Radical Christianity

April 3, 2016 (041810 rev)

Radical Christianity                 NOTES NOT EDITED

Acts 9:1-9

SIS:  A genuine encounter with the Resurrected Lord will always radically alter the course of a person's life. We are living in radically different times and we need radically different Christians who are willing to wage a radical revolution to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the community.

Radical Islam.  Unless you have been living under a rock the last few years, you have heard the term, “Radical Islam.”  Now, you have not heard that term from President Obama.  He doesn’t use it.  Hillary Clinton, likewise, has set forth her reasons for not using it.  I will agree with both President Obama and Hillary Clinton that the term, “radical Islam,” is a firebrand that ignites a fuse of suspicion, fear, and even hatred for a whole group of people. 

I understand in our age of terror why many people view Islam with suspicion, fear, and even hatred.  I don’t have to agree with them to understand them.  Most people view the juxtaposition of the words “radical” and “religion” as problematic.  Again, I understand where these people are coming from.  “Radical” has a negative connotation and even more so when combined with “religion” of any type.

Proposing, therefore, that Christians be “radicals” would seem counterproductive in the present global situation.  Words are powerful things; but also words are slippery things.  Examine carefully this definition proposed by a popular online dictionary:  “(especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough.”  Notice especially the words, “far-reaching or thorough.”  These are not necessarily “negative” ideas. 

Should not a Christian’s conversion be “far-reaching and thorough?”  That’s obviously a rhetorical question (which makes this statement redundant).  Last week the Christian world—the world in general—observed Easter.  Easter celebrates the “resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Does not the “event” of a resurrection have “far-reaching and thorough” implications?  Has there ever been an event more “radical” than the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Religious and political leaders in the first century (Jewish and Roman) had to deal with the radical message of the disciples:  “He (Jesus) is risen!”  Many quickly accused the disciples of hysteria.  Hysteria, as any psychologist will tell you, does not happen in “groups.”  Hysteria is a highly personal phenomenon.  Hysteria also does not account for the massive explosion of Christian conversions that took place in the years following the resurrection.  Explosive growth, even though Christianity was “religio illicita, an illegal religion.  Punishment for conversion included death by stoning, sawing, fire, and later via the Coliseum. 

It would not have been difficult for the Jewish and Roman leaders to have squelched the fledgling Christian movement in its infancy.  Produce the body.  Instead, the Jewish leaders tried to concoct a story that the disciples stole the body.  This was just the first of many failed attempts to come seeking to explain the obvious:  an empty tomb.

The Jewish and Roman leaders, not for the same reasons, HAD to squelch this growing movement.  A resurrection was simply “too radical” to ignore.  Now, nearly 2000 years down the road, Christianity has spread to every corner of the globe.  This movement, sparked by a radical event and fueled by radical conversions has radically changed our world.  Only a sin-blinded, hardened skeptic would attempt to conclude that the world is NOT a much better place because of Christianity. 

Continuing our study from Easter, we are still investigating how encounters with the Resurrected Christ radically altered the course of human history -- in every imaginable way.  We saw last week how an encounter with the Resurrected Lord turned cowards locked down in fear into missiles launched into the world, eventually reaching to the very palace of the Emperor of the Roman World.

Today, we are going to see how another person encountered the Living Christ, who had not known Him before His death and crucifixion.  This person, the Apostle Paul, radically changed from being a persecutor and hater of the church to being its primary apostle.  An encounter with the Resurrected Christ will always radically alter the course of a person's life.

And, let me add . . . radical does not mean "weird."  It's not about rolling on the floors, or jumping pews, or the crazy stuff some "whacko-matics" do.  Radical has to do with an abrupt "change of direction."

Over the years I have preached on the conversion of Saint Paul.  His life epitimizes the "radically altered" life resulting from an encounter with the RadicallyResurrected Lord.  We need to return to this passage often.  It gives us a blow-by-blow description of an encounter between a man and Almighty God.  It describes how one radical encounter radically changed a man and set him on a radical mission to proclaim Christ to the world.  It ultimately led to his death.  This is the type of experience we need in the church today.

