Food Fight

race and culture

Acts 15: Food Fight

Food Fight: the battle for preferences, holiday food and traditions. Food is family, food is identity. Soul food with sisters, Italian night, comfort food...holiday food. Food is closely linked with memory, family, ethnicity...we don’t prepare it that way...

Peter and the food culture, influence of friends and influencers, power people...people who could shun him, shape him. He knew better, he taught better, he was better...but men from James got to him.

Big Idea; IN MATTERS OF CULTURE; DO WE FIGHT OR FALTER?

READ

Acts 15:1-21 is about dealing with a doctrinal issue that became an issue because of culture

WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEE PRACTICALS HERE, AS PAUL AND PETER BOTH LIVE OUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS RULING LATER IN OUR NEW TESTAMENTS.

Jewish culture invaded the gentile church.

Paul and Barnabas disagree but then are compelled to see the big boys in Jerusalem about the issue.

They go and there is discussion. Then Peter makes his case based on Cornelius

John makes the final statement that closes the deal. They break it into simple pieces around CULTURE

Food culture and sex culture. Who we eat with and who we mate with. Eating and sleeping. So the issues are Leviticus based and also about cultural comfort, what is familiar to us.

The issue seems resolved. Be pure. Be considerate of others. No surprise there so far

Galatians 2:1 -10

Peter falls into the same cultural paradigm. Why? Men from James. The leader of Jerusalem. The big cheese. His friend. The guy who called the ball in the council meeting. He caved to cultural pressure because it made him feel Jewish....it was home base. Paul has to call him out.

Galatians 2:11-14

He confronts duplicity for the wrong reasons. He is actually going against Greek culture in this instance. Greek body image worship. For Tim TO agree to this was counter cultural. For Paul to ask about it was culturally sensible. Both actions are for the gospel. For Titus whines being compelled it was wrong. The ACT is not the issue here, it’s the cultural mandate that makes it good or bad. Immorality is always wrong, but this cultural issue was forcing an adaptation.

Another Application OF THIS PRINCIPLE IN PAULS MINISTRY

1Corinthians 10:14-22

·      Culture often allows what God may forbid. We reason, we alter. God knows so he says the things he says because he knows. Paul here is telling us “what God knows” in opposition to what culture knows. Not only does culture allow it, but it sells it, so that we can make a choice.

The food issue; 1 Cor 10. It’s a huge issue. Good food was tainted food. Demons are at supper. Guess who’s coming to dinner.

Why eat that food? Don’t want to offend the host. Culture, again. This issue is all over the NT.

Are we aware of our cultural conditioning?

Do we fear the idols? Knowing things that influence us, not assuming we can manage their influences trusting what God has said...IDOLS are not to be managed, BUT to be toppled!

·      That food is not benign. It is tainted. Tainted by its prior use. Offered to a demon, so if you eat it you “participate” with. Demon. The argument comes from the body connection to the Lords supper. If you “take in” things to your body that have been offered to demons, you are taking in demonic forces. Just the way that you take in the body of Christ when you take the Lords Supper.

Application: be careful what we allow into us. What defiles us? Culture is not innocent. Our culture makes things for our consumption: media, ideologies, products, and with each of these come the connected influence of the men and women who create them. There are no morally ambiguous acts. All that we consume impacts us in some way for good or for I’ll.

·      What you watch, listen to, read, allow to influence you. Rationalism? Your past experiences?

My family has a culture. A way they speak and act. If you don’t speak and act a certain way there is punishment. It can vary from simple ridicule, to verbal attack. Shunning and other forms of manipulation. This weekend I confronted this behavior and mixed it up with my parents a little bit. One of my siblings has gone too far for too long and ya damaging my parents and the children. A culture around money and how we spend it. Who gets what....

How does it impact us today. Let’s consider a few modern examples.

Cite them here:

1: the brother whose culture accepts the treatment of women and wives as property, or as less valuable, so he treats his Christian wife like a citizen of his homeland not a citizen of the kingdom. TRIBALISM

2: The family whose tribal culture mandates that they marry a certain individual regardless of whether they belong to Christ.

3: the American (dc) family that bows toe the cultural pressure to make their children “excellent” and ‘well rounded’ and enrolls them in every possible extracurricular even if it competes with personal devotion or availability to study the bible and follow Jesus. IDOLATRY

4.The college student whose family culture pressures them to pack their calendar with accomplishments and an aggressive graduation schedule because the financial sacrifice to put them into college is so high.

We call some of these things “high performance” but is our performance culture really just worship of success? The pursuit of some elusive American ideology rather than the the peace that comes from knowing that God will provide!

5: Or the American sister whose political ideology causes her to look down on friend, neighbors, even other sisters because they dont share her politics? This is NATIONALISM AND IT IS CONTRARY TO THE LOYALTY TO THE HIGH KING WHO, IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL COULD ACCUSE OF US TREASON BASED ON OUR LOYALTIES!

6: THE Single professional who is consumed with getting ahead, getting a house, getting a man, getting a woman, getting a family and loses the thrill of HAVING A GOD!

Do we accept challenges. Do we give challenges. Do we strive to overcome the culture or do we cave. Like Peter.

PRACTICAL: GET EYES ON OUR CHOICES, CONSULT WITH SPIRITUAL PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW YOU AS WELL, THEY DON’T HAVE A RELATIONSHIP TO RISK!

CONCEPT 2: A Cut Above:

Timothy is cut for sensitivity reasons Acts 16:3 VS GALATIANS 2:3

BUT: Paul CIRCUMCISES Timothy ! Because he cares about people more than rules. It’s sensitivity and for Tim? It’s not just the unpleasantness of the procedure but in Greek society this was mitigation of the body. Culture the unkindness cut of all.

TIMOTHY DOES THE COUNTER CULTURE THING, HE ALLOWS HIS BODY TO BE MUTILATED...

he chooses what is best for the mission, best for the kingdom, best for the gospel.

What price have we paid for the gospel in our lives? What sacrifices have we made? Do you bend to culture?

Bending to culture ensures you will be bent by culture.

Peter should have known, but the power of an influential relationship cause him to falter. He needed a powerful degree influence to call him higher. Who is influencing our choices of spending, time management, parenting....I wonder are we really seeking the counsel of the wise

PROVERBS 13:20...WHO IS INFLUENCING, WHAT IS GETTING INSIDE US? ARE WE PURE? UNDEFILED?

PRACTICAL HELPS HERE:

Get help and advice. Find spiritual people, not just friends. Friends can be less than objective about us. Especially if they only know our version of events. Seek Gods wisdom, prayer and study. Talk with those ahead of you on the road of life...should I.....did you ever....how did it work out when you....I’m in this situation, how would you.....

Holidays are coming, food will be plentiful, culture will push in on us. We must push back on it. We must be shaped by Christ, not culture.