Good morning, Church. My name is James. It is good to be with you this morning.
My family and I have been doing a number of walks lately,
because it's about the only thing you can do to get out, and it's the only thing we've been doing to stay sane.
And one of the things that's happened for Alyssa and I is that we'll often have a location in mind.
We're going to go to this particular park. We're going to go to this playground.
We're going to walk down to the National Park.
And what will happen is that as we were walking there, I'll say to Alyssa,
why are you going to turn down that street? Go this way. This is the fastest way there.
I don't know what you're doing. And this has happened a number of times over a number of years,
so much so that I've coined a phrase for it, which is,
you're doing something different, therefore you are wrong.
What are you going to go down that path? That's the wrong way. You're doing something different to me.
Therefore, you are wrong.
It's a way of explaining a certain frustration that we can feel when people are doing things different to us.
I wonder if you've felt this kind of feeling in the past.
We see people doing things that are different to us,
and we can quickly jump to judgment and assumptions.
You use different utensils to eat food. That's different, therefore it's wrong.
You eat smelly cheese. Oh, that's gross.
You eat durian. I can't even understand that.
You value radical individualism. That's just wrong.
You value the collectivist family unit.
That's different to me, so you must be wrong.
What is the impact of God's command to love our neighbor when it comes to this?
Do we only love those who are like us?
Do we actually find it really hard to love those who are different,
because we can quickly jump to thinking that they're wrong?
I'm not sure how you felt yesterday as you saw the protests through Sydney.
I felt particularly frustrated that there would be thousands of people gathering
and wanting to get out of lockdown,
and yet seeming, in my mind, to be doing something that's just going to make COVID worse.
I was frustrated, and I was angry,
and I was quickly jumping to assumptions about these people.
I don't know their individual circumstances.
I don't know how desperate these people are feeling in this very difficult season.
And so for all of us,
it is easy to think you are doing something different,
and you are wrong,
and to judge people quickly.
We are in the second half of the book of Acts.
Jesus has been raised from the dead.
He has ascended to heaven.
He has sent His disciples out to spread the good news,
that Jesus is for all people.
And now, we are seeing that the gospel is spreading out from the ethnic base in Jerusalem.
But as it's spreading to different ethnic areas,
it's going to cause problems.
It's going to spread to people who live differently,
who eat differently,
who think differently,
and who are going to worship the same God slightly differently.
What's going to happen?
Will the church flourish and grow in a multi-ethnic way?
Or will there be conflict because people are doing things differently?
And will they just think you are wrong and have conflict?
As we follow the gospel spread out of Jerusalem across the world,
our challenge today will be for us to grow in awareness of our own cultural,
ethnic blind spots.
For us to be aware of how quickly we judge.
And for us to grow in love for our neighbors.
So why don't I pray as we have a look at Acts chapter 15.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father, we ask that you would be with us this morning.
Give us an awareness of our own blindness to other people's differences.
Give us an awareness of how quickly we judge.
And Father, help us to be like you.
Help us to love people.
Love people even when they are different to us, Lord.
We ask this in your Son's name.
Amen.
Three points today.
You'll be able to find those on the St. Paul's app.
First of all, we are going to see a conflict that arises
before we see the resolution and finally reconciliation.
So let's have a look at the conflict.
We've seen some of the church in Antioch in the last couple of weeks.
And it has been an exciting place.
Steve mentioned last week that the Antioch is the place
where a lot of the Gentile missionaries spread.
And, you know, we as a church in Chatswood can trace our roots back to Antioch.
It has been a flourishing church.
And some Jewish Christians who are misinformed
come down to Antioch and bring some problems.
Please have a look with me at Acts chapter 15, verse 1.
Now, there is two layers to this problem.
First, there is a theological difference.
And then there is an ethnic or a cultural difference.
And we need to carefully look between these two.
And it's just lazy to dismiss someone
because they are saying something different.
They're saying something that we don't necessarily agree with.
It would be very easy to think they're adding to salvation here.
Let's just ignore these people.
These Jewish believers have come down from Judea
and they're obviously very concerned for the Gentiles.
They want them to be saved.
They've come down.
They've gone on a journey from Jerusalem to Antioch.
