A Gift from the Dads

       Today is Father’s Day.  So as a Father’s Day gift to all us dads, I would like to play a special Father’s Day song written and performed by my very own nephew.

       Before you teenagers start to roll your eyes and mutter, “This is going to be really stupid” let me assure you that this is Father’s Day as you’ve never heard it.  The genre is Garage Punk.  My nephew’s stage name is Guy Manly and his band is Guyznite – based in Brooklyn . 

        Some of their other songs are Diehard and Gil Got Gay.  Their Diehard video was just picked up by 20^th Century Fox for release with their new DVD.  Other Guyznite songs have names I won’t use in worship.

       I know Father’s Day has a good beat and you can dance to it.  But listen to the words.  And ask yourself – does the real Father’s Day message come through?  Does it carry the truth even if it comes in an unfamiliar way?

       The song is Father’s Day.  The group is Guyznite with Guy Manly singing lead.

Play song

Video available as of 6/18/07 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ladTG0Jj_70

       I suspect a lot of people in Brooklyn bars have thought about their own dads in a new way because of that song – people who would never ever buy a Hallmark Card.

      But is it enough that the truth is there or does the truth have to be packaged in a certain way to be truth?  Does Guy Manly have to sound like Wayne Newton to sing a genuine Father’s Day song?  Or is it enough that he shares the things on his heart in context of his great relationship with his dad?

       As Acts 15 opens, we find the same question asked about the gospel. How can Goyim -- gentiles like you and me become Christians? Do we have to become Jews in order to know the Messiah of Israel?  That key question faces the early church. 

       Paul and Barnabas have been preaching the gospel to the gentiles on Cyprus and in modern Turkey .  There has been a great harvest of new believers into the Kingdom.  Everyone in the missionary “mother ship” is excited.  

       But now some people arrive from Jerusalem to Antioch in Syria .  These emissaries from Jerusalem are converts to Christianity out of the Pharisee party.  They have heard about the large numbers of gentiles reached with the good news. They accept that. They celebrate it.   But they can’t accept how it’s being done.

       In their view, this whole gentile ministry has gotten off on the wrong foot.  Paul and Barnabas have neglected to enforce the requirements of the law and especially circumcision.   But there are those in the Jerusalem church who are ready to repair this omission.  They have a simple answer.  Gentiles should be admitted to the church in the same way as proselytes are admitted to Judaism.  They must be circumcised and keep the whole Mosaic Law.  That will certainly weed out those who aren’t really sincere in their new faith.    

       These Jerusalem believers are shocked by the low admission standards being applied to these gentiles.  Gentile believers – straight out of paganism – will bring loose morality into the church.  These gentile believers don’t keep the kosher food laws.  But the biggest issue is that the Gentile men aren’t being required to receive circumcision.  How can you not be circumcised?  God Himself ordered it. 

       Let’s not make these Jerusalem believers the bad guys – not at this point. 

       Some of them will become bad guys later on. They will ignore what the whole church decides here in Acts 15 and will go off on their own.  They will come to the young church Paul and Barnabas have planted in Galatia and start teaching a gospel of salvation by works and outward signs rather than by faith is Jesus.  So Paul will write in Galatians 5:12, “I only wish these teachers who want you to mutilate yourselves by being circumcised, would go finish the job and castrate themselves.” Now   that’s what Paul says.  It’s not nice.  That kind of language is reserved for heretics and spreaders of discord and distortion.  Paul is not gentle.  He is not nice. 

       But that is later. For now, let’s give these conservative Jewish Christians the benefit of the doubt.  If you had asked them, “Do you believe that Jesus died for your sin?” they would have said, “Our course, we do. That is why He came.”

       And none of them object to preaching to Gentiles.  They know that Israel ’s covenant included blessing to all the families of the earth.  They’re cool with that. 

      They don’t want to establish racial exclusion.  They just want to guarantee covenant inclusion.  The sign of that covenant and that blessing was circumcision – a sign Jesus Himself received. 

       It’s like the story of Naaman the Syrian after he is healed of leprosy – our Old Testament text.  Naaman never moves to Israel .  But he takes dirt from Israel and brings it back to his Syrian homeland.  Whenever he prays, he kneels down on that Jewish dirt.  When he came to God, he doesn’t  come as a Syrian, who has no right to approach God, but as a Jew on Jewish soil.

       That, is a metaphorical way, is all the emissaries from Jerusalem want the Gentile converts to Christianity to do.  And they appear to be supported by the church in Jerusalem .  Paul writes in Galatians that they were sent by James, the brother of Jesus, who has now become a leader in the church.

       In Acts 15:1 Luke simply says:  “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”  Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas had a sharp dispute with them.

       Now Luke condenses an awful lot into only two verses.  But in Galatians, Paul tells the rest of the story.

       Paul and Barnabas come to Antioch to report what God has done.  Peter is also there in Antioch .  He is  enjoying table fellowship with both Jewish and Gentile believers in the church.  Peter knows from his experience in Acts 10 that the food laws have been abolished.  So he is eating BLTs and ham and eggs with gentile Christians.

       Then the guys from Jerusalem show up.  Paul says in Galatians that “when certain men came down from James and began to preach that you cannot be saved unless you are circumcised according to the Law of Moses, Peter went over to the kosher table for breakfast and no longer ate with the gentiles.

       Peter knows that kosher don’t count.  But he switches tables to keep the conservatives happy.  His example spreads.  Even faithful Barnabas is tempted to make the jump.

