Rev. David Holwick  Y                                          COMMUNION
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 1, 1993
                                                             Acts 4:8-21
                       
                         THE LIMITS OF LOYALTY


  I. How do you feel about authority?
      A. Bumper sticker - "Question Authority."
          1) Most don't.  In a classic experiment, white-coated "experts"
                got volunteers to shock victims, almost to death.
          2) Yet without authority, chaos is inevitable.  (Somalia)

      B. The Bible says we need authority.
          1) God has made us so that we must depend on each other.
              a) In families.
              b) In nations.
          2) Authority is a way of working out relationships.
              a) Naive to think relationships can exist without structure.
              b) Each side has responsibilities and privileges.

      C. Dilemma:  We need authority, but there is a multitude of them
             and they often conflict with each other.

 II. God is the ultimate authority.
      A. First Commandment:  "Have no other gods before me."     Exod 20:3
          1) There are competing authorities, but if they conflict with
                God, they lose.
             George Will writes in "Men at Work":

             Baseball umpires are carved from granite and stuffed with
                microchips.
             They are professional dispensers of pure justice.
             Once when Babe Pinelli called Babe Ruth out on strikes,
                Ruth made a populist argument.
             Ruth reasoned bogusly (as populists do) from raw numbers
                to moral weight:

             "There's 40,000 people here who know that last one was a
                ball, tomato head."
             "Pinelli replied with the measured stateliness of a supreme
                court justice:
             "Maybe so, but mine is the only opinion that counts."

             Christians are also pressed by the weight of numbers
                aligned against the moral law of God.
             But the Christian knows that in the end, only one opinion
                counts:  that of the Umpire of all humans affairs.
                                                                    #1859
          2) Which god do we obey?
              a) Even those who believe in one God put quite a different
                    spin on him.
              b) The God in the New Testament is far different from the
                    god in the Koran.

      B. Jesus taught the uniqueness of his relationship with God.
          1) Must know the Son to know the Father.    Matt 11:27; John 8:19
          2) Deny the Son, don't know the Father.         1 John 2:23
          3) The Father of Jesus is the God we obey.      Acts 4:12

III. To acknowledge God's authority means to obey him.
      A. Obey God's moral code.
          1) Others are moving away from absolutes, but we cannot.
          2) Our problem is usually not gray areas, but clear areas
                we want to fudge in.
          3) Biblical attitude:  the Centurion.             Matt 8:8
                "But just say the word:   ...come, do this..."

      B. Give worship to God, and God alone.
          1) Governments often compete for ultimate authority.
          2) As the world becomes more secular, Christians will find
                opposition rising all around.

      C. Stand up for God in the public arena.
          1) They were "ordinary" but impressive, because they
                had been with Jesus.                        Acts 4:13
          2) The disciples were not ashamed of their faith.
          3) There are times when Christians have to speak out.

             Martin Niemoller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany in the
                1930's.
             Like many Christians, he had qualms about the Nazis, but
                they left him alone so he led a quiet life.
             After the war he was moved to make this confession:

             "In Germany they came first for the communists, and I
                 didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist.
              Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because
                 I wasn't a Jew.
              Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak
                 up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
              Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up
                 because I was a Protestant.
              Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left
                 to speak up.
                                                                    #1578


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