It is through grace they will be saved just as it was through grace we are saved

Context

We have studied about a decade of ministry so far

Back in Antioch. Paul completed his 1st missionary journey. Traveled and re traveled.

Thought of the day: It is through grace they will be saved just as it was through grace we are saved.

Read Acts 15:1-35

15:1

Teaching believers, you think you are saved but you’re not

15:2-4

NIV “sharp dispute” how sharp exactly, in Galatians Paul calls them false believers

Paul didn’t have the final say

15:5-6

Some of the pharisees believed

What was important about the circumcision? It was a sign of the covenant, the symbol of God’s chosen people. Expanded to “keep the law of Moses”

15:7

Peter’s talking about his meeting with Cornelius, acts 10, that was at least 10 years ago at this point.

Peter was stationed in Jerusalem, but he broke the seal, as it were for the gentiles

15:8

God gave them the Holy Spirit, but you call them unsaved

They have the same evidence we do

15:9-11

They thought they were purified by the law

We were not saved by works and neither will they

“Saved just as they are”

15:12 -15

Peter argued from history

Paul and Barnabas by the work God was doing

James by the scripture

15:16-18

From Amos 9 about the judgement and rebuilding of the people of God.

15:19-21

James split the problem into 2 questions

What do we need to be saved?

What should we do?

sexual immorality, phonetic translation porn

but why the food laws? for the sake of their Jewish brothers who have heard the law of Moses their whole lives

significance of animals strangled, they were full of blood

15:22-35

Interesting word for greeting, used also in the book of James

Conclusion

The church was a bunch of people just trying to figure it out. There was no teacher above the rest who governed their theology. When they disagreed they argued and debated. They used scripture, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and compassion to guide their actions. Grace had saved Peter, just as much as Paul, and the jew and the gentile. Not one of them earned grace.

We weren’t given grace just to receive it, we were given grace so that we can become it. Don’t become like the Judaizers and put a law on the backs of others, don’t make them earn your love. Become the like the very grace that saves you.