I'm in a crazzzy time

This world can be so crazzzy can’t it? How many of us experienced something wrong this week:maybe you got told something in some way and no one should talk to you that way. Maybe you were charged too much for something, like you went to the gas station once this week, that’s where I know you got charged to much. How many of you noticed that something wasn’t right at a business you went to this week, that people forgot to do something or seem preoccupied.

I began the week teaching at school. This was our first week of school. On my first day of school, I drove to school and experienced what the new late start for high school’s would mean for me. It took me about 10 to 15 minutes to go on 8 mile from Lower Sac to West Lane. That is just one light, and I can usually do it in 2 minutes. The plan for getting rid of big traffic is to build more homes. That’s crazy.

By the time I got to school I ran in already seeing the cute families lining up. When I got it to my classroom I was trying to put things down and quickly I started getting called to the front to pick up students. After I picked up one I kept getting called back to the front but I had no aides. I couldn’t leave students.

You see things are crazy and no one hired aides over the summer. They knew there was a shortage but nothing, no one. So when one of my aides quit in July and the other one got stuck in traffic I was not able to be a good teacher. Things started getting crazy and I got to tell you I am frustrated because those who have power in our district didn’t hire anyone. The response is usually we can’t find enough workers but there are no further steps or actions taken like creative hours, incentives, raising pay, improving the desirability of the job somehow, more advertising. And did you know that currently most school board seats are running unopposed. No one to run against. TImes are crazy. Maybe it is like that where you work.

It’s just crazzzzy when people aren’t doing what they are supposed to do or people are doing wrong things they are not supposed to do. Sin and it’s impact are all around us. Sometimes it is easy to spot who is at fault and then when you talk about gas prices, public education or other things it is very difficult.

But the church, people who follow Jesus, this family is supposed to be different. Do you ever see things among the people of Jesus that just aren’t right? Ever seen understaffed or people who just didn’t know what they were doing. I know you have because these problems exist everywhere. Perhaps like me, you’ve seen people do the wrong thing in the church, or maybe you knew them from church, as followers of Jesus and then saw or knew they were doing the very, wrong thing!

What do you do? What do you do?

We can give each other advice about living in our crazy world, but let’s choose to look at the revelation of God for answers to this life situation of dealing with people, fellow followers of Jesus, in this crazzy world, that’s where our answers for all of us are

Galatians 2:1–5 CSB

1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. 2 I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders. I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running, in vain. 3 But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us. 5 But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.

Explain:

Sometimes reading the Bible is difficult because it seems as though you should know who is being talked about and what is going on but you don’t. Like it’s an insider story that no one is letting you in on. Like When friends start discussing their favorite show or your kids their favorite anime. I get lost in about 15 seconds.

Yet this isn’t entertainment. The Bible is God’s word to us and we need to understand. So let me help you. This is the second chapter of Galatians. I totally encourage you to read the first chapter. If you’ve been here the last couple of weeks you know that in this whole first part of the book of the Bible called Galatians aul is trying to explain who He is and how he has a right to speak as someone with the authority to tell them what the truth of following Jesus is.

IN the first chapter, He proved that Jesus revealed himself to Paul and taught him. That Paul had authority. This authority was recognized by the other apostles in Jerusalem. He answered the question, why should you listen to me because Jesus taught me.

Now he showed that he knew everybody, who knew everybody and has authority to speak with even the top leaders. One of the earliest Christians talked about in the New Testament who wasn’t an apostle was Barnabas. He was noted early by the Christians as a very generous man, a leader. He and a man named Titus who the Galatians would have known they taught that Jesus not only came as the Messiah to the Jews but as Savior to the whole world. All the apostles taught this but Paul along with his friends actually taught the non-Jews called Gentiles, they taught them Jesus loved them and that they didn’t need to become Jewish to follow Jesus, they could stay Gentile and be a Christian.

It’s like I had a pastor friend tell me once in a shocked voice, “He said, I tell everyone that if they don’t volunteer I will be outside digging the ditch to fix the pipe. I threaten them with that, but you actually do it. You dig the ditch!” Paul didn’t just talk about Jesus’ love for everyone He actually went to everyone! He helped them learn what it means to follow Jesus in their culture, they didn’t have to become Jewish.

Most of you just accept that truth, that you didn’t have to change cultures, you could come as you are to Jesus. God will change you as a person but you don’t have to learn a new language or eat different foods. You accept it as if it has always been that way but it hasn’t. People since the beginning of the church have always tried to make following Jesus more about following made up rules of culture or all the good stuff we do than about a relationship with Jesus himself. Rules like we don’t dance, we must dance, we must get excited, we can’t get excited, we don’t get mad, we get mad at everything, we must wear this clothing and not that clothing, we have to have meet at a certain time in a certain way. Extra rules not in the Bible. These extra rules can pile on and make following Jesus more about obedience and hiding than about living in a relationship with God.

Most Jews of the time felt that the best way to keep themselves holy, or right with God, was not to be with anyone who wasn’t a jew. I don’t mean they would run the other way as soon as a Gentile, the word for a non-jew, they wouldn’t run if a Gentile came into the room but they didn’t make it a habit of being close.

While true followers of Jesus knew Jesus was the messiah, he was God one of us, He had died for their sins and rose again, and they could follow him, some thought that following Him meant being the best jew possible.

That anybody who wasn’t a Jew, who wanted to become a follower of Jesus, should therefore do everything that Jews do. In other words, they should become Jewish in order to follow Jesus. Jews are God’s chosen people. They are a wonderful race and religion close to the heart of God. Yet, Jesus came for all of us. Jesus loves you.

