Keeping Mission on Course

The Awkward Family gathering

Now I expect that today being mother’s day, there is a pretty good chance that quite a number of you will be catching up with family today in some form or other.

I suspect for quite a few it will involve a picnic lunch. For others perhaps a phone call, or maybe even something over Zoom or Skype.

Now, hopefully, this will be a pleasant experience for you. Unfortunately, I know for some, family relationships can sometimes be tense.

Over the years, certain family members are going to make decisions which unfortunately put each other on a path which inevitably are going to clash.

I wonder if you’ve ever wondered - If only my youngest child could be more like my eldest!

Whether you have or not, more likely when the family get together, you’re main hope is that those certain trigger topics aren’t raised. Those topics which are going to highlight the differences and make things very awkward indeed.

But as awkward as it might be, if done well, having a forthright discussion can actually be helpful. It can help us to see things in a new light - maybe even change your own mind!

Missing the point

You see, the reality is, it is very easy for all of us to become blinkered in the way we see the world. We can take one aspect of culture and make all sorts of assumptions about people who are involved with it.

A classic example, (which to be fair was probably more common a few decades ago), is to see Rock Music as the work of the devil. I’ve heard it stated in years gone by that Christians should not be involved in rock music.

You see, certain assumptions can really effect how we understand the essence of Christianity.

This month we’re talking specifically about Christian mission. That is, that idea that because God has first loved us, we should naturally want to go out and spread this love to everyone, including those in our immediate community, and those far and wide throughout our vast world.

Now, a problem can occur when we combine various assumptions we make with our mission, and it is a problem that can become particularly pronounced when we go to cultures different to our own.

Need to be Western

Now it’s not my intention to be critical of missionaries of the past. The vast majority of missionaries have gone out with genuine hearts to save the lost - they have had a real heart for the people they were serving.

But over the last few centuries, there are example of missionaries that have gone into countries where Christianity is either non-existent or extremely small, and (praise God!) they’ve seen lives changed as people put their trust in Jesus, but then innocently made the resulting church look a lot like a church say in Australia or England or America.

These new believers changed their clothes to look like westerners. They changed their style of singing to to something you might hear in a traditional church. Even their church buildings resembled the western counterparts rather than cultural style of that country.

The problem that became obvious - although probably unintentionally, it certainly seemed that to become a Christian, not only did you have to become accept Christ, you also had to become a Westerner.

Need to be Jewish

Now something similar happened during the early mission we see in the book of Acts, although there is a significant difference which I’ll get to shortly.

You see, there was a number of new believers who felt that to be a Christian you needed to become Jewish.

That’s the implication in verse 1 of chapter 15 when it says: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved”.

And later in verse 5: “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses”.

Now I said there was a significant difference with this example and the example I just gave of the Western missionaries imposing Western traditions.

You see, in the case of the Jewish Christians you can actually see the theological logic of how they got to this point. After all, Christianity is the culmination of God’s plan that commenced with the Jews. The Jews were the chosen people of God, a title which we can now claim through Jesus.

And if it was clear that the chosen people of God in the Old Testament had certain things they had to observe, then you can see the logic that the new chosen people of God, which maintains the Old Testament as the inspired Word, also need to observe the same traditions.

Now you might be able to see the logic, but if it follows then it causes huge implications. You see, it gets to the heart of what is required to be saved.

And so it is necessary to consider: what is it, that is required for someone to be saved?

Actually I want to frame it slightly different, although essentially still the same question: when we go out on mission, whether locally or further afield, what change are we really hoping for with those that we minister to?

Well, chapter 15 answers this question, so let’s have a look at it now.

Acts 15

Now, we find ourselves this morning, shortly after the events I described last week.

For those who weren’t here, last week I looked at the first missionary journey that was taken by Paul and Barnabas, which took us through Cyprus, then on up to what is modern day Turkey. We saw many highs and many lows, but most importantly, we saw the birth of new churches.

If you look at the last two verses of chapter 14, as the arrive back after their journey, there is an air of celebration as they describe the way God has powerfully moved.

But amongst this celebration, someone throws that metaphorical spanner into the works.

You see, it would seem that some of the earlier Christians have heard the stories going round, but noticed what to them seems like a glaring problem. These new believers in the Gentile territories are not becoming Jewish. Shock horror!

