Birthmarks of the Church: Stories from the Book of Acts
12/11/2005 - A Passion for Praise
This morning we conclude our series called Birthmarks of the Church with a look at the early church's passion for praise. The first faith community was devoted to praising God, publicly and privately, in good times and in bad times, anytime for that matter. They had a passion for praise even in the midst of struggle and there were lots of struggles in the early church.
Someone has said that for almost three hundred years the Christian faith grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs. Horror spread everywhere through the churches and the number of those who renounced their faith was enormous. Yet there was no lack of those who remained firm and suffered martyrdom rather than caving in to the pressure. And as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the believers and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.
So for three hundred years to be a follower of Christ was to take an immense risk with your life and with your family and with your possessions. It was a test of what you loved more. And for those who paid the ultimate price they said Christ is worth more than life. Christ is worth more than falling in love. Christ is worth more than marrying and having children. Christ is worth more than seeing my children grow up and become independent. Christ is worth more than making a name for myself. Christ is worth more than fulfilling the goals of my career. Christ is worth more than the dream spouse and the dream house and the dream cruise and the dream retirement. Christ is worth more than all my unfinished plans and unfulfilled dreams.
And in the midst of a climate like that, where following Christ meant laying everything on the line, even your life, the early church still had a passion for praise. It was a birthmark of the church.
In this series we've been looking at the non-negotiables for God's people. We've spent the last three months revisiting the core values, the identifying marks of Christ followers. These are the things that the first church was devoted to and in many cases willing to die for. And these are the things that we must be devoted to at Valley View Community Church if we're going to fulfill the mission that God has given to us.
And in this series we've identified eight birthmarks. The gift of the Holy Spirit. A passion for Jesus Christ. A devotion to the apostle's teaching. A devotion to the breaking of bread. A devotion to community. A devotion to prayer. A devotion to the needy. And finally a passion for praise.
One of the five core values of Valley View Community Church is the value of worship and praise. We state it this way. In a biblical community people encounter God in Spirit-directed worship.
The word worship comes from the Old English word "worthship." It means to respect, to reverence, to admire the worth of something or someone. Worship is our response to God's worth. We worship God, not because everything is going well in our lives. We worship God because he is worth it.
Worship is what God seeks from his people. In fact, worship is the only thing that the Bible says God seeks from us. In John 4:23-24 Jesus said, A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
In a biblical community like Valley View worship is a priority. A regular encounter with God through worship is essential for our church to fulfill its mission. Encountering God gives fresh perspective to life and reminds us of what's most important in our lives. Worship invites God to do his work in us and through us.
The value of worship was a high priority for the church in Acts. Turn to Acts 2:42-47 one more time, They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone who had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
There was joy in this community, lots of joy. And that joy was expressed in praise to God. God was blessing Jerusalem Community Church. Lots of awesome things were happening. Signs and wonders and miracles were being performed. The sick were getting healed. People were opening their wallets and being generous, bringing underwear, needs were being eliminated, thousands were coming to Christ, the church was growing and enjoying favor with everybody.
Life was good. And praise often comes easy in an environment like that. And there are times in our life when praise comes easy. There are times in our life when we are filled with awe and wonder at the power of God.
I can remember coming home from Africa in March of last year and Jennifer picked me up at the airport. It was a cold, dark, Sunday night and after almost 24 hours of travel I just couldn't wait to get home. But when we got in the car Jen said, "We've got to make one stop on our way home."
And I went, "What? One stop! For what? You got to be kidding!" I was just so anxious to get home, see the kids, pet the dog, and crawl into bed. But she said we had to make a stop. And she was driving! So on the way home Jennifer pulled off the Oaks exit of Route 422 and drove me down Sunnyside Avenue and in and out of the parking lot of a dark, deserted Sunnyside Church. And I said, "What was that about?"
And then she proceeded to tell me what happened while I was away and how the Sunnyside Church building and seven acres of property had been given to Valley View as a gift, free of charge, and I was dumbfounded. And for days, even weeks afterwards there would be times in worship here at Valley View and times of worship alone in my car when I would just be overcome with how good and gracious God is. There would be times I'd be telling the story and just fill up with tears when I thought of God's provision for his church. I was filled with awe seeing God do miraculous things. Praise comes easy at times like that.
Praise came easy to the lame man who was healed in Acts 3. Look at Acts 3:1-10, One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer-at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
When I read that this week I thought of those who have been healed recently in our church community. I thought of a woman who has been battling stage three ovarian cancer for the last four months. Five years ago no one survived ovarian cancer. And I've been amazed by her attitude through it all. And on more than one occasion she's told me how much worship and praise have meant to her during these trying times. When she found it difficult to worship alone, she couldn't wait to come and worship God with the Valley View community. It gave her such a peace and reassurance that God loves her and he is in control. And now she's praising God because her cancer is subsiding and her strength is returning and she has gone back to work full-time. And the praise and worship of God, she said, is what sustained her.
I thought of another man in our church community who had a chronic pain in his stomach caused by Hepatitis C. It was something that he was prepared to endure for the rest of his life. But then during worship, the day I left for Africa, October 9, during the second worship gathering he felt that pain disappear and it hasn't been back since. In fact, this guy loves worship so much that often he comes to both gatherings. He does a doubleheader! And on that particular Sunday he came to the 9:00 o'clock gathering and was on his way home when he turned around and came back again for the 11:00 o'clock gathering. And during a certain song in the second worship gathering he felt the pain in his stomach disappear and it hasn't returned since! And that was over two months ago. He told me this week that even if his pain returns, he still praises God for the reprieve he has experienced.
