Quote from Forum Archives on May 9, 2007, 10:49 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

I LIKE CHURCH, BUT… #3/8

SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

May 6, 2007

 

 

Text: Acts 11:1-18

 

 

[In best Gomer Pyle voice]  Surprize!  Surprize!  Surprize!  There was a time when I’m certain nearly everyone would have recognized the source of that exclamation – no matter how bad the impersonation.  It comes from the Gomer Pyle Show.  After Mayberry resident Gomer Pyle joined the Marine Corps, his goofy antics and innocent charm usually ruined the day of his beloved Drill Sergeant Carter.  Sergeant Carter, who finally came to the sad recognition that he was unable to drum Private Pyle out of the Corps, took solace in those rare moments whenever he thought he would be rid of Pyle for some time.  Inevitably, though, the script would always have Pyle jubilantly showing up wherever Sergeant Carter managed to be with those words of endearment: Surprize!  Surprize!  Surprize!

 

Clearly, that’s what a surprise is.  Something we do not expect or anticipate being reality becomes reality.  Sergeant Carter would think that he had gotten rid of or away from Pyle for a little while – his expectation – and, surprise!, the reality was that Pyle showed up.  A dictionary definition of the word goes like this: “to come upon or discover suddenly and unexpectedly.” (www.dictionary.com).  Well, surprise is what those early Christians in Jerusalem experienced in the days following the ascension of the risen Christ.

 

That first body of believers, the Church, was doing fairly well.  They continued to have some problems from those who sought their persecution, but they were weathering those storms.  They were witnessing miracles: Peter and others released from jail by the hand of God; healing of different types.  They were seeing growth: through both miracle and persecution, men and women were curious about this new phenomenon and some gave their life to Christ as a result of their search.  They saw victory: the persecutor Saul became the preacher Paul almost before their very eyes.  The believers in Jerusalem had it going on.  They had a lock on what it meant to be a Jew, conforming to the standards and rigors of Judaism, and to have new life in Jesus Christ.  They were on top of the world, and they knew who to expect as fellow believers and who not to expect.

 

Then, one day, God gave them a “Surprize! Surprize! Surprize!” moment.  Acts 10 gives us the background.  Going about his own business, Peter receives a vision in which food treated as unclean in Judaism was set before him, and he was commanded to eat.  As a good Jew, Peter refused the offer.  But God said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  This happened three times.  After the third time, the men who Cornelius, a centurion and most decidedly not a Jew, had sent arrived at Peter’s house.  The end result was that the message of Christ was taken to Cornelius’ household, the household of a Gentile.  The good news of salvation was shared with the household, the Holy Spirit fell upon all the hearers, and they were all baptized.  Peter’s vision prepared him to recognize that salvation was for the Gentile, too, not just the Jew.  Acts 10:34-35, “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.’”  Surprize!  Surprize!  Surprize!

 

We are not told how many were in Cornelius’ household when this event occurred.  Acts 10:24 makes it clear that this was more than just Cornelius, his wife, and children.  “The following day he arrived in Caesarea.  Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.”  What a way for the Gospel to be spread.  The pattern of successful evangelism crusades was evident in that first century.  So Cornelius’ household believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior as the Holy Spirit poured out on them.  And the growing Church was excited about these new believers and this new door that had been opened to them.

 

Well, not exactly.  Acts 11:1-3 gives us a bit of a different picture.  “The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.’”  Read these verses again and let them sink in.  When I am preparing a sermon, I naturally read key verses several times.  The more I read these verses, and the more I imagined how it could have looked, the funnier it got.  Sad-funny, but funny nevertheless.  A few days ago, Peter was jolted by God into a new experience.  He was probably not sure how it was all going to play out, but when Cornelius and his household responded to the word of God and the Holy Spirit, Peter was probably caught up in the moment, too.  He no doubt had a few “hallelujahs” and “amen’s” of his own.  He stayed with them for a few days and probably experienced the rich fellowship of excited, new believers.  He can’t wait to bring this testimony back to his home church so that they can all praise God about this new development and these new believers.

 

“Ewww!  You went where?  You stayed with who?  You ate with them?  Yuck!  How could you do such a thing like that, Peter?  You’re a disciple – a leader in the church – and you stayed with a Gentile?”  Yep, the Jerusalem church thought Peter came back with cooties or something.  How could Peter betray them like that?  I couldn’t help but find humor – again, a sad humor – in this Biblical event because it is repeated so many times since.  A believer experiences a new ministry or call with which God has surprised her and is walking on “cloud nine” because of the experience, and then is virtually assaulted by the very brothers and sisters she thinks would be rejoicing with her.  “You did what?  You spoke with who?  Ewwww!”  See, another case of spiritual cooties.

 

Acts 10:4-17, then, is Peter’s testimony, witness, and defense to his brothers and sisters.  The happy ending to this testimony is that the Jerusalem fellowship allowed Peter to speak, and they listened to him.  The happy ending to this testimony is that Peter witnessed the hand of God at work as he recounted his experience in verses 16 and 17, “Then I remembered what the Lord had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”  The happy ending is that the message sank in with the Jerusalem believers as the Scripture tells us, “When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, ‘So then, God has even granted the Gentiles repentance unto life.’”  Surprize!  Surprize!  Surprize!

