They Said You Need to Earn It. Jesus Already Finished It.|07.12.26|Acts: Mission on the Road pt.3

There are two types of people: the ones who LOVED getting their report cards in school, and the ones who dreaded it.

And maybe you haven’t thought about your report cards from school for a long, long time. Maybe I just brought back some traumatic memories… (sorry)

But I can almost guarantee that what made it a good or a bad experience isn’t actually the grades. And it wasn’t whether or not you liked your teacher that year.

What made opening your report card a great day or a hard day was completely based on the reaction of your parents, right? Because if they were excited and encouraging, even if they pointed out places that you needed to improve, you probably felt pretty good about it.

But if they were disappointed, or if they didn’t seem to care at all, it probably made you feel lonely or disconnected from them. It probably made you not want to put in as much effort next time. Or it made you consider how to hide it from them next time.

Now, as I’m describing that, it actually makes me think of how many of us treat our faith and our behaviors as followers of Jesus. Have you ever thought of it that way? Many of us treat our relationship with God based on how well we’ve been performing, and whether or not we feel connected to him.

Just be honest with yourself for a moment: If you got a report card for this past week, and you got graded on your patience with your kids… how many times you opened your Bible… whether you snapped at your spouse… whether you stared at a screen instead of prayed…

Would you feel confident showing God the report card? Or would you be bracing for a tongue lashing or a look of disappointment asking, “Is that really good enough?”

I think it’s way more common than we care to admit: people carry a lot of fear feeling that our place in God’s family is up for renewal every week based on our performance. Too many people believe that if this week goes badly enough, we might lose our spot.

I want to show you today why that fear, as real as it feels, isn’t actually true. Because our Scripture is going to be dealing with an event that settles the question: “who gets to belong in the family of God?”

[Scripture Ref]

So open your Bibles with me to Acts ch15 (p103). Because we’ve been diving back into the story of how the first followers of Jesus spread the good news to people who felt far from God. And we’ve been following Paul and Barnabas as they have been going from place to place, joining Jesus in his mission and seeing how God is already at work reaching people with his love and grace.

But to orient us to our current passage, it’s helpful to remember a few of the points that came before. Back in ch10, Jesus’ main guy, Peter, was told by God to share the good news with a non-Jew named Cornelius. And when Peter obeyed God’s nudge, he got to witness God bring salvation to Cornelius and his family, and even deliver the gift of the Holy Spirit to them, just like all the disciples had received on the day of Pentecost.

So Peter gets to see how God is beginning his work of bringing non-Jews into the family, without any preconditions of following the Jewish law and rituals.

This was a wild discovery, because the Jews had been following God in their traditional way for a thousand years, since the law was formed after the Exodus. And it wasn’t about just keeping rules for the sake of keeping rules. It wasn’t just legalism. Israel had understood it as a COVENANT: keeping the law and striving for purity was how they understood being set apart and belonging to God.

And so our passage today happens ten years after Peter had that vision of God making the Gentiles “clean” and acceptable to belong because of his grace. And we’re going to see how the long-standing traditions of the Jewish people are coming up against this new move of God. Because there are followers of Jesus who have never been Jewish and don’t have that as their background. And then there are followers of Jesus who are deeply Jewish, and understand Jesus as their Messiah, and they feel that if you want to follow Jesus, if you want to belong to God’s people, the next logical step is to be set apart the way that God’s people have always been set apart to show they belong.

Let’s RISE for the reading of God’s Word. And as we read, keep this question in your mind: “Who gets to belong?”

[Acts 15:1-35]

[Acts 15:1-2]

Let’s remember that Paul and Barnabas have been travelling around, speaking to both Jews and non-Jews about the good news of King Jesus. Because the fact that Jesus is the Messiah is good news for the Jewish people, but the fact that Jesus is God, king of creation… that’s good news for everyone!

But our reading opens with some of these Jewish Christians who have travelled to Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas are, and they are giving some new instructions to the Gentile Christians.

Because these Jews have worshiped God a certain way for a millenia. And even though it feels shocking to some that God would actually open his arms to people outside of Israel, that means that Gentiles are being adopted into the people of God. But when you join a family, it’s pretty common to adopt the customs and traditions of that family.

So the Jewish Christians want to make sure that these Gentile Christians step fully into the family of God’s people by taking on the same customs and traditions that show that they are set apart by God.

And there’s a step-by-step process to demonstrate that you are part of God’s family. Circumcision, reciting the law day and night, keeping the Sabbath, celebrating the festivals, and on and on. That’s how you show that you belong.

But Paul and Barnabas take issue with this. In fact, it’s “no small dissension.” I imagine there were some heated arguments about whether or not these new Gentile Christians are indeed saved by God if they haven’t kept the law.

Eventually, it’s getting nowhere, so they decide to send a delegate to Jerusalem to get the matter settled by the elders and the disciples who had been with Jesus.

[Acts 15:5-6]

And when Paul and Barnabas get to Jerusalem, they present the topic, and some believers who were part of the Pharisees state their case.

