A Men’s Ministry Men Want to Know (Part 12): To Do God’s Good Works, We Must Be Open to Biblical Rebuke

Previous posts in this series have been incorporated into Part 2 of my online article, “A Comprehensive Church-Based Ministry to Men.”

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for…rebuking. 2 Timothy 3:16

As we proceed along our road for “getting there,” — that is, to the place where we are equipped to do all of God’s good works — our next waypoint is the importance of being open to scriptural rebuke. For if we are unwilling to admit when we are wrong and are deviating from the Word, then we will most certainly permanently go astray.

But biblical rebuke is not fun. Here is one of my experiences of how the Bible rebuked me.

My one foray into civil disobedience did not end well

“Mommy, why is pastor Herb sitting in the back of that police car?”

“I don’t know, honey.” The mother grabbed her little girl’s hand and almost dragged her towards the theater entrance. “Hurry, we’re going to be late for the movie.”

The story of how I wound up with my hands in handcuffs behind my back in the back seat of a police car that was parked in front of our local AMC Classic Quincy 6 family theater in Quincy, Illinois on a Friday night begins that morning around 6 am.

I was eating my usual bowl of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar in the deli section of Hy-Vee Grocery Store and reading the newspaper. This was back when people read actual physical newspapers. I came across an article about a new movie, “Showgirls.” It was rated NC-17, featured full frontal nudity and it starred a girl that was well known to underage children as a TV personality. It was showing in theaters nationwide.

I was shocked. I had never heard of an NC-17 rating before, but it sure sounded like pornography to me.

But I soon went on to read other articles and quickly forgot about it.

I couldn’t believe an NC-17 movie was being shown at our family theater

That evening my oldest son asked me to take him and his friend to see a movie and I said I would. When we drove up to our one and only movie theater in town, AMC Classic Quincy 6, I saw the marquee and on it were listed the six movies being screened, including the one we came to see. But the movie that jumped out at me the most was “Showgirls.”

Suddenly, everything I read about it came flooding back.

After the boys and I entered AMC and sat down in our theater and waited for our movie to begin, I started getting angry at the thought of a pornographic movie being shown in our family theater and I decided to do something about it.

I got up, left the boys to watch the movie, went out into the lobby and began preaching against Showgirls at the top of my lungs.

Not satisfied with that, and realizing that Showgirls was about to begin, I marched into that theater, went down to the front, and faced the audience. There were less than a dozen attendees present. I told them they may as well go home, because I was there to make sure Showgirls didn’t play. Then I began preaching at them.

Two police officers arrested me

It took about five minutes for the police to show up. There were two of them. They walked down to the front and stood next to me as I preached. After a few seconds of me ignoring them, they told me to stop. But I continued to ignore them and kept on preaching. Again they told me to stop. I still ignored them and continued to preach. Finally, one them grabbed my right wrist as I jabbed my arm out to make a rhetorical point. He twisted it down behind my back and put handcuffs on me.

I stopped preaching.

Silently, the two officers, one on each arm, marched me out of the theater and put me in the back of one of their police cars that was parked in front. I sat there for several minutes as the officers talked with the theater manager.

During the brief ride to the police station, I chatted with one of the police officers as he drove and explained why I had done what I had done. He, in turn, reminded me that there was something called freedom of speech in America and theaters had a right to exercise it.

“I have a right to exercise my free speech too.” I countered.

They told me that, yes, I had a right to my free speech. But there were lawful ways to exercise it and trying to stop a movie by preaching in a theater wasn’t one of them.

I expected a mug shot, finger prints, and a cell when we arrived at the station, but instead, the officer just sat me down in a room where I remained alone for an hour. I was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass and bail was set at $40. Since I didn’t have enough cash on me to pay the bail, and my son and his friend were still back at the theater, they let me call the chairman of the board at my church (It was before cell phones and my wife wasn’t home.) to come and bail me out and another church member to pick up the boys at the theater.

