Author: missionspaul

The highs and lows of the sacred space.

Acts 21: 30 “The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.”

 

1. Their sacred space was in trouble and the whole city came running not knowing to expect.

The Jews had their temple and the Muslims have their mosques, we used to have our Church buildings. I am not sure if we were told that the Church in our town was under attack in some way that we would leave our homes and go running towards the event. In many ways I am pleased our sacred space is not in a building. The world tells us now that the sacred space is our freedom to be, to decide, to choose who and whatever we want, woe to those who try to invade that sacred, untouchable space of human will. The world reacts badly if it sees human rights violated in any way. On one side of the world the human rights of the minority are taken away or punished. The minority are seen only as ‘sinners’ in the eyes of whatever religion or creed is the majority and the opposite side of the world reacts and comes running. Yet in the side of the world that reacts to that there is also a violation of the human rights of the minority but because these people are seen as ‘sinners’ within culture in the eyes of whatever religion or creed then it is not seen as a violation but trying to keep society ‘clean’ and the runners who run to the other side of the world bypass their own tragedy. The whole world not just a city is aroused because of an invasion of the sacred space and is running from all directions to try and save it in some place or the other.

2. Paul and his friend are not welcome in God’s sacred space.

The gates are shut. The reason is that this violation of the Gentile entering the forbidden areas of the temple cannot continue. Sin needs to be got rid of. We need to cut it out.

You may have heard this illustration many times but it is worth another read. In his book The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Tony Campolo relates an experience he had late one night in Hawaii.

“Up a side street I found a little place that was still open. I went in, took a seat on one of the stools at the counter, and waited to be served. This was one of those sleazy places that deserves the name, “greasy spoon.” I did not even touch the menu. I was afraid that if I opened the thing something gruesome would crawl out. But it was the only place I could find.

The fat guy behind the counter came over and asked me, “What d’ya want?”

I said I wanted a cup of coffee and a donut.

He poured a cup of coffee, wiped his grimy hand on his smudged apron, and then he grabbed a donut off the shelf behind him. I’m a realist. I know that in the back room of that restaurant, donuts are probably dropped on the floor and kicked around. But when everything is out front where I could see it, I really would have appreciated it if he had used a pair of tongs and placed the donut on some wax paper.

As I sat there munching on my donut and sipping my coffee at 3:30 in the morning, the door of the diner suddenly swung open and, to my discomfort, in marched eight or nine provocative and boisterous prostitutes.

It was a small place, and they sat on either side of me. Their talk was loud and crude. I felt completely out of place and was just about to make my getaway when I overheard the woman beside me say, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be 39.”

Her “friend” responded in a nasty tone, “So what do you want from me? A birthday party? What do you want? Ya want me to get you a cake and sing ‘Happy Birthday’?”

“Come on,” said the woman sitting next to me. “Why do you have to be so mean? I was just telling you, that’s all. Why do you have to put me down? I was just telling you it was my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should you give me a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?”

When I heard that, I made a decision. I sat and waited until the women had left. Then I called over the fat guy behind the counter, and I asked him, “Do they come in here every night?”

“Yeah!” he answered.

“The one right next to me, does she come here every night?”

“Yeah!” he said. “That’s Agnes. Yeah, she comes in here every night. Why d’ya wanta know?”

“Because I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday,” I told him. “What do you say you and I do something about that? What do you think about us throwing a birthday party for her—right here—tomorrow night?”

A cute smile slowly crossed his chubby cheeks, and he answered with measured delight, “That’s great! I like it! That’s a great idea!” Calling to his wife, who did the cooking in the back room, he shouted, “Hey! Come out here! This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow’s Agnes’s birthday. This guy wants us to go in with him and throw a birthday party for her—right here—tomorrow night!”

His wife came out of the back room all bright and smiley. She said, “That’s wonderful! You know Agnes is one of those people who is really nice and kind, and nobody does anything nice and kind for her.”

