Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Do you think two Christians can be members of the same church if one typically votes Democrat and the other Republican?

What if a Christian from Russia moved to Diana, and for various reasons (though he hates Putin’s tactics) he actually supports the assimilation of Ukraine into Russia… would you welcome him as a brother in Christ?

What if a Christian from Nigeria or from Japan or from New York city became a member of FBC Diana… would you expect him or her to leave all of his or her culture behind in order to integrate into this church family?

In our passage this morning, we are following Paul’s journey to Jerusalem, where he’s been warned that he will face hostility and suffering.

And the way in which opposition comes is fascinating, since Paul is truly the target of much hostility, but it is the core and the result of his message that has got his opponents so upset.

Today we are going to read about a transcendent kind of Christianity, a biblical Christianity, the kind that unites believers from all sorts of cultural backgrounds.

We are also going to read about how the early church in Jerusalem took pains to protect unity and also to show love and patience with those who were not able to set aside their culture and traditions so quickly.

May God help us to learn much as we consider this passage together.

Would you stand with me as I read Acts 21:17-36.

Scripture Reading

Acts 21:17–36 (ESV)

17 When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.

18 On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.

19 After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

20 And when they heard it, they glorified God.

And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed.

They are all zealous for the law, 21 and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.

22 What then is to be done?

They will certainly hear that you have come.

23 Do therefore what we tell you.

We have four men who are under a vow; 24 take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads.

Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.

25 But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.

27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help!

This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place.

Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together.

They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.

31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.

And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.

He inquired who he was and what he had done.

34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.

And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.

35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, 36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”

Main Idea:

Christianity transcends culture, though it does not obliterate culture, and this is inevitably threatening to those whose central identity is of this world.

Sermon

1. Glorious Reception (v17-20)

I’m aiming to draw points of connection (really points of origin) from our text this morning to my main idea of application, and the first clause I’ve listed is that Christianity transcends culture.

We can see this on display in the glorious reception Paul and his companions received by “the brothers” in Jerusalem (v17).

Let’s start by noting a few observations in this section that are common but often overlooked: (1) the church-centered nature of Christianity, (2) the consistent polity-structure of churches, and (3) the ordinary catholicity of churches who are unified by the gospel and the glory of God.

First, the church-centered nature of Christianity.

Where did Paul go to present himself and his fellow missionaries when he arrived in Jerusalem?

He went to “the brothers” (v17)… he went to a gathering of Christians!

Friends, in our individualistic culture, it is hard for us to think about Christianity in the way the Bible talks about it.

Many Christians in America have fully embraced an individualistic (and unbiblical) idea of Christianity and the local church.

And for more than a hundred years, many Baptists have misunderstood and misapplied the concept of the priesthood of all believers.[1]

Baptists are right that we need no earthly priest, but some people take this to mean that we have no obligations or responsibilities to any earthly Christian institution.

Winthrop Hudson (a twentieth-century Baptist churchman and Church historian) writing in 1959 said, “It has become increasingly apparent that this [highly individualistic] principle was derived from the general cultural and religious climate of the nineteenth century rather than from any serious study of the Bible… The practical effect of the stress upon ‘soul competency’ as the cardinal doctrine of Baptists was to make every man’s hat his own church.”[2]

But brothers and sisters, we are not a gathering of churches… each with our own authority to baptize, to observe the Lord’s Supper, to form our own confessions of faith, or to define what is or is not Christianity.

We are a church of Christians… communally or collectively wielding the authority of an autonomous local church, but mutually sharing and submitting to the authority of the whole.

Our relationship with Christ is personal, but it is not private.

Christianity is not merely a feeling, a personal conviction, or a social media description on our profile.

Christianity is a communal reality… it is church-centered.

Paul and his friends went to the church in Jerusalem, because that was the community to which they belonged… even though many of Paul’s friends had never been to Jerusalem before!

They presented themselves to the church in Jerusalem in order to be “received” or welcomed or affirmed by “the brothers” or the church members (v17).

And Paul “related” to them “the things God had done… through his ministry” so that they all might “glorify God” together and share in rejoicing over the expansion of Christianity beyond their own context (v19-20).

Brothers and sisters, if your Christianity isn’t church-centered… if your Christian goals and convictions and identity are entirely self-focused and devoid of concern for the spiritual well-being of other church members… then your Christianity isn’t biblical.

