MR. C. J. ROBINSON, Minister of the Church of Christ, Margaret Street, Launceston, Tasmania, was devotional leader for the 1964 Victoria-Tasmania State Conference. The messages presented then are sent out on this wider ministry in the hope that they will provoke us to become a committed church in this challenging day.

Reading--Acts 2.

      Few would be disposed to question that this is a challenging day.

      There may be those who, displaying a certain superficial spirituality, try to escape responsibility by declaring that we are in the last days, and the Lord will return soon and adjust everything. Fortunately there is little of this modern Pharisaism among our people.

      Outside of the church, the mood of the hour is one, either of cynicism or indifference, but within the circle of consecrated church-members there is recognition that we have been thrown into an era of mighty movements, and the crucial question is the impact of the church on this challenging day. There is no question of the challenging day. The only question is the committed church.

      In general thinking the church is equated with ministers or priests.

      Even within the church, whenever we consider the work of the church in the world, our thoughts turn rather to those activities undertaken by the church's representatives--the long line of missionaries, chaplains in industry, social workers and itinerant evangelists. When, however, we pause to think of the activities of the average church member, we find ourselves in a relatively unimportant area. Dr. T. W. Manson points out that the Christianity which conquered the Roman Empire was not an affair of brilliant preachers addressing packed congregations, but domestic servants preaching Christ through their domestic service; workers through their work; traders through their trading . . . not eloquent propagandists swaying massed meetings of interested enquirers . . . but committed ordinary church members."

      The early church was an affair of laymen for laymen and the committed church is the ordinary Christian being a Christian wherever he works and whatever the nature of his work.

      The early church succeeded because her members believed that Jesus had the power, not only to

change men, but also to change their circumstances, and they saddled themselves with His programme of the Kingdom--the programme of God's rule in the life of the individual and of society. They were the light, the leaven and the salt of the community.

      We cannot contract out of the community in which we live. We have to meet and master the baleful influences of materialism by which we are surrounded. This demands stewardship--stewardship not only of time and talents, but also of gifts and of our affections. The committed church is one that is deeply rooted in the spiritual values of worship, fellowship and service. From the Acts of the Apostles chapter two we learn that the first church was

      They knew what they believed and why. "They continued in the Apostle's teaching . . ." Today it is not uncommon to see church members who have made no progress in their faith or knowledge of it in the twenty to thirty years or more they have been in the church; and in the main it is simply because they have refused to endeavour to understand the enormous advances that have been made in Biblical scholarship and research. The result is: "When for the time they ought to be teachers, they have need that one teach them again the first principles of the oracles of God."

      We learn also from Acts 2 that the first church was

      It not only looked after its own, but it was concerned for the outsider. In this it followed the pattern of its Lord; for it was as Jesus lived among men and got alongside their needs, that He attracted them to Him.

      All around us are human casualties which ministers are finding themselves inadequate to meet. On every hand there are desperately lonely people, and the doors of too many Christian homes are closed to all but the intimate. The Kingdom would be better demonstrated by the calibre of committed Christians who go out of their way to show concern for the lost, the lonely, the mentally sick, and the spiritually dead.

      Also we find in Acts 2 that the first church was

      One could not begin, in the time allowed, to summarise the immense mass of Scripture that bears on the vital connection between the Holy Spirit and the Church--that Spirit by which they were: "sealed unto the day of redemption"; by which they tasted the powers of the age to come"; by which they "witnessed that Jesus is Lord"; and by which they produced the fruits of the Spirit. It is only as the church today recognises Christ as the Living Lord doing His work through the power of the Holy Spirit that she can become a committed church. Bishop Lesslie Newbigin in "The Household of Faith" says: ". . . the Church lives neither by her faithfulness to her message, nor her abiding in one fellowship with the Apostles; she lives by the living power of the Spirit of God . . . All that is done without Him is counterfeit--an empty shell, having the form of a church but not its life. A body may have all the outward form of a church and preach the true doctrine of the Church and yet be dead; and on the other hand, the living Spirit can and does give his own life to bodies which lack the fulness of the Church's true order and teaching."

