Jesus plus will not save you

Take a breath… Make sure you explain well.

15 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.”

16  “ ‘After this I will return,

and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;

I will rebuild its ruins,

and I will restore it,

17  that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,

says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’

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. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

Take a breath… Make sure you explain well.

Acts Part 2: Opposition and Advance

Intro (Grab): opposition and advance… this is what we see in the book of Acts. Now that Jesus has ascended and his people are living in the already not yet of the kingdom of God, we see people rise up and oppose God, his kingdom and his church. We see some opposition from outside of the church through persecutions, death and driving christians out of certain places but… we also see opposition from inside the church. And this is where we really see how to deal with these oppositions. Within these oppositional statements the apostles go to the text. To the word of God and to the words of Jesus Christ himself. And many times we actually see God show up to reveal his will, plan and authority to his people. We see so many times in the book of Acts people wanting more of the presence of God and to be transformed by Christ.

Today, we see an opposition to the gospel at it’s core. This is an opposition that was not only a problem in the 1st century but also now…today… in your own life… in your own city… maybe in your own family.

MAKE SURE TO GIVE EXAMPLES OF BOTH!

READ TEXT

The opposition we see in the text is that they were saying that yes Jesus is the savior and yes he is the Messiah and yes he died for our sins but they also required that people still follow the law for salvation.

2) Background on what’s happening

Most of the people who were the first to believe in Christ for salvation were Jewish people. There were many Jews in that area but the OT calls to the one, the messiah, who is going to free Israel from captivity. The Jews that saw that Jesus was this promised messiah believed in him and started to follow him. The problem is…some Jews say that Jesus is necessary and yes he is the messiah and the savior but you also have to become Jewish and follow the law. Those who were Jewish by blood were taught growing up that they had to follow all 600+ laws. This was the culture, this was even what God gave them. He gave them a law to follow to set them apart from the rest of the world. Some of these law were moral laws like, not stealing. Others were dietary laws like not eating certain types of meats and other’s were cleanliness laws (which dietary laws fit into to) but it was things like not touching dead bodies and things like that. If you grew up Jewish, the law was not just a part of your life is was a central part that held much of the rest of your life up. So naturally they thought that you have to follow the law and become part of Israel to follow Jesus.

Some people even do the same things today. No, most people do not require that people would believe in Jesus and be circimcized but we do see people requiring other things from the person before they are “secure” in their faith.

Unfortunately what we quickly see when we read the Bible that there are some major implications to thinking that it takes more than Jesus to save you. And if we believe that it takes Jesus + anything else to save you and to atone for your sins and to make you righteous before God we are believing a false gospel.

Take a breath… Make sure you explain well.

When we add to Jesus for salvation we…

1) We act as if our works take part in saving us

If we believe this, somehow we believe that we can live a life of no sin or at least sinless enough that it would be enough to cover up for most of our sin.

Illustration: a scale. Some believe that if you drop enough on the “good deeds” side of the scale that it will outweigh the “bad things” side.

Here is the problem with that and Peter says it clearly “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?” Peter reminds them the history of Israel. If you read through the OT it is easy to see. The pattern is this. First God covenants himself with Israel and gives them the law, then Israel sins against God, bad things begin to happen, they repent and God forgives them and reminds them of his love for them and of how he has set them apart from all other nations and then they sin again, bad things happen due to their sin, they repent, God forgives and reminds them of his love for them and how he has set them apart from other nations to be an example to the nations and….. it starts over again. The cycle is continuous…

GOSPEL PROJECT—— I don’t know if you know this by in Kids ministry and Student ministry here at FGC we teach your children through the entire Bible in three years. So every three years we start over in the Genesis. What’s funny is as we have been walking through the OT, we are in 1 Sam right now, my students will a lot of times say, “Josh… this is sounds exactly like what we read last week” Talking about this pattern. We see again… and again… and again… that Israel COULD NOT hold up the law. They could not follow it to it’s perfection.

And you feel this don’t you? Do you not find yourself sinning repeatedly? Do you not find yourself angry with your spouse, children, friends, neighbor? Well Christ says that this is like murdering them in your heart. Have you not lusted after someone who is not your spouse? Christ is clear that even if you look on someone with lustful intent that it is sin. Do you not invee what your neighbor has? Do you not seek that you would be the god of your life? Do you not find yourself desiring what is contrary to what Christ says is right and good and holy…. This is the problem. We do not have the ability within us to perfectly obey the law.

Paul calls the law a Ministry of Condemnation. That the law was not ever meant to say but you reveal the reality that you and I can not uphold ourselves to the standards of God. We can’t do it. We cannot operate in the perfection that matches with God.

Scale Reference: Isiah 64:6 “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” some translations even say “filthy rag”.

Paul even says this later in “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse: for it is written “ cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the law, and do them”

- Paul says here “fine… if you say that it takes the death and resurrection of Jesus plus the works of the law, then you are under the curse of the law and if you do not follow it then you will be ruined”… This is not a simple doctrinal error that needs to be nudged in the right direction….

Paul says in “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” This is who we are. You and I are sinners at our very core and God is completely other than us. He is holy and perfect. He has no spot he has no blemish and he is actually is a completely different substance than us. He is perfect and Holy. And we cannot stand before a perfect and Holy God on our own works.

So even if we do good works for our own salvation all of our days it will end up just being piles and piles of dirty rags before a holy and righteous God.

Now disclaimer, this doesn’t mean that good works have no part in the Christian life. They were just getting the order wrong. It’s not good works that saves you but it’s actually because you are saved and you have been made a new creation and now the Spirit is at work within you that you do good works.

Take a breath… Make sure you explain well.

Take a breath… Make sure you explain well.

2) When we add to Jesus it’s not real grace and it’s not the real Jesus….

Look at vs.

11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Grace must be a gift or it is not grace in itself. It is just a reward or a payment of something that God owes you for your efforts. That is not grace.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

GRACE IS NO wages for your work.

It’s not really Jesus.

Illustration: Lifeguard (If Lifeguard asked kid to take lessons before he saved him from drowning then there would be no point in the lifeguard.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

**PREACH GOSPEL CLEAR HERE**

Quote from Martin Luther “Alien righteousness”

Take a breath… Make sure you explain well.

3) When we add to Jesus it means we live a life constantly trying to prove that you were worth saving.

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.”

Story: about college pastor interviewing for student leaders

- This effects the way we approach God

Began by the Spirit and being perfected by the spirit.

We want to believe that if we were given a gift of grace that we should do enough so that at least God would look down on us and say “I made the right choice giving you grace”…. This is not how God operates.

“Let us draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

2X - God is not a God who we need to look to to appease but one that we can look to please.

Preach the gospel to yourself. The world tells you that you have to live up to someones standards. God says that you can’t but he still calls you and heir, a son, a daughter, he looks at you through the blood of Christ, through the atonement of Christ if you have trusted in Christ for salvation.

This is why we have a Bible reading plan. This is why we want you to commune with God in prayer every single day of your life. So that the gospel saturates every single aspect of your life.