Directional Differences
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
It was Sunday August 16th and I was just about to teach again after having been gone on vacation for the past week..but it was the year 2020.
It’s funny really, how adding the year there at the end seems to color the rest of the introduction in a whole different way. What seemed at first to be a very ordinary and unassuming beginning of a story all of the sudden is given a whole new backdrop.
And we were…as you all know... in the throws of trying to figure out how to combat a virus that had captured the undivided attention of the entire world. After months of “Two weeks to flatten the curve” we had just started to see our neighbors again only to be hit with a new controversial mandates that we had to make sense of. We were told that were all required to wear a mask when gathering anywhere indoors, including Church, or face up to a $200 fine. And leaders of Christian Churches across the state were trying to figure out how to respond to this new mandate, even as the weight of the “stay at home” orders were still ringing in our memory.
As I told you, I was on vacation so the Overseers connected without me, they prayed and sought God’s Word to try and discern the best direction for our Church. When they came to tell me the direction they thought was best, I was relieved to find that I was in total agreement with the direction they wanted to take.
And I can’t tell you how many times I returned to that sense of relief again and again as I heard story after story of Pastors who had a very different experience in that time. While we were on the same page from the beginning, so many Pastors and Church leaders found themselves in heated disagreements over the directions that their Church should go when it came to these new mask mandates.
And of course it wasn’t just about the leadership of the Churches, but about the people who were looking to them for leadership. With the tidal wave of conflicting information and the emotions of all the reported victims of the virus slamming up against us from many different direction, it was hard to know what the “best” course of action was.
Because at the end of the day that is what we all wanted. We all wanted to head in the “best” direction possible in such a confusing time…we just didn’t all agree on what the “best” direction was.
Tension
And you might be thinking “Gee Pastor Dan, “Thank you very much for bringing up such a painful subject, why your at it why don’t you give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it. We’re closed!” Right? Because we don’t really want to dwell on that time even as we are just now trying to climb out of the many things that that this now clearly endemic virus has played a part in.
But I bring this up because last week I began something of a “sub-series” from the book of Acts on how the early Church also had to deal with conflicts, disagreements and disputes.
That if we stop too early in the book of Acts we could develop something like rose colored glasses when looking ath the “Ekklesia: the Unstoppable movement of God” seeing only the times when they were growing in number, strength and depth as they bonded together against opposition from the outside. We may mistakenly get the picture that they would never have stooped so low as to argue or fight with one another…like we do...but Acts gives us a different picture.
And I said last week that we are going to look at three different kinds of disputes in the early Church.
Last week we looked at how the Church handled DOCTRINAL DISPUTES How for the sake of the Gospel, Church leaders gathered together to prayerfully discern from the scriptures what should be taught in the Christian Church about what it takes to be saved. We typically refer to this event as the The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:1-35
Next week we will talk about BEHAVIORAL DISPUTES as in what do we do when someone in the Church is behaving out of step with the message of the Gospel. This is what Paul describes in Gal 2 as he confronts Peter and the other Apostles (Galatians 2:11-14)
But this week we are looking at DIRECTIONAL DISPUTES as two leaders in the movement of Christianity sharply disagree as to the “best” direction for their ministry to continue in.
And one of the biggest struggles that I believe that people often have when it comes to these kind of Directional Disputes is that in their passionate conviction toward one direction over the other they apply the wrong measuring tool. They are using the wrong kind of scale and it causes a great deal of damage.
Because when we are talking about a “Directional Dispute” we are not talking about the difference between “Good and Evil”. That is not a Directional Dispute that is a Moral dispute. In a moral dispute their is only two options, you are either doing what is “Good” or you doing what is not good i.e. “Evil”. Moral disputes are very real, we will be in that lane next week.
But a Directional Dispute is not measured on an either or scale of “Good or Evil” but on a scale of “Good, Better or Best”. And I would submit to you that one of the keys to moving forward amongst the many divisions that we have seen in the American Church over the past couple of years would be to grow in our ability to know how to identify the difference between a directional dispute and a moral one.
You see the “trifecta” of our needing to respond to the Pandemic, Political and Racial tensions have done a work on the Church in our County. For the most part, people see us as just as divided inside the Church as those outside, maybe even more so. I believe that a big part of that is due to people seeing Moral Disputes in things that should have been handled as Directional differences.
In other words, they had a deep seated conviction that the conclusions that they had come to were “good” and so when they heard from another brother or sister in Christ that they had come to a different conclusion then their only choice was to conclude that they were being “evil”. But if the dispute was a Directional one, then it was not necessarily so.
So they will say something like I made “such and such” decision because I love people…which of course implies if you made a different one then you must have made it because you don’t love people.