Okay… pause… because Pharisees usually get this bad rap in the gospels, because they are the ones who keep pushing back on Jesus because they’re afraid that he’s leading people away from the Torah and the Jewish law.

But here we have “believers” who were Pharisees! So it seems that at least a few of them had been convinced and decided to put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah. But… they are still fully formed by their convictions of keeping the Jewish law to the letter.

And even if they have put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah, that didn’t mean they left behind their heritage of being super Jewish and wanting to follow the Jewish law as perfectly as possible so that they could secure God’s blessing and maybe finally get out from under this Roman oppression.

And so, if there are outsiders being brought into God’s people now, “well, they had BETTER fully follow God’s law, otherwise we’re running the risk of compromising our faith and bringing God’s judgment onto us!”

Who gets to belong?! So they say that these non-Jews need to get circumcised and start following the full law of God.

[Acts 15:7-9]

So this leads to debate, and then Peter stands up and points back to ten years earlier when God gave him a vision about clean and unclean things in the Jewish law, and how God made it all clean, meaning that even PEOPLE outside of God’s law could now be brought into his family, because God is MAKING them clean and acceptable.

And so Peter took that to mean that he was supposed to preach the good news of Jesus to a non-Jew named Cornelius. And to Peter’s surprise, Cornelius’ whole family repented and believed in Jesus. And to his even bigger surprise, they received the Holy Spirit (which couldn’t have happened if God wasn’t in it).

And so Peter is recounting this to the gathering there, and he reminds them that he brought all that back to them ten years ago, and everyone had received that news and rejoiced and said, “Wow, that clearly means that God must be including Gentiles in his mission. That’s incredible!”

[Acts 15:10-11]

They had already made that decision. So Peter says, “why then are you testing God? Why are you second-guessing God?”

“Can’t you see that God has made a way for them to be included in his salvation without having to jump through hoops first, and now you want to add some hoops?!”

Honestly, it reminds me of siblings who get different treatment when it comes to report card time. Because one of them is getting As and A-minuses, and the parents are saying, “That’s great honey. Proud of you!”

And the other one is getting Bs and Cs, and the parents are saying, “That’s SO great that you brought that D up! SO proud of you!”

And so the siblings are looking sideways at each other and comparing their worth and value based on their performance. “That’s not fair!” “He didn’t do all the work I did!” “Why is he getting the same love and celebration as me when our grades are different?!”

But Peter makes it clear with the mic drop moment in v11, “We believe that WE are saved through the grace of Jesus, just like them!”

None of us are EARNING a perfect score with God! And God has already demonstrated that he is at work in their lives and is adopting them into his family through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

‘They are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. And WE ARE TOO! It’s not because of our works. It’s not by our keeping the law.’ …And the whole assembly gets quiet at that point.

And Paul and Barnabas take the opportunity to share what they have seen among the Gentile Christians. And then James gets up to address the gathering.

[Acts 15:19-20]

And James starts walking through hundreds of years of OT prophecy. Because it’s not just one time with Peter that God has communicated this. He’s been building to this the whole time.

So James quotes Jeremiah, and Amos, and Isaiah. And he weaves it all together to show that the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah fulfilled the prophecy of the restoration of David’s royal dynasty, leading to the fulfillment of Amos’s prediction that all the Gentiles who were called by the Lord’s name would seek him.

It’s not because of Peter, or Paul, or Barnabas that these Gentiles are repenting and believing in Jesus. If you want to blame someone for these outsiders coming to God, you’d better just blame God, because he’s the one who has been at work reaching those who are far from him and inviting them into his grace and giving them his fully-alive life.

And so James concludes his argument by making the decision NOT to force the Gentiles to have to keep the whole law, but makes a bit of a compromise, asking the Gentile Christians to be sensitive about a few items: avoiding the “uncleanness” that is associated with idol worship, immorality connected to pagan worship and temple prostitution, avoiding strangled things, and avoiding matters of blood.

(I had to do some research to see the significance of these items, and there is consensus that in all likelihood, this was James’ way of requesting that these new Gentile Christians leave behind any old patterns of worship of other gods so that they can be faithful to the one true God.)

And by being sensitive to these matters, it also helps them not offend the sensibilities of the Jewish Christians that they were now going to be in community with.

This decision is put together in a letter, and then delivered by Paul and Barnabas and a few others from Jerusalem to encourage the new Christians.

[You belong]

And they get to go back to these new Christians and tell them that God chose them through Jesus, not through how they keep the law.

This whole debate was all about “who gets to belong?” And humans have kept asking that throughout history: who gets to belong? How do you prove that you belong?

And the good news in our text right here, and the good news for us today is that when we ask “who gets to belong…” God answers: “YOU get to belong!”

Peter said it clearly in his speech: You belong to God through the finished work of Jesus. Not because of something you have done or because of some tradition you keep or family line you come from. You belong to God only because of the finished work of Jesus.

