Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

We are journeying through the Book of Acts picking up in Acts 15.

Acts 15:1-35 today.

Last time we finished looking at “Paul’s First Missionary Journey.”

Paul and Barnabas were separated to the Holy Spirit for a work He called them to…

Which was to be sent out to various cities to preach the Gospel… to the Jew first, and also to the Greek… Gentiles.

Because of Jesus… there were several significant changes in God’s program.

Jews, who always had the law, were believing Jesus was their Messiah and were becoming completed in Christ.

And, Gentiles were also being saved.

But, Gentiles didn’t have the same convictions towards the law.

They only knew the Christ… and salvation in Him.

And, as we will see today, this led to great confusion in the early church… namely the question arose, “What must one do to be saved?”

Is it faith in Jesus alone?

Or faith in Jesus plus adherence to the law?

Faith plus works?

And, this is still a question… sadly… that many wrestle with today.

The year is 49 A.D., and Chapter 15 of Acts reflects a very important council of disciples that gathered in Jerusalem to discuss this critical question of the means of our salvation.

An important meeting and an important chapter that impacted our faith even today.

The title of today’s message is, “The Jerusalem Council.”

Let’s Pray!

Acts 15:1-2 “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.”

Verses 1-2 sets the stage for why the Jerusalem Council was called into order.

Certain Jewish religious men… Judaizers… come to Antioch and sow seeds of doubt over salvation by ‘grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.’

A saying that became a battle cry for the reformation… and Martin Luther as he wrestled against false teachings in his day.

These Judaizers… which is a term for those who insisted on Christian conformity to Jewish customs…

These Judaizers come to Antioch and declare to the Christians something to the effect of, “Hey, we know Paul and Barnabas said all you have to do is have faith in Jesus to be saved, but there’s more to it… we know better…”

They are legalists.

Legalists add to the word of God.

They are the opposite of liberals who take away from the word of God.

Truth is somewhere in between.

I want to give you a heads up that… we’re going to camp out in VSS 1-2 for a bit to address legalism and liberty because it’s a big topic in our Christian experience today.

Don’t worry… we’ll be done exactly when we’re supposed to be.

It may 2pm, but we’ll finish.

I’m just joking… we’ll be much later.

But, this topic is important because legalism and liberty is a friction point in our Christian fellowship… like a speck of sand in your eye… an irritant.

Now… these Judaizers were beyond legalistic…

In his letter to the Galatians… Paul calls them “false brethren” and “spies”… they were pretenders posing as Christians.. .they

weren’t even saved.

In Gal 2:4-5, Paul recounts this event of Acts 15… and wrote, “And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), 5 to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”

Paul wrote that to cities of the Galatian region…

Antioch of Pisidia was one such city… which we recently encountered as we studied through Paul’s First Missionary Journey.

Paul encouraged them to “continue in the grace of God.” Grace, not law.

A message Paul would need to reiterate because false teachers kept pushing for upholding the law… like being circumcised as we see in V1.

Circumcision was a temporal act that represented being holy/set apart/cut off from the life of the flesh and to be set upon the life of the spirit.

Jewish Circumcision is comparable to Christian baptism...putting to death the life of the flesh, and living for the spirit.

And, OT verses explicitly instructed circumcision, beginning at…

Gen 17:14 “And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

That was a command specific to the Jews.

Here’s one for Gentiles: Ex 12:48 “And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised…”

I imagine they didn’t have many dinner guests.

That’s quite the admission price.

So, the Judaizers hung onto their traditions… not understanding the new covenant of Grace, so they dismissed grace… and taught works… thus they were titled “false brethren.”

And, that’s still true today… anyone who adds works to salvation teaches a false Gospel.

Jesus plus baptism… Jesus plus tongues… Jesus plus Saturday worship… Jesus plus good works… Jesus plus special underwear [that’s a Mormon thing in case you’re not aware]…

All of these are adding to salvation… they’re false teachings.

Eph 2:8-9 declares “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Even today, there are those who have difficulty accepting the free gift and the finished work on the cross.

On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.”

We can rest in His declaration.

Trying to add to the finished work of God is as ludicrous as a child thinking they can enhance a Monet by drawing on it with a crayon.

But, in our world of earning accolades and promotions… for some it’s easier to strive to work for salvation… instead of just praising God for His goodness and receiving the gift.

And, these Judaizers… were laying a similar trip on the Christians in Antioch of Syria.

They said, in V1 “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

And, that was probably their downfall.

Maybe they could have gone with… you have to keep Sabbath to be saved… or you have to give a tenth to be saved…

But circumcision?

That was poorly designed marketing plan.

Who thought of that?

Can you imagine being a 50 year old man and hearing this?

You want me to do what?

As a church globally… interdenominationally… there are many doctrinal issues we can disagree upon… gray areas of scripture…

Are gifts of the spirit alive for today, or did they cease with the canonization of scripture?

Is feet washing an ordinance?

God’s sovereignty vs. man’s free will.

Methods of baptism.

Views on end times?

Pre-Trib, Pre-Wrath, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib… Pan-Trib?

Some of you are thinking, “What’s Pan-Trib?”

Those are the folks who don’t have an eschatological stance… they’re just going to see how it “pans out” in the end.

Better to have an opinion, than no opinion… in my opinion because No opinion just means no study.

There’s a long list of topics Christians from diverse backgrounds can debate over.

They have their opinion… we have our opinion.

And, I’m of the belief that everyone has the right to be wrong.

Not everyone can be perfectly aligned with God like us.

What I actually believe is when we stand before God in heaven and Jesus teaches us all things… we’re all going to be surprised when we hear God’s perfect doctrine.

But for now, beyond the gray area topics… there are other topics that are NOT debatable.

Jesus is part of the Godhead.

The trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… all distinct, all God.

Not debatable.

Incarnation.

Resurrection.

Inspiration of the Bible.

Not debatable.

Salvation is not debatable… this is where we draw a line in the sand… salvation is a non-negotiable topic.

I remember several months back, a Mormon attended our local Ministerial Association… he actually came in how Paul described in Gal 2 he “came in by stealth” not disclosing he was a Mormon.

And, I put my foot down that I would not continue with the Ministerial if he did.

Fortunately, I was not alone.

There’s a difference between opinions, and false teachings.

And so, Paul and Barnabas put their foot down… these Judaizers have crossed the line.

And in V2, we read, “Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them...”