EXPELLING RELIGIOUS DISSENT TO THE ACTIVITY OF GRACE
Acts 11:23 (NIV 1984) When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
Let's be honest! We have all come across those we feel incapable of change, even with God’s help, not that we would readily admit such, though maybe we have. Have we ever repeated the expression, “People don't change”? It’s a heresy that can flow far too easily from the tongue. We will hold this heresy even to the point of offering up religiously motivated dissent at grace’s activity among those most offensive to our moral senses.
The Jews had fallen into this pattern. They had forgotten that they existed for all the nations, that God had chosen them as a conduit to share not as a container to store and many of them had become jaded at the moral bankruptcy and vulgar practices of the ungodly. They lost their motivation to be a blessing. Yet, the promise never changed. God's mission is still to all nations.
In the context of our passage, the gospel was beginning to be preached to and received by the Gentiles, stunning the Christian Jewish community. It shouldn’t have; it is why they existed, a message steeped in their Bibles. The Apostle Paul said that scripture foresaw this, calling Abraham’s original covenant “the gospel in advance” (Gal 3:8), “And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed…” (Gen 22:18). Solomon understood this in his dedication prayer for the newly built temple when he prayed, “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel...when he comes and prays toward this temple...do whatever the foreigner asks...so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you…” (2 Chron 6:32-33, underline mine). Isaiah prophesied it saying; “I will make you a light for the Gentiles…” (Isa 49:6); and, Jesus fulfilled it, teaching that his message was for “all nations” (Mk 13:10).
Like the Jews, we can think we are the chosen few, blessed to store His presence and not share it. "It took me 40 years to get where I am in the faith," one might think to themselves, "I have neither the time nor the energy to help others with such a slow process. Perhaps we short-change the power of grace. Maybe, the pagans we consider are not as hardheaded as we are. Maybe they won’t be as resistant to obedience and slow to spiritual progress as we are. What took us 40 they might do in 20, or 5, or even 1. Who are we to say? The phrase “people can't change” is not only disheartening to our mission but disheartening to our spiritual health as well. If people can't change, then...well...that means I can't change either, which causes me to be stuck in my present state, despairing, hopeless, and vulnerable to all sorts of temptations.
The apostles are an example to us as they witnessed the promised blessing of Abraham's seed coming to life through them. In our passage, Barnabas saw evidence of God's grace and was glad. We too can overcome our skeptical attitudes when we are willing to let the evidence of grace speak for itself.
When pagans of our time come into the faith and embrace kingdom promises, will we be glad? Or will we mount religious objections to preserve the appearances of propriety and sanctimony? The next verse seems to give us the antidote to our jaded attitudes by revealing Barnabas’ secret; he was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:24). This was his and our way out of the trap of religious dissent to the activity of grace.
