Dear church,

After coming into contact with the greatest evangelist who ever lived, Felix delayed. “When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” Felix was not too busy. Felix knew what he needed to know about the gospel. And he was prepared to reject it.

But he seemed to leave the door opened just a crack. “When I get an opportunity …”

But really, the door likely was closed shut already. Felix heard Paul speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And he heard Paul speak about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. This was alarming stuff. Read sometime about Felix and this third wife, Drusilla. You may see why this was alarming stuff for them.

This should be alarming stuff to all. Paul spoke about righteousness. None of us is righteous. Paul spoke about self-control. A righteous and holy life requires self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24). None of us has full self-control on our own, despite our best efforts.

And Paul spoke about the coming judgment. How often do we speak about the coming judgment? How often do we speak about any of this stuff?

I can walk through each day of my life fairly comfortable no one is going to call me out about my sins. No one would be so brash, so arrogant, as to call me out about my sins! No one is perfect, and so no one has a right to say anything to me about my imperfections. Take the log out of your own eye! (Matthew 7:5).

We don’t dare call out another person for his or her sins. This is the 21st Century, after all. “Judge not,” we say. “To each his own.”

Paul didn’t get that memo. He drilled right down into the heart of the sin of Felix and Drusilla. There was no denying it. And Felix was alarmed, and he didn’t want to hear it. “When I get an opportunity I will summon you.”

Would that opportunity ever come? Felix would indeed summon Paul back into his presence, but it seems he only was hoping to receive a bribe from Paul. When Felix left office, he left Paul in prison. This does not appear to be a repentant man.

We do have an obligation to correct our brothers and sisters in Christ who fall into sin (2 Thessalonians 3:15; James 5:19-20). But Paul here was telling a nonbeliever about that man’s sins. He was warning him of how he was falling short. And he was warning him of the coming judgment.

Maybe there should be more room in our culture to speak directly to others about sin. And maybe we should be more alert to the moments where our own sin is thrown back in our faces by someone else so we can have an opportunity to deal with it.

Two questions for your day: How would you be likely to respond today if someone pointed out some sin in your life? With how much humility would you accept that correction?

Chris

Dear church,

I have been paying attention to this Roman tribune. Paul created no shortage of havoc for the man, whose name was Claudius Lysias. He was a commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem, overseeing 1,000 troops, and we get his story in Chapters 22-23.

Claudius was a Roman citizen. He had purchased his citizenship. As we see in the life of the apostle Paul, Roman citizenship was important. It got Paul out of no small amount of pain and suffering – although certainly not all of it.

And Claudius had to drag Paul out of the hands of the Jewish leaders not once but twice, and then Claudius had to usher Paul safely away under the cover of darkness – saving Paul from an assassination attempt. And so it’s safe to say Claudius saved Paul’s life three times.

Paul was a tough one to handle. Claudius likely wanted to keep the peace in Jerusalem, but he also had to uphold Paul’s rights as a Roman citizen. Claudius clearly valued his own citizenship, and maintaining the rights of citizens would have been important to him. And we see signs that it would not have been a good thing for Claudius to get caught by his Roman superiors mistreating one of the empire’s citizens. Notice how quickly Claudius called off Paul’s flogging in chapter 22 when he learned Paul was a Roman citizen. And notice how Claudius fudged the truth a little in his letter to Governor Felix (23:27).

And so Claudius Lysias eventually just ushered Paul away to the governor. Claudius was probably glad to be rid of Paul.

I wonder what Claudius thought about Paul. I wonder what he thought about all the hubbub surrounding this man who spoke Greek and Aramaic, who knew when and how to play his trump cards, and who smartly divided his adversaries to soften their opposition against him.

And Claudius kept rescuing Paul. He didn’t have much choice.

Paul wasn’t all that different from Claudius. They held their Roman citizenship in common. But Claudius had purchased his way into his status as a Roman, while Paul was born into his.

And then Claudius would have heard Paul preaching. Paul’s mission was to preach eternal life to the Gentiles – people like Claudius (Acts 22:21). And some of the Jews wanted Paul dead because of it.

Paul would later write to the Christians in a Roman colony in the city of Philippi, a place full of Roman citizens. And Paul wrote, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

This is a citizenship a person cannot buy. And it is one into which a person isn’t born. It only comes by faith.

Claudius Lysias can become for us a picture of the difficulty some people may have with the gospel – and that even we may have with the gospel. We can’t buy our citizenship in heaven. We cannot earn it. And while we can purchase our way to the top in a world such as ours – and while some people are born into such positions in this world – we ought not to rest in that.

