The Church’s Solution to False Teachers

Duringour study of the problems encountered and overcome by the early Church in the Book of Acts, we’ve repeatedly seen these new believers empowered by the Holy Spirit to act in ways that would’ve been contrary to their fleshly nature.

When they encountered poverty, they practiced generosity. When they encountered persecution for their faith, they spoke boldly about it. And when they were tempted to prejudice, they reacted with humility.

None of this would have made sense from a worldly point of view. But the Church was and continues to be something DIFFERENT in the world.

The Greek word that’s translated as “church” in the New Testament is ekklesia, which is a compound word meaning, roughly, “called-out ones.” So, the Church is a called-out assembly of of believers. We’re called out of the world. Not taken FROM the world, mind you. But called out to be different from the lost world.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to us that the Holy Spirit addressed problems in the early Church with solutions different from the one the world would be likely to pursue.

This week, as we look at the next phase of the growth of this early church, we’re going to see the Apostles and other early church leaders coming to terms with just how different this community of believers really was.

You’ll recall that I’ve said Dr. Luke gives us six major progress updates throughout his account of the early church.

These progress updates mark six significant shifts — inflection points — in the spread of the gospel during the first decades after the resurrected Jesus returned to heaven in the clouds.

And the events that take place between those inflection points demonstrate certain challenges the Church faced in accomplishing the task Jesus had given His disciples: to be His “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Significantly, the challenges of the early church are some of the same ones we face as individual followers of Jesus when it comes to making disciples — when it comes to sharing the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Now, it’s important for us to remember where and how the Church was started. Remember that back in Acts, chapter 2, we had Peter preaching his first sermon in the streets of Jerusalem, where 3,000 souls were won to Christ.

Now, this took place on the Day of Pentecost, which was an annual Jewish feast day. Observant Jews from every nation were in Jerusalem that day for the feast. They were the ones who heard Peter’s sermon, and many of them came to faith in Jesus because of it.

This was the beginning of the Church. And at the beginning, the Church was entirely Jewish in culture and character.

But as we saw last week, things had begun to change during the ensuing years. Facing persecution because of their new faith, many of these early followers of Jesus left Jerusalem and either went back to their homes in other lands or found new homes in nations that were largely Gentile.

Philip was taken by the Holy Spirit to meet with an Ethiopian eunuch and led him to saving faith in Christ. And then, as we studied last week, Peter was sent to witness to a Roman centurion named Cornelius. And Cornelius and his household believed and received God’s gift of the Holy Spirit.

And it’s likely that other Jewish believers were also sharing their faith with their Gentile neighbors in Syria and other parts of Asia Minor to which they’d fled.

So, the Church, which had been entirely Jewish, was now welcoming a growing number of Gentiles into its midst. As we saw last week, this required both groups to address the prejudices they’d grown up with. They had to tear down the unfair and unjust barriers they’d allowed to separate them.

But in the phase of that church’s growth that we’ll study today, we’ll see the leaders of the church wrestling with how the influx of Gentiles was changing the character of the church.

Now, Luke recounts this phase of the church’s growth beginning in verse 25 of chapter 12 and concluding with his progress report in 16:5, where he writes:

Acts 16:5 NASB95

5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily.

This passage recounts Paul’s first missionary journey, which he undertook with Barnabas and John Mark, along with the start of his second one.

And sandwiched between them in, chapter 15, is the account of a pivotal meeting of the Jerusalem Council, where a Holy Spirit-inspired decision was made concerning the new Gentile believers.

That decision would settle once and for all the question of whether the church was just some new kind of Judaism or something entirely different.

And it’s interesting to note that God would use conflict with false teachers and even conflict among the Apostles to help those church leaders finally recognize the answer to that question.

We’re going to look at a brief scene from chapter 13 first, to see how Luke gives us a hint that false teaching is the problem facing the church at this point in its history. And then, we’ll skip over to chapter 15 to see how the church solved that problem.

As we get into chapter 13, Paul and Barnabas and John Mark have left Antioch of Syria and sailed to the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.

Now, this is a significant development, because this is the first time the gospel is taken by the Apostles outside the boundaries of the Promised Land as God had defined them to Abraham.

This marks the beginning of God’s fulfillment of the last part of his Genesis 12 promise to Abraham: “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Previously, the gospel had been proclaimed almost exclusively to Jewish audiences. Some Gentiles had heard it, too, but the focus of the church’s efforts had been in areas where Jewish people were the majority.

As Paul and crew land on Cyprus, though, this is the first time the church reaches out to the Gentiles purposefully.

