Acts 15:1-21
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This entire struggle is summed up in the short phrase of verse 5 “it is necessary” What is necessary to bring us into right relationship with the Lord to bring us into His kingdom promises?
It is a question that the early church wrestled with and in many ways man whose default mode is to seek to earn the favor of God through acts of religion and acts of piety.
This sentiment was wide spread in the early church and one that should have been settled all the way back in chapter 10 with Peters vision and the conversion of Cornelius, and the Spirit falling on the Gentiles, but here we are in chapter 15 the central and pivotal chapter of the book of Acts. We see after this time the focus is almost exclusively on the gentiles. Peter all but disappears from the book and the focus is on the ministry of Paul to the Gentiles.
The issue of the Gospel is always the issue that was at the center of the the material principle of the reformation that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone. Material in the sense that a table might be made of any number of materials, perhaps wood, or metal, or plastic or glass. When we examine our salvation what is the “material” or substance it is made of and it is grace which come through faith in the person and work of Christ as opposed to being built on the law or man’s merit or work.
“pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone” (WLC 70).
This was a matter that was of such great significance that Paul and Barnabas desired to take the matter to the center of the Christian faith to garner apostolic consensus. Not that Paul had any less authority but being one born out of due time was likely seeking to build a stronger case against this most conservative and strict sect of Christianity the Pharisees who were seeking
God made a choice.
God made a choice.
Like the bumper sticker that you sometimes see going down the road… God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Should be God said it that settles it period. So in one sense this point is the only point that matters. Ok thanks for coming we will now sing our doxology and benediction.
In one sense the matter has already been settled. God chose from eternity past and demonstrated his power among whom they were all witnesses that the Gentiles should receive the Holy Spirit of promise in Acts 10:44-48 They had already received hearts cleansed by faith, were theses things going to give them some further benefit. Could their hearts be further cleansed, could they receive a second or greater portion of the Holy Spirit than they had already received?
WHAT BENEFIT COULD THERE BE IN THESE THINGS?
One interesting note is that this is the first time the this word gospel appears here in Acts. It appears only one other time in 20:24.
TO PUT GOD TO THE TEST - it was clear that God chose the gentiles and the Holy Spirit was the promise
election -laos vs ethnos
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
A burden impossible to bear.
A burden impossible to bear.
It was in the book “Pilgrims progress” where “Christian” loosed the burden he carried on his back, a heavy burden that he could hardly carry. At the cross his burden was loosed from him.
The Law is too heavy of a burden for any of us to carry. It is a yoke that couples us to all the heavy burdensome demands of the law and saddles us up to an ox that pulls us in the path of destruction.
Romans 7:7 ff
So as you see the sinfulness of man is yoked together with the law and the results are destructive.
So grace must first break the yoke of sin and slavery and the law so that a new yoke can be given.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
they destroyed the meaning of Grace by adding the law. We do the same thing. Anytime we try to couple anything other than faith to the gospel we destroy the meaning of grace. Because the law is based on merit, grace is based on unmerited favor.
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GO BACK?
The Prophets agree.
The Prophets agree.
“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the Lord who does this.
Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
vs 18 tells us that theses things were know from old. The salvation of not just the Jews but the whole world. The promise of Abraham was not for the whole world. After all Abraham himself was plucked out of the nations an that through him the world might be blessed, even through the fulfillment of the Davidic throne.
Conclusion: A major question that need to be answered here is this, If they do not require anything for salvation or any further burdens on the Gentiles, then why these things such as idol, sexual immorality, strangling and blood? These are things not to be added to salvation, but to remind the gentiles of the life that they came out of. A legitimate concern of the people would be that these pagans who were coming into the church would somehow compromise the morality of the early church. It was to remind them that they now worship and serve the living God and are not to associate or practice the idolatry that they once did. Each of those things are seemingly associated with their former pagan religious practices and with fellowship with other believers.
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
In verse 9 we read that James now tells the council that they should not trouble the Gentiles with such things. This is in full agreement with the statements that Peter made earlier in chapter 10, “ can anyone with hold water from theses Gentiles”. We shall allow ourselves nor another thing become an obstacle to the gospel.
However I believe that here we see Paul and Peter and James and the other elders encouraging the Gentiles that they should put off their old former pagan practices to be sensitive to the Jews and the fact that Moses has always been read even to this day on the Sabbath in the synagogues. Much sensitivity is needed.
I believe that the principle of deference as found in 1 Corinthians 8 in regards to eating meat sacrificed to idols. Though we indeed are free free to eat and free to drink, yet we must not allow our freedom to become a stumbling block to the gospel, to unity and fellowship.
THE ISSUE IS ALWAYS LAW AND GRACE. We naturally default to law it is easy for us. Here are 10 laws that you must obey and as long as you fall in line, you are good. But the spirit of the Law of Christ is not like this this. It is in loving God and loving your neighbor, and that my friends to truly fulfill which none of us can takes work and effort, and relationship, we have to know the Lord and have to know our neighbors, we have to work hard at theses relationships to maintain them.
Anyone can follow a set of rules or demands and it requires no relationship.