“Look,” I told them, “if it’s okay with you, I’ll get back here tomorrow morning about 2:30 and decorate the place. I’ll even get a birthday cake!”

“No way,” said Harry (that was his name). “The birthday cake’s my thing. I’ll make the cake.”

At 2:30 the next morning, I was back at the diner. I had picked up some crepe-paper decorations at the store and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” I decorated the diner from one end to the other. I had that diner looking good.

The woman who did the cooking must have gotten the word out on the street, because by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. It was wall-to-wall prostitutes…and me!

At 3:30 on the dot, the door of the diner swung open, and in came Agnes and her friend. I had everybody ready (after all, I was kind of the M.C. of the affair) and when they came in we all screamed, “Happy birthday!”

Never have I seen a person so flabbergasted…so stunned…so shaken. Her mouth fell open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend grabbed her arm to steady her. As she was led to sit on one of the stools along the counter, we all sang “Happy Birthday”‘ to her. As we came to the end of our singing with “happy birthday, dear Agnes, happy birthday to you,” her eyes moistened. Then, when the birthday cake with all the candles on it was carried out, she lost it and just openly cried.

Harry gruffly mumbled, “Blow out the candles, Agnes! Come on! Blow out the candles! If you don’t blow out the candles, I’m gonna hafta blow out the candles.” And, after an endless few seconds, he did. Then he handed her a knife and told her, “Cut the cake, Agnes. Yo, Agnes, we all want some cake.”

Agnes looked down at the cake. Then without taking her eyes off it, she slowly and softly said, “Look, Harry, is it all right with you if I…I mean is it okay if I kind of…what I want to ask you is…is it O.K. if I keep the cake a little while? I mean, is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?”

Harry shrugged and answered, “Sure! It’s O.K. If you want to keep the cake, keep the cake. Take it home, if you want to.”

“Can I?” she asked. Then, looking at me, she said, “I live just down the street a couple of doors. I want to take the cake home, okay? I’ll be right back. Honest!”

She got off the stool, picked up the cake, and carrying it like it was the Holy Grail, walked slowly toward the door. As we all just stood there motionless, she left.

When the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what else to do, I broke the silence by saying, “What do you say we pray?”

Looking back on it now, it seems more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in the morning. But then it just felt like the right thing to do. I prayed for Agnes. I prayed for her salvation. I prayed that her life would be changed and that God would be good to her.

When I finished, Harry leaned over the counter and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, “Hey! You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?” In one of those moments when just the right words came, I answered, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”

Harry waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!”

Wouldn’t we all? Wouldn’t we all like to join a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning?

Well, that’s the kind of church that Jesus came to create!”

Maybe this weekend you can look around the people in your Church and see the ones you do not normally associate with. They may be ‘sinners’ or social outcasts, people with a stigma perhaps. Look at them and thank God that your Church didn’t close its doors to them.

3. They compartmentalised their sacred space from their place of activity.

“This is what we do here, we worship and we sacrifice, for this is God’s space.

But this is what we do here, we seize, we drag and we intend to kill.

Look how good we are, we do not defile the temple by trying to kill Paul and the Gentile within it.

This is our Sunday face, our Sunday words and actions. Look how nice we are as we worship Him amongst the believers. These are our holy hands that we lift in the air, look how high we lift them. These are our obedient ears, we are listening attentively to the Bible, to the exposition. This is our holy money which we give with gladness, look how much we have given, it is good to give.

Now let’s close the doors.

This is our Monday to Saturday face …

This is where we put right the wrongs.

This is where we sit and judge and criticise the folly of man.

This is where we express that proverb which is almost biblical, ‘I’m only human’”.

 

The highs and lows of the sacred space.

Crowds can be dangerous places

Acts 21:29 “(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)”

The Jews from Asia (most probably Ephesus) had one thing in mind and that was to discredit Paul and to remove him. They had seen Paul in the temple with some men worshipping as part of a Nazirite vow they were keeping. Their interpretation of what they were seeing was only partly true. They had previously seen Paul with a non-Jew, Trophimus, now they assumed he was one of the four men in the temple with Paul and this defiling it, he wasn’t.

