Reverend Jonathan Waits
Sermon: A Simple Matter (Acts 15:1-35)
Date: August 13, 2023
Have you noticed that things tend to get more complicated over time? If you haven’t, perhaps some examples would help. Let’s start with the tax code. The original 1913 income tax law was 23 pages long and took about 400 pages to explain. Today, the tax code comes in at about 70,000 pages of text. No wonder politicians from both sides of the aisle regularly promise to reform and simplify things! Or consider a business. Apple started with two computer nerds in a garage. Today it is the most valuable company in the world, employing thousands of people, and is vastly more complex than it was in 1976. Or perhaps consider…churches. Most churches begin very simply. They have a vision and a message. Then over time they add programs and committees and policies and by-laws and buildings and furniture pieces and ministries all of which become enshrined both in structure and in placement such that the message and vision become a mere sideshow to the main event of tradition. And tradition is a complex thing.
Or, how about following Jesus. That’s pretty simple at the start. Just live the way Jesus did and do what He said. Things tend, though, as they always do, to complicate from there. There are meetings to attend and services at which to worship and small groups in which to participate and service projects to lead and Vacation Bible Schools to put on and camps to chaperone and more meetings to attend and staying away from this and not watching that and so on and so forth. What begins with such glorious and elegant simplicity always tends to find a way to get complicated.
Indeed, we see this very thing in the history of the church. As we have worked our way through our story over the past ten weeks, we saw how the church began with such elegant simplicity. One hundred and twenty men and women, empowered by the Holy Spirit to make disciples. As a bit of a pointed reminder, there are about 120 men and women here on a given Sunday morning. Just saying… Now, yes, there was some persecution and some internal challenges, but these were resolved by clinging stubbornly to the simplicity of the movement’s birth. They boldly stuck to the message and mission of Jesus in the face of temptations to complexify. When this boldness sparked some persecution, they responded with more boldness. Eventually the time came to expand the movement. We saw that the Jesus movement was always intended to be an inclusive one. After all, “Christian” is an inclusive identity. This didn’t require any additional complexity, though. The believers kept doing the same kinds of things but simply did them with new and different people. They refused to leave their primary task of making disciples (which always requires a long-term investment in another person), never forgetting that the Gospel always and only moves on God’s power. And undergirding all of this was a habit of praying bold prayers that God kept answering.
That all brings us to this morning. And I should say that if you are here for the first time this morning, you are coming in at the tail end of the series. This is kind of like tuning in for the season finale of a show. You’re not going to need the rest of the series for this morning to make sense, but it would do you some good to go and catch up on what you have missed. You can do that by going to my blog or the church’s website.
This morning we arrive, not at the end of Luke’s history of the church, but at the end of the heart of the story of the growth of the church. From this point forward Luke focuses his attention on Paul and his remaining two missionary journeys through modern-day Turkey and Greece and some of the other Baltic States in order to make disciples there. Luke even traveled with Paul for some of these journeys. Before this second part of the story, though, something important happened. This event actually set the tone for how the second part of the story unfolded.
As we said just a second ago, eventually things always get more complicated and more nuanced problems come into play for an organization. This final part of our journey through the story of us brings us to where the church is facing its biggest challenge yet. On the surface the problem seemed to be about one thing (namely, should Gentile men have to be circumcised in order to be saved?). Behind the curtain, however, there was something entirely more important question being asked: what does it take to follow Jesus and how complex a thing is that going to be? If you have a copy of the Scriptures with you in some form, find your way to Acts 15. I want to close this journey by telling you one of the most gripping stories we’ve yet encountered, and along the way we are going to discover a principle that is absolutely vital for the church to grasp if we are to be about our chief task in the right ways.
Let me start by reading from v. 1: “Some men came down from Judea [to Antioch] and began to teach the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.’” If you can remember back a few chapters to when we saw how the church first made some baby steps in the direction of the Gentiles, I told you then that the church up to that point in history was a Jewish movement. Prior to the conversion of Cornelius everybody who was a follower of Jesus was a Jew first. They all kept the law. They attended the Temple or a local synagogue. The men had all been circumcised. These were all the marks of a Jew. Now, though, as folks started flooding into the church who were not culturally Jewish, things began to get a little uncomfortable for the folks who were. We’re comfortable worshiping alongside people who look like us, and are generally not with people who don’t. That’s why so many churches are so homogenous in their makeup.
