Chan Willis – C.P.C.

                                                                                                            March 14, 2010

“Speaking Up”

1 Samuel 3:11-4:1a; Acts 4:8-13

          As you read today’s sermon title, “Speaking Up,” there may have been some different thoughts that crossed your mind.  Perhaps you thought that for today’s message, I was going to give you an opportunity to ‘speak up’ during its presentation… to ask questions, or give your comments.  Noooo.  Or… perhaps you thought about your own personality, and your own individual willingness to ‘speak up’… or to NOT ‘speak up.’

            For some of you, speaking up… sharing your thoughts on a particular subject (including the Sunday sermon)… is NOT a problem.  You are more than happy to voice your opinion.  No, I’m not going to ‘call out’ anyone in particular… but  you know who you are!  J

            Most of you, though, are a bit more reluctant to say what’s on your mind.  And particularly to tell ME about it.  And not just with regards to the Sunday morning message.  It could be about the church, or about a struggle you may be having… any number of things… but you just find it hard to talk to the pastor about it.  Even though you know in your heart you should.  Maybe you think that he’s got enough to deal with already.  That he doesn’t need to be burdened with anything else.  Or, you don’t want to seem critical… that if you say something about the church, he’ll take it too personal.  That his feelings will be hurt.   And after all, he IS trying the best he can to serve the people of this church, and community. 

            I kind of think that some of this could have been going through Samuel’s head.  Here this young boy had just had an incredible encounter with YHWH, Almighty God … and in particular, a conversation that dealt in a powerful way with Eli and his family… and he knows that he should share this with the aged priest.  But he is reluctant to.  “He is afraid to tell Eli the vision.”  Why?  Because he respects him… perhaps, in some ways, fears him.  Eli has been his mentor, his guide, the one who has helped him to interpret God’s call on the young boy’s life… a ‘calling,’ quite literally!  He is a wise man of high standing, both in the eyes of the people and of God.  Samuel doesn’t want to hurt the old man’s feelings.  After all, he IS a ‘man of the cloth.’  Eli is doing the best he can to serve God, and God’s people.

            And yet, Samuel knows that he still must tell him.  For it will be for Eli’s own good.  Moreover, as the old man recognizes, that God will not be pleased with His young servant if he holds back… if he fails to speak up.  Eli demonstrates that he is willing to accept whatever it is the God has spoken to Sam.  “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”  This wise man of God knows that whatever it is that is to happen to him, God will be able to redeem that situation.   Eli trusted in God… believed that ultimately, God would take care of him.

            It is this relationship based on trust… trust both in God, and in each other… that we as the church are called to have.  I’m gonna tell you something that may really surprise you… we are not doing everything here at CPC like we should!  I know… shocked, aren’t you.  Yes, we are doing some things right, but we have a LOT of room for improvement. 

AND, if you expect it all to start with me, well, I’m afraid that I will certainly disappoint you.  I need YOU.  I need your input.   I need your ideas, your energies… yes, even your criticism!  (Now, ‘constructive’ would be nice… J)  But I trust that when you ‘speak up,’ it will be in a spirit of love and concern for the church.

            My point is, if this church is to become the type of community that Jesus Christ Himself would be pleased to enter into, we HAVE to work together.  To communicate with your leaders ways that we can better reach others with the message of hope and love ONLY available through Christ.  If we will but speak up, sharing with other members of the church family what God is saying to US, we will have the type of impact on our world that God will bless!  “He is the Lord; (let us) let him do what is good in his eyes.”   

            There is another aspect of this ‘speaking up’ that is important to the body of believers.  And that is to do so even when those words are ones of correction, of rebuking … of helping someone to see the error of their ways.  When someone hurts another brother or sister… when one of those ‘family members in Christ’ breaks His commands... you and I are to confront them with that sin.  Just as Samuel did in relating God’s words of judgment upon Eli’s family. 

            Such ‘confrontation’ may not necessarily be verbal.  We also can communicate our feelings by our actions… by a facial expression, by ‘body language.’  Such bodily communication might mean to simply leave a conversation in which the character of another person…or worse, of God… is demeaned, maligned.  Like the saying says, ‘a picture can paint a thousand words.’ 

