The Door is Open | Disruptive presence 76

[00:00:00] John: Hi David, well we're back and we're still in the Council of Jerusalem 

[00:00:09] David: it was a big council. 

[00:00:10] John: It was made big in so many ways, so many ways. But you know what, I've enjoyed every, every moment. I hope our listeners have. I have personally enjoyed. every moment of this. It has been absolutely wonderful at so many levels. 

[00:00:24] And last time we left James saying this beautiful concluding sort of summary statement. He says, it is my judgment therefore that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. And, and so we get this Powerful scriptural alignment to the idea of Gentiles bearing his name, the name of Jesus. 

[00:00:51] And James seems to be aligning himself with Paul, Barnabas and Peter on this whole idea of the grace of God making a way for Gentiles to be saved by faith, which is beautiful. But then James, because he's Part of the leadership structure of the Church of Jerusalem needs to give a bit of practical guidance And we we now move into the sort of an interesting letter that is written and sent first to Antioch and we assume By proxy to the Gentile world in terms of believers So so we're going to pick that up and try and cover that in this little podcast So do you want to read that little bit for us? 

[00:01:33] And and then and then we'll we'll see where we go with all of this 

[00:01:38] David: I will happily, happily do this. So, so this is, this is verse 22 and we will, we'll work our way through. It says then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 

[00:02:02] And with them, they sent the following letter. And then if you were reading this, you see that it drops into a letter form that we're familiar with in the ancient world. The apostles and elders, your brothers. To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, Cilicia, greetings. We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 

[00:02:27] So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul. Men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements. 

[00:02:52] You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 

[00:03:13] Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they, and many others, taught and preached the word of the Lord. 

[00:03:34] John: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We'll dive into some of the detail of the letter now. But I couldn't help but, I don't know, again, I find it interesting when I not only read a text but hear a text being read. And because I've been around the Bible for a while, I can sometimes hear echoes of 

[00:03:53] David: Mm hmm. 

[00:03:54] John: And I noticed a lovely little echo in my own thinking, David. Verse 22, then the apostles and elders with the whole church decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. And I couldn't help but hear the sort of echo of Antioch sending Paul and Barnabas or Saul and Barnabas off on that first missionary journey. 

[00:04:18] And, and millions of years ago when we did that in X13, we reflected on, we talked about the corporate dynamic of this idea, the corporate authority, the weightiness of being loosed and sent, and, and how that must have affirmed Saul and Barnabas in the importance of their mission. And I'm feeling the same weight here. 

[00:04:41] David: hmm. Mm hmm. 

[00:04:41] John: This feels like, right, the apostles and elders with the whole church. So, so what I love about this, David, before we even get into the detail of the letter, is this is not a behind the door idea. This isn't, okay, let's just sneak a letter off to the Gentiles and hope that nobody in Jerusalem notices. This is like, okay, we've done this now. 

[00:05:04] We've made this decision now. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to affirm this trajectory, and we're all going to do it together. We're, we're actually going to, and I love the, the fact that Apostles and elders are introduced to us earlier in chapter 15. They bring their report to the Apostles and elders privately. 

[00:05:24] The Apostles and elders consider the report, and then James stands up representing the Apostles and elders, and then in concluding the matter, we've got the Apostles and elders again really leading the charge here. with the whole church, sending their own men. And, and and the letter really, you might read that a bit suspiciously. 

[00:05:44] Ooh, why are they sending their own men? But actually when you read the letter, actually, it's a beautiful compliment to everybody that they're sending their own men. But I love that. I might be overstretching the Antioch X13 link, but I saw the similarity in urgency, authority, weight, affirmation, Sentence that that the church is loading a lot of weight onto this moment. 

[00:06:12] David: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I actually, I actually think it's not insignificant what you're saying, that, that we shouldn't miss That verse 22 is telling us agreement was reached that it was, the whole church. So it's not a case of, and the apostles and elders exactly as you say, they didn't win everybody over, but they just did this anyway. 

[00:06:39] It was clearly decided, yes, this is, this is good. I mean, I think there's a model for us even in this John about how to lead. I also think it's interesting what is done here that, my goodness, do we need examples of in the modern world that, I mean, this is a serious discussion with very serious implications, with very hard cultural adjustments needed for people. 

[00:07:08] I mean, this is like, if we as modern listeners, try and think about the most uncomfortable and wrong social setting that you could be in, and you're being asked to now embrace that as a church. I mean, this is huge, right? And it's even, I'm not sure I can think of a sort of generic, general modern example of Of this, but you've been raised to see a certain group of people with certain practices that will make it impossible for you to hang out with them, not just because you don't like them, but because your purity codes. 