What steps do we need to take to start a peaceful radical revolution proclaiming the gospel forcefully and fearlessly to a fallen world?  Let’s read about a radical Christian:

(Acts 9:1-9)  Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest {2} and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. {3} As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. {4} He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" {5} "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. {6} "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." {7} The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. {8} Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. {9} For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

Here is the biography of a radical Christian.  To follow Paul’s radical example there are three considerations.  First,

1.  Radical Believers are "radical" because they have had a RADICAL EXPERIENCE With the Resurrected Christ (vv 3-9)

  As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. {4} He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" {5} "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. {6} "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." {7} The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. {8} Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. {9} For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

This was what I call a ‘WAKE UP CALL!” I read the other day about a man who hadkind of a similar wake-up call.  It was a typical Sunday service.  The song service ended and the preaching began.  As was also typical, an man in the back placed his hymnbook on his lap and dozed off.  The preacher was preaching on heaven and hell. At one point in his message he shouted, “Everyone who wants to go to heaven please stand.”  Naturally, the whole congregation stood in agreement.  Then the preacher, for emphasis said, “Anyone who wants to go to the other place, please stand.”  Naturally, the preacher did not expect anyone to stand.  It was a rhetorical question for emphasis.  Except for the fact that . . . just as the preacher asked the second question, the snoozing church member dropped his hymn book with a loud crash just when the preacher asked, “Anyone who wants to go to the other place please stand.”  The snoozer stood.  The irritated preacher said, “Brother, what are you doing?”  The snoozer replied with some embarrassment, “Well, preacher, I’m not sure WHERE it is, but it looks like we will be the only two going!”

This man represents many Christians today. They are in God’s house on a regular basis but they might as well stay home and sleep.  They don’t have a clue as to what it means to have a radical, life-changing experience with the Lord Jesus Christ!  The Holy Spirit can fall upon a church service and as the song says, HEAVEN CAME DOWN AND GLORY FILLED OUR SOULS, and still there will be people who sleep right through it.  Their lives remain unchanged.

Radical Christians are people whose lives have been radically changed by meeting Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road of Life.

My friend if you cannot point to a time in your life when you had a SUDDEN, EARTH-SHAKING, DIRECTION-CHANGING, HOLY SPIRIT-FILLING, SIN-SHATTERING, HABIT-BREAKING, HEART-STIRRING, DEVIL-DENYING EXPERIENCE WITH JESUS CHRIST YOU BETTER ASK YOURSELF: AM I REALLY SAVED.  If you were not REALLY CHANGED, you were not REALLY SAVED.  If you can still sin like a pagan, drink like a fish, or cuss like a sailor–you aren’t saved.  Radical conversion radically alters how one lives one’s life.

I don’t care if you walked the aisle, splashed in the baptistry, sang in the choir, or served on a dozen committees . . . If you have never had radical, life-changing meeting with the Living Lord Jesus Christ—you are lost as a goose! When you meet Jesus, you will know–it will radically change your life.

Radical, revolutionary Christians are people who have had a radical, life-changing meeting with Jesus!

2.  Realize we live in a Radically Different world (vv 1-2)

{1}Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest {2} and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Paul’s world was very hostile to Christianity.  In fact, before Paul met the Lord Jesus Christ, he was a major player in that hostility.  He even had the Roman name, Saul, not Paul.  He is described as “murderous.” 

The Holy Spirit uses very descriptive language here to highlight the character of Saul, the Roman Pharisee.  The words translated, "breathing out murderous threats" paints the word picture of a "snorting wild horse ready to stomp anyone to death that comes near."  There is no more frightening display of dangerous power than an angry stallion.  Remember, it was a horse that killed Superman.

Christopher Reeves (superman in the movies) eventually died from the injuries sustained by being thrown from a horse -- and that horse wasn't even mad.  A horse is one of the most powerful animals in the world -- and an angry, snorting stallion is almost the personification of death itself.  That's how the Holy Spirit describes Paul (Saul) before he meets Jesus -- "an angry stallion with flared nostrils snorting out death upon any followers of the Way."  He was a "bad dude" to say the least.

Paul hated Christians.  Rome in general hated the Christians because they would not fall in line and worship Caesar as a god.  The Jews hated Christians because they preached that it wasn’t enough to practice religion to find favor with God, but a person had to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  The pagan world hated Christians because they preached against their sinful practices.  Christians were hated and persecuted from every side.  Jesus warned his disciples that this is how it would be Jesus said (Luke 10:3):

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Christians found themselves in a “hostile” environment. 
How about our world today?

      The fact of the matter is this: more Christians have been killed for their faith in the last 100 years than all the 1900 years prior combined.  That’s a fact!   Nearly every day we read accounts like that of a Christian preacher in the Middle East who was kidnapped by radical Muslims. His head was cut off and placed in the marketplace to scare other Christians.  This happens many times every day around the world.  Remember:  there are whole countries in the world that are almost 100 % Muslim–a religion very hostile to America, not to mention Christians. 

