Luke-Acts: From Bethlehem to the World: Week 10

Good morning friends, next Sunday Dean will be speaking, which will then lead us into September. As a result, we will be finishing up our Luke-Acts series today. I do pray that you have learned some things over the last couple of months as we’ve explored the writings of Luke. As an FYI, if you want to go back and watch any of this series, they are on our YouTube. I am in the process of organizing our channel with playlists. So, if you are interested in going back and watching the series on Hermanutics (called How to read the Bible), you can go to playlists and the entire series will be there, or the series on Isaiah, any of them. If you haven’t checked out our YouTube channel, just go to YouTube and type in Ottawa First Assembly in the search…we will come up. If you need help with that, let me know and I’ll try to be of assistance.

Anyway, as I said, today we are finishing up our Luke-Acts series. Way back at the beginning of Summer I told you that I would be finishing up in Acts Chapter 15…and here we are…we somehow made it!

Outside of the 4 gospels, M, M,L, and J, Acts Chapter 15 is one of the most…definitely in the top 3 or 4 most consequential or important chapters in the entire N.T. I’ll explain why in just a few moments, as I set the scene. Let’s go ahead and pray, then we will get started.

PRAY

Acts Chapter 15: The First Christian Council; or, the Terms of Church Membership for the Gentiles Definitely Settled

1. Judaising Teachers at Antioch; or, the Circumcision Controversy Raised (vers. 1–5).

2. The Council at Jerusalem; or, the Controversy Settled (vers. 6–21).

3. The Apostolic Letter; or, the Publication of the Settlement (vers. 22–35).

4. The Second Missionary Journey commenced; or, the Separation of Paul and Barnabas (vers. 36–41).

The outline is how we will be covering Acts 15.

1. Judaising Teachers at Antioch; or, the Circumcision Controversy Raised (vers. 1–5).

In Acts 15, the narrative of the Jerusalem council begins at verse 6. We are going to begin this morning by reading the first 5 verses of Acts 15; as it tells us the events that led up to the council.

Acts 15:1–5 “Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.” After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue. When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.””

Much has happened since the events on the Day of Pentecost. The Church was growing by leaps and bounds, Stephen had been killed by the Pharisees, Saul became the Apostle Paul in a dramatic conversion story. Lots was going on. The original disciples were trying to figure out how the church was going to run. Also, instead of Christ being preached only to Jews, God opened the way for non-Jews (Gentiles) to become an equal heir or an equal part of His plan for humanity. In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey (which I’ll talk more about in a moment). Through all of this, God made it abundantly clear that Gentiles no longer have to become a Jew in order to have a relationship with Him. Of course, that was not the only difference between followers of Christ and traditional Judaism.

Honestly, things for the early church hit a fever pitch when Stephen was killed by the Sanhedrin. The Jewish leaders worked hand-in-hand with the Roman authorities to persecute the Church. As a result, the early Christians spread far and wide, taking the gospel with them. The more spread out the gospel became, the more Gentiles were beginning to put their faith in Christ. Also, the more the Gospel spread, the more people began to teach about Christ. They would present themselves as having the same authority of the original apostles…there was a problem though…some of these individuals were not preaching and teaching the same gospel message as Paul and Jesus’ disciples. This had the potential to split the early church between different warring factions.

Because of this danger, the leaders of the early church called for a council.

Council: A meeting of church leadership to consider and rule on questions of doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters.

The Jerusalem council was the first of what would be a number of church councils throughout history. Some of the most famous are:

1. Nicaea I

325 Pope Sylvester I, 314-335 Emperor Constantine, 306-337

Decisions: Condemned Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ (elements of Arianism have reappeared in our own time); defined the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son; fixed the date for Easter; began formulation of Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

Originally, I had about a 10 minute section on the different council’s throughout the last couple thousand years, but I remembered that this is not a class on church history…if you are interested in any of that, let me know and I’ll share my research with you. In the protestant churches, each denomination has its own councils, in which matters of doctrine are debated. For the Assemblies of God, each state, otherwise knows as districts hold a yearly council. It’s called the District Council. During the district council about 90% of AG pastors in Illinois go down to Carlinville, or to Naperville (it rotates every year). It is a 3 day event which has lots of activities, a morning and evening service every day, multiple workshops to attend and then on Tuesday is the ordination service, where pastors who have been approved for ordination are prayed over and given their ordination certificate. There is also the annual business meeting where things are voted on and debated.