Something altogether different may be right under our noses, bothering us and causing us headaches and trying to get our attention.

Chris

Dear church,

Our church has been working on a project to help our local businesses as they emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown. We’ve been selling stuff. It’s good stuff. It’s a great project, I’m convinced.

Selling stuff has put us in contact with our community, which has been good. We’ve met people we never knew, and we have seen again people we’ve known. And invariably, some of those old and new friends have things to say about one of the big three topics of the day – pandemic, protests, or politics.

We listen intently. And in a moment or two, we know a person’s political persuasion, or we know his or her feelings about racism or his or her ideas about epidemiology. Some of those thoughts match mine. Some do not. We try not to argue. We listen. Everybody wants to be heard.

Language seems to be important in this episode in Acts 21 and 22, as Paul was being berated by the Jewish people at the temple and then carried into the barracks. Language was important when Paul spoke to the Roman tribune in Greek. The tribune didn’t seem to expect that (Acts 21:37). And language was important when Paul spoke to the crowd in Hebrew (likely Aramaic). I’m not sure they expected that either.

Language creates barriers between people and cultures. Without a common language, it’s much more difficult to communicate, obviously, but it also is more difficult to achieve any sort of allegiance or unity among people.

At the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, God confused the language of humanity. The nations were scattered. Confusion and competition reigned. Confusion and competition still reign today. But the kingdom of God in Christ paints a picture of the nations beginning to gather again. Pentecost in Acts 2 is a picture of this. In the end, “every tongue” will confess Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:11).

And so language stood out to me as I read chapters 21 and 22 in Acts. Language is important. Paul’s ability to speak Greek reassured the Roman tribune Paul wasn’t an Egyptian revolutionary. And Paul’s ability to speak the Hebrew language gained him a hearing with a very hostile crowd in Jerusalem.

But language isn’t our only problem. The minute Paul explained to the people his mission wasn’t merely to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, the crowd renewed their cries against Paul. “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

Paul’s mission was to share the good news with people of other languages – Greek, Latin, whatever – and the people in the temple didn’t like that. Language isn’t our only problem. The Jews distrusted the Gentiles (for some good reasons; read Psalm 137 for an eye-opener) and struggled to come around to the idea the gospel was for anyone who would believe.

We encounter people every day who are different from us. And today’s differences can be pretty obvious. Sometimes, it’s actually a matter of language. Other times, it’s something else. People disagree about things like face masks and social distancing and the re-opening of schools. And they disagree about claims of systemic racism and the motivations of some political activists. And, of course, they disagree about politics. This is an election year after all.

And when we hear this other “language,” a viewpoint we cannot understand, our guard naturally goes up. We put up a dividing line between ourselves and this other person who is “not speaking our language,” as we sometimes say. Surely, you can relate to this.

And then we gather as a church. It is there, among the brothers and sisters, that we speak the same “language” – even if we disagree about some of these other issues. The language we speak is of Christ and his cross and resurrection. We speak about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We speak the story of salvation.

And we speak about other things, too. We encourage one another. We learn about the burdens of others, and we bear them. We listen to our leaders, and we submit to them. We inch ever closer together as a church family. Slowly and surely, we begin to speak the same “language.”

This requires selflessness. And I’ve seen so much selflessness in our church during the past few months. People have given up so much in order to worship together. They’ve given up so much in order to care for each other. They’ve given up so much in order to care for our community.

For that, I am glad. We aren’t letting trivial things muddy our “language.”

Chris

Dear church,

Some of us grew up thinking we were supposed to be stoic, emotionless. The highs never get too high, and the lows never dip too low. It’s not a noble thing, we thought, to wear our emotions on our sleeves.

But to feel deeply and, yes, to show it is part of the biblical story of discipleship. The Book of Acts is full of the Holy Spirit, pushing and prodding the church into action, into life. The Book of Acts is also a book that is full of emotion. It is full of people who have emotions.

There was a great lamentation over the death of Stephen. Paul and Barnabas had no small disagreement about what to do with John Mark. The servant girl Rhoda was so overjoyed at the sound of Peter’s voice that she forgot to let him into the house. Cornelius was terrified at the vision of an angel of God.

The highs were high and the lows were low. And the people in Philip’s house were “weeping and breaking (Paul’s) heart.” And he wished they weren’t – not because Paul hated emotion but, I suppose, because the emotions just might have gotten the best of him.

