Today is Palm Sunday, the day the church celebrates Jesus’ triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, only to be crucified by the end of the week. There’s one character in the story of Jesus’ ride into town that has just captured my imagination. This character shares the spotlight with Jesus, but I don’t think we give him or her enough time. Can you guess who I’m talking about?… The donkey!

I was reading a book for my Doctorate of Ministry that talked about the donkey, and what the author said captured my imagination. Out of that came a deep dive into the story of the donkey in the Bible. So out of that research, I want to share with you my Ode to a Donkey today. And maybe you’re wondering, “Why should I care about a donkey? Why are you so interested in donkeys?”

Donkeys are amazing. Haven’t you heard of Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey who carried gifts for Santa “Because the reindeer cannot climb the hills of Italy?” Or maybe you’ve sung the Christmas Song, “What Child is this?” that sings of “Where ox and donkeys are feeding?” That’s the polite version. Maybe you prefer to watch Shrek and Donkey? “You might have seen a housefly. Maybe even a super-fly. But I bet you ain’t never seen a donkey fly!” And if you don’t know what that means, you’ll have to watch Shrek. 

Can you think of any Bible stories that have a donkey in them? Mary, Joseph, and the birth of Jesus, right? Wrong! The Bible doesn’t say there was a donkey there. There’s a Christmas song called “Jog Along Little Donkey” and it’s complete propaganda, fake news! We have to go much further back for donkey’s major entry into the story, back to the first book of the Bible. If you’re not paying attention, you might miss him.

Genesis 22:1-3 (ESV)

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Do you all remember the story? Abraham didn’t have a child till he turned a 100 years old. He didn’t think he and his wife could have one, but God gave them their precious baby boy Isaac. But then God tests Abraham. He tells him to go and sacrifice his son, and Abraham obeys. But let’s stop and notice the donkey’s place in the story. The donkey isn’t the sacrifice, but he makes sure the wood or Isaac or even Abraham get to the place of sacrifice. A typical donkey can carry about 125 pounds. If a donkey colt could carry Jesus, it could have carried Isaac. Then Abraham places the wood on his son, like a cross, to carry it up mount Moriah.

I also don’t want us to miss something special. Mount Moriah, the place Abraham nearly offers his son, is the place where the temple would be built. Mount Moriah is Jerusalem, the mountain Jesus rode up to on his triumphant entry. So just like when Abraham’s donkey carried the wood for the sacrifice to the future home of Jerusalem, the donkey at the triumphant entry is carrying another sacrifice, this time the true and final sacrifice, to the same exact city, with calvary just outside its walls. God provides a ram to save Isaac, and he provides the lamb of God to save us.

I’ve created a list of five things I love about donkeys. This is the first one.

1) Donkeys can carry heavy burdens.

When people think of donkeys, they think of something sturdy, that can carry a burden. That’s why they call donkeys “beasts of burden.” And in the opening pages of Genesis we find a donkey, carrying a burden, foreshadowing that one day one of his great-great-great-great grand-donkeys would carry another burden, a pure and holy sacrifice, a much heavier load, the savior of the world. The donkey is caring Christ Jesus, t

Anglican theologian N. T. Wright tells the story of one of Britain’s most promising political leaders in the 1960s, George Brown.

When he was a young man, [George Brown] said, he knew that things had to be changed. British society was in a mess; someone needed to get to the levers of power and make things happen, make things different. So he went into politics. But in local politics, even once he’d been elected to council office, he discovered that neither he nor the council had any real power. Things were decided elsewhere. So he decided to run for Parliament. But, he said, when he got into Parliament, he found that members of Parliament didn’t have any real power. They could talk, and they could vote, but nothing much seemed to change, and the real decisions still seemed to happen somewhere else. So he pushed his way to the front and got into the Cabinet. To his amazement, it was the same there. And even when he got within one place of the top of the tree, to be Deputy Prime Minister under Harold Wilson, he looked around and still couldn’t see where the real power lay. Everyone just seemed to be doing the next thing that came to hand. Things happened but it wasn’t obvious why. Where was the power? – Acts for Everyone, Part Twoby N. T. Wright

