Is Christianity for everyone? Is it available to everyone? How much does a person need to be removed from their culture to become a Christian?
This issue about the Gospel and culture is not new. Christians have struggled with the Gospel and the effects of culture since the very beginning. Today in our Scripture we see Paul directly dealing with this issue.
See Jesus in his ministry on earth, gathered twelve disciples who were Jewish. After His death and resurrection the Holy Spirit came upon all those gathered together, the church was born and everyone in the church was Jewish. Remember, we talked a little bit about this last week. In the very early church everyone was Jewish. It turns out that most people in the very early church carried on with life with being Jewish after becoming Christians, living life like good Jews would, even continuing to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. In fact, many Christians would make a practice of gathering in the Temple, it was kind of like a church building to them. Geographically the church was centered in Jerusalem, with few believers living outside the city. So, Christianity was exclusively made up of people who were formerly Jewish and who, for the most part, lived in or around the city of Jerusalem.
You can see that as the Christian church started, it was very much culturally tied to everything Jewish: Jesus was Jewish; His disciples were Jewish; The Bible was Jewish; The church members were Jewish and they lived at the center of Judaism in Jerusalem. In the minds of many of the early believers, the thought would have never crossed their minds that anyone other than a Jewish person could become a Christian, or would even want to become a Christian.
What they had was great. They had family and friends who were joining the Christian church left and right. They all shared the same great music, the same great food, and the same ancient language. They all dressed alike, they all had the same political preference, they were all the same race, they all looked like each other – for all practical purposes they were all the same. This community was tight, so tight, they shared everything with one another – one big happy family.
But then persecution started. Paul, who is writing this letter we are reading this morning, was one of the most powerful instigators of this persecution. (Acts 8:1-3) This is why we see Saul heading out to Damascus in an attempt to head off the spreading influence of the Gospel. This persecution was harsh with families being split up, with people being dragged to prison and left to rot, or executed. How could God let this happen? There was nothing good about this persecution, people’s lives were being ruined in a hurry….. but there was one thing, one thing this persecution caused….the Jewish Christians scattered, many fled Jerusalem, and the Gospel was no longer a local phenomenon.
Then in Chapter 8 of the book of Acts we see the Gospel spread for the first time outside those who were of Jewish origin – sort of. We see Phillip go to Samaria with the Gospel. The Samarians were a people who were part Jewish, and in many ways culturally tied to the Jews, and they looked just like the Jews. So this wasn’t too much of a cultural stretch for the early church. But then, in the same chapter, we see something amazing happen, the Gospel leaps outside of the Jewish culture and outside of the region of Jerusalem, and it spreads not to Europe, and not to Asia, but it spreads to Africa. Philip has a conversation with a man from Ethiopia and he becomes a Christian. This Ethiopian then heads back to Ethiopia and the Gospel arrives first in Africa. In fact the church that has the oldest and longest ties to the early Christian church in Jerusalem, resides in Africa. Africa has been Christian longer than any other continent, outside of the Middle East.
I just crack up at those people who give us the line that Christianity is the white man’s religion, or that somehow Christianity is European based. That such ignorance is taken as fact today is astounding.
– And then in Acts chapter 14 we see, almost by accident the Gospel is accepted by people in the city of Antioch who were also not of Jewish origin. And a problem is born.
The people in Antioch don’t look anything like the Christians in Jerusalem, they speak another language, they eat different food, to the Judeo-Christian mind of the early church, these people, honestly, were repulsive. A good Jew would not associate with Gentiles, especially Greeks. A modern day way of saying it would be, they were racists. They were prejudiced against anyone who was not of Jewish origin.
Many Jewish people believed that non-idolatrous Gentiles could be saved, but almost no one believed that they were adopted into the covenant on equal terms with Jewish people until they were circumcised. The Jewish Christians continued this worldview against the Gentiles after they became Christians. With this in mind it is not at all surprising that Jews would want to forces non Jews to be circumcised. After all, circumcision was the sign for all Jewish males that they were adopted into the covenant of Abraham.
