The Jerusalem Council

Intro

Wacky Laws

Give each student six slips of paper and a pen.

On one of the paper slips, ask students to write down their answer to fill in the following blank: In Arizona, it’s illegal for a donkey to _____.

Collect students’ answers.

In random order, read the prompt and answers. In the mix include the real answer: In Arizona, it’s illegal for a donkey to sleep in a bathtub.

Repeat with the prompts from the Wacky Laws Handout

In Arizona, it’s illegal for a donkey to _________________.

Sleep in a bathtub.

In Berkeley, California, it is illegal to whistle for _________________.

A lost canary before 7 AM.

In Boulder, Colorado, it is illegal to keep a _________________.

Couch on your porch.

In Missouri, it is illegal for bears _________________.

To wrestle.

In New Hampshire, it’s illegal to pick up _________________.

Seaweed off the beach at night.

In Ohio, it’s illegal to sell _________________.

Dyed chicken or rabbits.

When there is a “crazy” law, something must have happened to make that law necessary. Today we will talk about a council in the Bible that needed to decide whether their laws applied to everyone.

Growing Pains

Do you remember when you were younger and going through a growth spurt, feeling aches in your legs or arms?

Those aches are known as “growing pains.” They don’t cause any damage; they are just a normal sign that you are growing.

The early church experienced some growing pains. They were growing and expanding. The church was reaching new people, going new places, but with that growth also came some new problems.

Lesson

The Council at Jerusalem

Requirements of the Law

Jesus and His disciples were Jews, and so were all the first believers.

They followed many Jewish practices, including laws about the food they ate, the clothes they wore, physical hygiene, and special days they celebrated.

The Jews who were born again were now Christians, but they were still Jewish. They continued observing Jewish festivals and rituals.

The real challenge arose when Gentiles began converting to Christianity.

What the Jewish Christians considered essential to the Christian lifestyle, the Gentiles saw simply as Jewish culture.

Many Jews believed that the Gentiles needed to become Jews before they could be Christians.

But the apostles were preaching a message of freedom through Jesus, rather than bondage to the Old Testament law (Galatians 5:1–6).

Galatians 3:24–26 NKJV

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Salvation has always come by faith, rather than works. (You can’t be good enough and do enough good things to earn salvation.)

The Law was good because it came from God, but it only showed how flawed and incapable people really were of being righteous (Romans 3:20).

Paul preached to the Gentiles that faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, not keeping the Old Testament law, brought salvation.

The Gentiles, like the Jews, could not save themselves by good works; they needed to rely on Jesus for their salvation, not adopting the Jewish law.

The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Through this, He offered freedom from sin, through new birth of water and Spirit.

In Romans 6–8, Paul never taught that being a Christian gave us an excuse to sin—quite the opposite.

Instead, we live in covenant with Jesus and become more like Him through faith in Him and the power of His Spirit.

But some of the Jews interpreted the gospel differently.

The Law was so much a part of their culture that they thought it still applied to everyone.

Different opinions created a lot of conflict, so the leaders formed a council in Jerusalem to settle the dispute.

God calls us to work together to complete the church’s mission. It’s hard to work together if we are too busy fighting with each other.

The apostles had to work together on several issues to decide what stance they would take as a group.

There were problems they hadn’t had to deal with yet, like who would take care of the Greek-speaking widows, how they would fund their missionary trips, and how Gentiles fit into the church.

The Jerusalem Council is really important because it set the standard of how the apostles should proceed when discipling Gentiles.

The leaders came up with a compromise that would stay true to the gospel message while also promoting unity between the two groups.

Dumb Disagreements

If you’ve ever had a friend, chances are you have also had a disagreement.

Maybe you wanted McDonald’s, but your friend wanted Wendy’s.

Maybe you wanted to hang out at the mall, but your friend wanted to go to the park.

Maybe you wanted a sip of your friend’s milkshake, but your friend didn’t want to share.

It is normal to disagree on occasion, but usually we realize afterward that our disagreement was silly, and whatever we were disagreeing about didn’t really matter anyway.

Those disagreements are not worth losing a friend over.

But sometimes disagreements escalate because our pride gets involved. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—we want to be right, and we want to get our way—so we take our stand and refuse to budge.