[00:07:50] So therefore, your disgust codes, your shame codes are all being triggered around those particular people, right? and your religious codes. And now we're having a meeting to decide. Some of us think that they should be able to come in exactly as they are, and some of them think they don't. And yet what's fascinating is no, there's no name calling, right? 

[00:08:12] Nobody's cast as evil, right? Like there's debate, there's this disagreement about this, but, but it's not, even, even like we might hear it right the way back up at the start. Some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees. And we have a tendency, we've talked about this in previous episodes, many, many episodes of, of two texts, we talk negatively about the Pharisees, but Luke doesn't hear some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees, right? 

[00:08:38] They had an opinion, different from the opinion of Paul and Barnabas, but you don't get demonization, you don't get exclusion. You don't get curses and, and, and there's a part of me thinks, my goodness, some of us on the internet could do much better if we were to pay attention to what's going on here and, and, and actually not even some of us in the internet, the church could do better in terms of realizing that in the midst of this very complex situation, we're also being modeled how to debate, how to disagree, how to see things differently and not call each other evil. 

[00:09:14] yeAh. 
 

[00:09:15] John: Yeah No, very 

[00:09:16] David: beautiful. 

[00:09:17] John: And and and with that there's almost I I mean I as I heard you read verse 24 You're sort of thing. Is that is that a sort of an unofficial apology from James? We have heard that some went out from us without or authorization and disturbed you. I mean, I love that language. They disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 

[00:09:43] I mean, it's, it's really quite, it, it, it's tender, isn't it? There's a, there's an intimacy about that. There's a humility there. So James is representing apostles and elders. of the church in Jerusalem. We might want to argue the mother church, the crucible of the church sort of thing. And yet here he is expressing like serious humility around this issue. 

[00:10:10] Is that fair or I'm overcooking the apology? 

[00:10:14] David: No, I, I think, I think that's, that's definitely present in there, isn't it? It's this is not what we wanted to happen. You, you are troubled now. I mean, this is, I mean, I mean, even that's fascinating. Think about this. The apostles and elders are telling you that you received a message from some people and it was not an apostolic message, it was not sent through us. 

[00:10:39] And then you get this double disturbed you and troubled you. 

[00:10:43] John: Yeah. 
 

[00:10:44] David: I mean, it's, he's definitely, he's definitely aware. Of what's, of what's happening, I mean, it's interesting that, that it, it calls to mind again, my stuck record in acts 15 of, of, of Paul using similar language and he writes to the Galatians, somebody's cut in on you, you were running well that you're, but, but trouble has, cause something has disturbed things for you. 

[00:11:09] So I'm, I'm almost wondering if this is part of a. Of an early Christian lectionary of language. This is how we talk about this stuff. So again, to my point not casting, this stage, I mean, Paul gets a little feistier in, 

[00:11:25] John: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:11:28] David: we're, we're, we're talking about this being disturbing, being troubling, being being unhelpful. 

[00:11:34] And even, I wonder sometimes that Paul gets a little, some of his strength of language is. Is because of the severity of what's being said that I think he, he is losing his mind at some point. But but I do, I do, I, I think what you're onto on this is really, is really worth mentioning, John. 

[00:11:55] John: Yeah. Yeah. I just, I love that. I love the humility of verse 24. In fact, I sensed in the whole of the letter a humility, even though there's some directives. I mean, the second reference to humility for me was verse 28. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. I  

[00:12:16] David: There's actually an earlier one, John, in there as well, that a lot of the English translations miss, but, but, but exactly the same phrase is used at the start of verse 25. So a lot of the English translations go, we all agreed to choose, right? 

[00:12:31] But the start of verse 25 is exactly the same as start. 28. It seemed good to choose. And then, and then, and then to the text that you were saying. So I was, I was trying to just support your point, but I ended up just cutting right across the top of it. So 

[00:12:46] John: No, no, 

[00:12:46] David: But this idea of humility is there more than just in verse 28. 

[00:12:50] John: No, it really is. And, and even, even the way he sort of concludes, I mean, we'll, we'll lean into some of the things to say, but he says, you will do well to avoid these things. Do you know what I mean? It's like, so at a low, there's a sense in which if I was a believer in Antioch and a letter arrived with two prophets and Paul and Barnabas and probably a whole stack of other people, and they're reading this letter. 

[00:13:16] You do feel like, okay, right, we're hearing this from an authoritable voice up in Jerusalem, but the tone is conciliatory. The tone is humble. The tone is invitational. As well as directive. Is that fair? I mean, there, there's clear directives given and we'll, we'll, we'll see those in terms of things, at least four things that they should sort of think about avoiding or living in a way that represents the gospel. 