Here, directed by the Holy Spirit, the church sends missionaries who go with the INTENTION to preach to the Gentiles. They’ll also present the gospel to Jews along the way, but the FOCUS of this mission is on converting Gentiles to Christ.

Now, let’s pick up in verse 6.

Acts 13:6–8 NASB95

6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

So, the proconsul — he’s the highest Roman government official on the island — has heard that Paul and Barnabas are preaching on Cyprus, and he wants to hear what they have to say.

But this Jewish false prophet, this false teacher who’s also a magician is there, too. His name is Bar-Jesus, which means “Son of the Savior,” but his nickname is Elymas, which means “wise.”

He was there on a Satanic mission to turn Sergius Paulus from giving his life to Jesus. Which is exactly what every false teacher tries to do, whether they’re aware of it or not.

False teachers want to come between you and salvation. They want to come between you and Jesus. They want to come between you and the one true gospel that brings forgiveness and peace with God.

So, we see the first conflict that shows us the problem the church will be dealing with during this phase of its growth: false teachers who would pervert the message of the gospel to their own ends and ultimately keep people from being saved.

Now, look at verse 9.

Acts 13:9–11 NASB95

9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, 10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? 11 “Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

So, Paul (and, by the way, Luke never refers to him as Saul again) is full of the Holy Spirit and goes all Old Testament prophet on this false teacher.

“Instead of being full of wisdom, Paul accused Elymas of being full of all deceit and fraud. Instead of being the son of a savior or the follower of Jesus, Bar-Jesus was a son of the devil and an enemy of righteousness. Instead of being the promoter of righteousness, this magician was making the straight ways of the Lord crooked.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ac 13:10.]

And so, Paul curses him to blindness. I think Paul probably hoped Elymas would have the same kind of come-to-Jesus moment in HIS blindness that Paul had when HE was struck blind on the road to Damascus.

We aren’t told whether that happened. But what we ARE told is that the proconsul believed in Jesus. Look at verse 12.

Acts 13:12 NASB95

12 Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

Now, don’t take this verse to mean that the proconsul believed solely because of the miracle Paul had done through the Holy Spirit.

No. As they always are in the Bible, the miracle was a sign that the teaching of the Lord Paul had delivered was authoritative. The power of the miracle confirmed the power of God’s word, delivered through the Apostle.

The proconsul believed in the gospel Paul preached because he saw the power God had given Paul through the Holy Spirit. In the end, it was the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that had power, not the sweet and deceitful words of a so-called wise man.

Elymas came from OUTSIDE the church to try to derail its work of making disciples. But as we’ll see next, false teachers can come from within the church, too, and the danger they pose there is nearly as great.

Chapter 14 concludes with Paul and Barnabas (John Mark had left them by now) returning by ship to Antioch of Syria. They’d spent time during this journey in Cyprus and then in the southern part of Galatia, which is located near the Mediterranean in modern-day Turkey.

They’d planted churches at various places and had then gone back the way they’d come to see how those churches were doing, finally wrapping up their journey in Antioch, back where they’d started.

And the chapter concludes with Luke telling us that “they spent a long time with the disciples” in the church there. And it’s while they’re in Antioch that we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 15.

Acts 15:1 NASB95

1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

We should note here that there were two dangers that sprung from the false teaching of the Judaizers, those who taught that male Gentile believers had to be circumcised in order to be truly saved.

First and foremost, to suggest that any action of a man could contribute to his salvation was to deny the sufficiency of God’s grace working through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

To require Gentile men to be circumcised and to adhere to other parts of the Mosaic Law was to suggest that we must EARN our salvation, at least in part, through our works.

This was what the Pharisees taught during the time of Jesus, and He’d rebuked them for it, calling them whitewashed tombs: clean on the outside, but full of filth and decay inside.

In fact, this is the heresy Paul confronted in his letter to the Galatian church, which he probably wrote during this time in Antioch.

He’d been compelled to write the letter to the Galatians, in part, because of an incident that arose between the Gentile and Jewish converts in Antioch of Syria.

We talked about this a few months back. Perhaps you remember that some of the Jews refused to sit with the uncircumcised Gentiles at supper, because they still held onto their prejudice.

This action threatened to divide the church, and Paul had spoken harshly to Peter and the other Jews who were showing prejudice.

Paul understood that this false teaching about circumcision and the prejudice that was partly behind it threatened both the purity of the gospel message and the unity of the church.

So, after some time of debating with the Judaizers, Paul and Barnabas and some others decide to go to Jerusalem to meet with the other Apostles and elders of the church. They wanted to settle the matter once and for all.

