Why Tarry in Jerusalem?

Sermon preached at the 8:15 A.M. devotional service at the Ministerial Council preceding the General Conference, June 19, 1958.

R. R. BIETZ, President. Southern California Conference

As a basis for my remarks I will refer to the words of Jesus spoken shortly be­fore His ascension: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:18-20).

On three distinct occasions before His ascension Jesus said, "Go ye." He had a great passion for the world, for the un­saved. Although He was greatly concerned for the world, He had perhaps an even greater burden for the church and its leadership. Unless the church and its leaders were ready to go, their work would hardly be more than "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

In Luke 24:49 we read again: "And, be­hold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem." We find in these two texts four very im­portant words: "go ye" and "tarry ye." Jesus said: "I want you to go; it is im­portant. The harvest is great, but the laborers are few. The sheep are scattered. Please go, but before you go to preach, tarry to pray. Before you go behind the pulpit, tarry behind the closet door. Before you go to win others, tarry until I can win you."

The disciples had a tremendous task to accomplish. They had a message for the world. There were only a handful of Chris­tians to give this great message, probably fewer preachers than in the smallest confer­ence in the North American Division. The world of their day was in deep sin, and Roman society was corrupt. One would think that Jesus would say, "Do not lose any time; go to work immediately. Souls are perishing all about you." But instead, Jesus said, "I want you to tarry awhile."

The church today is also facing a seem­ingly overwhelming task. In North America we have large cities with populations run­ning into millions. What can we do to bring the message to them? Then, when we think of China and India and the millions and millions of people over there, we feel that we ought to work day and night to finish the task, but Jesus says, "Tarry awhile."

We may well ask, Why were the disciples asked to tarry? Luke 24:49 tells us: "But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."

Does Position Mean Power?

We are asked to tarry because we need power. We must be careful, however, not to oversimplify the answer. What was it that these men lacked? What could the Holy Spirit supply that they were now missing?

First of all, they lacked understanding as to the basics for advancing the kingdom of God. They wanted the kingdom to be ad­vanced by men in position rather than by men in service, and there is a big difference between the two.

In Mark 10:35 we read that James and John came to Jesus and said, "Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us what­soever we shall desire." Jesus, in His kindly manner, replied, "What would ye that' I should do for you?" And these two breth­ren said, "Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory."

These men were ambitious for position, but they were not the only ones. We read in The Desire of Ages, page 549: "The highest place in the kingdom was just what every one of them was seeking for himself, and they were angry that the two disciples had gained a seeming advantage over them." The entire group was anxious for

 

position, and because James and John had gotten in ahead with their request, the others were peeved. The disciples needed power, but not the power of authority, nor the power of position- or office, nor the power of numbers or of human machinery, plans, and methods. They needed power not to change men but to be, first of all, changed men. They needed power not to convert the world but to be converted.

In the upper room they were to learn that a man's position does not make him one jot or one tittle greater in the sight of God. His character alone God values. The important thing is not whether we are pas­tors of large churches or small ones; big city evangelists or little city evangelists; presidents of large conferences or small conferences. Rather, the question is, What kind of men are we? Are we large or are we small? If we are still more interested in position than we are in service, then we do well to heed the Master's admonition to "tarry in Jerusalem."

Horace Mann said, "If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth and he will find both." But I hear someone say, "If I do not get a larger church every time I receive a call, people

will think I am not 'going     " I fear that
we have talked about "going up" so much in this denomination, that too many are anxious to "go up" rather than "go out" and serve on the highways and byways of life. When is a man going up and when is he going down? It could be that some are going down when they think they are go­ing up and vice versa. Must a man have ever-increasing responsibilities to go up in the eyes of God, or can he be going up too if he faithfully performs his duties in a small church? Hundreds of our pastors will never have the opportunity to go up the way some people interpret going up, be­cause there are not enough large churches.

Secret of Power

I believe Jesus had the best answer, and it is recorded in Matthew 20:26, 27: "But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant."

