Expectations for New In-Laws
Notes
Transcript
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
“ ‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,
that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
Scripture: Acts 15:1-35
Sermon Title: Expectations for New In-Laws
Peter in Acts 10 had a vision in which God revealed to him that his kingdom was opened to both Jews and Gentiles, to both this lineage and those from all nations who would believe. So Peter willingly ministers to Gentiles, seeing firsthand that they also could fear God, and if a Jewish Christian criticized him for meeting with them, he told them of what God had shown to him, and this was accepted and God was praised. Faith in Jesus Christ and salvation through him alone was for the first time uniting believing Jews and believing Gentiles. Our text today takes us to Jerusalem where a council or a synod of the church met to discuss how Gentiles should live, but we begin with what Paul encounters in Antioch, a city which was about 20 miles inland from the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, and 300 miles north of Jerusalem. He had completed his first missionary journey, and now ministers to Gentiles here.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, many of us know what it is like to join a new family through marriage, and for those of us who are not married or have not been married yet, you have probably seen what happens when someone else has joined a family other than the one they were born into. You get a glimpse of what to expect during the dating process, usually the family of your partner is either on their best behavior or pushing you to see what you are made of, but when you say your vows—you are not just marrying your spouse but the family that has raised them now gives you new brothers and sisters, a new father and mother. We do not get rid of our family of origin or lose the parents and siblings we have had since birth, but we acquire the family of our spouse as well. We get in-laws.
Everyone has their own feelings about their in-laws, but usually you love your spouse just a little bit more than the rest of their family. I have to be careful in a church like Peoria where I know there are these relations present; the last thing we need is people looking around trying to pick up the true feelings of their brother, sister, or mother-in-law. Whatever you feel about your in-laws, one of the things you are sure to encounter is that this new family has some expectations of you. Marrying Christie, I got a father-in-law who co-owns a household appliance business and services appliances, a brother-in-law who works for him and knows everything about their products, and a brother-in-law who is an engineer. While I likely come close to meeting their expectations for leading the home and treating her well, my background in landscaping, making pizzas, and various ministries has not helped me meet their expectations when it comes to fixing things and being a handyman.
I invite us to think about this relationship that goes in between someone and their in-laws, because I think it sets a similar tone to what we find in our passage this morning between some of the Jews, even Jewish Christians, and Christians who had come from a Gentile background. This group of Jews had the expectation that their new brothers and sisters in the Christian faith ought to follow the old family practice of circumcision—keeping to the Law of Moses. Believing in God was important, but it would not save them unless they also fulfilled the obligation by bearing the covenant sign of the law. This was received with confusion and disagreement. As we make our way through this passage this morning, we will focus in on God’s work for the Gentile brothers and sisters through Peter’s presentation, the council’s requirements as proposed by James, and then think about the expectations that exist today in churches.
Let’s begin making our way toward Peter’s presentation. Paul was a Jewish Christian, he had been circumcised, but he was preaching the gospel message to the Gentiles, the general term given to anyone who was not Jewish. The message he has been preaching to them has no strings attached except that they would repent and believe. As he understood the scope of God’s grace, there was no additional obligations for the Gentiles, there was no need for males to be circumcised. They were becoming followers of Jesus, not Jewish first and Christian second.
But here comes this group of Paul and Barnabas’ brothers, and in-laws to the Christians they were teaching, and this group tells them that they must satisfy the requirements of the law. These Gentile believers had responded to the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, but now they are being told they have to do something to verify or guarantee the free gift of grace that they have been hearing about. It may have been the case that some of these people had looked at Judaism before, and had not converted because it seemed to be all about rules and laws. This did not sit well with them or their pastors; they have it out a bit with the delegation that has come to them, but their leaders decide it is necessary to come to Jerusalem to settle the matter with the council of the early church.
They arrive to a positive reception, but we quickly get to the matter—the delegation of the Pharisees, who likely had sent their men up to Antioch tell the council, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” We are not given the extended record of the whole discussion and debate, but Luke gives us the key voices. Here we arrive at Peter’s presentation on the work God has been doing with the Gentiles. Verses 7 through 11, “God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith…Why do you try to test God by [burdening them with things that none of us have been fully able to keep]? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
One of the most respected leaders among the early church says, “If they hear and believe, that is enough. God knows their hearts, and he is purifying their hearts. It is not about trying to keep the law perfectly; it is about God’s grace.” He very clearly tackles who gets to hear about Jesus, what it looks like for God to be at work and how salvation happens. There is nothing that they must do but believe, not even circumcision, the revered sign that has been with them all the way back to Abraham. If they were to be circumcised for the reasons the Pharisees desired, a can of worms would have been opened. The religious leaders would not be satisfied just by them having their mark, but they would expect and hound them to be following the rest of the law. All of a sudden the message of God’s adoption and grace over them would be overshadowed by attempts to follow the law to earn salvation.
Peter never says that the law is bad. Nowhere in our passage or I think anywhere in Scripture do we see Christians warned against practicing the principles and commands of the law. Christians, Jewish and Gentile, can seek to follow the laws handed down in the Old Testament still at this point as well as today; the problem is not the existence of laws and commands by God but rather the problem is understanding those rules as the way to be saved. The danger in enforcing circumcision and all of the regulations of the law was that it may lead believers to try and figure out if they measured up to salvation; a practice that could lead to feelings of great shame or to look down on others in a self-righteous way. Peter speaks up on behalf of God’s grace as undeserved, unmerited, and unconditional so that all would know across the church.