[00:13:47] But actually the whole tone of it is invitational and humble and conciliatory rather than directive and authoritative and forceful. Is that fair or am I reading? Am I reading that wrong? 

[00:14:03] David: like, I really, really like what you're saying. And, and I, it's I, I'm my, my hesitation is I have multiple texts open in front of me and I'm trying to decide where to go, but the Greek is even actually softer than the. Then the English at this point. So, it, it seemed good. It seemed to send men to you. 

[00:14:25] The men we've chosen have risked their lives, their, their lives for the Jews, it seemed good to the Holy spirit and to us to not, I mean, I'm, I'm just trying to read this to not place upon you much of a burden except these things. As necessary as it seems, right? So even, I mean, I, I get at some level etymologically, these things as necessary and these requirements is not a bad translation, but, but somehow the kind of slightly awkward wording of the Greek, except these things is necessary, feels different to me than saying these requirements, so, so there's, there's a softness to it. 

[00:15:13] To it. But then I can't help but spot the, the use of these, of this notion of burden of 

[00:15:21] John: dunno, I was just about to say that. Just saw that, 

[00:15:23] David: Well, well you say it, you say it. Then what were, what were you thinking? 

[00:15:26] John: Well, no, it's just, it's just that idea of What does he say here? We, we don't want to lay upon you burden except these necessary things. So, that, that idea Linking back to even, so what I saw there was linking back to Peter and that yoke we can't carry. 

[00:15:48] buT also this idea that we don't want these things to be burdensome to you in that they're too difficult or impossible to actually do. But we do think they're important and we do think they're necessary. So there's a sense in which he's, he's sensitive. To the the danger of imposing yoke on them, but also we've got to do some stuff We've got to think about some stuff that's worthy of your consideration Within that but but yeah, I saw that just as you were opening that the Greek text up there. 

[00:16:24] David: And, and, and there was two, there was two cross references. Hit me. One , I'm laughing 'cause you know it is. One was Galatians chapter six in verse two. So you bear one another's burdens, same word, baros baris, bear one another's burdens and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ. So there's like some, some gorgeous like, like really. 

[00:16:50] gorgeous allusion to this togetherness of this unity. We're not in this alone. But then I was in, I was also thinking about, about first Thessalonians two. Let me, let me open this up to you just quickly. So first Thessalonians. Two and verse seven, I just noticed Paul's tone here, which reminded, reminded me. 

[00:17:11] Paul says we were not looking for praise from people not from you or anywhere else, even though as apostles of Christ, we could have asserted our authority. And he says, instead, we were like young children among you, just as nursing mothers. Care for her children, but it's interesting that that he uses the same word Barros there again, we could have burdened our authority, but instead we were gentle among you. 

[00:17:38] And, and so there's this gorgeous, praxis that we're almost seeing of the early Christian apostles, that, that we, we perhaps misrepresent them when we think they just stomped their way around making demand demands of people. That what we're seeing here is like, yeah, actually, we know we could do that. 

[00:17:53] You'd be probably even accept that you'd even be used to that, but, but we didn't do that. Which actually brings to some thought, why is Paul? so apoplectic in Galatians at times. And I think it's because we realized this, what's now happened at Galatian in, in Galatia, isn't a debate that's like, so what do we do with all these people in? 

[00:18:13] It's a debate that's now pushing people out. And at that point, Paul seems to be thinking, right, this is now causing huge, huge damage. It's driving people away. So it's. 

[00:18:25] John: beautiful. 

[00:18:26] David: It's quite, it's quite, it's quite nice that you've picked up. I mean, it's such a terrible description to say it's quite nice, but, but I'd love that you've picked up on that humility and that gentleness in this letter. 

[00:18:36] John: Yeah, because, because I think, I think within that there is a wee bit of a power. I think Paul seems to be aggressive in defending. 

[00:18:45] David: Hmm. 
 

[00:18:46] John: Um, whereas when, I was just looking at your language here, the language you raised in First Thessalonians gentle among you, like a nurse. nurturing her children. I mean, like, isn't that beautiful imagery? 

[00:19:02] So I think you've got this paradoxical, if you, if you looked at some of Paul's language in Galatians, where he's quite caustic with the opponents of the gospel. But of course, if you think about that from, say, if we're going to use the nurse or parenting dynamic, 

[00:19:18] David: Hmm. 
 

[00:19:19] John: a mother nurse, internally, there's a care and a compassion. 