And he made a vow then and there, a dramatic statement – surely one full of emotion – that he was ready “even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” The people gathered there in Philip’s house probably saw that one coming. They knew Paul and his stubbornness well enough to know he wouldn’t change course.

Does our faith drive an emotional reaction within us? When we see things happen in our lives, do we connect those things to the kingdom of God and feel deeply sometimes about them? Sadness or anger or joy or terror or grim determination? To live our faith means to truly LIVE it – with everything we have, including our bodies, minds, and emotions. This seems to be a lesson I am picking up from this reading of Acts.

Once we accept the gospel and willfully begin to pursue the kingdom of God, we may find ourselves getting emotional at times. We might want to pay attention to those moments. What is driving them? Surely our relationship with God and his church – when we truly love both – is going to make us feel deeply.

Pay attention today to your emotions as they relate to God and his church. Why do you feel as you do?

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter concludes with a scene of tenderness. The apostle Paul told the elders of Ephesus – leaders with whom he had spent so much time – that they would not see him again. Paul was bound to encounter persecution in Jerusalem and even likely death.

And the elders were “sorrowful.” You can sense the heartache as they escorted him to the boat – to see him off for the last time.

To have good friends and then to lose them is a hurtful thing. This is even more so with someone who imparted to us the very words of eternal life. And not only that – was one who stuck around for two years to teach and to set an example for the new believers. Paul and the Ephesian elders had been through a lot together (see chapter 19).

And now their time with Paul was up. There was more for him to do. They all seemed to know this was the case. And his parting words to them were this: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

This was a precious friendship. And this was a precious calling.

The tenderness Paul clearly felt toward the Ephesian elders – and they clearly felt toward Paul – was something God surely felt toward his church, “which he obtained with his own blood.”

We must remember the relationships that make up life of the kingdom of God. The love of believers for one another. The love of the elders for the church. The love of God for the church. The love of the Father and Son for one another.

Is “church” just something we “attend” each Sunday? No. We surely know it is much more than that. It is a tender and precious thing. These are our brothers and sisters – the children of God himself, whom God himself gave up his blood to redeem.

A couple of questions for your day: Is this how you think about the church and about your brothers and sisters in Christ? If it’s not – why not?

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter gives us some scriptural evidence for the first re-baptisms within the Christian church. Some believers actually went down into the waters of baptism and were immersed. We might say, however, that they “only got wet.”

They weren’t baptized in the name of Jesus. No, they were immersed according to the baptism of John the Baptist. Something was missing.

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

“No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

Something was missing.

It seems likely these were Jewish converts to Christianity who were evangelized by Apollos. We know Apollos taught boldly in the synagogue in Ephesus. We also know Apollos originally knew only the baptism of John the Baptist. He apparently didn’t know about baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Fortunately, Apollos was corrected in his teaching by Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:24-26).

But in some of his early teaching in Ephesus, something was missing. And these believers whom Paul encountered likely showed the remnants of these missing pieces.

“Into what then were you baptized?”

“Into John’s baptism.”

Something was missing.

I was at the store the other day with one of my daughters and one of her friends. We were going in to buy some snacks for a sleepover they were having that night. We started walking in when I remembered – we needed masks.

Fortunately, I am now in the habit of carrying a dirty, worn-out mask in my pocket. So I put it on. The girls had nothing. So, they did what enterprising teenagers do. They pulled their shirts over their faces and plunged into the store. Nothing was going to keep them from their gummy bears and frozen cheese pizzas!

Of course, the clerk took notice as they moved through the self-checkout lane. He didn’t turn a blind eye to their unorthodox face-coverings – that is, to their t-shirts pulled up over their noses. He turned to me – “They should be wearing masks. It’s the city’s rules.”

All I could do was shrug. “Kids will be kids,” I said.

It was as obvious to the apostle Paul as it was to that clerk that something was missing. Something was out of place. These particular “disciples” in Ephesus were different than the disciples elsewhere. Something was missing from their lives.

There is plenty to be said about John’s baptism. It was hugely significant in the path of salvation history but the story didn’t stop with John’s baptism.

Jesus’ own baptism by John marked the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (Luke 3:21-23; Acts 1:21-22). John’s baptism was a baptism for the repentance of sins, specifically for people of the Jewish nation but not necessarily for the Gentiles (Acts 13:24). The baptism of John also marked the end of the season of the Law and the Prophets, and it marked the beginning of the era of the New Covenant (Luke 16:16). And the baptism of John foreshadowed the Spirit baptism that came through Jesus Christ (Acts 1:5).