One author defines power this way. “Power is the ability to make something of the world.” Power is the ability to change situations and circumstances around us. So where can we find that kind of power? Is power in politics like George Brown hoped? Is power somewhere else? On Wallstreet? In big banks? Do “diamond hands” hold all the GameStop power? When you think about your own life, who has the power? Do you? Your spouse? Your parents? Your employer? Your teacher? Who makes things happen? What would you do to be empowered? What would you do to take control? Run for office? Start a business? Marry rich?

Acts 19 is about power, three types of power: religious power, economic power, and Jesus power. Today we’re going to look at how religious power contrasts with the power of Christ. In part two, we’ll look at economic power.

Religious power

Religious power uses religion, prayer, worship, liturgy, church, and even supernatural events to exert its control over the world. If “power is the ability to make something of the world,” religious power seeks to use religion or even spirits to control people to make something of the world.

a. Religious power values control over the world.

Paul arrived in Ephesus, a place of religious, even supernatural, power. Ephesus had a population of 250,000 people, a quarter a million residents. It is a port city where trade flourishes. It is an economic powerhouse. But most importantly, the temple of Artemis is there. The temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world. This picture shows what we think it might have looked like. Inside was an image of Artemis, which the people worshipped, and they believed she fell from heaven (Acts 19:35). The temple functioned as a place of sacrifice, a place of worship, and even a bank.

As a mother goddess Artemis possessed fertility and reproductive power that caused the earth to blossom with life of all kinds. She was the goddess of childbirth and a nourishing mother to all. Animals and wildlife were also a part of her domain and under her control. – Acts Zondervan

The people of Ephesus used cultic worship and magic letters and amulets to exert power. They believed Artemis could change their fate. There was religious, even supernatural power at Ephesus. People believed in Artemis for a reason. I suspect that things happened when they worshipped her. If you want to have a healthy baby and a safe delivery, go to Artemis. If you want your crop harvest to be plentiful, go to Artemis.

We used to have a Hindu temple in the same business complex as our CrossFit gym. Sometimes when I was running around the building, I would see the priests out blessing the cars with fruits and flower offerings. If you want your c

Thank you Rob Cooper for guest-preaching at Cornerstone. We’ve recommended another one of Rob’s sermons here or you can access Rob’s sermon archive here. You can find a PDF of his sermon slides below.

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Please welcome Rob Cooper’s family. Top row: Bethany, Nadine, Zachoia.  Bottom row: Philip, Jonathan, Elias. Center: Rob.

Amy and Mack are Christians. They grew up going to church with their parents, and they go on Easter, Christmas, and about once a month. They go every month because they want their two daughters to have good morals. They want them to have Christian values. It will give them their best chance of success in life, and isn’t that what God wants anyway? They send their daughters to Vacation Bible School (VBS) every summer for good measure.

Amy’s sister just baptized her daughter, and Amy stood right there with her to be her niece’s godmother. Mack always makes sure that when they go to church, they write a check. He feels good about giving. He’s done his part. Amy and Mack consider themselves to be good people. They give to charity, and they donate to the food pantry. When they fill out their medical forms at the doctor’s office, they always mark “Christian” and write their church’s name. They are always friendly with the pastor and joke about the football game with him. They’re happy. It feels good to be Christian, at least, almost Christian. They don’t know Jesus said:

Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

If Amy and Mack heard these words, that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord will get into heaven, it might give them pause to reassess their lives. What about you? When you hear those words, do you need to reassess? Are you really a Christian? Or just a cultural Christian? Do you just go through the motions? Are you calling out “Lord, Lord” but on that final day, Jesus will say, “Depart from me?”

