"WE SHALL BEHOLD HIM"
Sermon 1990 General Conference
Session
By: R S Folkenberg
PRAYER:
Shall we bow our heads as we pray...our gracious Lord Jesus, creator of the Universe, redeemer of mankind. This is your Church, we are your people, you know everything about us. You know what divides us, and you also know we can only be united through you. My prayer, Father, is that your spirit may be poured out in our midst today. May those in this large congregation, not look at this humble servant with feet of clay, but have their eyes raised to our wonderful, gracious, Lord Jesus...that we may look to Him, that somehow we are brought together in unity and in power is my prayer in Jesus' name. AMEN
Have you ever noticed that people are very interested in the last words of a dying person. For some reason when a person is about to die, what they have to say seems very important. The last words of Jesus are very important. Especially the last words that He spoke in prayer. The last thing He did before He crossed over the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane was to pray.
Ellen White said, "Read and study carefully the prayer that Christ offered just before His trial, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. Follow its teachings, and you will be brought into unity. Our only hope of reaching heaven, she says, "is to be brought into oneness with Christ, and then in and through Christ we shall be one with one another."
I was probably in the ninth grade. My father was a pastor in Yuba City, California. I had found fool's hill and was having a great deal of fun in climbing it. Understandably it greatly concerned my parents. During that time of concern, one morning I got up unusually early (it was still dark outside) and made my way to the little boy's room I noticed a light shining from under the door leading to my Father's study. I wondered who in the world would be up at that hour of the morning. I made my way and got ready to open the door... and inside I heard a voice coming out...only one. I heard my Father's voice praying out loud and he was praying for me by name. The stirrings in my heart as I recognized the pain that I had caused and the power of that prayer are still held close to my breast.
The last thing Jesus did before he entered to the Garden of Gethsemane was to pray to His Father. Turn with me to that chapter in John chapter 17. We find there in the first portion of His prayer that he prayed for himself; in the second portion of his prayer he prayed for his disciples; and finally in verses 20-26 Jesus prays for us.
Verse 20 (NIV) "My prayer is not for them alone. [the disciples] I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message." That is us!
In Jesus's last words in prayer before he walks the path to the cross what does he say? Continue with verse 21. "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:21)
Jesus prays for us, his church - in 1990 - and in that prayer in Gethsemane. He does not pray that
He prays that we may be one, - unified - just like He and the Father were unified. Why does he make it the topic of unity the subject of his last and longest prayer? He gives us the answer to that question in the last part of our verse 21 -- "That the world may believe that thou hast sent me."
Why will the world believe in Jesus? Because his people are ONE with each other as Jesus is ONE with God. Our unity is a testimony to the power of Jesus! It is expressed in love, and goodwill for each other. Our unity is the foundation of evangelism! Without Unity, there is hypocrisy. The Gospel apart from Unity is powerless; it is the Unity between us and Christ that empowers the distinctive message that we hold so dear. Unity is not an end in itself, but it is Unity that moves the Church into action.
This past week we spent many hours discussing the role of women in our church. I am glad that our church has affirmed women and the contribution that they make to the church. The doors are open to all.
As Ellen White says, "The most convincing argument we can give to the world of Christ's mission is to be found in perfect unity. ... In proportion to our unity with Christ will be our power to save souls." (Our High Calling p. 170)
The church of the 1990's, nearly six and a half million strong, faces different issues than the church of the 1960's with a membership of one and a quarter million. A rapidly expanding church that anticipates reaching at least eleven and a half million by the year 2,000 or much more is very different than the church of our parents. How can we answer this prayer of Jesus -- that this church,
I know one thing for sure. I can't make this church one. I want to open my heart to you. I know that I am incapable of this task in my own strength. My assurance comes from knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ is the leader of this church. As we read in Ephesians 5:23 "Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior." I also gain strength in knowing that I am dependent on the body of Christ, his church.
The unity of this church is found in being a part of the body of Christ. When we focus on each other our differences become inevitable. When I take and opinion that I hold dear and contrast it with your opinion which you hold dear, it becomes a matter of my opinion versus your opinion and, in our day of individual rights, I have just as much a right to my opinion as you have to your opinion. When we focus on each other, our differences divide.
However, when I don't look at you, but rather I look up to my Lord Jesus Christ and I contrast my pet opinion with His, suddenly there is no question about who is in the right and who is in the wrong. He has the ability to change my opinion. He has the ability to give me the victory that I crave. I find myself being more like Him. And as I look to Him and become like Him and you do the same, suddenly we find ourselves with the differences disappearing -- for we are standing together at the foot of the cross. It is a challenge for us to be willing to yield our individual opinions -- not to our neighbors but to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our church is built on Jesus Christ.
