Life Together

I once tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem wearing shorts. I was traveling with a study group in Israel during the summer and had dressed for a day of touring archaeological sites. Plans changed and our group ended up at the church. At the door we were met by a black-robed, bearded individual with a stern visage. He was quite clear that nobody wearing short pants was getting into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He wouldn’t budge an inch. So some of our group went in and came out again, and Ray Stedman, the first pastor of this church, was in that group. Then he and I went behind a construction site not too far off, and changed clothes--he put on my shorts and I put on his trousers. Now, we were not anywhere near the same size and shape, and although his pants were polyester so they stretched a bit, they still ended about three or four inches from the tops of my shoes. Thus I waddled into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The guard was satisfied. Looking ridiculous in ill-fitting trousers was deemed more respectful of God than wearing short pants.

Acts 15:1 reads, “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’” Verse 5 reiterates the point in the mouths of some Pharisees in Jerusalem: “It is necessary to circumcise them [the Gentile believers] and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”

If you try to please God by doing well enough or marking yourself in some way, you will never succeed. The grace of the Lord Jesus, Peter declared, is the means by which anyone knows God’s love. Look at some of the distinctions implied in Peter’s words: the presence of the Holy Spirit in contrast to the customs of Moses, a cleansed heart in contrast to an external marking, the grace of the Lord Jesus in contrast to the hard yoke of performance.

But in addition to gaining theological clarity, there is another question: how we are going to get along together.

Getting along together

There were in the church in Antioch, and there will be in every church, people with different backgrounds. In their case there were orthodox Jews who found much of the Gentile world godless, dark, and depraved. These Christian Jews and believing Gentiles were trying to love Christ as members of the same congregations. The council’s judgment was clear: Gentiles then and now need not adopt the external expressions of Judaism. We don’t need to obey the dietary laws of the Old Testament. We don’t need to restrict our actions on the Sabbath.

But we must still love and understand folks whose background and outlook are different from ours. And that is the subject that is going to be taken up next. Acts 15:12-21:

There are two concerns in James’ speech that I want us to consider. First, God is calling out a people. He is not saving individuals in isolation. It has always been God’s intention to create a community. God built a family and a nation in the calling of Israel. He is establishing churches everywhere in the world today.

Second, consider James’ apparently contradictory advice: in verse 19 he says, “It is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles” (meaning not call on them to become Jewish), and then he gives four obscure, peculiar abstentions that are based on the law in Leviticus.

But before we look at the content of James’ instruction, let’s look at the way in which the decision was made. What was the process by which the leaders tried to understand God and what he was doing? Their example remains helpful today.

Understanding what God is doing

The first thing that happened, as I’ve already mentioned, is that Peter laid a foundation of the gospel. All of us know God based on the grace of the Lord Jesus and nothing else. It’s crucial to put first things first.

The second thing that happened is that everybody listened before anybody suggested what decision should be made. Verse 12: “All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.” They listened carefully as Barnabas and Paul talked about journeying through Cyprus and then through southern Galatia, about miracles and signs and healings--Gentiles’ faith in Christ. Everybody heard the story. One of the most important things folks in leaderships can do is to be willing to listen. Maybe God will tell us something we’ve never heard before. Maybe we’ll be reminded of things we’ve forgotten. Maybe we’ll see connections we haven’t made before.

The third thing that happened was that James quoted the Old Testament. This is important. Circumstances don’t interpret themselves. Someone can have some miraculous experience of the stirring of God, but just recounting what happened doesn’t tell us what it means. Does it mean that God is going to take us off into a new direction? Does it mean that he offered a momentary blessing and we can be grateful for it and move on? The way we understand what something means is to know the plan of God and the promises of God as they are revealed in the Scriptures. James interpreted these Gentiles’ coming to Christ with signs and wonders as something the church should have already expected. He quoted the prophet Amos, who spoke of the establishment of the nation of the Jews in order for them to serve as an open door for others to come in (Amos 9:11-12). What happened in Paul’s and Barnabas’ experience therefore made sense.

Last, we will see in verse 22 (in the next message) that after James spoke there was widespread agreement. The apostles, elders, and the whole church finally were able to come to some clarity that the calling of Gentiles apart from their being made Jews was a good thing. That is a great testimony to God at work.

Becoming a people

If we are faithful, we are going to be connected to some group of other Christian people. And in a community, there are always going to be restrictions, the need to give up our rights and preferences, set aside what might be best for us in order to be concerned about what is best for the whole. We can’t have a community, a family, or even a friend unless for love’s sake we are willing to do this.

Consider our church. We meet for worship on Sunday mornings. Now, salvation is not at stake in this. We could meet at other times, and indeed we have. There was a time when Sunday nights were far and away the central gathering time for this church. But right now we meet on Sunday mornings, and if you want to join in, you have to decide to agree to that. You might prefer to worship Tuesday nights, but you voluntarily say, “For the sake of love, connection, contribution, and learning, I’ll join in.”

None of our staff who are licensed to perform marriages in this church, will do so without the couple’s agreeing to undergo premarital counseling. Now again, salvation is not based on your willingness to agree with this decision. God doesn’t require it. But we believe that it’s one of our responsibilities to build families in this church, to care enough to get folks launched well in marriages. The rule sometimes creates difficulties for couples, but it exists to make our community stronger.

