Mess and Movement
Acts: The Final Chapter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 24:47
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· 113 viewsOur mess does not derail God's plan
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Big Idea: Our Mess Doesn’t Derail God’s Movement
Big Idea: Our Mess Doesn’t Derail God’s Movement
Intro - disappointed by the church? disappointment in the church?
We’re working our way through the bible book called Acts which tells the story of the very first churches, two thousand years ago. It’s a book from the distant past but we believe there’s loads to learn that’s still relevant to us today. For the last two weeks we’ve been looking at a critical moment where it seemed that the heart of the good news message about Jesus could have gotten lost. Some people started claiming there were extra boxes you had to tick to be ok with God, that what Jesus did on the cross was great - but not enough, not everything. The church called a big meeting where all the key people had their say and the conclusion - one we still stand on today, was this glorious statement: Jesus + Nothing = Everything. Zero we bring to the table. Zero we need to add. Jesus did it all so we can all become children of God.
This brilliant message comes in a letter to a place called Antioch, to a church where this problem had flared up big-time, and there’s great joy as a result. We’re picking up the story just after the dust settles. And after that upper, unfortunately, it’s time for a bit of a downer. Katie’s going to be reading for us this morning and we’d love you to follow along and be able to refer back to what we’re looking at - so if you can find Acts chapter 15 - that’s the big fifteen - and verse 36 - that’s the tiny 36. Page 1111 in these blue church bibles - which is a cool number, right? And you were here for it! Acts 15, verse 36 - or just top right on page 1111.
Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Unfinished business
So, Paul and Barnabas, the guys at the centre of this section, they’ve been on this huge months’ long thousand mile mission trip, telling people the good news about Jesus. We’ve been following them in our readings over the summer. Then there’s this big hoo-hah about extra boxes to tick which gets resolved. What happens next?
Well, Paul decides it’s time for a check-up: Act 15:36 “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”
You know, it’s like it’s been a long while since you’ve seen the dentist, and he’s just wondering how your teeth are doing - so rather than waiting for you to come to him, he decides it’s time to get out more, and sets off for your house. That’d be scary, right? Me and dentists. No warmth there. But I think these churches will be much happier to see Paul - and he’s certainly excited to go and see them.
One thing to notice as we’re passing through here is this seems to have just been Paul’s idea - where what got them started on that first epic trip was something much more supernatural: Act 13:2
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
No sign of a special message from God this time - but this will turn into a second epic God-led trip as we follow it in the coming months. I point this out because sometimes we get all “either/or” about these things - so we might say “don’t move unless God tells you to”, or at the other end of the spectrum “you’re on your own - just figure it all out and get on with it” - but what we’re seeing here is “both/and”. Sometimes God has specific plans for a person or a church, and he’ll tell them. Other times we can be the ones taking the initiative and that’s ok. We’ll see that God’s quite able to take hold of something we’ve started and to redirect it too.
So, Paul thinks it’s time for a checkup and he goes and hits up his old travel buddy Barnabas. But here’s where things get a bit tricky. Barnabas thinks “great - this is going to be exciting - we should bring more people to this party.” He wants to take along one guy with two names: John and Mark. Two names because John is his Jewish name and Mark is his Roman name. Let’s call him John this morning.
But the moment Barnabas brings up that name, John, Paul’s like “na-ah” [shake head]. That name brings painful memories back for Paul. Imagine the scene: Barnabas, son-of-encouragement his name means, is all sweetness and like “great idea - and let’s bring John.” And Paul’s face falls “oh no - not John”. [head in hands] No disrespect intended to any Johns here this morning! This John, see, joined Paul and Barnabas on their first long trip together - for a bit, at least. And then he split, just when things were about to get really interesting:
From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.
"John left them” doesn’t sound that bad, right? He joined them and then he left them. Fair enough. Maybe he just didn’t like the food. Maybe he just needed to get back to work. But that’s not how Paul sees what happened there. Today’s passage tells us:
Acts 15:38 (NIV)
Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.
Paul doesn’t just see John as having left them in the earlier trip, he deserted them. He’s a flake. When the going gets tough, well, he just quits. You can imagine the conversation: “Oh no, Barnabas, not John again. I’m not going back through that. This is an important mission - one we can’t just start, but have to finish too. We need finishers. We can’t take John - he won’t finish the job, just like last time.” Again, to all the Johns here today, no disrespect intended! ...