      Ralph Sockman was taken to task once by a neighbouring minister because on his noticeboard appeared the following: 11 a.m. Dr. Sockman: "Christ's Chief Competitor."

      Christ's chief competitor today may be the minister or the congregation that puts everything else before the Kingdom of Christ.

      PRAYER: O God, make us aware not only of the opportunities you have placed within our grasp, but also of the Power that is at our disposal to meet this challenging day through the Holy Spirit. Renew the faith and witness of your people, and make us all ministers of the Grace of Christ to a needy world. Amen.

Reading--Rev. 2:18-29.
THE PERIL OF COMPROMISE

      In the English-speaking world today, the tide of religion is at the ebb. On every hand there is cynicism; and the voice of the church is seldom heard in the councils of men. Even in America where churches are filled to capacity, and revivals hit the headlines, and religious themes dominate the movies, the television and even the pop-songs, it is probably true to say with one writer that "religion in particular has been supplanted by religion in general."

      From observations it would seem that, with all the show of religious faith, the concept of the Eternal is of a God who is kindly disposed, and who can be manipulated by prayers and other techniques -the God envisaged in such songs as: Just a Closer Walk, Beyond the Sunset, Mansion Over the Hilltop, The Man Upstairs, etc.

      Common man no longer sees any noticeable difference between the church and any other organisation that has for its objective the moral uplift of society.

      Here, precisely, is the picture presented in the Revelation of the church at Thyatira. It was the least important of all the churches addressed in the Revelation, yet, to this church was written the longest letter.

      The great menace to the church was the numerous Trade Guilds. The person who refused was not only boycotted, but sometimes took his life in his hands. The guilds of Thyatira were associated with idolatry. Their meetings began and ended with prayers to the gods, and they became centres of drunken orgies and lax morals.

      In the church at Thyatira there were those who asked: "Why shouldn't we join the guilds?" "Why sacrifice good business by remaining out of them?"

      It is ever the temptation of the church to identify itself with secular cultures instead of standing outside of them. In other words, the church's danger is the world in the church rather than the church in the world. The church may be a veritable hive of energy, with something going on every day and night in the week, and still not be the church; that is--a challenge to the community with its purity of life and its zeal for Christ.

      The church is being constantly told to accommodate itself to the standards of modern thinking. No doubt we have done a lot of woolly thinking in the past, and may need very much to modernise our message or the presentation of it, but the church that compromises on its moral and spiritual standards is doomed to the judgment of Him who appears with "eyes that penetrate and feet that crush."

      The danger of conformity is a real one in our complex society, where young people are particularly vulnerable to low standards of morals in the community, and where they face the grim alternatives of being ridiculed for Victorian morals or surrendering to the Jezebels who counsel compromise.

      We give thanks to God for young people who refuse to yield to the

false use of their affections; who will have no part in weddings where liquor flows; who will not associate with the ungodly revelries that surround the observation of the great Christian festival of Christmas, and who will not indulge in gambling in any shape or form.

      These may not appear big things in the ultimate living out of the Christian life in a society that so desperately needs the love of Christ in demonstration, but they are the beginning of the slide away from Him.

      In Christ, we have been raised to a new life that looks to a city whose builder and maker is God. But we have to live that life here, and that means positive qualities of love, patience, mercy, meekness plus the standards of Christian morals and conduct.

      The Christian's greatest contribution to the welfare of this present world is to live as a citizen of Heaven, and that means living beyond compromise.

      He would be naive indeed who imagined that one could not be a Christian and belong to these institutions; but this must be said, that a Christian who finds better fellowship in his lodge or society than he does amongst his brethren in the church, should seriously examine his relationship to Jesus Christ and his brethren. Conformity to this world's standards is no mark of the committed Christian.

