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Manchester South SDA Church

Identity Theft

Adam Ramdin

1. Origin, Purpose and Destiny of Adventism in Revelation

If you have a Bible, please open to Revelation.

I like the subject of identity theft or identity in general.

I think understanding where we come from is an important question that we often get asked in life.

If you have a complicated background, answering that question you always have to think twice and always have to try and second guess what the person asking the question is really asking when they ask the question, who are you or where do you come from?

Growing up here in this country, even though I was born and raised here, neither of my parents were born or raised in England.

So when I was asked where do I come from or who am I well are you asking me the town I live in the street I live on are you asking me what passport I hold?

Are you asking me where my parents come from?

Are you asking me the question because you think I look different to you?

And all These questions flow through your mind in a split second.

When you kind of get asked who are you or where do you come from.

Growing up as a child of first generation immigrants, some of you would fit into that category, it was always drilled into us that we came from where our parents came from.

And that was explicitly drilled into our head and to say anything different would be to deny our birthright, so to speak.

You would say you come from this country, even though you've never been there, maybe.

People struggle with it, as to answer that question as to who we are.

But the theme this week is identity What?

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer as we start.

Father in heaven, we pray that you would speak to our hearts.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me at this time.

I pray, Lord, that your word may be clear and I pray Lord that your Holy Spirit would pierce through and touch our hearts.

Now if you were to steal something from somebody, hypothetically, I would think somebody, hypothetically.

I would think there are certain people from whom it's easier to steal from than others.

On the screen there behind me you can see a picture of a guitar.

It's a guitar that my wife owns and sometimes plays.

It's a mini guitar, it's not a full guitar, but it's not as small as an ukulele, it's not as big as a guitar, it's kind of like somewhere in the middle.

Her uncle gave her the guitar and said, you know, here you are, if you want to learn to play, play this.

Now if you were to steal this guitar from our house, let's say I invite you around, you come to our house and enjoy some fellowship and as you're leaving or as you're packing the car, you pack my wife's guitar in your car as you go, we would notice pretty quickly that you'd stolen our guitar.

The reason being, there's only 1 in our house.

Now my wife's uncle who gave her the guitar, I don't know how many guitars he has.

He plays ukulele, he plays, I don't know if you say professionally, he plays all the time.

He converted his basement into a 60-seater basement, and they have guitar concerts, whatever you call it.

He probably has 30 or 40 guitars lying around his house, of all shapes and sizes.

If you wanted to steal 1 of his, he may not notice straight away.

Now, if you were to come to my house and look on 1 of these bookshelves and say, huh, there's a book I like, I think I'll take it.

I don't have that many books, but I know all the books on my shelf.

And I've got them, maybe I'm a little bit, what's the word, OCD.

These are my books on Daniel, Revelation, Sanctuary, Reformation history, Adventist history.

If you were to pick 1 off and take it with you I would know.

But let's say you went to the Manchester University Library and you slipped 1 of their books off and took the tag out and put it in your bag.

It would probably be a lot longer before someone noticed because there's that many more there.

My point is, it's easier to steal from someone who has more than from someone who has little.

Identity theft, we're talking about us as Adventists, we're talking about us as Christians, We're talking about us living in this world today and how our identity might be taken away from us.

Do we have a lot or do we have a little as Christian Seventh-day Adventists in this world today?

In fact the Bible even says that we have a lot.

There's a famous verse we hear it quoted oftentimes in Adventist churches from week to week or from month to month or from quarter to quarter.

Revelation 3 and verse 17 where the Bible says, Because thou sayest I am what?

The Bible describes us as a rich people that have many goods and we don't feel a lack of anything.

Could it be that we're so rich that we're losing things around our identity and it doesn't even bother us because we just feel we have so much?

We're not bothered that some group or somebody doesn't believe in the 26th fundamental.

Doesn't really matter that because we've got 27 more.

