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THE BOOK OF ACTS – OUTSIDERS IN – INSIDERS OUT

Bible Study, ,

OUTSIDERS IN – INSIDERS OUT

“Paul and Barnabas didn’t back down. Standing their ground they said, “It is required that the Word of God be spoken first of all to you, the Jews. But seeing that you want no part of it — you’ve made it clear that you have no taste or inclination for eternal life — the door is open to all the outsiders. And we’re on our way through it, following orders, doing what God commanded when He said,

‘I’ve set you up as a light to all nations. You’ll proclaim salvation to the four winds and seven seas!’

“When the outsiders heard this they could hardly believe their good fortune. All who were marked out for real life put their trust in God — they honoured God’s Word by receiving that life. And this Message of salvation spread like wildfire all through the region.” Acts 13:46-49 (The Message).

What is this thing called “God’s Word”? According to ancient rabbinic teaching, God’s Word is a manifestation of Himself in another form. This means that what God says is who He is in words that humans can understand. His Word, therefore, carries the same authority as God Himself.

Unlike humans who can say one thing and be something else, God’s Word cannot contradict Him and therefore what He says is what He is. He cannot lie because He cannot say anything contrary to who He is. That makes God’s Word reliable, trustworthy and unchangeable and allows us to understand what He requires because He has made His will known to us through the medium of language.

Paul and Barnabas were dealing with two groups of people. The Jews who were God’s covenant people were custodians of God’s Word entrusted to them in a covenant relationship sealed with blood. The Gentiles were associated with the Jewish religion but were considered “outsiders” because they had no claim to the covenant or the promises of God.

Written into the Old Covenant was the promise that the time would come when Messiah would open the door to Gentiles to have a share in the covenant and in the blessings promised to Abraham. Because of Jewish prejudice, this group of Jews and many others that Paul encountered on his journeys, refused to honour God’s Word by believing the message and receiving their Messiah. They pooh-poohed Paul’s teaching and turned violently against him with full intention of killing him.

The Gentiles, on the other hand, gladly received their message and honoured God’s Word by believing the truth and entering into all the benefits of this new life. Part of the Jewish resistance to the message must surely have been their refusal to accept that Gentiles could share in this salvation on equal terms with them.

When Paul announced that, because of their persistent rejection of the good news he was proclaiming, he would no longer waste his time preaching to deaf ears, and offering God’s gift of salvation to people who had no desire for it, they went ballistic. How dare he take what they thought was exclusively theirs and give it away freely to the despised “outsiders”!

But that is exactly what God intended them to do from the beginning and which they failed to do because they did not honour God’s Word themselves and they thought that they were better than everyone else. Instead of embracing God’s grace and gladly sharing it with anyone who would believe, they shut themselves out of the new covenant and all the blessing promised to them through their revered ancestor, Abraham.

God’s Word gives us glimpses into His big heart. When we take what He says seriously and act on it, we both honour Him and we also gain access to everything He has said. What fools we would be to pass that up in favour of our own paltry opinions!

On The Mat

Christian Life, , , ,

ON THE MAT!

“The news travelled fast and in no time the leaders and friends back in Jerusalem heard about it — heard that the non-Jewish “outsiders” were now “in”. When Peter got back to Jerusalem, some of his old associates, concerned about circumcision, called him on the carpet. ‘What do you think you’re doing, rubbing shoulders with that crowd, eating what is prohibited and ruining our good name?'”

“So Peter, starting from the beginning, laid it out before them, step by step:….” Acts 11:1-4 (The Message).

“Hearing it all laid out like that, they quieted down. And then, as it sank in, they started praising God. ‘It’s really happened! God has broken through to the other nations, opened them up to Life.'” Acts 11:18 (The Message).

Traditions and taboos — the worst enemies of the cross! These men had yet to learn that God’s grace is for everyone. They were still clutching the tattered rags of their racial pride, still believing, in spite of their pitiful history, that they were exclusively God’s people. Externals were their passport to God’s favour, so they thought; circumcision and food taboos, of all things, their hope!

Like Peter, they needed to be jolted out of their fool’s paradise. They needed a new revelation of the nature of this God who revealed Himself in Jesus. Not even the years they spent in His company were enough to erase the misconceptions their religion had bred into them.

What had they heard that piqued them? True to form, the grapevine had produced a twisted version. By the time it reached their ears, it was enough to make them turn on Peter. “That crowd…eating what is prohibited…ruining our good name…” Strange how gossip cancels out friendship and the loyalty of those who should know better!

It would have to be a good story for Peter to get himself out of this one and, fortunately, his story was convincing enough to show up their arrogance towards him. Once they had heard the correct version, their attitude changed, fortunately, and they were convinced that Peter’s little excursion into “enemy” territory, was actually a revelation of God’s plan.

The most dangerous enemies of the church are not the “outsiders” who attack out of ignorance but the “insiders” whose traditions cancel out the truth of God’s word. This was Jesus’ unresolved issue with the religious leaders who eventually had Him executed because they would not honestly consider the evidence.

Jesus warned that the entrance to life is small and the way narrow. “Truth is a knife edge and error a wide flat land” I once heard a preacher say. The work that Jesus did on the cross is sufficient for all people for all time. He does not need our petty little additions to complete what His death accomplished. He does not need any qualifications like “circumcision’, whatever the equivalent is, and eating “kosher” food to make us more acceptable to Him than we are now.

There is nothing we can do to influence His attitude of mercy towards us because it comes out of who He is, not because of who we are. God is not obliged to do anything for us but He does because He is God.

The people who are so stuck on their traditions that they believe them rather than the truth of God’s word are a stumbling block to “outsiders” who want to know God. Imagine what would have happened to Cornelius and his associates had Peter allowed his tradition to overshadow God’s instruction! He would have planted himself squarely in front of their entrance into eternal life

Jesus still says, “Follow me!” That’s all…..