Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today, everybody finds out what happened with the Gentiles in Cesarea yesterday. When Peter gets

back to Jerusalem, trouble is brewing. Yesterday, Peter mentioned that Jews

weren't supposed to associate with foreigners. That's one reason why God had to correct his thinking

by giving him the vision. But the rest of the Christ followers back in Jerusalem didn't see that vision.

They don't understand what's going on. A group of them known as the circumcision party are not

happy with the fact that Peter,

one of the main apostles, has gone to hang out with a bunch of Gentiles.

Their primary argument is that any foreigners who commit to following the Jewish Messiah

should have to convert to Judaism and adopt the Jewish practice of circumcision as well,

since that's been the sign that has set them apart for thousands of years.

Being set apart has been a major part of their culture for thousands of years, and any time

foreigners have decided to follow Yahweh, they've assimilated into Judaism.

Now that the Messiah has come and said that the gospel would go everywhere, they realize that

lots of foreigners are probably going to be converting. They really want to protect their

culture. Plus, this is all so new. They probably have no idea what to do with it. And the different

opinions are causing a lot of division and tension among the believers. In these early days of the church,

when they're figuring things out, it can feel kind of clunky. It reminds me of the Israelites in

the wilderness, fresh out of 400

years of slavery, trying to figure out how to live as a free people in a civil society and follow a

patient God instead of an evil dictator. There's so much to learn, so many adjustments to make.

But God patiently walks them through all the transitions, like the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the gospel being preached to all the nations proactively, which is something the Jews have never really done. They've been very insular. Making converts isn't really their thing, even today. So especially early on, as the church is trying to follow Jesus' command to spread the gospel, it's important to them to get God's seal

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