They've gotten out their soapboxes
and they're standing up in front of everyone and saying,
if you want to be saved, this is what you must do.
They're not doing it because they don't care for these people.
They're actually doing it out of love,
even if there is a problem with what they're saying,
even if there is big theological issues.
It would be easy to just dismiss them.
It would be easy to ignore them,
to think these Jewish Christians are wrong.
It's salvation by grace alone.
I'm going to have nothing to do with them.
But we need to just step into their shoes for a moment,
into these Jewish Christian shoes,
because it's not just a matter of them wanting people
to just follow very religious rules.
Because for these Jewish Christians,
it's a matter of identity and ethnicity.
To be saved meant to be part of God's family,
to be part of Israel.
And the way that happened in the Old Testament,
the covenant set up by Moses,
which we've seen in our series through Exodus,
it only happened through obedience to the Lord.
It only happened through circumcision.
Circumcision.
Other people have joined Israel in the past,
and this is what it looked like.
Circumcision was the external mark of the inward reality.
It was the mark that you were a part of God's family.
But now, entry into God's family is different.
Jesus has come.
He is the true Israel.
The one who could obey the Mosaic laws fully.
The one who came so that we would not just have a circumcision of the flesh,
but a circumcision of the heart,
so that we could love God.
And so, we see these Jewish believers,
they come with sincere love for these Gentiles,
these Gentiles in Antioch.
But Paul and Barnabas have good cause to have a conflict with them,
to have a dispute with them.
Because understanding their ethnic background is important,
but we also need to understand the theology, the issue at hand.
Because what we believe about God matters.
Have a look with me at verse 2.
This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them.
Conflict here.
I'm not sure how you feel about conflict.
Maybe you don't like having conflict.
Maybe you think conflict is equal to war,
and it should be avoided at all costs.
But here, conflict is actually quite important.
Because what these Jewish Christians were saying
was going to be deadly to the Christian faith.
It was dangerous to this young church,
and it ran the risk of taking all of the power out of the Christian faith.
Because what they were preaching was that it is Jesus plus something,
and that's how you get salvation.
It's Jesus plus obedience to the law, circumcision.
That's how you get salvation.
Whenever we add to the gospel, we actually destroy it.
Jesus plus anything does not equal salvation.
That's just being burdened with something else to follow.
And this is one of the wonderful things that sets Christianity apart from any other religion.
Religions say, this is what you must do to be saved.
Christianity says, Jesus has done it.
God's grace to us is Jesus came, he lived, and he died,
and he was raised so that we could be raised too.
We must be careful to not be like these Jewish Christians and add anything to the gospel.
Whether it's adding the sacraments, whether it's adding obedience to our family,
whatever it is that we add,
it takes away from Jesus dying on the cross.
As if I could add to God dying on the cross.
Now imagine you were this young church in Antioch.
You have been seeing people come to faith.
You've got Paul and Barnabas preaching there.
You are hearing the good news.
You are being encouraged.
You've changed your life.
And you've gotten rid of sexual immorality.
You've stopped sinning in certain ways.
You are growing in your knowledge and faith of the Lord.
And then people come down from Jerusalem.
These are people from the home church.
These are people who may have seen Jesus.
And they come down and you're excited.
And then they start telling you, you've got it all wrong.
You actually don't know how to get salvation.
You've got to do these other things to get salvation.
Imagine how you'd feel if you were the church in Antioch.
Maybe nobody here is actually saved.
Maybe I'm actually not good enough for this God
because I can't do everything required.
If I was in Antioch, I'd feel shamed.
Or maybe I'd just feel tempted to ignore these Jewish Christians
who'd come down because what they were saying was different to me.
And so I'm just going to completely ignore them.
This is the conflict.
This is the issue.
And we're going to see how it gets resolved.
And so what the church in Antioch do is they send Paul and Barnabas
back to Jerusalem to see this situation get resolved.
They get to Jerusalem.
They report to the elders and to the leaders there
everything that is happening.
They report the church is growing.
Lives are being changed.
There is real faith.
There is growth in the church in Antioch.
And the party that had started these issues gets up and speaks.
Have a look with me at verse 5.
Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said,
The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.