So most Christians who grew up in Judaism reached out to Jews with the Gospel, while Paul reached out to those who were not Jewish, known as Gentiles. This went on for some time until a group of men from Jerusalem became alarmed and took it upon themselves to go to the new Gentile churches and convince the people that they had to give up their culture and embrace Jewish culture to be Christian.
Each one of us here has grown up in an environment that teaches us how to view the world. After we become a Christian, we maintain this culture we grew up. Whoever we are, wherever we come from, we carry with us cultural baggage.
Some of our culture we carry with us is wonderful and makes us unique people. Some of the culture we carry with us, gets in the way of our Christian walk. Where is that line we need to walk between culture and the Gospel?
Let’s look at our Scripture to gain some insight. We se that after fourteen years Paul heads to the birthplace of Christianity, Jerusalem. Here at this point, is the center of Christianity – just a side note, some scholars believe that by the middle of this century the center of Christianity will be somewhere in Asia. So Paul heads to the center of Christianity, and he takes with him Barnabas and Titus.
Barnabas, his name means son of encouragement. He was probably older than Paul, and much more imposing figure than Paul. He was well known and well respected. He was Paul’s colleague for a time and was the one who first introduced Paul to the other Apostles (acts 9:26f) vouching for his genuineness and in Acts 11 Barnabas is sent to Antioch to investigate Gentiles accepting Christianity. Barnabas is the resident expert on Jews and Gentiles and Christianity, his opinion on this matter holds a lot of sway. Paul brings Barnabas because he is a friend, and because Paul knows Barnabas will be trusted in Jerusalem.
Titus. Titus is a Greek Christian who was close to Paul. 2 Tim 4:10 speaks of Titus going to Dalmatia, which is the southern part of the Roman province of Illyricum. The letter of Titus presents him as Paul’s delegate to Crete. On the Basis of Titus 1:5, tradition identifies Titus as later becoming the first Bishop of Crete. Paul brings Titus because he is also a friend, and Titus is such a good man that even though he is culturally repulsive to the Christians in Jerusalem, they will be able to see past their culture, see past their racism and see the true Gospel at work in this man’s life.
Paul goes to Jerusalem, not for approval of his presentation of the Gospel, but to settle things once and for all, the Gospel is not for Jews only. Paul is very explicit in verse 3 that Titus was not compelled to be circumcised. Though the reading in the English may be a bit confusing, it is a difficult sentence in Greek too, but it does mean is this: Titus was NOT circumcised. In other words, even the leaders of the church in Jerusalem agree, Gentiles do not have to be circumcised.
Paul is telling us, in so many words, that the folks in Jerusalem agree with what he is preaching, Paul is preaching the Gospel. Apparently the men who are causing all the grief are claiming to be sent from the leaders in Jerusalem and claim that the leaders in Jerusalem are their authority. But Paul tells us in verse 9 that these “reputed to be pillars”, quoting those who are against him, gave him the right hand of fellowship, they accepted him. Paul uses the term “reputed” in an ironic way - he recognizes the claim that they are leaders and at the same time pulls back showing that he is their equal. This is typical political rhetoric of the day. Plato’s uses the same work in his work ‘Apology’ saying “those reputed to be wise men”. Paul’s opponents claim their authority is from the very men who offer Paul equal status.
What all this means is that there is one Gospel and that the Gospel is independent of cultural ties. What we are also seeing is that at the time of this meeting, the Jewish members of the Christians church had also started to see that they needed to pull away from some cultural issues. They are no longer living just as if they were Jewish. See, in whatever culture we come from, we have issues that the culture holds up for us to prove who we are. There are things that are demanded of us to prove that we are worthy. But in verse 6 Paul points out that God does not judge by external appearance. God judges by the heart.
What these men are attempting to do is add the traditions of Jewish life to Christianity. But God does not judge by external appearance. I want to note very, very clearly, that here, to judge, found in verse 6, is judgment for salvation, NOT about discernment. God judges our hearts when it comes to salvation – are we saved or are we not saved? This judgment is according to our faith, which is simply, by grace have we placed our faith in Jesus Christ. This does not mean that we can act any way we want to after we have become a Christian. This has to do with salvation, God does not judge us by our works, salvation can not be obtained by works, it is only by faith are we saved.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is above culture, and therefore can be adapted to culture. Here in the early church, from the meeting in Jerusalem that Paul describes in the passage, we have the Petrine doctrine – culturally adapted to Jewish Christians and we have the Pauline doctrine – culturally adapted to Gentile Christians. But at its core it is the Gospel – for there is only one Gospel.
