Acts 9:19b-28
When AB Simpson began his ministry at the 13th St Presbyterian Church, he wanted everyone. To that end, he went down to the docks and brought in all the vagrants and immigrants he could. The rich didn’t want their beautiful church ruined with poverty and need. That was part of what led to the creation of our larger church family, the Christian & Missionary Alliance. A line would be drawn between the rich and the poor, much like it was between the Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s day.
If we are going to understand Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we need to start at the beginning to understand why he wrote it. Persecution at the hands of a pre-Christian Paul started a chain-reaction gospel movement that this still largely unparallelled to this day. As Christians ran from the young Pharisee, they took the gospel with them, igniting new faith from all types of people. No longer did the gospel stay in Jerusalem, a salvation shared only amongst the physical nation of Israel, but as it left the city walls, it began reaching Samaritans, Africans, and other non-Jewish people. Paul’s conversion fueled this new ethnic war between the ones who had always been God’s chosen people and these new followers claiming an inheritance.
Old vs New
Some of the national family cheered and praised the Lord for the sudden and uncontrollable blaze of Kingdom growth, but not everyone. Many Jews didn’t really know how to handle this craziness. And who would disagree? No one likes change. You may remember the vitriol spread over rock music in the 80s, but did you know that the piano was rejected by churches as late as the early 1900s and was once considered evil? Nobody likes new ideas—they lead to change. People either lean into it or push against it. Paul had switched sides to Jesus and while some went with him, many felt he was changing everything they had ever known. Jewish history is known for fierce protection of their ethnic family and culture and it was being attacked. Lines were being drawn.
Hate vs Love
Those who stuck with the old way quickly found a path towards anger and hate, as the Jesus followers had ignited a fire in the region threatening to destroy the old way of life. Many Jews went into protection mode to keep it. This had always bothered them – consider the Samaritans or Babylonians and their culture wars against the Jews. These new believers had turned from them, rejecting everything they cared about. This hurt and anger swelled into hatred, similar to many veterans who came back from the Gulf War with animosity towards middle-easterners. A bad experience gets blurred into dislike towards a group. The Jews’ belief system had been shattered, but by Jesus, not the Gentiles. His offer of forgiveness is what changed their way of life. Paul reminded them of that, becoming the scapegoat. They just couldn’t stomach that, giving birth to hatred and murderous intent.
Fear vs Courage
The hate spiral continues through the rest of the book of Acts, becoming the reason that Paul would go to Rome. Their fear of loss turned into protection of their old ways and hatred towards the new. Compare this with the new believers. They faced a scary choice. Do you let in the guy who persecuted and killed your friends? Letting new people in your life is exciting but can hurt. You never know what could happen, and that’s with the idea that the person you are letting in is good. I am blown away by the trust those early disciples had in Jesus to take Paul in, protect him and allow him to teach and lead. Despite how scared they were, they let him in and allowed God to shine through him. The non-believing Jews were afraid of losing their uniqueness and ownership over their traditions, but the believing Jews were open to the Spirit and trusted, even if that meant working with a well-known murderer and persecutor. The new believers chose courage, which led to incredible freedom and spiritual fruit.
Next Steps
As Jews fought for their heritage, some got angry, some got violent, some turned to the new way, and some tried to figure out how to incorporate the old into the new. From this a new party emerged—the circumcision party—a group of Jews who came to believe that in order to be a follower of Jesus, one must first be a follower of the OT Law. In other words, if you want to be a Christian, you have to become Jewish first. It’s absolutely untrue and created difficulty for people to come to Jesus. Do we do things now that make it hard for people to come to Jesus? What do we put in the way that trips people up? How can we avoid that?
- Avoid ethno-centrism. Make friendships with other kinds of people.
- Don’t vilify groups because of what individuals do. Love your enemies.
- Choose to trust the Holy Spirit, even if it requires sacrifice on your part.
We have a choice. We can try to live beholden to laws, rules, legalistic expectations, and traditions, or we can choose freedom in Christ. With Him it is Jesus alone; a relationship, not a rulebook. As we work through the book of Galatians and walk through this raging debate between the circumcision party and the new believers, I hope that you will choose freedom in Christ and share that freedom with others.
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