And I asked him if he remembered what song we were singing when he was healed and he said, Breathe. "This is the air I breathe, your holy presence living in me. This is my daily bread, your very word, spoken to me. And I, I'm desperate for you. And I, I'm lost without you. This is the air I breathe."
When God breaks into our lives and does dramatic things like providing a building or a piece of property or a healing of some kind praise comes easy. We can't wait to give God the credit for what he has done. But the early church not only praised God when life was good, they praised God when life got tough. One of the most remarkable examples of that is found in Acts 5.
In Acts 5 the persecution starts to really heat up. The church starts falling out of favor with the religious leaders of the day because it was gaining in size and popularity and they were jealous. After the healing of the lame man the church grew to about five thousand men, plus women and children, and the religious establishment, the Sanhedrin, didn't like that.
So the high priest and his associates had the apostles arrested and thrown in jail. And then in Acts 5:40 we read that, 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.
This is the first time, to my knowledge, that the apostles ever took a beating for following Christ. Some had been arrested before and spent a night in prison after healing the crippled beggar, but this was the first time they had been beat up for their faith.
And the beating was severe. They were flogged. They experienced the same inhumane torture that Jesus experienced before his crucifixion. Those of us who saw "The Passion of the Christ" can't forget that scene where Jesus is flogged by two Roman soldiers. It was the most powerful and disturbing scene in the movie for me. At times it was just too intense to watch.
To be flogged meant to be stripped of your clothes, tied to a post, and beaten on the bare back with leather whips embroidered with metal studs and sharp pieces of bone. A Roman flogging, like Jesus experienced, had no limits. But a Jewish flogging, like the apostles experienced, was restricted to 39 lashes. Yet even that at times could be fatal.
The apostles are flogged, disfigured for life. For who? For what? For obeying the Lord's command to be his witnesses. And how do they respond? Look at verse 41,The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
They went home rejoicing, praising God, that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. That blew me away this week. They are praising God that they could identify with Jesus in this way. Someone has said those who share in the cross bearing will one day share in the crown wearing. And the apostles knew that. They viewed it as a privilege to suffer for the sake of Jesus.
They remembered the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:11-12, Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Look at another example of praising God during tough times. Turn to Acts 16. We've looked at this story before, but it's worth revisiting again. This time Paul and Silas are the one's arrested and thrown in jail. Their crime? Spreading the message of Jesus Christ.
Look at Acts 16:22, The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged (there it is again), they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
There it is. They were praying and singing hymns to God after being stripped naked, beaten, severely flogged and thrown into prison. How do you explain that? You can't explain it. It's a God thing. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is joy.
Suffering for the name of Christ is something that very few of us know much about. The suffering we experience is not physical, but emotional and sometimes relational. If we align ourselves with Christ we may experience rejection, criticism, and the loss of some relationships which Jesus experienced as well. We may feel a bit weird or on the outside of a social group. Jesus felt those things too and that's one way we identify with him. And if you've felt you may also felt this kind of joy.
But a passion for praise extends to other circumstances in life as well. Whenever I read this story I can't help but think of an experience I had when I was in college. One summer two of my friends and I took a camping trip to Canada. We spent a week exploring the St. Lawrence River and drove out around the beautiful Gaspe peninsula in the province of Quebec. It was a wonderful trip until the three of us got food poisoning. If you've ever had food poisoning you know it feels a little bit like flogging only on the inside.
And at one point we just couldn't go any further. We pulled the car into a campground and it was dark and it was pouring rain and we were miserable. Stuff was coming out both ends of our body. And we set up our tent in the rain and crawled into our damp, cold sleeping bags and just wanted to die.
But then one of my friends started singing hymns. I couldn't believe it. I thought he was delirious. I wanted to punch him. Then he took his Bible out and with a flashlight started to read Acts 16 and how Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns in prison. I had weird friends I know! And then the other guy pulled out a recorder, like a flute, and he started playing hymns.
And when I saw that I knew I was outnumbered so I gave up telling them they were nuts and started to sing along too. And in between trips to the bathroom we had a little praise fest right there in our soggy tent. I'm sure people thought we were crazy. We probably emptied out the campground. But I'll never forget it. And I think about it whenever I read this story.
Praising God didn't make the food poisoning go away. As I recall, that took almost a week, but it did change our focus. And that's what praise does. It changes our focus. It gets our mind off ourselves and off our problems and puts it on God who is capable of solving our problems or walking through them with us.
The woman with cancer who I mentioned earlier told me that she had a hard time praising God on her own, especially when she first learned the news. And that's understandable. Who can blame her for that? But she drew so much strength from coming here each week to listen to you and those around her worshiping God. Often we need to be in the presence of other worshipers to get our mind off ourselves and on to the one who loves us and walks with us and promises not to put us through more than we can bear.
A passion for praise is what sustained the first church through the hard times as well as through the good times. And a passion for praise is what will sustain Valley View church through the hard times as well as through the good times. "Come and worship. Come and worship. Come and worship Christ the newborn King."