They assumed. They took for granted what appeared to be true but there was no proof that it was so.

The crowd was so large that they easily believed it to be true because they had already been fed a lie that Paul was denouncing the laws of Moses.

We must be careful when with our large groups of friends that we do not just accept everything that is set before us as the gospel truth. In those settings we may not even get the opportunity to question what is being passed around as certainty and even if we did we may feel intimidated to be the only one to question the position. Large groups are feeding grounds for untruths and assumptions.

May we never fall in with the crowd and feed on whatever the crowd is feeding on simply because we want to fall in line.

May we be free from assumption and may we remain fixed on only what is true.

Zoom out!

Acts 21: 28 “They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, ‘Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

The Jews in Jerusalem had previously been fed a lie that Paul was denouncing the law of Moses. In order to appease the situation the Apostle James tells Paul to go into the temple and enter into the purification rites with 4 Jewish leaders and pay for their Nazirite vow. Paul does this. But then Jews from Asia hell-bent on destroying Paul enter into the scene and convince the Jews of Jerusalem to rise up against Paul. It is a scene that is played out even 2,000 years later in many circumstances of life.

Appearing to be true doesn’t mean it is true.

Having the majority all agree doesn’t mean they are right.

Seeing a man captured and held against his will doesn’t mean he has committed a crime.

Having a rumour confirmed by others outside of the situation doesn’t make it true.

And the reverse is true.

Assuming people are who you think they are is no proof they are.

In the opening scene of the Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon a Professor in symbology shows pictures that are zoomed in so that the audience think they know what it is, but when the picture is zoomed out it reveals how wrong they were. So:

A white hooded robe was not from the Klu Klux Klan but robes worn by Spanish priests.

What appeared to be Michaelangelos’s Madonna and Child is actually the sculpture of the pagan god Oris and his mother Isis.

I like that scene because it reminds me that sometimes zooming out is as important as zooming in. We all know the importance of examining the fine details of things. But sometimes we are too close to the situation to see anything. We value the eyes of those outside of it to give us some new revelation. I have found wisdom is found as we step back and maybe a few steps back. We have to learn to zoom out more. And if we cannot then we need to find trusted people outside of the situation to comment on what we cannot see.

 

Trouble and comfort

Acts 21:27 “When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him”

This is just typical isn’t it? So here is Paul who has followed orders from James and the elders who on being worried that the Jews in Jerusalem would rise up against Paul because they had been told he was pulling the Gentiles away from the law of Moses, asked Paul to support a purification rites ceremony and to pay for the Nazirite vows of 4 men. This was going to show the Jews of Jerusalem that Paul was not who they had been told he was. So then who was it who created the trouble? Who was it who stirred up the crowd? Was it the Jews of Jerusalem?!

Watch out for those on the outside of the situation.

Watch out for those on the banks of the river.

The critics are not often found on the field but from those who don’t go but watch.

Trouble comes from places you least expect.

Paul was seen and we don’t need a script to know the kind of thing that was said, “How dare he come into this temple that he defiles?!” The plan had been that Paul would be seen and the Jews of Jerusalem would say, “the rumours are wrong, Paul does not speak against the temple, here he is worshipping in it.”

The best laid plans can go adrift because of people who seem to be on a mission to judge everyone but themselves.

And yet this verse ends with a comforting thought. Check it again. We might think the word seized is negative. Well it is. Until we remember that this is the commencement of the prophecy of Agabus about to come true. He prophesied that Paul would be seized. Therefore, may the enemy of our lives do their best but they are just a pawn in God’s fore-sight and sovereignty! It is okay, nothing surprises our God!

 

Called to compromise.

Acts 21:26  “The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.”

The Son of God became a baby though he is a king.

The Son of God took an ordinary name though he has the name above all names.

The Son of God wrapped a towel around his waist and became a servant though one day every knee will bow.

