"Faith that Makes a Difference"      

Acts 16:25-34        John 17:20-26

 

Acts 16:25-34

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ 29The jailer* called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ 31They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ 32They spoke the word of the Lord* to him and to all who were in his house. 33At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 34He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

 

John 17:20-26

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,* so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

 

In 1729, a group of students at Oxford University formed a club

            that was intended to help each member grow in righteousness.

                        They met daily for devotions and for Bible study at night.

They fasted, and each one made themselves    accountable to the group,

                                                for they wanted their lives to be pleasing to God

                                                            by doing all the right and righteous things.

 

They expected that    by methodically doing all the right things,

            their faith would deepen and surely grow stronger.

The plan

            was to build  faith    the same way an athlete builds muscles,

                        with lots of exercise and self-discipline.

 

Upon graduation, one of them became an Anglican missionary.

            But on his way to do missions and evangelism in colonial Georgia,

                        the ship he was on got caught in a terrible ocean storm.

   The young missionary went into a panic, in absolute terror of dying.

 

In contrast, a group of Moravian families who were also on board

            gathered in prayer and were calmly singing psalms together,

                                    despite the raging storm going on all around them.

 

Young John Wesley   was stunned and shocked by their lack of fear,

            and their faith that was so calm and sure    even in facing death;

                                    and that    for all his methods of righteous religion,

                                                    his faith

                                                            really wasn't making much of a difference.

 

Despite his methods of striving for righteousness before God,

            during this storm of his great need and danger,

                        he realized that something was missing from his faith.

 

And John Wesley began to wonder

            was faith really a matter of methods for seeking righteousness?

                            And why for all his religious efforts and discipline,

                                    hadn't his faith been stronger amid the chaos of storm?

How was it that those Moravian colonists

            could be singing joyfully and confidently,

                        while he, a missionary, was quaking with fear?

 

He knew a great deal about being religious and righteous living,

            but not so much about the gentle peace

                        of having a trusting and loving relationship with Jesus.

 

His problem was that he and his friends at Oxford

            were putting their righteousness   before the grace given by God.

 

Because his faith rested upon his methods of righteousness

            and his faith was based on human efforts and determination,

                 his faith was blown away    and collapsed amid the stormy chaos.

 

This is an important point clearly explained in Ephesians 2:8

            For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works.

                     That is really   an important Bible verse.

 

God's gift of grace proceeds any good works  done on our part;

            for only after we have received God's gracious love

                                    can our faith become sure, even amid chaos and storm.

 

Any righteousness or good that we do    must flow from God's grace,

    enabled by God's Spirit, or we are only going through the motions

         just playing at religion without actually walking with the Lord.

 

This means that our relationship with God is entirely by grace,

            that is freely given though Jesus Christ.

                           And only such a   grace-driven faith can be strong enough

                                    to truly impact our lives and make a real difference.

 

So how can we tell  if we actually do have   that authentic faith?

 

   If we have received God's gracious love,

          then it will grow in our lives,

                   changing us, especially  our relationships with others.

 

Here's the tricky part that young John Wesley learned

            when his faith collapsed amid the chaos and storm:

                                    his righteous behavior, his effort and good works

                                                were unable to create more grace and faith,

                                                                        because those come only as gifts from God.

             God's gift of grace makes the difference,

                   its not something that we can achieve by our own efforts.

 

Let me illustrate this from the Acts passage we read.

            In the city of Philippi,

                        Paul and Silas were having a really bad day.

            They were stripped, beaten with rods then publically flogged

                        by the city officials for doing missionary stuff.

 

They were turned over to a jailer.  In the Roman world,

            it took a pretty brutal, even sadistic guy to be a jailer.

 

Beaten, bruised and bleeding   the jailer fastened them into stocks

            which were designed for maximum suffering and discomfort

                        then locked into the worst innermost cell of the dungeon.

 

When things are unpleasant and not going well,

            sometimes I complain,  and let God know that I am unhappy.

But that's not how these missionaries

            responded to their suffering and misfortune, vs. 25

                                    About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

     Perhaps Wesley's Moravian shipmates took their cue from Paul & Silas.

 

Then an earthquake released all the prisoners from their shackles,

            opened all their cell doors, and yet no one chose to escape.

Assuming his prisoners were gone, knowing the penalty that he faced,

    the jailer draw his sword, choosing an easier death by his own hand.

 

Then Paul tells the jailer that they are all still there, vs. 30~34

            He brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ … At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

 

What an incredible turn of heart,

            that this cruel, harsh and hardened Roman jailer would ask,

                   "What must I do to be saved?"

 

Here's the point:

            the one who washed their wounds and fed them in his own home,

                                        was the same jailer

                                                who had brutally locked them up to suffer.

*   My question is, why the change, and how did that happen?

 

Obviously, the jailer coming to faith made all the difference!

            It was not that he had lived Wesley's methods of righteousness,

                 or that trying to please God had brought this jailer to grace.