 

In the book I Like Church, But..., Dan Lupton writes, “I long for churches of our land to be so welcoming that communities stand in awe because God’s people are setting the standard for neighborliness and reconciliation” (p. 55).  Dan’s stated desire is not unlike Peter’s recognition he shared with Jerusalem believers: “So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” (Acts 11:17).  It is not unlike John’s vision as recorded in Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”  Jesus welcomes all people into His kingdom; should we do any less in His church today?

 

Being a church that welcomes all people is not impossible, but it must be worked at.  We need to remember to reach out to others who are beyond our normal circle of friends.  How important is this to the life of our church (or any church)?  A decade ago, I ran across this question: “What should our congregation do this year in order to be alive and thriving in the year 2027?”  Consider one of the responses:  “Churches with a future maintain a positive relational climate.  Within the first 120 seconds of entering a church sanctuary or meeting room, most first-timers develop one of two opinions: They sense that this is either a warm, friendly church or a cold, nonwelcoming group.  What causes this phenomenon?  Body language!  Communication happens in ways other than words.  When two people converse, they send positive and negative signals through posture, gestures, and facial features.  Groups of people also exhibit body language.  No stream of friendly words from the pulpit, the newsletter, or pastoral-calling conversations compensates for cold congregational body language...  Neither good preaching nor good programming can make up for a cold psychological atmosphere.  People look for churches that are caring places, not just teaching spaces.  Congregations that provide a warm body-language climate will thrive and connect with 2027” (The Parish Paper, 1997).  Those who study church and congregational dynamics are obviously aware of the importance of welcoming all people.

 

I ordered and received just last week a new devotional guide titled Steal Away: Devotions for Baseball Fans.  The very first devotional in the book addresses this topic of how Jesus welcomed the unexpected into his Kingdom.  The devotional Scripture is Luke 19:1-10, the story of Jesus meeting Zacchaeus.  “Within baseball, there is one position that is critical to the success of the team: the ‘bird dog,’ or baseball scout.  Great players are often found in the sticks and hollers and places not found on the map, and the scout has a passion to track them down and report on their potential…  In 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers scouts signed two left-handed pitchers.  After three years, one had a winning record, and one had a losing record, causing some in the organization to give up on him.  Yet the first never made it to the majors, and the second went on to the Hall of Fame.  How can it be?  ‘They were looking for left-handed pitchers,’ says Frank Minton, now a Southern Baptist minister.  ‘My twin brother and I were the leaders of our high school team, and there were plenty of scouts in the stands to see us play.  A couple of teams showed interest in me, but when the Dodgers wanted to sign us both, well, that clinched the deal.  They told me that they had me on track to break into the majors by my sixth year in baseball.  But after three years I sensed God calling me into the ministry, so I retired with a 37-17 W-L record and became a pastor.’  The other southpaw, the one with the losing record after three years?  That player was none other than Sandy Koufax.  Koufax went on to become one of the most dominating left-handers of all time, retiring with a remarkable 165-87 W-L record.  POTENTIAL.  That’s what the scouts saw in Mickey, Hank, Frank, and even Sandy.  It’s also what Jesus saw in Zacchaeus, a man who, because of his size, could get lost in a crowd with ease.  If not for the fact that people despised Zacchaeus because he was a cheat and a tax collector working in an unjust system, he would never have been noticed at all.  Surely this man would not have made a good follower of Jesus.  But Jesus didn’t merely cast a glance his way.  He deliberately reached out to Zacchaeus.  Out of all the people gathered around that tree, Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus not for who he was, but for who he could be if he began to follow the Lord.  The good news is that Jesus looks at all of us the same way – not for who we’ve been, but for who we have the potential to be.  Winning Pitch:  Chances are that person you’ve snubbed or written off is just the person God wants you to look at again.  The disciples were ‘unschooled, ordinary men’ (Acts 4:13), David was the youngest and smallest of his brothers (1 Samuel 16:7-13, and Amos was a simple shepherd and farmer (Amos 7:14-15), but the Lord saw the potential in each of them and used them for great things.  Dare to see the people around you through God’s eyes – the possibilities for their lives will come out as they respond to the love you show them.” (Hugh Poland, Steal Away: Devotions for Baseball Fans, Valley Forge: Judson Press Publishers, 2006, pp. 2-5)

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The church we’ve always longed for welcomes all people, because God invites and welcomes all people into His Kingdom.   Unlike Sergeant Carter, we welcome surprises from God because they mean salvation to someone in need of Jesus’ love.  The message in Acts 10 and 11 is as clear as it gets and leaves no surprises about who is welcome in the Kingdom of God.  “So if God gave them the same gift as us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” (Acts 11:17).

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
Bunker Hill, Indiana

 

 

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