Some years ago Chief Justice Hughes and a Chinese laundryman were both received into church fellowship at the same church on the same day. Just before they were given the hand of fellowship, the minister


of the church said, "At the foot of the cross the ground is level." It is at the foot of the cross where we all have to cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner."

I like the statement found in Testimo­nies to Ministers, page 496: "In our several callings there is to be a mutual dependence on one another for assistance." Our calling, no matter what it might be, should always be used to build up others rather than to destroy others. Pastors, presidents, Bible instructors, teachers, departmental men, are all called to various lines of work, but all should work to help one another, and thus advance the cause of God. "God has given to men talents of influence which belong to Him alone, and no greater dis­honor can be done to God than for one

finite agent to bring other men's talents under his absolute control, even though the benefits of the same be used to the ad­vantage of the cause."—I bid., p. 360.

Perhaps James and John and the other disciples felt that if they could get a high position next to Christ, they could solve the problems of the world by giving orders, by controlling the minds of other men. But this was not Christ's way of working. It re­minds us of a certain businessman who called one of his employees to the office and gave him a terrific verbal beating. The em­ployee had made a false move, and the so-called big executive felt it was his duty to give him a tremendous tongue-lashing. After he was through firing his missile, a friend of his sitting in the office and listen­ing in, said to the executive: "You can't do that. If you keep up this kind of program, you will have ulcers." To this the execu­tive replied: "I don't get ulcers, I give them."

There are some pastors and executives who possibly have ulcers because they have given ulcers to their fellow workers. The Good Book says: "Whatsoever a man sow­eth, that shall he also reap." If I am re­sponsible for the ulcers in other people, chances are that sooner or later I will have a perforated stomach too.

There is something to think about in these simple lines:

 

 

Sometime when you're feeling important,

Sometime when your ego's in bloom,

Sometime when you take it for granted

You're the best qualified in the room;

Sometime when you feel that your going

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow this simple instruction,

And see how it humbles your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to your wrist;

Pull it out, and the hole that's remaining

Is a measure of how you'll be missed.

You may splash all you please when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore;

But stop, and you'll find in a minute

That it looks quite the same as before.

The moral in this quaint example

Is to do just the best that you can.

Be proud of yourself, but remember

There is no indispensable man.

—Author Unknown

Weakness of Human Devisings

There is another lesson that the tarrying experience brought to the disciples; namely, that human devisings, plans, and methods are all important, but men are more important. Before Pentecost the dis­ciples depended too much on their own ability and strength. Peter thought he could solve a problem with the sword, but it was not solved by clipping off the ear of an­other man. It seemed to be easier for Peter to pull the sword than to engage in prayer. While Jesus was praying earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was sleeping. Peter depended upon the material things of life to solve problems, but that was not the Christ way. Jesus rebuked Peter and said, "Put up again thy sword into his place." We do well to observe that Jesus said the sword should be put in "his place." There is a place for everything, and we want to be sure that we keep things in proper perspective.

There is a place for evangelistic equip­ment; we must be careful that it does not get out of place. It should never take the place of the sermon. In Luke 9:54 we read that James and John also were ready to depend upon the material things of life. They were ready to call fire down from heaven to burn up the Samaritan village simply because the inhabitants were not willing to have Christ. If the Lord would have given them fire, these men no doubt would have had a wonderful time going from village to village burning up every hindering circumstance. But Christ's rebuke no doubt startled these evangelistic zealots:


"This is not My way; I did not come to burn up people. I came to save them."

For not with swords, loud clashing,

Nor roll of stirring drums,
With deeds of love and mercy,

The heavenly kingdom comes.

We too are in danger of depending more and more upon our own strength, espe­cially in this twentieth century of know-how. The messenger of the Lord has told us: "Let us not forget that as activity in­creases, and we become successful in doing the work that must be accomplished, there is danger of our trusting in human plans and methods. There will be a tendency to pray less, and to have less faith."—Quoted in F. M. Wilcox, Christ Our Righteousness, pp. 84, 85.