[00:19:23] Woe betide the person who tries to put their hand on your children, my, my mother, four foot eleven and that was her standing on her tiptoes, but a fierce, a fierce defender of her family, and I've stories of her literally in Belfast, like going toe to toe with seriously the Nasty people in defense of her family, yet internally, the generous, gracious, nurturing would, would literally give you her vital organs, would have run her blood to water for you, would have done anything for her children, but in defense of her children, would be fierce, would be, like, not vicious, that's the wrong word, but aggressive and uncompromising. 

[00:20:07] I think I've, I feel that with Paul. I think he's not just defending an idea, he's defending children, he's defending people that he, he believes in, in this context, he's worked incredibly hard, and he doesn't want voices, certain people, to quote X15, certain people to come in and just trash that and destroy and ruin, and it's not an issue of control for him, it's an issue of freedom of expression. And, and, and I think, I think it helps me to, to settle the paradox in Paul cause there's, there's a side of Paul where you go, well, don't get on the wrong side of him, but actually it's not getting on the wrong side of him. It's, it's, it's actually attacking what is the heartbeat of this man, which is, is freedom in Christ. 

[00:21:00] By grace through faith and, and, and he's prepared to defend that with all his might, but at the same time be desperately humble. And I, I think in James, I pick up this beautiful humility. He's not ordering them. He's appealing to them. He's asking them to come on board. He knows that they could take that letter and put it in the shredder. 

[00:21:25] So he's actually inviting them. Right. Come on a journey with us. We've got to make a journey. You need to make a journey with us. We're, we're having to let some stuff go. There may be stuff we're going to ask you to pick up, but if we can let go and pick up together, then we may end up with something that looks like one man, one person at the end of the day. 

[00:21:44] Yeah, 
 

[00:21:46] David: I mean, just sitting I still have Galatians 6 open and, look at, look at Paul. He says the brothers and sisters, this is verse one of chapter six, brothers and sisters. If, if anyone, I mean, we could just, I almost want to go slightly further back. I want to go slightly further back. John, because of, if we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit. 

[00:22:11] Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another. Brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you should, you who have received the Spirit, should restore such one in a spirit of gentleness, right? So, then he says take care that you, yourselves, are not tempted. 

[00:22:31] Bear one another's burdens, so that language you've got from Acts 15. And in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All must test their own work. Then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride for all. 

[00:22:51] Must carry their own loads, right? I mean, it's fascinating. It's not burdens this time. It's a different word that he uses when he talks about loads. And, and actually, this echoes what's going on in chapter 15, doesn't it? Listen, we've got to carry certain things together. There's certain burdens we carry together. 

[00:23:05] Sometimes we're going to make mistakes. Let's be gentle to one another, don't think you're something when you're not. Right. I can hear the echoes of the whole Galatian conversation, but we've done this Paul. So we're better than these Gentiles. Paul's like, Whoa, be careful about that. Because what happens when you do that is your work becomes your source for pride. 

[00:23:25] And all of us have to carry our own sources of pride and be careful of not turning them into the things that we use to exclude others. I mean, it's so relevant to what we're talking about here, isn't it? 

[00:23:37] John: So powerful, so powerful. And again, the link with the Book of Acts and the disrupting presence and power of the Spirit. Of course, what, your Bible and my Bible verse 26 of chapter 5 gives us a chapter division. And therefore we stop. But of course that whole flow in chapter 5 of freedom to the life of the Spirit flows seamlessly into the community. 

[00:24:04] of walking together, building together, carrying each other. And I love even the language, if someone is caught in the sin, you who live by the Spirit 

[00:24:14] David: Mm. 
 

[00:24:14] John: should restore it. And that's linking back to chapter five. So again, if, if we're thinking about Acts 15 representing not just a Jewish Gentile mix, but a community of the Spirit, 

[00:24:27] David: Mm. Mm. 

[00:24:29] John: then as a community of the Spirit, we're called to bear each other's burdens. 

[00:24:32] As a community of the Spirit, we're called To pick some things up and lay some things down as a community of the spirit where we're called to think about our brothers when we're about to do certain things and eat certain things and go to certain places that we need to be sensitive to the community. 

[00:24:52] And again, what I love about the X 15 conversation and the humility of it. It is a, it's a corporate conversation. It's not an imposition of ideas on individuals. It's actually saying to a Gentile world, make a move towards us, help us. 

[00:25:10] David: Mm. 
 

[00:25:11] John: These are words of advice that we believe will help you as you follow Jesus to represent him in a pagan and in many ways, godless context. 

