To Cut the Cost

Acts 14:24–15:12 ESV

24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 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. 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, 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? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” 12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

Acts 14:24–15:11 ESV

24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 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. 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, 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? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

A few years ago Dr. Charles Marsh, professor of religious and theological studies at UVA, and Rev. John Perkins, a man who, in my view is a giant in the ministry of reconciliation co-authored a book titled Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community. This book is one in a series of books that come out of a partnership between IVP and the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School.

Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community.

Some of you know Perkins’s story.

This book is one in a series of books that come out of a partnership between IVP and the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School. These books team up an academician and a practitioner. Welcoming Justice was written by ,

In 1960 John Perkins moved back from California to Mendenhall, MS. In that hotbed of racism, segregation, injustice, he began to pursue reconciliation before it was cool. One night, after being beaten mercilessly by police, he went through a crisis of faith. He said,

It was time for me to decide if I really did believe what I’d so often professed, that only in the love of Christ, not in the power of violence, is there any hope for me or the world. In the end, I had to agree with Dr. King that God wanted us to return good for evil, not evil for evil. ‘Love your enemy,’ Jesus said. And I determined to do it. It’s a profound, mysterious truth, Jesus’ concept of love overpowering hate. I may not see it in my lifetime. But I know it’s true. Because on that bed, full of bruises and stitches, God made it true in me. I got a transfusion of hope.

Perkins said that he might even call this experience of suffering a second conversion. A conversion, he said, of love and forgiveness. He began thinking about the unfinished business of the Civil Rights movement. That unfinished business that came from losing sight of the goal of the beloved community. There was a move towards solely political solutions and a failure, “to offer a compelling account of the spiritual energies and disciplines required to sustain beloved community.” Discipleship to Jesus Christ is the most enduring source for the formation of the beloved community. For the beloved community is the reconciled community.

What we have in this passage is God’s work of forming beloved community by grace. The cost to form this community was the cutting off of Jesus Christ at the cross. It has nothing to do with the cutting off of the foreskin in circumcision. What we see, though, is that from the days of the apostles to our own day there is resistance to the true cost for reconciliation because coming to Jesus doesn’t mean that you’ve left all of your baggage behind. So there is always a need to be reminded that at the heart of God’s work in this world is grace through faith in Jesus. Rejoicing Over God’s Grace, Resisting God’s Grace, and Remembering God’s Grace.

This is the second time in the book of Acts that we come across major conflict within the church. Back in ch. 6 the issue was the mercy ministry. The Greek speaking believers were upset because the Greek speaking widows were being short-changed in the distribution of food and clothes. The Hebrew speaking widows were being taken care of better. All of the believers at that time were culturally Jewish, but the language barrier was a divide that caused conflict. Well guess what we have here? Another divide, and this one is deeper than language. Deep divides cause conflict. But, before we dig into the conflict, I want to look at this little repetition that Luke drops in here for us. And, make no mistake about it, he drops it in on purpose.

This is the second time in the book of Acts that we’ve come across major conflict within the church. Back in ch. 6 the issue was the mercy ministry. The Greek speaking believers were upset because the Greek speaking widows were being short-changed in the distribution of food and clothes. The Hebrew speaking widows were being taken care of better. All of the believers at that time were culturally Jewish, but the language barrier was a divide that caused conflict. Well guess what we have here? Another divide, and this one is deeper than language. Deep divides cause conflict. But, before we dig into the conflict, I want to look at this little repetition that Luke drops in here for us. And, make no mistake about it, he drops it in on purpose.

I began our reading back in 14:24 because between 14:27 and 15:12, Luke repeats the same phrase three times. When Paul, Barnabas, and those who traveled with them on that first missionary journey—through Cyprus, Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derby—when they returned to Antioch, Luke says that they declared all that God had done with them, and how he opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Then these men came down from Judea and began disturbing the peace of the church by adding circumcision to the requirements for salvation. Paul, Barnabas, and a group of others were sent out from Antioch up to Jerusalem. When they get to Jerusalem they are welcomed by the church, the apostles and the elders. Luke says in 15:4 that they declared all that God had done with them. Then, after Peter sets the record straight, what do we find in the last verse of our text? Barnabas and Paul related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. It’s the same phrase in the Greek text. The emphasis is that they related all that God had done.