These early believers deserve at least a little bit of understanding, though. Think about it: when you’ve been trained your entire life to think a certain way about some issue, it’s not an easy thing to suddenly begin thinking about the issue in a totally new way. Yes some of the leaders of the movement—Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and the like—had embraced the new normal, and yes, they weren’t directly opposed by the other disciples (after all, who would want to stand against a guy who raised someone from the dead?), but still, for the average Jewish church member, wrapping their minds around this new way of thinking was a slow process. Some struggled with it. Others just outright resisted it. There were some, though, who went beyond even this. They actively taught the opposite. Yes, Gentiles could still be saved, but they had to become Jews first. And in case you missed the subtlety there, that essentially means that Gentiles can’t actually be saved. The Jesus movement was and always would be a Jewish movement. The old ways were best. All this new stuff changing the way things have always been done and letting people live however they wanted to wasn’t merely making them uncomfortable, it was wrong and it was going to destroy their church. And so again they were teaching that “unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Now, would this have cut down on the number of people connecting with the church and therefore with Christ? Yes. Did this matter to them? No. They had put tradition and complexity ahead of fellowship and following Jesus with simplicity. Had you asked them, they would have counted themselves bold followers of Jesus who were committed to seeing the Gospel advance. But, it had to advance along the lines they saw fit or else it wasn’t going anywhere. I hope you can see that this was not how things ought to have been. This was actually a point of divergence with how the church had always been. It was consonant with tradition only in that it fit with their traditional way of doing and thinking about things. Now, if they wanted to believe this sort of thing in their own heart and mind, it wasn’t good for their faith development, but as long as they kept following Jesus, it wasn’t all that big of a deal. The trouble was that they were telling the potential, new, Gentile converts in Antioch they had to believe all of this which made doing Gospel work in Antioch a lot more difficult than it should have been. As a result, Paul and Barnabas who had been doing great work there for a couple of years opposed them. Luke describes the pair as having “engaged them in serious argument and debate.” Picture the most intense church business meeting you can, ratchet things up from there a bit, and you’ll be close to what things would have been like. And yet, no resolution was attained. They needed to get the whole body of the church together with all the leaders in order to work this out.
So, both groups set out for Jerusalem. When Paul and Barnabas arrived in the city they were greeted warmly by the leaders. They shared excitedly about all that God was accomplishing through them. The other group, however, had little Gospel advancing work to talk about, only that they were keeping these wild new believers informed of the deep traditions of the people of this movement. Paul and Barnabas’ report about the Gentiles coming to faith not including any notes about their becoming fully Jewish in the process was a bridge too far for these more tradition-minded folks. Look at v. 5: “But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees [as Paul had once belonged] stood up…” Can you picture how that went? These committed believers who had been Pharisees before becoming followers of Jesus, had heard enough of this idle talk of people following their Jewish rabbi without becoming Jewish. And so they stood up. Can you hear the words of their spokesman? I have had about enough of this! “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” In other words, these new outsider converts, these people who are not like us coming into our church, must first become like us and embrace our traditions. They must understand the rich history of the movement to which they have given their lives. Then and only then will they be counted among the saved.
Here’s the kicker, though: The traditions of the Jews and the nuances of the law were ancient then and incredibly complex. There’s a reason there was a professional class of law-interpreters. It was complex. If these Gentile converts were expected to keep the whole law in order to be saved, there wasn’t much of a chance for them. It was hard enough they were being asked to embrace a totally new view of the world in taking up the lifestyle of a Jesus follower. These folks wanted them commanded in addition to that to take on the full weight of the tradition that gave rise to it. They were getting one worldview for the price of two! All of a sudden, had these men had their way, something which was once very simple was about to become entirely more complex.
Over the course of the meeting each side of the debate made their case. The Pharisee party laid out the reasons for insisting on keeping the whole law. Rest assured, they were very good reasons. They would have spoken warmly about the joys of keeping the law. They would have told stories about when they came to realize what a beautiful thing the law was. They would have shared how it gave their lives a sense of clarity and purpose beyond themselves and they wanted for these new believers to experience the same clarity and purpose. And the church simply could not jettison this great body of tradition just because a few people were wanting to come into it who were struggling with understanding the need for it and living up to it. Doing good things is sometimes hard, but this doesn’t make them any less good.