There existed two doctrines for evangelism in the early church, the Petrine and the Pauline but they were united by doctrinal unity which starts with the fact that we are saved by faith alone apart from any works that we do. The teachings of Paul and the teachings of the other disciples did not contradict each other and so the power of the Gospel spread throughout the world.
Let me reiterate that what the Apostles from Jerusalem taught and what Paul taught did not contradict. The men mentioned here that agree in this Scripture Paul, James, John and Peter account for, or have direct influence upon about 80% of the NT writings, none of which contradict each other.
Paul tells us, these men who have come to Galatia, under the pretense of Jerusalem authority are false teachers because what they teach contradicts what these men teach.
Today, when we go into a book store to buy a Christian book we have to be careful. There are those who write books with contradictory views of Christianity, contradictory next to what Paul, James, Peter and John have to say.
We are told things like Jesus only rose from the dead spiritually – even though the bible claims Jesus rose bodily; We are told that Jesus is only one way, among many, to God – even though Jesus himself tells us that He is the only way; We are told that certain parts of Scripture hold more authority than others, so we can ignore certain things – even though the Bible tells us itself that all Scripture is God breathed.
We are told that these views are not wrong they are just “diverse” which, in this case, really is just a Euphemism for contradictory. No, there is one Gospel, and it does not contradict itself. The people who promote these so called “Christian” ideas that are do not unite Christians, but pull them apart, are teaching cultural ideas and not biblical ideas. This is just culture trying to overtake the Gospel.
A good rule of thumb, is that if something in our culture contradicts what is found in the Bible, we need to let go of it and adhere to the biblical teaching. For example, in college I had folks I worked with who were wonderful guys, but after work they would go out and drink too much. They always wanted me to come with them, but I knew I should not participate in something that was not biblically sound, so I declined to go. Our culture, said it was ok to go and drink too much, but Scripture said it was not. So I choose the Gospel over culture.
Clearly, you have to spend time with God’s Word to know what is biblical, and what is not. We need to know the fullness of Scripture both Old Testament and New Testament so we can have a greater understanding of how to lead our lives as Christians. I would encourage you to at the very least start reading your bible – if you do not have one, I can give you one to get you started. If you have not read your bible in a while, I think the best place to start is always, the Gospel of John.
Throughout history, we have seen competing cultures pull people apart on a global scale. Empires have attempted to unite diverse groups of people – Rome, China, England, the Soviet Union - they all have tried to unite people under culture and all have failed – the peoples of the world have and will always fight to retain their culture.
But since the Gospel is above culture, as Paul has shown, we see people of different cultures…in unity. The Gospel unites peoples of the world, the more than anything else. The Gospel transcends race, language, culture, economic status, education…Here all through the New Testament we see Jews and Gentiles coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ– two groups of people that could never get along, because of one thing they have in common – The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The people who were the first Christians in Jerusalem could never imagine how the Gospel could unify them with people who were so unlike them. They were just following Jesus. But this is the intent of the Gospel, to bring us together, under the dominion of Jesus Christ.
Just here in this congregation, in our three services we will have people from all over the world, with many different first languages, coming from many different cultures. We have people born in Asia, Europe, Africa, people from all over the States joining those who were born right here in the great state of Alaska. Why are we here? – Because in this church, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is taken seriously, we are here for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are here to worship Jesus, and learn to follow him – this is what draws us together.
You know, you and I have more in common with a Christian brother or sister in a city we cannot find on a map, who speaks a language we do not understand, doesn’t look anything like us at all and has customs that will bewilders us, we have more in common with this foreign Christian than we have in common our next door neighbor, who is not a Christian.
See, in the end of it all, we will stand before God, together. And there we will be, saints in the presence of God – nationality, ethnicity, cultural customs, language, these things all will have passed away. We will be there by faith, by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – unified.