God is at work in this world and in the church. That’s the line that runs through these verses. What is driving Paul and Barnabas is to let everybody know about God’s work. And what is God at work doing? The Lord has been extending grace to Jew and Gentile alike through his messengers. And there is supposed to be a particular response to the Lord’s work. It should bring joy to the church. This journey that they take from Antioch to Jerusalem was about 250 miles. It was probably a month long trip. What do they do? They travel through Phoenicia and Syria telling the churches about God’s work. Describing in detail, it says in v. 3, the conversion of the Gentiles. In those places this news brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. Don’t miss this. That’s what’s supposed to be happening.

The evidence of God’s extending grace to the world was that the Gentiles, the non-Jews, were turning to the Messiah. They were turning to Jesus by faith, and those who belong to Jesus should be responding to this work of God’s grace with great joy.

The fact that joy is not the dominant emotion in the passage—that there is more dispute and debate than there is joy—shows how long standing divides can be more important to us than God’s heart for reconciliation and renewal through Jesus Christ. The battle in this text is, whose heart is going to win in the church? Is it going to be God’s heart, which bleeds grace to transform the hearts of people without discrimination? Or, is it going to be the heart that resists grace in order to maintain control. That was the question then, and that’s the question now. Are our hearts aligned with God’s heart? If so, we respond to God’s work with joy.

From the early pages of Scripture, God revealed himself as the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, full of love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. What that means is that he’s the one who decides who he sets this love and grace upon. So, he decides what his church is going to look like, not us. We have an uncanny ability, like we see in this text, to put roadblocks in the way of grace because we don’t like how God’s grace is working out. So, what we find here instead of rejoicing over grace, is resistance to God’s grace.

is one of those benchmark transformative moments for Luke in his writing. It’s like ch. 2 on the day of Pentecost, and ch. 11 when the disciples are first called Christians at Antioch. This is like Rev. Perkins’s transformation as he lay bruised and battered by the police for having the audacity to pursue racial reconciliation. Is he going to get on board with Jesus, or not? Is he going to be transformed by the grace he himself has received, and extend that grace, love and forgiveness to his enemies. Or, he going to resist grace? That kind of transformation doesn’t come without struggle. The church is struggling here.

is one of those benchmark transformative moments for Luke in his writing. It’s like ch. 2 on the day of Pentecost, and ch. 11 when the disciples are first called Christians at Antioch. This is like Rev. Perkin’s transformation as he lay bruised and battered by the police for having the audacity to pursue racial reconciliation. Is he going to get on board with Jesus, or not? Is he going to be transformed by the grace he himself has received, and extend that grace, love and forgiveness to his enemies. Or, he going to resist grace? That kind of transformation doesn’t come without struggle. The church is struggling here.

This is the second time that people came down from Jerusalem and Judea to see about what was going on in Antioch. The first time was in ch. 11, when a great number of Gentiles in Antioch turned to the Lord. The apostles in Jerusalem heard about it, and sent Barnabas on that 250 mile journey to check it out. Luke says in 11:23 that Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad. Then he goes to Tarsus and gets Paul to come and help him disciple these new believers.

But here, in ch. 15, these guys are not sent out on any official delegation. James says as much down in 15:24, in the letter he writes to Antioch. He says, “we’ve heard that some people have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them now instructions.” They took it upon themselves to go to Antioch and put up a huge roadblock to grace. They started teaching the brothers and sisters in Antioch that, “unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved.” Then, when Paul and Barnabas are sent to Jerusalem for the apostles to settle this issue, some of the Pharisees who had become believers stood up, interrupting Paul and Barnabas, and they use even stronger language in v. 5. “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

Why are they resisting God’s grace? These people are called believers. If you’re not someone who says, “I’m following Jesus Christ, I’m giving my life to him,” it’s not a surprise that you may have issues with the message of God’s grace and salvation in Jesus. If you’re here and you’re not a Christian this morning, I don’t say that to offend you. It’s simply the case that the grace of God in Jesus Christ is hard to embrace. We want to make our own way. We want credit for being good people. But what about those who say that they follow Jesus? Grace is even hard for us to fully embrace!

The Pharisee’s interrupting Paul and Barnabas show how deeply they felt about this issue. To follow the law of Moses was a lifelong commitment they had from their birth. They were also teachers of this law. So, even though they had not been able to keep their commitment to obey the law, they couldn’t imagine anyone being allowed to follow their God without committing to Moses’ commands as a fundamental aspect of their salvation. Here’s how crazy this is.