“You must not love people or love your country or care about racial equality or want people to be healthy…if you made a decision different than mine because I made my decision because I do love and care about those things. But that is not the right measuring tool to use. We may just believe there is a better way to accomplish the same goal.
And when you goal is to share the message of the Gospel then being able to distinguish between directional and moral disputes is essential.
So open up your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 15, page 924 in the Bibles in chairs and we will take a look at how the early Church leaders handled directional differences in hopes of pursuing the unity that Jesus prayed for his Church to operate in.
While you are turning there, I will pray...
Truth
So after attending the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch and continued to teach and preach the gospel, but their friendship and ministry partnership were soon tested by a serious disagreement. With these key men in serious conflict, the stakes were high in how this would affect the Church and its mission. Starting in verse 36 we read:
36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”
Right away we see that Paul and Barnabas were after the same goal. They had a shared and it was good and Godly endeavor, something that was completely in line with what God had called them to do.
Our first theme for the week is that...
1. Believers share the common mission to build and strengthen the Church (Acts 15:36).
1. Believers share the common mission to build and strengthen the Church (Acts 15:36).
This is our mission, given to us by Jesus to “make disciples of all nations, to baptize them and teach them to obey everything that He has commanded us.” This is done in the context of gathering together as the Church.
Something to note here is that unlike Paul’s first missionary journey, there is no mention of the Holy Spirit supernaturally prompting this trip. Most theologians believe that Paul and Barnabas were wintering over here in Antioch and as the weather got warmer, much like we are experiencing today, it got them thinking again about traveling.
But just because the Holy Spirit didn’t instruct the Church or Paul or Barnabas to go in a new supernatural way doesn’t mean that they were not following His leading. We are often asked to continue in what the Holy Spirit has already called us to do until He moves us in a different direction.
These two planted these Churches and then do you remember how they circled back through each city [map], even the ones where they were threatened, abused and kicked out of. Why did they risk returning to these places? Because they knew that these young Christians would need encouragement and direction if they were going to grow into healthy Ekklesia’s.
So they were both on the same page in their goal, desiring to accomplish the same mission…but
2. Believers don’t always agree on the best way to accomplish the mission (Acts 15:37–39a).
2. Believers don’t always agree on the best way to accomplish the mission (Acts 15:37–39a).
Acts 15:37–39 (ESV)
37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement,
You may remember a couple of weeks back we handled the second leg of Paul and Barnabas’ missionary journey when they left Cyprus and traveled Northward. From Antioch they brought with them John Mark, and things seemed to be going fine all across the Island of Cyprus as “they had John to assist them” but then in Acts chapter 13 verse 13 we read
Acts 13:13 “Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,”
And I read over that quickly that day, telling you that we would come back to this little sentence in a few weeks and here we are. Theologians have postulated all kinds of possibilities for why he left, but all we really know is that at this point in the journey John Mark chose to go back home to Jerusalem.
We know that this was his home because we meet John Mark there earlier in the story. If you aren’t looking for him, you might miss him but John Mark was there from the early days of the Church.
Remember back in Acts chapter 12 when Peter was arrested and sentenced to death but an angel came and led him out into the street and Peter thought it was all a vision until the angel left and he saw that he was really out in the street. Then it says
Acts 12:12 (ESV)
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
So Peter knew John Mark’s family well enough to think to go to their house where the local church was meeting for prayer on his behalf.
And then when Barnabas and Saul were returning to Antioch from bringing the offering they had taken up for the relief of the famine that was happening in Jerusalem it says...
Acts 12:25 (ESV)
25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem (to Antioch) when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.
So that is how he ended up in Antioch and how he got to go with Barnabas and Paul on their missionary journey from the Church there. And he traveled and assisted Paul and Barnabas up to a particular point when for some reason he chose to return home.
And maybe it’s better that we don’t know what prompted his early departure so we don’t get lost in our opinions over who we think was in the right and who was in wrong in the dispute. Maybe it is best to just keep our focus on the fact that we have two trusted Christian leaders who agree on what their mission should be but they disagree on the “best” way to accomplish it. Not an uncommon experience.
Many times these directional differences are rooted in the different ways that people are wired. Our different personalities lead us toward different paths even to the same goal.
Some of us are naturally cautious and so we want to have the whole plan laid out before we take the first step. This would hit head to head against those of us who are adventurous and believe that we can make the next decision when we get there, let’s just go!
Some of us are decision makers and we are ready to make a decision right now. Others of us like to think things through before we make decisions. This can go round and round as the “thinker” asks questions that are answered with just another on the spot decision. (this is my decision…ok, but what about this?…good point, now this is my decision)
Some of us are task oriented so we are dedicated to do whatever it takes to accomplish the task before us as quickly as possible. Others of us are more people oriented so we are good with getting the task done, but we are not in a hurry because we believe that the journey there is just as important as the finished product.