The Gentiles must be circumcised.
This is the Pharisees who stood up.
And I'm not sure how you feel, but as soon as I see the Pharisees come on, I'm just tempted to boo.
It's like the villains have come onto the stage and I want to throw tomatoes at them.
You know, the Pharisees, they're the ones who led Jesus to be crucified.
These are the bad guys in so much of the New Testament.
Paul himself was a Pharisee.
He was out there trying to kill Christians until he got saved.
I can't help but see Pharisees here and not like it.
And I want to see them get put in their place.
And it's really easy to demonize these people.
But Luke, the author of Acts, he doesn't do that.
Have a look with me again.
Verse 5.
Then some of the believers, some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up.
Luke actually describes them as believers.
They're Christians.
They are Christians who have converted, but they're also Pharisees.
They're not the enemies.
They're part of the same family.
They have some theological issues.
They need to continue to grow following Jesus,
to change their previous thoughts and understand how the gospel impacts their lives
and what it means and how Jesus is the one who has obeyed.
But Luke describes them as Christians.
And sometimes people in the family of God will disagree.
Sometimes there will be fights.
It's fights over what is important.
Disagreements sometimes need church councils and leaders of the church to gather together
to work on these issues.
In church, there might also be some disagreements about music
or styles of music or preferred seats or morning tea.
But most of these issues in the church come down to personal preference and pride.
Here there is conflict that comes from the Pharisees' background.
They have historically seen the Gentiles as unclean.
They need to be cleansed by obedience to the law.
They need to be circumcised so they can be part of God's family.
And these Pharisees have legitimate theological concerns.
And so Peter stands up in verse 7.
And the first thing that we see get clarified here is not the ethnic and cultural difference.
The first thing that gets clarified is the theological issue.
Have a look with me.
Verse 7.
Peter got up and addressed them.
Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you
that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
And believe.
God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them,
just as he did to us.
He did not discriminate between us and them,
for he purified their hearts by faith.
Peter reminds everyone of the vision he had in Acts 10
and his experience of Gentiles being converted.
God has showed that he is for all people.
The Pharisees, his concern, their concern is that the Gentiles would be pure,
that they would have pure hearts.
And Peter says God's done it.
God has made their hearts pure, not by obedience to the law,
but by Jesus, but by his blood, people can be cleansed.
Verse 10.
Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles
a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?
No.
We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved,
just as they are.
The issue of theology is clarified first.
It is only by the grace of Jesus that we can be saved.
Not by what happens to a certain part of our body,
not by what we do, but only by Jesus.
This issue of conflict, while we might want to avoid conflict,
it's actually really important for the life of the church here.
It's really helpful.
Because there was a group that wanted to say that you had to believe in Jesus
and do these certain things,
but that was never going to work.
Because salvation is by God's grace alone.
So we have seen this conflict that has ethnic issues
and also a theological issue.
We have seen the issue be resolved,
but we're going to see reconciliation now.
We're going to see the reconciliation that comes from
the ethnic layer being dealt with as well.
What is happening now is, as the gospel is spreading out,
it's going from being an ethnic faith
and it's growing across the world and it's changing.
It's moving from just being ethnically Jewish
to being a worldwide religion.
But that doesn't mean there won't continue to be differences and issues.
It actually means there will be more issues.
As there are ethnically Jewish Christians
and different types of ethnically Gentile Christians.
How are these groups of people going to live together?
How are they going to grow as a church without splitting
and without having continual conflict?
Because keeping circumcision is neither good nor bad.
It doesn't save and so it doesn't actually matter.
And so for the sake of this growing multi-ethnic church,
James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, gets up.
He speaks and he goes back to prophecy from the Old Testament
that said that the Gentiles would come in.
The Gentiles were promised to come in.
And yet, being aware of that means that they need to be aware
that faith is going to look different for different people.
James is keen to see these Gentiles brought into the faith,
but he doesn't expect them to look like Jewish Christians.
And so he sets out a plan for the Gentiles.
It is for them to be culturally aware of their Jewish Christian brothers and sisters.
To not need to be circumcised, but to love those who are different.
Have a look at the plan James sets out with me in verse 19.