Then Peter took his turn and shared his experience of seeing the Holy Spirit come upon Cornelius and his household—thereby assuring they were in fact saved—before they had even thought about keeping the law. If God did that then, why were these folks insisting He wouldn’t do it now? Look at this in v. 9: “He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.” Then, Paul and Barnabas spoke up to describe all they had seen God do among the Gentiles through them. Yet a resolution was still not forthcoming. They needed a voice of authority in the church to speak up, weigh in, and propose a clear way forward.
Well, thankfully, there was indeed such a voice. James rose to speak. Everyone knew who James was. He was the brother of the Lord. His commitment to the law and the rich traditions of the Jewish people was absolutely unquestioned. He was so committed to keeping the Law that before the resurrection, he was willing to reject his own brother over it. He was known sometimes as James the Just because of the virtue of his character. His was a deeply trusted word. Both sides waited with baited breath as James opened his mouth. Listen to his words starting at v. 13: “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: ‘After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again, so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord—even all the Gentiles who are called by my name—declares the Lord who makes these things known from long ago.’” In other words, “God is definitely moving among the Gentiles. This is something He has been planning for a long, long time.” This was not such a controversial observation. Surely there were some in the church resistant to the idea of Gentiles even being allowed in in the first place, but even the Pharisee party was glad to see them become disciples…just so long as they did it on the right terms. If that seems fairly insignificant to say, though, what came next changed the world. It’s why you’re following Jesus today if you are.
Keep reading with me at v. 19: “Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God…” In other words, “No, we shouldn’t ask the Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the law.” Does this mean he was throwing out tradition and agreeing that they should be able to run wild, doing whatever it is they saw fit?!? What would become of the church!?! He’s not finished. Verse 20: “…but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, and from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood. For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.”
So, what does this mean? First, let me spell out what James is saying here a bit more clearly and then we’ll talk more about what it means. James is basically saying: “We don’t want to burden these new Gentile converts with obedience to the whole law. They didn’t sign up for that. That would be way too complex. Instead, let’s ask them to keep away from just a couple of things, one which is probably the biggest hang-up point for the Jews and one which is pretty necessary to help them make a clean break from their former way of life.” Now wait a minute: didn’t James spell out four criteria? Why do you say only two? When James talks about things polluted by idols, things that have been strangled, and blood, these all would have been part of various pagan worship rites. These three really all go together under the heading of idolatry. In other words, tell the Gentile converts to abstain from behaviors that point in the direction of idolatry. This was a really sensitive issue to the Jews who were infamously and aggressively monotheistic. In a polytheistic world, their aggressive refusal to worship any God but Yahweh was what set them apart more than anything else. This was a really big deal and so while the Gentiles may have been able to go to the neighborhood barbeques (which is essentially what many of the idolatrous festivals amounted to) without falling into worshiping the local idols, this was going to be a sticking point for the Jewish Jesus followers and it was better if they stayed away. In other words: spend your time with your new church family. As it turns out, and as we can see in some of Paul’s letters, this would indeed become a big deal in the church.
The second item, sexual immorality, doesn’t really need much explanation. Behaviors we would identify as sexually immoral were rampant and a huge part of the culture in first century pagan contexts. Given God’s pretty firm insistence on people keeping to the boundaries for sexual behavior He set in place in creation, this was a pretty big deal as well. In short, then, James boiled the whole law down to two things: stay away from idolatry and practice sexual purity. That’s it. Two things. And actually, with Paul’s later explanations when talking about the idolatry issue that it really was okay to go to the barbeques as long as their attendance didn’t needlessly offend or lead anyone into sin, there was really only one requirement. One requirement to follow Jesus. Be sexually pure and the rest will work itself out. That’s really…simple.
Think about what this did, though. Had James sided with the Pharisee party the church in all likelihood would have started to look a whole lot like first century Judaism which…wasn’t growing. It’s hung around for 2,000 years, yes, but today there are fewer Jews in the world than Southern Baptists in the United States. Instead, though, James resisted the forces of complexity and made things incredibly…simple. One requirement. That’s it. Be sexually pure. That’s so simple. It’s not easy. But it is simple. In fact, it’s so simple that it’s offensively simple. Our sinful nature (which is the source of complexity in our world) can’t stand this kind of elegant simplicity. I mean come on. If following Jesus is that simple then anyone can do it. And if anyone can do it then we’re not so special for doing it. But we want to feel special. We want to feel like we’re part of the in crowd, that we’re in the know. And so we make things really complex so that it looks like we are in possession of some great secret and you have to be like us and jump through our hoops before we’re going to share it with you and until you do we’re better than you. That’s how the Pharisee party thought—it’s how a lot of believers think today—and James said, “No, no, no. Just one thing. One thing’s enough. We don’t want to burden people. We want to make it simple. Because, following Jesus is simple.”