Doesn't really matter that this prophecy is not getting attention or that so-and-so is completely massacring that belief in the Bible doesn't matter because we got all of this other stuff as well and we have such a wealth of information a wealth of knowledge that it seems we're just kind of getting chipped away at.

You can only have your identity taken away.

To have your identity taken away, it indicates that at some point you had to know your identity in the first place.

You had to know it for it to be taken away.

If you don't know it, it's just kind of, it may be taken away, but you're unaware that it's going away.

Where in the Bible do we find the passages that deal with our identity today.

We're gonna look at 3 chapters briefly in the short time that we have.

3 chapters briefly in the short time that we have, because each 1 covers a different aspect of our identity.

You know they say the 3 big questions in life.

Before we ask where we go, where do we come from, why are we here, and where are we going?

Those are the real big questions that no matter what your religious or faith background is, those are the questions that you could say trouble mankind.

Those 3 questions we found answered in 3 chapters of Revelation.

3 chapters that are very important to our identity, and 3 chapters that I believe we shouldn't just know the reference to, but we should actually be able to know them and be able to unpack them, because it forms who we are.

Understanding our background gives us a greater sense of surety in this world today.

Revelation 10 is the first chapter that I'd like to take you to, Revelation chapter 10.

And in Revelation chapter 10, It's probably 1 of the most underrated chapters of Revelation that I think we have.

We know about Revelation 14, we know about Revelation 12, we know about Revelation 20, the Millennium, and the 7 churches, chapters 2 and 3.

Revelation 10, though, I believe is a crucial, crucial chapter when we're understanding what our identity is as Seventh-day Adventists.

Revelation 10 describes, in some ways, the historical experience, or you could also say not just the historical experience, but you are, I would add to that and say the theological roots of the Adventist Church you find in Revelation 10.

Revelation 10, we'll also look at 12 and 14, but not right now.

And if we were to do an overview of Revelation chapter 10, there will be a few things that would cover.

2. He Says She Says

Father in heaven, we pause to thank you for your goodness, your mercy to us.

We thank you, Lord, for bringing us through this day.

And as we gather together here as a church family, whether we know others here or whether we don't, we thank you, Lord, for the commonality of faith that we can share, and the purpose of coming here.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me.

And I pray, Lord, that we may reflect upon your word this evening in a personal way.

The sermon title tonight is entitled He Says She Says.

I don't know about you but growing up I learned a phrase in school that we would sometimes repeat to other boys and girls on the playground.

And it went something like this, sticks and stones may break my bones, But, we would say, names will never hurt me.

Now I'm not here to talk on how that saying is actually not that true anyway.

But what we would say when we'd say 6 and stuff will break my bones but names will never hurt me, what we were trying to convey, the underlying message we were trying to convey was, I don't care what you say about me.

You can say whatever you want about me, but I don't care.

Today in life, we're kind of taught to not listen to Some of the negative things that people may say about you.

Have your own identity, be sure in who you are, and don't let what others say about you form you.

To be sure in yourself, to know where you come from, to know why you're here, and be sure in yourself, and don't let other people mold or shape you I Was reading a book recently I posted a picture on Facebook maybe you saw it of it's called the insanity of God if you've never read the book it came out about 2 years ago it's a fascinating book by I forget his name I think it's Nick Ripken.

The first half of the book is his account of being a missionary in the country of Somalia right after their civil war of 1992.

And it's just heart wrenching as he describes what it was like to be literally 1 of a handful of Christians in the country.

They could literally count them on 1 or 2 hands.

What was it like to be a missionary in a country that's completely devoid of God or Christianity?

The second half of his book describes how he then traveled to hundreds of churches, Tens of countries around the world and visited Christians in countries where they had been persecuted.

And he just sat down with these Christians and interviewed them and got their stories.

And some of the stories were just fascinating.

He went to the old Eastern Bloc countries.

He went to some of the Muslim countries in Southeast Asia, and he got story after story after story.

And then he comes to his conclusions at the end of the book.

