Every year, at the end of our stewardship campaign, I offer a message with the theme of stewardship. This church continues because of the sacrificial and generous gifts that it receives, and while many of those gifts are financial, they are not just financial. There are gifts of time and talents, and this church could not continue without all the gifts that are so generously offered by so many. I would like this morning, however, to focus on the truth that the church is such a gift to all of us, and I mean this church as well as the church universal.
In this week’s Scripture text we will read of a critical moment in the life of the early church. The apostles were suffering persecution because of their faith. They were taken before the Sanhedrin – the same Sanhedrin that had condemned Jesus to death – and they were flogged and warned that they were not to speak or preach any longer about Jesus.
Follow along with me as I read our text, which comes from Acts 5:33-42.
33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.
34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.
35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
I want to first say that the apostles were threatened not by the general public as much as they were the power structures of their day. The apostles, like Jesus, were loved and followed by a great many people, but they were perceived as a threat by those in power. People in power do not like competition, and like Jesus before them, the apostles were a threat to those in power because they were winning the hearts and minds of the people. This has been a tragic reality throughout human history, and it remains a tragic reality. I cannot read this passage, for instance, without thinking about the Sunday in August when the Khai Khat family joined us for worship, and their pastor came with them. I asked the pastor to share a message with us and I was so moved by what he said that day. If you were not able to be with us that Sunday, the pastor spoke of his experience in Myanmar, where he felt God’s call upon his life to preach, which he did, but the local authorities did not like him preaching, so they arrested him, put him in prison, and ordered him to stop preaching. Upon his release the pastor resumed preaching and was once again arrested. The pastor was arrested and imprisoned three times, but the arrests and imprisonments and threats of further arrests and imprisonments did not deter him in the slightest. His experience was very much like that of the apostles, who were also arrested – and also threatened with death – and told to stop preaching. The Khai family’s pastor was continuing a long tradition of faith that does not diminish or stop even in the face of persecution
What did the apostles do in response to the Sanhedrin? The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah(verses 41 and 42). Imagine if they had done what they were told. Imagine if they stopped doing the work to which they had been called. Imagine if they suddenly became silent about their message. If they had, what would have become of the church? I don’t believe the church would have come to an end, because Jesus said the gates of hell will not overcome it(Matthew 16:18), but it makes for an interesting consideration to think of how history would be had the church never existed.
In 1946 the movie It’s A Wonderful Lifewas released. The movie, which stars Jimmy Stewart, has become an undeniable holiday classic. You know the storyline, I’m sure. Jimmy Stewart plays the character George Bailey, a banker whose life has not fulfilled many of his dreams, and on Christmas Eve, because of a lost deposit, he is facing arrest and prison time. George drives to the edge of town, intending to jump from a bridge, wishing he had never been born. His guardian angel, Clarence, intervenes, and shows him how differently the town of Bedford Falls would have been without George. That theme is one that is worth considering not only for the life of an individual, but also for the church as well. Think for a moment about what life would be like if our church never existed. Think for a moment about how our community might be different. Think for a moment how history and the world would be different if the church universal had never existed. It’s an unfathomable idea to imagine, and it helps us to understand what a gift the church has been.
Listen to a few portions of our church’s history –
the Restoration Movement on the western frontier was planted in Shelbyville in 1830 when, according to the minutes of the Long Run Association, 20 members of the Shelbyville Baptist Church left by consent. That same year that exact number of persons became charter members of a new reform church in Shelbyville called “The Church of Disciples of Jesus Christ.” The congregation later took the name “First Christian Church.” The congregation became a part of the denomination known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Although they first met in homes, the congregation began to grow rapidly.
The first church building constructed by the congregation in 1832 faced Fourth Street.
In 1864 the church had outgrown its building space. The dedicatory sermon for the new church building was preached on April 25, 1865.
With the coming of the Great Depression in 1929, First Christian Church came upon some difficult times. The building fell into some disrepair. The rook leaked, the furnace needed repair, the walls cracked, the bell tower began to lean dangerously. The church, like the rest of the nation, was in debt. Yet the congregation continued to grow in the face of hard times.
On August 7, 1969 First Christian Church caught fire and burned to the ground. The sanctuary was rebuilt and dedicated in 1971.
The congregation moved into its new facilities on July 15, 2001.