But, you don’t have to go to a foreign country to find a society hostile to Christianity.  There are cases in the courts every day in America where Christians are defending their right to pray on public property, or to stand up for their Christian beliefs.  It is ironic that we live in a country that has the highest percentage of teen-age pregnancy, even though schools pass out condoms and flood the curriculum with “safe-sex” dogma.  It is ironic because Planned Parenthood has succeeded in getting their abortion-ladened, safe-sex message into the schools but it has done nothing to help teens wait until marriage to have children.  It is ironic that Planned Parenthood has succeeded in getting the government to spend billions on their “preventative sex message” and it has accomplished nothing.  It is ironic because: Planned Parenthood is in, but prayer and faith our out!  The most powerful tool we have in helping our children is to show them that faith in God will give them the strength to resist the temptations that will destroy their lives.  This is just one example of how we live in a “country hostile to Christianity.”  Homosexuals have one of the most powerful lobbies and legal infrastructures in the nation.  The Abortion Industry is just as powerful.  The indoctrination centers we call “public schools” are turning out citizens ill-equipped to think for themselves, and as such, are ripe for the picking by those in power.  Christianity is getting battered from all sides, just like in the days of Paul. 

I find it hard to grasp how radically different the world is today from when I was a kid growing up in West Virginia.  Consider the following as a sample of how things have changed.    Consider that a generation ago:

•       more kids went to church and less adults went to jail;

•     Schools had a time of prayer and no police on campus;

      Now we have school police and no prayer;

•       the major problem was chewing gum and talking during class.  Now the major problems are drugs and shooting up the class.

•       fights ended with fists and bruises.  Now, disputes end with fires and bombs, mayhem and death.

My point is this: we are living in radically different times and we need radically different Christians who are willing to wage a radical revolution to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the community.

We live in a world hostile to Christianity and the state of American schools are but one tragic example. The state of our families and the state of our government demonstrate just how radically different our world is today.  The only kind of Christianity that is going to survive, is radical Christianity -- it's really the only true brand of Christianity.

To become radical Christian revolutionaries the church must wake up to the fact we live in a radically different world.

3.  Third, radical Christians take radical steps to be obedient to Jesus Christ (5, 6-10, 20)

{5} "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. {6} "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

.....................................

{20} At once he began to preach in the synagogues
that Jesus is the Son of God.

Friends, are we willing to do what we “must do in order to effectively reach our world for Christ—that is, “preach Jesus to the world!  Are we willing to radically alter our lifestyles to get the gospel to the lost?  Are we willing to radically change our speech?  Are we willing to radically and fearlessly face hardship, ridicule, perhaps even death, if that’s what it takes to “get the gospel to the lost?

Are we willing to change the manner in which we worship to make it easier for non-believers to connect with the message we want to share?  Are we willing to do as Paul later said he would do:

(1 Cor 9:22)  I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

Churches that have significantly made a difference in their communities in our day are filled with radical believers who were willing to radically alter their practices to deliver the unchanging and life-changing message of the gospel to a changing world.

Radical Christians are willing to radically alter our methods without altering God’s timeless message. One very successful pastor says it this way: Methods always change–the message never changes.

If we are going to be champions for Christ and a radical Christian revolutionary like Paul, our commitment must be:

WHATEVER IT TAKES, LORD!

Radical times call for radical Christians.

Perhaps Charlie Daniels can help me explain

what I mean by the need for a radical, peaceful revolution.

<Steel Guitar, trak #6>

Charlie Daniels is right on when he says:

“You better wake up before its too late// Put all of God’s armor on

It’s getting late, but the battle but the battle ain’t lost

[God’s] raising an army at the foot of the cross

It’s time to take off the gloves // Change all the rules

Take back our streets and take back our schools.

That’s what I mean by a radical, peaceful revolution started by radical Christians living out a radical faith.

It requires that we recognize we live in a RADICALLY different world.  It requires that we have a RADICAL experience with the Living Lord, Jesus Christ.  It requires a RADICAL commitment to do whatever it takes to be obedient to Christ.

A generation ago, churches were willing to be politically incorrect so they would not offend Jesus.  Now, too many people are readily willing to offend Jesus to be politically correct.

God is calling you and I to become soldiers in a peaceful, radical revolution.  Join up, today.  The answer to the hate of radical Muslims is the love or radical Christians.  We can pray radically.  We can give radically to send missionaries to hotbeds of Islam.  We can radically love those in our neighborhoods, Muslim or non-Muslim.

Go radical for Jesus today.  Tomorrow will be radically different.