In fact, this brings us to our big idea for the morning. If you don’t remember anything else about this morning, remember this one idea: Following Jesus is simple. Following Jesus is simple. This fact is part of what made the church so attractive in practice. Judaism was complex. There were 613 laws that you had to worry about keeping and then, depending on who you followed, there was a whole set of oral interpretations to worry about too. Paganism was complex. There was a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses you had to keep track of and keep happy and watch out for. But following Jesus? Simple. Following Jesus is simple. You just live like He did. Yeah but what about…what about…what about? That’s exactly what this meeting Luke describes in Acts 15 was all about: the “what abouts.” Their “what abouts” were different from ours, but that’s all they were. They wanted to make a “what about” the center point…but it was a “what about.” And James said: “Forget about the “what abouts.” Let’s keep things simple. Work on staying sexually pure and with the Spirit’s help all the other “what abouts” will work themselves out.” Following Jesus is simple. Now, this doesn’t mean it’s not deep. There’s plenty of depth. If you want depth, I’ve got over 200,000 pages in my office worth of depth for you to explore to your heart’s content. There’s depth aplenty. But deep doesn’t mean complex. Following Jesus is simple. It’s so simple that even a young child can grasp it and begin following. Following Jesus is simple.
And that sounds really nice, but what does it actually look like in practice? How can we apply this idea in a way that makes a meaningful difference in our lives and in the lives of the people with whom we are trying to share the message? How can this help shape us to be more fully a people with whom anyone can connect to grow in Christ and reach out for His kingdom? Well, in the spirit of simplicity, let me offer you one idea and then we’re out of here. If following Jesus is simple, then we need to make sure that getting to Him is simple too. We need to be certain that getting into our community here is simple. The Pharisee party wanted to put up a barrier to getting fully into the church that allowed them some control over the matter. If they were going to let these outsiders in, then at least they wanted to be able to control the flow and to keep the worst of them away. I mean, if we’re going to have to deal with people who aren’t like us, at least let’s make sure that they aren’t too much not like us. Right?
Churches today do this same kind of thing in a whole variety of different ways. When churches have communities that are hard for outsiders to break into they are making things complex. When church members get hung up on things like how the building looks or where certain furniture in the building goes they are making things complex. Those kinds of things don’t matter. When churches have expectations of new people that go uncommunicated and which diverge from generally cultural norms they are making things complex. They are creating burdens on people who are interested in following Jesus. They are creating artificial barriers to becoming fully a part of the body of Christ. Yet our job is to remove barriers. Following Jesus is simple. Now, this doesn’t mean there aren’t any requirements. Yet James settled on one: sexual purity. We can’t very well expect much more than James did. And, sexual purity is still pretty important and still pretty necessary so why don’t we settle on that? Let’s make following Jesus simple.
Let’s think about the kind of barriers and burdens we have in place that make following Jesus more complex than it actually is. Are there any kinds of people we’d rather not see here? Remember, “Christian” is an inclusive identity. Do we have places where our culture is significantly different from the culture of this area? Do folks new to the whole church thing have a lot to learn in order to get acclimated to how we usually do things? Do we talk about Jesus and the church in a language they don’t speak? How could we alter these things in ways that would make them simpler? After all, following Jesus is simple. How can we change our approach to church from being the guardians of tradition to being the heralds of the kingdom? How could we change our attitude from being keepers of a secret to bearers of public news?
And make no mistake: this is something about which we must be vigilant. The tendency of every organization will be toward complexity; toward making it an insider’s game. Yet following Jesus is simple. Following Jesus is simple. Let’s keep it simple so that others will follow. In fact if you love tradition, why don’t we just follow in the tradition of our faith ancestors by being boldly committed to making disciples out of everyone, growing the church on the power of God with the help of a very simple message? Then we will claim our place in the story of us that is still being told. Then we will see the story pass from our generation to the next and the next and the next and the next…until Christ returns. Following Jesus is simple. Let’s do it.