But what if you are a Christian? How can you help those people around you like Amy and Mack? How can you reach out to the “almost Christians” in your life? These are the cultural Christians, the people who think they’re going to heaven but don’t have saving faith in Jesus Christ, and their lives don’t show any fruit of knowing Christ. How should we reach them?

Like Paul, we should be mindful of almost Christians. (Acts 18:18-23)

Paul is drawing his second missionary journey to a close. He was just in Corinth for 18 months and is about to make his way back to Jerusalem and then up north to Antioch. Just before he leaves the region of Corinth, he goes through a religious ceremony. When you and I think of a religious ceremony, we probably think of lighting a candle or praying or burning incense. But Paul goes to the barbershop.

Acts 18:18 (ESV)

After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

Paul cuts his hair because he has taken a Nazarite vow. If you go back to numbers 6, you can read how men or women could take a Nazirite vow and separate themselves for the Lord (Num 6:1-2). They weren’t supposed to drink wine or alcohol, eat grapes, touch a dead body, or cut their hair (Num 6:3-12). You may remember Samson was a Nazarene, just not a very obedient one (Num 13:5). He touched the carcass of a dead lion and allowed his hair to be cut, which led to his death. When you finished this vow, you took your hair and burned it at the temple in Jerusalem. It was sacred, special, and meant a lot to the Jews in Jerusalem.

Even today, we can think of shaving the head as something special. My sister-in-law had ALL as a child, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. She often participates in St. Baldrick’s Day. The charity raises funds by people shaving their heads to help kids with cancer. I did it one year. It was the worst haircut I ever had, but it meant a lot to her. I think that’s kind of like what Paul is doing. He doesn’t shave his head and

What do you think of when you hear the word “Missionaries?” I sometimes think of two young men, dressed in blue khakis, wearing white shirts and ties. They’re wearing nametags, “Elder Tim” and “Elder Rob.” Mormon missionaries. I remember the time I filled out a form on their website to receive a free copy of the Book of Mormon, and the confirmation page said, “Some missionaries will be by to deliver it soon.” I was like, what?! I thought they’d mail it to me.

When the Mormon missionaries showed up at my house, I tried to share the gospel with them. I shared how at the cross, Jesus not only pays for our sins, but he makes us holy. He makes us righteous. They’d never heard that before. I tried to be a missionary to the missionaries.

Have you ever been on a missions trip? When I was ten, my family took a Missions Trip to Mexico, where we helped out at an orphanage and helped repair a house for a family. When I was about fourteen, I went on a mission trip to Argentina, where we teamed up with some local churches and helped them do outreach through gospel performances. I got to be the mime that tried wealth and partying and then turned to Jesus. Around then, I also helped out on a Missions Trip to Nebraska, where our middle-school team washed dishes at a Christian camp for a week. More recently, I’ve gone to France a couple of times.

Have you ever been on a mission trip? What do you think of it? When I told my old boss we were going to Argentina, she told me she didn’t think it was right for us to proselytize. What do you think? Was it right or wrong for my church to go do gospel skits in the park in Santiago del Estero and Catamarca, Argentina? My generation, Christian Millennials, are conflicted about missions. According to Barna:

96% of Christian millennials agree that “Part of my faith means being a witness about Jesus.”

94% of Christian millennials agree that “The best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.”

47% of Christian millennials agree with this statement, “It is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”

So, we feel rather conflicted. We want people to know Jesus, but we think it’s wrong to be a missionary? Where are you at? Do you agree? Disagree? Wherever you’re at, I want to put a few ideas in your head today that might help you understand what the Bible says. The concept of mission comes from God himself.

Our God is a God of mission.

As my missions professor taught us, the idea of mission is actually “rooted in the heart of God.” There is something about God’s character that mission flows out of who he is. We see this as far back as Genesis when God blessed Abraham, his descends, and said Israel would be a blessing to the whole world.