And to be baptized into John’s baptism – only – left something out.

In our walk of faith with God, we sometimes leave things out. Sometimes, indeed, we leave out the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, we leave out our unreserved trust in God. Sometimes, we leave out portions of God’s Holy Word that we just can’t get on board with. Sometimes, we leave out the concept of obedience and submission to Christ. And sometimes – like these believers in Ephesus – it is Jesus himself who we leave out.

They were then baptized “in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

As I read this text, I was struck by the re-affirmation of the centrality of Jesus. It is ALL about him.

Apollos had come and likely told them to believe in Jesus – “And be sure to get John’s baptism of repentance. That’s important, too.” But it’s all about Jesus. His baptism is the one we seek. His baptism is for Jews and Gentiles – anyone who would come (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38-39). His baptism is not only by water but by the power of the Holy Spirit. His baptism has transformative power.

And I think about things that go missing in my life from time to time. And I think about the things I lack sometimes. I think about the peace that surpasses all understanding that sometimes you just are not going to see sometimes in me. And I think about the total surrender – the giving up of all efforts to save myself – that sometimes slips through my grasp as I unconsciously try to earn my way into God’s good graces. And I think about the times that I simply don’t listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, preferring the sound of my own voice instead.

In my own life – and perhaps in yours, too – things sometimes go missing.

This is why we gather. We gather to hear again the Word of God. We gather to see again the body of Christ in the flesh. We gather to take the bread and the cup again and to witness again the devotion of the church to its collective memory of the cross and resurrection.

We gather to see whether someone will ask us, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” We gather to affirm and to assess and to seek the will of God.

A question for your day: What might be missing from your life of faith today – or from the life of the church? Pray about these things.

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter tells us about how the church started in the city of Corinth. We can read much more about the development of this church in Paul’s later letters to the Corinthians (1 and 2 Corinthians). In those letters, we see the apostle’s ongoing pastoral care for the folks in that congregation.

We also see in Acts 18 Aquila and Priscilla, as well as the teacher Apollos – all of whom played important roles in the growth of the church in its earliest years. We can be thankful for the history that is preserved here.

Things were going well within the church in Corinth, at least among those who came to the church from among the Gentiles. More people were believing in the gospel and getting baptized. Notice, they “believed and were baptized.” Those two things went hand-in-hand.

And Paul received a vision in the night from God: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” This is a warm and helpful assurance. Surely Paul appreciated this vision very much, and surely he began preaching even more boldly in Corinth.

And did you catch what happened next? “The Jews made a united attack on Paul …”

The vision, of course, wasn’t wrong. Paul wasn’t harmed. But again, we see the continued opposition to the gospel, especially among the Jewish leadership in these communities where Paul was ministering. The standard practice for Paul, and for Apollos as well, was to show God’s chosen people how Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. They would use the Jewish Scriptures (our Old Testament) to show how Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies.

And, of course, Jesus fulfilled those prophecies in ways many Jews did not expect. And the kingdom of God – according to Jesus’ own ministry – was now thrown open not just to the Jewish nation but to anyone who would believe. And opposition kept emerging.

And Paul was dragged in front of the Roman ruler of Corinth, a man named Gallio. And accusations were made against Paul. And Paul surely knew Jesus’ warning and encouragement for his followers – “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12).

And so Paul likely wasn’t worried about what to say. He knew the Holy Spirit would instruct him about what to say in that hour when he was put on trial before Gallio. And what did Paul say?

Nothing.

“But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews … ” Paul actually said nothing in his own defense. The Holy Spirit’s teaching to Paul in that moment about what he ought to say was quite clear: There was nothing to say. Someone else did all the talking. Someone else made the defense.

I wonder whether this is instructive for us today. We convince ourselves sometimes there is a lot that must be said. Arguments need to be made. People need to be convinced. Maybe none of that is necessary. Maybe the Holy Spirit will bring the words out of someone else’s mouth. Or maybe the Holy Spirit will plant the words in someone else’s heart.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t proclaim the gospel at every opportunity. We should. But some words aren’t for us to say. Sometimes we don’t have to say anything at all.

Is there a place for silence in your own life? We live in a world that won’t stop talking. Can you stop talking and let someone else – or the Holy Spirit – speak? Are there moments in life where really nothing needs to be said by us – even to ourselves?

This is the ultimate defense – when someone else speaks for us – when someone with ultimate authority makes the case and cancels the charges. Please think about that today.

