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Mills River SDA Church

Christian Service

Cory Reeves

Christian Service: What is a Disciple?

We're going to talk today a little bit about Christian service and what it means and what is a disciple.

And as we look at that, I started thinking, so what is obedience?

You know, we've all heard horror stories that happened between 1941 and 1945.

6000000 innocent Jews were systematically slaughtered on command in what we call the Holocaust.

Now this picture here is a gentleman named Adolf Eichmann.

He was the Nazi Secret Service colonel that is known as the architect of the Holocaust.

If the picture looks a little funny, he's actually in a bulletproof witness or a stand booth in Jerusalem in court in 1961.

To the right of that is his handwritten request for clemency.

You might say, why does a man who is the architect of the Holocaust, how can he ask for clemency?

He said he shouldn't be held responsible for his actions because him and other low-ranking officers were just following orders of their superiors.

He wrote, We were forced to serve as mere instruments.

So this just following orders defense actually became pretty famous during the Nuremberg trials and was featured heavily in his trial.

I believe I've talked about a study here before, and I'll reiterate parts of it.

I won't go into the whole details, but it was the Milgram study.

And I'm going to pick on some of my elders, because I don't want to pick on anyone else.

So if I put Bill in a booth over here and I put Andy in the next room over and put an intercom between the 2 and I was in here with Bill telling Bill, you're going to ask Andy a question And if Andy gets it wrong, you flip, see the switches?

You flip a switch and it sends him a big shock.

And that shock goes higher and higher until 450 volts after Andy gets too many questions wrong.

450 volts if you know is enough to kill a man.

The good news on the study is they did not actually shock Andy in the next room.

So the first shock, of course, is just enough to get Andy to scream.

So Andy screams in the next room, and of course Andy doesn't want to get any more questions wrong.

But I'm in a white lab coat standing next to Bill.

What they found is 65% of people were willing to go all the way to a lethal dose of voltage Because Bill felt like it wasn't his job, it was my job in the white lab coat to tell him.

100% of people were willing to take it all the way to 300 volts, which is a lot.

So, for me personally, coming out, reading this, it tells me it is very important who you follow.

Who is standing in the white lab coat over you saying this is what we should do.

A quote from the first study, because it's been replicated several times since, in particular acting under orders cause participants to perceive a distance from outcomes that they themselves caused.

In other words, people feel disconnected from the results they do when they are told to do something.

So it got me thinking, who am I following?

Well, if you know me very well, I'm a little bit nerdy on this kind of thing, so I pulled out the dictionary.

And Merriam-Webster says a Christian is 1 who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

So, yes, a Christian clearly follows Christ, but what is a disciple?

So I went back to the dictionary, and it says a disciple is 1 who accepts and assists in the spreading the doctrines of another, such as in Christianity and the 12 disciples, or is convinced, adherent to a school or individual.

So I would ask you guys, are we convinced, adherence to Jesus?

I hope we all as Christians want to accept and assist in spreading the doctrines of Jesus.

Going further, I'm not gonna try to pronounce Greek, but the Greek word for disciple also means learner, pupil, or student.

Jesus' disciple, when Jesus died and was resurrected, they weren't trying to become leaders or teachers themselves, they were pointing to a teacher.

They were adherents of Jesus, making more disciples of Jesus.

That tells us what we should be working towards today.

Testimonies, and I should have asked you, do you all have the paper that was handed out?

If you don't have 1, you want 1, if there's any left, I'll have someone hand it out.

If you want to raise your hand nice and high, they'll bring a few more around, if there are any more.

Thank you, Blake, I know you're doing double duty.

There's 4 more left, so raise your hand nice and high and they'll hand them out.

Testimonies for the Church, Volume 9, page 103.

It was the Savior's purpose that after He ascended to heaven to become man's intercessor, his followers should carry on the work that he had begun.

Shall the human agent show no special interest in the giving of the light of the gospel message to those who sit in darkness?

There are some who are willing to go to the ends of the earth in order to carry the light of truth to men.

But God demands that every soul who knows the truth shall seek to win others to the love of the truth.

If we are not willing to make special sacrifices in order to save souls that are ready to perish, how can we be counted worthy to enter into the city of God?

God demands that every soul who knows the truth should seek to win others.

You see, it's not a job of 1, or it's not a job of 1 to pay another, it's all of our job to share Jesus.

We are to all make special sacrifice as we see souls about to perish.

Now today I'm going to jump around in lots of Bible texts.

They're all on your paper so we can keep up there so I don't spend too much time waiting.

If ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed.

So in my quest to understand what is a disciple, we learn in John that if you spend time here over time, that will make you a disciple.

Continuing, Mark 3, 13 through 15, And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would.

And he ordained 12 that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have the power to heal sickness and to cast out the devils.

I helped you out by highlighting them a little bit right there, but we can actually jump to here.

Second, we know that Jesus is with us, amen?

And third, they were empowered to be sent out to preach the gospel.

This is the meaning of being a disciple of Jesus.