And we could go on and on, but my guess is that many of you can find yourself somewhere in one of the only three personality differences that I mentioned…and you may have identified someone else in your life who stands opposite you. You just that even if you have the exact same goal in mind, you will disagree on the “best” way to get there.
It’s not hard to see something of the differences in Paul and Barnabas too.
Paul’s natural bend lent itself well to his former life as Pharisee. He was dedicated to being dedicated and he would sacrifice whatever he needed to in order to do what he believed would be pleasing to God..and he expected others to live with that same level of sacrificial dedication.
But Barnabas’ name was literally “encouragment”. His real name was Joseph, but back in Acts chapter 4 we read of how the Apostles changed it to Barnabas which means “Son of encouragement” because of his natural gift of mercy and bend toward encouraging people in their faith. Remember he was the one who stood up for Paul when he first came to Jerusalem claiming to be a Christian and no one would believe him. It was Barnabas who was like, “Give him a chance”
Warren Wiersbe summed up their personality differences like this:
Paul looked at people and asked, “What can they do for God’s work?” while Barnabas looked at people and asked, “What can God’s work do for them?” Both questions are important to the Lord’s work, and sometimes it is difficult to keep things balanced.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 466.
These two men both had hearts that were submitted to God, but they “sharply disagreed” on the “best” way to honor him in this next missionary trip. So what would they do next?
This brings us to our final theme:
3. Because the mission is more important than individual differences, God uses all believers and all circumstances to accomplish His mission (Acts 15:40–41).
3. Because the mission is more important than individual differences, God uses all believers and all circumstances to accomplish His mission (Acts 15:40–41).
This is how they moved forward despite their Directional differences:
39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
This is one of those examples where we can say that punctuation really matters. I don’t know if it “Saves lives” like the difference between these two sentences. “Lets eat grandma” is a very different statement than “Let’s eat, grandma”. Punctuation may not save a life here, but it will save misunderstandings.
Because the commas and even the little number verse numbers can be distracting, but make sure that you read the whole sentence together here. In essence it says Barnabas picked a partner and they went one direction and Paul picked a partner and they went another direction and “they” meaning both set of partners were “commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.”
In other words instead of this Direction dispute causing a blow up, a stand still or a sit in, by God’s providence two missionary teams were sent out by the Church in Antioch instead of one. On top of that, both Paul and Barnabas had the opportunity then to mentor another Christian in the process of reaching Gentiles for Christ in foreign lands.
And they literally went in opposite directions. Getting back to our [map] we can see Barnabas and John Mark returned to Cyprus to the South and Paul and Silas now venture North through Syria to Cilicia and on to Derbe and Lystra etc.
But notice the overlap between this trip and the last. Even though they went other directions, together they covered each of the cities where they had planted these young churches. That was their heart. that was their shared mission, and they were able to accomplish it despite having this dispute about the “best” way to do it.
1. Believers share the common mission to build and strengthen the Church.
2. Believers don’t always agree on the best way to accomplish the mission but
3. Because the mission is more important than individual differences, God can use all believers in any circumstances to accomplish His mission
Gospel Application
And this is just as true for us today. I don’t know if you are aware of this but the Church in America is battle worn. If you don’t see this then you aren’t talking to many people from other Churches. The pastors that I talk to share stories of some pretty “sharp disagreements” and many of them are not settled yet. Some people are still angry over the direction that the leaders in their Church have taken over the past couple years.
And just like most Churches, our Overseers believe that the decisions that we made concerning these things were “good”, that is why we made them. If we thought something else was better then we would choose that, but we believe that we chose what was “best”. All that being said, some Christian Churches chose to respond differently that we did, but that doesn’t mean that we consider their choice “evil”.
Like Paul and Barnabas, as long as we are both after the good and God honoring goal of building and strengthening the Church through “Life-giving message of Jesus Christ” then God can and will uses us to accomplish a part of His mission - it just may be with different people in different places.
And because we all love happy endings, it is encouraging to note that John Mark eventually became a trusted ministry partner of Paul’s. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy he writes
11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
Landing
Even though Paul and Barnabas disagreed to the point that they chose to go their separate ways, God used Paul’s strong personality and Barnabas’ encouraging personality to further His mission.
And we don’t know what our Churches will face next, but it is likely that at some point we will again not agree with another person or Church’s ministry methods. At that point we will have to ask ourselves: Is is this a directional dispute or a moral one, because arguing from the wrong scale can be very damaging.
If it turns outs to be a Directional Dispute, then we can rest assured that God can use everyone who submits to His authority to further His mission. Our challenge is to commit to using the skills,strengths and personalities that God has given each of us to build up and strengthen His Ekklesia today.
Would you pray into that with me...
NEW PARTNERS!!!!!