But some of the stories were fascinating and some of the the situations were really really interesting for example he went to china and he was visiting with the church there in china and he was talking to them about persecution like people there didn't really have too much of a problem with being persecuted.

And at least 3 times in the book when he's talking to people, he says to them, wow, these stories are amazing, you need to write it down.

And then 1 man actually just took him to the window and said, The sun is rising up over the horizon there, isn't it?

He said, at home, do you write down that the sun rises every day in a journal?

He said, we don't write down that we get persecuted for it's just normal.

In China, he found out when he went there, you couldn't be a church leader in China unless you had been to prison.

Nominating committee meets, we like to nominate so and so to be a church leader.

You could only be a church leader if you'd served time, proving your commitment to the cause.

Without prison time, you were just a girl or a boy.

The stories that he wrote there in the book though, it was people writing their stories and 1 of the conclusions he came to was that the ability to witness, and this really resonated with me, The ability to witness does not depend upon the political system that someone lives under He said we in the West we pray for people's freedom Why so they can be layered to see and like us He says they don't pray for freedom, they pray for obedience.

We're here in the West thanking God for the freedom so that we can be Christian and no 1 knows we're Christian.

See they don't pray for freedom, They pray for obedience.

And he says 1 of the conclusions at the end of the book was that the ability or the opportunity rather to witness does not depend on the political system that you were born under.

It's just the consequences are different depending what country you live in, but everyone has the freedom granted by God to be a witness.

The Christians in that book that I was reading about though Had an experience where other people knew for sure There was no question They knew for sure that they were a Christian.

There was no like, I'm not quite sure, you know.

No, everyone that was writing about other people would know well that's a Christian and they were often a Christian in spite of all the situations around them You see we have been taught to be personally confident in what we say and yesterday I said that you know as an adventist We should know why we're a seven-day adventist.

Amen We should have personal confidence in our understanding of god's word and know why we're a christian or know why we come to church or we should know why we believe that Jesus is a divine being and part of the Godhead.

We should know why the seventh day is a Sabbath.

We should know why the sanctuary was on earth but was also a replica of what was what is sorry in heaven we should know that when the dead die they don't go to heaven but they go to the grave and they await the resurrection as a seventh day adventist christian we should know these things we should know why we are a christian and oftentimes we we turn to bible characters certainly a bible to the book of daniel oftentimes we turn to bible characters that illustrate those traits of character and we look at those bible characters as people that we want to emulate in our lives daniel stands as a prime example of that daniel grew up in jerusalem there in jerusalem he would have gone to his his nice church school as we would say he would grow up in a very protected environment at the age of 15 or 16 his life was shattered he was ripped from his home essentially no parents for the rest of his life, becoming an orphan at the age of 15 or 16.

He was taken to a foreign country after he had to walk 800 miles across the hot Arabian desert.

As he gets to the foreign country he's there in the center of the universe sorry center of the globe the biggest city there and as they're you know as you know you read the story the food spread out in front of them they're about to eat and the bible tells us in daniel chapter 1 and verse 8 that famous verse that we read read so many times in church it says but daniel did what he purposed in his heart that he would not he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank.

And we look at this story and we say, Amen.

And then we turn to our some of the Adventist hymnal and we sing Dare to be a Daniel.

And then if you go through Daniel's life, you can find Daniel in Daniel chapter 2, he's standing for God again.

His life is on the line, he's about to get killed and he goes into the king and he tells the king the meaning to the vision and he tells him what it means as well and the king's like wow you're amazing then you get to Daniel 3 well Daniel's not really in Daniel 3 the 3 hebrew boys are in there and then you go to daniel 4 nebuchadnezzar gets converted in daniel 4 written by nebuchadnezzar then you get to daniel 5 and daniel 6 and at the end of daniel's life so in daniel 1 you've got him as a 15 year old 16 maybe 17 year old in Daniel chapter 6 Daniel is now about 87 years old.