Now you might be saying, but pastor, there's no way you're getting me up at that pulpit.

And I think many of us would say that, And I would have said that not long ago.

But as disciples, preaching the gospel involves more than delivering a message.

To preach the gospel is not limited to just getting up here and preaching.

It can be bringing a hot meal to someone in need.

Volume 6 of the Testimonies for the Church, page 423.

Completely Clean

We talked a little bit last time about Christian service and what it meant to be a Christian, what it meant to be a disciple, and we kinda went through that list.

I wanna make sure everyone has their papers for this week.

There's a deacon or someone's gonna step out and get a couple.

Raise your hands high so they can see them.

Oh, there's a bunch up here on the front right.

So I'm gonna jump right in as he hands them out.

So have you ever been driving along, you get somewhere, and you're like, how did I make it here?

Has anyone ever done that, or am I the only 1?

I don't want to feel too bad if I was the only person in this room.

You know, we recently, I think most of you know, we recently moved And when we moved, I always do this every time we move in a town.

I always end up partway to my old house, at least once or twice.

And I'm like, why did I end up over here?

It's almost like, and I blame the car, not me, because the car just goes on this autopilot and just decides to go on to my old house.

And it's almost scary in some ways, but It's a fact of life.

Now my next question is, have you ever had your devotional life do that?

Have you ever gone on cruise control, you're reading your Bible, and you're 10 or 15 minutes into your worship, and you're like, I don't know what I've been reading.

Or maybe you're on your knees praying, and you get partway through your prayer, and you're thinking about, I've gotta go make breakfast, because I've got so much to do today, instead of praying to the Father, right?

I would ask you today as we celebrate communion, are they just motions?

Or is there some more important meaning that we're getting caught up in or not caught up in.

Just going through the motions of communion will do nothing for your salvation.

We're going to look at this a little bit deeper today, particularly the ordinance of humility.

This ordinance is not to be treated in a mechanical way as a form.

So when we go wash feet, it's not just a motion.

It's amazing to me how few Christian denominations actually do foot washing.

When I was at the hospital in Georgia, The pastors for that area decided to get together and have a group thing.

The Adventist chaplain, he kind of let out.

And there was a lot of discussion, but it ended up being a very Adventist communion service.

And probably 90% of the non-Advenists had never done communion, or done foot washing, I should say.

It's amazing to me, And I think this is important to understand why.

The why is so important because we don't want it to become mundane, we don't want it to become mechanical.

We want to have an understanding, a knowledge of what we are about to do.

Maybe you say that this service is to change us.

And I would add, there were people there in that first communion, like we talked, Judas.

Their feet were dirty, they needed them cleaned.

Judas went through the motion, but didn't get to the heart, right?

And so that's what we're gonna talk about, this changing of our hearts, allowing God to work in us.

So in other words, we can use today to draw us closer to Jesus, or like Judas, it can be something that we don't understand.

I'm guessing most of you actually don't need your feet cleaned, I would hope.

Without the meaning, without the drawing closer to Jesus, it's nothing.

So for some context, leading up to the supper, I'm going to read to you quickly Mark 10, 35-37.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.

And he said unto them, what would ye that I should do for you?

They said unto him, grant unto us that we may sit 1 on the right hand and the other on thy left hand in thy glory." It's interesting, going into this Last Supper, Judas is not the only 1 with some issues going on.

The Bible was pretty clear that the disciples were expecting Christ to stake his kingdom there on earth and Self was playing a factor with the disciples.

They were fighting over who would be the greatest.

At least James and John wanted to be number 2 and 3 in the kingdom.

Volume 12 of Letters and Manuscripts, manuscript 43 from 1897.

The ordinance of feet washing most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility.

While the disciples were contending for the highest place in the promised kingdom, Christ girded himself and performed the office of a servant by washing the feet of those who called him Lord.

He instituted a memorial service in the ceremony of feet washing and the sacramental supper to be observed by his followers through all time and in every country.

These should ever repeat Christ's act that all may see that the true service called for unselfish ministry.

And in return, He wants to give you eternal life.

You know, 1 of my favorite missionary stories, and I'm not going to go through the story, but he has a quote, and it says, this is Jim Elliott, And he gave up his life for his mission.

He said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

You see, we, in giving up our lives to God in service of Him and others, lives, if you think about it, that are not ours.

We've given them up to sin, and sin brings death.

However, Jesus steps in with the plan of salvation and gives us the gift of eternal life.

In giving him our lives that aren't even ours, Jesus gives us, He gives you eternal life.

So the disciples coming into this Passover supper are so busy arguing and fighting over who's the greatest, and who could serve in the different leadership roles in God and Jesus' kingdom.

But I'll ask you, have you ever thought, I deserve more?

A Cause to Believe In

We don't need the study guards right away, so you can raise your hand and still pay attention to me, I hope.

The Saturday Evening Post in 1968 posted an article on draft Dodgers.

This isn't a baseball team, unfortunately.

These are people who decided not to go into the draft, right?

