Submitted-to Each Other 1982

Let's begin by reading the first three verses of Acts, chapter 13. Now, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrena, Manion, a member of the court of Herod, and Saul.

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them forth. Now, the striking thing about the Apostolic Church was the way in which these people were so clearly guided by the Lord.

Now, understand, guidance for them was not so much an individual matter. They didn't think so individualistically as we do. The important thing for them was not their private happiness, or their private career, or their private security.

For them, the really important thing was the fact that the body of Christ, of which all of them were now part, was being molded, and shaped, and empowered to be able to manifest the Kingdom of God on this earth. They were very conscious of the fact that Jesus, risen from the dead, was truly alive among them, and he was personally directing their path. Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

We tend to quote that whenever the attendances are low. But we don't take it nearly as seriously as they do. For them, it was a very, very real thing.

He is in our midst, and he's showing us the way. He's telling us. He's correcting us.

He's encouraging us. As we read the Book of Acts, or any of the epistles, really, of the New Testament, the question that we often ask is, how come guidance from the Lord was such a normal, day-in-and-day-out, clear-cut thing in their experience, while in ours it seems to be so rare and so very difficult? But if we look closely at their life, as it's revealed, as we read these epistles, and read the Book of Acts, we can observe that there were at least two things that were very much a part of their day-in-and-day-out living that are very, very often absent from ours. First, they were in submission to each other.

And second, they were open to the guidance of the Lord, to whatever the Spirit of Jesus would say to them. Looking at that passage again, just reading that first verse. Now, in the church at Antioch were prophets and teachers.

And we read that so quickly, we miss what an awesome thing this was. These five men. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrena, Manion, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

Barnabas was a Jewish Levite from the island of Cyprus. And Simeon was a black man from Africa. And Lucius was also an African from around Libya.

And Manion was a very influential Jew. And Saul was a Jewish Pharisee. People who had come from radically different backgrounds.

These five men come together and bring themselves, with their own act of will, into submission to each other. And they become one. Now, with their hearts joined together, they turn to the Lord in worship.

And as they worship, they are open to anything the Lord wants to say to them. And as they worship the Lord, minister to Him, serve Him, pretty soon the Lord begins to speak. And He says, I'm going to keep three of you here in Antioch to serve the church here, and I'm going to send two of you out to serve churches which are still to be born.

And they obeyed. Now, every problem that came up in the apostolic church, and they had just as many, if not more, problems than or as we do. Every problem was dealt with in the context of these two wonderful facts.

They were in submission to each other, and they were open to what the Spirit would have to say to them. Whether it was, for instance, selecting a replacement for Judas, or whether it was making things right when the Greek widows complained that the Jewish widows were getting more food in the daily distribution. First, they were in submission to each other.

We see this really all through the book of Acts. But from Acts chapter 2, all who believed were together and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and distributed to all who had any need.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. They were one.

They saw themselves as truly joined to each other. They thought that way. And secondly, they were open to the Spirit.

Reading in Acts 4, And now, Lord, they're praying, look upon their threats and grant thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretchest forth thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed in the name of thy holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness. They were open to the Spirit, whether the Spirit was pouring out light on them, or correcting them, or showing them another way to go, they were open.

Always open. And for ourselves, it's the same way. You know, if these two things are present, if we are in submission to each other, you know, if we're open to each other, if we receive each other, if we join our hearts to each other, if we're forgiving toward each other, and if we're open to the Spirit, we'll be guided too.

From the very earliest period of our Lord's ministry, in flesh and blood, he began laying these two foundations. First, he taught the disciples and all his followers to submit to each other in specific ways, like forgiving each other, not just seven times, but 70 times seven. To serve each other.

He would be the greatest among you, let him be the servant of all. If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. To love each other.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you love one another. Jesus also laid the second foundation, which was to be open, as I teach you, whenever two or three of you are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of you. And it was understood that when the saints, the believers, would be gathered together around the name of Jesus, at one with each other, in unity with each other, committed to each other, that the Lord would speak.