The Son of God became obedient to death on a criminals low-life cross even though he sits on an eternal throne.

Jesus compromised his position for God so loved the world …

The Apostle Paul went through a purification ceremony and he sponsored 4 men to enter a Nazirite vow. The men would fast from wine and grapes, they would not cut their hair and they would not go near anything dead. The vow could last a lifetime for some. Paul went to the temple and announced how long the vow would last and then a sacrificial animal offering was made to God as an act of thanksgiving, worship and cleansing.

Some are shocked, the Apostle Paul?! After all he has said about there being no need for such activity now that Jesus has come and here he is acting as a hypocrite!

Paul compromised his position to save a situation because of his love for the Jews.

Paul would say “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.” (! Corinthians 9:20)

We live in a world of hierarchy, of positions of importance and I speak of within the Church.

Those with the biggest titles have the hardest task to compromise their position in order to save and demonstrate their love.

‘Come down’ is the call of the Spirit. It is down where Jesus is and where Paul learnt to live.

There is no adulation in this place. This place is painful, it is sacrificial, it is very risky and you know people will talk about you. But they do not know your motives, they never know why, only a few know this, that you have come down because you love.

A call for abstinence

Act 21:25 “As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”

James and the elders do not want to put burdens on the new Gentile believers.  They had written to the churches saying what they should abstain from 4 things and why. (See my blog on entitled sex, meat and black pudding from Acts 15:20). Now James reiterates this position.

Not all the teaching in the past was wrong. That’s the important point. Judaism had lots to offer the new believer especially in the way of discipleship and breaking with the idolatry found in many Gentiles lives.

Even in these early days of the early church advancement there was a need to embrace the old teachings.

How much further we have advanced in today’s modern Christendom?

But the things that our forefathers held to we no longer give a second thought to.

We have become all-embracing and in the promotion of grace we have ripped up any laws that have been passed down. In the main we are better for it.

However, we have forgotten the importance and the necessity for having the law in the first place. Without the law there is no sin. If there is no sin there is no need of grace. So what we think is grace may not be grace after all. It may be a grace-fake. I wonder if we need to be reintroduced to the laws of abstinence again?

I grew up in a Christianity where abstinence was not primarily for my sake i.e. I did not smoke because of health reasons, but for the sake of my walk with God, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit etc. Abstinence revealed my love and devotion to God. But there isn’t a lot of abstinence in my life now and if there is, then not much of it is because I think God is pleased with me not doing or having something. Incidentally I still don’t smoke!

The Church has in many areas lost its abstinence because it is not pc in our society to be so ‘fundamental’. Other world religions sometimes have more abstinence than Christianity. But for us we are so afraid to reveal a God of rules, that there is now no danger of any do’s and do nots. The message is come as you are and stay as you are.

Maybe abstinence doesn’t prove anything of your discipleship and love for God. Maybe. But maybe it should.

Yesterday afternoon I spent a short but wonderful time with some missionaries who have returned home from the field for what will be at least a few years before they go again. In our conversation they talked about their desire not to get caught up with the agenda of desires that other Christians seem to have. They want to remain minimalistic and sacrificial. The irony is that in their church friendship circle they have believers thanking God that He has given them everything they could possible wish for and at the same time these missionaries are thanking God that their abstinence from these things has brought them closer to Him.

I do think James was right and that some abstinence is helpful for our walk with God. I think I need to have more things in my life that I don’t do because of my respect and fear for God. What about you?

 

For demonstration purposes only.
Acts 21: 24 “Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.”

The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem had been told that Paul was telling the Gentile converts to abandon Moses and the law. That was not true. Here he is now in Jerusalem with James and the elders and they have a plan to try and bring order out of what could turn into mayhem. Paul should demonstrate his desire to support the Jewish practices. He should join in some ceremonial washing and pay the expenses of 4 of the leaders who were going through the rites and shaving their heads. That is the plan.
Paul was to enter into certain rites for demonstration purposes only in order to diffuse a situation.
Paul wasn’t going to think these rites would make him clean before God or nearer to Him. He was doing these things not for God but for man.
How much do you desire unity?
What could you do that you wouldn’t normally do simply to show your love for people?
What could you stop doing to show people you were for them not against them?
Sometimes words are just not needed. Actions sometimes do speak louder.
Demonstrate today. Do something uncomfortable for you but as an act of love for others. Demonstrate your love.