Now, let’s just for a moment consider how this would have felt for Paul and Barnabas. Remember, they’ve just been really excited by what God is doing. And now they’ve got people who are supposedly on their own side trying to bring them down.

Paul’s the type that just loves to get in a keep going, and I imagine he would much prefer to be heading out on another exciting journey, rather than dealing with this particular issue.

But mind you, and this isn’t my main point this morning, but there is a side lesson in all of this, and that is that conflict doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. We’ll see at the end that sometimes conflict can help to clarify important issues.

Well, the issue does need to be dealt with, and so a delegation including Paul and Barnabas were appointed, and off to Jerusalem they went.

If you’re looking at the passage, then you’ll see that they arrive in Jerusalem in verse 4, and here they are welcomed by the apostles and elders.

And then in verse 5, essentially the meeting, or council as it has since been titled, gets under way.

And to introduce the issue we get some unnamed believers, although it does point out to us that they are from the party of the Pharisees - the very group that frequently copped a lot of criticism from Jesus due to their tendency towards legalism.

Well, verses 6 and 7 tells us that their was much discussion among the apostle and elders. The vast majority of this discussion is not recorded for us.

What we do get however, are the thoughts from the main leaders of the early church.

In particular, their are two main speeches from Peter and James.

Peter’s Speech

So let’s start with Peter’s speech.

Now it’s perhaps worth just a few moments reflecting on Peter.

Well, I’d perhaps go as far to say that Peter is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible.

After being called to be one of Jesus’ disciples, he finds himself in the inner circle with Jesus. He has some fine moments demonstrating great faith. And he also is a very impulsive character - at times getting himself into a awkward places.

But it is following his confession that Jesus is the Christ that we then see Jesus declaring Peter as the rock on which he will build his church.

A role that becomes evident in the first half of Acts where Peter is the clear leader as the church has it’s initial growth in Jerusalem. And it is in this capacity that his words carry a lot of weight.

Now Peter also had an experience in Acts 10 which is going to play very heavy for him in this particular debate - something that he makes an allusion to in his talk.

It involved a Roman centurion called Cornelius and a vision he had.

The vision involved a sheet being lowered containing animals that the Jewish people would consider unclean to eat with God telling Peter to kill and eat. It was actually something Peter struggled with, to the extent that the vision needed to be repeated three times. It was while Peter was pondering the image that messengers sent by Cornelius came. Now I’ll let you read the account for yourself, but the bottom line was that God made it clear to Peter that he was breaking down the barriers between the Jews and the Gentiles. This becoming abundantly clear as the Holy Spirit came upon these Gentiles while Peter was with them.

So when Peter came to respond at this debate about whether you need to be Jewish to be saved, it would have been this experience that would have been front and centre in his mind.

And so Peter testifies that he has seen the Spirit being given to the Gentiles.

But in addition to this experience, Peter knows what it means to be saved - and I want to pick up on two very crucial words that he says. First one in verse 9 and the second in verse 11.

Faith

The word in verse 9 tells us our requirement for salvation - and that is the word “faith”.

Peter recognises that the reason that God did not discriminate is that their hearts have been purified by faith.

In fact, this gets to the one and only thing that is required by us to be saved. We need to put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is what led the church reformers of the 16th Century to come up with the slogan Sola Fide, or in English: By Faith Alone.

If you want your heart to be purified, you do it by faith and nothing else.

Grace

But the other word that comes in verse 11 is just as important. It is the word “grace”.

You see, while it is faith that we need, we are also just as dependent on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This word ‘grace’, reminds us that it is not about anything we do, but completely on what Jesus has already done.

He has shown his grace by dying on the cross for something he did not deserve.

Peter ends his speech in an emphatic way: “No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are”.

The implication is clear. If it is by grace, then it can’t include additional requirements like circumcision.

Paul and Barnabas

Now verse 12 tells us that Barnabas and Paul also get a turn at speaking, and they too highlight the signs and wonders that they have witnessed for themselves among the Gentiles.

James

But it is not with their speech that the narrative focuses.

Rather, verse 13 takes us straight to James.

Now it doesn’t tell us exactly which James it is, but given his prominent position, we can be pretty sure which James it is.

Now it’s not the James that was in the inner circle of Jesus with Peter. You might remember him, he was the brother of John. We know it’s not him because in Acts 12:2 we’re told that Herod had him put to death.

Rather, it is generally assumed that we are talking of James, the brother of Jesus. This is the same James who we attribute the letter of James.