Some people wish our building was designed to promote reverence. The advantage of our facility, with its patios and gardens and fountains, is that it creates opportunities for relationships. Other church buildings are dark, with vaulted ceilings and candles. They evoke silence and reverence for the presence of God. Some people find such buildings more meaningful to them as an expression of Christian faith. Every decision to build or alter a building will require some members of a community to give up their rights and preferences in order to stay connected to the believing family God has placed them in.

In our day and in this place God is “taking…a people for His name.” No one can insist on having things just the way they want them. We must be willing therefore to subsume our preferences to the greater good.

Now, what about these four restrictions, this seeming non sequitur of James’? “Let’s not trouble the Gentiles with all the Jewish restrictions, but on the other hand, let’s call for these four abstentions.” What is the lesson to learn here?

The cost of community

This is a bit complex. I will make it as straightforward as I can. I believe the point is this: All of those four issues--things offered to idols, things strangled, fornication, and blood--are connected to the worship of idols.

The word fornication means sexual sin, and is prohibited even in the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). But if James meant this in the most ordinary sense, it would be surprising to find it in this list. It is on this list and connected with the other three prohibitions because he doesn’t mean it in the most general way. James was referring to the particular context of Gentile cities where there was always a temple for worshiping idols--the temple to Zeus, the temple to Athena, the temple to Artemis, the temple to Aphrodite. And in such settings ritual fornication had to do with priestesses who would have sex with individuals and call it prayer.

Regional economies were founded on these temples. In any given city, you would find that the meat sold in the market was meat that had first been offered to idols. You would find that the grain and bread and all the other foodstuffs had been blessed by some priest operating from the idolatrous temple. You would find all of the commerce of the place was connected to the blessing or the promotion of idolatrous worship.

So James was saying to the Gentiles, “Abstain.” The Greek word “abstain” actually means to put at a distance. It’s not that eating the meat that was once offered to an idol, or buying clothing from the tailor who bought his cloth in a place that had an idol’s blessing, meant they were participating in idolatry. Ordinary participation in the life of their city was not a sin.

But James was calling for them to back off from expressing their freedom thoughtlessly. (This is also exactly the argument of Romans 14.) There were Jews in the churches who loathed idolatry with a visceral hatred. They hated it because Israel’s own history was filled with that sort of failure, and they suffered for it. Everything about idolatry made them ill. So James was saying, “Don’t flaunt your freedom. Be careful about business deals that veer closest to idolatry. Don’t smile at the references to sex as prayer. Be willing to acknowledge the feelings of your Jewish brethren. Be willing to give up what you have the freedom in Christ to do, for the sake of love. You don’t have to become Jews, but be sensitive to those who are.”

There are people in this congregation who have backgrounds that cause them to struggle.

A woman was, in her teens, humiliated and banished in anger from an old-style Pentecostal church because she started reading the Bible and asking questions. She was publicly ridiculed for having the temerity to challenge the ecstatic expression that was so common in her church. Because of her history she has a particularly difficult time being told to raise her hands to physically express her feelings during worship.

In our ministry here on Friday nights, one of the things we are talking and praying about is acknowledging that most of the people there have come to Christ through some breakthrough experience of God’s love, most of their God language comes out of Twelve-Step backgrounds, and many of them have very negative church histories prior to this. So should we insist that they sit through long, detailed messages that assume a great deal of Bible knowledge? Would that be the loving thing to do? What is the best way to minister to folks who have issues that make it hard for them to connect?

James was saying, “In order to be a community, give up your rights, not because you risk offending God, but because for love’s sake you are willing to acknowledge that people have struggles, and be willing to minister to them in their struggles.”

Finally, I believe there is another lesson in these four abstentions that James called for. It is good to abstain not only for the sake of those you care about, but for your own heart’s sake.

Freedom for the heart

It is good at times to tell yourself no. Our culture, like the Gentile cities of the ancient world, has worshiped idols for a long time. We are surrounded by the worship of money, of sex, of self. So every now and then we do well to say no to something. It’s not an issue of salvation. But it is good to breathe some fresh air.

Most people I know work way too hard at gaining standing or money, and when they stop doing that they work way too hard at making themselves happy. It is good sometimes to just step back from that and decide for a day or weekend or month to be quieter, think longer, worship God, do less. Going to work is not a sin, but it might do you good to abstain for a time.

It might be a good idea sometime to make friends who are out of your normal orbit, not the kind of people who will reinforce everything about you because they are just like you.

Who knows what you’ll discover about God and yourself by just saying no. It’s a good idea to give away money and let go of things, just to make sure you can. It’s a good idea to cut back sometime on television or the internet, or any of the other things that so easily absorb our time, in order to do some purposeful reading or keep a journal or whatever. Abstaining from our ordinary course of life is healthy. It promotes wisdom and reminds us of the greatness of God.

Scripture quotations are taken from New American Standard Bible, ã 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Copyright © 2003 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. This data file is the sole property of Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church. It may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice. This data file may not be copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products offered for sale, without the written permission of Discovery Publishing. Requests for permission should be made in writing and addressed to Discovery Publishing, 3505 Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto, CA. 94306-3695.