May 22nd, 2022

Since this Sunday is the Sixth Sunday of Easter, we are certainly nearing the end of the Easter season. But the saying certainly still applies: ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!’ The ramifications of Jesus’ death and resurrection continue on, no matter what the current situation or how far we feel that we are away from the death and the resurrection of the One who is both the Son of God and the Son of Man.

Although the First Reading is again from the book of Acts [16:9-15], and it has skipped a few chapters since last week, it still is a worthy text to study. This week’s text from Acts contains a portion of what is commonly known as the second missionary journey. Now missionary journeys are certainly important actions. But we can get too focused on a secondary thing all too quickly, in this case on the people who are doing the journey, and we can easily forget that it is ultimately the Lord Jesus who is continuing to do these things and to teach (see Acts 1:1).

Since the next two Sundays will have us focused on the beginning of the book of Acts, with texts from chapters 1 and 2 respectively, this Sunday may be helpful to look a bit more at what could be called the center of the book of Acts, the Jerusalem Council. This council is sometimes overlooked because it is seen as interrupting the flow of the missionary journeys, since it stands between the first and the second one. But apart from the new places that these people are going and the people who are going, the most important thing is what is being shared with these people. After all, it is ultimately Jesus as teacher.

To keep things in perspective, it may be helpful to note first how these first two journeys came about. At the beginning of Acts 13[:1-5], the text says the following (in a somewhat-literal translation):

Now there were, in Antioch, among the existing church, prophets and teachers,        both Barnabas and Simeon, being called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, of Herod, the tetrarch, being nourished with, and Saul. Now as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Spirit, the Holy One, said, ‘Separate indeed, to me, Barnabas and Saul, into the work to which I have called them’; then having fasted and having prayed, and laying on their hands, they dismissed. Therefore, on the one hand, they, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down into Seleucia, and from there sailed away into Cyprus, and being in Salamis, they were proclaiming the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and, on the other hand, they also had John, an attendant.

These special people were going to new places and talking to some different people about very some special things. Now, in light of all these new things, the beginning of the second missionary journey is quite understandable. In Acts 15[:36], the text says the following (and this text and those that follow are also in a somewhat-literal translation):

And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas: ‘Returning, then, let us visit the brothers throughout every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, how they are.

The difference in Acts between sharing the ‘word of God’ and the ‘word of the Lord’ must be saved for another time. The words, whether they are connected to God or the Lord, are the important thing. Our words are nothing in comparison. And a little bit farther along into the text, we see, laid out before us, a hint of what was being shared, and it is something very important [16:4]:

Now as they went through the cities, they gave over to them to guard the decrees, having been judged by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.

Now certainly there is the opportunity to see more laws within this text. The use of the word ‘decrees’ in other parts of these two books is rare. Indeed, this word is rare within the entire New Testament. At the beginning of Luke 2, a ‘decree’ goes out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. In Acts 17:7, the decrees of Caesar and that of ‘another king’, Jesus, are being compared (and, besides these three places, it is only elsewhere in the New Testament in Ephesians 2:15 and in Colossians 2:14). One of the most important takeaways of the Jerusalem Council is at the very end of Peter’s talk:

But, on the contrary, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe those also to be saved in the same way [15:11].

After this Paul and Barnabas have a say regarding what God had done through them. And near the very end of the message in Pisidian Antioch, near the end of their first missionary journey, Paul has a great section in his ‘word of exhortation’ which supports this perspective:

Therefore, let it be known to you, men, brothers, that through this one [Jesus], forgiveness of sins is announced to you, and from all things from which you were not able in the law of Moses to be justified, in this one [Jesus], everyone believing is justified [13:38-39].

Significant things were happening on those journeys. And significant things still happen on journeys today. There are people who are walking along with us, and we may not recognize them, and they may say something significant, but those words do not glow, and lightning bolts do not accompany them. But these words are certainly important (see Luke 24). And Christianity continues to be supported in very special ways like this.