Genesis 12:2-3 (ESV)

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God took Abraham and his family, and through them, blessed the whole world. It’s through his line and his descendants that we get Jesus, God’s blessing for all peoples. The prophet Isaiah said this of Israel.

Isaiah 49:6b (ESV)

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Our God wants to send out his salvation through his people to the end of the earth. Our God is a God of mission. It’s in his being. “Missions” (plural) flows out of “mission” (singular).[1] This means the reason believers share about Christ with the hopes of others coming to faith in Jesus is because God wants to rescue and reconcile all peoples. He likes to work through us to do it. This is called the:

“Missio Dei” (Mission of God)

That’s Latin for “Mission of God” or the “sending of God.” God wants to send his people out into the world to accomplish his mission. That’s why we

I want us to take some time this morning and think about our communities, the places where we live. I especially want us to think about Westford, the community God has placed us in. As we think about our towns, think of some of the things you really like about your community. What do you appreciate?

I love Westford. It’s a beautiful town, with lots of winding roadways, big beautiful houses, land, and yet there’s also a nice modern part of town with doctor’s offices, Whole Foods, Market Basket, and some great restaurants. I personally like the craft beer shop in Westford, although it’s been a while since I’ve been there.

I also appreciate the good school system in Westford. Westford takes a lot of pride in giving its kids a great education. I’ve never seen a town-run government. That’s pretty interesting. One of the upside-sides of it is anyone can have their voice heard. At the Westford last annual meeting I attended, they were debating budgeting funds for a park, and a teenage boy got up and talked about he hoped there would be a dock for their rowing team. That’s really cool that he felt that civically engaged that he could do that. I serve on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee. I appreciate Westford trying to be more mindful of inclusion and being pro-active about addressing racial inequity. Westford has a great library, sports teams.

Westford can kind of seem like it has it all. But what about when those good things become our ultimate things? If we look more closely at a great education, a good education can be a way to prove that you’re better than others, smarter than them. A great job can be a way to show you don’t need to depend on anyone else or to purchase all the things you really want in life. But a big house won’t fill that even bigger hole inside our hearts. A town-run government has lots of benefits, but as many of you know, they can get pretty uncharitable, pretty mean. When good things become ultimate things, that’s what we call idolatry.

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” Timothy Keller

When a good thing becomes a, I must have it, or I’ll feel depressed; that’s a sign it’s an idol. People are made to worship. God designed us to worship him, but when we don’t worship him, we’ll find something else to worship, maybe even ourselves. The question for us as a church, and as individuals on our frontlines, is this… Does all the idolatry break your heart? Does it matter to you that our neighbors are worshipping false gods? Does it matter that our coworkers and classmates aren’t really living life to its fullest because their focus is on living life to its fullest and not God himself?

It tore the Apostle Paul up inside when he walked through the city of Athens and saw all the idols. It says, “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” The NET Bible says, “his spirit was greatly upset.” It really bothered him when he saw all the idols. It made him angry, frustrated, just like when he encountered the possessed girl back in Acts 16. When we see the idols in our community, how does it make us feel? Does it bother us? Does it vex us?

If I’m honest with myself, no, not really. But I think that says more about my heart and my awareness than anything else. If I really understood the afront my neighbor’s worship of idols is to God’s glory, and if I really understood how crippling it is to their souls, and if I really understood how lost my neighbors, and community and city are, I think I’d feel more like Paul feels.

We’re supposed to care about the lostness of our city. (Acts 17:16)

We’re supposed to care about who our neighbor worships. It’s been said whatever building in your city is the largest is probably your idol.[1] In New York City, that might be some financial buildings. But did you know some have called Boston and Ca

My wife and I watched the Broadway Musical Hamilton last summer on Disney+. All the songs are brilliant, but I was reminded of one of them as I thought about today’s sermon. Have you heard the one about the battle of Yorktown? Washington is trying to defeat General Cornwallis, and he sends Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton to capture two key positions. In the musical, as they’re going into battle, they sing about what they’re trying to accomplish. They’re trying to create a new and free nation, which will flip their world upside down. They sing, “Till the world turns upside down… Till the world turns upside down!” Hamilton and his men actually charged a quarter mile without their guns loaded so they could take their enemies by surprise. It was pretty bold, and when they win the Revolutionary war, they sing, “The world turned upside down. . . The world turned upside down.”

