.  These matters aren’t emphasized the same way in 1^st Thessalonians because there, Paul, Silas, and Timothy write in a different style to people in a different situation.

In Acts, Luke takes the account of the growth of the Gospel in Thessalonica to promote the way of Christ to his readers.  We, a 21^st century congregation, read 1^st Thessalonians and Acts to enlarge our understanding of the faith.  The way of Christ is the way of holiness. 

With that extremely short introduction, we turn to Acts 17.  and as we do, keep in mind those values in 1^st Thessalonians 1:3 – faith, hope, and love.

After Paul and Silas^[a] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah^[b]to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This is the Messiah,^[c] Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.” ⁴ Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ⁵ But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house. ⁶ When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers^[d] before the city authorities,^[e] shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,⁷ and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.” ⁸ The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this, ⁹ and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

¹⁰ That very night the believers^[f] sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. 

          Take note of Jason.  The church was obviously small – small enough to assemble in one person’s home.  In first century Thessalonica, the houses were smaller than what we see today.  It was not a large community.

          However, by the time Paul riled people to the point they would lay hands on him with harmful intentions, the church probably did have 20-30 people or maybe more.  Jason was wealthy enough that he had a home large enough to accommodate such a group.  Imagine your home with 20-30 guests who come every week.  He had financial means.

          Another indicator of this is the way it ended for Jason.  The synagogue leaders and the street toughs they brought together were able to manhandle Jason, drag him from his home, and convince city officials to formally arrest him. These opponents from the synagogue were savvy enough to work the crowd and the political system.  But Jason was just as resourceful. 

          Whether he was supported by someone wealthy or on his own he could work the system, he managed to get bail, pay it, and be freed from incarceration.  The last we see of him, he is free after being roughed up.  We know the church in his house grew and thrived because of what we read in 1^st Thessalonians. 

          These Thessalonian Christians, probably led by their host, Jason, were minorities.  Thessalonica was a pagan city whose residents either did not understand or acted openly hostile toward Monotheism.  The synagogue was monotheistic but opposed to those who saw Jesus as the Messiah.  The church, and by association, Jason was in a precarious position.  And they flourished.  How?

          This is the second prescription.  They and he welcomed the madness.  They knew that after Paul left, after Jason was bailed out jail, after everything cooled, the tensions with their neighbors would simmer with the potential to boil over again.  They knew this and yet they did not throw in the towel on Christianity.  Instead they lived the faith so vibrantly, Paul and his colleagues held the Thessalonians up as the model of a true church.

          First Thessalonians 1:6-9:

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. ⁹ For the people of those regions^[b] report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God.

        As we read 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians and Acts, we invite the craziness, the pain, the confusion, and the truly lost people in the world to come in among us.  We open our arms because the Holy Spirit has filled us with grace.  We open our hearts because we know what a mess each of us were before Christ came into our lives.  We open our lives because that is what Jason and the Thessalonians did in welcoming Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

          The chairwoman of our board of elders, Patricia, is not going to be arrested for her commitment to God in the life of HillSong.  Our Sunday school teachers will not have their property vandalized because they teach the Bible here.  I am not going to have my words censored.  Persecution today doesn’t look like that, at least not in the United States.  It does in other places, but not here, not in Chapel Hill.  Opposition to the Gospel does not come in the forms that it did in 1^st century Thessalonica.

          But it does come.  The same enemy who riled up those street toughs to give Jason the heavy-handed treatment is lurking all around us.  The devil doesn’t want to see our church proclaim the Kingdom of God any more than he wanted to see Jason’ home be the base for the Christian witness in the city of Thessalonica.  Our enemy will try any number of strategies to get us off the track Christ has laid for us. 

          Knowing this, knowing that people lost in sin are in chaos, we enter the mess and we do so willingly.  We embrace the madness because we have faith in our Lord.  As verse 9 says, we serve a “living and true God,” as opposed to the empty ideologies and philosophies espoused by people in our era of history.  We have that faith.