In , Joshua says to Israel, “Choose this day whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served, or the gods of of the Amorites. As for me and mine, we’ll serve the Lord.” The people say, “we’re gonna serve the Lord too.” Then Joshua says to them, “You’re not able to serve the Lord because he’s a holy God. He is a jealous God.” The people persist, “No. We’re going to serve the Lord.” Joshua says, “OK. You all are witnesses against yourselves.” We’re going to serve him, we’re going to obey him! And what happened? Joshua was right!.

Yet, here they are so many centuries later wanting to put up the same roadblock in the church. They wanted “the grace of Jesus plus the law of Moses” for salvation. Which means that the grace of Jesus is excluded. This grace thing is too easy. It’s too good to be true. We had rules and regulations to keep, laws to obey, if we were going to believe that we were righteous. It’s not right for you all to come in here and think that all you have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord to be saved! This free grace stuff is no good! Circumcision was given to us by the Lord. The law of Moses was given to us by the Lord our God. Paul & Barnabas, you guys have cut the cost of salvation by too much. You’ve made it too cheap! Do you realize that you can be saved, and still try to hold on to your baggage?

This controversy is about control. The church is changing. They are starting to see more of them in the church than us. Pretty soon we’re not going to be top dog anymore. We’re not going to be the primary ethnic group. So, instead of joy over the Spirit’s work, there was a push back for ownership of the faith and control over the Spirit’s work. “They must become like us if they want to be saved!” They are beginning to realize the implications of there being more and more Gentiles in the church, and if that happens they lose control. This is still relevant for today because the history of the church is full of examples of efforts to maintain control by one particular group. (Pastor Maclan’s example in Togo…)

We cannot act as though we are free of the desire to maintain control. We have to ask, are there roadblocks to grace that we put up as a church? (social, economic,…, a Christian club that’s hard to penetrate)

What is the solution to resisting grace? Of course, it’s receiving grace again by remembering grace. As we have seen throughout Acts, Peter is the main spokesman for the apostles in Jerusalem. The apostles and elders convene to discuss and debate over the issue. The Peter stands up in v. 7 and addresses the assembly. Remember that I said this whole passage is about what God is doing, building his church? Luke tells us three times how Paul and Barnabas relate all that God had done. That’s what Peter does here to bring these folks back to grace. He reminds them of what took place years earlier when God called him in a vision to go and preach the gospel to Gentiles at Conelius’ house in Caesarea. He reminds them in v. 8 of how God himself testified to the faith of these Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit also. He reminds them in v. 9 of how God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile because he cleansed their hearts by faith as well.

When Peter stands up to address the council, he reminds them in v. 7 that it’s GOD who chose to bring the Gentiles the message of the gospel and to believe through his preaching. He reminds them in v. 8 that GOD, who knows the heart, testified to the faith of the Gentile believers by giving them the same Holy Spirit he had given to the Jewish believers. He reminds them in v. 9 that GOD made no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles in the Church. He reminds them that Jew and Gentile were both in the same boat, in need of GOD to cleanse their hearts by faith in Jesus.

Since that is the case, why would they put GOD to the test? He says, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? Don’t you remember that we couldn’t keep the law? Jesus had said to the crowds in ,

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”

Why are you adding an unbearable yoke to God’s grace? Jesus does talk about a yoke in relation to the gospel of grace, but he says of his yoke, in , that it is easy and his burden is light. So, Peter’s message to them is, “remember grace,” remember the grace of God given to you. You see what he says? We believe that we will be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. Remember, Peter says, it’s grace for us and grace for them.

The reason Peter says that neither our fathers nor we could bear this yoke you want to put around the disciples neck is because all of the moral strength and fortitude we can muster isn’t enough to serve God. Your view of yourself as a good person who follows certain rules isn’t enough to serve God. What you need is a new heart. And new hearts only come one way, by grace. Imposing external rules and regulations have never and will never change the heart. Grace doesn’t mean that how we live and we do doesn’t matter. What matters most is that there is internal change brought about by grace. Peter says, God knows the heart and God cleanses the heart. He cleanses the heart by grace. He cleanses the heart by grace. What you do matters. But what matters is that we live how we live out of a heart that has been cleansed by grace of the Lord Jesus to love and serve God.

This is what God is doing to create the beloved community. This is what he is committed to doing to create the beloved community. This is why Jesus was cut off at the cross, to create this beloved community by grace….

To Cut the Cost

Introduction

Rejoicing Over God’s Grace

Resisting God’s Grace

Remembering God’s Grace