Every 4 years the AG has a General Council, this is where pastors and district leadership from across the US and meet together, it’s the same as the district councils, but much, much larger in scope. I’ve never been to a general council and have no desire to go either. The general council is held in either California or Ohio.

A moment ago I mentioned how in Acts 13, so before the Jerusalem council, Paul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary Journey

Acts 13:1–3 “Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.”

During the first missionary trip, Paul and Barnabas visited the Southern part of Galatia:

Map of 1st Missionary Journey

While in Galatia the two missionaries established a church. After making sure that the church was up and running, Paul and Barnabas set off to continue their journey. However, after Paul left, the church was infested with men who were teaching that a man must be circumcised in order to be saved. These people are known as Judaizers. It is believed that once Paul and Barnabas finished their 1st Journey and returned back to Antioch, Paul found out that the church in Galatia had begun to stray from what they had been taught. Because of this information, Paul wrote a letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 1:6–9 “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!”

I bring this up because, as it turns out, the same type of teaching that lead the church in Galatians to stray is the same that Paul came across in Acts 15....when Luke says:

Acts 15:1 “Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

It’s clear that this teaching was beginning to spread and certain churches were starting to follow the teaching of the Judaizers.

As a result of all of that, Paul and Barnabas are sent to (what is believed to be) the first ever church council. Let’s go ahead and begin reading, starting in vs. 6.

2. The Council at Jerusalem (vers. 6–21).

Acts 15:6 “The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter.

Luke says that the apostles and elders gathered to consider this matter…remember what matter that was exactly? It was the Judaizer teachings.

Jewish Christians were demanding that the Gentile Christians become Jews, in order to become reconciled to God. Although these particular Jews recognised Christ as the messiah, they did not fully understand what that meant. To these people, the messiah’s arrival had no bearing on their status as “God’s Chosen.” While they did recognise that Christ became the ultimate sacrifice for their sin…so sacrifice was no longer needed, the still believed that God only interacted with Jews....therefore, one must get circumcised and become a Jew in order to have a relationship with God. After the men gathered at the council had debated the issue, First, Peter gets up to speak, after Peter, Paul and Barnabas, then lastly, James (the Brother of Jesus)

Peter:

Acts 15:7–11 “After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.””

Peter declares that God had now chosen to accept Gentiles into the fold. Basically what Peter is arguing is that, if God still required circumcision and conversion to Judaism in order to be saved, God would not have poured out the Holy Spirit on the uncircumcised Gentiles in Acts Chapter 10. It is precisely because the Gentiles have recieved the same Holy Spirit as the Jews that proves God no longer requires the outward sign of circumcision. Instead of that, Peter says that

we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are

Paul & Barnabas

Acts 15:12 “The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.”

After Peter is finished making his case, Paul and Barnabas then get up to support what Peter said. Like I spoke about earlier, Paul and Barnabas had just finished up their first missionary journey where they saw God pouring out His spirit on Gentiles all throughout the region. In essence, they were simply adding weight to Peter’s argument by saying that they have seen what Peter is describing firsthand.

The last one to get up and speak is James

James (the brother of Jesus)

Who is James? He is not the one who was Jesus’ disciple, however, it is believed that he wrote the book of James. He was one of the top three leaders of the Jerusalem church with Peter and John in the period after Acts 15 (Gal 2:9). Paul calls James an apostle and brother of the Lord (Gal 1:19). He claims that James received a personal resurrection appearance (1 Cor 15:7), just like Peter (15:5; cf. Luke 24:34) and, in a different way, Paul (1 Cor 15:8). James was not a follower of Jesus, until after the resurrection. Perhaps it was Jesus making a personal appearance to him that changed his mind.

Acts 15:13–18“After they stopped speaking, James responded, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again, so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord— even all the Gentiles who are called by my name— declares the Lord who makes these things known from long ago.

As Peter, and then Paul and Barnabas finish speaking, Jesus’ brother, James decides to stand up and continue to back up the idea that Gentiles have been fully accepted by God. Notice that each of these men approach the subject a bit differently, yet all are in one accord with the same theme. Peter spoke about certain aspects of the Law of Moses, Paul and Barnabas spoke about their own personal eye-witness accounts, and lastly, James brings it all home by reminding the crowd that the prophets of old had predicted this day would come. James uses 2 separate O.T. prophets to prove his points. First, James quotes:

Amos 9:11–12 “In that day I will restore the fallen shelter of David: I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name— this is the declaration of the Lord; he will do this.”

Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory. I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.””

Both of these passages talk about a day when the restoration of Israel will go hand-in-hand with the inclusion of all nations. In other words, through Israel, all nations will eventually be blessed. You do not have to be a biblical scholar to know, whenever the people were being taught a new concept, like Gentiles being accepted by God, no different than Jews, whenever the speaker taught these things or was reinforcing these things, they would often use passages from the O.T. to prove that what they are teaching was compatible with the Jewish scriptures.

We still do the same thing today, expect when we are teaching something or reinforcing something, we will typically quote from the N.T., in order to show that what we are saying has its basis in God’s Word. In other words, we still rely on God’s Word to guide our belief’s and doctrine....or, at least we should.

After James quotes from the O.T., he proposes a sort of compromise with the Jewish Christians.

Acts 15:20 “but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.”

James suggests that Gentile Christians should be instructed to avoid 3 (or 4) areas (depending on how you view it):

Things “polluted” by idols.

Sexual Immorality

Eating anything strangled

Eating anything with blood in it

Why choose these things?

Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, Volume 3: 15:1–23:35 (II. Proposed Backgrounds of the Decree)

1. The prohibitions are purely moral, analogous to the three most basic Jewish moral prohibitions (idolatry, bloodshed, sexual immorality).

2. The prohibitions concern activity in pagan temples.

3. They echo prohibitions for strangers in the land in Lev 17–18.

To be honest, I could do an entire sermon on this topic, as it is rather complicated. I tend to subscribe to the pagan temple idea. You see, back in Ancient Israel, pagan temples would hold feasts. During these feasts people could come to the temple to eat. For many people, this was the only time they had access to quality meat. Not only that, during these feasts, temple prostitutes would make themselves available…if you know what I mean. The food offered to people at these temple feasts was normally part of an offering to a pagan god. Gentiles would not have thought twice about going to these temple feasts.

On the other hand, those who grew up and were lifelong Jews viewed such activity as an absolute mortal sin. I was trying to think of something in my own life that I could use as an example. The closest I thought of what a time, many, many years ago, before I went to T.C.

I think it was October of 1997. I had just turned 21 years old. One of my friends invited me to a Halloween party. It’s for sure that I was not living for the Lord at that time, but, I grew up in the church and had a basic understanding of what was holy vs what was evil. My friend, on the other hand, was no, nor had ever been a Christian and made no distinction between the very real spiritual realities of this world. The problem that day was no I was attending a secular Halloween party with drinking and such…as I said, I wasn’t living for the Lord…the problem I encountered was the type of Halloween party it happened to be. You see, this was an sexually themed Halloween party, but more specifically, one geared towards the darker side of the twisted, evil world of Sadomasochism (S and M)

To my friend, he just thought it funny, but I was horrified, even though I wasn’t living for the Lord, there was just a darkness at that place.

I would suggest that is exactly how the Jews would view these temple feasts....the Jews did not want to associate with anyone who participated in such things, let alone worship with them or share a meal together.

In a few moments I’m going to talk about an important distinction between how the Jews would look down upon the newer Gentile Christians verses the ways Peter, James and Paul handled the situation.

3. The Apostolic Letter (vers. 22–35)

As James concluded his remarks, he suggested that they write to the various churches to explain what the council had decided. This letter would explain that Gentiles are not to engage in certain activities, but more importantly, the letter affirms that salvation in Christ is based solely on faith, no on keeping a list of rules or becoming a Jew.

Acts 15:24–25 “Since we have heard that some without our authorization went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts, we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul,”

The letter continues...

Acts 15:28–29 “For it was the Holy Spirit’s decision—and ours—not to place further burdens on you beyond these requirements: that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.”

For the reasons I mentioned before, this letter lays out the things agreed to during the council. It also lets the churches know that if anyone comes to them preaching or teaching something other than this, they do not have the proper authority.

I know I’ve talked about it before, but Imagine for a moment how difficult it was for the early church leaders to establish proper doctrine and practices. The entire concept of how a person relates to God had changed, literally overnight. The ministry of Jesus was focused mainly on Jews, so I can understand why there was such debate.

When you boil it all down, the reason that Paul and Peter knew that God was doing something new was because God allowed Gentiles to speak in tongues, just like the Jews did on the day of Pentecost.