        Now Paul is all for unity and keeping people happy – but not at the cost of the truth.  Weakness on table fellowship is a first step to compromise on the basic gospel principle that salvation is the gift of God’s grace in Christ, to be received by faith alone.  Failure to have table fellowship with Gentiles will be followed by refusal to admit them to church membership or to recognize them as Christians at all.  Paul sees Peter’s table-hopping as the thin end of the wedge.  Paul writes in Galatians 2:11 that he “rebuked Peter to his face” for going back on the truth Jesus had shown him on that rooftop in Joppa. 

       The whole issue has to be discussed and decided “at the highest level.”   Paul, Barnabas. Peter and others now head for Jerusalem

       In Acts 15, Luke presents the public side of the debate.  From Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, we also know what went on behind the scenes. 

       What Luke does not tell us is that when Paul went to Jerusalem he took a believer named Titus along.  Titus is a Gentile.   And Paul refuses to have Titus circumcised, even though many important people try to convince Paul to change his position.

         You can hear the approach.  “Paul, You don’t know Jerusalem the way we do.  If you insist on exempting the Gentiles from circumcision, you are going to divide the church.  That must not happen.  You are right in your position, of course.  But what we recommend is that you show a gracious spirit and have Titus, circumcised.  From your point of view that can mean whatever you want it to mean.  You can say, ‘It is just to keep peace in the church.’  But from the viewpoint of our more conservative brethren you will be signifying that we are all anxious to uphold the Law of Moses.”

       In Galatians Paul tells how he responded.  He says, “We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you” (Gal. 2:5).   Forcing circumcision on even one gentile involved the very essence of the gospel.  And if the choice has to be between the truth of the gospel and harmony in the church, then Paul is for the truth of the gospel.  The church can live with disharmony.  We do not want it.  We try to avoid it when we can, but we can live with it. What we cannot live with is the distortion of the gospel. 

       Just as soon as the way of salvation turns from faith in Jesus to faith in Jesus plus something else – a certain way of doing church, pet justice projects, circumcision, or anything else the Gospel is robbed of its power.  Whenever it’s Jesus “and something else” sooner of later the “something else” always becomes more important than Jesus.  Then you have a heresy or a cult.  But you don’t have the truth.

       But all that stuff with Titus happened behind the scenes. Luke only tells us the public action.      

       An old farmer once said of minister’s conferences that “Preachers are like manure. Spread them around they do some good, but put them in a heap and all they do is make a stink.”

       Well this time, at least a minister’s conference did some good. 

       By verses 6 and 7 the council has started.  There’s been a lot debate.  Finally Peter stands to speak. He’s back on track after his table hopping in Antioch .  He says of the gentiles (listen to this):  “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

       Did you note how Peter says that?  Peter, the Jew, would normally have said it the other way around.  He would have said, “We believe that they can be saved by grace through faith, just like us.”   “They can be like us.” 

        But that’s the issue.  Do they have to become “like us” or not?  Peter turns it around.  He says “We believe that by grace even we Jews can be saved, just like the Gentiles.” 

       I think that of all the surviving words of Peter, those in verse 11 are perhaps the most insightful and gracious.          

       Peter’s statement silences the whole assembly.  Then Paul and Barnabas speak. They share what God has done. Now you would think that such a record of miracles and conversions would bring the house down.    Instead more silence.  They “held their peace.”

       Finally James stands up.  If there had been silence before, there is absolute silence now. James is the Lord’s earthly half-brother.  After the resurrection, Jesus had visited him personally.  He is called “James the Just” because of his piety.  When he dies, his knees are callused like those of a camel because of his many hours of prayer.  He is the moderator of the assembly.

       Every eye is on James.  Paul feels another moment’s doubt.  The legalists in the crowd feel their hopes rise.  The meeting has been going badly from their point of view.   Peter has thrown the weight of his authority on the side of Paul.  James is their last hope.  James loves the law.  It is his name the false teachers used at Antioch to lend authority to their teachings.

       Then James speaks.

       He says three things that are very, very important.  First, he talks about what God has done through Barnabas and Paul.  He comes to terms with the activity of God. These people have been saying to the Gentiles, “Without circumcision you cannot be saved.”  But they are ignoring one very stubborn fact.  These gentiles are already saved.  God has already been saving gentiles left and right without asking anybody’s permission.  God is already doing what they say can’t be done. 

       James then gives us two complementary principles for grace-filled living.  First: as those under grace we are not to make non-Biblical requirements of others – specifically, those that come from our cultural traditions.  In that day this meant not pushing a Jewish lifestyle – or the rite of circumcision -- on gentiles.  Today this means we are not to make areas of our lifestyle that are not spelled out in Scripture standards for others if they are to be “good” Christians – for example, how we dress, how we run our church, the standards of living we think proper, personal tastes, musical preferences including music in worship.  We too often we Christians put others through the paces of our own cultural filter before we fully accept them as brothers and sisters. Sometimes a church will radiate more of this than the gospel.

       The third part of what James says is that there are some things that are essential – not for salvation but for table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers.  And  because we are under grace, we gladly restrict our freedom for the sake of others.  There is not anything intrinsically wrong with eating a rare steak.  I hope to have one later today. But James tells the gentiles to boil it or eat it well-done for the sake of fellowship with the Jews.   Paul agrees with that too.  He also calls us to be sensitive to the consciences of other believers.  We will see that in three weeks.

       At Jerusalem , the apostles and elders, our fathers in the faith this father’s Day, set us free.  They set us free from the law.  What they did there, they did for us.  They acted wisely as our dads in the faith.  So, from Guy Manly, from me, and all of them – Happy Father’s Day.

       We are free.  It’s not Jesus and something else.  It is Jesus only.