Peter Said, Paul Said

I wonder if Peter and Paul were friends. They had a lot in common. Both were passionate about their faith, living it out in impressive, larger-than-life fashion. Each had plenty of baggage from his background to remind him of past failures. Paul surely had those pesky memories of hunting down families and persecuting them. Peter must have had haunting recollections of telling Jesus he would never forsake him one moment only to forsake him three times that very same day. Also, both these men offer seemingly different presentations of the gospel message in the book of Acts.

Peter, a man of action, stresses action in his Acts chapter two sermon. "Repent and be baptized," he says. When Paul recounts his story of how he experienced salvation in Acts 22:16, he tells of meeting Jesus and Jesus instructing him to go see Ananias who says, "What are you waiting for? Go be baptized!" Ananias (as Paul retells it) feels a certain amount of urgency in this. In fact, it seems like a directive and not a mere suggestion.

However, equally plentiful are the messages from the two of these men that emphasize not OUR action but God's action in the salvation process. Referring to the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 15, Peter declared, "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us" (7-8). He continued by affirming that God "made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (9). Cornelius had received the Holy Spirit when he believed the Gospel. He was saved by faith-plus-nothing. Peter makes no mention of turning from sins, of baptism, of circumcision, or anything else. What's more, Peter specifically ruled out any role for works in our salvation, adding the powerful words, "Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they" (10-11).

Similarly, in the conversion of the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, the jailer asks the question, "…what must I do to be saved?" (30). Paul's answer is unequivocal: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved…" (31). (Yet even in this instance we see the jailer and his family urgently baptized in the middle of the night.)

So what do we do? Do we ignore baptism as so many of our evangelical brothers and sisters seem to do? Or do we speak only of baptism and refuse to call others “brothers and sisters” unless they agree with us? Today we look at what Peter and Paul said about it in the book of Acts.
Mark

Acts 2: 38

Remember the guy in the rainbow wig who used to go to all the NFL games with a John 3:16 sign? You can bet the guy was not a church of Christer because if he were and he had the chance to show the world the Bible’s most important verse, he would have selected Acts 2:38 instead.

Peter does a masterful job in this sermon. He convicts he audience of their compliance in the death of an innocent man with the logic of a prosecuting attorney and the emotion and passion of a gospel preacher. He also offers us a great outline for what we can tell others when we speak. “Change your mind, change your heart and die (be baptized)”…that’s what it means to decide to follow Christ. And those who do get the amazing gift of he Holy Spirit to guide them in their journey. At the heart of Peter’s plea seems to be this: “You have chosen against God in the past, it’s time to choose God.”

That “plan” has been called by us and others the “plan of salvation”. Peter lays it out pretty clearly and does not want anyone to miss it. (By the way, the most notable group to call it a “plan of salvation” and use that exact same phrase is the Mormons.)

This week we will look at Peter’s first sermon and what it says about him and his expectations for the church. We compare his message with Paul’s later messages in Acts which quite often seem to counter Peter’s “here is how to choose God” messages with “here is how God CHOSE me” messages. Can they both be true? And how dangerous is it to ignore one or the other?

Mark

Luke-Acts: Community of Place

We have spent the last several months talking about Luke and the significance of the table in Luke. We talked a lot about this "table" being a metaphor for God's intention, which is that people would be brought into fellowship with Him. As we venture into ACTS, Luke's second book, we see God’s Church emerge as the ultimate representation of that fellowship.

But the Church is about more than fellowship. Country-clubs, alumni groups and other social organizations provide great food and fellowship for people each week as well. CS Lewis reminds us that the church differs from these other organizations in that they all provide a "unity of likings". In other words, people with common interests and tastes and probably similar backgrounds and political opinions, tend to gather in social groups around the world. They "like" the same stuff and they join organizations (like golf clubs) that offer them the opportunity to hang out with people of similar likings. But more than a community of likings, the church is a community of place. People come together simply because it is THE place God calls them to be, not because they all like the same stuff or have similar backgrounds, but because it is God's institution to change them and the world around them.

Obviously there are potentially big problems for churches who deal improperly with the tendency of people to gravitate towards "likings". We see some churches that are really nothing more than a gathering of likings; everyone looks sort of the same, drives similar cars, even dress sort of alike each Sunday. Many people spend their lives church shopping, hunting for that place where they "like" everyone and everyone there likes the same sort of stuff they do. Such an environment and such an attitude produce churches that are an inch deep and a mile wide. My experience is that they are often big and slick, have great coffee bars and nifty websites. Many of their "likings" are best seen in their corporate worship expressions which are measured by a slicker-the-better mentality and judged by how entertaining they are for the masses.

I don't think railing against the "community of likings" mentality is the most useful thing I could say to our congregation at Springfield. One look around and it's pretty easy to see that we are not geared to keep that crowd. We are not all alike, not from the same social clubs or political parties or economic backgrounds. We don't put a lot of effort into making our services slick or entertaining. However, if we don't watch it we may be guilty of falling down the other side of that slippery slope. The other side is perhaps not as shallow, but if left unchecked, can be as arrogant as the other side is shallow. It's a side which I might call the "if-you-don't-like-it-lump-it" side. This side correctly says, "We are not here to entertain you!" Then, rather than admit there might be room for diversity in what people like and don't like...we draw up a list as long as your arm of Biblical reasons to justify our dislike for the community of likings crowd. This side of the coin refuses to admit that actually liking something (say a worship service or a Bible study group) is possible.

This week we will talk about how we make those decisions by looking at how the early church used to make those decisions.

Mark

More Thoughts for the New Year

Beginning in November, several ladies participated in an e-mail study group using the book Preparing My Heart for Advent.* Below are some snippets from the devotionals for December 26 through January 6. May they bless the start of your New Year:

Did you know God knows your name? He knows everything about you (see Jeremiah 1:5). He knows exactly what you need and wants to give it to you. He is the giver of all perfect gifts [James 1: 17] . . . But what if you wanted to give God a gift? How would you know what He wanted? The same way you choose a friend’s gift. You need to spend time with Him and study about Him. You need to ask Him questions to know how to please Him and walk in His light (p. 137).

. . . we can look forward to deepening our relationship with God, as well as living with the ultimate hope of seeing Him face to face (p. 138).

O come all ye who are faithful, come adore Jesus all year long. And in His presence may you feel His life and His light (p. 143).

Let your goals reflect your priorities: God, spouse, children, family, others . . . Just like the psalmist, ask God how you can best spend your time to gain a heart of wisdom (p. 144).

Who are you living for this year? Philippians 1: 21 reads, “For to me, to live is Christ” (p. 146).

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5: 9) . . . In this new year, keep your accounts short. Give yourself the gift of forgiveness . . . (p. 148).

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5: 11a) . . . Isn’t it awesome that we have such a powerful positive tool to use for God’s glory? Let us step out in encouragement and love (p. 150).

*Ann Marie Stewart ©2005