It is built on His
word,
As Ellen White said, "I commend to you this book!"
It is built on His
message -- an end-time judgement hour
message that we are to proclaim to the whole world.
It is His mission given to us in Matthew 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit."
It is built on His saints, clothed in His Spirit, guided by the prophetic vision and counsel of His messenger.
Church security, founded on Christ, is able to explore new methods. Ellen White said, "There must be no fixed rules; our work is a progressive work, and there must be room left for methods to be improved upon. But under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, unity must and will be preserved." (Evangelism p 104-104)
We have an outstanding system of church government, it is the best on earth to accomplish a global vision. But even the best organization needs periodic self-evaluation. Over time every organization tends to be motivated less and less by its original sense of mission, and becomes increasingly bureaucratic. The preservation of the structure gradually overtakes its mission as its predominant concern. Sort of like the firemen so busy polishing the fire engine that they don't have time to respond to the fire alarm. We must focus on the mission of the church and not the machinery.
The General Conference recently completed a major study evaluating the services which it offers to the world church. Certain specific services were identified as being of lower priority. A decision has been made to reduce the size of the headquarters operational staff. The plan is to use the funds that are saved, through down-sizing, for the Global Strategy Mission of the church. This is a very painful experience. There are individuals here today who are hurting. Men and women of God, called to serve, but now who in their innermost souls feel rejected. They are not rejected, they are still called. God has a place for them to serve.
I covet your prayers that the pain of this week, and the weeks to come, may be healed by Him, the great healer. What we are beginning here, must take place at every level of church government. Every institution, all around the world, needs to reevaluate the expenditure of both human and financial resources and direct them toward the most efficient way of preaching the gospel to all the corners of this globe.
It may be painful at the outset. But, we must make that which we preach agree with what we do.
When we as leaders project a clear vision to the church fewer people will feel that they must go outside the church to fulfill their dream. As leaders, we must build confidence in our church by openness, by honesty, by integrity, and involvement of all groups. As that happens, resources that presently flow out of the church, will then flow through the church to accomplish the mission of the church. The members' trust in the leadership is indispensable.
This is a two-way street. As leaders, we must give our members every basis upon with to base their confidence. However, it must be reciprocated by those who must become accustomed to trust, to presume that leaders are in fact doing the best that they can.
I would like to say a word for the young people of this church. The early leadership of our church was young. Most of your parents think that at 49 I am a young General Conference President. Be assured, your parents and I agree. James White was 44 years old when he took office in 1865. J. N. Andrews was 38 and George I. Butler was 37 when they were elected. Uriah Smith became editor of the Adventist Review at 23, and God chose as his special messenger a young, 17 year old girl. This church began as a church of young people. If we don't continue to share this church with our young people, we may not have a church to give to them. Let us close the back door of the church by opening the doors of service and leadership to the young. If we give them a piece of pie they will stay for dinner.
I am grateful to this church for giving me opportunity for service when I was young. I am a fifth generation Adventist, a child of missionary parents and solidly committed to all the fundamental beliefs of the church.I affirm the principle in our church of sola scriptura, the Bible as the Word of God. I believe in the guiding light of the Spirit of Prophecy. As we grow into the future we must not destroy our roots. The stronger the root system of our church, the larger the tree can safely grow.
We must not allow the pressures of a changing society to weaken our commitment to the fundamental pillars of our church. On the other hand, neither should we allow ourselves to trap our future in the thought mode of the 19th century. We must communicate our doctrines to people of the 90's and find new ways of expressing them without changing the principles on which they are based. The 27 fundamental beliefs of our church, which are hammered out on the anvil of scripture, are strong enough to stand the scrutiny of Christian thought.
Our unique identity and doctrine must not be a barrier to people but rather a bridge to them. They must feel there is room in this church for them. We want a church that is open to people so that our evangelism will be successful. Our unity and oneness must result in witness.
Not long ago, I heard of a sad situation. There was a lady who began attending one of our churches. She was moved by the fellowship and the truth which she learned. After attending a few weeks she learned that many Adventists practiced a meat-free diet. She decided on the next Sabbath she would stay for the fellowship dinner. She searched until she found a receipt for a meatless lasagna.
Lovingly she prepared it. The next Sabbath she stayed after church and placed her dish as an offering to her brothers and sisters on the table in the fellowship hall. When one of the sisters in the church saw her meatless lasagna, she came to the guest and resoundingly criticized her because her dish had cheese in it. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she left, never to return.
