The Missional Community
Tuesday 24 September
With Dr Anne Zaki
Acts 15: 1-35
By God’s grace, the church in the Middle East have had an uninterrupted presence since the day of Pentecost until the present, despite all that we have gone through. This morning it is a pleasure and honour to reflect on the word of God together.
I want to start by mentioning a recent movie, “The Boys in the Boat” – the true story of the eight athletes in the rowing team of the University of Washington. The coaches could not get the athletes to work together as one team. They did not know how to use their strength to fight together instead of fighting each other. One coach said, “This is the strongest group we’ve ever had but it may also be the weakest crew.”
After our reading from the passage in Acts, I would probably describe the church in Antioch using the same words – the strongest group but the weakest crew. They were using their strength to fight each other instead of fighting together.
v1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This teaching brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute with them because it undermined the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus as the only source of salvation.
Paul and Barnabas (along with other believers) were appointed to go to Jerusalem to consult the apostles. Notice the engagement of regular believers alongside the church leaders in discussing major theological issues. In Jerusalem, we have the very first council including some with opposing opinions. Some of them were echoing this same false teaching. Still, people stayed together in the meeting. Still, people continued to discuss.
Then in v7, “After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed the council.” This is remarkable for two reasons:
Peter exemplifies the courage of leadership to step out of the spectator stands where many leaders remain during times of conflict. He puts his neck on the line for the sake of the truth that he himself learned from a painful experience.
Remember that not long before, Peter was visiting Antioch and Paul confronted him over his hypocritical behaviour. Galatians 2-11-13 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. Here at the council of Jerusalem we find a changed Peter, a corrected Peter. He has been restored by his brother Paul. Maybe his courage to speak up was inspired by Paul’s courage to speak to him. (As iron sharpens iron).
What if Paul had never confronted Peter in Antioch. What would have happened to the faith of the believers? What if Peter never spoke up in the council of Jerusalem? What would have happened to the church?
And so I ask this question of our church leaders today. What happens when we cover up the wrong behaviour of our co-leaders and when we fail to confront wrong teachings about what is required for salvation?
For example, that salvation can be earned through good works or through despising one’s body. What happens when church leaders are silent instead of confronting polarising believers? Young and old, rich and poor, men and women, disabled and able bodied… When we are silent in moments of truth-telling the future of the church is at stake. But we must also admit that breaking the silence comes at a great cost.
Breaking the Silence
When Jesus confront the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, it cost him His life and it has been costing His followers their lives ever since, sometimes physically and most times psychologically. Every missional community will have to pay a cost at some point. Will it be the cost of staying silent and letting false teaching divide us or will it be the cost of breaking the silence?
Peter broke the silence. He reminded the council, “God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them [the Gentiles] 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.”
Jesus made distinctions between light and dark, holiness and hypocrisy, the narrow gate and the wide gate but in His church, He made no distinction between “us and them” – conservative and liberal, complementarians and egalitarians, foreign missionaries and indigenous believers in Christ we are all one.
Do not divide where Jesus has united. Do not make distinctions where Jesus has made none.
Peter: “Why then do you try to test God by putting on the neck of the disciples a yoke that we ourselves were not able to bear?”
Elsewhere in James, “if you have bitter jealousy in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth…” People who justify division based on wrong motives are betraying the truth.
Twisting God’s word in a way that divides God’s people is an act of treason.
“We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” After Peter declares this foundational statement, Paul and Barnabas share about all that God is doing among the Gentiles. Then we are told, the whole assembly became silent.
This is a different kind of silence. This is not the spectator’s silence, an unengaged silence that covers up the wrongs of others, or an oppressed silence that surrenders to injustice. This is convicted silence, a convinced silence, a surrendered silence to the Holy Spirit. Enabling the missional community to declare the truth of Christ.
James speaks up, having listened to the debates and the stories… he first recites a prophecy in order to help the council interpret their experiences according to the Scriptures. In v16 James quotes the prophet Amos, “After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent and I will restore it so that the remnant of people will seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who bear my name.”
We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. And so they write, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” we love this sentence. But do we understand the process by which the early church arrived at such a declaration?
It was a process of talking with each other not to each other or about each other.