So we've got the example of the beginning of his life chapter 1 and then chapter 6 we have the end of his life and in Daniel chapter 6 you have the story you know the story I don't need to recount it too much to you.

What empire are we living under now in Daniel 6?

It's not Babylon anymore, it's Medo-Persia.

So picture the scene, you know you've had a change of emperor, but despite the change of emperor, the prime minister stays the same.

That's like Donald Trump winning the American election, but keeping on Barack Obama's vice president as his vice president doesn't happen.

It's like Jeremy Corbyn going to power and keeping Theresa May as his vice prime minister, whatever you call it here, deputy prime minister.

And if that did happen under a Labour government, you can imagine what all the Labour MPs would think of the Deputy Prime Minister from the other party.

So Daniel and Daniel 6 is now the other party, the other empire serving over the Persian empire.

You know the story, they try and frame him.

Verse 10 says he knew the writing was signed.

And then you come down to verse 15 says these men assembled unto the king and said to the king No, king that the law of the medes and the persians is that no decree nor statue which the king established may be changed And verse 16 says Then the king commanded and they brought daniel and cast him into the den of lions and the king spake and said to daniel What does the king say the king says your god whom you serve continually?

3. Reformation & The Remnant

Let's bow our heads as we start with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we pray that you would bless us and speak to us and be with us here in this place at this time.

As I mentioned on Sunday night, the big 3 questions we have in life is where do I come from?

And those are the questions that challenge us at various times in our lives.

Sometimes we're not really bothered about 1 of the questions, but there may be another 1 that's really bothering us.

It may be when you're coming up to the end of high school or college or university, and you really want to know where you're going with your life in the immediate next 2, 3, or 4 years' future.

You know, if you just look at your family, there on the screen is my mother, my father, Aiko's mother and father, and her 101-year-old grandmother on the far right-hand side, who's strong in health, living on her own, in her right mind, and makes her own breakfast every day.

Now, it's important for us to know maybe where our family, personal family, where we come from.

When we look at our ancestors, our parents, our grandparents, and sometimes when we ask questions about our parents, about our grandparents or our great-grandparents, and we find out who those people are, it can explain sometimes who we are today.

Sometimes certain traits of character we can understand when we know that our grandmother or father was like that.

I haven't gone back too far in my generations.

But it's interesting to know where you come from.

It was Edmund Burke who said, those that don't know their history are doomed to what?

And unfortunately in this world, we have seen history repeat itself on numerous occasions, and it's often the negative side of history that gets repeated.

When we are filming for Lineage, this is 1 story that does stand out, Not for the good part.

Maybe I've shared this story with you We were in cambridge at the wesley house myself and clive and we were going to film in the building just next door to it Which is jesus college part of cambridge university and on our way there we stopped and saw this building there it says Wesley House there on the thing.

So we walked into that doorway, and a lady came out and talked to us, and she said, you know, what are you doing?

We told her we were just looking around, and then she proceeded to tell us that this was Wesley House, and she went da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and then heard the word American, and America, da-da-da-da-da-da, Whoa, what did you say?

This lady working for the institution named after him was telling us that he was from America and he was an American.

We very carefully made a slow exit and then as we got to about the peak point where I took the photo we both burst out laughing.

We didn't have the heart to let this lady know, as she told us so confidently.

That's kind of like going for a tour at the Ellen White estate at the General Conference headquarters.

And someone who works for the Ellen White estate then tells you, oh, Ellen White, yeah, yeah, she comes from Hungary and she was Hungarian They say history is linked to identity and if you don't know your history or your family then they question who are you?

When we look at the reformation and we see where God led his people over the years, this is a photo taken inside John Wycliffe's church in Lutterworth, England.

If you're ever driving down the M1 motorway on your way to London or somewhere else in the South, you get to Junction, I believe it's Junction 20.

If you take Junction 20, it's no more than half a mile from the junction, you will run, if you know where you're going, to John Wycliffe's church.