And this has incredible implications for us, even now in the 21st century, because how often do we put burdens on ourselves and each other about how we’re “supposed” to be following Jesus, or “supposed” to be demonstrating loyalty to him?

Now, hear me, I’m NOT saying that there’s nothing to be done to live out your faith. Because we can’t just take this one scripture out of context and ignore the rest of the places in the Bible that tell us how to live, how to act, how to grow in righteousness, how to submit ourselves to spiritual habits that place us in the path of God’s Spirit, working in us and transforming us to become more and more like Jesus.

Because that’s what we’re trying to do here at New Life: we’re trying to become a church family that is committed to practicing spiritual habits so that God can work in our lives and transform us.

We want to be reading scripture. We want to be practicing generosity and stewardship. We want to be growing in prayer and trust. We want to be joining Jesus in his work and serving others with our gifts.

But these aren’t ways that we “earn” our place with God. These are things that we do that God actually works THROUGH to grow the fruit of his Spirit in our lives, because his Spirit has already claimed us.

The Spirit has already washed us clean. Already resurrected us into this fully-alive life. Already placed the stamp upon our lives that says “chosen by God and adopted into his family.”

And we know that through our baptism. We affirm it every time we come to the table to receive from Jesus himself. And we practice it every time we repent and turn back to God, receive his forgiveness, and are sent out into his mission to share the good news with others.

Who gets to belong? You get to belong… through the finished work of Jesus.

[blank]

But it’s mind-boggling to me how we still spend so much time trying to manage how other people follow Jesus, and whether or not that’s “enough.” And we measure and judge whether someone is “in” or “belongs” based on whether they keep the same practices we do.

Honestly, this happens every single Sunday, when everyone who has been a part of the church for a long time just follows along with the flow of the service without any hiccups, but then you notice the people who don’t exactly know what’s coming next.

And you see it flash across the face of the person next to you, “Wait, are we standing again?” “Oh, they say ‘trespasses’ during the Lord’s Prayer instead of ‘forgive us our sins’...”

The last time you visited another church, you probably experienced that yourself, and for a second, you didn’t quite feel like you belonged, right?

Or maybe the expectations of how to dress is the easiest to recognize separator. Because maybe you grew up with the philosophy that you “dress up to respect God.” And so you believe that hats should be taken off before you enter the church building…

Or you were raised to think that “dressing up means you’re trying to show off, so just dress casual because you don’t want to bring attention to yourself at church.”

And both people are looking at the other and wondering, “who gets to belong?”

And don’t even get me started on the different opinions about how kids are supposed to behave in church, and whether or not we think the parents are raising them right!

And none of these start out as malicious attempts to exclude anyone. I’m just pointing out how common it is for us to have expectations around how other people should step into “OUR” way of worshiping God that we’re comfortable with, and we can sometimes hold on to that more tightly than looking for the fruit of God’s work.

But that’s why we need the reminder that “You get to belong because of Jesus.” Because God has been at work, reaching out to us long before we turned to him. And he’s still at work ahead of us, reaching out to our Ones, to transform them with his love and grace.

[Listen for striving]

So this week, here’s how I’d like to encourage you to apply this to your life. As you go throughout your day, as you encounter other people, maybe as you connect with your family or with your One, I want you to listen for striving.

Listen for when they talk about “not being good enough,” or talking about “trying to be better next time.” Listen for when they mention hoping to “make it one day.”

All of those are examples of feeling like they don’t belong, or that they aren’t good enough, and that they are trying to fix that by trying harder on their own power. And that type of outlook in life absolutely bleeds into how they see themselves and God.

When you hear language of “striving,” I want you to remind them of God’s grace in their life.

Because God is at work in each and every one of our lives every day. And one of the easiest ways to see where God has been at work is to look at the fruit of the spirit because wherever the spirit has been at work, it produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, generosity, and self control.

And so if you can notice someone who has acted extra kind this week, you get to point out how God's grace has been at work in their life. If you notice someone who has practiced self control this week, you can point out how God's grace has been at work in their life. If you can notice someone demonstrating more joy this week, you get to point out God's grace at work in their life.

This isn’t just about complimenting good behavior. It’s about pointing past that to its source. It’s about pointing to the fact that if God is working in your life, He’s the one who is reaching out to you before you’ve even done anything to earn your place with him.

This is the same thing that happened at the end of our passage, when the delegate from Jerusalem stuck around to encourage the new believers with their words. It says, “Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.”

When you notice how God is working in someone’s life, even in small ways, speaking that out loud to them encourages and strengthens their faith!

[END]

And one of the most encouraging things we can remind each other of is that you get to belong in God’s family because of the finished work of Jesus.

Even when we don't fully understand it. Even when we haven't properly declared it. Even when we have ongoing doubts and failures… God's finished work on the cross through Jesus is still finished, and it's still sufficient and it’s still able to unite us with the One who claimed us as his own so that we can belong to him forever.

Isn’t that good news?