It was a process that took long hours of dispute and debate in Antioch and in Jerusalem among people who held opposing views on this manner. I’m grateful things happened the way they did. It shows us that the early church was real. It wasn’t very different from our church today. The apostles still needed to puzzle over theological matters in a meeting with people who held opposing views on a matter.
This passage shows the price and process by which we arrive at a declaration borne out of prayer and commitment to the teaching of the word, out of breaking bread together and out of remarkable generosity. A declaration that preserves the voice of the church including people who hold opposing views.
The church together is “us”.. it is not for a certain group of church leaders who have power and money to justify marginalising others. The church together is US. It is time we restored the lost art of church discussions The art of talking and listening to each other and even to those who oppose our views on how to interpret the Bible, on how to worship, on who should lead in the church and on which country to bless and who to curse.
We need to re-learn the disciplines of safe spaces, understanding that what is at stake is the unity and mission of the church.
Paul here is saying practice discernment together. Do not major in the minors or you will fail in the priorities of your mission. Part of this is recognising the urgency of the call. The great commission cannot be fulfilled with only a part of the church. Everyone was needed. Everyone needed to learn quickly how to become a strong crew… fighting together instead of each other.
Back in the movie The Boys in the Boat, the coaches tried to think how to get these boys to work together. One suggested the issue was having the right coxswain - the only person the qualified to set the direction and the pace. The coaches places a new person on the boat who spent long hours training and re-training these atheletes to row as a team.
The Holy Spirit is the only all-capable coxswain of this boat. He sets the direction and pace. He brings a clarity and unity to humble leaders who are willing to be transformed by God.
In Acts 15, there were still requirements for the Gentile believers… why? Didn’t they just say they did not want to burden them? Their freedom had been won but it had to be a considerate and responsible freedom demonstrating concern for weaker believers. James saw a threat to the unity of the church. The council expected the Jews to make concessions on the circumcision requirement, so the Gentiles believers were making concessions according to these requirements. While the council in Jerusalem knew that the Holy Spirit made the church one, they were all transitioning into oneness. Each person needed to look out for the interests of others.
They were also concerned about the witness to others. The church in Antioch needed to remove any stumbling blocks that stood in the way of non believers towards faith. Otherwise what would set them apart as believers? The being of the church is itself a mission.
What requirements ought we to place on ourselves today in our freedom in Christ in order to remove stumbling blocks from those around us?
What do we need to do in order to remain in fellowship with our fellow belivvers without compromising the truth of the gospel? It is import to come up with answers that are contextualised to our unique cultural and missional settings.
The greatest hindrance to mission is the failure of God’s people to live like God’s people.
When the whole church gathered to read the letter, they were glad and consoled. The Holy Spirit brought joy when the peace and unity of the church was restored. When truth telling replaces our silent, unity is restored. Then we can declare and display the fulfilment of Jesus prayer, Father I want them to be one just like you and I are one.
Hear this good news afresh today. The trinity is invested in our unity as a missional community. This bears the fruit of peace and justice. We are witnesses to God’s peaceful and just mission in times of crisis. Today we pray that soon we will witness God’s peaceful and just mission in the ongoing crises in Ukraine, in Sudan and in Gaza.
The eight athletes learn to work together and qualify to compete in the Olympics. The coxswain tells them, “Row for your country. Row for each other.” And that’s what they did They rowed unhindered until they took on the top rivals and won the Olympic gold and so did the early church.
They figured out ways to listen to each others, to unite in their vision and move together unhindered. Christ’s followers continued to overcome all obstacles and divisions. One day those words will finally be true. You dear children are from God and have overcome because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.The church of Christ will always be undefeated.
In the last scene of the movie there is a conversation that takes place years later between one of the athletes and his grandson. “Did you enjoy rowing on an eight man crew, grandad?” the boy asked. The man responded, “Eight? We were never eight, we were one.”
Jesus prayed, I want them to be One. Brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one.
Dr Anne E Zaki is a professor of preaching and practical theology at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo. She has earned a masters of divinity from Calvin Theological Seminary and a PhD in preaching from Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to this, Anne studied psychology and sociology at Calvin University, with a masters in social psychology from the American University in Cairo.