Text for the Week: On Guidance

Scripture: Acts 15:6-21

⁶ The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter. ⁷ After much debate, Peter stood and addressed them, “Fellow believers, you know that, early on, God chose me from among you as the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and come to believe. ⁸ God, who knows people’s deepest thoughts and desires, confirmed this by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. ⁹ He made no distinction between us and them, but purified their deepest thoughts and desires through faith. ¹⁰ Why then are you now challenging God by placing a burden on the shoulders of these disciples that neither we nor our ancestors could bear? ¹¹ On the contrary, we believe that we and they are saved in the same way, by the grace of the Lord Jesus.”

¹² The entire assembly fell quiet as they listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God did among the Gentiles through their activity. ¹³ When Barnabas and Paul also fell silent, James responded, “Fellow believers, listen to me. ¹⁴ Simon reported how, in his kindness, God came to the Gentiles in the first place, to raise up from them a people of God. ¹⁵ The prophets’ words agree with this; as it is written,

¹⁶ After this I will return,
        and I will rebuild David’s fallen tent;
        I will rebuild what has been torn down.
            I will restore it
¹⁷             so that the rest of humanity will seek the Lord,
                even all the Gentiles who belong to me.
The Lord says this, the one who does these things
¹⁸     known from earliest times.

¹⁹ “Therefore, I conclude that we shouldn’t create problems for Gentiles who turn to God. ²⁰ Instead, we should write a letter, telling them to avoid the pollution associated with idols, sexual immorality, eating meat from strangled animals, and consuming blood. ²¹ After all, Moses has been proclaimed in every city for a long time, and is read aloud every Sabbath in every synagogue.”

Questions

1. Why does everyone present at the council seem to defer to Peter and James with only a few comments from Paul and Barnabas?
2. What can we learn from Acts about resolving difficulty and making decisions in the church?

Background

Related Scriptures: Exodus 18:17-23, Acts 13:2, 18:24-28, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Much of the Book of Acts is about is centered on relating how the Early Church handled controversies and theological disagreements. This theme is intertwined with the Church’s evangelism and expansion to show that as more people come to know Jesus the Church is forced to learn how to resolve conflict.

The restrictions put in place by the Apostles’ for the gentile believers all reflect connections to idolatry and would show a complete commitment to their new faith.

Though Acts is full of visions and other special revelations to people it is often in a group that decisions are made

Reflection

In Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster speaks of guidance, particularly corporate guidance, as perhaps the most difficult of disciplines for Americans because of our commitment to individualism. This is very true, on of the virtues of the West is independence and we seek cleave to our decision making rights fiercely. We feed that innate idea that I am in control of my life and no one will tell me what to do. Yet, throughout the New Testament we see corporate language used for both decision making and discipline. When we look through the pages of Acts we find the disciples making decisions corporately, whether in Acts 15 where they are deciding how to include Gentiles into their congregations or in places like Acts 13:2 where Barnabas and Paul are sent as missionaries.

The expectation of the Early Church was that God was going to speak through the Holy Spirit as we see explicitly stated in Acts 13 & implicit in Acts 15. But they expected this to happen through the collective of the Church community and not to individuals. Over the centuries the church seems to have lost this expectation and now if most Christians expect God to speak they believe God will address individual believers about their individual lives or speak through the hierarchy of the church. Most Christians do not have the desire or expectation that God will address the community of faith through the corporate actions of the congregation, “God speaks to the church through the pastor and about my life to me.” But if this were the case then there would be no need for Paul to consistently write about how the Holy Spirit gives gifts to everyone. Paul writes that we all have gifts in the Spirit because we are all expected to take part in the communal work of the Spirit, both the active works and the passive listening. The Church is meant to come together as one body listening to the needs presented and to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The difficulty with the discipline of guidance is that it is that it cannot be truly practiced in isolation, yes God may speak to me in some way as an individual but we are called to “test the Spirits” which requires that in some way through others God will confirm that message. Further, the discipline of guidance cannot be practiced in a vacuum away from other disciplines. So far this Lent I have looked at the Spiritual disciplines of prayer, studying Scripture, generosity, and service and in order to practice guidance we must first be committed in some way to each of these. And perhaps more than any other discipline we must be committed to displaying the humility of listening, not simply listening to others, but truly listening to God. it is a difficult thing to let go of control and to allow others to guide you, to trust that they see more clearly than you do and that they are have your best interests at heart. It is in many ways the step of faith that defines our faith in God, and it is not something to take lightly. So far I have acknowledged it is difficult to sit under the guidance of another, but it is also difficult to realize that this same discipline requires me to listen to God because I may be called upon to help a group guide another. The fact that God guides us through the collective whole means that at one time I will be the follower but at another I might be thrust into the responsibility of leading. And when we recognize this we recognize the importance of developing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as well as deep, trusting, and loving relationships within the Church because God may use these people to guide me at the points that I genuinely need to hear from God and I may do the same for them. Being a community that intentionally meets together to pray and seek God’s wisdom in our lives is one of the most vulnerable places to be, but it is in our vulnerability that we display true faith. Faith is not found in doing things that are easy and comfortable, faith is displayed when we lack certainly but reach out our hand to take hold of another despite our misgivings. When we gather with believers to be guided by God in community we display not simply our love for God but our love for our neighbors and church as well.