Induction, Kevin Blanch (Campsie Baptist)
Acts 4: 23 – 31
Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 30 March, 2003

IT IS my great pleasure to be here and to speak at the induction of Rev Kevin Blanch as pastor at Campsie. I have known Kevin and I have known Campsie Baptist for about 20 years each.
I have great hopes for the Canterbury Bankstown Churches. I want to encourage Kevin in his ministry here. I want to encourage Helen in her ministry among you. I want to encourage you all in your ministry in Campsie under the headship of our Lord Jesus Christ and guidance from Kevin and Helen.

Kevin and I were in the same Retreat Group for years. We shared our joys and sorrows. We grew through the experience. We all developed a sense of community in that group.

Acts 4: 23 – 31 tells of a prayer by Christians facing hard times and needing to continue their ministry.

I like Acts for a reason. When Marrickville church had the highest per-capita missions giving in NSW, we nearly went broke. But I couldn’t stop people giving to missions — that's like starting a petition against motherhood! Some people in the church decided that I wasn't evangelical because I wasn’t so enthusiastic about missions!
I was driving in Newtown and praying, and God just gave me one verse, “Acts 1:8”.
At first I didn't understand, but then it hit me. That is a pattern for mission. It begins at Jerusalem, where we are. Then it spreads to Judea and Samaria and the farthest ends of the world.
You don't start “out there somewhere”. You begin where you are. Now I could biblically redirect the giving and make sense of our own mission. Kevin, Helen, Campsie Baptist Church, you are in mission. That mission starts in Campsie, and floods the entire world.
And I discovered how much Acts says to us about being in mission in difficult days. Acts is your text–book of mission strategy!

Well, the first thing I want to say to you all today, based on that passage in Acts 4 is,
BE A COMMUNITY

AC 4:23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

Acts is full of teaching on Christian community. The first Christians held everything in common, and no one got left out.
Baptist churches are meant to be communities. We are not meant to be Anglicans without Prayer Books. Baptist Churches must be Spirit-filled, Christ-honouring faith communities, or they begin to rot, as dead things do.
Here’s my challenge: how do you view community? Do you think it's about Sunday meetings and being nice?

Because thou art neither hot nor cold....

Community is about belonging to each other. Those early Christians were a team in ministry. Peter and John were in trouble, the others prayed until they had an answer. They were there for each other whatever happened.

This was not a prayer meeting of apostles. It was a prayer meeting of the family of God. People need that. Yes, we need leaders. That's why Kevin and Helen are here. But the church works by community.

They say George W Bush has achieved something he never intended — a sense of community among opponents of the war. Even people who had never gone onto the streets before are out there saying, "If it isn't done legally, it’s wrong. I won't stand for it.”
Community occurs when people abandon self–interest and put some greater goal first.
Still, community based on opposition to war fades when a war ends; community based on rescuing a stranded whale ends when the whale is freed. But Christ–based, Kingdom–oriented community is community that lasts through all ages, even to the end of the world!

Be a community centred on Christ the Lord, and people will want to share in it.

A woman I knew was under strong conviction of her need for Christ. She came from an ethnic group which did not understand conversion. The one great barrier to her surrender to Christ was that she could not find Christian community to be safe in. She is still positive about Christ, and still outside his fold. Communities are the soil that souls grow in.

Kevin and Helen, you will lead this church into community when you model community. And I want to say to the entire Campsie Baptist Church that being a community means that you must be responsible, too. Even if it means confronting Kevin or Helen about something they do or say that breaks down community. They don't do all the work, and neither do you. Community means mutuality.

BE SUBMITTED TO THE SOVEREIGN LORD

24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them...”

Community only works well under God’s sovereign rule through Jesus. Put yourself under Jesus, he is under the Father, so you are under the Ruler of the entire universe.
These early Christians didn’t start a campaign. Often campaigns are entirely appropriate. But the first thing is, “Put yourself under God’s rule!”

The two words, “Sovereign Lord”, translate only one word in the Greek, despota. Despots have gained a bad name, but literally, a despot is a supreme, all–powerful ruler. God is sovereign.His rule is unending.

Too many people fight over definitions of God’s sovereignty, and don’t submit to it. You can be a Calvinist or an Arminian. The issue is, “Will you submit to God’s rule in your lives and in the life of this church?”

Some years ago a theologian left his seminary and began pastoring a small church — probably not all that different from Campsie. He had no real pastoral experience, so he decided to do two things: preach the Bible as well as he could, and encourage the church to be guided by God’s will.
He didn’t let them make a decision based on majority votes, or the loudest voice, or convenience. He waited until everyone was satisfied that they had found God’s will. Sometimes it took them months to decide what colour to paint the toilet door. But, in the end, they learnt how to find God’s will, and the church started growing and finding possibilities it had never seen before.

I’m not saying, “Follow those methods.” I just say that, if you truly submit to God’s will, things will happen.

No one is above God’s will. Pastor or people, all are the same before God. But if the leadership isn't interested in God’s will it is hard for the church to focus on God’s will.
Be submitted to the sovereign Lord.