Chris

Dear church,

This chapter has one of the most important speeches in the New Testament, and it is instructive for us. The apostle Paul spoke with the folks in Athens about God – attempting to convince them of the existence of the God of Israel by examining the very existence of creation and humanity.

There’s a lot to say about Paul’s message in Athens. But my mind was caught by something else in this chapter: The mob kept following Paul around.

We’ve seen this happen before (Acts 14:19). When the the mob decided it didn’t like Paul, it didn’t let him rest. It hounded him from town to town. Just when Paul started to get a hearing with a new set of listeners, the mob would show up and wreck things.

We can think about the mobs in our own day – what we’ve seen over the past few weeks on television and in social media. Mobs operate as living things – they are unpredictable in that way – and are driven by an ideology that completely rejects anything to the contrary. And mobs are relentless. They don’t stop.

And the mob decided Paul and the gospel message of Jesus Christ was something that needed to be stopped. And the mob rallied itself in Thessalonica. It got so bad, the believers there realized it was time for Paul to go. “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away.”

And Paul and Silas ended up in Berea. Things went pretty well there. But the mob followed them there – “agitating and stirring up the crowds.” Again, it got bad enough the believers there realized it was time for Paul to go. “Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way.”

And Paul ended up in Athens, trying to persuade some of the smartest minds on the planet about the truth of the gospel.

It struck me that trials and tribulations force action. They create opportunity. Paul likely moved from place to place faster than he normally would have because of the opposition he was receiving. Sometimes that opposition was violent. But it was this opposition – this difficulty – that drove the gospel forward.

Sometimes, we encounter opposition that stops us in our tracks. We stop and say, “How unfair! How wrong!” And we don’t move. We sit down in the mud and wallow. But perhaps God is showing us here we ought to just accept the opposition and difficulty as it comes. Difficulty comes with living in a fallen world, after all. And we should accept the opposition and difficulty and recognize it for the opportunities it presents.

I’ve never had a perfect record on this. I can get pessimistic and grouchy when faced with opposition. We’ve all been facing opposition and difficulty during these past few pandemic-filled months. I’ve noticed we’ve all tended to gripe and complain about it.

But maybe there’s something more here for God’s people to do when things get difficult like this. Perhaps we ought to look at the opportunities that these difficulties present – opportunities to serve in new ways, to work in new ways, to worship in new ways. Rather than gripe and complain, I hope we are learning to ride the wave of these difficulties to new places – rather than get swept under.

This is sometimes called “over-accepting.” We don’t just accept the fact that things are tough. We over-accept by persistently looking for the opportunities bound up in these tough times.

Personally, I’m beginning to see some real positive movements of God within the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the life of our church – and on me. I hope you are, too.

A question for your day: What’s a difficulty in your life right now that you might need to “over-accept” and find the positive opportunities to pursue within it?

Chris

Dear church,

I wonder what the Philippian jailer meant when he asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” I didn’t always wonder about this. I was certain what he meant – “How can I receive eternal life?”

This makes total sense. After all, he’d just awakened to an earthquake in which all the doors of the jail popped open and all the chains and stocks that had bound the prisoners were released. Earlier, the jailer probably fell asleep to the sound of Paul and Silas singing the words of the gospel.

And then the prisoners didn’t escape. In fact, they stayed in the jail and didn’t allow the jailer to commit suicide. If a prisoner escaped, the jailer often was executed in the prisoner’s place. Remember Acts 12:19.

So surely, the jailer was so taken with the Paul and Silas – their devotion, the miracles, their kind act toward him – that he wanted what they had. He wanted eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit!

I’m pretty sure there is nothing wrong with this explanation.

But maybe the jailer was simply worried about his own skin. Maybe, even though the prisoners were still in place, he was worried about what might happen to him. Maybe he was worried an escape by at least one of those prisoners was still possible, or even likely. Maybe he was concerned that he still might be punished for the chaos in the jail that night.

Maybe he was asking Paul and Silas how he could save his own skin. I think this is possible.

Of course, it doesn’t matter. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The answer is the same either way – “Believe in the Lord Jesus.”

This is all that matters in life. Jesus is the answer to every significant question. Without Christ, life loses its meaning. And so we can answer those questions with the gospel.

Think about our country today – all the chaos. Some people say the very foundation of our nation has been ruptured and its future is in dire jeopardy. Some people claim our country was built on a system of racism designed to maintain white superiority and wealth. Others say this is false.

The conflict that has ensued has been verbally abusive at some times and physically violent at others.

But even in these complex and rancorous times in our country, the answer remains simple: Jesus Christ. “Believe in the Lord Jesus.”