Has someone let you down? Totally failed you at that critical moment, just walked off the pitch? Then you know what Paul’s feeling here, and some of how strongly he’s feeling it.
But if you’re thinking “Maybe things will work out differently this time. He’s a good guy deep down. Shouldn’t everyone get a second chance?” then you know what Barnabas is feeling here - and it seems that’s felt just as strongly too. Because we don’t just get this painful memory brought up, we get a painful separation here.
Acts 15:39 (NIV)
They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.
“A sharp disagreement” is putting it politely. Let’s not mince words: there’s a fierce argument - Most likely, tempers flared - the original Greek word here is used of irritation, being provoked. Think cattle-prod, think spurs. It’s used for the body convulsions that go with serious sickness. This isn’t Paul and Barnabas peacefully working through a dispassionate analysis listing off the pros and cons of taking John. This is more like those head-to-head debates you get before an election, everyone shouting at everyone else. “not John, no way!” “definitely John. No John, no Barnabas!. “he’s a deserter!” “he’s my cousin!” (something we learn elsewhere).
Frankly, this isn’t what I’d like to find in the bible’s telling of the story of the church. This isn’t what I’d like to believe went on, “the way the sausage got made” as Hamilton puts it. There are so many better ways it could have worked out.
It’s worth saying, by the way, that this argues strongly for the authenticity of the accounts we’re reading in the bible. Who’d make up a break up? But that’s where this ends. Who’d create a fiction which reported something so distasteful, which shows its heroes in anything less than a most favourable light? Surely if you were inventing this, you’d invent all sweetness and joy - or at least airbrush out the worst moments.
“Paul, Barnabas, can’t you just get along?” you can picture the primary school teacher, arms around both, trying for peace. “can’t you just put that behind you, let bygones be bygones?” I’m sure others in the Antioch church tried to reconcile them, knowing what a powerful pair they had been together. But no.
It doesn’t tell us they prayed about this but I’m pretty certain they did - they were that sort of people. And it’s fascinating here that you don’t get a divine resolution either. Just need a prophet with a word from the Lord “take John” or “don’t take John” and that’d be it solved. Or a dream or a vision would have either of them give way. But nope. Sharp disagreement and a parting of the ways is how it ends. God doesn’t always sort everything out for us.
It’s a sad ending to a brilliant partnership, a pair who have been through so much together now so sharply divided. Who’s at fault? it’s not made clear - we just don’t know. Maybe neither of them. One commentator, FF Bruce, writes “Luke does not relate the dispute in such a way as to put Paul in the right and Barnabas in the wrong. In view of Luke’s restraint, it is idle for the reader to try to apportion the blame.” so that’s us told.
Perhaps Barnabas seems to put the focus on the person, John, where Paul seems to put the focus on the mission? But there’s no “rule of thumb” laid down here for us as to which is better, which is more right.
Let’s be frank, this is all a bit of a mess. But it’s the true story of the beginnings of the Church, and we believe it’s here for us for a reason. Everything in the bible is useful - even if it can pretty hard to see how, sometimes.
So what do we do with this disappointing section? What do we learn from this sad story?
First, serious Christians can’t always agree.
These are serious Christians who’ve travelled thousands of miles together, spent months and months in each others’ pockets, been in some desperate scrapes together, seen some amazing wins together. These guys both have a “whatever it takes” commitment to the Jesus mission. If any pair of friends could work through it, just “get over it” and put it behind them, or find a way through together, it would have been these two.
But no.
Yet you don’t get a bible-smackdown for either of them. You know “Barnabas, being in the wrong, had to leave and was never seen again.” or “So the Lord struck Paul with a terrible disease because he wouldn’t show John the grace God had shown him.”
Incidentally, I don’t think this is about whether Paul could forgive John for deserting or not - I’m sure he knew the prayer Jesus had taught his disciples well, and he too would have regularly prayed “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” I don’t think it’s that sort of issue or Paul would be in the wrong. I think we’re looking at two different views on the right way to get done what needs to be done. Two different views on whether involving John in that would be a good thing or a bad thing for the mission. Two very different views.
