Acts 15:1-35 - Getting the Gospel Right
Notes
Transcript
What are some hills that we die one?
What are you so passionate about that you can’t help yourself when someone brings it up?
Single ply toilet paper and group chats.
Context
At the end of their first missionary journey, Barnabas and Saul go back to Antioch to report what happened.
We get news that some people are saying that unless you become a Jew, you can’t be a Christian.
Woah. Now we’ve got some problems.
Big Idea: Getting the Gospel Right
Big Idea: Getting the Gospel Right
The gospel is the hill we die on here at Graceland.
Whenever the gospel is at stake, we go to battle over that.
Stand to read
27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples. 1 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.” 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 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.” 6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
Leader: This is God’s Word
Everyone: Thanks be to God.
Paul and Barnabas come back from their mission trip celebrating.
This comes to an abrupt halt when they learn that false teachers have infiltrated the church and have made people question the gospel.
These false teachers are “Judaizers”.
Jews who became Christians who taught obedience to the Law of Moses was necessary for salvation.
Their whole identity was in their obedience to the Law.
The issue is, they surrendered the loving grace of God by making it about our works again.
They were adding to the gospel
Jesus + our works of the law = salvation.
Making chili—I try to make chili, but I keep adding to it—Making it not chili.
This belief is still present today:
Mormons teach that it’s Jesus + works of morality
Catholics believe in Jesus + keeping the sacraments = necessary for salvation.
Paul and Barnabas were not going to compromise on this.
This sparks a huge debate.
They recognize the weight of the gospel. Jesus + nothing = salvation!
Jesus plus anything else is heresy. It’s not the gospel.
“Gospel”=Good news
What is the good news?
Here are Graceland,
We believe Jesus alone is our gospel.
We believe Jesus alone is our gospel.
Gospel presentation
The Son of God came to put on flesh to save your from your sins.
How did He do it?
God lives like a man, to live perfectly according to the will of God.
In order to have a right relationship with God is to live perfectly, right?
We couldn’t do that.
Jesus was our substitute to satisfy the will of God.
He did so, so that He could be our sacrifice for our sins.
His blood alone would take our sins away.
God raised Him from the dead, showing that death was defeated and that we could have eternal life through faith!
Arguments:
“I’m a terrible person” “I’m not pure enough.” “I have to get my act together”
What makes us pure and righteous before God?
Not our good works, but by Jesus’s!
Jesus’s righteous, His death on the cross, His resurrection!
We cannot clean ourselves!
We need a Savior!
Jesus is the perfect Savior to forgive our sins!
He can bear the weight of the law and our sins! Not us!
That’s exactly what Peter points us to:
7 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. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,
Peter going to Cornelius in Acts 10 was not his idea, but God’s.
The Lord sent him to the Gentiles to proclaim the Word and then God gave them the Holy Spirit!
“This wasn’t our decision! This was God’s decision!”
9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 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?
“Guys, we don’t even get this right!”
As a way of relating to God, the law will not work.
The law has not saved anyone and cannot save anyone.
No one’s obedience to the law made them right and pure because it serves as a mirror!
It reveals that we can’t!
God’s Law reveals our need for a Savior.
These Judaizers were putting the burden of the law back on these new believers and Peter’s reminded that Christ came to proclaim liberty to the captives, yet these guys are trying to enslave those who Jesus has made free from sin!
So Peter summarizes his argument like this
11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
This is what it takes for us to be Christians.
Church,
Our hearts must be cleansed by God’s grace through faith alone.
Our hearts must be cleansed by God’s grace through faith alone.
Our hearts must daily be cleansed by Jesus.
Salvation does not come from being a good person
Salvation comes through our hearts being changed by God.
Addiction isn’t broken because of our willpower.
It’s broken by the power of God.
We are not changed just because we decide to be a good person.
We are changed by the daily work of God cutting away in our hearts what shouldn’t be there.
We are not saved because we want to be good people—We are saved by God’s grace cleansing us!
After Peter, Paul and Barnabas give a missionary report of what happened with the Gentiles during their trip.
Then James stands up.
James is the brother of Jesus and the pastor at the church in Jerusalem.
and reminds them of Amos 9, where the Lord prophesied that He will rebuild a remnant of Israel and restore it!
He doesn’t ground the Gentile’s salvation in what Peter, Paul, or Barnabas said, but in what God said in the Scriptures!
So based on his understanding of God’s Word, James says,
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 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.
Gentiles do not have to be circumsized to become part of the church, but they also should not provoke the Jews.
In one sentence, James wraps up what the conduct of a believer looks like for Gentiles.
The Gentile’s shouldn’t make it complicated for Jews to hang out with them, but the Jews shouldn’t make it tough on Gentile’s either.
Both had to put something away for the sake of the other because it is not essential for salvation.
A few weeks ago, we were getting ready for community group
Silas has this helicopter you’ve seen around church he rides through the house.
Hilary and I had told him repeatedly to put it away.
While we were crisis-cleaning, tensions were high Hilary hit her toe and her shin on this, and kicked it into the kitchen.
The back door was open.
If you’re a parent, you’ve likely or will likely have a moment like this.
I picked it up, and threw it into the backyard.
Silas w/ hands on hips in outrage: “You threw my helicopter out the door!”
You left it in the middle of the floor and it hurt your mom!
As Christians, we tend to leave things in the middle of the floor for people.
We set our standards/expectations on them that they can’t uphold and so we think they’re beyond grace.
“This person could never change/follow Jesus.”
James and Peter get in our face: “You’ve felt YOUR stuff in the middle of the floor”
We must remove barriers to Jesus.
We must remove barriers to Jesus.
It’s common that the lines between necessity and preference get blurred.
How you grew up, what your convictions are, what your traditions are.
These things determine how you view the Church.
People have been driven away from the church because we’ve elevated our preferences and customs to the level of the gospel.
We’ve made essential secondary issues.
Dress code
Code of conduct
Alcohol consumption
Cuss words
Some have elevated those to be gospel issues
These things could become sinful, but they’re mostly just preference.
These are dumb hills to die on.
Just like thinking single-ply toilet paper is okay.
We need to fight on the right hills.
How are you going to make it easier for people to come and meet Jesus?
We must hold fast to the gospel and get the gospel right.