      Studdert Kennedy in "The Wicket Gate" tells of an explorer who brought back a chameleon which his household affectionately named Billy the Lizard. The explorer left Billy in charge of his butler who showed him to his many friends and associates. When the explorer returned, he asked how Billy was. "Well, sir," said the butler, "it was like this. We put Billy on to green baize and he turned green as Ireland. We put him on red flannel and he turned as red as Russia. Then some fool put him on a patchwork quilt, and poor Billy bust."

      Says Kennedy: "The world we live in is a patchwork quilt, a bewildering complex . . . patched with the colours of the rainbow, and we madly try to adapt ourselves to its complexities. We change our characters according to the company we keep."

      Anyone walking into the church at Thyatira would have thought it surging with life. Even the Jezebel of a woman may have been attractive to some, but the church did not deceive her Lord. Let the church be the church in the world, and keep the world out of the church!

      PRAYER: O God, Thou host made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee. Keep us from the sin of offering to Thee less than the best that we can be. Let not our contacts with the world stain us with the sin of compromise. Give us the courage to own Christ, and to be uncomprisingly His servants. For His sake we pray. Amen.

Reading--Rev. 3:1-6.
A DEGENERATE CHURCH

      Leonard Griffith, of City Temple, tells of a novelist who began a novel with the words: "It was noon by the courthouse clock, and the church on the corner was giving up its dead." The church at Sardis fitted that description. Sardis was once the prosperous capital of the Province of Lydia. One of its greatest kings was the legendary figure Croesus, the wealthiest king who

ever reigned. Sardis' wealth was equally legendary. No good works are ascribed to this church. It degenerated with the luxury of the community. The church was not under attack from without. It was not charged with heresy. In short, it was too dead for even the Devil to worry about. Jesus said it had a reputation for being alive, but it was dead.

      We tend to assess the vitality of a church by the numbers that attend its services; or we enumerate its auxiliaries--the women's activities; the size of the Church-School or the Christian Youth Fellowship, etc. Measured by this standard Sardis would receive one hundred per cent. But it is not only what people do IN church that is important, but what they do AFTER church--that is, the impact of our worship on our lives, and through them to the community.

      When a church is concerned only for its own institutions: when the local work takes on a greater importance than the world-wide outlook of the Christian Faith, that church is ready to die.

      Many of us have read the book or seen the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai", and will remember that it was about British troops in a Japanese camp, who were compelled to build a bridge to facilitate enemy movements. For the sake of the morale of his troops the British colonel insists on them building an efficient bridge. He becomes so obsessed with the material structure that he loses sight of the purpose of the bridge, and the whole conduct of the war, and when a higher Allied authority moves into the area to blow up the bridge, the colonel almost frustrated the plans. He saw only the immediate objective, and not the place of the bridge in the whole war. Commenting on this story, Leonard Griffith says that the church that sees only its local sphere of activity is dead while it stands. He also tells of an African business man who made this statement: "Many congregations spend so much of their total effort on costly shrines, they have little strength left for their spiritual mission. In a world madly preparing to blow itself to Hell; in a world wherein dwell billions of desperate needy, our churches have every responsibility to get on with the main work of Christ which is building houses not made with hands."

      We are probably not spending more on ourselves than the growing demands of the local church, but in making ourselves comfortable we are in danger of losing interest in the Church's main task of evangelism at home and abroad. The warning to the degenerate church is: Watch!

      This was particularly appropriate to Sardis, because it had twice been caught napping. In 549 B.C. Cyrus in laying siege to Sardis offered a reward to any soldier who could find a way into this seemingly impregnable fortress on unscalable heights. A soldier saw one of the defenders drop a helmet over the wall of Sardis, and climb down to retrieve it. Where that soldier could go so could others; so Sardis was taken from the unguarded side which men thought impregnable. History repeated itself in 218 B.C. That city was not protected on the side it thought inviolable.