Over 500 people showed up to peacefully protest the movie

To say that word spreads rapidly in small towns would be an understatement when describing Quincy’s reaction to what I had done. In a small midwestern town where a PTA meeting can headline the local TV news, the arrest of a pastor protesting a movie featuring nudity shot across Quincy like a sonic boom. On Saturday, pastors began calling me and saying they agreed with what I had done and that we needed to organize a mass demonstration.

So we did. We planned the demonstration for the following day, Sunday, after church at 1 PM in front of the theater. We preached about it from our pulpits and then invited our congregations to show up and protest.

And they did. Somewhere between five hundred to a thousand people arrived and demonstrated for two hours. We covered the entire block-long sidewalk in front of the theater. News of the demonstration even made the local news in St. Lewis.

I experienced rebuke from the Word of God like I had never experienced before

I woke up Monday morning feeling pretty proud of myself. After all, hadn’t I stood up for morality and decency and led a demonstration that made an impact on the entire city?

But around 10 am that morning, something dramatic happened. A passage from the Bible seeped into my consciousness.

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.” (Romans 13:1-5)

Suddenly, a deep sense of guilt spread through me like I had just bitten into a hot pepper. My Bible was doing its work. It was showing me clearly in black and white that what I had done was wrong. Civil disobedience is not an option for Christians today. “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Jesus said to Pilate (John 18:36).

I immediately repented of my sin and confessed it to God. The following Sunday I stood up in my pulpit and confessed my sin to my congregation. I explained that while it is appropriate to lawfully protest a movie, breaking the law to do it is not. Then I preached a sermon on Romans 13:1-5.

The Bible is full of examples of believers being rebuked

Biblical rebuke is a normal experience in the Christian life. In fact, if we have never sensed the Bible rebuking us, something may be wrong with our walk with the Lord. There are many examples of God, or God’s representatives, rebuking believers in the Bible. Here are some of them.

Peter (3 times!)

(1) From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Far be it from You, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!” But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Matthew 16:21-23

(2) Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. Matthew 26:33-35

(3) When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? Galatians 2:11-14

Paul

Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” Those who were standing near Paul said, “How dare you insult God’s high priest!” Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’ Acts 23:1-5

Moses

“Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.The Lord said to Moses,“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” Numbers 20:6-12

David

“Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 2 Samuel 12:7-9

The entire church in Galatia

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Galatians 3:1-3

The entire church at Corinth (one of many rebukes)

If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers! 1 Corinthians 6:1-6

Doing good can go to our heads

We should not be surprised, then, when we sense that we are being rebuked by the Word of God. In fact, we should expect it. The problem with doing good is that it can engender a sense of pride. And pride, in turn, can keep us from seeing that we may be attempting to do good in the wrong way.

We must fight to replace the temptation to be proud of our good by remembering that the good we are doing is simply obedience to God’s will and God’s Word. That is, we are just doing what we are supposed to be doing, as Jesus teaches in Luke 17:

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Luke 17:7-10

So, yes, I now have a rap sheet…and a new credo

My Credo

As a Christian, I am not engaged in the process of making America Christian, but in the process of making Americans Christian.

The first is political coercion. The second is the Great Commission.

The first is cultural warfare with flesh and blood. The second is spiritual warfare with Satan himself.

The first is Christians grabbing power and not letting go the way one clutches a live wire with a spasm’d fist…and dies. The second is Christians relinquishing power…and living out the life Christ.

The first always results in the corruption of the church. The second, the multiplication of the church.

The first forces people to obey the law of God through the laws of men. The second disciples Christians to obey the law of God out of love for God.

The first results in the society’s repudiation of the church the way one vomits a foreign object. The second results in the penetration of the church throughout society the way salt permeates a bowl of soup and seasons it.

The first is ugly Christians doing ugly things. The second is the beauty of meekness in the church that adorns the gospel.

The first is self-defeating. The second cannot be defeated.

The Great Commission

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

Our Real Battle

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

Salt and Light

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:13-14

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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