Do what you are told
Acts 21:23 “do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow.”
James and the elders had made a decision and now they needed Paul to do what they told him.
There are days to invite people to do something.
There are days to ask people but then there are days to just tell them to do it.
I am sure our prayers each day have been along the lines of “I will do what you tell me.”
In our desire to be like Christ we know he was sent by the Father.
He was an obedient Son.
In the wilderness he had to choose obedience and again in the garden of Gethsemane. The writer of Hebrews says he offered up prayers and that he learned obedience.
For us to be in the image of Christ, we need to know we are not first but second. We are not leading everything but following. We are not in charge but conforming ourselves to Him and not to our rights. We live in a society which looks so nice in that everyone is free to be whoever they want to be. But this is not true as a Christian. We have to be told. We have to do what we are told. There are times when to obey Christ is that we obey our leaders, we do what we are told because we know they have wisdom in a situation that we do not have.
Paul, the great apostle is being asked to obey. It takes a great man to do so.

Make a decision.
Acts 21:22 “What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come”

James and the elders do not want to bring any disruption to the success of the gospel in Jerusalem due to Paul being dragged into a dispute over what he is being wrongfully charged with. At the same time they are in support of what Paul has achieved with the gospel to the Gentiles.
What shall we do?

Maybe that is the question you are speaking today. 

Perhaps there is uncertainty over many things leading you to wonder what you are going to do. However, James and the elders were certain about something and that would be where they get their course of action from. They did not rest on their uncertainty but on what was ‘certain’.

The Jews will hear Paul is here, they will come as a multitude to confront and cause division, it will escalate out of all proportion, that is what is going to happen. 

What are you certain of today? It may be leading you to say, “I do not know what to do” however, the answer is found within the certainty. Don’t ignore it, don’t bury your head. You can make a decision to try and avert that what is certain. There are choices that you can make and they are found in what is certain no matter how difficult and uncomfortable it is. This is what James and the elders would discover. They would find a plan in the place of what they believed to be certain.

That what is certain will try to cause you to freeze and be unable to act or think what to do. Many are trapped in debt, brokenness, illness and failure today because they did not know what to do with what was certain. They had hoped that what was certain would go away. It never does. Their failure was in not making a decision to do anything to stop the certainty from happening.

Bible Wikileaks
Acts 21:21 “They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.”

So who informed them?
Whoever it was they had twisted the truth.

Paul was not teaching the Gentiles to turn away from Moses. However, he wasn’t telling the Gentiles who got saved that they should then follow the Jewish customs and laws. So the informant had taken what was actually true and made it into something quite different.
So who informed them?

Whoever it was could have been confronted by James and the elders of the Church, but were not. Were they themselves fooled by the informant? Or were they intimidated? Informants need to be disciplined if they have spoken falsely. 
So who informed them?

Whoever it was doesn’t seem to have a name because the information was more important than where it came from.

Sometimes the information can be so sensational that accuracy is not that important either, just ask those who read the many tabloids!
So who informed them?

I don’t know but informants can often be informed on! Gossipers can be gossiped about! Siggi Thorsdarson worshipped the ground Julian Assange walked on and was fast tracked through the Wikileaks organisation. He decided to hack into the Icelandic government and in order to authenticate his position with the hackers there he sent a secret film of him and Assange. But actually the leader of that hacking group had become informants for the FBI themselves. Siggi was sacked from Wikileaks on another matter and for revenge he entered into some sort of deal with the FBI and gave crucial information to them but for a very small $5000.

Informants don’t make great confidantes or friends. It is so today and it was then in the early Church.