We saw last week the Missionary journeys of Paul. How he endured all kinds of hardships for the Gospel. He was beaten and bruised.
Sequence of Events
- Some people from Judea arrive to Antioch and discuss about the gentiles being circumcised.
- Paul and Barnabas take a decision of confronting the Jews in Jerusalem.
- They travel back from Antioch to Jerusalem.
- A meeting was held to come to a consensus about this question. Whether gentiles should be circumcised or not to belong to Jesus.
- Peter rose up and defended this point.
- The Elders send an apologetic letter
- They provide them with certain guidelines
- Paul, Barnabus and John Mark.
Now let’s understand this law of Moses, why and how was this conducted?
Circumcision in Jews was an act to reinstate the covenant that God made with Abraham (old covenant)
When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him to establish a covenant with him. The Lord promised that Abraham would be “a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4), that the Lord would give unto him “the land wherein [he was] a stranger” (Genesis 17:8), and that his “children [would] be known among all nations” (Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 17:9). As a token of this covenant, the Lord commanded, “Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you” (Genesis 17:10–11). Abraham was further commanded that whenever a male child was born in his extended household, the child should be circumcised when eight days old (Genesis 17:12). On the day he was commanded, Abraham took all the males of his household and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin. Abraham himself was also circumcised as a token of the covenant that God made with him (Genesis 17:23–26).
The Jews were set apart through this act.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram[b]; your name will be Abraham,[c] for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him. Genesis 17
The circumcision was introduced and the old covenant was followed from generations.
But we see in Acts 15 the statements Peter puts forth to reason out as to why this covenant no longer makes meaning to the Gentiles for they fall under the New Covenant that Jesus gave to the whole world – whether Jew or Gentile.
Peter justifies as to why the Gentiles should not be circumcised as God has kept the covenant to them through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
Rather the Gentiles should be taught on the principles of Christian faith. They should be taught to live a life God expects. To live a holy life and not a life of sinfulness. We can’t keep living in sin after knowing the saviour. According to Paul in – our hearts have been circumcised. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
The Circumcision of the heart that is the New Covenant
29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God
Romans 2: 28 – 29
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Philippians 3: 3 – 9
WHAT IS THE NEW COVENANT?
The new covenant was a relationship with God and not of circumcision. This covenant was introduced way before even Jesus was born, that there will be a new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22: 19 – 20
Now the elders apologise and try to rectify the error / confusion that they had caused to the gentile believers. They send Paul and Barnabas again but this time with witnesses Judas and Silas.
22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter:
The apostles and elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Farewell.
30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. [34] [d] 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.
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Explain more on the New Covenant.
A Distinctive Kind of Contract
Contracts. We all have them, by the dozens. In business, government, and in our personal lives, contracts provide structure and order for relationships that are essential to all of life. Contracts tell us what is expected of us and what we can expect from others. Without contracts, both explicit and implicit, our lives and our work would quickly unravel.
God structures his relationship with us with a distinctive kind of contract. Usually we refer to God’s contracts as covenants, which is a way of affirming their particular character. They aren’t the sort of contract that you and I can rewrite or back out of at will. Rather, God’s covenants are binding on us and, interestingly enough, on God, not because we have any power over God, but because God chooses to enter into binding contracts with us.
The first explicit contract in Scripture is the one God makes with Noah. Though we can see an implicit contract with Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-2, in Genesis 6:18 the Lord says to Noah, “I will establish my covenant with you.” Then, in Genesis 9, God lays out the specifics of this covenant: “I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen 9:11). In order to ratify and signify this binding contract, God sets his “bow in the clouds” (9:13). The rainbow reminds God and, implicitly, us, of God’s commitment not to wipe us out again.
Like all biblical covenants (Mosaic, Davidic, New Covenant), the one with Noah is initiated by God. We human beings don’t determine the structure of our relationship with God. That’s God’s business. He establishes the covenant. We enter into it in response. Yet there are elements of the Noahic covenant that are distinctive. For one thing, God establishes his covenant, not only with Noah and his heirs, but also “with every living creature” (9:10). Additionally, though the Noahic covenant reaffirms God’s basic charge to humanity (“Be fruitful and multiply”) while adding some new elements (animals can be eaten, sacredness of human life requires capital punishment), the main point of this covenant is God’s binding commitment not to destroy the creatures of the earth again.
The covenants in the Old Testament, including the Noahic covenant, consistently underscore God’s sovereignty over our lives. They also point to the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31 and established through Jesus, whose shed blood creates “the new covenant” (Luke 22:20). The sign of the New Covenant is not the rainbow, but the cross. Through Christ, God not only spares life on earth, but also offers the abundant life of the age to come.
A new believer
The focus should be to teach them and help them in their new found faith. Discipling them, guiding them to overcome sin, to grow in knowing Jesus, in persevering through their faith. Teaching them the New Covenant.
An old believer:
Should introspect their heart, understand why they are pursuing certain ideologies.
Are they stagnant?
Are we growing to become more like Christ or are very busy judging people on how they are not following ‘the old covenant’?
Being there for ages is dangerous. The bible is very clear – new wine cannot be put in old wineskin or it will burst. We need to renew our mindset. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Mat 9: 17
Break the cycle of doing the routine without making sense of it.
It is for a purpose that the old covenant was introduced. They only had a foreshadow of the saviour who would come. They had to work through to understand and attain this Abrahamic heritage.
However, Jesus came to give us a new covenant.
He came to give us a covenant of eternal life through him. He came to forgive sins and undo all that the devil intends to happen to me. Through faith we can grasp this covenant.
Now moving on to the last bit of the Chapter where the historical event takes place. Paul and Barnabas separate. It was because John Mark had deserted them in the first missionary journey Acts 13: 13 – 13 Now Paul and those with him left Paphos by ship for Turkey,[a] landing at the port town of Perga. There John Mark deserted them and returned to Jerusalem.
Due to this reason Paul was sceptical about taking him again, however, Barnabas wanted to give him another chance.
36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
However, Paul’s intention was only to disciple him and channelize the fact that you cannot go on with this kind of behaviour, because we see in Colossians 4: 10 10 Aristarchus, who is with me here as a prisoner, sends you his love, and so does Mark, a relative of Barnabas. And as I said before, give Mark a hearty welcome[a] if he comes your way. (LB) that Paul acknowledges John Mark. The relationship is restored. It’s not bitter throughout.
Paul was very clear. He was a ‘No fool around person’. He had very high standards and he was very intensely at the work of the Gospel. The New Covenant changed him. Many times, we may meet a Paul as a leader and a Barnabas. Both are equally important to me. My spiritual growth will spurt up if I stay with leaders like Paul but I also would need leaders like Barnabas who can trust me again. However, I believe – it’s a personal thought that because Paul refused to take Mark for the mission trip, John Mark became more serious about his mission trip with Barnabas.
After all said and done, we are all here because of the New Covenant that Jesus made with us. We are all included in this New Covenant. We have the privilege and the access to God, to reconciliation and atonement through Jesus Christ. The goodnews is good, and the covenant is for us. Jesus makes a New Contract with all of us. The details of the contract is in the word of God. The more we read the bible, the clearer it will be. Holy Spirit is with us for all those who believe in Jesus. That’s the promise of God – to send the counsellor for us and He will reveal more of Jesus to us and His New Covenant will become real each day.
Sandra wife of Virjil .The Renewed Hope Community is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that Renewed Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Karanjade, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.
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