Rally Day. People rally together for all sorts of reasons: for family celebrations…for homecomings…for football games and other sporting events…to
see performances at the theatre and movies at the cinema. It’s people coming
together with a single purpose in mind.
Often times associated
with the event are customs or traditions. In Britain soccer supporters wear scarves and hats in the team colors. Here it can be baseball caps or T-shirts that promote the
event. If it's a rock concert or festival people wear things that show their
support of the particular artist or event.
When people rally
together it creates a sense of community and purpose. Everybody is working towards the same end; they are there for the same
reasons. Rallies can be big events that attract crowds or small get-togethers
where the fellowship is close and people are identified, not by the banners they wave, but by the relationships they have
formed.
When people rally
around Jesus (and come together with the purpose and aim of worshipping Him and learning of Him), then God gives us some special
promises, as contained in verses 18 to 20 of Matthew 18.
Those who rally
together in Jesus name are promised:
- that they will bring the Kingdom nearer,
- that they will find power in prayer,
- that wherever even only 2 or 3 can gather… Jesus will be there… in the midst of all they
are doing.
Let's look at those three verses 18-20.
Firstly, verse 18: "Truly
I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven."
Verses 18-20 appear
in the midst of a passage that talks about how to handle conflict in the church. What was a person to do, if they were in
a fellowship with other Christians, and one person started to do something bad or dangerous that could destroy the sense of
community they had together in Jesus?
The first thing
a person with a problem with another person is asked to do is to go and try and sort it out with that person. Not go gossiping about them, or trying to drum up support for their case against them, but with a gentle
spirit that is ready to accept and forgive. Try and deal with the person on a one to one basis.
If that doesn't
work, and the person is still doing something that may be damaging to himself or others, then gracefully and forgivingly the
problem should be addressed by two or three others along with the one who has a grievance.
If there's still,
after all that, a real problem, then the matter has to be taken to the church as a whole. If the offending person still refuses
to do something, then the church community has no option but to no longer have that person as part of their fellowship; indeed
treat them as an outsider, until they get themselves sorted out.
It's a rallying
problem. When people get together there can be problems. Has this ever happened to you? You go to the movies, pay all that money for a ticket, then get a couple
of people behind you who do nothing but talk through the whole thing at the top of their voices. I find that so annoying!
Why did they come? Why won't they shut up? It can wreck the whole experience.
We need to remember
that when we come to church. I've been in services where, it's come to the prayer
time or sermon time and someone nearby is whispering, or fiddling about with something, putting their attention somewhere
other than what God is trying to say to them through what's going on... and it's off-putting… isn't it? We need to have respect for each other and for God.
I'm not saying our
services should be as rigid and quiet as a monastery, but that we should have a sense of awe and honor about what we are doing
here today. We are not rallying around a group of guys kicking a ball, we are
not getting together with a few friends for a party; this is not the movies or the Pizza Hut.
This is a holy time.
We call this part of the church building the sanctuary, the holy place. God looks at our lives and calls us holy people. "Do you not know," asked the apostle Paul,
"That your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit?" Remember 'Who' we are rallying
around - Almighty God. The God of Glory and power. The God whose love was crucified that we may believe. The Holy One, lifted up high above all others.
You see these promises
are only for those who can handle them. The first promise is all about authority.
Jesus gave Peter the keys, gave Peter the responsibility to be in the driving seat when it came to the things of God. God wants to commit the life of God's Kingdom to our hands, but not till we have the
spiritual maturity to deal with them.
The promise "whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven" is for those who are familiar with the ways of God in their own lives. It was given to Peter and the other disciples, after they had made their confession of faith, after they
had come to a position where they were prepared to take up their cross and follow, after they had said to God, "No Lord, not
my way, but let God's will be done in my life."
But what a promise
and what a privilege it is! Here is God saying, "Look, if you give your life to me, then through your life the things of heaven
will be done on earth." Here is God willingly placing eternity into your hands
and saying, "You take charge, you say how things go... I trust you to do the right thing."
Those who rally
together, in Jesus’ name, are promised that they will bring the Kingdom nearer by living out their lives in dependence
of the will of God.
The second promise is that as people rally together they will find a new power in prayer.
"Again I say to you,
that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they
may ask,
it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven."
(Matthew 18:19)
