There was some discussion and then Peter got up and spoke. He began his speech with incredible clarity and power:  Look what God is doing, look at the growth in the church, look at how fast it is expanding, look at the Holy Spirit in the Gentiles.  Why are we testing God by putting an unnecessary burden on these Gentiles?  Even our fathers could not obey the Law, and you're telling these Gentiles to get circumcised and follow all of it.  Peter is literally saying, "Why do you oppose God in seeing people come to know Christ? In seeing people join the race and run it as God desires all to do?  You are in fact standing in the God's way when you add to what Christ did on the cross."

Now James, the half brother of Jesus, speaks.  After affirming what Peter said, he gives us a phrase that is still echoing through all of church history: "Do not make it difficult for Gentiles to come to Christ".  He went on to state, "There are a couple of things we could ask them to do regarding moral behavior and eating food that would be so offensive to the Jews in their church that they would not be able to fellowship, but we will not saddle them with circumcision and a bunch of do's and don'ts." 

Please hear this:  The natural drift of the church (Christians) through history from the 1^st century to the 21^st century is to add to the message of the cross.  To make it difficult for people to come to Christ and follow him.  Our natural drift is to say the cross is enough theologically but.... 

Christ did all the hard work. He put his message on the bottom shelf so that all can come to him. But we take that message and we move it to the top shelf.  We say, "No, it really isn't like that."  The early church added knowledge of Latin to the simple message of the cross.  If you didn't know Latin you couldn't read the words of Jesus, and so you needed the experts to tell you how to know Christ and how to live.  And that wasn't enough. You needed to know the creeds, and get baptized in a particular way at a particular time.  The church continued to add to the cross. If you weren't part of the right denomination, well then, you were on the outside.  And so the church has always added to the message, moving the cross from the bottom shelf of easy access to the top shelf. 

We have a tendency to add to the message as well.  We say: "You need to sing like we sing, dress like we dress, talk like we talk, vote like we vote. You need to know the Bible like we know the Bible, educate like we educate, act like we act; you need to be like us."  When we thus make it difficult for people to know and follow Christ, we move the message of the cross to the top shelf, available only to those people that are like us and are willing to do exactly what we do. In so doing, we are standing in opposition to God; we are making it difficult for people to come to Christ. We are no different than the Christian Pharisees in Acts who were demanding that the Gentiles get circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law. 

This is not the way of Christ and it should not be the way of the church.  Our role is to remove every barrier that puts the message of the cross so high that only a few can reach it.  If we don't, we become the ones that, "cut in on those who want to run the race," as Paul writes in Galatians.  Be committed to remove every barrier that would hinder the "Gentiles" of our day from coming to know the joy, wonder, peace, forgiveness, adventure and challenge of being in the race that Christ has set before us. 

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.

On the Journey Together,

Jason Esposito

Senior Pastor