      Neither the Church nor her members can afford to have unguarded places. The Christian is continually under attack from those who would seduce him from his loyalty. "Watch and Pray" was the injunction of our Lord. A moment of passion; of overconfidence; of relaxed control, or lack of resolution will lead to disaster. William Barclay says: "We must never forget that while we are watching, the Lord is watching us as he watched the church at Sardis. He expects that our love for Him will issue in service. He expects that His Church will not worship bricks and mortar, when He died on the Cross for souls."

      It is not easy to be a Christian

today where the University student is considered queer if he has a sense of vocation, and keeps himself unspotted from the world; where one is expected to be in the "Ban the Bomb" wagon, but need not be too concerned about private morals; where every incentive is offered to a life without God, but the Christian must be ready for anything; for failure of the Christian means damage to the Church.

      Sardis worshipped wealth. By contrast the church in Philadelphia was poor, but grasped her missionary opportunities, and kept faith with the purpose of her Lord . . . Philadelphia survived, but Sardis disappeared. It deserved to lose its candlestick. So does every church that is so obsessed with self-preservation that it cannot see the wideopen doors of opportunity in a disillusioned and needy world.

      There are innumerable concerns to which we may give our devotion, but the Church is in danger of neglecting the "ONE THING NEEDFUL" which is to learn of Christ and become his ambassadors.

      To be concerned is to become involved; to be committed! How much are the auxiliaries in your church community involved in the Church's programme of evangelism? What is the chief end of their existence? Is the Church more interested in statistics than in being Christ's faithful, loving, attractive people? If so, the sooner it dies the better!

      It is high noon by the clock in the Court of the Eternal and the Church in . . . is pouring out its--WHAT?

      PRAYER: O God, forbid that we should be so caught up with our own interests, and with the desire to succeed, that we fail to show Christ to the world. Give us a holy dissatisfaction with material success, and enlarge our vision of the opportunities awaiting us to demonstrate the love of Christ to mankind. Forgive our false pride and faithlessness, and make our lives glow with our yearning to reach out to men with the love and spirit of the Master. Let men see our good works and glorify Thee our Father in Heaven. Amen.

      INVOCATION: Our Father, we pause to worship Thee. We have no adequate words to express our gratitude for all Thy blessings, nor to praise Thee--the Most High, for this great fellowship. Receive our humble offerings of devotion through Him whose prayer is our pattern. Our Father . . .

      In times of declension, one word is most often on the lips of ardent Christians. It is the world REVIVAL, which means: to live again; or to restore the dying spark of life. Spurgeon used to say that revival is only possible to that which has a degree of life; for you cannot revive what is dead. He disagreed intensely with those who thought that revival could be "worked up." To him, revival was not the outcome of excitement of crowded meetings; of stamping of the feet, but the outcome of prayer and the proclamation of truth.

      Many today are suspicious of the very word revival, because it is so often associated with effervescent hysteria or passion out of control. Perhaps a better word would be RENEWAL, but whichever word is used to describe the Church's need for commitment, there is a recipe for it in the Acts of the Apostles, in chapter eight.

      The first ingredient in the recipe is

      "There was a great persecution

against the church that was in Jerusalem." The memory of that terrible outburst of hate, and of his own part in it, haunted Paul to the end of his days. He himself tells us that he made havoc of the church. That word "havoc" describes sadistic and brutal cruelty. It was used of an animal ravaging a body. So Paul "laid waste the church." Every phrase emphasises the relentless thoroughness of his persecution of the Christians. But violence defeated its own ends; for, we read: "they that were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word." Instead of stamping out the fire, the persecutors spread the sparks and started new fires.

      The more the winds of adversity blow, the brighter burns the church's flame. Under fire, the church became missionary. During the last Great War, institutionalised Christianity came to an end in Europe. Churches were seized and turned into government offices, variety theatres and the like.

      Ministers were ordered to leave their parishes, and national pastors were put in their places. But the door-keepers refused to open the churches that were still permitted to function. The organists refused to play their organs, and the congregations refused to take part in the services conducted by the national pastors. In the place of organised power came the power of the Holy Spirit, and the clandestine church moved into Siberia; into the Ukraine; into the forests, cellars and orange groves. These, it has been said, became the new catacombs.

