Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.38 – October 1994
A New Law
Sermon: by Revd. M. C. DeGraaf
Text: Acts 11: 1-18
Reading: Romans 14
Brothers and sisters,
I guess most of us would agree that CRITICISM can at times be hard to take. I guess the times it gets to you most are those times when you have really been trying hard at something, putting your best effort in, and the folks around you (for whatever reason) are still not satisfied.
Imagine an Olympic athlete who strives to do his best – and is still criticised by some commentator because he’s made some minor mistake. Or think of the criticism a cook can get after slaving in the kitchen all afternoon. All the family can say is, ‘It could have used a bit more salt.’
I guess we can too readily judge someone or something by how we perceive the final result. Instead we ought to take into account all the effort or heart-ache that was needed to reach that point! And for those who are treated this way, it can be rather hard to take. And even perhaps rather frustrating.
In some ways you can imagine that Peter must have felt some of this type of FRUSTRATION! Like Paul he was in many ways still a very conservative and law abiding Jew. That was true for all of the earliest Christians. Until this time in the church’s history, Christianity would have still been best described as a Jewish ‘sect’. There were some radical differences, but on the whole it was still basically just an offshoot of the Jewish religion.
The members of the church still basically followed the Jewish laws and customs, (just as Jesus had done) and even though they would not have looked for salvation there, there is no question that the temple and much of the ritual that surrounded it, still played an important part in their thinking. In Acts it is referred to quite regularly. For instance Peter and John went there to pray (chapter 3). Paul goes there to be purified with his friends (chapter 21).
Part of the ritual and custom that they would have been following had to do with that whole matter of CLEAN and UNCLEAN! The law (and later on the interpreters of that law) had been very specific about what or who the people were permitted to touch and eat, and associate with, and what they were called to reject. Certain animals were unclean. So were lepers and others who suffered from a variety of diseases and physical ailments. Over time GENTILES (non-Jews) were also added to this list. Sure you could do a certain amount of business with them, but it was considered unclean for you to mix with them socially or go into their homes or let them into yours. Most definitely you were never permitted to EAT a meal with them. After all who knows what kind of food they would offer you or where that food came from? It might even have been sacrificed to idols! It would not have been what they call KOSHER. No, Jewish thinking (in the light of God’s word) put a clear wall between themselves and the rest of the world!
It was that kind of thinking that confronted Peter here at the beginning of Acts 11. Since the eighth day of his life, when he had been circumcised, I am sure that he had been pretty much a strict law-abiding Jew. BUT something had happened to him. Something had obviously changed his thinking!
He was beginning to wander from the strict orthodox path. And his brothers in the law were criticising him. They were obviously concerned. And they had every reason to be concerned, at least from their Jewish perspective. After all, Peter had fraternised with gentiles! He had even eaten meals with them and stayed in their home for a few days. HOW could he ever hope to justify that in the light of the law?
What is interesting, of course, is that Peter doesn’t even try to justify himself. All he does is to point to what God has done.
He simply outlines what had happened to him and what he had seen. He had been on that roof of a house in Joppa where he spent time in prayer. As he prayed, there came that very strange vision. A large sheet came out of the heavens like a hammock, and in it were reptiles, birds and all sorts of four-legged animals. Obviously the kind of living things a Jew would never dream of eating. YET that vision was accompanied by a voice which said: ‘Get up, kill and eat!’
You can imagine how a suggestion like that would have turned Peter’s stomach and how offensive it would have been. Peter responds to the voice by saying: Surely not Lord, nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ In other words, he seems to be saying that he would NEVER associate with that which was unclean. He was a law-abiding, orthodox Jew!
But of course that was no longer entirely true, was it? The orthodox Jew in Peter’s day saw the law and its obedience as the final word. They no longer saw it as a tool for God’s glory. For them it had become an end in itself. Peter was no longer a Jew like that. He was a follower of the Christ. A follower of the living Son of God who came down so that a bridge could be made between God and man.
A bridge by which salvation could reach us. A bridge by which the Spirit would come, bringing true God-filled life to the followers of the Lord. A life in which (because of Christ’s death and because of the Spirit) the law played a very different role. It no longer needed to act like a stick, or a fence, or a teacher. It could now be a blue-print for true freedom in Christ. It was now a joyous thing! Jesus points out in Mark 7 that the emphasis now is clearly on ‘what comes out of a man’, where his heart and his spirit are at, not solely on what he eats or does. Flowing from that, the law’s role as a WALL around Israel was no longer necessary. Christ in His resurrection power is the king of ALL creation. All nations are called to be His disciples. As prophets like Isaiah, Jonah and Joel had already foretold, Israel was now just the springboard through which that power and that rule would reach out into the world! As Jesus had said, ‘In Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’
In chapter 2 we saw the impact of the Spirit on Jerusalem. In chapter 8 we have already seen Philip’s efforts in Samaria and how they had been blessed. Now the next hurdle was about to be crossed, the UNCLEAN were now CLEAN in the sight of God. How else would they ever hear the gospel?
Peter must have understood the message of that vision because a few minutes later, when he hears that knock on the door, we are told that he goes along ‘without hesitation’ to the home of Cornelius the centurion. He goes to the home, not just of any old gentile, but to the home of a leader in the occupying army. Those who lived in occupied Europe during World War II can imagine what that was like! Yet, Peter went to this God-fearing man and preached to this man, his family and friends the GOOD NEWS that Jesus has come with liberation and light for those bound up in darkness. And just as had happened in Jerusalem and Samaria we see the Spirit being poured out on the people…!!
Acts 10 tells us, that like the circumcised believers at Pentecost, these gentiles also began to speak in tongues and praised God. The Lord’s blessing was obvious to all who were there. And because of this blessing, Peter for the first time baptises gentiles. The Gospel was breaking out into the world. A little later in the chapter we see those Greeks in Antioch who accept the Gospel, and Paul begins his ministry in Asia Minor.
For you and me, the book of Acts takes little space in our Bibles. It is lightweight, easy to carry, cheap to produce. But that of course wasn’t true when Luke wrote this book. His book would have been on a scroll 35 feet long. The papyrus material on which it was written was expensive and unwieldy. This means that an ancient author was very careful about what he selected and how he selected his material. And yet Luke obviously thought that this story of Peter and Cornelius was so important that it deserved one and a half chapters and to be told twice.
Well, if we look at this story in the overall structure of Acts, we have got to agree that Luke is right. It is probably the most important turning point in the spread of the Gospel. It wasn’t an EASY turning point! For the Jewish believers this was a difficult thing to accept and understand. It has also been difficult for the church throughout its history. It was difficult for these early Christians to see what was good (and what should be kept) from their traditional beliefs, and what should go. In other words, they had to decide what hindered the spread of the Gospel and what encouraged it.
When we get to chapter 15 of Acts we see that the matter was discussed at the Council of Jerusalem, where some said that circumcision and the law were essential and others argued they were not. It is interesting that in Galatians 2, Paul argues that even Peter put too much weight on these traditional/cultural things. Hear what he says: Read Galatians 2: 11-16.
The discussion goes on and on. It is easy to see why the ways that we learn in our childhood remain with us always. But these ways of doing things do not necessarily remain relevant. If the ways of the past become a stumbling block to others hearing and living the Gospel, then these ways and customs should be changed.
We saw that when we looked at Romans 14 that Paul said:
‘Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat (or in our case ‘do’) you are no longer acting in love. Do not by eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died… the kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking (or these outward signs) but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved of men.’
AMEN