Read Acts
11:1-3, Luke 13:10-14, Gal. 1:6-9 & 1 Tim. 4:1-2
1 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the
Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to
Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into
the house of the uncircumcised and ate with them.”
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11
and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She
was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he
called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your
infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened
up and praised God. 14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the
synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and
be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who
called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7
which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into
confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or
an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to
you, let that person be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I
say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you
accepted, let that person be under God’s curse!
4 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon
the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such
teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared
as with a hot iron.
If you have a bit longer :-)
o
You go to a worship service
that is Christian in content but Buddhist in format.
o
The worship group replaces
the band with a DJ.
o
Your church organises a
joint healing meeting with a local spiritulist group.
o
You are invited to a
successful Christian healing ministry but have heard rumours that some of the
claims have been exaggerated and/or falsified.
o
A Christian friend starts
dating an atheist.
o
Your cell group organises a
social to the local casino.
o
Your church moves its
weekly gathering to the local pub.
o
The church gatherings
change from being on a Sunday to a Wednesday evening.
o
A new book is released
arguing that meeting at a fixed time on a Sunday is empty religion and that
true Christianity should be characterised by spontaneous gatherings only.
o
You are invited to join in
communion with a group of other Christians who have replaced the bread and wine
with burger and beer.
o
You are invited to a
stag/hen weekend and discover that part of the weeked will involve a trip to a
strip club.
o
Someone comes to the church
teaching that polygomy (having more than one spouse) is biblical and therefore
should still be acceptable practice today.
What these statements have in common is that they all
in some way challenge either traditional Christian practice or traditionally
held Christian ethics. Where they differ is that probably there are some you
would feel okay with, others you would not be happy about and some that are in
the middle!
In this passage in Acts the “circumcised believers”
had both their tradition and their ethics challenged. Abstaining from certain
foods was in the law passed down from Moses (see Deuteronomy 14). It was a big
deal that Peter violates these restrictions.
The reason this background is important is that at
first glance it does seem extraordinary that, faced with such an amazing act of
God, the circumcised believers could only criticize. Their response resonates
with the seemingly incomprehensible reaction of the synagogue leader in
response to Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath.
What startles me most about both of these occasions,
however, is how easily I could see myself reacting in a similar way were I to
face some sort of contemporary equivalent! You see, I know that when the
boundaries I maintain as to what is right and wrong are pushed or challenged in
some way I become uncomfortable and defensive. I could easily have missed God
in both of these occasions.
On the other hand, however, a certain vigilence and
caution as regards challenges to conventional thought is not always such a bad
thing! Indeed as the two readings from Paul’s letters make clear, there is such
a thing as right and wrong, truth and falsehood, the work of God and the work
of deceivers.
The massive question therefore is how do we discern
which is which! How do we determine when God is doing something unconventional
and new and so, although we may feel challenged, we need to go with it? Or when
it is that error or falsehood is creeping in and we need to stand firm?!
(Take some time to think about this question, I’ll
share some thoughts on it tomorrow!)
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