Peter is followed up by Paul and Barnabas further witnessing that Gentiles can indeed be believers, that God’s grace and work has indeed been happening among them. The next major section here though is James’ judgment, which gets taken as this council’s answer for Gentile believers. In verses 19 through 21, we find this declaration, “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. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” When it comes to the letter that gets sent, it is added that this comes through the process of discernment, verse 28, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements,” and there we see in the published form the three dietary requirements grouped together as well as the command to avoid sexual immorality.
“We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” This council was made up of leaders who many if not all were Jewish by background before coming to Christ. They approve of James’ judgment; if someone believes, why should we tell them they have to do something more? Circumcision, in particular, is not something an adult man would want done. The accepted verdict is that they should avoid four things. These all come out of the Jewish law, back to the days of the Israelites; there were things that had been practiced, and should be continued. They benefited the Jews, and they would be beneficial expectations for the new in-laws as well. As we see in the letter that is published, there are three abstinences for Gentile Christians in terms of dietary laws—from food sacrificed to idols, from blood that is meat with blood in it, and from the meat of strangled animals. These are commands that would be beneficial, especially in places where there were mingling of Jewish and Gentile Christians. When the in-laws came together to eat, it was better that these rules were in place; no one was going to be offended. It also might be worthwhile to consider that not taking food sacrificed to an idol would allow Gentile Christians to not get mixed up or led astray by pagan worship. I think also with staying away from food with blood, which is the case with strangled animals, it also showed a care for the life in all things which God has created; there is a way that he desires for these animals to be handled.
The fourth requirement on Gentile believers is for them to abstain from sexual immorality. This also follows from Jewish law, but it is not only restricted to the law, because sexual relationships are part of the creation that God instructed Adam and Eve in. In cultures then and now, where sexuality is corrupted and misused, this requirement needed to be put out there because there is a sexual ethic expected of believers, and that means correction needs to be taught for those coming from lives of impurity as many of these Gentiles would have.
I want to spend a few more moments and words on this, because, for one, we are Gentile believers, and secondly, because of how sexualized popular culture in America has become—it is in our magazines, the internet, every TV show, news websites, schools—there is nowhere we can go where the motto of “sex sells” does not have a claim. Places and things that are identified or marked as “Christian” are not free of this either. Promiscuity and lust are sins that run rampant, often because we do not want to talk about them; they are humiliating things to be confronted for. If you get caught up in a cycle of viewing sexual things or engaging sexual actions inappropriately, it can lead to such a tangled mess that destroys our minds, our homes, our marriages or future relationships with others. Sexual sin is the greatest foothold that the powers of sin and evil have in our world today; we need to beware.
The word used here in the Greek for sexual immorality is “porneia,” which obviously is the root for “pornography”—literally meaning to write about prostitutes. In scholarly circles and in churches, this term gets debated if it really just speaks to the specific act of being involved with prostitution, or if it is a broad term. The resources I trust would advocate the latter; sexual immorality includes fornication, sexual promiscuity before and outside of marriage, unfaithfulness in marital relationships, and any number of things that if there is any cause for you to wonder apart from the marriage bed of a man and woman if you should be involved, the answer is probably no—I believe this is what falls under the umbrella of sexual immorality.
These Gentiles were coming to faith came from lifestyles that had few restrictions on sex; it was simply a matter of pleasure. I think we find a similar situation today; many young people who have grown up in the church have already experienced sex in one form or another before they get married. There is guilt and shame that can come along with that, and it can be a burden or struggle when they do finally do get married. This Jerusalem council does not say, if you have been there and done that you cannot be a believer, but it emphasizes the grace of God to people coming from those lifestyles, coming with those sins, and calls them to put an end and abstain going forward. This council saw necessary and led by the Spirit to tell them that sex and relationships between men and women are different when it comes to the Christian life. God can purify the heart, mind, and soul from all types of infidelity, but if you have the opportunity before getting caught in any of that, he desires for his people to wait until they make a lifelong commitment to a partner or to make a commitment to abstinence for as long as you are single. True intimacy in both marriage and single living should seek to glorify God and how he has created each of us to live.
When this letter was sent and delivered with a group of people familiar as well as unfamiliar but still family to the believers in Antioch, it was received well, and the people were encouraged and strengthened. They perceived that what was expected of them was not too hard or difficult or harsh for them to follow. The Gentile Christians believed in God and salvation through Christ alone, that formed the core of their faith, and now they had been given a very short list of concrete things that emphasized that this gracious faith was to affect how they lived, and lived with one another in a diverse culture as well as a culture that was nowhere near perfect.
My final point is this, we as believers, living in this area, attending Peoria Church, as part of the Christian Reformed denomination have expectations about Christian living. We must be very careful that we also do not make it difficult for others who are turning to God. Each of us comes with lists of practices that seem and maybe are great things for Christians living in faith and trusting in God. There are qualities and decisions that we think others should practice as evidence of true faith. My hope and my prayer is we do not let our expectations get in the way of the core thing that others are seeking after. When we meet a new or unfamiliar believer, we must be willing to trust that God has spoken his good news, knows their heart, purifies them, and saves them by his grace, just as he is does for us.
As orthodox Christians, we who love God and love his truth do right to see all of the instructions given throughout Scripture and take those to heart; we do well to see the growth that God makes happen. We need, also, to make sure that we follow through on loving others. I am not telling you that you have to get rid of your expectations for godly living. I think we are called to maturity and increasing to live more and more faithfully unto God, but may we not let our expectations get in the way of seeing how God is working in and through others who may be different from us. May we be willing as we grow in knowing others to not only encourage them to avoid things that we perceive to be harmful, but also encourage and strengthen them in the commitment they have already made. May we be willing to receive encouragement and teaching from them as well. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.