They had a goal to win freedom and turn the world upside-down. They did it through war, violence, diplomacy, and politics. They over-powered their enemies, and that’s how our nation won its freedom. The world turned upside down. By the end of our passage today, an angry mob sings a similar tune about Paul and his mission. They shout about Paul and his associates, “These men who have turned the world upside down. . .” But they didn’t do it through war, violence, diplomacy, or politics. They did it by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The early Christians turned the world upside-down by telling others about their upside-down king and living like his upside-down followers. Today I want to talk about 1) the upside-down king, 2) the upside-down kingdom, and 3) our upside-down church. When we truly get what the gospel is, it should turn our whole world upside-down. And it all begins with…

The Upside-Down King

Paul and his team are on their second missionary journey, this time into Europe. Thessalonica is a strategic trade city in Northern Greece located on the shores of the Aegean sea and along the Via Egnatia Roman highway. When Paul arrives there, they go preach in the synagogue. He tells the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah and that he suffered and died.

Acts 17:2b-3 (ESV)

. . . [Paul] reasoned with them from the Scriptures,  explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. According to the Hebrew scriptures, the Messiah was supposed to be from King David’s line and was going to rescue the people of Israel (2 Samuel 7). Over time this promise became less about healing the people’s relationship with God and more about casting out their foreign oppressors, the Romans. But if we look closely at Scripture, we see the Messiah was always going to suffer.

Genesis 22 is the story of Abraham nearly sacrificing his son Isaac, which pointed forward to God the Father sacrificing his son on the cross.

Isaiah 53 talks prophesied the Messiah would be a suffering servant, someone who would be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

Psalm 22 is like the Isaiah 53 of the psalms. As Jesus hung suffering on the cross, he actually recited Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

But when Paul says, “Jesus is the Messiah, and he had to suffer and die,” it doesn’t make sense to many of his listeners. Some get it. Some stop, listen and believe, but others just get angry. They gather up all the rough characters in town and start a riot. That’s when they start shouting:

Acts 17:7b (ESV)

“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also . . . and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

Paul is offending the Jews for saying their Messiah, which means their promised King, suffered and died. But he also offends the Greeks and Romans because he recognizes Jesus is king, which threatens Caesar and his power. To

Christianity is like a nail; the harder you hit it, the deeper it goes.[1] In 1966, Mao cast out Western missionaries and persecuted Christians. A Star in the East reports, “Ironically, the persecution of Protestants may have been the single most beneficial event for the success of the Christianity in China!”

It transformed the Chinese Christian movement into a local movement led by the Chinese.

It got rid of the liberal missionaries who didn’t believe in Christ.

Those who endured genuinely believed in Christ.

Christianity is like a nail; the harder you hit it, the deeper it goes. Do you think that’s true of the church in America? If our country persecuted us, would we go deeper into Christ and become more faithful Christians? Would we protest? Or would we rejoice? Would we see trial as an opportunity or a hardship?

Paul and Silas, and the early Christians face persecution in Philippi. Paul was going outside the city to the place of prayer, and a possessed girl follows him. She is known for telling fortunes and making her masters money. The slave girl cries out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” (v17)

Paul loses his temper. He grows so annoyed he calls her demon out, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Of course, it comes out of her, and she loses her abilities, and it ruins her owner’s business. They seize Paul and Silas and throw them into jail, but not before a mob beats them with rods. Can you imagine an angry, sweaty mob surrounding you and beating you with rods?