            But whether verbal or non-verbal, the sign of a true friendship is one in which difficult things to say can be said!  A phrase that is tossed about in Christian circles is that we are called to “speak the truth in love.”  (Eph 4:15)  Well, that is true but we should remember the next part of that verse… that such ability only comes as we “grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”  Only as we become more like Him in our thoughts and actions can we truly be able to speak HIS truth with HIS love.

            But friends, as important as it is to ‘speak up’ to other members of the family of faith, we must also take seriously our responsibility to interact with non-believers.  Consider Peter and John, and Paul, and many others in the early church, who at great personal risk lead thousands of people to a saving belief in Jesus Christ.   In today’s passage, because of how they ministered in the Lord’s Name, John and Peter stand before a very intimidating group of religious leaders… priests, temple guards, and a powerful Jewish sect known as the Sadducees.  (Name?  Because they didn’t know Jesus, they were very ‘sad-u-cee?’  J) 

            Seriously, these two disciples were being interrogated by these powerful religious leaders, questioned as to by whose authority they had performed the miraculous healing of a blind beggar.    But this healing was surely just the surface concern… the real issue was the power that these two simple men possessed to draw crowds of people to hear their words about this rebellious son of a Jewish carpenter, Jesus. That controversial man from Nazareth who was crucified for his blasphemous words against the religious establishment.  The question posed to them in the preceding verse expresses the real issue at hand:  “By what power or what name did you do this?”

            It is here that Peter… “filled with the Holy Spirit”… speaks those powerful words we read earlier:    "… know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹He is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.    ¹²Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Remember, these two guys were fishermen by trade.  Fishermen!  How many of you have ever met commercial fishermen?  They are NOT usually ‘public speakers.’  Not normally guys one would expect to stand up in a ‘court of law,’ before a host of ‘experts’, and boldly proclaim a revolutionary religious doctrine.  Peter was in effect telling these wise and respected (if not, feared) spiritual leaders that their way was WRONG!  That all of their laws, and rules and regulations, were NOT the way to God.  That it was a new day.  A new way.  That “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name…by which we must be saved.” 

And then comes perhaps an even more miraculous occurrence.  Despite the challenging, even offensive nature of what Peter said, we go on to read that “when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

            These powerful, learned religious leaders recognized that there was something special going on inside these simple fishermen.  They saw the boldness, the “courage” with which they spoke.  They were “astonished” that such “unschooled, ordinary men” could articulate their faith so strongly, so clearly.  Maybe they were not aware of how the Holy Spirit had filled their hearts and minds, but they did take “note that these men had been with Jesus.”

            Friends, when we ‘hang out with Jesus,’ ‘astonishing’ things happen. ‘Ordinary men’ (and women) who are ‘unschooled’ in religious terms can speak with ‘courage’ about their faith.  People just like you.  What it takes to ‘speak up’ is simply spending time with your Lord: in worship… in study… in prayer… in fellowship with other believers.   The more that you do, the more that others will ‘take note that you have been with Jesus’… that you have spent time in His divine Presence.

            Eli certainly ‘took note’ that his young protégé Samuel had been in the ‘divine Presence’ of God.  That is why he encouraged him to ‘speak up’… even with words that would be difficult to hear… because Eli knew that when Sam spoke, it would be not merely his own words, but God’s words.  And from that time forward, God would continue to speak through Samuel.  The Lord “let none of his words fall to the ground.”  In other words, people listened to what Samuel had to say.  Words that didn’t fall on deaf ears… ‘to the ground’… but “made the ears of everyone who heard tingle.” The people listened to Samuel because He listened to God.  And through his obedience, God would use him powerfully.  As the Scriptures said, “Samuel’s word came to all Israel.”

            May God use us, you and I, as He did Samuel and Eli, Peter and John.   That through us, God’s Word will come to all people… beginning right here in our little church.  Like Eli, let us ‘speak the truth in love’ to those in our family of faith.  Like Peter, may we also bear witness to those ‘outside the family’… bearing testimony to the “power,” the “name” behind the ‘miracles’ we see every day:  miracles of birth…of re-birth… miracles of creation… miracles of healing.  Miracles of a life that was blind, and deemed useless, and yet was given vision and purpose through the power of Jesus Christ.  May this season of Lent remind us that it’s all about Jesus.  “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name … by which we must be saved.”  Do you believe it?  OK, then… speak up!