A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00, now somewhere around $60.00. A family member placed a call to Citibank here's the exchange.
Family Member: "I am calling to tell you my aunt died in January."
Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees & charges still apply."
Family Member: "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections."
Citibank: "Since it is 2 months past due, it already has been.
Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"
Citibank: "Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!
Family Member: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"
Citibank: "Excuse me?"
Family Member: "Did you just get what I was telling you the part about her being dead?"
Citibank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor."(Supervisor gets on the phone)
Family Member: "I'm calling to tell you, my aunt died in January."
Citibank: "The account was never closed, so the late fees and charges still apply."
Family Member: "Do you mean you want to collect from her estate?"
Citibank: (Stammering) "Are you her lawyer?
Family Member: "No, I'm her nephew."
Citibank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"
Family Member: "Sure." (Fax number is given) After they get the fax Citibank: "Our system just isn't setup for death; I don't know what more I can do to help."
Family Member: "Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. I really don't think she will care."
Citibank: "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply."
Family Member: "Would you like her new billing address?"
Citibank: "Yes, that will help."
Family Member: "Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Highway 129, Plot Number 69."
Citibank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"
Family Member: "What do you do with your dead people?

There are two reasons why I read that.  One, it is funny.  Two, it shows how difficult it is for some people to handle anything out of the ordinary.  They have the script of their lives and they don’t know what to do when life gets off script.  All of us can relate to these Citibank employees.  Change is often difficult.

There exists within each of us two opposing forces.  On one side there is this pressure to keep doing what we are doing; to stay with what we know; to rely on the familiar; to not change.  There is within us a gyroscope that wants to stay on the same setting.   Gyroscopes are cool.  They keep pointing in the same direction regardless.   Our internal gyroscopes pressure us to keep on doing what we have always done.
 
The other opposing force within us is this desire for the unknown.  We are fascinated with the new and the strange and the mysterious. We want to go where we have never been; to see what we have never seen; to do what we have never done.  There is this force with us for the new, exciting for an adventure.  I love an adventure. 

So, we have these two competing and compelling forces with each of us.  Sometimes one will win for a while and sometimes the other will dominate. Some of us give into one side or the other more.   

Churches are the same.  Churches need to rely upon their past.  They assume they are right and have always been right. In some churches there is enormous momentum within their gyroscopes to stay the same. 
I asked Jimmy to sing “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand.”  It really expresses this desire to be unmoved. 
“Time is filled with swift transition, naught of earth unmoved can stand.”
“Hold to God’s unchanging hand!”
“Build your hopes on things eternal. Hold to God’s unchanging hand!”

And yet at the same time, Churches also want to experience revival and renewal and refreshing. Churches want to be free to experience all that God wants them to be!  We also sang, “We Praise Thee, O God.” That last line is amazing; “Hallelujah! Thine the glory.  Hallelujah Amen!  Hallelujah! thine the glory, Revive us Again!”  The whole tenor of the song is God is changing who we are.  As a church we want to be new! To be free! To be bold! To be changed! 

So we have this same tension. Churches want to hold to God’s unchanging hand and they want to be revived again.

I said all that as preamble to Acts chapter 11.  I want to look at Acts 11 from a church dynamics perspective.  I want to answer the question; which one wins in a church, no change or change? 

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Two weeks ago we celebrated our favorite chapter in Acts.  Which was…?  Acts chapter 10 changes everything for us.  Without the Gospel going to Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, a gentile, then we would never even have had an opportunity to know Jesus.  Acts Chapter 10 changes everything for us, but it also changed everything in the early church.  Until Acts 10, Christianity had been simply a Jewish movement, but after the conversion of Cornelius, the Gospel suddenly became a global thing. 

Remember our theme verse?

Acts 1:8   But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jerusalem was a Jewish thing. Judea was still a Jewish thing. Samaria was a half Jewish thing; but the ends of the earth had to include us all.  Acts 10 changed the very nature of Christianity.  Jesus moved from being the Jewish Messiah to being the world’s Savior! 

This is a significant change in thinking for Jewish Christians.  This was an enormous concept for them to absorb. Acts 10 is really the conversion of Peter.  He had to make this mental shift.  It began for him with this vision of a sail full of animals and the voice of God telling him not to call anything unclean.  His mental shift continued as he heard about an angel appearing to a Roman pagan centurion.  It was solidified as he saw the Holy Spirit being poured upon a whole houseful of gentiles.  Peter made the shift.  He moved from Jesus; the Jewish Messiah, to Jesus; Lord of All. 

