Over a year ago now I had been wrestling with God over an issue. There’s this common practice that God does throughout the Scriptures of changing names when he calls people to his purposes. He does this with Abram, who he calls Abraham. He does this with Jacob who he calls Israel. He does this with Levi, who he calls Matthew, and he does it with Saul, who he calls Paul. The significance of these renaming is to show that these people were called to a new relationship with God. That their old life had passed away, and his new life was ahead.
Speaking of eunuchs who think they could never be accepted as part of God’s people, God says this to them in Isaiah 56:5, “I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” A new name awaits all those who overcome is what we read about in Revelation 2:17. A name only God knows. If we have called on the name of Jesus for salvation we have a new name which Jesus looks forward to bestowing on us.
It’s the issue of a new name that I had been wrestling with. Not for myself, but for us here at the Alliance Church in Quartzsite. Years ago when Jeff was the Senior Pastor of our congregation, we’d talk on many issues concerning ministry and this church in particular. One of the things we talked about was a name change. The name Quartzsite Alliance Church never sat well with him because it didn’t really speak to who we were.
I’m not for name changes that have no reason behind them and so, I would tell him that there was no need for it. That was until about a year ago. As I thought about new names in glory, this memory of these discussions with Jeff came to the forefront of my mind. And with them one word, Arise.
Through the months that followed I kept running into passages with this word. God says it to Abraham in Genesis 13:17, “Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” He says it to Joshua in the second verse of the first chapter of his book, "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.” To the paralyzed man Jesus says in Matthew 9:6, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.”
This arise language occurs again and again and again throughout the Scripture, and it’s based on this Hebrew word qum (koom) which means, stand up. And it carries with it a sense of command to action. God calls Abraham to survey the land he is giving him. God calls Joshua to take that land. Jesus calls the paralyzed man to show those sitting there that he, Jesus, was God incarnate.
And so God pressed on me, this is who his Church is, they are those who Arise.
All around us we see a world spiraling faster and faster into debauchery and destruction. And what is the role of the Church in this? As the Nazi’s rounded up Jews and destroyed Europe with their ideology, a Lutheran Pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We must finally stop appealing to theology to justify our reserved silence about what the state is doing — for that is nothing but fear. ‘Open your mouth for the one who is voiceless’ — for who in the church today still remembers that that is the least of the Bible’s demands in times such as these? (https://sojo.net/articles/11-bonhoeffer-quotes-remember-pastor-who-resisted-evil-unto-death)”
The same should echoed through every church hall in this nation. The Church needs to arise to speak to the issues of today. A few years ago we had a series on things that we think are political issues, but are actually things that the Church has taken stands on since it’s founding. An issue today that we need to have clarified in our own lives is that of abortion. The Church has always been against abortion because it is the killing of an innocent life.
To the issue of rape, the Church has always been against the sexual assault of people. To the issue of homosexuality and hook up culture, the Church has always stood against any sexual divergence from one man and one woman in a monogamous life long marriage relationship. To those who are singled out because of their skin color for abuse, the people of God have always been called to protect, and seek justice for those who experience injustice.
To the issues of drag queens and transgenderism, the Church has always stood against the blurring of male and female divinely distinct and beautifully designed strengths. The Church needs to arise in our day to stand firm in the biblical teaching of God’s word.
But it starts at these four walls. It starts at the Church itself. Peter tells us this in his first letter, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (4:17)” Until we are willing to cry out to God and say as David said in Psalm 51, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (v.7).” We have no leg to stand on in speaking to the culture around us, because we don’t take seriously the call of God on our lives.
So for the next few weeks, I want to share with you, not only why we here at the Alliance Church of Quartzsite are pondering a name change, but why this name and it’s ramifications, not just for how people address us, but why we do the things we do.
And for today, I want to bring our attention to Luke chapter 9, starting in verse 46. And as you open your Bibles to Luke 9:46, let me give you a brief summary as to where we find ourselves in this Gospel.
Jesus is about halfway through his earthly ministry. He and the disciples have entered Capernaum and we get two moments where they need correction. Let’s read together Luke chapter 9, starting in verse 46.
“46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 48 and said to them, ‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among all of you is the one who is great.’
“49 John answered, ‘Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.’ 50 But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.’”
This brief moment is at a turning point in the Gospel of Luke. Less than twenty verses earlier Peter, John, and James experienced Jesus’ transfiguration. A monumental event and experience where they got a glimpse of Jesus in his full God glory. After this event, Jesus begins to point his disciples to his intention of going to the cross. Nestled in-between two of these teachings of his eventual death, we get the passage we just read.
And we’re told that an argument broke out. From where did this argument stem? Could it be that the three who saw Jesus’ transfiguration were a little haughty at the fact they were chosen over the others? Or maybe it was something else? Regardless from where the issue came from, we know that it was about who was the greatest. To quail this argument, Jesus uses a child that was there as an illustration of what it means to be great in the kingdom.