Obviously, our church has a long history in the Shelbyville community, and as we draw close to our 200thanniversary, it is worth taking a few moments of time to consider the impact our congregation has made upon our community and upon our own lives, and the impact of the church as a whole as well. When we think about an individual church – either this one or another – our thoughts most likely turn first to the impact that congregation has had upon our own lives. Think of the friends you have. Some of my closest friends are those I have made in church. You wouldn’t know the names of Steve Dalton, Kurt Lohr, Doug Beck, and Al Flasko, but they were four of my closest friends growing up, friends I made at church. Other congregations to which I’ve belonged have provided other friends for a lifetime. How many of you have made close friends in this congregation? In another congregation? How many of you have had church friends in this congregation or another congregation praying for you when you really needed prayer? Think about all the other significant events that take place in church? How many of you were married in this church? In another church? How many of you have had a family funeral in this church? In another church? How many of you had someone from church come to see you in the hospital or visit with you in a funeral home? How many of you were baptized in this church? In another church? How many of you had a child dedicated in this church or another church? How many of you can still see those events in your mind as you think about them? How many of you had a Sunday School teacher, a deacon, an elder, a minister, or someone from this or another congregation who made a difference in your life? How many of you can still those folks in your mind, and how many of you can feel that lump in your throat as you think about such special people that are no longer with us? I can think of so many friends, so many weddings, so many baptisms, so many baby dedications, so many funerals I have seen or in which I have been a participant. There are so many amazing memories I have from church and cannot imagine what my life would be like without the influence of the church. We don’t always know the impact our church has, just as we don’t always know the impact our lives have had. And we probably won’t ever know the full extent, at least not in this life. But one day we will know. One day we’ll know of all the ways in which our lives mattered and made a difference and all the ways in which our church mattered and made a difference. To know of the difference our church and our lives make is one of the gifts of eternity.
Skeptics often attempt to rewrite history when it comes to the impact of the church. Amazingly, some skeptics of faith will attempt to convince us that the church really has not been influential throughout history and that it has not really accomplished much. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. How many people would have been left destitute if not for the immense resources churches have provided to feed the hungry, to clothe people, to bring shelter; how many people left sick if not for the hospitals founded by churches, how many patients left untreated if not for the countless volunteers who traveled to all corners of the globe to care for others, and who continue traveling to so many countries, even when they are threatened by war or illness? How many orphans would be left unloved if not for the countless families who embraced those precious children in the name of Christ? Think of how many people have been educated because of the church. Most universities were founded by churches, church groups, or denominations. Sunday Schools were established by the church to provide education before there was much of a public education system in our country. In areas around the world where disasters have taken place, the church is often the first or among the first on the scene. They were there in the flooding along the east coast and they are there in California, and they will be there in all the other disasters yet to come.
In our own community, we partner with other churches and other ministries to make a difference. There is Operation Care, Arriba Ninos, Awake Ministries, Mission Behind Bars and Beyond, Kentucky Refugee Ministry, Habitat for Humanity, Mission Behind Bars and Beyond, the hundreds fed each week by the Serenity Center, the men who are aided in their recovery through the Open Door of Hope Men’s Shelter, the women who find protection and help through the ministry to women, the children who have beds because of A Place to Sleep, and many others. Shelbyville is a great place to live and a great community but below the surface of what we see as we live and work and move around town are so many needs and so many challenges that face us and without the presence of the church entering into those needs and challenges Shelbyville would be a very different place.
I believe we sometimes take for granted that the continued ministry of a church will always take place, but that is not a guarantee. I have no doubt that the church as a whole will continue until the end of time, but we’ve all seen the churches that have closed their doors. Sometimes it’s the small country churches that close as people migrate into the larger surrounding town and their larger churches. But it’s also the larger churches as well. Drive through Louisville or other cities and you will find many large church buildings that sit almost empty because the community changed around them and the churches did not adapt. They did not reach out to their new neighbors and by the time they realized how much had changed in their neighborhood it was too late, and those churches reached a point of decline that was irreversible. (I must also add that, while we hear of churches that are closing their doors, many new churches are also being established. In fact, there are more churches in the United States than at any time in our history).
The first church, besides my home church, where I preached was West Middletown Christian Church in West Middletown, Pennsylvania. The name of the town is a bit deceiving because it’s not large enough to have an East, let alone a West. In fact, it’s not even a town, but more of a village stretched along highway 27, which begins just a few blocks from the Ohio River in my hometown and continues into Pennsylvania, to West Middletown and on to Pittsburgh and beyond. For two summers – the summers of 1976 and 1977 – I served as a substitute minister for that small congregation. I was only a year and then two years out of high school, with almost no idea of what I was doing. I think a really good crowd in that church was 20 or so people, but the average was probably about a dozen. Sometimes, when I’m home visiting my mom, I drive by that church and I’m always grateful to know that it is still there, and still open. With so few members I had anticipated it would close many years ago. I don’t know how many people now attend, and by all appearances it’s probably not prospering to any great extent, but it’s still going, and I’m grateful it is, and I hope it continues on, but there is never a guarantee. A church can seem large, prosperous, and invincible, but that can change. A generation ago, who could have believed that Sears would by a dying company? At one time you could order anything from the Sears catalogue, even a house! When I was a kid, I loved to look through the Sears Wish Book when it came in the mail. Sears was the Amazon of its day. Speaking of Amazon, a company that now seems so invincible, founder Jeff Bezos shocked many people just days ago when he told employees of Amazon that he knew that one day that huge company would fail and pass away. History reveals countless examples of institutions that seemed too large too fail, and yet failure came. We can easily take for granted what we have as a church. While Jesus said that the gates of hell will not overcomethe church (Matthew 16:18), he was talking of the church universal, not individual churches. It is only a guarantee that the church at large will continue, not that individual congregations will always survive.
Our church has served the Shelbyville community for almost 200 years, and it has been a gift to each of us in the years we have been privileged to be a part of the congregation. May we thank God for the great gift of his church!
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