Serious Christians don’t always agree on the right way to do what needs to be done. So sometimes serious Christians can’t work together on it effectively, and do have to go their separate ways. So don’t expect you’ll always be able to agree, always be able to work it out with every Christian. Don’t expect one big happy family walking in lockstep. Bit depressing, right - but it’s real too.
Now, even as I’m saying that, some of you are thinking “phew! So I can just give up on X”- whatever or whoever that is. But as much as we don’t always agree, and can’t always go the same way, you’ll find a whole tonne of places where the bible tells us we absolutely must try.
Yes! try! Work for peace. Be humble enough to recognise they might be right. Be gracious, considering others more important than yourself, and so be willing to go their way even when you don’t want to. All bible stuff. Do what you can. You must!
But maybe you’ve reached an impasse with someone - maybe you’ve just watched others arrive there and be divided. Either way, this passage shows us the truth: serious Christians can’t always agree, and do sometimes just need to go their separate ways, sad though that is. If you think it’s always going to work, always going to be possible, that there’ll always be a path, today’s passage says “well, nope” - unless you really think you have the edge on Barnabas and Paul - or demand others do.
So first, serious Christians can’t always agree. But second, and more importantly, I think the bigger point for us to see here today is that human mess, our mess, doesn’t derail God’s movement, God’s plan. In fact, amazingly, God is at work in the middle of our mess, and through this rupture we end up with two mission teams on the playing field rather than just one - God turns division into multiplication! how cool is that, mathematicians?! God turns division into multiplication.
This should be a profound encouragement to us in our world - because our world is just filled to the brim with mess: God can work through it all, all the mess; God’s movement can still advance despite it. A good thing or church wouldn’t be here! Yep, neat and tidy would seem nicer - but we live in the real world. Still, be encouraged because our mess doesn’t derail God’s movement - it’s true down through history and it’s still true today.
Through the mess of opposition - think of the church not withering under ferocious persecution but instead thriving, true millennia ago and still true today in places like Iran and even Afghanistan
Through the mess of failure - think of Peter denying Jesus those three times, yet still called to lead, or the deserter John-Mark here, who, if we followed his story to the end, we’d see back at the heart of God’s movement
Through the mess of division - whether it’s factions at war within the church, threatening to tear it apart which led to the events we were looking at these last two weeks, or just individuals at loggerheads like Paul and Barnabas here.
Through all of this, God can still work, and his movement still advances. And that means here, now, despite the mess - and there is mess even at Hope City; if you’ve not experienced it yet, you will! we’re no perfect church - but even here and now, despite the mess, we can be encouraged that God’s movement, the Jesus + nothing = everything movement, still advances.
Let me close by taking a moment to bring this home to us. What does this mean practically for you and me, here and today?
First, if you’re not a part of God’s movement yet, I think this shows you the authenticity of what we’re reading - it’s unvarnished history, warts and all, not some invented fairytale. There’s a testimony to God’s power in the fact that there’s a worldwide church still here despite all our mess - that despite the brokenness inside each one of us [tap self]- then and now - we still haven’t sunk it!
Second, if you’ve met this sort of division first-hand, if you’ve lived through it, I want to encourage you not to give up, not to lose heart because of it. I know several people here for whom this is a part of their story - and I expect there are plenty more stories like those that I don’t know too. Don’t lose heart. Don’t give up on the church. Don’t give up on God. Don’t let a root of bitterness grow up in you, or just a hardness of heart which keeps you walled off from others so you won’t get hurt again. Choose instead to believe the truth that our mess doesn’t detail God’s movement - that he can still work through it. Choose to believe God can turn our division into his multiplication. Don’t lose your hope in the mess.
And finally, if you’re in this spot right now, if there’s a sharp disagreement and it seems easier just to go separate ways, don’t read this story into every division. There’s a danger we start thinking “if Paul and Barnabas couldn’t work it out over John, there’s obviously no way little old me is going to manage” and just give up, give up way too easy. But this isn’t how every difference of opinion between believers ends - often there’s debate, careful listening, humble compromise, and a precious unity which can be won. Don’t give up too easy - but do know this: if it ends with division, that’s not the end of God’s movement.
Let me pray for us just now.
comfort + healing for those who’ve lived through division and been hurt by it
wisdom + grace for those facing division right now, knowing when to try and when to walk
praise you that you can turn even division into multiplication, that our mess doesn’t derail your movement