You can't miss it, it's on the hill, you just literally drive towards what you can see.

And there you've got John Wycliffe's church.

He was the first person who translated the Bible into the language of the common people, translated the Bible into the English language.

He translated the Bible, and you can see a copy in the Old English as to what the Bible looks like.

These men are some of our spiritual heritage.

Ellen White writes a whole chapter in the book Great Controversy about John Wycliffe and she says he was 1 of the foremost of all the reformers in breadth of intellect, in firmness of conviction, etc.

She says he was 1 of the best reformers that ever was.

Coming after John Wycliffe you had this man here.

You can go to Prague today, that's the old town square, and there looking down over the old town square is a statue of John Hus, or as they say in Czech Republic Jan Huss.

He also had gotten a copy of John Wycliffe's writings and he was starting to preach the Bible in the language of the common people there in the Czech Republic and slowly the darkness was being peeled back.

Then a hundred years later Martin Luther was on this very staircase.

It's 1 of the most authentic places in Rome.

If you go to Rome and get a tour guide, they tell you a bunch, they tell you lots of stories that you question the historical authenticity of much of the stories.

But if you go to this place, you know for sure that on 1 of those steps, Martin Luther was on his knees and then he stood up when he heard the verse in his mind, the just shall live by faith.

Like on those staircase, that staircase, he had an epiphany of understanding about the gospel and got up and walked away You can go to Wittenberg Germany and there is the door It's not the literal door because the door has been moved it was a wooden door and it's been replaced with a metal door but it was on these this door here where he nailed or probably he used some candle wax which doesn't sound as remarkable as nailing a 95 thesis to the door but either way he posted his 95 thesis to this door in 1517 on the 31st of October the 500th anniversary was last year these men these people who went before us they left a legacy you go to Westminster today you got Westminster Abbey on 1 side and then just across the grass, you've got the Central Methodist Hall, which stands as a legacy of John Wesley's work here in England and America and in other parts of the world.

This here is the Reformation monument in Worms, Remembering the reformers like Martin Luther and some of the other ones.

This is Constance, Germany, remembering the spot where John Hus was burned at the stake.

That stone there on the right is the very spot where he was burned.

And after he was burned, they dug up his ashes.

And just to make sure they got all his ashes They dug the mud up under the ashes as well And then they walked to the nearby River Rhine and dumped his ashes in the River Rhine When you read these stories you realize that men and women stood for something in an era when it was not popular, it wasn't normal, It wasn't the thing to do.

The statues of various of these characters dotted around Europe.

Statues are built to honor the courageous stand that they made.

There's a statue of John Wesley on the left, William Tyndale on the right.

It's right outside the Ministry of Defense overlooking the River Thames in London, right there.

There's a statue of John Knox up in Scotland.

And the 1 there on the right that you can't quite know what that is at the top right that's a cross on the ground in Oxford that marks the spot that Latimer Ridley and Cranmer were burned at the stake on that very spot You know why they were burned at the stake You know as Adventists, What do we understand will be the end time issue, or 1 of the end time issues that we may have to make a stand on?

If you've done a bible study on the mark of the beast or you understand a little bit about that.

We understand that the sabbath is more than just a day of rest, but 1 day and even today it is also a test of your faith and trust and relationship in God.

You know why these men were burned back then?

What was the issue that they were burned over?

It was the issue that we sometimes take for granted today.

We sometimes skip church over it just because we don't like getting our feet wet the issue that they were burned for was communion the question was is the bread the body of christ yes or no what's the answer to the question The answer to the question is no.

But the belief was that the bread is the literal body of Christ.

That when the priest prays over it, it converts miraculously into the literal flesh of Jesus and the wine turns to the literal blood of Jesus and if you deny that we'll kill you that was a life-and-death issue There was a different variance of that.

The Lutherans came up with kind of a hybrid version.

And then Calvin came up with another version.

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Identity Theft

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