BE BIBLICALLY WISE TO THE WORLD
It might seem strange for me to tell Baptists to be biblical. Look at these early Christians. They knew the Word, so they knew how to interpret what was happening.

25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ `Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One. ‘

People in our world do not hear the Word of God. But we have the Word. We hold it in high esteem. We also know the living Word of God — Jesus.

Kevin, you are called to preach that Word in season and out of season. But that doesn't give everyone else a let out. We all must know God’s Word. Too many Christians don’t really know the Word. They know theories about the Word, like what order the events of the second coming will be in, or how many minutes there were in a Day of Creation, but they don't know the Bible itself, what it says about living in a harsh world, they don't understand about grace to sinners.

A young man asked if the gospel says anything to a world determined to go to war. I read an evangelical Bible teacher’s response. He denied that the gospel is relevant, or that grace and mercy — or even justice apply. He used a few Old Testament passages to argue that the State is sovereign when war breaks out, and its duty is to ruthlessly destroy all who oppose it.
That is not Biblical. It is a misuse of Scripture.

We Baptists can be too judgmental. We say that Catholics or Presbyterians or Pentecostals misuse Scripture, but conservative evangelicals can be even more guilty.
Juan Carlos Ortiz says there are five gospels in the Protestant Bible, St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, St John and St Evangelicals. He says the fifth one is made up of the verses we have underlined in the other four, because they are the only ones we read. So prove him wrong, when it comes to Campsie!

Now, Kevin, you've been around for a while: you know this already. But I'll remind you again. The most common pastoral sin is not running away with the choir mistress. What is it? Only ever reading the Bible to mine out sermon material. Be careful — and be Biblical!

If you people are Biblical, you will understand the times. The Christians in Jerusalem were in touch with God, with his Word and with their world. They not only knew what was going on, they understood it.

I read the Letters section of The Herald daily, and I'm amazed by how many people know what is going on in the world, but don't understand it.
Find God’s wisdom on the world you are in. The Christians prayed,

27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

In our world, as I said, people don’t hear God’s Word.Is it any wonder that they abuse the powerless, that they go to war to achieve peace? The nations do rage, the peoples do plot in vain. They blaspheme Christ on all sides. But the sovereign Lord is in control.

Kevin, help them to understand. I know that sometimes my passion for a subject can lead me to be a bit one–eyed. Maybe the same will apply to you. Be careful.

But I also urge you Campsie Baptists to learn to be open–minded. Listen to Bob Brown and even Fred Nile. But, above all, listen to the Bible, so that you understand the times.

When the issue of legalising Brothels struck in Marrickville, we talked it through in our church meetings, and came to a position that was quite different from most other churches in the area, but we did it together. Some people felt we had betrayed the other Christians, but we felt we were acting Biblically.
Don’t be swept up in the facile arguments of church leaders who react without reflecting. Understand the times, and stand for right even if the whole world is against you.

BE BOLDLY EMPOWERED
The disciples didn’t pray to be rescued, they prayed for great boldness and power in witness.

29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Dont fall into the trap of praying to be rescued and, when God doesn’t do it, you get snakey with him and stop praying altogether.
Kevin, you might be like me: not very bold. I've found that I can learn, given a bit of impetus from God. I've discovered that faith is at its most real when it feels least like faith. It's when you a shaking in your boots and feel that you might just vomit from fear that you discover that Jesus is right there with you.

On the other hand, when you have that sense of well-being and you really feel that God is near, check what spices you had with your dinner before you start talking about faith!

And remember that bold people also need to be empowered people. There is a lot of human boldness around. Another word for it is bullying.
Some Baptists feel uneasy when you talk about power. It sounds like a Charismatic word to them. If you are worried because I am using such a Charismatic term, you can always edit this bit out of the transcript later.

30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

There’s a difference between being presumptuous and being alive to possibilities. I hate theologies that swamp you with logical reasons against the plain evidence of Scripture and your own eyes. If someone comes up with a good reason why the sky can’t possibly be blue, I treat it with scepticism. So why should I believe people who say that signs and wonders in the name of Jesus ended with the apostles? I thank them — and I leave them to their own devices, thanking God that my brother recovered after prayer prevailed where medicines didn’t. God wants to empower your ministries here, Helen and Kevin.

Jesus said, “You shall receive power...” He didn’t add, “Until 30 Sept 98 AD.” He wants to do it, so that everyone here will find out how it’s done and have power to use. So give God the glory!

FINALLY, BE SPIRIT–FILLED

4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

How better to finish than to remind you that you, Kevin and Helen, and you, Campsie Baptists, and you, today’s visitors — all need to seek constantly to be Spirit–filled.
This is the key to it all, because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. Luke, in his gospel and in Acts, shows how Jesus and the early disciples allowed God to fill them with his Spirit; Paul teaches us how to ask and receive.

Campsie needs a Spirit–filled Church.

Kevin and Helen: seek that fullness and encourage it in others; Campsie people, seek that fullness and share it through faith in Christ wherever the Spirit might take you.

And may the triune God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, bless you mightily in the coming days. AMEN