          We also have hope.  Verse 10, Jesus is resurrected and has already rescued us from the wrath to come.  The end of the age will be a time when everyone who has ever lived has to face up to the eternal consequences of rebelling against God and living in sin.  However, the risen Lord calls all who are his to join him as sons and daughters of God in the resurrection. 

          We have faith, we have hope, and we can welcome those who are burdened with the madness of a life without God because we have love.  We know it was love that sent Jesus to the cross to die for our sins.  That love beats in our hearts.  That’s why as a church we are ready to be a safe harbor for lost people, a place of welcome, comfort, and peace for those whose lives are chaos.

          So this it then, this is our prescription for life? 

We are to take 2 doses of Thessalonians, one portion of Acts, and we are to embrace people whose lives are falling apart? 

Well, … yes.  This is a partial description of the disciple life.  We’ll add to it next week. 

Until then, you have the doctor’s orders, and this comes from the Great Physician.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.

AMEN

Above All - the Bible (2 Timothy 4:9, 13, 16-21)

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Imagine with you are in solitary confinement.  No human contact. You get three meals a day, but other than that it is you in that room with your thoughts.  Nothing else.  But, the warden says you may have one thing, any one thing of your choosing.  What would be the one thing you’d want?  You don’t how long you’ll be there.  You’re feeling like you are going crazy.  What one thing would get you through?

The Apostle Paul was in a lonely Roman cell.  Scholars supposes this was his final stop before being executed for saying that Jesus and not the Roman emperor was Lord and ruler of the world.  Paul would never relent.  So, he was probably executed.  While he waited, he was allowed visitors and he asked Timothy to come.  In 2^nd Timothy 4, he writes, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.”

He wanted those papers.  Why?

Today we conclude an 8-part series of talks about entering the world of the Bible.  We want to get into the Bible.  We want to get the Bible into us.  Ultimately, we present ourselves to God so that God might shape and mold us.  One of the ways we know how God is working on us, around us, and in us, is in our meeting God in the Bible. 

To be formed by what the Bible says, we have to know what the Bible says.  Each of us reads differently.  For this reason, I have proposed different pathways into scripture.  Some may not be helpful for you.  Others might be just what you needed. 

The final Bible pathway I recommend is based on the people we meet, the characters in the Bible.  Select someone whose history we know through their place within the Biblical story, and go into detail in studying that one’s life.  For example, you might decide to read up on King David.  Where is his story found?  You’d want to read 1^st & 2^nd Samuel, the opening chapters of 1^st Kings, and 1^st Chronicles.  You’d read the Psalms.  You would go to the New Testament to read all the places New Testament authors refer back to David.  After reading the texts, you might enjoy reading a commentary, either popular or academic.  This will help you understand in depth the individual you are researching and it will help you learn about God as you research David.  If Moses is your choice, you’d begin with Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  It doesn’t have to be a favorable character.  We learn just as much about God from the antagonists.  Maybe you want to study up on Judas Iscariot.  You’d read the four gospels and then commentaries.

The pathway into Bible I commend this morning is to enter the Word through study of a particular person. Moses, David, and Judas Iscariot are examples.  There are dozens of others.  The Apostle Paul is a good one.  He was the main figure leading the spread of Christian faith in the decades after Jesus’ resurrection.  In the closing chapter of 2^nd Timothy, we find an aging, tired Paul who is near the end

Many experts believe a second generation of believers wrote 1^st & 2^nd Timothy and also Titus, and the scholars offer reasons for arguing that Paul had nothing to do with these letters; the letters were written in his name but by someone else, long after his death.  I believe 1^st & especially 2^nd Timothy are from Paul.  Whether they are composites of several things Paul taught, said, and wrote over the years, or he originally penned the letters, I cannot say.  But I believe the content of both 1^st and 2^nd Timothy is originally from the Apostle Paul.  The sentiment in the last chapter of 2^nd Timothy is too personal to not be.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: ²proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. ³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

⁶As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

⁹Do your best to come to me soon,

¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

¹⁶At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! ¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. ¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. ¹⁹Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. ²⁰Erastus remained in Corinth; Trophimus I left ill in Miletus. ²¹Do your best to come before winter.