It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult
for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
Instead, we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols,
from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
James sets out a plan for these different groups of people to work together.
The Gentiles were to love the Jews by not eating meat
that had been strangled, don't eat food sacrificed to idols, and don't eat blood.
These are all things that the Jews would religiously and also culturally find disgusting.
It's not a legal way to earn salvation,
but it was a love of those people who were different.
The Jews were moving from a long history of what it meant to follow God,
now that they had Jesus, these Jewish Christians,
but they would need love.
And so don't get in their face and eat meat that had been full of blood,
because it would be offensive to them.
It wouldn't be loving to someone that was different.
James here also mentions sexual immorality.
And this might seem strange as we're talking about ethnic differences,
but the Jewish people had a history of seeking to be sexually pure,
of seeing marriage as the place for sexual relationships.
It's in the Ten Commandments, it's in the history of the Old Testament.
But what's this got to do with ethnic concerns?
Well, the Gentiles were historically far more sexually immoral than the Jews.
The Christian gospel calls people to sexual purity,
just like the Old Testament.
But it is of so much cultural importance,
so much Christian importance,
that James really stresses it for this Gentile church in Antioch.
We saw that there was two layers of problems at the start.
There was the theological issue of what must be done to get salvation,
and it's only by the grace in Jesus.
That's the first issue that's been clarified.
James and Peter have clarified that,
but now the issue of ethnic difference has been dealt with.
The council has met,
they've confirmed that it's only the gospel of grace in Jesus,
but now the gospel is actually breaking down barriers
between different cultures.
Previously, Jews would have nothing to do with Gentiles,
but now they can have close relationships.
They can only do this when they love each other,
when they're aware of the cultural differences.
This young church in both Jerusalem and in Antioch
is learning what it's actually going to look like for them
to walk together in love,
to see the unity in Christ
and not their cultural differences which divide.
The Gentiles here are called to have cultural intelligence,
to understand the impact of their actions on other people.
American multi-ethnic church pastor, Mark DeMaz,
wrote this book.
It's called Building a Multi-Ethnic Church,
and he describes the lessons that these churches use
as different stages of cultural awareness.
The first stage is called cultural destructiveness.
It's effectively what the Jewish Christians had come down
to the Antioch church were doing.
They were saying,
you must become like me.
You must leave your culture,
and you must culturally become like me.
You must take on circumcision.
You must take on obedience to the Mosaic law
if you want to be saved.
That's cultural destructiveness.
The Gentile Christians were effectively
in a period of cultural blindness.
They weren't aware of their actions,
the food they ate,
that would cause issues to Jewish Christians.
And that is why James says,
be aware of these things.
Don't be culturally blind.
Be aware of these cultural differences out of love.
James is seeking to bring cultural awareness
so that there is not cultural destructiveness.
You must become like me.
You need to leave who you are at the door to church.
No, we can have cultural differences.
Don't be culturally blind,
but be culturally aware.
We, as ethnic Jews,
we find these things harmful.
So don't do these.
Be aware of them.
Out of love for us.
The step after this
is called cultural sensitivity.
The Apostle Paul shows this
in dealing with Christians
of different maturity levels.
In 1 Corinthians 8,
Paul talks about
that if it would cause a brother or sister
to sin or to stumble,
he would rather not eat meat at all.
He is saying,
I have freedom to eat meat.
I can do whatever I like,
but out of love,
I will not do that
because I don't want to hurt somebody else.
I don't want to cause them to sin.
He is aware of his actions on somebody else
and he will actually limit
his freedom
out of love.
Gentile and Jewish Christians
were to remember the gospel
that unites them
before their cultural differences
got in the way.
And so James sends a letter
and two brothers from Jerusalem,
Silas and Judas,
with these details.
And it's a really wonderful thing
as this letter is sent.
Remember how this young church in Antioch
could have been feeling.
Nervous.
What is the church at home
going to say to us?
Are we going to get in trouble?
Are we going to have to change
what we're doing?
Are we really saved?
And James sends this letter
with Judas and Silas
and the news comes back.
Have a look with me.
Verse 30.
So the men were sent off
and went down to Antioch
where they gathered the church together
and delivered the letter.
The people read it
and were glad
for its encouraging message.