Acts 15:8–9 “And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”

God used the outward sign of speaking in tongues similar to the way circumcision was used in the Old Testament…it was an outward sign of an inward act. God designed the events on the day of Pentecost so that the early church leaders would know that God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

Before I wrap up, I want to draw your attention to something interesting…and this is just a side note. Who has a bible open? Does anyone have a Bible that has:

Acts 15:34?

The original KJ does have Acts 15:34, but newer translations do not, especially the more literal translations.

Acts 15: 33-35 (KJV)

33 And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles. 34 Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still. 35 Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

The reason that verse 34 is in the KJV and not in newer ones is because, since the KJV was written, scholars have found older manuscripts of the book of Acts which do not include the statement that Silas was going to stay behind. As a result, rather than having to renumber all of Acts, they simply omitted verse 34 and went from verse 33 to 35. Just a bit of trivia there....that was for free.

After the council meeting, Luke records that the leaders went their various ways, making sure that everyone understood the new teaching. Although we aren’t covering it today, starting in verse 36, Paul gets into a sharp disagreement with Barnabas and ends up taking Silas on his 2nd missionary journey, instead of Barnabas.

This shows, that for all of the unity achieved at the Jerusalem council, the great men and women of scripture are still human, they are still subject to the same stuff we are....differences of opinion and even sharp or heated disagreements from time to time. The important thing though, even though Paul and Barnabas split apart for a while, they did not abandon the message of Christ. They also reconciled later on.

It’s clear that the decisions made at Jerusalem council had a very far reaching affect on the church. Of course, Paul would go on to write his own letters to various churches, encouraging them to remain faithful to the true gospel.

The story of the Jerusalem council is one of the most under preached, yet important events in the N.T. Imagine for a moment if Paul, or Peter, or James would have decided to avoid confrontation, just to please their fellow Jews. What would have happened to the church if those men did not stand up for the right thing?

I want to read a story to you from the book of Matthew real quick.

In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman approached Jesus, saying that her daughter was tormented by a demon. Jesus’s disciples wanted to dismiss the lady but Jesus started speaking with her. Their conversation has sparked much debate as Jesus appears to speak down to her in a rude way…expect I don’t at all believe that is what Jesus was doing.

Matthew 15:21–28 (CSB)When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.” Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.” He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!” He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.

You see, the issue had hand was that the Jewish Christians believed that, in order to become a follower of Christ you had to undergo certain rituals…to them, if you did not undergo these rituals, you were not a follower of Christ. In other words, before you take a shower, you have to take a shower. Paul, Peter, and James were saying that anyone can come to Christ, through faith…but once you do, you need to avoid certain activities. That is a very important difference that is not often spoken about.

Here is the truth, and there is just no easy way to put this: the Jewish individuals considered themselves as more important to God than their uncircumcised counterparts. Yet we see, even in Jesus’ earthly ministry, more than once Jesus encounters a gentile and declares them righteous because of their faith, not because they were Jews.

Today, you and I can be similar to the early church Jews. We look at those who do not follow Christ and cast all manner of judgment at them. Secretly we consider ourselves better, even though we would never say that out loud. We look at the person living a lifestyle that we consider an abomination to the Lord and form judgments about them. Our reaction is not based on love for that person, where we want to see them find freedom in Christ, we resent them.

Remember how Jesus instructed the people regarding the pharisees

Matthew 23:3 “Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.”

Jesus warned the people…listen to their instruction, but do not follow their example. The pharisees taught the law and demanded that people follow it…yet they did not keep the law. This is why Paul says in the book of Romans to not judge others when you do the same things. Some people interpret that overly broad, meaning we can’t ever judge right from wrong, but others interpret it overly narrow…oh, I didn’t have an affair on my wife, so I can judge you for that…even though I look at porn on a regular basis.

We do not get our righteousness from being a good Christian. We do not get our righteousness from coming to church or giving money or reading the bible…all of those are good things, but our righteousness comes from Christ in us. Because of this, we can not cast resentful judgment at those who we believe are living in sin…as we are all in the same boat. We are called to love the unlovable, to pray for those who treat you wrong. We do not want to make the same mistake we see in the early church, where we look down upon those who we consider less than.

I believe this is why Paul says that the Judaizers were preaching a different gospel…because any ritual or bad attitude we place in-front of the grace of Christ only serves to block access for those who often do not know any better.

PRAY!