         

          Paul says in verse 3 people have “itching ears.” If people today don’t like a church, they search until they find one that makes them comfortable.  If church doesn’t do it, there are other religions.  If they can’t find one they like, they can come up with their own. 

This everything-fits, take your pick, all-you-can-eat-buffet approach to religious truth was driven home to me several years ago.  I was alone, driving on the West Virginia turnpike.  I picked up a hitchhiker.  The guy had a back pack and sleeping mat.  He was grateful that I stopped.  His body order suggested it had been a while since he had showered.  It was a sunny summer day, we were cruising through the beautiful mountains of West Virginia, and I mentioned to my passenger that I was a Christian.  He wasn’t interested in the topic at all.  His tone changed.  He did not want to be evangelized.  He said, “I worship God in my own way.”

What does that mean?  I have heard other people say that.  “I worship God in my own way.”  Does the person create his own God?  That’s how Paul saw it.  He told Timothy, “They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (4:3-4).  That’s the world Paul saw Timothy working in.  That’s where Timothy was to be God’s man, and it is where you and I are to be the people of God. 

So what does Paul advise Timothy?   “⁵As for you, [Timothy, and us, 21^st century disciples] always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully” (4:5).  It’s not’s easy, but it is what we are given.

Worship God in my own way; Paul could not imagine such blasphemy.  He laid out his life to do things God’s way.  By the time we land at the end of 2^nd Timothy, Paul knows his life’s mission is near the end.  “⁷I have fought the good fight” Paul says.  “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (4:7).  The apostle is exhausted, but not discouraged.  He is charging to the end, embracing his chains, and rejoicing that he is privileged to suffer for Jesus.  He will stay rooted in the scriptures which he believed were completely fulfilled in Jesus.  For Paul, word and Jesus were connected and he, Paul would always do things God’s way, not his own way.

However, the apostle who displayed so much bravado, at the end, felt vulnerable.  Three times, he begs Timothy to come. 

                  

⁹Do your best to come to me soon,

¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

                  

²¹Do your best to come before winter.

It was cold and lonely and Paul was out of strength.  He was scared.  Even as he anticipated his Heavenly reward, which he didn’t doubt, he still had an earthly need – companionship.  In that moment of weakness, he didn’t play the hero.  He called out to his friend, his son in Christ, his closest tie besides Luke to the Christian community he had given his life to.  He called out and said, come.  I need you.  Come. 

And he did not want Timothy to show up empty-handed.  “Bring the cloak that I left … also the books, and above all the parchments.”

In ancient prisons there was not much provision for the inmates.  In freezing weather, they froze.  Without visits by friends bearing food, they often went hungry, even to the point of starvation.  Paul does not mention a need for food to Timothy.  Maybe another friend was providing that.  He does ask for his cloak.  But, above all, he says, bring the parchments. 

These were likely scrolls that contained the Psalms and probably the Pentateuch – the Torah – the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  Maybe the parchments included the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.  Remember, in the first century, they did not have bound books as we do.  They had scrolls.  Paul wanted the word of God with him as he whiled away the days in the dark, cold, damp cell.  Another cloak would be nice, but above all, bring the parchments.  Paul needed the Bible. 

Paul always had the kingdom in view, and accomplishing things of kingdom value is what he stressed to Timothy (and to you and me).  He said from the outset, “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you” (v.1).  He gave everything he had to serve Jesus, trusting that when he was completely empty God would fill him.  All those summons to Timothy, the request “Come,” – it comes from Paul when he was empty.

In following Jesus, you and I will experience power like we’ve never imagined when we are filled with the Spirit.  There will also be times we come up empty.  Those are the moments to lean on one another and dive into the word.  If I could stress any one thing it is our need for scripture.  Christians don’t always see it.  We go along, attending church, not really reading the Bible much at all.  And our faith is impoverished.  And the church – the local church and Christianity worldwide – suffers for our lack of Bible awareness. 

We need each other and we need the Word.  Paul was shaped as a disciple by the word, as his reading was guided by the Holy Spirit and his living of the word happened both in the context of fellow disciples and in the world to which he was called to preach.