Judas and Silas,
who themselves were prophets,
said much to encourage
and strengthen the believers.
After spending some time there,
they were sent off
by the believers
with the blessings of peace
to return to those
who had sent them.
This issue of conflict
has actually been really wonderful.
It's brought gospel fruit.
The conflict through dispute
taken to the council,
it's brought clarity
on the good news of Jesus.
But not only that,
coming back,
it's actually encouraged
the believers.
Believers are strengthened.
There was peace now
between these two churches.
Now, we might be tempted
to think that conflict
is only a bad thing.
Conflict over theological differences
are actually a hindrance
to good and close relationships.
But this shows that
conflict can actually be good.
Conflict is important
because there is a close connection
between our theology
and fellowship.
We are only connected
because of what we believe
about our God.
As we continue to learn
more about our God,
as we read in the Bible
throughout the week,
we learn more about our God,
it brings us to greater worship of Him.
It doesn't need to harden us
to each other.
But it can be like here in Antioch,
where we are strengthened
and encouraged
to love one another.
For us,
as a multi-ethnic church
full of people
of different backgrounds,
different theologies,
we all think different things
about God,
we are all growing
to learn more
and more about Him.
we are going to face
many of these
two issues.
Cultural differences,
theological differences.
The person that
thinks differently to me
and therefore they're wrong,
is that going to be
our first thought?
You think differently,
you think differently,
you've got different practices,
you've got different theology to me,
therefore you're wrong.
Is that how we are going
to first think and act?
A community,
a church here,
is united by Jesus.
We are people
made up of many
different ethnicities.
This is expressed
in the flags
that you can see
to my sides.
But we can all suffer
from similar issues
to the church
in Jerusalem
and Antioch.
Some from the church
in Jerusalem
had a culturally destructive view.
You must be like me.
We can have that view too.
You must do
exactly what I do.
You must think
exactly like me.
You must leave
who you are
at the door
and become like me.
We can be culturally
destructive to others
instead of celebrating
our differences
and that it is Jesus
that unites us.
They were also adding
to Jesus' work
for salvation.
But thankfully,
this council in Jerusalem
clarified the gospel.
The letters sent back
to Antioch
make sure
that the Gentile church
don't have
cultural blindness.
But we can walk
with cultural blindness too.
We can be driven
by these same issues.
We can be driven
by pride
in our own cultural way
of doing things,
in our own theology.
All cultures
want to emphasize
different things.
Western culture
emphasizes radical
individualism.
Asian culture,
Asian communities
emphasize
communal collectivist culture.
And there are impacts
both inside
and outside the church.
Inside the church,
we would talk
about the importance
of a person being saved.
So from a Western view,
we would talk about
the importance
of you
following Jesus.
The importance
of you
repenting.
The importance
of you
as an individual
turning your life
around and following God.
That is what
the Western culture
is going to identify
and emphasize.
An Asian community
might emphasize
that it is we
as a church
who follows Jesus,
that we
need to repent.
And the individual
can think,
oh well,
I'm going in the same direction.
Now there is
positives and negatives
to both of these.
I am not saved
because of the faith
of my parents.
Both of my parents
are wonderful Christians.
But their faith
hasn't saved me.
It's just like
my faith
and Alyssa's faith
is not going to
save my children.
But what we do
as a family
and what we do
as a church
is that we
teach our children.
And so I'm not saved
because of my family
but they certainly
took me to church.
I certainly bring
my kids to church.
I'd love if they were
here at church today.
But we've been
sitting with them
and reading the Bible
with them.
It's not just
I will leave you
to choose
as an individual
whether you will
follow God.
No,
I value this so much
that I will teach you
and disciple you.
I want to have
other people
in your life
as well.
And so we can
easily go down
one side
and emphasize
Western values
or Eastern values
to the detriment
of having both.
We do need to take
individual personal
responsibility
for the faith
that we have
but we are also
a family
of believers
a community
encouraging each other
calling each other
to continue
to follow the Lord.
We can't expect
to put all Christians
in the world
into the same box
and say
you must worship
exactly like me.
You must think
about faith
exactly like me.
Because the Bible
doesn't do that.
There is space
for difference.
