Resisting Change October 9th, 2022
Give us your Spirit of wisdom, O God, so that we may hear your Word speaking through the Scriptures with ears that understand, and hearts moved to love. Amen.
Today, we are going to witness a conflict between the leaders of the early church in Jerusalem and the Apostle Peter. The leaders thought they were following God’s plan to set up his kingdom. And, as long as they believed that the kingdom was just being offered to themselves, Peter’s actions were wrong. And we can see why they thought that, as Jesus had commanded his disciples to begin their mission in Jerusalem. After his resurrection, when he appeared to the disciples in that locked upper room in Jerusalem, he said to them, “‘…These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’” (Luke 24-47)
Those early followers of Jesus who were brought up in the Jewish faith thought that when the people of Jerusalem fully believed in Christ, the nation of Israel would receive the Messiah and he would return to earth to take his throne. The problem with this thinking was that they misunderstood God’s plan. For Jesus commanded his disciples to not only spread the Good News of salvation in Jerusalem, but to extend the message to the uttermost parts of the earth, he had said to them, “‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” (Acts 1:8)
In last week’s lesson from Acts we heard of Peter going to the house of a man by name of Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion, and thus a Gentile, and telling him about Jesus Christ and how he was the Son of God and the Messiah. As a result, not only Cornelius, but also his entire household came to believe, they received the Holy Spirit, and they were baptised as Christians. After that took place Peter stayed in the home of Cornelius several days, sharing the Gospel with him and his household.
And that’s where the problem arose, for we’re told, “Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” Now these were the Jewish believers in Jerusalem who became the first followers of Jesus and who made up the vast majority of the church in Jerusalem. Because of this they had great power and influence within the church.
And they didn’t like what Peter had done. According to Jewish law, those outside the faith, being the Gentiles, were considered unclean and so any devoted Jew was to have nothing to do with them. And now Peter had gone and spent several days in the house of one of them, fellowshipping and eating with him and his household. Because of this the leaders of the Jerusalem church thought that Peter had betrayed their trust. They accused him of doing something that was unlawful. It’s ironic that Peter had obeyed the will of God but then experienced hostility like he had never known before.
It’s interesting that those leaders were so concerned about Peter eating with a Gentile while at the same time ignoring the fact that he had both preached the Gospel and baptized them. It shows where their priorities were, they were more concerned about tradition than they were about their faith. Their thoughts were that things should always be done the same way; they didn’t like change. You would have thought that the news of Gentiles accepting the word of God would have been a cause of both wonderment and celebration, but no, the opposite was true, it resulted in mistrust and dissention.
So, it wasn’t preaching or the baptizing of the Gentiles which bothered those in Jerusalem, it was the fact that Peter had sat at the table and shared a meal with them. They asked Peter, “Why did you actually eat with those people?”. For those leaders of the Jerusalem church sharing a table with others was a sign that you accepted them as your equals. They were mainly concerned with making sure that Peter was acting as a proper Jew, maintaining his identity as one of God’s holy people. Instead of celebrating that more people came to God, they were only interested in themselves.
And that’s the same challenge Jesus had faced when he went to the homes of those who were shunned by the religious authorities, this is from the Gospel of Luke, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” (Luke 15:1-2) And now Peter was confronted with the same problem Jesus had encountered, accepting someone outside the faith as your equal.
Jesus had clearly told the apostles to go into all the world to preach the gospel to every nation. But in their centuries-old way of thinking, the disciples thought that Jesus meant for them to go and preach to Jews who were scattered all over the world. The thoughts of preaching the gospel to pagan Gentiles and of those same Gentiles coming to salvation without first becoming religious Jews was simply unthinkable. Those Jewish Christians probably would have said that it’s okay for God to save the Gentiles, but first they need to become Jews. But for God to save them just as they are? That didn’t fit with their way of thinking! They thought God had to do it their way!
And isn’t that the same in our lives today. Whether it be at home, at work, or elsewhere we always encounter people who are resistant to change. They want everyone to do things their way. And yet, it’s true for all of us, we’re comfortable with the ways things are, and although we might complain about things, we don’t want to make the effort to change anything. It’s difficult to change and it definitely takes more work.
So, when we have a good idea on how to make things better, we have to be prepared to accept some resistance. People have already formed their preconceived notions, before you get a chance to defend your case, they’ll already have summed it up. We have to make sure in our hearts that our ideas are good ones and then have a plan to put them into action. Change is one of the guaranteed realities of life and we need to respond to it with love and grace while making sure we are following God’s way.
And that’s what Peter did, Luke says that, in beginning his defense, “Peter began and explained it to them in order.” He started by telling the leaders of the Jerusalem church about the vision he had had on that rooftop of the house in the town of Joppa where the foods which were considered unclean were lowered down from heaven on a sheet and a voice said to him, “‘‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’” That was the first sign that things were about to change.
Peter then continued on to tell them how shortly after that, three men came to the door of the house asking him to come with them to the home of a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius. And once again God intervened and gave Peter a command, telling him to go with them, making no distinction between them and himself.
He then recounts to those leaders of the Jerusalem church how, as he was telling the members of the household about the Gospel, the Holy Spirit touched their hearts, and they came to faith in Jesus. Peter then concludes his defense with these words, “‘And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?’” Thus, Peter baptised all those in the house of Cornelius and they came into fellowship with him and the entire church.
And with such a strong argument the men accusing Peter had no choice but to agree with what he had said. We’re told that, “When they heard these things, they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’” It was from this point on that the church began to accept all people, regardless of their background. They came to understand that in the eyes of God all people are equal.
For us today the case Peter made for accepting Gentiles into the church is just as valid. First of all, we need to truly believe in the changes we wish to make. And while, unlike Peter, we may not see directly the Holy Spirit intervening for us, we still have the Bible’s strong arguments to support our case. And through Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit in us and with us. His gifts of love, kindness, generosity, self-control, gentleness, goodness, patience, peace, and joy are always there for us. Like Peter and those that went before us, we need to draw on these gifts for our strength and embrace change courageously and with faith.
Let us Pray:
Heavenly Father, you know the plans that you have for us; these plans are not intended to harm us, but to give us hope and a future. Help us understand that change isn’t always bad. Help us as we face changes in our lives and show us ways to manage them. Let the Holy Spirit be with us each day to give us wisdom and to guide us as we work to implement new ways and accept different ideas. All this we do to bring more people to you and your salvation. In Jesus name we pray. Amen