A New Begining

Message: “Different Paths,” -- Frank Watson

When we left the founders of the new church last week, Saul, the tormentor of Christians, had been reborn as Paul, the Great Lion of God. Simon the fisherman had similarly been reborn as Peter the Rock, the cornerstone of the Christian movement and fisher of men. It would seem now that the leaders had been born again, they would nourish the church in harmony, and all live happily ever after. Not to be, however. The church was faced with challenges from all sides, and everyone involved had a different opinion.

There were internal personality conflicts. John Mark, the same Mark who wrote the second Gospel, originally was Peter’s administrative assistant, but when Barnabas was sent to pick up Paul and assist the church in Antioch, John Mark tagged along making it a threesome. We don’t know why Mark split with Peter; Scripture doesn’t tell us. A bit later, however, when Paul and Barnabas are sent to Cyprus, Mark refuses to go. Then, when they return from Cyprus, John Mark wants to join them again, and Paul has a snit. “He deserted us in Pamphylia and left us to do all the work.” This causes an argument between Paul and Barnabas causing them to split. Barnabas goes with John Mark and Paul continues on with Silas.

Did you get all that? Does it sound like some of the petty stuff that breaks up churches? Churches today continue to be destroyed over petty non-salvation issues. The number one subject that causes congregations to divide and go elsewhere is the music program. That’s true. Most disagreements are not over big issues.

There was one major issue, however, that needed to be resolved before the church could go on. It is commonly known as the “Circumcision Conflict,” but it was actually more than that. The followers of Christ were all Jews. Many wanted to keep the movement that way. Although Peter had baptized Cornelius and there were Gentiles in the Antioch church, many new Christians still viewed the new faith as Jewish. If Gentiles wanted to follow Christ, they had to become Jews first. Which mean not only being circumcised, but following all the laws and taboos of Mosaic Law.

Paul and Peter were in the group who wanted Christianity to be independent of Judaism. So, they held a meeting. Peter and Paul both argued for their position while others weighed in on the other side. The result was a compromise. Gentiles didn’t have to become Jews first as long as they didn’t participate in sacrifices to idols, adhered to the rules of sexual conduct, and avoided killing and eating meat like animals. No strangulation or fresh blood. As is the case with most compromises, no one was satisfied.

It didn’t help when the disciples recruited in the synagogues. When the Apostles arrived in town, their first stop was the Jewish place of worship. They must have been successful because they kept doing it. How would you feel if the Adventists, Catholics, or Mormons would show up here on Sunday morning and try to enlist a few members of our congregation?

When we were in Japan, we went to church with the Baptist Missionaries. Just before Christmas, the pastor organized a caroling group, and we sang at several subway stations in Kobe. We drew our largest crowd at Sanameia Station -- it was kind of like Kobe’s Grand Central. We looked up and some young Mormon missionaries were passing out literature to our crowd! Our minister, a very short Texan, was somewhat upset.

In Paul’s case, not only was the normal resentment of trying to lure some of our parishioners away, but these were the guys who openly associated with Gentiles. That was against the law! I saw a list somewhere of the number of times Paul had been whipped, beaten, thrown in jail, etc. I am not surprised. He poked the bear.

There was conflict both from within and without, and it didn’t diminish as the church grew. Herod persecuted the new church and caused Peter to flee for his life. When Nero persecuted Christians, he was successful in having Peter killed. There was no end to it. Nor was there an end to the internal squabbles.

Soon after Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion for the Roman Empire, he directed a meeting in Nicaea to determine the nature of the Christian God. Three hundred years after Christ and they couldn’t even agree on the nature of God! The result of their debate was the Nicaean Creed published in 325 ad. Again, it was born out of compromise and those in the minority left, went east and started their own brand of Christianity.

The Roman church was occupied with affairs of the empire and internal squabbles until 1054 when the Church in Constantinople broke off from the church in Rome. One of the fatal differences was where the emperor’s crown jewels would be kept. Theology had nothing to do with it. They split over money. The crown jewels represented wealth, wealth that could be used to support an army for the emperor.

The Eastern church gradually fragmented along geographical lines. Today we have the Russian Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox, and others I forget.

The Western church in Rome continued to try to hold on to their empire as well as organize crusades to the Holy Land, and was always in need of funds. One of their moneymaking schemes was to sell absolution. A local peasant would go to confession and be required to donate a small amount along with the requisite number of Hail Marys. For merchants and those more well-to-do, the cost was much higher. A local Priest in Wittenberg, Germany objected to this, published a list of 95 complaints on the door of the church, and the Protestant Reformation was born on Oct 31, 1517. The bureaucrats in Rome should have read the story of Jesus attacking the money lenders in the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus said they had turned God’s house of prayer into a den of thieves.

We owe the heritage of our church to Henry VIII. You know the story. Henry wanted a divorce, the Pope refused, so Henry told the Pope to take a hike and formed The Church of England with him as head in 1534.

Two hundred fifty years later John Wesley had a falling out with the Anglican Church. He thought they were too long on ceremony and deeds, and too short on faith. He chartered the first Methodist Church in the American Colony of Georgia. In the ensuing two centuries, the Methodist Church has fragmented into the Primitive Methodists, Wesleyan Brotherhood, the Free Methodist, the Nazarenes, and a few others. Conflict and division have been a constant. What we are facing is nothing new.

What is constant, however, is the presence of Jesus Christ. You are aware I was not born a Methodist. Billie and I have attended a variety of churches in our past 58 years. I mentioned going to church with the Baptist missionaries in Japan. We attended Air Force Chapels from time-to-time. We spent an interesting and fulfilling summer with the Seventh Day Adventists in Spain. We went to the Mormon Church in Omaha for over a year because it was the best place to work out during lunch when I was at SAC Headquarters.

We spent another year as members of a small neighborhood church. Our pastor’s name was Mortlock. He was a professor of Divinity at Whitworth and lived in Reardan. Some of you may be familiar with the name. He had ten kids and Reardan had a Mortlock as their 4-point guard for at least a decade. Our church disbanded when the pastor died.

I found Christ working in all those churches. He is alive and well wherever He is worshipped. I think I have told you I didn’t feel the presence of Christ in my last few annual conferences. At the last one, he wasn’t even mentioned. We are doing the right thing.