[00:25:24] So, so these, these are things that we can carry together. As we go forward, and, and, and the things that James asks of them are not ridiculous. To a 21st century audience they might seem a bit weird, but they're not ridiculous, are they? They're, they're, they're actually sensible behavioral ideas that, that, are, are reasonable in the context of that conversation. 

[00:25:50] But, but it's something they're doing together, 

[00:25:52] David: The, I mean, it's not lost on me that this is also a conversation about table fellowship. It's and, and again, you see that in sharp relief in Galatians chapter two, that really where the Jewish and Gentile question rears its head is when they come to eat together. And there's a lot of discussion in scholarship about this. 

[00:26:19] I, I am relatively persuaded by some of the arguments of Philip Esler on this but I'm slightly biased because he's also the person that granted me my doctorate. So I have to agree with him and I don't have to, but, but Esler's argued that the way in the time of Jesus, it was definitely, there were certain texts being read in such a way that we just. 

[00:26:43] Didn't eat with Gentiles because the risk was that Gentiles are going to engage with food and practices that would be, would be difficult for Jewish people to. Well, it would be problematic for Jewish people. So the safer thing is just not eat with them, right? You don't want to sit down next to somebody who was engaging with idle meats, Forbidden meats, for meats that were killed in ways that which are not acceptable. 

[00:27:11] So the prohibition had almost developed that we just don't eat. With people like that, the church very clearly wants to eat together because the table of Christ is at the center of their gatherings. So my take on this, and then we could talk about this in terms of even just in scholarship for hours and hours and hours, but briefly, I would say my take on this passage here is this is the apostles saying, here are things. 

[00:27:38] Things that will make it easier for us to sit together around the table. And what I think is, is. What's stunningly gorgeous about this, and I almost want to say it must not be missed, is because this prohibition of putting difficulty upon the Gentiles is not to then turn around and say to the Jews, you now are not Jews. 

[00:28:08] So I think what we, if we read between the lines of verse 29, what we're saying is what the apostles are saying is we need to let Jews continue being Jews and Gentiles continue being Gentiles, and we will all be one in Christ Jesus. And, and we could totally get hung up on why these, specific things and are these things oppressive? 

[00:28:27] But what they're actually telling us is that. We've not now shifted in Christianity from, okay, we're done with Judaism. Now it's just Gentiles who are Christians, and if Jews want to be Christians, they need to be like Gentiles. This is the early church going, how do we, in all of our diversity, still sit around the table together? 

[00:28:46] And it's not really a difficult thing to say to a Gentile, like, just Don't bring food from the temple because we probably don't really want you going to the temple anyway, and we don't want you buying food at the back door of the temple. And actually, if you could just, it would be like, let me use an example that may prove to be superly controversial, but if I invited a Jewish person to my house, right, like I wouldn't serve pork, right? 

[00:29:10] And if I invited a Muslim person to my house, I would, I would ensure that the, the. The meat that I served was appropriate for them because I'm not a jerk, like, at least I hope I'm not and, and, and it would be totally wrong and I, I would argue it would be biblically wrong for me to say, well, I don't need to abide by those laws. 

[00:29:30] So when you come to my house, you must not abide by those laws. No, any spirit of hospitality would go. I mean, we all do it. You want to come for dinner? Is there anything you don't eat? 

[00:29:41] John: Absolutely. 

[00:29:41] David: And and these, this beautiful moment here, I think is, is, is the early apostles going like, Hey Gentiles, we're not going to put any burdens on you. 

[00:29:51] But it would absolutely help us if we're going to meet around the table. Here's a couple of things that would be necessary. I, and I think that's, I mean, I think that's, I mean, I do love the fact that that in the, and also from sexual immorality, I mean, it's, 

[00:30:06] John: Yeah. I'll  

[00:30:07] just throw  

[00:30:07] David: I don't. bUt, but I actually, I actually think it's a gorgeous prohibition that they think through. 

[00:30:16] Let's just talk about things that will stop us eating together, that allow us to preserve our identities together. I mean, I just love it, John. 

[00:30:24] John: It's beautiful. And if we, if we take that as the guiding light, that really does help us and it, it helps make sense of why these things, why these things of all the things that James could have named, why these things, because he's trying to create an opportunity for genuine coming together around table, which is one of the greatest expressions of this one person, this one community, this one temple that God is building. 

[00:30:57] And he's saying, look. Let's find ways to meet each other without compromising truth, without compromising our lives, and certainly without compromising Jesus. Let's find ways to help each other get round the table, because if we can show to the world that as a Jewish person I can follow Jesus through faith in his name and be saved through faith in his name and you as a Gentile person can find faith through his name, then actually we have a chance to say to the whole world, actually. 

[00:31:30] The door is open and everyone can come to our table.