And it would seem that by the time this council has taken place, he is most likely the principal authority among the church, particularly as his judgement is taken as the final judgement.

Amos

Now James takes a different tack to Peter. James takes us to the Old Testament where he can show us that that it was always part of God’s plan to bring in the Gentiles.

Specifically, James takes us to a passage at the end of the prophecy of Amos.

The prophecy of Amos mostly focuses on the judgement of Israel, but right at the end, it describes the restoration of Israel, and in particular that the Gentiles will be included in it.

In actual fact, there are quite a few passages that James could have turned to, to make a similar point, but the point is clear. The fact that the Gentiles are now included is not just some last minute whim of God - it was something that had always been planned.

In fact, you could go back all the way to Abraham when God said the blessing would flow to all nations.

The four conditions

And so, with the speeches of Peter, Paul, Barnabas and James, we have a clear conclusion: nothing we do, apart from having faith in Jesus, can help in any shape or form to bring us salvation. You do not need to be Jewish, or for that matter any other label - you just need to have faith.

But just when you think it is sorted, something a bit unexpected happens.

Well, as might be expected, a letter is written to the churches explaining the decision - but the unexpected part is that James then suggests four commands for them to follow.

This has actually caused a lot of debate among scholars today.

The four requirements are things they should abstain from, namely:

food polluted by idols

sexual immorality

meat of strangled animals

blood - which is a little ambiguous, but is generally considered to mean eating food with the blood still in it.

Now time isn’t going to allow a full treatment of what is going on here. But the first thing to realise is that James is not here adding requirements for salvation - particularly after they’ve just argued that there is nothing required but faith alone.

So why add it? Well, let me just suggest that while James recognises that you don’t need to be Jewish to be saved, it is however good if there can be healthy relationships between both Jewish believers and Gentile believers. I’m going to suggest that James is implying that following these conditions is going to be the best way to achieve that.

Application

But let me come back to the issue I raised at the start - avoiding the pitfalls of making mission all about us.

You see, while the specific issue at play here might not be of immediate concern for us - that is to say that we’re not in danger of forcing people to become Jewish - we are however prone to unintentionally adding things for salvation.

A classic example is smoking cigarettes. I have heard people state explicitly that you can’t be a Christian and smoke.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Smoking is not good for you. Even from a Christian perspective, it is not the way that you should be treating the body that God has given you. But, smoking is not a salvation issue.

Another one is political views.

You can be a Christian and vote on the right side of politics.

You can be a Christian and vote on the left side of politics.

And guess what, that even includes voting for the Greens.

How do I know? Because salvation is from faith in Jesus alone.

Now, the problem is that almost all of the time, we add this biases without even realising. Particularly with the example of political views, we can become so convinced that our political view, whatever the flavour may be, is so aligned with Christianity that anyone who thinks differently must have misunderstood Christ.

And so it takes careful reflection on our part to really ask the question in a genuine way - when we talk with non-believers, what is our hope for them?

To make it closer to home, think of a family member who is a non-believer. Is your real hope that they accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, or that they start living the way you think is best?

Our job really just needs to be to bring them to Christ. And when we do this, we let any resulting transformation be the work of Holy Spirit, not us.

We might be able to point them in the right direction, but at the end of the day, it will be God that changes them. It will ultimately be God who convicts them of the sin in their life. It will be God who leads them to a better way to live.

That should not be our mission. Our mission is to point them to a saving faith in Jesus.

Conclusion

Now as we continue to read through Acts 15, we see it end in a surprising way.

They send off the letters I described a moment ago, and for a moment things seem to be going well.

But as the chapter concludes, Paul and Barnabas have a dispute and part company.

With the simplicity of faith alone, it seemed nothing would stop them but division still occurs.

Another strange thing happens as we look at the first few verses of chapter 16.

After being very clear that you don’t need to be circumcised, Timothy goes and gets circumcised as a young adult.

Well, I’m not going to explore these in detail today, rather I just highlight them to show that the logistics of mission is never straight forward.

But while the logistics might be complicated, one thing is very straight forward. Our mission is to bring people to Jesus, not to change them to make them be like us.

I would encourage you to always check your motives. Check the biases you are carrying, and put them aside when you are witnessing, because there is one thing that matters - and that is whether they’ve experienced the love of Jesus or not.

Let me pray...