Some members feel free to criticize the conduct of fellow sinners, forgetting that only the sinless Son of God has the right to judge the conduct of others. Jesus dealt very directly with some church members who brought sinners to Him asking about their punishment. He said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." He meant that pointing out sin is a job for Jesus, the sinless one. And Jesus eliminated sin not with stones but with forgiveness, based on repentance, and then He provided them loving acceptance. God who knows the heart reserves to himself alone, the right to judge the thoughts, actions and motives of others. When we try to judge others, ignoring commands of Matthew 18, we appropriate to ourselves, a prerogative which God reserves to Himself. At that, is a description of blasphemy!
The true possession of the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin, my sin, not the sin of others. So those who criticize and condemn the church or its members are taking to themselves prerogatives of God. Only One, Jesus, who is free from sin can cast a stone. My prayer for our church is that we might be one, without rancor or criticism.
Elder Bradford has said that in the church "We shoot our wounded." And it is true that sometimes when people are the weakest, rather then giving them a helping hand we ask them why they are limping. We can be so right and so destructive at the same time. When rightness is used to accuse others, we have destroyed the meaning of what it is to be right. The summation of the law and the prophets, Jesus said, is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind .... And Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-38)
We should fulfill the dream of Liisa Hawes from Canadian Union College who wrote in the Adventist Review in January of last year about her dream for the church. "A dream unfolds like an arctic crocus within my heart, a dream rooted in the power of Jesus to transform churchly men and women into disciples known by their love. It is reflected in a love that values and puts to use the contributions of 'rebellious' youth and 'conservative' saints."
She goes on to say, "I see congregations in worship, with the bag lady seated next to the well-dressed dentist. I see the children's song about 'Red and Yellow, Black and White, all are precious in His sight' guiding tiny tots as well as members of the board. I see the paraplegic wheeling onto the platform to lift our hearts in praise. My dream, in short, is one of tolerance and of compassion in action."
There was a man was leading a seminar on how to build community. The seminar took place in a large hotel. The people gathered for the seminar to develop a sense of unity and community. The seminar was moving along successfully and was about half completed when a bellhop in the hotel came up to one of the seminar participants. He didn't know what the seminar was about. He said, "I don't know what you are doing in this seminar but I get off at 3 o'clock ... can I join you?"
He didn't know any details about the seminar he just knew that he liked what he saw. He liked the love and fellowship shown in the group. Shouldn't the church be like that? People may not always understand everything that the church is about but they will like what they see. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 15:12 KJV
This love and unity results in evangelism. Evangelism that is not mandatory but is inevitable. The natural result of a heart filled with love and assurance in Christ, knowing that our name is written in the Book of Life, coupled with the distinctive end-time message that we hold so dear, will result in an overwhelming desire to share it with someone else. That is good news! People will be attracted to the church like a moth to light.
Unity is not uniformity. If God wanted a church of uniformity he would not have made flowers of different colors, and birds of different songs. Ellen White calls for "--unity in diversity. Our minds do not all run in the same channel, and we have not all been given the same work. God has given to every man his work according to his several ability." (SDABC 5 p. 1148)
We have all been inspired by the dramatic changes which have transformed Eastern Europe in the last two years. Who could forget the stirring image of the Berlin Wall being torn down with picks and sledge hammers.
but Satan is the master wall builder.
The existence of a unified Seventh-day Adventist church is a world wide testimony to the Kingdom of God that breaks down walls. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:14 "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."
As Ellen White says "I warn you, brethren and sisters, not to build up a wall of partition between different nationalities. On the contrary, seek to break it down wherever it exists. We should endeavor to bring all into the harmony that there is in Jesus, laboring for the one object--the salvation of our fellow men." (The Upward Look p. 281)
A story is told of a carpenter who came to a farmhouse and asked for work. The farmer thought for a moment and said, "Yes, there is something that you could do for me today. Do you see that creek over there between my neighbor's house and mine?" "Yes!" replied the carpenter. "Well it wasn't there a few weeks ago but my neighbor went up to his pond in the upper pasture, took his plow and dug that creek to separate us."
It seems that these farmer neighbors who had been friends for many years had gotten into an argument over the ownership of a stray cow. From that small argument many unkind things were said and the creek demonstrated how these two long time friends had been separated by their argument.
The farmer told the carpenter, "I want you to take the lumber from that pile over there and build a fence between our houses so I won't have to look at his creek, his house or him." "Well," the carpenter said, "I think I could do that." The farmer then said, "I will be in town running some errands today and when I come back I don't want to see his creek, his house or his face."