I liken it
to eating.
All cultures
across the world
eat food differently.
And there isn't
necessarily
one right way
to do it.
Imagine you had
a table
even eating
at a table
is a cultural
assumption.
Imagine you've got
a group of people
eating together.
You've got a person
from England
they've got a lovely
set of cutlery
silver
knife and fork
wonderful.
You've got a Chinese
person with chopsticks.
You've got a Kenyan
sitting at the table
and they're eating
with their right hand
and they're scooping up
ugali with a curry
and you've got an Indian
also using their right
hand to use naan
to get curry.
You can say
that they all have
to do the exact
same thing
but it is not
being aware
that there is
good cultural
difference among us.
Celebrating
what is different
remembering that
it is Jesus
who unites us.
This is a really
important word
for us
for when we return
as a church.
But I've hardly
been seeing
anybody.
I'm sure
it's the same
with you.
I would almost
love to have
had cultural
conflict or
theological conflict
with someone
because that would
mean I would be
in relationship
with people.
Church, I miss
you.
I miss all
of you.
But the challenge
for us in this
season of lockdown
is that as we
stay at home
we tend to do
what is easiest,
the things that
we prefer
and what is
most comfortable.
This is not
what a multi-ethnic
church does.
A multi-ethnic
church doesn't
do what is
easiest for us.
In this season
we are not
getting a chance
to love each
other,
to love across
cultural differences.
You know,
we saw Paul
choose to put
aside differences
out of love
for somebody
so he said
he would never
eat meat again
if that was
what was required.
The Gentile
Christians were
to practice
love for their
Jewish brothers
and sisters,
the Jewish
Christians,
by not eating
meat that was
strangled to idols
and those things
by being culturally
aware.
When we come
back from lockdown
it's going to be
easy to think
that church,
you know,
it's not as
convenient as it
used to be.
You know,
I've gotten
used to sleeping
in and watching
the service at
2.30 in the
afternoon.
I'm going to
keep doing that
instead of going
back when church
opens up.
I've gotten
used to walking
out halfway
through and
getting a coffee.
You know,
I'm at home
and so I've
gotten used to
watching the
Olympics during
church.
I've gotten
used to being
distracted.
We will all
have gotten
used to doing
our own
personal
preferences.
We need to
be prepared
for when we
come back as
a church,
whenever that
is,
hopefully very
soon,
to do the
hard thing
of loving
across differences,
across our
comfort zone.
It will be
hard when
we return
to church.
We will
go back
with the
four square
metre rule,
we'll go
back and
not be able
to sing.
These things
aren't to
my preference.
They're not
my preference,
I'm sure
they're not
your preference,
and it can
just be easy
to think,
oh,
I'm just
going to
stay at
home.
But we
will miss
out on what
the Gentile
church had.
they had
joy from
being encouraged
by people,
encouraged by
people who
were different
to them,
but united
in Jesus.
Being able
to love
and to be
loved by
each other.
Maybe we
weren't particularly
good at either
of those things
before lockdown.
Maybe we
weren't good
at loving
across cultural
or theological
differences.
But when we
return,
we will have
a chance
to do that.
To be a
community that
doesn't say
you're different
and so you're
wrong,
but a community
that sees past
cultural and
theological
differences,
to be a
people loved
by Jesus.
When we
carefully work
through differences,
whether they're
theological or
ethnic,
because of our
unity in Jesus,
we become
a community
who love
each other.
Let me finish
with a quote
from German
theologian and
pastor Dietrich
Bonhoeffer.
He said,
the person
who loves
their dream,
the person
who loves
their dream
of community
will destroy
community,
but the person
who loves
those around
them will
create community.
Let us be
that church.
Let me pray.
Dear Heavenly
Father,
I thank you
so much
for Jesus,
that because
of him,
not only
are we
forgiven,
not only
do we have
salvation,
but that we
can have
unity with
people who
are different.
Father,
give us
slowness to
judge,
give us
awareness of
differences,
but fill us
with love,
fill us
with love,
your love,
your sacrificial
love,
that we
would be
people who
choose to
limit our
freedom out
of love for
other people,
Lord.
We pray this
in your
son's name.
Amen.
Thank you.