The Bible is full of instructions and commands that we must personally learn and apply, but I bet you can’t find a single command from Christ that doesn’t involve more than one person.

Christianity is church-centered!

It is biblically normal for Christians to become more and more involved in the lives of their fellow church members.

It is biblically natural for Christians to work through life-decisions with input from their fellow church members.

It is biblically typical for Christians to depend on one another for everything from spiritual affirmation to spiritual growth.

A second observation is the consistent polity-structure of churches.

We don’t need to spend a lot of time here, but look with me at v18.

After having been “received” by “the brothers” in Jerusalem, Paul went with his friends “to James, and all the elders were present” as well (v18).

It may have been that James was in a role something akin to a Senior Pastor.

Luke’s references to James as a prominent elder among the rest, from Acts 12 onward, makes me think this is likely.

At any rate, I just want to note in passing the common New Testament label and number for those who lead local churches.

They are most commonly called “elders,” which is the term here (in v18), and there is always a plurality of them.

Elders or pastors are the ones responsible for leading (not ruling, but leading) local churches, and you will not find a single reference to any church in the New Testament that had only one elder or pastor.[3]

Brothers and sisters, there is a consistent polity-structure throughout the churches of the New Testament.

FBC Diana is not a perfect church, but we are aiming to align ourselves with the Bible’s instructions on everything… from what we believe to what we teach, from how we operateto how we are structured, from what we do as a local church to what we do not do.

May God help us.

A third observation is that there is an ordinary or natural or instinctive catholicity among churches who are unified by the gospel and by the glory of God.

The word catholicity refers to the wider relationships all true churches have with one another.

Local churches are distinct from each other (often due to geography or secondary doctrinal differences, and sometimes due to the reality of limited space), but they are to be friends or co-laborers, not competitors or opponents.

When Paul “related… the things God had done among the Gentiles” (v19), the church in Jerusalem “glorified God” (v20).

That is, they praised God for Paul’s ministry of evangelism and church planting, as well as the ongoing work of God through those Gentile churches in the regions of Syria,[4] Galatia,[5]Macedonia,[6] Achaia,[7] and Asia.[8]

Paul had personally established and/or strengthened at least 11 different churches spread out among those regions, and the church in Jerusalem glorified God for all of them.

Brothers and sisters, we too ought to glorify God for His work among other true churches both near and far.

I genuinely pray that Walnut Creek Baptist Church in Diana will be healthier and more fruitful in 2023 than it was in 2022.

And I will praise God if He should answer that prayer.

We pray regularly for other true churches because we want to see the Lord work in and through them.

We know that increasingly healthier and more vibrant churches around us will be a benefit to our own church and to our community… and we do not compete with other churches for members or money… we are all on the same team.

After having made some observations of common biblical features that might zip right past us (that Christianity is church-centered, that New Testament churches have a consistent polity-structure, and that a sense of catholicity is common among churches who are unified by the gospel and the glory of God), let’s now consider that it is precisely because of this church-centeredand universal nature of Christianity that the kingdom of Christ is able to transcend culture (This is really the substance of my first point today).

It was through Paul’s “ministry” among “the Gentiles” that God Himself had united sinners from various cultures in love for Christ and love for one another.

When Paul and his companions came to Jerusalem, they were “received” by “the brothers,” not because they all shared the same culture or ethnicity or political convictions, but because they shared the same gospel, they were all citizens of Christ’s kingdom, and they were all members of Christ’s body in the world.

Paul had many friends traveling with him.

Luke named several in Acts 20, “Sopater the Berean,” and “Aristarchus and Secundus,” both “Thessalonians,” and “Gaius” from “Derbe,” and “Timothy” from “Lystra,” and “Tychicus and Trophimus,” both from “Asia” (Acts 20:4).

And there were also “some of the disciples from Caesarea,” which had been late additions to the group, when it became clear that the Lord intended Paul to suffer for the name of Christ in Jerusalem (Acts 21:16).

All these guys knew that God had warned of Paul’s impending suffering, and all of them had decided to come along with Paul anyway.

And most of Paul’s traveling party were Gentiles from different regions of the Roman empire.

They all had their own unique cultural peculiarities, and they all had major differences with the Jews… who were separated not only by culture but also by covenant.

How, then, were they able to join with Jewish Christians in Jerusalem and be “received… gladly” among them (v17)?