One of the most obvious sign of Jewishness, was the sign of purification and separation to God, the sign of circumcision, the actual removal of the fore skin of the penis. All Jews would have this performed when they were days old. If a man converts, even still today, he must have his foreskin removed.

Circumcision was the most obvious example of what it means to follow God’s law given to Jews but it also included all of the things they could and could not eat, how they were to maintain there home, and the customs and rules were not just written in the Old Testament but also in the teachings of the Jewish leaders on what the Bible meant and how to live.

Every Jew who ever lived failed to live by all the law of God. I know this because every person who has ever lived except Jesus has failed to live by the law. No one is a perfect Jew except Jesus. Because no one is perfect we can’t be in the presence of a perfect God. Justice had to occur which is why God himself paid the price for our sins. It is why Jesus had to die for us. Why He had to make it right.

Yet some people, without real authority, started going to churches and telling them that believing that Jesus died for their sins, rose again, committing to follow Him, and doing it by baptism wasn’t good enough. They had to become Jews too. They had to follow all of the customs of being a Jew. Not only could they not eat pork for example but they also would have to have the foreskin cut off from their penis, they would have to be circumcised.

While committed men to the Lord give their whole lives to Jesus, including their most intimate parts, Jesus never called us to cut ourselves for Him.

This teaching was without authority. It was wrong. It was a lie and it would mean that everyone would not experience the freedom of forgiveness in Christ. They would be enslaved once again away form God.

Paul’s response is strong. Really hear it.

Galatians 2:4–5 CSB

4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us. 5 But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.

What did Paul do?

Galatians 2:5–10 CSB

5 But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you. 6 Now from those recognized as important (what they once were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism)—they added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised, 8 since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles. 9 When James, Cephas, and John—those recognized as pillars—acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.

Explain:

Paul and his friends went to the rest of the Christian leaders in Jerusalem. When people doubted their authority they were humble and what they thought was the way of the Holy Spirit to go back to the church leaders and discuss it with them.

Even though, Paul and Barnabas were recognized as pillars, Paul and Barnabas still submitted themselves to the authority of fellow followers of Jesus, people they knew also knew Christ Jesus and taught correctly. These weren’t just anybody - Cephas, who is called Peter elsewhere in the Bible, was Jesus best friend. John, was likely Jesus cousin and the only apostle there when Jesus was crucified. James was Jesus brother and a major leader in the church in Jerusalem. They acknowledged that James, John and Peter would keep sharing the faith to Jews and Paul and Barnabas would go around the world and share with non-Jews.

They sealed this agreement by grasping each other’s hands. A big deal in the culture and probably similar to a hand shake over a contract or a deal.

These men cared about God. They sought God together over real issues, real things they thought, real things they taught. These teachings were not their jobs, not their occupations as we see some to be pastors as their jobs who worry about religious things, but instead their lives.

My friends their faith mattered, our faith matters. What someone teaches about God or tells others to do to follow Jesus matters.

Our church, every church, is lacking in people who believe that their faith matters so much that they would be willing to argue about it or even stop people they respect from doing what they are doing or saying.

Yet our Bible shows this is how we are to live. Where our faith matters to how we live our lives so much that we will first find out if we are correct in our understanding. We will seek truth in our faith and in our community. The way we live out our lives with Jesus matters.

Even to the disciples how they ate mattered to their faith. More importantly who they ate with.

Galatians 2:11–15 The Message

11 Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. 12 Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. 13 Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade. 14 But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?” 15 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.”

Explain:

Peter would do the right thing when people around him agreed with him. Yet when people came to visit who disagreed, he quickly went over and returned to the old habit of their being Jews and non-Jews. He would join in, treating the Gentile Christians like they were not worthy enough to be in the whole church.

Most importantly we see that Christians, people who follow Jesus, SHOULD confront each other when we are doing wrong!

Yes, if your brother or sister in Jesus, that’s most of the people who you see right here, is doing what is wrong, It is right to confront them. When we don’t, we commit really bad sin ourselves. I feel I have made this error too many times to count.

Don’t say to one another in this church, I can’t judge another person so I can’t tell them what they are doing is wrong. Would it be right to let a person abuse others just because they are one of us? Would it be right for people who call themselves faithful followers of Jesus and part of the New Day family to commit violence towards others and us to ignore or come to their aid as if nothing is wrong. Would it even be right to come alongside someone who teaches other people to do wrong and say nothing to them because we don’t want to judge?

Friends, ignoring what others do or agreeing with their actions no matter what they do because they are part of us is not Christian, it’s the way of evil. It is all around us. It is what causes corruption.

You see Paul was led by God to make sure the people who followed Jesus didn’t give in to their old ways and divisions, and because of Paul being obedient, you and I can be Christians, we can speak English, the language we first started speaking, we can worship God wearing pants, sitting in a building with folding chairs, nothing about our faith requires to live with the same culture as people did 2,000 years ago. That’s what could have happened if Paul hadn’t stood up to Peter and other leaders having the courage to say what they were doing was wrong.

I have failed in this area too many times. Too many. I’m trying to be more obedient. The guideline for how we are to act though is not as spiritual police looking for those we can kick out. Only accepting the most pure, or at least the ones who can cover up sin the best. Instead this is our guide.

Galatians 6:1 CSB

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.

We are looking to help each other become who God intends for us to be, people who live out love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. People who live out the power of the resurrection of Jesus, who know the Hope that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Yet all of us fail. All of us will commit sin. All of us will make mistakes and all of us will purposefully do what we shouldn’t and not do what we should. Yet, out of love, we are to each care to restore each other gently. Restore, help make it right, help each other as Paul helped Peter, through confrontation, through prayer, through right teaching and through relationship.