{"id":32467,"date":"2024-09-06T22:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T05:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-21_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-08-02T10:14:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T17:14:40","slug":"acts-21_15-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts-21_15-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Do THIS, But Remember You Can\u2019t Please Everybody"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 21:15-25 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 21:15-25.\u00a0 As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 21:15-25 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After this, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When they heard this, they praised God.\u00a0 Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come,
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 15-20:\u00a0 Paul and his team finally reach Jerusalem.\u00a0 The Jerusalem church elders, including James, praise God after hearing Paul\u2019s reports about what God did among the Gentiles through Paul\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 However, while Paul was away from Jerusalem, a new concern had arisen for the Jerusalem church.\u00a0 According to the ancient historian Josephus, the mid 50s were a time of intense nationalism and anti-Roman sentiment among the Jewish people in Jerusalem, as evidenced by numerous revolts that the Jews launched against the Roman empire.\u00a0 Thus many Jews in Jerusalem did not like the idea that Paul was reaching non-Jewish people throughout the Roman empire.\u00a0 Even more, they thought that Paul was teaching Jewish Christians living outside of Jerusalem to completely disregard the law of Moses. (To be clear Paul was not teaching Christians to completely disregard the law of Moses, but Paul did teach that circumcision was not necessary in order to be saved and that one couldn\u2019t be saved by trying to obey the Law of Moses since we can never obey it perfectly.)\u00a0 Paul\u2019s ministry outside of Jerusalem had become a very controversial issue for people in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

To show that Paul was not teaching people to completely disregard the law of Moses, James and the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem recommend that Paul join four other Jewish Christians in taking a vow under the law of Moses (probably the Nazirite vow found in Numbers 6:13-17).\u00a0 They also recommend that Paul undergo a Jewish purification rite whereby they would shave their heads.\u00a0 James and the Jerusalem church leaders thought that this would help the Jewish Christians to see that Paul was not turning his back on his Jewish heritage or the law of Moses (v24).<\/p>\n

We will see in the verses that follow that Paul submitted to his leaders’ recommendation and went through the purification rite (v26). However, this still did not please everyone. Despite going through the purification rite, some Jews (probably Jewish non-Christians) stirred up the crowd in Jerusalem to try to kill Paul (v27-36).<\/p>\n

What lesson can we learn from all this? The two lessons I learn from this may seem contradictory, but there is value in doing both.\u00a0\u00a0First, for the sake of maintaining peace, as much as you reasonably can, do what is right in the eyes of everybody, but second, know that you can never please everybody.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0In fact, sometimes, no matter what you do or how hard you try, there will be people who will still misunderstand or misconstrue what you do and still be unhappy with you.<\/p>\n

It is wise to live in peace with others as much as you reasonably can.\u00a0 And it is also wise to realize that sometimes you just can\u2019t please everybody.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>That’s why\u00a0when Paul writes that we should “be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody” (Romans 12:17), he follows it up by saying “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you<\/em>, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) In other words,\u00a0sometimes peace with everyone is not possible. So what should we do?\u00a0 Do what you reasonably can do to live at peace with all people, but if after doing your part there still isn’t peace, don’t worry about it, move on and trust that God will make all things beautiful in His time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Father, please help me to do my best to live at peace with everyone, while at the same time realizing that sometimes you just can\u2019t please everybody.\u00a0 May the driving ambition of my life not be to win the approval of people, but to please You.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 21:15-25.\u00a0 As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 21:15-25 (NIV)
\n15\u00a0\u00a0After this, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.
\n16\u00a0\u00a0Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.
\n17\u00a0\u00a0When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly.<\/p>\n

On verses 15-20:\u00a0 Paul and his team finally reach Jerusalem.\u00a0 The Jerusalem church elders, including James, praise God after hearing Paul\u2019s reports about what God did among the Gentiles through Paul\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 However, while Paul was away from Jerusalem, a new concern had arisen for the Jerusalem church.\u00a0 According to the ancient historian Josephus, the mid 50s were a time of intense nationalism and anti-Roman sentiment among the Jewish people in Jerusalem, as evidenced by numerous revolts that the Jews launched against the Roman empire.\u00a0 Thus many Jews in Jerusalem did not like the idea that Paul was reaching non-Jewish people throughout the Roman empire.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32470,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32467\/revisions\/32470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}