But when they arrive in Jerusalem, they find that this false teaching has already infected the church. Look at verse 5.

Acts 15:5 NASB95

5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”

Paul and Barnabas told the Jerusalem Council about all that God had done during their missionary trip to the Gentiles. They told them of souls being won for Christ. They told them of miracles. They told them of churches planted throughout Asia Minor.

But these Pharisees who’d believed in Jesus could not yet see that He had FULFILLED the Law of Moses. They couldn’t yet understand that it was the circumcision of HEARTS that mattered for salvation, not the circumcision of the flesh.

And they failed to see that requiring Gentile believers to be circumcised would be a stumbling block to them. This was a point of significant conflict that could cause great harm to the church.

So, “here the matter must be resolved as to what constitutes the people of God, and how the major ethnic division in the church shall be dealt with so that both groups may be included in God’s people on equal footing, fellowship may continue, and the church remain one.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ac 15:1, quoting Witherington.]

So, Peter stands up and reminds the council of what had taken place when he’d visited the home of the Gentile, Cornelius. They’d believed in Jesus, and God had given them the Holy Spirit, just as He’d done for the Jews on the Day of Pentecost.

And then, Peter puts a question to the council. Look at verse 10.

Acts 15:10–11 NASB95

10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

If the council required Gentiles essentially to become Jews before they could be saved, then what of Cornelius and his family? Wouldn’t the council be saying that God had acted unrighteously in granting them the Holy Spirit WITHOUT circumcision, WITHOUT requiring them to follow the Mosaic Law?

And furthermore, the Jews themselves had been unable to keep the Law, not even the Pharisees, the ones who were supposed to be paragons of virtue. Jesus said they were outwardly righteous, but filled with unrighteousness in their hearts.

Jesus promised an EASY yoke and a LIGHT burden. He promised rest for the souls of those who followed Him in faith.

The Mosaic Law, represented here by circumcision, could promise none of those things. It wasn’t given for those things, but rather to show the Jewish people how sinful they really were and how desperately they needed God’s grace.

And as Peter says in verse 11, it is only by God’s GRACE, working through faith, that ANY are saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

So, after the council heard more from Paul and Barnabas about God’s work among the Gentiles, James, the half-brother of Jesus, speaks up.

And his words are a reminder to us that the ultimate answer to the problem of false teachers is the word of God. What Peter has said, James tells the council, agrees with the words of the prophets.

The word translated as “agree” there is sumphoneo. So, the accounts of the Apostles symphonize with what the prophets wrote. They’re harmonious with the prophecies that God would draw to Himself people of ALL ethnicities, Gentiles and Jews, alike.

James quotes a passage from the Book of Amos to make his point. Now, this passage deals with Christ’s Millennial Reign, and James wasn’t suggesting that the Millennium had come. I think that’s why he talks about the things Peter and Paul and Barnabas have described as HARMONIZING with the prophets.

The idea is that the kinds of things the Apostles witnessed God doing among the Gentiles are just the sort of things we’d expect to see if God’s going to keep His promise to bring the Gentiles into His family.

And so, we see this issue finally resolved. They’d send a letter to the Gentile churches assuring them they were under no obligation to the Mosaic Law.

The Gentile believers would simply be told to “abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood” so they wouldn’t be a stumbling block to the Jews the church was still trying to win to Christ.

“The decision reached at the Jerusalem Council was very important. Even though false teachers continued to propagate the view that Gentiles had to [essentially become Jews] before they could enter the church, this view was now officially unacceptable.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ac 15:30.]

They’d worked through the matter with grace. They’d heard one another’s arguments. They’d examined the evidence. They’d turned to God’s word. And, as it’s recorded in verse 25, they’d finally “become as one mind.”

This is a great example of how to work out conflict in the church. And it’s a great example of the church’s solution to false teachers.

Listen folks, false teachers are still all around us, even today. They come from outside the church, and sometimes they come from within the church.

Circumcision is no longer the issue. But works-based salvation still IS. And the prosperity gospel. And Christian nationalism. And progressive Christianity.

And all of this false teaching, if it’s left unchallenged by the word of God, draws people AWAY from Jesus. But when it’s examined through the powerful lens of God’s word, it’s exposed for the lie that it is.

But you don’t have access to that powerful lens if you’re not using it.

Today, I want to encourage you to pick up that lens. Pick up your Bible and study it. Examine what you believe about this world and about Jesus under its light.

Test your convictions and your opinions and your actions against the WHOLE counsel of God’s word, not just a verse or two plucked out of context.

Only THEN can you be confident you’re not being led astray by false teachers.