      It is my own opinion, for what it is worth, that nothing of a lasting revival or renewal will come to the Christian Church while our Christianity represents so little of sacrifice or suffering for Christ's sake--just so long as Christians are not wholly committed. The church needs to come under fire. At present, she is treated with indifference because there seems no reason to attack her. When the church gets on the offensive, she will soon find she is on the defensive fighting for her life.

      A second ingredient in this recipe for revival found in this chapter of the Acts is:

      Philip, one of the seven who did the work of a deacon, was not content with handing out charity. He decided to make a greater witness, and carried the gospel into the enemy lines, winning many of the despised Samaritans. That revival was the work of an untrained preacher who was "full of the Holy Spirit."

      Stephen, another church-officer, bearded the lion in his den, and it cost him his life. Peter and John, who were forbidden to preach, defied authorities, and they not only suffered imprisonment, but they also lost their Jewish prejudices and gave their blessing to the work among the Samaritans.

      The most timid Christian can speak for his Lord, if not eloquently, at least he can open his mouth to the influence of the Holy Spirit. All that is needed is a faith strong enough, and a love great enough, with a willingness to be used. The best evangelism in the world is personal evangelism. The Church needs Elders, Deacons, Preachers and Laymen with the courage of their convictions.

      A third ingredient in the revival of the church is

      Acts 8 tells how the church dealt with error. One of the converts who had been credited with occult powers, and had brought the city to his feet, seems to have felt that the work of the Apostles was just a step above his own trickery, and he tried to buy the secret. He was exposed, and brought to repentance. We wonder what would happen to the modern minister who had the courage to face his worldly church

member with a promise of excommunication unless he repented. Do we need to wonder? This is what would happen! The guilty one would leave the congregation in a high dudgeon declaring: "I'll never darken the doors of that church again until they get rid of that preacher." One imagines that most preachers would breathe a sigh of relief at the departure. But Simon did not act so. He repented of his sin; was prayed for; and restored to faith.

      Discipline is a lost art, but a necessary one. We have to confess with shame that the general standard of Christian witness has been so lowered, we have reached the position where we make apology for rogues, and few are in a position to do any of the disciplining. In consequence, even immoral practices are winked at because some one high up may be involved or offended; or because someone with the wherewithal can call the tune.

      The best discipline is always self-discipline.

      One often hears the prayer from fervent lips: Lord send a revival and let it begin in me. If that means anything at all, it means self-discipline.

      The final ingredient in this recipe for revival is

      A mother, busy working in her home, did not notice for some time that her three-year-old had disappeared. A search proved of no avail, and at the end of two days it was suggested that a child so small could not have wandered more than a mile! so they joined hands to make a sweep, and on the second sweep found the body of the child in a gully where it had fallen, Wringing her hands the mother could only cry: "Why didn't you join hands sooner?"

      In view of the shocking losses to the church over the years, the church's Lord might well ask us that question, Perhaps we will not become united with others until we are forced into it for survival; but of greater moment is the desperate need for unity within our own ranks. This challenging day demands that we cease trying to be so terribly right--and so lacking in love and the milk of human kindness. We tear each other to shreds if we find any who dare to think differently from our accepted theories and traditions.

      Here then is the recipe for a revival. A church under fire; a church with courageous leaders; a church with disciplined members and a church united to evangelise and to save them that are lost. Such a church will be equipped to meet this challenging day.

      PRAYER: O Lord, we pray for Thy church universal: that she may be guided into truth; and so present the truth to all mankind that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Where Thy church is in error purge her; where she is right strengthen her and endow her with love. Where there is division give new opportunities for healing the breaches. If trial should come, keep her children faithful, and enrich their fellowship with Christ. Make her strong in her witness to all men that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God. For Jesus' sake. Amen.