67 :: Carmel Baptist Church

Today we worshipped at Carmel Baptist Church in Matthews, North Carolina. This is yet another gigantic Baptist church in Charlotte. And this one also has a school as part of its campus, Carmel Christian School. 

As we so often point out, we have driven past this church for decades now. I have been inside the church before. I took the boys here for the Christmas Spectacular back in 2005. I used to do Christmas Spectaculars with some regularity back when the boys were little. The one at Carmel Baptist was very solid. 

Capturing the full scale of the church and school is very hard to do, as it's a simply massive place. There appear to be no aerial views of the church on the internet. But here are the pictures that give you a sense of the scale of the place.

The video accounts for a small segment of the campus, but it shows most of the main building.

This church has three services - 8 am, 9:30 am and 11 am. We went to the first service. It was at 8 am. As has been observed many times by this blog, the churches that are part of the Southern Baptist Convention are undergoing massive changes. There is a major effort for Baptist churches to reinvent themselves in both format and style. Because of this, many of the Baptist churches I have visited don't use the word "Baptist" in their name.

Carmel Baptist Church does.

The 8 am service was actually well-attended. I think that the sanctuary can seat at least two-thousand people. There were probably five hundred in attendance. That's a solid number of people for an 8 am service.

The music was great, even though it was a bit more staid than we might be used to at this point. The worship leader is Australian, giving the performance a bit of a Hillsong vibe. You will notice in the foreground that the band is more animated than the congregation itself. This is something I have observed is the case at most of the Baptist churches that I have attended - a general reticence to lift their hands during worship. Two exceptions have been Mercy Church and Citizens Church, both of which have very young congregations.

The sermon was excellent, given by Pastor Alex Kennedy [link]. 

The sermon was on Acts 8.

Here is the full text, read the whole thing:

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8 And Saul approved of their killing him.

The Church Persecuted and Scattered

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. ² Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. ³ But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Philip in Samaria

⁴ Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. ⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. ⁶ When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. ⁷ For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.

Simon the Sorcerer

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵ After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Philip and the Ethiopian

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So, he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”^[b]

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” ^[37] [38] And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

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These are important points that Pastor Kennedy extrapolated out into really interesting ideas.

The point that I was so impressed with was when Pastor Kennedy pointed out that there is a subtext of racial reconciliation in these verses. This is because it shows Jews and Samaritans undergoing a common transformation after Yeshua was resurrected.

And Samaritans and Jews were two peoples with a common ancestry and common disdain for each other.

In the history of the Jewish people, there have been multiple captivities during which they have lived in a diaspora. Egypt is one of the most well-known, where Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt. Perhaps slightly less well-known is the Babylonian Captivity, during which the Jews were conquered and a large number of their people were brought to Babylon. This happened in the late 6th century BC. 

As the Northern Kingdom of Samaria established itself and the Southern Kingdom of Judea re-established themselves after the Babylonian Captivity, there was an antagonism that arose from the fact that the Samaritans had mixed their blood with Babylonians. The Jews in Judea had not co-mingled with non-Jews. 

In essence, Samaritans were half breeds in the eyes of the Jews. And Jews were the enemy to many Samaritans.

In some sources I have read, the antagonism is described as a form of hatred.

There was an ethnic drift that took place between the previously unified community of ancient Jews. Samaritans and Jews had branched from each other in terms of their ethnic makeup, even though both Samaritans and Jews are all ancestors of the twelve sons of Jacob (the man whose name was eventually changed to "Israel" - which means "struggles with God").

When this is a known facet of the dynamic between groups in the ancient Middle East, it informs how you read some of the stories in the Bible.

Yeshua told the parable of the man who had been beaten, robbed and left by the side of the road to die. Who helped this young Hebrew? A Samaritan did. 

The Samaritan put aside any of the ethnic hatred he had been taught and saw the injured man as a fellow human... he saw someone in need.

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The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

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A Samaritan helping a Jew! Fellow Jews ignored the man and walked past him. 

This is a picture of compassionate reconciliation between people despite the divisions that the world had fostered between them. 

It was also an indictment of the Jewish Priests and Levites who were the ecclesiastical authority of the day - people that Jesus called liars, vipers and hypocrites (He was not a fan).

A second story where this as a subtext is the meeting of Yeshua and the woman at the well. She was a Samaritan, He was a Jew.

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Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

..............

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.”

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Again, there is a subtext of transcending divisions in both of these stories. The characters were being coaxed out of their ingrained enmity by the Risen One. The characters were taught to go beyond their mundane concerns and connect with each other as children of God. 

The Risen One called them (and now, calls us) to meet in the broad field of unity that is called the Body of Christ.

Indeed, we are one - as stated in Galatians 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ."

A lesson two thousand years ago, and certainly a lesson today.

Now back to the Book of Acts, chapter 8. 

Phillip, a Jew, traveled to Samaria to share the Good News with the Samaritans.

Phillip then encountered an Ethiopian eunuch during which the Good News was imparted to the East African. The Holy Spirit had moved Phillip across a point of division that was immediately transcended. 

Then Phillip baptized the Ethiopian man.

This is one of many such connections that brought Orthodox Christianity to Ethiopia nearly two thousand years ago. 

A few weeks ago, I worshipped with Ethiopian Christians. I, someone whose ancestry is almost exclusively from the British Isles, shared both prayer and community with other Christians who all hail from East Africa. It happened on Idlewild Road here in Charlotte.

What lavish love is it that brings people of disparate backgrounds into a common faith in the news of an Empty Grave on which the entirety of the universe pivoted?

Indeed, we are one in Christ.

Such revelations happen time and again.

Such lavish love...

May we all stay bound together in unity through sufferings of all sorts, infused with a sense of joy.

Such extravagant love.

After the sermon was over, we all took communion. I very much enjoy doing that with Beth.

Then we went to Freedom House later in the morning and had a great worship. I got a ticket for parking poorly in South End. Someone from the first service saw my Freedom House sticker and left the cash equivalent of the ticket amount, along with a note that said, "Happy Sunday. Meter maids suck."

Made me smile!

Indeed, who are we that a King would leave His position of glory and die for us?

Who, indeed?

Amen.