A child is seen by many as a necessary nuisance until they are old enough to fend for themselves. So to have a child be the greatest, flips the social norm of the strongest, the most intelligent, the prettiest being the best, on its head. In Jesus’ kingdom the greatest are those that humble themselves to be the least, and the least are those who promote themselves to be the greatest.
But here’s the thing, this doesn’t even seem to register with John. I pick on Peter a lot for putting his foot in his mouth, but Peter is a representation of the whole batch. Here John speaks without thinking showing us that the closest disciples of Jesus were likeminded in the fact they kept missing Jesus’ teaching.
John seems to hear Jesus’ words but doesn’t realize the scope of what he was just told. It seems like John is thinking, “okay, in the hierarchy of our group the least of among us is the greatest, but all of us in the inner circle here, must be greater than anyone outside it.”
The reason it seems like this is his line of thinking, is because he moves quickly away from the topic at-hand and points out someone who he believes needs to be shut down because they are not part of the inner circle of Jesus.
John believes this man, who was casting out demons in Jesus name, needed to be shut down, but Jesus corrects him. The man is doing the work of the kingdom. This man recognized the power that Jesus had over demons, and trusted in Jesus’ name to overcome those demons. We don’t know anything else about him. We don’t know if he was “saved” or what ever became of the man. What we do know is John wanted to stop him because he wasn’t a part of the inner circle, and that Jesus told John, no.
And this is the first point in our sermon series on the Church Arising to the issues of our day. Church, we need to arise together. You know what the biggest desires Jesus’ for his Church is? Jesus prayed about it in John 17:22-23. Speaking to the Father, Jesus prays, “22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
Consider Jesus’ words here in John 17. His desire for us is to be perfectly one as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. God’s desires is that, as he is of one mind in the eternal love that the three persons of the triune God have for each other, his Church would be of the same mind. Yet, we too often allow secondary, and thirdary, and fourthdary issues to divided us. The core of the Gospel is what matters, Jesus is what matters. Not issues that are are yet to be revealed, like if a rapture is pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation. Not issues of hymns or contemporary songs. Not issues of verse-by-verse or topical preaching. Not issues of red or blue carpet. The core of the Gospel message should uniting us together, and where we disagree on these other issues, we should be extending grace to cover those differences.
It’s the unity of the Church that Paul pleads for in 1 Corinthians when he address the factions that were developing when he writes, “10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul’, or ‘I follow Apollos’, or ‘I follow Cephas’, or ‘I follow Christ.’ 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?(1:10-13)”
It is because of the unity that Christ has called us into that Paul later writes in that same letter, “12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body (12:12-20).”
Do we need to continue to stress the need for unity of God’s Church? Do we understand why it’s so important? In Jesus prayer from John 17 he states, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
How is the world to know that Jesus was sent by the Father for the salvation of the world? Is it by the flashiness of his Church? Is it by the best apologetics? Is it by charismatic leaders, or signs and wonders? No, it’s by the love Jesus’ Church has for each other. We are not to seek our own good, but the good of the Saints of God. We are not to seek our own power, but the power of the Holy Spirit at work in Christ’s Church. We are to lift up the work of Jesus that our brothers and sisters are doing for the glory of God, and not our own.
Here at the Alliance Church of Quartzsite we have Alliance missionaries come in and speak. We also have groups like Graceworks, and Creation Ministries, and every band and group of different denominational backgrounds come in, because it’s not the work of the Alliance, it’s the work of God. We need to strip away anything that isn’t core to the Gospel work, taking a stand only on what’s primary doctrine, and giving grace on everything else. We need to come together in agape, godly love and lift up the name of Jesus and bless those who do the same.
Those who profess the name of Jesus as their Savior, who hold to the core of the Gospel which is, we were created, humanity fell to sin, God descended, died on a cross, rose again, is coming back, and a person must put their trust only in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, those who profess this, I call my brother and sisters.
So my challenge today is this, I want to challenge you to stand. If you come from a baptist background, I want you to literally stand up. Do you profess the name of Jesus as you Savior and hold to the core of the Gospel? You are brothers and sisters, we are the Church. If you come from a pentecostal or charismatic background, I want you to stand. Do you profess the name of Jesus as you Savior and hold to the core of the Gospel? You are brothers and sisters, we are the Church. If you come from a non-denominational, or high church background like a Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian background, I want you to stand. Do you profess the name of Jesus as you Savior and hold to the core of the Gospel? You are brothers and sisters, we are the Church. And if I left out your background, yet you profess the name of Jesus as you Savior and hold to the core of the Gospel I want you to stand. We are brothers and sisters, we are the Church.
Church, we arise together to focus on what matters, so let us stand in Christ alone. In his love, in his unity and let our voices raise in praise to God our Father who sent God the Son for our salvation. Let us praise the Holy Spirit that indwells all of God’s people, and move forward in our salvation, so the world may know that Jesus was sent by the Father to accomplish the work of breaking the power of sin. Amen!
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