Displaced

March 26

Read: Acts 21,22

I am afraid to say it, but true followers of Christ will never be totally “at home” this side of eternity. Genuine Christ followers will always end up straddling multiple worlds… they will be caught in the crossfire of “religion” (the “establishment”) and the world’s systems. Jesus loves us enough to never let us get TOO comfortable with our answer… our systems… our “camps”. More often than not you will find yourself “too worldly” for one group and “not engaged with the world enough” for the other… too “outward focused” for one church and “too inward” focused for the other. One day you will be told you need to love Jesus with your “mind” and then the next you will be told that it is not about knowledge but “feeling and relationship”. Our denominations pit us against one another. You will probably never be fully one denomination or another… at least not if you are walking with the Jesus closely. One day you may wake up and find out you are not “baptist” enough… or too “presbyterian… or too “liturgical”… or too “traditional”… or even too “modern”. If this is you, don’t worry… you are not alone. The deeper one digs into their relationship with the Lord, the less formulaic the world becomes. The more that we think we have it “all figured out”, the greater the likelihood that God is going to disrupt our lives and show us how much more there is to experience and know. These chapters of Acts show us this truth lived out in Paul.

On his way back to Jerusalem, Paul makes several stops to see fellow believers on his way. He knows this is the last time he will see them. Each stop is filled with tears and encouragement. Fellow Christians beg him to stay home… to not go to Jerusalem: “And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” (v. 21:4) In this instance, walking with the Spirit for Paul meant ignoring their advice. He couldn’t simply settle in their world… he needed to keep moving. He was restless in a good way. What is stunning is that it says these fellow Christians were encouraging him not to go “through the Spirit”. It seems like these people were Spirit led to tell Paul one thing that the Spirit in him was going to tell him to eventually ignore and keep moving! Maybe it was just so that he would spend those 7 days with them… who knows. The point is that Paul was a part of their world… and yet not 100%… he had to keep going and do something they didn’t see the value in doing. It didn’t make sense to them to intentionally go someplace that you knew would hold trouble for you! This is played out a second time in Caesarea at Philip’s house. (v.8-14) The prophet Agabus affirms that Paul is headed towards trouble. Even the people traveling with Paul were starting to doubt. Look at what they say: “When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.” (v.12) This was once a place where Paul would have remained… where he would have “fit in”… but now the time had come for him to move on. He was saying his final goodbyes. Paul was ready!

Once Paul finally arrives in Jerusalem he is met by his brothers in Christ who “receive him gladly”. (v.17) He gathers with “James and all the elders'' of the church in Jerusalem. These were people Paul had argued with before concerning the gentiles coming to Christ. He was a part of them, and yet not totally at home there. God had called him out to the Gentiles. He was not “Jewish-centric'' enough to remain in Jerusalem and minister with those guys. His views of what God was and is doing were different… broader… not better-than… just broader-than. Paul “related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified God.” (v.19) They agreed with the goodness of what was happening… they celebrated it. And yet, the words that follow serve to remind Paul that he is not “like them” anymore. Look at the threat to Paul that is described in Acts 21:20-22. The threat is from Jews who have become Christians, and yet they are threatened by the idea that Paul does not believe the same as them. Paul may have been historically a “Jew” who has come to Christ… but he is not seen as one of them. Such is the life of those who are willing to follow Christ and enter into the adventure that HE has for them… it is very unlikely they will please everyone. These people believed a number of lies about Paul. That is how this works though… we attack other brothers and sisters in Christ by filling the gaps with distrust and fabricating lies… reasons they need to be rejected! (cf. v. 24,30) In verses 23-26 they develop a plan to try and appease the Jewish believers. Affirming once again that radical followers of Jesus will never be enough of any one “denomination” or “tribe” to be uniformly accepted. Like the prophets, they end up being pushed to the outsides. (These plans rarely work by the way… once on the outside it is very difficult to ever be brought back in!)

Paul is eventually attacked by his old friends. (v.27-36, 22:1-21) These are people he had served with… people who knew him. He didn’t believe the same as them anymore, and they were out for blood! (Literally and figuratively) Paul shares the truth with them. This makes no difference. They do not have ears to hear about Christ, they simply want him punished… vanquished… destroyed. (22:22) The Roman soldiers eventually arrest him and bring him into their barracks for questioning and to flog him. Just as they are about to give him a beating, he drops a bomb on them: “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?”(v.25) You see, Paul was not only a Jew and a Christian, but also a Roman citizen. Paul knew that “this world was not his home” and yet he was willing to claim his Roman citizenship at this moment. (cf. 2 Cor. 5:1) You see how Paul straddles yet another world! He is not “Roman'' enough to be Roman… and yet he truly is a Roman Citizen. Paul gets that this world is not his home, yet it is where he lives right now and he is present in it! Yet another example of how the deeper your relationship with Christ becomes, the more and more you will find yourself caught in the middle!

It is important and good to be unified in Christ, and yet - there is something beautiful about the ways we have been made distinct. DO not be surprised if someday Christ calls you into a work or ministry that is slightly different from what you expect… or what you are “used to”. It is good to live in the midst of a “healthy biblical tension”. It is alright if you find out more and more that you are not a “100% DNA match” for any one “brand” of Christianity… maybe that is just a byproduct of being biblical… or led by Jesus. Paul knew what it was like! These tensions are healthy and good at times. They sharpen us as God’s people. We need each other to broaden one another's thinking and carry one another deeper into a relationship with the Lord. Here’s to not totally fitting in anywhere! Love you guys. - JDP