I'm going to share with you a few of the stories out of the article, and I'm going to read a little bit of the story, and I'm going to talk a little bit about the story.

I had to change some of the words because it was 1968 language in there that probably wouldn't be appreciated today.

So, just so you know, there were over, estimated over 15, 000 Americans that were listed as delinquent by selective services.

And I think that number was probably even higher than that, because some of them got out of it afterwards.

1 young man who made his decision under duress is 22-year-old Michael Miller.

And some of these names have been changed, too, so that might not have been his real name.

He was a student at Penn State and the City University of New York.

Miller developed such strong convictions about the U.S.

Involvement in Vietnam that he refused to cooperate with the Selective Services.

Even though he has a physical disability that probably would have kept him out of the Army anyway, he decided to go to jail.

And his father, a bombardier in the American Army Air Corps in World War II, called him a communist and kicked him out of the house.

Then his wife, who he married later, who was pregnant, told him that him going to jail again would be unfair.

Miller genuinely grieves about this permanent exile from the United States, and he missed out on his sister's wedding.

He missed his parents' anniversaries, his sister's children.

He missed out on so much not being able to come home.

Another story is a gentleman who now lives in, or did live at this time in 68, in Toronto, John Phillips.

He was a tall, blond, 22-year-old Quaker from Iowa.

Phillips' passivism is founded in his religion, and ordinarily he would have had little trouble obtaining the conscientious objector classification he had applied for, but he bewildered the 5 farmers on his rule draft board.

He was the first objector they had encountered, and they didn't know what to make of him.

They called him a coward and a communist.

Phillips says, and when they learned I had covered the Alabama Civil Rights March as a photographer, they said, so you went down there to help them, but you won't fight for your country.

I told them I would gladly go to Vietnam as a photographer.

There was nothing I could do so I wouldn't have to kill.

And for the first time in my life, I broke down and cried.

Phillips filed an appeal and went so far as to report his physical, he had to report for physical examination.

He spent the night in the barracks at Fort Des Moines, where the other draft, with other draftees, until he was stopped by an officer, until this group of kids were stopped by an officer, the other, the other recruitees actually held, started holding him down to shave his whole body.

He married his fiancée, another Quaker, and immediately they went to Canada.

She became a social worker and he became a photographer.

1 more story, and this one's Michael Whittles, who is 28 years old and a successful artist in Philadelphia.

Whittles never a peace activist or protester during his high school years in his time at Philadelphia College of Art.

He joined the Army Reserves and was assigned to a quartermaster company in 1962.

His 6 months of active duty at Fort Knox, Kentucky were uneventful and he was a good soldier and promoted to squad leader.

He took heavy weapons training and it wasn't until 1 of his commanders said this gun will punch a fist-sized hole through your enemy It was then he realized he didn't want to have any part of that He said he didn't want to kill people.

He didn't realize, I guess going through training, that that's what they were going to go do and that he was a conscientious objector at heart.

Finally in June of 1965 he actually filed for legal advice because they were ignoring his pleas.

He painstakingly filled out another application in August of 1965 and turned it into his company commander.

6 months went by, Whittles heard nothing.

Though he kept writing to all the higher and higher reserve echelons, in January of 1966, he just stopped going to his reserve meetings.

And he actually started returning his paychecks.

In March, the application was turned down and then he was demoted as a punishment and was ordered to report to Fort Knox for 45 days of active duty.

His commanding officer, who he tried to explain everything to, demanded he put on his uniform.

And when he didn't, getting down here, sorry, They sent him to a small jail cell.

They gave him more direct orders, put on your uniform.

When Whittles respectfully refused, he was taken to a stockade where the sergeant told him, we've had your kind here before and we are going to break you.

He was stripped of his shirt, shoes, and socks and locked in the box, which is a 6x8 isolation cell, with nothing in it but a Bible and a steel slab for a bunk.

The 2 guards kept him standing up until 2 a.m.

When they sent him to take a shower, when he got back to his cell, his blankets were all gone.

It was a cold night, but the guard said, you don't want that blanket, it says U.S.

Whittle says he was in the box for 3 days, during which they fed him dry bread, dry cereal and cabbage.

And on the third day, the confinement officer, a 6 foot 7 inch man, Captain Mitten, came to see him.

Just put on your regular stockade fatigue shirt, not your uniform and I'll let you out of here.

Whittles agreed to that and was put in a 24-man cell.

2 weeks later, he went for trial for disobeying his company commander's direct order to put on his uniform.

He was found guilty and sentenced to 6 months of hard labor.

Whittles then was returned to Solidary Cell on the grounds that he would contaminate the other prisoners with his thinking.

The story goes on and on until his mother finally reached a politician who heard his story.

The guards afterwards came out and said, Whittles would have had a much easier time in Vietnam than going through everything he went through.

Why go against the grain of what you're supposed to do?

Why was this gentleman willing to suffer?

What was the problem in each of these stories?

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Christian Service

Christian Service: What is a Disciple?

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