Sunday 23rd February – Our Unity – Pastor Adrian Kitson
Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
6 As for those who were held in high esteem – whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favouritism – they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognised that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
Unity among people in any group is a wonderful thing. Unity on a team is such a good feeling and such a crucial thing to have if you are going to be a great team.
Unity in a far-flung brand new multi-cultured community of the risen Jesus in a hostile world is especially wonderful and crucial, if that community is going to be who God has made it to be and do what we the group has been commission to do.
Today we hear of an absolutely critical moment for the Christian Church, right at its beginning. What is at stake is its very existence. Unity is up for grabs.
Paul continues telling his own story of faith.
He speaks of this really BIG moment that happened in Jerusalem.
Unity in the gospel of Jesus was under high pressure.
Fourteen years is a long time. We heard that Paul had been to Jerusalem HQ once. Three years after his Damascus Road turnaround, Paul spent fifteen days with Peter and met Jesus’ brother, James, and then left for another 11 years!
The timeline is like this. We assume his Damascus Road moment was sometime in AD33 (just after Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus). Three years after that (AD 36), he goes to Jerusalem for the first time.
He and Barnabus then visited again. At this time, there is famine in Judea. The prophet Agabus spoke this word while at Antioch (Acts 11:27-30). This famine did happen under the reign of Caesar Claudius (AD41-AD54).
Paul and Barnabus take a money gift to the Jerusalem church from Galatia and Antioch. That is around AD 47.
Paul then sets out on his first missionary journey (AD47/48). It is after that, when Paul and Barnabus are back in Antioch that people arrive in Galatia (and Antioch) pushing that the new community needs the gospel + ; The good news of Jesus death and resurrection for the life of the world plus Jewish ritual and Law. You need to believe Jesus plus adopt Jewish custom and Law to be a ‘real Christian’.
Paul and Barnabus went in hard against these people who had tuned up in Antioch (Acts 15:2). They were then appointed by the fledgling church to head to HQ to sort out this major threat to the gospel and to the unity in it (AD 48/49).
Paul says he goes ‘in response to a revelation’ (2:2). He also says he needs to meet with the ‘pillars of the church” (‘capital A’ apostles) because he is scared – scared that he has lived this faith and suffered much in this mission for nothing.
I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain (v2).
Strange that the strong, clear, powerful writing Paul is scared. What is the fear here?
Tim Keller suggest that Paul is not fearful about the certainty of what he has received and what he proclaims – the gospel + nothing else as our freedom in Christ. No, the fear is about fruitfulness.
If the other ‘capital A apostles’ did not confirm his message and therefore renounce these false teachers preaching a ‘gospel +’ Jewish custom and Law as the foundation of our life together in Christ, then it would be very hard for him to retain all these converts in this network of local communities he has planted.
All his hard work and suffering would come to nothing.
Paul knows that the Jerusalem apostles certainly have the same gospel as he does. He found that out a long time ago. But would they stick to it in the face of this major threat that would be very easy to back in, here in Jewish Jerusalem?
John Stott put the issue this way.
It was one thing for the Jerusalem leaders to give their approval to the conversion of the Gentiles, but could they approve of commitment to the Messiah without inclusion in Judaism? Was their vision big enough to see the gospel of Christ not as a reform movement within Judaism but as good news for the whole world, and [see] the church of Christ…as the international family of God?
(Tim Keller, Galatians for You, p 4) quoting John Stott, The Message of Acts, p 241
There is a big difference in this third visit that must have made a huge difference to their decisions. This time Paul has a non-circumcised Greek born and speaking converted pagan right there with him and Barnabus. His name is Titus.
Titus was a living sign of what the Spirit had been doing alI these years away from Jerusalem – building a new community of ‘every-bodies’!
In Jerusalem this may have been just a nice far away thought. They had heard it was happening and were glad it was, but here at HQ, we did not actually see it or know anyone who was not a Jewish convert.
Now, here is ‘a real one’ is! This is where nice theological theory meets flesh and blood. The ‘debate about how Jewish a Christian has to be, or what you need to do and be to be a ‘real’ Christian gets personal.
Can Titus stay in the meeting? Is he defiling us as a non-circumcised male in this group? Does Titus need to now be circumcised, stop eating with some people, stop eating some foods and go to the temple and participate in the ritual of the Synagogue a lot more to be a real Christian – or not?
And here in Jerusalem it would have been quite natural for them to say yes. Kosher food is good. The temple and synagogue worship is good. Circumcision is good.
Saying yes to this is ‘gospel +’ teaching might not have seemed such a big deal to them.
But out there in the pagan word with real people like Titus and fellow apostles like Paul, this is a real and really big deal.
If the Jerusalem Apostles give in to anything else other than the death and resurrection of the ascended Jesus as the sure and complete foundation of our life in his new creation, it would have been disastrous.
Remember ‘gospel +’ anything else is actually no gospel at all. Christianity would have most likely returned to slavery to endless rules.
An Italian or African could not become a Christian without becoming culturally Jewish. There would the complete denial of the gospel of Jesus! We would all be fixated on rules for rest and eating and working; attempting to avoid being bad and having to be very, very good and very, very right!
We would probably all ended up living in little Christian ghetto’s separating ourselves off from all the ‘bad’ people in order to stay ‘pure’.
But the Jerusalem apostles walked the walk. They did not insist that Titus should be circumcised before he could share in full fellowship with them. They knew that;
God does not judge by external appearance’ (v6)
No. Christianity is about who I am in Messiah Jesus not what I do for Messiah Jesus.
Paul says the Jerusalem leaders,
… added nothing to my message (v6).
Under pressure, Paul and the Jerusalem Apostles showed their unity in the gospel.
In accepting Titus as a full member of the household of faith in Christ they accepted Paul’s ministry (and teaching) whole-heartedly.
In doing so they called out these false teachers because they were saying that we can make ourselves pure and holy before a holy God by strict compliance of Jewish law.
How many times does Paul and other New Testament witnesses remind their people that this is wrong!? Only in Christ can we be made holy in God’s sight
… without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22)
HE is our freedom.
And what kind of freedom does he give? It is not the popular view that ‘we can do anything we want’.
No, we have a cultural freedom. A religion that teaches very specific rules and regulations for behaviour, language, dress, food and etc says that people have to do all this to ‘make it’. In that community you don’t really want ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ because that seems way too hard. You prefer “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, talk like this, don’t eat that …” These you can ‘do’.
We don’t have to live like that! The early church certainly did not live like that! It stayed free in the gospel to spread out everywhere to everyone with a freedom the world had never seen. It is why the gospel got here!
We also have an emotional freedom. Keeping all those expectations is emotionally exhausting. If you have ever done a deal with God to get something or sworn to do something for someone or God in order to win his or someone else’s approval, you will know what I mean.
No, in freedom in the gospel Jesus says;
34 … do not swear at all: … 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Friends, unity in the one and only good news of new life and hope in the risen Jesus even in suffering and death was kept and the gospel had free range in the world.
It still does.
Those ‘pillars of the church’ offer you the right hand of friendship now, and they don’t need to add anything else to this gospel message.
They surely recognise the grace of Jesus given to you all your life so far.
And I know where we go.
To people who don’t have to look like us, speak like us, know everything we know and do everything like we do things.
No,
God does not show favouritism.
In the unity of this gospel we go to ‘the Gentiles’ – to us Aussies right here in our time.
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