Rev. David Holwick  ZC
First Baptist Church 
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 29, 1993
                                                           Acts 10:25-36
                            
                              THEM, TOO??


  I. Sad schisms.
      A. "Crown Heights" tragedy:  from accident to hatred.
          1) Orthodox Jew runs over black boy.
              a) Neighborhood riots.
              b) Orthodox Jew is stabbed, hundreds on both sides injured.
              c) Labels, not people, matter.
          2) Bigotry fuels the worst violence - Bosnia, etc.
              a) Not just an American problem.
              b) Hindus have 10,000 levels of caste.

      B. Acts 10 is about the breaking down of barriers.
          1) The earliest Christians took the gospel - to their own.
          2) Jesus had to take the initiative and call Cornelius.    10:4
              a) N.C.O. in Roman army, perhaps retired.
              b) Religious man with a sincere heart, but not a full Jew.
          3) Peter could not accept this without a dramatic vision.  10:10
              a) Peter was semi-changed (he lived with a tanner) but
                    could not swallow saved Gentiles.
              b) The animals represented an ancient code of uncleanness.
              c) Code is still valid - but it doesn't apply to people.

 II. Jesus came to make things different.
      A. He reached out to despised foreigners, social degenerates
            and outcasts.
      B. Jesus' kingdom is of a new sort; John says in Rev. 7:9-10:

         "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude
            that no one could count,
          from every nation, tribe, people and language,
            standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.
          They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches
            in their hands.
          And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to
            our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'"

      C. Church should model this acceptance of others here on earth.
          1) Anyone and everyone should be welcome.
          2) Yet churches are one of the most segregated institutions
                in America.
          3) Why is this so?

III. The captivity of the church.
      A. Churches are often captives of their surroundings.
          1) Luther wrote about the captivity of Catholicism.
              a) The church of his day was enslaved by human principles
                    alien to God's word.

          2) Philip Yancey and captivity of fundamentalism.

             Yancey grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1960's.
             When news came over the intercom system that President
                John F. Kennedy had been shot, students in his high school
                   stood up and cheered.
             They cheered because he was the President who had proposed
                civil-rights laws and had backed it up by forcing the
                   integration of the University of Mississippi.

             He remembered a Fourth of July rally loaded with
                segregationists.
             A group of 20 black men, showing bravery such as Yancey had
                never seen, attended the rally.
             They sat in a conspicuous dark clump high in the bleachers,
                not participating, just observing.
             After a rousing rendition of "Dixie," hooded Klansmen arose
                from the crowd and began an ominous climb up the bleachers.

             The black men had no escape.
             They stood and huddled together, looking around in
                desperation, but there was nowhere to go.
             At last, frantic, a few of them started climbing a 30-foot
                chain link fence and the Klansmen scrambled to catch them.
             Everyone turned to watch the Klansmen pry loose the clinging
                bodies, as though removing prey from a trap.
             They began beating them with fists and with Lester Maddox's
                souvenir ax handles.

             What was Philip Yancey's reaction?
                He felt an adolescent thrill run through him.
             He had grown up in large fundamental Baptist churches.
                Racism was justified from the Bible.
                He never questioned it.
             Then Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot, society began to
                shift its attitudes (slowly) and Yancey rethought his
                   upbringing.
                                                                   #2532
      B. Are you shaped by your culture, or by Jesus?
          1) We are bombarded with society's attitudes, but not God's.
              a) Many in church are ignorant of gospel.
                  1> (first time you've read this passage?)
                  2> Are neighborhood's standards carry more weight than
                        God's Word.

              b) Even more don't know how to think as a Christian.
                  1> We parrot political views, etc., without
                        assessing what God thinks of them.
                  2> Most German Christians voted for Hitler.

              c) Do the things that break God's heart, break yours?
                  1> We need to repent of the sins of racism.
                      A> We need self-awareness of how we have hurt others.

          All that Richard Mouw ever really needed to know about uncivil
             language he learned in the fifth grade.
          At a small, Dutch Calvinist school in a New Jersey city, he
             was playing with other students just before classes started.
          Some black kids came by on their way to the public school.
          One thing led to another, and soon the two groups were yelling
             insults at each other.
          One of the black students tossed a rock, and it grazed Richard's
             head.
          He was livid.  Richard spat out the "N" word and ran back to
             school.

          That was the early 1950's, and they weren't thinking much
             about civil rights in those days.
          But the young stone thrower must have sensed that he had a
             case to make:
          He marched straight to Mouw's school and reported his verbal
             behavior to the principal.
          Soon the principal and Mouw were facing each other alone in
             his office.
          Mr. Dykstra told him how disappointed he was with him.
             Richard began to cry:
          "But he threw a STONE at me!  He HIT me with it."

