Sermon Tone Analysis

Yes Ma’am

Karen and I are engaged in one of the most beautiful and important lessons in marriage: learning how to fight.

When you’re dating, that isn’t really a thing most of the time.

When you’re stressed, you can just walk away.

Get to your own space.

Then put your best foot forward.

But when you’re married you have to figure some of these things out.

You have to.

I’ll give you an example:

In California (where I was raised) when someone calls your name, there are many forms of acceptable response.

Yeah? ‘sup.

Hey.

My dude?

In Mississippi… not so much.

It is “Yes”, “Yes, sir” or “Yes, ma’am” or go get a switch.

So we have “conflict.”

And we compromised.

Now we all say “Yes, Ma’am.”

:D

It led to a great conversation, actually.

In preparation for the trip we made to Mississippi in November, it was almost survival skill training for the kids.

But if your habit is to fall back to more respectful, you can always choose the more casual response when it’s appropriate.

But it’s helpful to have the instinct so when you’re not paying attention and your boss calls you, you don’t fall back to “‘sup, my dude?”

It started in conflict, but God used that conversation and the outcome of it to shape our blended family, to make it better.

I looked for an example where “my idea” won and made us better but I couldn’t find one.

I’ll keep you posted.

Proselytes

Back to Acts! Let’s talk about conflict.

Gentiles are being saved, this is uncharted territory.

Cornelius and his household have been saved.

Gentiles in Antioch have been saved.

Now throughout the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabus, Gentiles are being saved right alongside the Jews.

And now this raises some theological questions: what is the appropriate process, what are the “right” steps for salvation?

That may seem like an “answered” question to us because (I hope) we have been taught “salvation by faith alone” over and over again.

But this is the wild west frontier of the church.

This is new territory...

And so you have people looking for grounding, looking for examples.

Gentiles can become proselytes.

There is a process where they profess their conviction, they sacrifice either of cattle or two young pigeons.

They and their family must be circumcised, and then there is an immersion, a ritual cleansing like baptism.

There is a period of teaching the precepts that bind the Jews… and learning how those laws sometimes applied differently to the “strangers that dwell among you.”

This is rooted in some Scripture, like the commands concerning the feast of Passover:

Devout Jews have doubtless understood all the prophecies about Gentiles coming into the Kingdom of God in light of this existing practice and process… so it really isn’t crazy that they grab onto this practice.

And, well meaning or otherwise, some of these folks come from Jerusalem to Antioch to share their wonderful insight.

Now, things escalate a bit.

They are not just saying “it is a good idea to get circumcised” but “it is a prerequisite for salvation.”

That puts this whole disagreement in something of another category.

Paul, who has probably already had the encounter with Peter we read about in Galatians 2. This is when Peter came to visit and ate freely with the Gentiles, but then when “certain men” came from Judea he “separated himself fearing the circumcision party.”

Well, here is the circumcision party.

At that time, Paul “opposed him to his face.”

He called him out.

The beautiful unity in diversity, the love-without-distinction enjoyed in the Antioch church… it had to be protected and Paul did that.

He got up in Peter’s face and called him out.

What do you think that guy is going to do when you start teaching “circumcision is required for salvation” in his church?

I picture this distinguished visitor getting up to preach in the Antioch church.

He begins to read from the scroll and concludes: “so you see, to be saved you must go through the proselyte process, be circumcised, and...” he gets dive tackled from the side by Paul.

Now why wasn’t Paul and Barnabus opposing it the end of the story?

Remember, this is the wild frontier of the church.

The New Testament isn’t written yet, there’s nothing there to reference.

The Scriptures don’t have clear and explicit directive on this topic.

What do you do when you have a theological or a biblical argument and you can’t find resolution among yourselves?

They gather together and have a family meeting.

Let’s get the best possible counsel we can, the best information we can, the wisest minds we can find, the closest sources to Jesus possible.

They have a family meeting in Jerusalem.

They tell the story of all the God has done.

There is great rejoicing, there is welcome, there is family… even as the fruit of their mission and ministry is an example of the debate at hand.

We are going to dive into the details of the actual controversy next week.

We are going to examine and analyze the way they solved the problem the week after that.

But I wanted to take some time to appreciate this:

This church at Antioch, we have learned so much from this church, it is a loving church, a giving church, a sending church, a missional church, it has incredible leadership, incredible teaching, just the best… And here it is, facing a conflict intense enough that they sent their leaders on a 300 mile walk, likely taking 15 days each way, to get answers.

This is not a minor debate resolved with a Google search or a phone call.

This is an intense theological, soteriological, biblical crises kind of conflict in the church!

This church at Jerusalem, ground zero, Jesus taught there, died there, was resurrected there, ascended right over there.

Pentecost was there on the steps of the temple down the street.

Here are Peter and most of the other apostles, there is James the BROTHER OF JESUS.

If there is any definitive answer, anyone that could resolve this in a snap of the fingers, this is them.

And they will indeed wrestle with all the issues and come to an answer that affirms salvation by faith alone, by grace alone… and still shows grace and love to Jewish brothers and sisters of the “circumcision party...”

But they don’t come to it right away.

They don’t answer and send Paul and Barnabus home all “sorted out.”

There is (beginning of verse 7) “much debate...” (zetesis).

With all of the wisest men in the church, the closest to God, full of the Holy Spirit… and yet they still have conflict, debate, disagreement about how God is working out salvation among them!

It would be an easy thing to despair at this moment in time.

The best of Christian unity, this beautiful unity in diversity… and it’s all threatened by conflict and crises right here at the start.

How easily can we imagine this becoming a church split, and we have the Church of Grace over here and Church of the Circumcision Party over here.

(Although, Wayne pointed out that the words “Circumcision” and “party” should never go together.)

But, as nerve wracking, as scary, even as threatening as this may have felt...

God uses this conflict in the church to clarify His truth.

They crystallize their understanding of salvation by wrestling with it.

It drives them to Scripture.

It drives them to retell the stories of salvation to Jews and Gentiles.

It leads them to retell and re-understand what Jesus said.

I don’t think this is an accident.

I think this is a huge part of how revelation works.

Because God keeps doing this.

At any point, God could have appeared in a blaze of glory and ended all debate.

An angel could have appeared among them and settled the matter.

Jesus could have popped him and said: “no circumcision necessary.”

But God uses this conflict in the church, this debate and disagreement and the working and wrestling towards one another that follows… he uses it to clarify His truth.

And they emerge with a more refined understanding of grace and salvation than they had before.

Blind Men and the Elephant