June 26, 2005 Sermon

NLCC IV: Scripture
II Timothy 3:10-17

Evil has horrific power. It can tear us away from Christ in a heartbeat. The Bible can keep us on the right track. But we have to know the Bible for its protection to work for us. Know your Bible.

He came into this world in Lynn , Indiana , a farm-to-market town fifteen miles north of my birthplace, Richmond . In 1953 he graduated from IU, where my wife, Linda, and I attended. He went on to Butler College , where our daughter Laura will begin in a few weeks, and took a master’s degree in New Testament. The summer of 1954 the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, ordained him a minister of the Gospel. He started serving a tiny church on the south, or black, side of Indianapolis .

Within ten years his congregation had over 900 members. Blacks and whites worshipped together; then they went out to feed the hungry, house the homeless and fight for civil rights. He won a seat on the Indianapolis City Council. But early on the seeds of evil began to sprout within him. He developed a dread of nuclear war. In those days everybody worried about the bomb; his fear became an obsession. It dominated his thoughts and kept him from sleeping. Paranoia took root in his spirit. He searched for a safe spot, a place where even if thermonuclear war erupted, he and his followers might survive. He chose Ukiah, California, a small town 100 miles north of San Francisco in which Linda and I once lived (albeit 15 years after him).

He started a new church. Immediately it mushroomed, drawing blacks, whites, Hispanic farm workers, hippies who lived in the mountains. His passion for justice led him to start important ministries for migrant workers and battered wives. But his mind became ever more twisted by evil. He became antagonistic toward any authority outside himself.

Attracted by socialism, he started a colony in which people lived out his vision of utopia. Word filtered into town of certain offbeat practices out at the commune: group marriages, group child-rearing, weird rituals that included acting out mass deaths. Even in California in the early ‘70s these rumors troubled the community. The sheriff investigated. The pastor-leader sought the anonymity of the city. He led his group first to San Francisco , then to Los Angeles . But allegations of tax evasion and selling drugs to fund the church forced him to move one more time. He settled on a 4,000 acre patch of jungle in South America , and by now some of you have figured out that we speak of Jim Jones, founder of Jonestown.

Jones developed a belief in what he called Translation, the idea that all pure believers in God (as Jones understood God) should die and enter heaven together. Those ritualistic mass deaths were actually dry runs for the real deal. The law caught up with Jones again in 1978, when Congressman Leo Ryan led a delegation to Jonestown. As Ryan and his staff prepared to leave, 16 Jonestown residents begged him to take them away in his airplane. A squad from Jones’ private security force witnessed this attempted escape and opened fire, killing Ryan, three members of the press and one of the would-be escapees.

Jones knew it would not take long for the U.S. military to respond. He decided the time had come to “translate” to God. He commanded his people to perform the death ritual. Most obeyed, committing suicide by knowingly drinking poison. A few had to be shot. A very few survived and have told the world the truth: Jim Jones, a gifted, compassionate leader, lost his mind and his soul to evil. He started as a minister of Christ but ended as a paranoid lusting for personal power. He wanted to prove his power by having hundreds obey his order to kill themselves.

If Jim Jones had stuck with what he learned in his New Testament classes at Butler , Jonestown would never have happened. If his followers had known the Bible, Jonestown would never have happened. What evil do you suppose you might prevent by knowing your Bible?

Mass suicide does not happen every day. Your Bible knowledge likely will never face such massive evil. And much evil seems random, impossible to predict or prevent. The disappearance of that girl in Aruba fits this category. But much evil would be thwarted if only people knew the Word of God.

Our passage from II Timothy says exactly this: knowing Scripture prevents much evil. At the Northern Lakes Community Church we have built the Bible into the core of our ministry. Our mission statement reads, in part, that we pray that all we do will be scriptural. We hold ourselves accountable to the teachings of the Bible. Every slice of church life must conform to the will of God as we find it in the word of God. How we do childcare in the nursery; how we conduct business at elder, deacon and staff meetings; how we decide where to use our financial and personal resources: these and all other decisions must fit scripture.

The Apostle Paul wrote II Timothy as advice to a young protégé. He starts our verses with the honest observation that evil people will always oppose true followers of Jesus. Evil people will always persecute godly people. But Paul turns aside from describing how evil works to focus instead on how to stay on the path to Christ. “Continue what you have learned and have firmly believed,” he tells Timothy (and us). “You have been acquainted with the sacred writings which can instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” In other words, know your Bible and keep believing in Jesus, and you will stay protected from evil.

Many of Jim Jones’ followers took him at his word. After all, he had a graduate degree in New Testament. And he had charisma, that indefinable it that caused people to follow him. He told them to trust his teachings. He urged them not to worry about learning the Bible themselves; instead, they were to focus on performing the works of mercy for which his ministry received just praise. Look where that got them.

I urge this church to know its Bible. Yes, perform works of mercy! Yes, seek justice for the downtrodden! Yes, embrace all kinds of people in our fellowship: rich and poor, old and young, progressive and conservative!

But NO—do not leave the Bible to the “professionals”. Know your Bible. Read it. Read it in the company of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Attend one of our Bible studies. And read it for yourself.

Learn your Bible. Open it and read it. If you are a rank beginner, start with the Gospel of Luke and continue with the book of Acts. Read as you wake up each day and/or as you go to sleep. And read your Bible in the company of your fellow believers.

Come to Sunday School. We offer two adult classes that focus on Bible study.

We meet from 7-8:00 a.m. every Tuesday at the Flap Jack Shack to study the Bible. Currently we’re working our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Join us! Or try our Wednesday morning, 9:00 a.m. Bible study at which we study the passage on which I will preach the following Sunday. Join us! Or try a small group in which you will likely dig into Scripture with a study book. Or try our First Place program on Saturdays, in which weight loss and support team up with Bible study.

We live in opposition to evil. It exists everywhere, all the time. It springs up even in Lynn , Indiana . College girls get kidnapped on tropical islands. Divorce destroys marriages. Faithless people bully believers. Unless you know Scripture, how can you resist all this evil? Know your Bible. Resist evil.