And he always did. Same goes for us. When we take these two things seriously and do them, you know, when we're really in submission to each other, we're not talking about being in submission to some man or woman who lords it over us and tells us when we can blow our nose.

We're talking about submitting to each other, you know, with forgiveness and with patience and with concern and with every commitment to one another. And when we are open to the Spirit, to let him talk to us and show us which way to go and what changes to make, we can absolutely be sure that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus will direct us as definitely and clearly as he directed Peter and John or Barnabas and Saul. Example.

In the apostolic church, the very early apostolic church, they had a terrible problem with one particular command that Jesus had given them. To turn this problem, this command, into light, to actually practice it, Jesus had commanded them to preach the gospel to the whole world, to go make disciples of all nations, to get out beyond the Jew to the Samaritan and to the Gentile. And as they were sitting together in a room with Jesus, that sounded nice and everybody said, Amen.

But when it came to actually putting this thing into practice, it was very, very hard for them. All of those early believers were Jewish. They had been trained from the time they were little children to have nothing to do with Gentiles.

Don't get near them, don't be involved with them, never, never, never, never eat with them. So if you tell us to preach the gospel to Jerusalem, fine. Judea, okay.

Galilee, that's not so bad, there aren't too many Gentiles there. But when we're called to preach the gospel to the Samaritans, who are half-breeds, and then to those flat-out Gentiles, we have a problem. Is that really what we're supposed to do? How can that really be from God? This was a tremendous thing for them.

With the stoning of Stephen and the persecution which followed, the believers were driven out from Jerusalem, only the apostles remained behind. And as they went out, things began to change. Philip, the evangelist, began to preach the gospel in Samaria with tremendous results.

And then he bears witness to an African nobleman with wonderful results. Even with these results, still nobody gets the point. The Lord has commanded them to proclaim the gospel to Gentiles, the Spirit is telling them to do this, and still they're dragging their feet.

Now the wonderful thing is that even though they're having such a hard time, the fact that these believers are, number one, in submission to each other, and number two, open to the Spirit, means that pretty soon, there's going to be a change. They will get the message, they will understand, the Lord will correct them, and they will change. And they do.

And the way it works out is described in Acts chapter 10. Not to read the whole chapter, but a little bit here to show how this happens. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, who was a Gentile, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed constantly to God.

About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror, and said, What is it, Lord? He said to him, Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and bring one Simon, who is called Peter.

He is lodging with Simon a Tanner, whose house is by the seaside. When the angel spoke to him, he departed. And then he called his servants, and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him, and Cornelius, having related everything to them, sent them to Joppa.

So, if Peter won't go to the Gentiles, the Lord, in his mercy, sent the Gentiles to him. Because at least Peter is open, and he is in submission to his brothers and sisters. The next day, as they were on their journey, and coming near the city, Peter, who was in Joppa, went up on the housetop to pray, about noontime.

And he became hungry, and desired something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance, and saw the heaven open, and something descending like a great sheep, let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals, and reptiles, and birds of the air.

And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, No, Lord, for I've never eaten anything common or unclean. The voice came to him a second time, What God has cleansed, you must not call common.

This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once into heaven. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate, and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there. While Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you.

Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them. Rigid and stiff as Peter is in his anti-Gentile prejudice, which was part of his culture. He was raised that way.

You know, I mean, it's not a matter of saying, What's the matter with him? That's all he knew. Rigid as he was, he's now going to change. He obeys what he's told to do, hard as it is, and he begins to yield.

That's a beautiful thing. And truly, in the body of Christ on earth, if we are in submission to the Spirit of God, the walls of division that divide us from each other, I'm not talking about the big organizational divisions. I'm talking about divisions between people, down on the street level, congregational level.