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But, like all change, not everyone got on board easily.  The Change Train is a hard one for lots of people to get on.  Change is not an easy thing.  Making mental 180s is tough. Imagine how hard it would have been to change 1500 years of Jewish gyroscope pointing to them as God’s chosen people?   So, just as you might expect Peter had some explaining to back in Jerusalem.  That is where Acts 11 begins; this clash between God’s unchanging hand and Revive us again. 

Acts 11:1-3 The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."

You would think they would have gripped about baptizing gentiles or teaching them about Jesus.  But the problem was table fellowship.  You can’t eat with the pagans! Peter tells the story again; 4th time, if you are keeping score.

Acts 11:4-18   Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened:   "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was.  I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.   Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'  "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'   "The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'  This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.   "Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.   The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house.  He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.   He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.'   "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.  Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'  So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"  When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."

Luke reaches his conclusion again, again, again, again. This is the 11th and 12th time he has made the point: God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.  The Jews in Jerusalem begin to make this difficult mental shift.

Acts 11:19-21  Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews.  Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

Isn’t that fascinating?  “Oh, we should talk to the Greeks too?”  And they did and the Lord’s hand was with them.  Great metaphor! God’s unchanging hand?  The Spirit had moved them to change their view of gentiles. They made the shift mentally and that was followed by action. Our theology is tremendously important because that leads to action.  Watch: Mental shift – action.

Acts 11:22-26   News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.  When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.  He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.

Barnabas goes to see what is happening.  He is thrilled.  He encourages them and God’s will of the gospel going to the gentiles is happening in a big way. We are moving through a process; mental shift, action, encouragement.  There needs to be reinforcement of the change. 

Acts 11:26  The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Here is an interesting phenomenon. The word Christian reflects the growing difference in the movement. There is a distinction between followers of Jesus and the Jews.  This shows the change has created space between those who have changed and those who did not change.  The new movement; this global thing is now and forever called Christianity as distinct from Judaism.   Mental Shift – Action – Encouraging others – and then distinction.

Acts 11:27-30 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.  One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)  The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea.  This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

What is the flavor here?  The center of the church has shifted from Jerusalem to Antioch.  In Antioch they organize a relief effort to send help back to Jerusalem.  Those who are being led by the Spirit then become the center.  I think this is all what Luke is doing in Acts 11.  He is showing this change.  Because of Acts 10 and its message; Even gentiles can receive salvation, there is a movement away from Judaism to Christianity as separate religions.

But that is not the real point.  I think the point of putting this paragraph here is to show the compassion of the new Christians on those of the old school.  These gentile Christians turn and help the Jewish Christians.  No animosity.  No writing them off.  No ignoring them.  But rather this compassionate outpouring of aid.  

All of this is a nice history lesson and exploration of human nature, but what does it have to do with us.  The same change process works in us as individuals and as a church.   
-Holy Spirit nudges us, speaks to us, or slaps us to change.
-We see the truth of what the Spirit is teaching us
-We make the mental 180. We adopt the new way of thinking.
-We then change our behavior to reflect our new theology.
-We incorporate others, encourage others, enlist others to join us.
-We recognize the difference and an identity forms.
-The Spirit pushes us to be compassionate to the former ones. 

I guess the question of the sermon is which of the two competing forces win over our hearts.  Does the Hold to God’s unchanging hand win or does the Revive us again control us?  There is a line in both songs…

“Trust in him who will not leave you… Hold to God’s unchanging hand.” 
“All glory and praise to the God of all Grace, who has bought us and sought us and guided our ways.”

The answer to the tension is to trust the one who guides us.  Sometimes he will guide you to be unchanging and at other times he will guide you to do a 180.  It is in the holding to God’s hand wherever he leads!  That’s the trick!

I want to stop preaching here and reflect on what I consider a parallel situation we find ourselves in.  I want to share my own musings over our journey we have been involved in for many years; allowing women to actively participate in our assemblies.  See if you think there is a parallel.

-Mid 90’s Spirit moving within us to explore the subject
-1995 Service in Kitchen which allowed women to participate
-In the summer 1997 a group who could not go along with women being active in the assembly left and the Pajarito Church began.
-2000 We studied it again
-2001 July- October 2001 the elders visited with most every family.
-2002 Women participation and Additional service traditional
-2003 Back to one service using women.

Now for five+ years we have been attempting to practice the Priesthood of all believers.  Still have some way to go, but I think we are at the end of Acts 11 and the compassionate – outreaching stage.  To me, there is a parallel in the Spirit working upon our church. 

I don’t know what other changes the Spirit has in mind for us in the future.  But I guess the point of these musings is for us to learn from Acts 11, our own history and be ready and open and pliable to his moldings. We don’t want to be like the Citibank guy.