Acts - Lesson 24

Last week I stopped right after Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch (Acts 14:28). The church at Antioch had sent them out and rejoiced that Paul and Barnabas had completed the first missionary journey. They spent time with the church in Antioch (in Syria not Pisidia) strengthening them and building up this church of Jews and God fearing gentiles that had become one in Christ. In the first century this was a radical mixture of people. Paul explains this mix in his epistle to these folks (Galatians).

Galatians 3:26-29 … for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

We have spoken of Paul’s thorn in the flesh over the last few weeks. Paul said that God used it to keep him from being conceited as a result of the great revelations that the Holy Spirit had given him. Although we have a hard time realizing it, this new family formed by God is at least one of (if not the greatest) revelation given to Paul. The idea that you - a gentile according to the flesh in all likelihood - have an equal position before God with those who are Jews according to the flesh was a mystery. God revealed it in the Law and in the Prophets but the Jews didn’t see it until the scales came off their eyes. As Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit and swept into the Church then the Apostles saw the Church in all the fullness that God intended. All members were made one body as Abraham’s offspring and his heirs as God had promised. However, while the Apostles saw this by the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians can grieve the Holy Spirit and some of our early Jewish brothers did fight against the Holy Spirit. This resulted in the first Church Council in Jerusalem to settle the objections that they were raising and to examine the demands that they were placing on the Gentiles. Church Councils have occurred periodically and they can make mistakes. As we stand on Scripture we survive as best we can but when we deviate then we find error in our statements. The leadership in this Council tried to keep the focus on God’s work and word.

Acts 15:1-4 … But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

Paul and Barnabas had to defend salvation by grace. Remember that the Law consists of both ritual and moral commands from God. We still obey the moral law but the ritual law has come to an end since it foreshadowed Christ and Christ has come and the Holy Spirit has been sent. This first group who opposed Paul and Barnabas were insisting on circumcision for gentile converts. This group wanted the Gentile converts to demonstrate their separation from the culture they lived in by circumcision. This may not seem as much of a separation but in Greek culture the athletic events were conducted without clothes so it did have a public impact in this culture. There were times that the Roman government would prohibit circumcision. There were times of rebellion against Rome in which the Jews would insist on the circumcision of every male child in Israel. So this was not a strange point for these two cultures to clash over. For us, the issue is religious legalism and we must examine ourselves to be sure we never teach that a person must do something, or refrain from doing something, that God hasn’t taught in His moral law. In Deuteronomy 4:2, as Moses delivers the Law of God, he says, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” This concept is taught in the Gospels and Epistles very clearly.

The issue of the ritual law and Jewish customs was so prominent and important that Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem teaching and reporting on their missionary trip to the believers along the way. They were known and well received by those in Jerusalem and shared news of their trip with the Apostles and the elders. The Church needed to be of one accord on these issues. As hard as it was to separate culture from righteousness it was time to do so. Historically, God has used opposition to the Church to purify and clarify doctrine. That is what He does here in the earliest and most ingrained of problems for the Church.

Acts 15:5 … But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

These guys who came from the Jewish Pharisees raise the bar above circumcision and push for keeping the whole law. I think you can see the reasoning of these men. It was their culture back to Abraham and they wanted to protect it from change. It was not good but it was understandable and it resulted in the first Church Council in history. Paul was not going to allow this to pass this way. He had even taken an uncircumcised Gentile with him to make sure the issue was in their face (Galatians 2:3). Luke records Peter’s words first.

Acts 15:6-11 … The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

I like the way Luke uses the phrase “after there had been much debate” and the next time I’m taking notes for the deacons I may use that phrase. It looks like a great shortcut.

Isn’t the work of the Holy Spirit in Peter’s life a blessing to see over and over as we study the book of Acts. He preached first to the gentiles as he ministered to Cornelius. He knew God directed his contact with Cornelius and he saw that God didn’t make any distinction. Peter cuts right to the heart of the problem with legalism. First, God cleanses hearts by faith. It isn’t works that does it. The Law of God is good and righteous but with our sin natures it serves to convict and condemn us. So why would someone want to drop a yoke on new believers that no Jew (except Jesus) could ever fulfill? All of those who are saved will be saved by grace. Peter states it clearly that the Jews will be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus just like the Gentiles. Peter preaches the good news that our righteousness comes by faith alone and it comes by grace alone. Then Barnabas and Paul get to speak.

Acts 15:12 … And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

The Church Council had to be convicted by what Peter said and they became very quiet. Peter was speaking under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the believers could sense that. Luke doesn’t tell us much of what Barnabas and Paul shared because in the previous chapters he has been telling us all about the missionary journey. One thing we pick up from Galatians is that Paul was likely placed under pressure to compromise the Gospel by those in leadership in Jerusalem. Paul refused, strengthened by the Holy Spirit I’m sure, and it was an essential point in building the early Church on Scripture and not on opinion and cultural preference. The ritual law that foreshadowed Christ had to be seen as the ritual law that foreshadowed Christ. To keep it around was clearly new wine in old wineskins and something was going to break. Your spiritual health depended on this. I am occasionally amazed at evangelical Christians who teach that someday the Jews will rebuild the temple and offer sacrifices and somehow that will be pleasing to God because they are ethically Israeli. After the perfection and cost of the Lamb of God on the Cross what makes a person think that a ritual sacrifice will be pleasing? It is a person who wants something different than what God wants. God doesn’t accept those sorts of sacrifices.

Peter had the testimony of these God fearing Greeks that God saved. Paul and Barnabas not only had testimonies about Gentiles who feared God and got saved but also about Gentiles that were fully pagan responding to the Gospel and getting saved. Everyone in the Church Council had a chance to think about what the Holy Spirit had done through Peter, Paul, and Barnabas. It is a blessing to see that Jesus’ half-brother James became a leader in the Church in Jerusalem. Peter starts the Council with a focus on God’s beginning work in the Gentiles and then brings it down to the Gospel of righteousness by faith alone and by grace alone. Then Paul and Barnabas testify of what God is doing across cultures and even in Pagan cities with little or no Jewish witness. Then James brings it all back to God’s promises and Scripture.

Acts 15:13-21 … After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’ Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

James, speaking to the Jews and using the most Jewish version of Peter’s name, points out that it is God who took people from the Gentiles to make them a people for his name and then he quotes Scripture. God doesn’t leave us to simply figure out right and wrong from results. God’s prophets told them what would happen. James quotes from the Old Testament (Amos 9:11-12).

Acts 15:22-29 … Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

This letter from the Apostles and elders was then authoritative in the Church and those who were off teaching their own version of Christianity were reigned in (at least a little bit). This isn’t the end of the controversy but it was of comfort to the believers who were Gentiles. The letter recognized that it was the Holy Spirit directing this word to the Church. The requirements regarding food sacrificed to idols, blood, strangled animals, and sexual immorality. Harrison’s commentary on Acts points out that the council accomplished at least 5 things.

  1.      The gospel of divine grace was reaffirmed.

  2.      The unity of the church was safeguarded.

  3.      The evangelism of the Gentiles could proceed without hindrance. Most of Paul’s churches were founded after the council and they were Gentile churches.

  4.      The Gentile churches that had already been established were given encouragement.

  5.      The future of the church as a whole was guaranteed. 

Acts 15:30-35 … So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

The return trip strengthened the Church in Antioch. Eventually Judas and Silas returned to Jerusalem while Paul and Barnabas continued building up the Body of Christ in Antioch prior to their 2^nd missionary journey.