 

The message is about unexpected grace,

         that leads to an authentic relationship with God through Christ,

               that will impact our lives & our relationships with all others.

 

            That is what Jesus was praying about in the John 17 text:

vs. 22~26

            … As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe … so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know; …  so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

 

The prayer is that by the gracious love of God,

            that we might all be one, unified by God's gracious love

                        as God is One though separate, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

So too,

        though we are each uniquely different, yet we are one in the Lord,

                        and this is to be the church's testimony before the world,

                                    so that the world may know… so that the world may believe…

 

When I was a younger pastor than today,

            there was a very volatile issue coming before General Assembly,

                        I got mightily involved in all out efforts of trying to win.

    What still bothers me,

            was that each side used questionable methods and strategies

                        taken directly from the corrupt world of doing politics.

 

This was the church of Jesus Christ,

            trying to resolve and deal with issues of faith and theology,

                                    but using the ways and tactics of this world… as if…

                    the experience of God’s love   makes no difference at all.

 

Like Wesley and his friends in Oxford,

            whose focus was all on religion  and righteous moral living

                        … and so   did not have enough faith for the storm…

… so too we can miss the point, that our true call as Christians,

                        is to live out the consequences of God's gracious love…

            … so that the world can see God's truth and power,

                        in the unity of Christ we share despite our diversity.

 

I know this is not easy to hear,   but how can the world take seriously

            or come to believe a gospel proclaiming God’s love for all;

                        if those of the church,  who claim to believe it,

                              if those who claim their lives have been changed by ità

      allow differing opinions  to matter more than our unity in Christ,

             and if we deal with disagreements no differently than the world?

 

Surely it is critically important and significant,

            that just hours before his arrest and the events that followed,

                        Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father,  for his followers…

 

… Jesus prayed for   our unity;

            through which He intended to demonstrate God’s love for all,

                        so that love would be noticed out into all the world,

                                    as a sign to all    of the truth and power of the gospel.

 

Jesus prayed for us,

            for all who believe in Jesus   as handed down through the ages,

                        as taught by disciples    to disciples,  and finally to us…

 

            … that the love,   which unifies Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

                        can also affect and unify us, creating such unity among us

                               that world has to stand up and take notice of God's love.

 

Problem is, sometimes we interfere with this gift of God's unity…

 

1^st       … by presuming the role that rightly only belongs to God

                        by assuming that we, and those who agree with us   posses

                                    all the wisdom and understanding to rightly judge --

                                                that we hold   all of the truth, rejecting evenà

                                                            the possibility that we might be in the wrong.

 

2^nd       by deciding that we should or must   protect the Lord God;

                        that it’s our job   to squash those who are wrong,

                                                as if God couldn’t handle it

                                                            unless we pitch in and give a hand.

 

But if God is as all powerful,    if sovereign   as we claim to believe,

            then surely God can work it out,        even taking care

                        of the ones that we are convinced have gotten it all wrong.

 

But you might would ask,  “But what about sound doctrine,

            isn’t it essential to be committed to God’s truth?”

                        Absolutely, this is not a blind acceptance of all things,

                                    nor is it getting fuzzy about the truth of Scripture.

 

But consider, 1 Peter 4:8

            Above all,       maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

 

 

Above all , what could be a more sound doctrine,

            or a more faithful commitment to God’s truth,

                        than the love and mercy of God graciously expressed

                                    out into the world by unity of love among believers?

 

--  surely love can cover  even a multitude of differing perspectives.

 

So what might that look like?

 

            One time at a presbytery meeting, it was very controversial                                                                       as we were voting on major changes to our Book of Order,

                                    some huge issues that I felt passionately about.

                                   

I happened to sit next to a close friend from seminary,

            and even though we voted opposite on just about every issue,

                                    it was a wonderful time of fellowship and conversation.

 

I'm pretty sure my task was to cancel out his foolish-wrong votes,

            though he claims his role was to block my stubborn wrong-headedness.

 

It was one of the best presbytery meetings I have ever attended.

            We really did experience God’s presence and grace that day.

 

You see, for my friend and I,  

            our friendship, our respect for the integrity of each other,

                        and of course,  our shared faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,                                       mattered far more that day

                                                than any of the critical issues we were voting on.

 

The truth is, like young John Wesley and his Oxford friends,

            we can get so caught up   with what we want    

                        and in our own righteousness, that we forget,

                                    that authentic faith, that can weather storms & chaos,

                                                                          comes only as God's gracious gift,

                                                                                    and not as a goal that we can achieve.

 

            A part of that gracious gift of an authentic faith,

                        is that we trust God enough   not just with storms at sea,

                                    but also with storms of disagreements and tough issues.

 

                   Can the world see  God’s love, grace and truth displayed 

                             through our Christian unity and love for one another?

 

The very last thing Jesus prayed    was for our unity;

            it must have been important to him ... is it as important to us?

                 and does our faith

                                    actually make such a difference in our lives?

            For by grace you have been saved through faith,

                        and this is not your own doing;

                                                it is the gift of God— not the result of works.