The farmer went on his journey and the carpenter set to work. After a long day of work the carpenter was finished. When the farmer returned from his trip into town what he saw astonished him. His pile of lumber had been transformed... not into a fence but into a beautiful bridge---across the creek.
As he was about to question the carpenter his neighbor came across the newly built bridge and said, "You are too good. I am sorry for how I have behaved over this silly cow. You take the cow, I want you to have it. And so the two of them renewed their friendship.
The carpenter began packing his tools and the farmer said, "No, I want you to stay there are other projects that I have for you." The carpenter paused and said, "No, I really can't stay, you see I have more bridges to build."
Brothers and sisters you and I have bridges to build.
The bridges we build between each other are the highways to our heavenly home.
We must not relax smugly in our own small homogeneous cultural group, our private ghetto of people like us, assuming that we, inside those walls, constitute the family of God. We are not the family of God unless we are building bridges to all people of all nations in the same way that our Lord did when he built a bridge from heaven to earth.
Our Global Strategy is in fact a practical demonstration of what it means to live like the family of God. Our Lord prayed "that they may be one," It is the will of Jesus that walls come down and bridges go up. There is not a lot of time left to accomplish our work. We must develop an acute sense of urgency. I had an experience once that illustrated to me a sense of urgency.
When I was in Panama, I visited Tom Moody, who had a small resort in the San Blas Islands off the north coast of Panama. Tom only had one lung. He agreed to teach me how to free dive---without the benefit of that tank of air. He loaded some coral rocks into a dugout canoe. We made our way out into the crystal-clear Caribbean sea. He told me to place a large coral rock on my chest and hold my nose relaxing so I would not use up extra air. When I reached the appropriate depth I would swim around. Well I figured that I could do this. The water was very clear and I could see the bottom from the boat. I took a deep breath and rolled off of the boat. I also mistakenly closed my eyes and didn't realize how far down I was going. When my feet hit the sandy bottom I looked at my depth gage and it read 135 feet. I looked up at the dim light above me and I discovered a sense of urgency.
The world is drowning in a deepening well of secularism, materialism, and humanism. There is not much time or air left, time is short. 1800 population groups of one million each around the world are without an Adventist presence. 900 million Muslims are relatively untouched by Christianity. And then there is China with its population of 1 billion people.
Every day there are thousands who go into Christless graves without knowing of the bridge of love that Jesus built to this earth. We desperately need a sense of urgency..a driving commitment for our task.
Let us be done with Laodicean lukewarm commitment to evangelism and love. Let us be done with just going through the motions, of playing church, of routine committees, of simply electing people, appointing people, writing budgets, writing policies and concentrating so much on the structure that we forget what God put us here for.
I have seen local churches go to pieces because somebody was unhappy that they were not returned to office as a local elder. I have seen conferences and unions go through terrible trauma because things did not go the way the structure anticipated. It's time for us recognize that everyone of us is dispensable. It is the Lord Jesus, and His mission, that is going to carry us through to the end.
I recently went through one of the most traumatic experiences man can know. Yet the presence of the Lord has been so near and dear. All across Indianapolis, groups gathered in prayer pleading for God's guidance, Praying that God's spirit would be poured out.
Sabbath morning, before leaving to speak at the dome, a group of six pastors and their wives and some laymen invited me to join them and we spent a half an hour in the sweetest experience of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit that I have ever sensed. Just before leaving, as I was getting ready to leave for church. The pressures weighed heavily on me. I sat pensively in the easy chair in the room, and sweetheart, Kathi, saw me meditating and she said, "Dad, is there anything I can do?" I said, "Sweetheart, just pray."
There is nothing we need more than to spend time on our knees in prayer. I crave that somehow you will catch a vision, not of this man, so incapable. Look beyond the church leaders and church structure of the conference. Look to Jesus and fall on your knees and plead for God do work and live in you.
We need to pray that our hearts will be broken by a spirit of repentance,
We must plead that God will give us, personally and corporately, repentance and victory over sin.
Our theme for this General Conference Session has been "We shall behold him." Not only shall we behold him but: We have beheld Him:
Not only have we beheld him in our history. But we are beholding Him today:
We behold Him in our present
And yes "We shall behold Him."
I pray for that day when we shall behold him face to face.
Let us rise to action as we behold Him, joined together in unity.
Praise God - brothers and sisters - Behold Him!
Copyright © 1990 by R S Folkenberg