Those things would have to come down, no matter what kind of background we have, what kind of prejudices were built into us as we were growing up. The Spirit says that has to go. For Peter, he obeys.

And Peter went down to the men and said, I'm the one you're looking for. What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, an upright, God-fearing man, who was well-spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house to hear what you have to say. So he called them in to be his guests, which was a radical thing.

Gentiles to be guests in his house or the house of the guy he's staying with. The next day, he rose and went off with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the fact that these brethren from Joppa went with him is indicative of the fact that nothing was done individualistically.

Peter didn't move out alone as an individual. He was in submission to his brothers and sisters in his body. And this thing is a thing which is done by the body.

And they go to Caesarea, to Cornelius' house, and the result is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles, the Gentile Pentecost. And as they see this marvelous thing happening, Peter and the people who were with him are now confirmed in their understanding that God indeed does want Gentiles in the church and in his kingdom. Now, why does the vision come to Peter? Our first reaction is, oh, he was the leader.

He was the big shot. Maybe, but it's much, much more likely that the vision came to Peter because he was the biggest stumbling block. His fear of the Gentiles was holding back the progress of the whole body of Christ.

So the vision comes to him. And so if we get a vision, that's not necessarily proof that we're so on the ball. It's just that God is desperate.

He has to do something to get us to move. And clearly, many times it's each of us that's holding back the progress of the Lord. There's something that the Lord wants to do through the body and we are blocking the flow.

And so things wake. It could be, for instance, that it's simply some kind of hang-up. Often it's a religious hang-up.

And sometimes it's even that we're in a religious rut. And we never think of our own personal religious rut as a rut. It's always the way of righteousness, the road that everybody should walk.

We don't see it as a rut, and God has to correct us and show us that we have it wrong, that we have to change. But the beautiful thing is, no matter what our hang-up is, or what it is in us that's blocking the moving of God's Spirit, if we are in submission to each other, and if we are willing to listen and obey whatever change the Spirit of God calls for, there will be change. We will move.

Things will happen. So I'm sure we would all agree that there are doubtless things that the Lord wants to do among us, changes that He would have us make in the way we do things, in our attitudes toward each other, in our approach to the world, whatever it is. And if we will hear what He has to say and respond to that and obey, tremendous outpourings of life will come.

And not only will we be blessed, but the Body of Christ all over the place will be blessed, and so will the city and the neighborhoods around us. Two questions, however. There are two questions that each of us, each one has to ask himself or herself.

Number one, am I in submission to the brothers and sisters with whom God has placed me? Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ, in Ephesians 5. Am I, in fact, committed to them, at peace with them, forgiving toward them, patient toward them? Do I serve them? Am I open in my own heart and honest in my own heart toward them? And if it should be that there are things in our lives, in this area, that need to change, if there are walls in us that need to come down, the time for us to do it is today, especially today, as we kneel together to receive from the one loaf of His Body, to drink from the one cup of His Blood, now is the time for us to tear down the wall, the barrier, the grudge, take off the mask, and in the name of Jesus, truly in my heart, to join my heart to their hearts. Question number two, each of us needs to ask, am I truly open to what the Spirit is asking me to change? Never mind everybody else, me. Are there some Gentiles in my life that I never have anything to do with at all? Is there a door He wants me to walk through? Is there some change, some different way He would have me receive His Word, or pray, or worship, or serve, or use the time or the money He puts into my hands? And if it should be that there is in fact some light coming down from God on the path in front of me, the time for me to walk into that light and make that change is today.

As I kneel to receive the Body and Blood of my Lord, to say, as Angela was saying Wednesday night, Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I'll do it.

And then, to get up and do it. Now in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrena, Mannion, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Now it's our turn to fit into exactly this picture. And if we are willing to be truly submissive to each other, truly open to the Spirit, we can be sure that He will show us exactly what He wants us to do.

And the time to submit and the time to open our hearts to the Spirit is right now. Let's just wait and find out.