You and I are not “Apostles” in the way that Paul was.  We have jobs and go to homes.  We do not travel about where Christianity has never existed.  We live where people have heard of Jesus.  There are churches on every corner.  We are secular and ordinary compared to the great apostle.  But Jesus does not see it that way.  In Jesus’ view, you and I are as important as Paul was.  The things that made him who was in Christ are what define us as people of God –individuals and a church body.  We are every bit as called as Paul was. 

Paul was not great because of his preaching skills.  He was a great orator but others were too.  Paul was not remarkable due to his incredible intellect.  He was truly a genius, one of the geniuses of history.  There were others.  Paul was not great because of his indomitable will.  His will was unbreakable.  But we could say the same of General Patton.  Paul had incredible focus and drive.  So did Hitler.  What distinguished Paul was his commitment to God’s kingdom and his recognition of his own absolute dependence upon God. 

Food?  Sure, that would help.  My cloak, please, bring it.  But above all, bring my parchments.  I need the Bible.  I need to go into it in this, my weakest moment, my time of failing. 

Do we see it?  Do we look into our own lives and see our strongest and weakest moments?  Do we experience the highs and especially the lows?  In examining our lives, do we see how much we need God?  Are we aware of how short we come without God’s word?

We live in the age where we can get the Bible in a dozen versions, with annotations and notes.  That is a gift we must use.  Above all, turn to the word.  Read it with your family, every day if possible.  The daily repetition shows your children how important it is.  Read with other friends, fellow disciples.  Read it in solitude.  Read when times are going well.  Read when you feel depressed.  Read it in large chunks, getting the flow of the story.  Read just a verse, the same verse, over and over and over, hearing and feeling the depths of divine wisdom. 

We close with an adaptation from the Gospel of John that reiterates the truth; God has given the Bible as a gift and when we accept and enter into this gift, we become new people, blessed people.

John 20:31 - “[This Gospel] is written so that [upon reading] we will put our faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If [we] have faith in him, [we] will have [eternal] life.”

AMEN 

Whitey Davis: An Appreciation

Most of the people who read this don’t know Whitey Davis, and won’t know him this side of Heaven.  He died on Sunday, September 28.  It has been at least five years since I last spoke with Whitey.  I last worked with him in 1997.  He was the pastor of Oak Forest Baptist Church where I was the youth minister from 1993-1997. 

            I am thankful for something very specific as I remember him.  Whitey gave me chances.  When I became a senior pastor, I had already baptized someone.  I had already preached sermons and participated in church leadership meetings.  I was not doing those things for the first time.  I did not receive my first flight instruction while the plane was in midair.  Whitey gave me chances.  He trusted me and I’ll always be thankful.

            It is more than just gratitude though.  I vowed back then to follow his example.  I knew the day would come when I was an experienced pastor with young, eager seminarians around me, and was determined to give them the chances I was given.  I have never wavered on that.

            Maybe that’s why God brought me to a college town.  This principle applies to many situations, not just the pastorate.  We have talented teenagers and people in their early 20’s all around us in Chapel Hill.  We need to trust them, accept the mistakes they make, and help them grow as leaders and as Christ followers.  If you are reading this on the blog and you live somewhere else and there are fewer young adults, you might have to look a little harder, but there are potential protégés around you too. 

            Think of Barnabas taking John Mark under his wing after Paul rejected the young disciple (Acts 15:36-40).  Or Paul; though he would not tolerate John Mark’s failure (Acts 13:13), did in fact mentor Timothy (Acts 16:1-4).  Mentorship never looks the same twice; Paul was a different teacher than Barnabas.  I am very different than Whitey.  But I hope I am as dedicated to the Gospel as he was.  And I know I am the type of leader I am because of the opportunities he gave me.

            I thank God for Whitey Davis.  I thank God I was fortunate enough to be a youth pastor with him as my supervisor.  I am thankful I could call him friend.  As his daughter put it with simple eloquence, he is now with Jesus.  There is sadness and joy, the appropriate emotions that come when we say farewell to a man of God.