My brother and I drove to our town’s marina one night, and there was a prom going on at the big lodge by the lake. Some of the high-schoolers were outside around a car. They came over to us and asked us if we had poured mustard on their vehicle. We hadn’t. We didn’t even know who they were. We went and got in our car, and as we were driving out, they started running after our car, like they were going to stop us or something. We sped away, and I did not speak words of edification as we left. It was pretty scary.

What Paul and Silas experienced was more like the riot we saw on the news on January 6. That’s like what they experienced. The magistrates beat them, threw them in prison, and shackled their feet. But they weren’t the ones rioting. They were the victims of the riot. They loved Jesus, and Paul had a short temper. Do you think it was partially Paul’s fault they were thrown in prison? I kind of do. So, is what Paul experienced really persecution or his own fault? Yes! I want to show you a chart I made asking this question (see slide at the bottom of this post):

Is it really Christian persecution (or just my fault)?

How can we tell if what we experience is real persecution or just my fault? First, there has to be some experience of suffering. I don’t mean sickness or the relational struggles we usually face. I mean suffering caused by someone else. If suffering is a result of…

Faithfully following Jesus & sharing him

This is persecution. Jesus taught his disciples that any who faithfully follow him will also face suffering.

John 15:18, 20b, 21 (ESV)

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. . . . If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. . . . But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”

If they persecuted Jesus, they’ll persecute his followers. If you are truly following Jesus, you should expect to face persecution in some form. This is dependent on them persecuting you “on account of my name.” It has to be for the name of Jesus, as opposed to some other reason, for it to be actual persecution. This brings us back to Paul because there’s another reason people suffer.

Behaving badly

Paul got beat up (outside of God providentially allowing it) because he lost his temper. That doesn’t excuse what they did, but he also had a role in it. Maybe the town would have eventually rise

In today’s text, I want to tell you about three things. I want to tell you about something I find strangely comforting, something I find oh so convicting, and something I find incredibly hopeful. 

In that way, it kind of reminds me of 495. I find the sound of I-495 strangely comforting. When I wake up in the morning, if I listen carefully, I can hear the white-noise buzz of 495. When I hear the cars whizzing by, the truck beds jostling, and the sound of traffic, I know the world hasn’t ended yet. Things are still happening. It’s strangely comforting. Today, in the Bible, I want to tell you about…

Something I find strangely comforting…

Just like I find the sound of traffic strangely comforting, I find today’s passage strangely comforting. Paul and Barnabas just wrapped up one of the biggest church fights of all time, the Jerusalem council. The early Christians were debating over whether non-Jewish Gentiles had to be circumcised to become Christians or not. Paul and Barnabas and Peter argue that they don’t need to be circumcised, and their side wins. 

The council writes a letter about the freedom the Gentiles have, and Paul and Barnabas take the letter to Antioch where they read it and then stay there teaching and preaching. Then Paul wants to go back to visit some of the churches they started before. There’s no Tik Tok, or Facebook, or Instagram, or email back then, and they want to know how the churches are doing. But then they get in a big fight. 

Acts 15:36-41 (ESV)

36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

On their first missionary journey, right after leaving Cyprus, Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark sailed north to Perga in Pamphylia, the shores of modern-day Turkey. But as soon as they arrive, John Mark abandons them (Acts 15:13). He turns around and goes home. We don’t know why. Many think this John Mark is the same as the young man who ran away naked in the garden when Jesus was betrayed (Mark 14:51-52). So maybe he has a history of running away when things get hard. Paul doesn’t want to take him.

Paul and Barnabas get in an all out fight in the church. I don’t think it went as far as fisticuffs, but the word for “sharp disagreement” (paroxysmos) means they had it out.  They had “a huge row.” The Greek says they were provoked, it was like the church was convulsing, writhing, thrashing. Have you ever thrashed around in your bed because you felt sick to your stomach? That’s what happens to their friendship.

