A Jerusalem Roadtrip
I am a Christian today because a group of first-century Christian leaders had the courage to go on a road trip to Jerusalem for a meeting.
You know the story but let me set the scene. Jerusalem was the hotbed of Jesus followers who were mostly Jewish or had adopted Jewish customs in their desire to follow Jesus. As I think about the fervor surrounding these new Christians, I also think about the layers of culture that served as “guardrails” for these new believers. Making sure their newfound love of Jesus didn’t dismantle cultural customs. Making sure they followed religious regulations. Making sure these new Christian communities were pure.
However, the good news of Jesus spread beyond Jerusalem. Two of our early Christian heroes, Barnabas and Paul, were out in the hinterlands in the town of Antioch bringing Gentiles to Christ. The Antioch church sweetly unified until Jewish teachers came along to make sure customs, religious regulations and purity were being observed. In hindsight, Acts 15 tells the story of an inflection point, a moment that defined the future of the church. Since I am a Gentile, I love this story.
There are unnumerable lessons to learn from the Jerusalem meeting in Acts 15 but below I would like to highlight two that hold special meaning for 21st century church leaders. Would you take a few moments to read the story of a road trip that changed the world?
Acts 15:1-31
While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent the delegates to Jerusalem, and they stopped along the way in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers. They told them—much to everyone’s joy—that the Gentiles, too, were being converted.
When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them. But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, “The Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses.”
So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue. At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. God knows people’s hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”
Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
When they had finished, James stood and said, “Brothers, listen to me. Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself. And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted…
“And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God…
Then the apostles and elders together with the whole church in Jerusalem chose delegates, and they sent them to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to report on this decision…
The messengers went at once to Antioch, where they called a general meeting of the believers and delivered the letter. And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message.
What a road trip. What a meeting.
I am humbled to work with leaders and churches who find themselves in changing times. The temptation is to stop taking risks, protect what we presently have and not mess up the church culture. Two challenges from that Jerusalem meeting have become embedded in my heart.
Can we risk reaching new people and bring them into the church? I know this sounds heretical to even say! Of course. However, dig deep into your soul as a church leader. Are we willing to risk church customs, regulations, and purity? New people can really mess up our church culture. Barnabas and Paul understood Judaism intimately but also wanted new people, Gentiles, to be in the body of Christ. They took a risk. Imagine the conversations at the Jerusalem meeting: we will lose the East Jerusalem house church if we change! We have been working so hard with the sect of the Pharisees and they will be gone! What about all the old people! I believe that the Jerusalem meeting lasted days. Were there risky conversations? Living in Antioch and not Jerusalem surely gave them the space to develop a Christ-centered message that made sense to Gentiles. Yet, when challenged, Barnabas and Paul were willing to risk their reputations by going to Jerusalem. They loved the Gentiles.
Road trips and Meetings about the future of the church takes time and wisdom. In the summer of 2022, Kim and I were blessed with 10 days in Israel. I had dreamed about Israel my entire life. What struck me was the distances between our biblical story sites. What took us two hours of travel in our cushy air-conditioned bus would have taken our first century brothers and sister days and days. Antioch to Jerusalem? My trusty bible map says 300-400 miles. Days. Do you think they had a Wednesday night meeting after bible class from 8-9:15pm? Or one Monday night? Undoubtedly, they spent days together working through the stories of Jesus, looking at Hebrew scriptures, telling their stories of the Spirit’s work and finding a way to invite new people into the Kingdom of God. Church leadership takes time and wisdom. Do you give enough time to grapple with the future of the church? Do we seek wisdom from many sources for the big questions? I wonder how many days the Antioch delegation stayed in Jerusalem with the wise leaders to consider the Gentile question. Are we too busy to do the same?
What a road trip. What a meeting. Would you wrestle with these two challenges? May there be future generations of Christians like me, a Gentile, that follow Jesus because of church leaders who would take a risk, go on the road and have a Jerusalem meeting.