A minister of another denomination re­cently said: "I feel that there are a good many ministers who feel lost. I am among them. We simply cannot see where we are going in the church. Our churches are successful, we gain more members, we have more activities, we have better Sunday school material, and so on. But we cannot see that we are making much of a difference in our communities or in the lives of the individual members of our communities. This disturbs me."—Union Seminary Quarterly, January, 1956.

Well may all of us be disturbed when we see how little impact some of our churches make upon the community. Our fine build­ings, our numbers, or statistics, will never change the lives of men. There is great danger that we become so engrossed with statistical success that we forget the im­portance of spiritual success. There is not a denomination, I suppose, which cannot boast of tremendous success financially and numerically. May the good Lord deliver us from being what one man said: "Prisoners in this world of coins and wires and motor horns; this world of figures and men who trust in facts; this pitiable, hypocritic world where men with blinkered eyes and hob­bled feet grope down a narrow gorge and call it life."—Pulpit Digest, December, 1957.

Testing for Quality

Someone has said that numbers are not the first consideration of a Christian church. We need to be delivered from the tyranny of schedules and from the erro­neous fear of comparative tables and statis­tics. It is possible for churches to lose in

 

in numbers, as did Gideon, and gain in strength. Let us look for a moment or two at Gideon and the problem he faced. He was facing an army of the Amalekites and

Midianites, whose numbers were like the sand of the sea and as numerous as the grasshoppers. Gideon had an army of only 32,000. Certainly this was small in com­parison. Probably Gideon was just about ready to complain to the Lord because of the few in number when the Lord said, "The people that are with thee are too many for me." He was told that all those who were fearful should return, and 22,000 walked away. Gideon had to reorganize his entire army. There were only 10,000 left. But the Lord said, "The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there."

Water is.an essential to physical life, and God wanted to test these people in the presence of this necessity. Of the 10,000, 9,700 took unnecessary time to do the nec­essary work, and they were dismissed. There were only 300 left. A small army of 300 to face an army as numberless as the sands of the sea? This was ridiculous and preposter­ous froim a human point of view. But Gid­eon had faith in the word of the Lord. They went into battle, and it was a great day of victory for Gideon and his men.

Wherein lay the victory? Judges 7:18 tells us, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon." It was not Gideon, and the sword of the Lord; but it was the sword of the Lord, and Gideon. Human devisings­numbers and plans and methods—will never produce victory for the church of God. It is still true, as pointed out in Leviticus 26:8, that five can chase a hun­dred, and a hundred can put ten thousand to flight. We need, not more faith in ma­chinery and the material things of life, but more faith in what God can do for His church.

Results in Tarrying

After the disciples tarried in Jerusalem what results do we see? "No longer were


they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of 'one accord,' of one heart and of one soul.' "—The Acts of the Apostles, p. 45.

They now had a clear vision in regard to position; they realized that a position is not something to maneuver into, but rather an avenue of service. Now they understood that it was "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord." Now they "prayed with intense earnestness for a fitness to meet men, . . . to speak words that would lead sinners to Christ."—Ibid., p. 37.

Now they understood that the victory of the church depends entirely upon telling and living a story—the story of Jesus. Peter told that story with such love and earnest­ness that thousands accepted the Lord. Paul told the story with such enthusiasm to Festus that he said, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad." Paul replied that he was not mad, but simply telling the story of Jesus. Paul spoke so convincingly in the presence of Agrippa that the king replied, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Paul traveled all over Asia Minor, all through the Greek cities, telling the story of Jesus. They called him "the babbler." The original meaning of the word "bab­bler," as I understand it, is "a storyteller," and in this sense of the term surely Paul was a great babbler. He was a great story­teller.

The tarrying time is a time of surrender to God. Surrender is more important than power. Power comes when and if we sur­render. As we look at the tremendous task that is facing us there are times when we might feel discouraged. We need to go into the chamber and tarry with God. We need to surrender our all to Him. His promise is still good: "And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20).


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R. R. BIETZ, President. Southern California Conference

November 1958

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