#acts15

Missiologically speaking, many of us are in an Acts 15 situation. We are wrestling with what to do with Christians (and missionaries) from other parts of the world called to join the cause. Yet, God models for us, just like we see in Acts, the call to enlarge the table and invite others to belong with us.

- Harvey Kwiyani

God do not expect us to suffer from bearing the heaviest yoke which is far from His great gift, peace. So, we are surely not saved by the law of Moses but the grace of God, the redemption of the Lord. However, it is wise to keep law of Moses more practical by just abstaining from (1) food polluted by idols - we eat as Lord’s instruction. (2) sexual immorality  (3) meat from animals strangled (4) blood - both external and internal bleeding

The Bible tells us that the early Church was divided over the issue of whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to be followers of Jesus. The implications are that they would be converting to Judaism, and therefore expected to keep all of the Jewish laws. It would be almost impossible for a Jew to keep kosher while eating with a Gentile, so (among other reasons) it is assumed that a convert to Judaism would cut all prior ties they had with Gentiles. 

In a deeper and more meaningful sense, the Church was asking these converts to abandon everything that made them who they are, to revoke their most basic identity and to abandon all the people they cared about, and to fit within a narrow subset of human beings in order to be saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. 

This sounds like what the Church asks of LGBT converts.

“You need to ask Jesus to help you overcome your sinful same-sex attractions.”

“You need to live according to the genitals God gave you when you were born.”

“If you can’t be happy in a heterosexual marriage, then you should just be celibate for the rest of your life.”

Change who you are, abandon everyone you love, become like us, or God will not love you.

But what became of the Gentiles? Did they accept the Church’s terms, or were they driven out entirely and left without hope? Far from it!

Acts 15 tells us that Peter, before the assembled Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem, declared that "God, who knows the human heart, testified to them [Gentiles] by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?" (vv 8-10).

It was the Holy Spirit, working in and among Gentiles, testifying that God had called them to Christ as they are, that settled the matter. It wasn't rational debate, or good biblical exegesis, or systematic theology (although those things helped, and they’re certainly useful), but rather it was the Church recognizing that the Spirit had come upon the Gentiles as they were, and the Spirit made no distinction between Jew and Gentile in Christ.

It was recognizing that none of them assembled, nor any of their ancestors, would have given up being Jewish, given up who they were, where they came from, who they loved. They shouldn’t demand this from the Gentiles.

In the same way, no straight pastor, nor their ancestors, would bear the yoke they place on us in order to be Christian: they would not renounce their attraction or their desire for sexual and emotional intimacy and fulfillment, or abandon the people they loved, or reject the community they were a part of, or deny a basic and fundamental part of who they are, so neither should they demand it from us.

Further, this is not just a human’s words, but rather this is the witness of the Holy Spirit, working in us, among us, and through us to perform signs and wonders that glorify God and honor Jesus Christ our savior. The Spirit is among us already, as we are, reconciling people to God through the grace of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit is testifying to us that we are God’s children, chosen and redeemed by the blood of Jesus and made one with God by the power of the Holy Spirit

AS

WE

ARE.

The Spirit came upon Romans, Greeks, Galatians, Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Arabs, and all of God's beloved Gentile children, calling them as they were to join the Church and become one in Christ without destroying the diversity among them.

So too does the Spirit fall fresh upon Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Pansexuals, Asexuals, Transgender, Non-Binary, and all of God's beloved Non-Cishetero children, calling us as we are to become one Church in Christ our Messiah.