Green Eggs & Ham… Video
He is presented with the option of eating with many animals in various places and of course the answer is always. “I do not like green eggs and ham.”

But of course… He’s never tried green eggs, and ham!
It’s a presupposition… with no actual experience to back it up.

Commercial: life serial - Mikey
The ad campaign ran from 1972 to
1986 becoming one of the longest-running
television advertisements. As recently as 1999 the
commercial was included in a list of
“memorable ads”

Bad Experience: (we have to face it) roller coaster… A girl did it.
(bad experience with church, a Christian, a religious group)

Distorted view: (need a clearer understanding) Chinese food, 28 years old.
(a particular religious interpretation)

Difficult and Uncomfortable: (push through and learn) flossing
(The way of Christ is very challenging to a comfortable, selfish life, would Jesus ask us to do can be very Difficult and Uncomfortable and we have to choose to push through that to find the benefits to our life)

Needed but Undesirable: (look for different possibilities) my morning shake. (Video)
(loving my enemies, doing good to those who mean evil for me, never gets easier)

Adam: Why do we resist new things. Jesus and new wine.

Who were open to new ideas?

Dude Pict - Didn’t just have a problem with green eggs and ham… Didn’t like Sam I am! Why?

The Pharisees didn’t like the “Great I am” anymore than dude like “Sam I am”.

Why? because he challenged them to consider new possibilities… And one of the possibilities they were wrong about their understanding of God and his heart for the world.

What would World religion look like without Christ and his life, ministry, and teachings?

Christianity 2.3 billion
Islam 1.9 billion
Hinduism 1.2 billion
Buddhism 0.5 billion

John 16:12-14 ‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

Jewish first century Christians… No
Paul, yes.
Peter, Yes
Inclusion of Gentiles…. And soon to come after… Slaves, women, LGBTQ.

Jewish Law:
Acts 10:28-29 Peter said to them: ‘You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with Gentiles or visit them. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.

Groundbreaking… and Lawbreaking

At Cornelius’ home Gentiles experience the giving of the Holy Spirit in the same way it happened to the disciples on the day of Pentecost. Peter is shocked that the Holy Spirit is given to the gentiles in the same way it was to the Jews.

Gentiles were not circumcised, they were not eating according to the Jewish dietary laws, they were not observing sabbath. They were not heirs to the Abraham covenant, and yet they had received the Holy Spirit in the exact same way.

The final decision presented by Peter James and Paul.
James - Acts 15:19-20 ‘It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

Over 600 Commandments in the Old Testament, or Jewish scriptures are now boiled down to a shortlist of four items.

If these apostles did not have the authority to negate Sabbath observance, dietary laws, and circumcision… Then everything we know today is modern Christianity is heresy.

Let’s sit with that thought for just a moment… is everything we know as modern Christianity heresy?

Religion tends to be locked into the first revelation.
Often you can tell when a church was established because it’s still is stuck at that place in history

Adam - Resisting the things that actually bring health.