How did they get to here? To get to that point of anger, you have to feel pretty justified. Barnabas probably felt angry for several reasons. First, John Mark was his cousin (Col 4:10). “When you mess with my family, you mess with me.” Second, Barnabas gave Paul the benefit of the doubt when he converted from murdering Christians to becoming one of them (Acts 9:27). Surely, what John Mark had done was not so bad? How could Paul judge John Mark so harshly, and forget their history? Barnabas meant encourager. He’s like one of those perpetually nice people, who when they finally get mad, you know it must be bad. He must be right.

How about Paul? Why did he get so mad? Because he loved the gospel, and he might be holding some resentment in his heart. Remember when the pro-circumcision party traveled from Jerusalem northward to Antioch to tell them they all had to be circumcised to be Christians, even the Gentiles? Wel

I wrote this sermon last week on Thursday, the day after the clash at the capitol. You probably watched the news and saw the pictures of journalists and politicians taking cover. I think the image I was most startled by was of the barricaded door into the House Chamber with the five agents with their guns drawn. The glass was broken and in another picture you could see another’s man’s face on the other side of the doorway.

These images and memories got me thinking about the world where Paul, Peter, Barnabas, and the other Christians lived. I think there are some similarities. The New Testament took place in a time of tension and conflict. They lived under Rome’s control. Rome was tolerant and incredibly intolerant at the same time. If you worshipped their gods and emperor, they allowed you to worship your gods too. You could believe whatever you wanted as long as you played lip-service to what they believed. They showed some leniency to the Jews, depending on the emperor, but were quick to take away their freedoms. 

Rome reminds me of our more liberal culture. You can believe whatever you want, all you have to say is the words, “My truth.” “This is true for me, but I wouldn’t want to impose my truth on your beliefs.” The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth, which is a self-contradiction. This perspective leads to alienation and isolation of any who disagree. Rome and many of the Greeks Paul encounters on his missionary journeys were both tolerant and quite intolerant of other beliefs.

But there was also a huge segment of the population that was intolerant not because of their liberalism, but because of their conservatism. In the New Testament we read about the zealots, violent insurrectionists who wanted to restore Judea to an independent statehood. How about the religious leaders in Jerusalem who stone Stephen and try to kill the Apostle Paul? They are just trying to preserve their religious traditions, their culture, their nation. They’re zealous for God and his laws, or so they think.

Then we encounter Christians. Christians were different than everyone else. They didn’t fall into the trap of “us” vs. “them” thinking. Instead, they established a gracious counterculture, someplace entirely different than anything else the world had seen. Christians established churches where liberal Romans, enlightened Greeks, and conservative Jews worshipped the one true God and had community.

The Church – A Gracious Counterculture

There is a moment in the early church’s history when we could have divided into factions, conservative vs. liberal, but we don’t. A group of Pharisaical believers, claiming to be sent from James, Jesus’ brother, the leader of the Jerusalem church (Gal 2:11), travel to Antioch in Northern Syria. Jerusalem was an older more conservative church full of believers who lived and walked with Jesus. This delegation claims the church sent them, even though they did not (Acts 15:24). They go and the wreak havoc at Antioch.

This young church at Antioch was sending out missionaries all over the world. They were trying new things. They were rather liberal in the way they did church, it didn’t matter if you were Jew or Gentile. The Pharisees group argue that Peter shouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore, maybe because it’s causing Jews in Jerusalem to not take Christianity seriously (Gal 2:11-12). At this point, the whole church could have imploded. They could have formed one faction of conservative Jews who required circumcision to join their ranks. The other faction could have formed from liberal Antioch who are out there on mission. Instead of self-destructing, the church keeps the peace and stays unified. How did they do it? How can we do it today?

The church works it out by meeting up in Jerusalem for a council to decide the issue, whether or not Gentiles need to become circumcised and obey the law to become Christians. Peter gets up and says that what we need is grace. Grace is the gift of God’s forgiv