These situations place friendships in danger. If we are unwilling to admit we are wrong or what we want doesn’t really matter, there is no way to resolve the issue.

At the end of the day, is it more important to get what we want or to have our friend?

In Galatians 2:11–16, two Spirit-filled, Spirit-led apostles, Peter and Paul, had a disagreement. Paul called out Peter for treating others badly.

Peter could have blown up at Paul and refused to admit he was wrong.

But we know they must have resolved it because they appeared to still have had a good relationship afterward.

When it comes to unity, we have to look at the big picture. Getting our own way isn’t worth the friendships we lose in the process.

Peter’s Testimony

The Jews considered those who were not Israelites as unclean and excluded from God’s presence because they did not follow God’s law.

Israelites had a lot of prejudice toward outsiders, even during the New Testament.

Jews considered Gentiles unclean and would not enter their homes or even eat a meal with them.

But during the Jerusalem Council, the apostle Peter confronted this attitude of prejudice.

Peter explained that God “put no difference between us [Jews] and them [Gentiles], purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9).

Acts 15:8–9 NKJV

So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

The Gentile Christians were made clean and purified, not through ceremonial rituals, but through faith in Jesus (just like the Jews and just like us).

Peter testified of his experience in Acts 10 when God sent him to preach the gospel to a house full of Gentiles. They believed the message, responded in faith, were filled with the Holy Ghost, and were baptized in Jesus’ name.

God is calling everyone into covenant with Him, regardless of background, culture, status, or where they come from.

Galatians 3:26–27 NKJV

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Galatians 3:28–29 NKJV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

God calls us to witness to people of all cultures, even if their culture is different from our own. We cannot allow our own preferences or prejudices to stand in the way of our mission to make disciples.

We may be tempted to convert others to our culture, along with the gospel, but that is not part of our job description.

Someone doesn’t have to have our same accent or enjoy the same hobbies as us to be saved.

The gospel may be lived out in different ways depending on the culture.

Some churches have service at 10:00 am and others at 2:00 pm. Some may “amen” the preacher, while some may wave a hand. Some may clap on two and four, and others on one and three. Some sing old songs, some sing new songs. Some eat tacos after service; others eat pitas and rice.

Those are all cultural differences. If we are staying true to the gospel, these differences are actually good for us.

The leaders at the council debated, discussed, and presented their reasonings until finally James, one of the leaders, proposed a solution. They wrote a letter to the Gentile believers to explain what they had agreed on.

Acts 15:28–29 NLT

“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

Based on the testimonies of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, the council agreed the Gentiles had been purified by faith and did not need to follow the whole Law.

However, to have unity between the two groups, the Gentiles would need to conform in certain ways to promote fellowship.

James listed four necessary guidelines for the Gentiles to follow: Abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication.

All four of these can be linked to idolatry, which is sinful for all believers, because we are called to worship God alone.

Fornication is labeled as sin throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Fornication is having a sexual relationship with someone outside of marriage.

The other three prohibitions are linked to food, which is often linked to fellowship.

Food has a way of bringing people together. Whether it’s taking communion during service or going to McDonald’s after service, eating together promotes unity in the church.

The Jewish and Gentile believers needed to do life together, not just co-exist.

If the Jews were appalled and convicted by the Gentiles’ eating habits, then they would not truly build community with each other.

It’s important to handle disagreements with wisdom. The Jerusalem Council is a great model for us to follow when we must come to an agreement with others.

We have to seek the Spirit to keep covenant with others in difficult situations.

Every born-again believer comes together to form God’s church. When we enter into covenant with God, we in turn enter into covenant with each other. Together we are God’s people. Together we can complete the church’s mission.

Togetherness, what we call unity, has always been an important part of the church.

Sometimes it’s appropriate to hold our ground, but many times getting our own way isn’t worth the conflict it creates.

Conclusion

Prayer

Lord, lead us when we deal with conflict. Give us wisdom in making decisions that will uphold the gospel while bringing unity within the church. As we continue to grow in covenant with You, help us also to grow in covenant with each other. Open our eyes to see the big picture and not allow preferences or disagreements to negatively affect our relationships with each other.

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