          Mr. Dykstra's response was kind but firm.
            "Yes, he shouldn't have done that.
          But Richard, you have done something much worse.
             He tried to harm your body.
          You responded by trying to harm his soul.
          God is much more saddened by what you did to that young man
             than by what he did to you."
                                                                    #2345
                      B> We need forgiveness to heal the wounds.
                      C> Violence only produces more violence.

          2) Peter had to be shaken out of his complacency.
              a) God had to really work - 3 times! - to get him over his
                    hangups.
              b) It often takes a crisis or riot to get us over ours.

 IV. Look to the heart.
      A. People are quick to label others.
          1) Peter was brought up to see uncleanness rigidly.
              a) Food restrictions emphasized purity before God.
          2) Real test of purity:  seeing people as God sees them.

          Dodie Gadient, a schoolteacher for thirteen years, decided to
             travel across America and see the sights she had taught about.
          Traveling alone in a truck with camper in tow, she launched out.
          One afternoon rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in
             rush-hour traffic, a water pump blew on her truck.
          She was tired, exasperated, scared, and alone.
          In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one seemed interested
             in helping.

          Leaning up against the trailer, she prayed, 'Please God, send
             me an angel... preferably one with mechanical experience.'
          Within four minutes, a huge Harley drove up, ridden by an
             enormous man sporting long black hair, a beard, and tattooed
                arms.
          With an incredible air of confidence, he jumped off and, without
             even glancing at Dodie, went to work on the truck.
          Within another few minutes, he flagged down a larger truck,
             attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy,
                and whisked the whole 56 foot rig off the freeway.
          He took it to a side street, where he calmly continued to work
             on the water pump.

          The intimidated schoolteacher was too dumbfounded to talk.
          Especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of
             his leather jacket:  "Hell's Angels - California."
          As he finished the task, she finally got up the courage to say,
            "Thanks so much," and carry on a brief conversation.

          Noticing her surprise at the whole ordeal, he looked her
             straight in the eye and mumbled,
          "Don't judge a book by its cover.
             You may not know who you're talking to."
          With that, he smiled, closed the hood of the truck, and
             straddled his Harley.
          With a wave, he was gone as fast as he had appeared."
          Given half a chance, people often crawl out of the boxes into
             which we've stuffed them.
                                                                    #1817
      B. How God sees people.
          1) He pays no attention to our social status.

             Rev. Peter Cartwright, a nineteenth-century circuit-riding
                Methodist preacher, was an uncompromising man.
             One Sunday morning when he was to preach, he was told that
                President Andrew Jackson was in the congregation.
             They warned him not to say anything out of line.

             When Cartwright stood to preach, he said,
               "I understand that Andrew Jackson is here.
                I have been requested to be guarded in my remarks.
             Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent!"

             The congregation was shocked and wondered how the President
                would respond.
             After service, President Jackson shook hands with Cartwright
                and said,
             "Sir, if I had a regiment of men like you, I could whip the
                world."
                                                                    #1858
              a) What we have accomplished doesn't impress God.
              b) And where we have failed doesn't turn him away.
          2) God pays attention to faith, and faith alone.         10:4
              a) God noticed godly Cornelius' faith, a faith that
                    was backed up with good deeds for the poor.
              b) If you are truly seeking God, Jesus will reveal
                    himself to you.

  V. The gospel is for all people.
      A. Are you open to sharing Christ with everyone who touches your
             life?
          1) All humans have same problem - sin.
          2) All humans need the same solution - Jesus.

             Flynn Johnson as a young black was under the influence
                of the Black Panthers.
             A white man befriended him and shared the gospel.
                This man was from Alabama and had the worst kind of accent.
             Johnson was used to intimidating people but this man
                refused to be put off.
             He talked to Johnson like he was a brother, and he led him
                to Christ.
             Johnson ended up becoming a Christian minister.
                                                         CT, 3/4/88, p.18

      B. Be a model of reconciliation in your life, and in this church.


*********************************************************
             ARTICLES on racism:

    "A Call to Respect God's Image," Vernon Grounds, CT, 4/5/85, p. 14.
    "Fixing History," (editorial), Kenneth Kantzer, CT, 9/5/86, p. 16.
    "Lingering Racism," (editorial), Lyn Cryderman, CT, 3/6/87, p. 14.
    "The Gospel in Black & White," Barbara Thompson, CT, 3/4/88, p. 18.
    "The Mirror of God," Stanley Inouye, CT, 3/3/89, p. 26.
    "Confessions of a Racist," Philip Yancey, CT, 1/15/90, p. 22.
    "The Education of Matthew Wangerin," Walter Wangerin, CT, 5/27/91, p. 16.


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