Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Navigating Conflict and Division | New Testament | Acts 18

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Has finger-pointing and tearing others down become too common? Take a look at Christian Twitter. Jensen explores the importance of grace, gentleness and unity in protecting the truth of the gospel. Don't miss today's episode on Acts 18. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 18

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I love to be right, and I love a good debate. But Twitter scares me, so much so that my account on Twitter has been growing cobwebs ever since I created it. It scares me because it feels like people go on Twitter to tear down and pick apart everything everyone else says. When I get on, it feels like there's no room for nuance. There's no grace. There's no love. And sadly, this is all within the Christian Twitter world. Recently, Ray Ortland left Twitter, and he listed this as one of his reasons for leaving. I am grieved by the behavior of Christians on Twitter.

There are so many I admire. But Twitter can arouse the mean streak inside every one of us. And some of us honestly do not realize the harm we do. The reckless accusations, the eager gotchas, the angry finger-pointing, the trigger-happy reactions, the flippant slanders. I was rarely the target of such ugliness, but just observing it, my own soul began to suffer. I felt dirtied. Now, I know that there are Twitter stands out there that are trying to breathe new life into the app and have disagreements with graciousness. But I can't help but look at Twitter as a small picture of what is happening in our love. larger Christian culture as well. We love to point the finger, to tear down, to call out publicly

and shame the mistakes of others within our own churches. I think about popular podcasts like the rise and fall of Mars Hill or the obsession with Christian news about pastors falling from grace. Christian influencers calling one another out as false teachers because of differences in beliefs. Blogs are written merely to pick apart other believers' arguments and statements. And behind all of these online spats are thousands of believers devouring the back and forth with joy and a bowl of popcorn. See, it doesn't surprise me that the church has found itself here. We live in a world of discord, a world that loves to be right, that loves to prove their point, to tear down the other side, to prove them wrong, to justify themselves and their own agendas. All you have to do is turn on

the nightly news, open a social media app, or peruse your newspaper. You'll find the same things Ray Ortland found on Christian Twitter. Reckless accusations. Eager gotchas, angry finger-pointing, trigger-happy reactions, and flippant slanders. And sadly, so it goes in our churches as well. I began today by admitting that I love to be right and I love a good debate. So let me be the first to admit that I'm often one of the many who devours podcasts like the rise and fall of Mars Hill or reads the blogs tearing apart other people's arguments. When I first hear a pastor preach, I often listen with a skeptical lens, picking apart their statements, trying to weed them out, see if anything they're saying goes against the gospel. And I'm quick to dismiss or condemn when I find fault with any of their statements.

I may not be publicly doing this or posting it on my Twitter accounts, but it happens in my heart or in my living room with my friends. And it proves that my heart has been touched by the state of the world just as much as the church has. Now some of you may be thinking, and I also love to defend myself in this way, that all of these things are done to protect the church, to protect the gospel, to ward off false teachers and make sure that people are not being let astray. And I do believe that this is a genuine desire in many. And I know that the Bible is not empty of calls to be wary of false teaching. But I also know that the Bible is full of calls for Christian to live in step with the spirit. to show graciousness, gentleness, self-control, to be peacemakers, to be united. And I wonder, have we taken a good desire to protect the church and allowed it to be taken captive by the ways of the world rather than the ways of the kingdom? Can we recapture this desire? Is there a way to uphold the truth of Scripture, to instruct, to even correct one another in love?

Well, we find our answer in Acts 18, beginning in verse 24. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately. Though, he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained.

to him the way of God more adequately. So do you see what happened? Priscilla and Aquila, members of the church who served alongside Paul, heard Apollos teach. Verse 25 told us that Apollo spoke accurately about Jesus, but that he only knew of the baptism of John. See, Luke is telling us that Apollos wasn't speaking heresy about Jesus, but that he didn't have the full picture. He may not have known about the baptism Jesus preached about after his resurrection, or about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He had an incomplete picture of the story. And so what do Priscilla and Equila do? Well, they heard him. And then they invited him into their home. And they taught him about the way of God more adequately. They didn't publicly reject him to make sure people knew they believed something

different. They didn't begin teaching against him. They didn't try to thwart his ministry and push him out of their town so that they could protect their church. No, they invited him in. And they privately spoke about the gaps they knew he had in his teachings. You see, they weren't quick to dismiss, quick to judge, quick to throw out. That's easy. It's easy to tear apart an argument, post a tweet, or write a blog post. Instead, they took the time to invest in Apollos, to show him, to teach him, to train him, to care for him. You know, when I'm wrong, I'm not likely to be convinced I'm wrong by an angry tweet. It's the gentle friend. It's the gentle friend. who comes alongside me and teaches and corrects me that helps me see the truth. We all know that

that is true in our own lives. So why do we think that we're doing the holy work of protecting the gospel through anger and finger pointing and slandering? Priscilla and Aquila desire that the church would grow and that it would stand united, that the truth of the gospel would be protected and shared? And so they saw Apollos not as their adversary, but as their brother whom they could partner with and build up. And because of this, Apollos' story continues. When Apollos wanted to go to Achaea, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed, for he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate,

proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. So his ministry continues. So his ministry continued. And you may notice here that it continued with public debate. Apollos was clearly skilled in his ability to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, and he used this skill to debate those who would seek to oppose the gospel. You see, the desire and call to protect the gospel is a good one. And there is a place for debate. There's place for disagreement and publicly calling out that which is in opposition to the truth of the gospel. But we see this happening with people who are clearly outside of the church, opposing the church, not professing to believe that Jesus is Lord. And we have no indication whatsoever that Apollos did this with any kind of anger, finger pointing, slandering, or quick jabs.

Mostly, it sounds like he used scripture to make sound intelligent reasoning, and he was good at it. A gift from God he was blessed with and right to be using. You see, the desire to protect the gospel from false teaching is a good one. But the outworking of that desire, needs to be shaped by the gospel and not by the ways of the world around us. We need to look more like Priscilla and Aquila when we disagree or fear that someone might be teaching incorrectly. Where there is finger-pointing and slandering and sharp jabs, Scripture calls us to gentleness. Where we are quick to tear each other down, scripture calls us to build one another up in truth. When we are quick to separate and distance ourselves, Scripture calls us to lean in, build relationship, and care for one another.

So before you post the tweet, send an email, ask a question. Before you write someone off, take the time to get to know them. Show gentleness and be gracious when you are tempted to call out and rant against another child of God. The church should be united in its goal to protect the gospel, and we should be working together to do that. meeting with one another, teaching one another, correcting each other within relationship. It's easy to be angry, easy to write someone off. It is much harder to lean into the church, into the mess, and do the work of loving and understanding someone behind the scenes.

Maybe someone does need correction, or maybe you just misunderstood one another. Whatever the case is, it is my hope that the church would begin to be marked more and more by the love and community of the way of the kingdom of God when it comes to protecting the truth of the gospel. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week

and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.