A person with faith in Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit is a person of peace. Typically, this person brings peace into difficult situations. But even when that’s not possible – after all, some people hate religion and hate the idea of the good news – Jesus Christ is still the answer.

Even if we suffer persecution and lose our lives, Jesus is still the answer. The apostle Paul would write to the Christians in Corinth, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). Paul said we shouldn’t put our hope in things that are “seen,” which are temporary, but on things that are “unseen,” which are eternal.

This same truth holds when we talk about COVID-19. We don’t worry about it. We try to be safe. We respect the concerns of others. But these troubles are “light and momentary.” We can only say that because of Jesus Christ. And even if the coronavirus drags us down to our graves, we win – because Jesus won. He defeated the grave, and he carries us through our own graves into eternal life.

So what must we do to be saved? Believe in Jesus Christ. He is THE answer.

Chris

Dear church,

In Acts 14, we saw the gospel spreading out from Jerusalem and Antioch. With that spread came division. Whole communities were divided over what to make of this story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This division brought severe consequences on the apostles.

In today’s passage – Acts 15 – we see division that sprang up within the church. Things didn’t come easy for the first-century church. There was division and opposition on the outside – from nonbelievers. And there was division and opposition on the inside – from those who had made a profession of faith.

Of course, this chapter has become a model for the church through the centuries for how to handle divisions within the church body. The words, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” have echoed through church history. This is how the church has solved its numerous debates about doctrine. And there have been lots of debates about doctrine through the years! These debates have been crucial in ensuring the church remained closely attached to the Word of God.

Two things happen when a church resolves to follow the lead of this first church council. First, the church listens intently for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It listens to God. Second, the church pays attention to its own collective sense of wisdom and knowledge. God works through humans to carry out his will.

And this process can take time. You’ll notice there was “much debate.” Disagreements aren’t solved on a whim. No one ought to jump up quickly and “call the question,” demanding an immediate yes-or-no vote. These things can take time.

The issue here was whether Gentile believers needed to observe the Jewish law. The decision from James and Peter and the rest of the council is one that seems heavy on compromise and concession. Gentile Christians did not have to follow full the Jewish law – not even close – but they were asked to adhere some of its provisions. You can sense perhaps not everyone would have come away happy from a decision like this.

But, again, God works through humans to carry out his will on earth. This was a monumental decision that paved the way for the church into the future. And the way in which the decision was handled also paved the way for the church into the future.

Of course, there was another disagreement within this chapter. The strife within the church wasn’t over.

Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement. Paul didn’t want to take John Mark along on the second missionary journey. Barnabas did. It seemed John Mark abandoned the pair during their first missionary journey.

This wasn’t a disagreement about church doctrine. This was a personal dispute among two believers. They had a “sharp disagreement,” and Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways.

Again, how does the church resolve disputes that arise within it? Paul and Barnabas could not agree. But there was no violence. No one swore off the other. Neither left the church in a huff. Rather, they went their separate ways and continued with their singular mission of spreading the gospel message.

We will see later in the New Testament some hints about how this dispute was resolved. But suffice it to say here that perhaps it is OK at times to agree to disagree. Sometimes we can remain a part of one another – a part of the church – even if we don’t fully see eye to eye on particular issues.

And we always ought to remember there is one pure mission we ought never abandon, no matter how much we might disagree about personal opinions and preferences – the sharing of the gospel message and the living out of the kingdom of God.

Of course, these few comments don’t exhaust what could be said about the topics raised in these chapters. But I think these chapters should be instructive to us as live out our lives in the church. Love one another. Feel free to disagree at times. Be patient in considering controversial topics in the church – be patient with one another. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Use wisdom and consensus-building among the people of the church. And recognize sometimes it’s OK to agree to disagree, so long as we don’t forget the mission of the church.

A New York Times columnist quit her job the other day and published her letter of resignation – addressed to the leadership at the newspaper. She said she felt badgered by her colleagues at the newspaper because her political views didn’t line up with the prevailing thinking at the newspaper. And she said the newspaper had abandoned its mission to invite “intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”

Churches are not newspapers. They are better! But we can watch how communities break up and become dysfunctional. And we can learn from them. We can see biblical truth in these things. Whenever a community becomes a place of backbiting and bullying and disrespect, it begins to fall apart. And whenever a community begins to depart from its stated mission, it begins to fall apart.

This can happen within churches as well – when we lose patience with one another and when we lose sight of our mission to share the gospel and make disciples of all nations.

Chris