When Consciences Collide
Acts • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsChristian unity is produced when our consciences are bound to the Scripture, but when disagreement produces division in the church, God is able to redeem our sin for our good and his glory.
Notes
Transcript
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Let’s pray.
When my wife first met me, she was pretty impressed by me.
When we were dating she saw some of my flaws… but this summer, we will have been married for five years, and after all this time, she has seen more than a few of my flaws. Here is the the thing about spending a lot of time with someone: the more time you spend with them, the more you tend to get irritated by them. And sometimes it’s the smallest things that can drive a person crazy. I never knew that flossing my teeth could bother someone so much. Who would have thought that such a small thing could cause someone so much trouble!
This isn’t a unique experience to marriage. Even when I was a kid I would spend entire weekends with friends. But by the end of the weekend, my friends and I fought like siblings more than we acted like friends. Have any of you kids in the room ever felt this way?
When I first came to LWC I was pretty impressed you all. When I first got here I saw a people who loves Jesus with all their hearts. I met those of you who were devoted to the word of God. Here at LWC, I had my first tase of a gospel centered church. For a time, I thought you all were perfect! This summer, I’ll have been been at here for two years, and I can tell you that the honeymoon phase of my time at LWC has passed.
I call attention to this, not out of personal angst, but because it’s only after spending more than six months at any church that most people begin to see the problems. And when the cracks start to show, people often leave the church in frustration causing division on their way out.
Here’s an an amazing thing to consider. For the first fifteen hundred years of church history, there was only one church.
There weren’t all these of denominations,
there weren’t Lutherns
There weren’t Baptists
There weren’t Presbyterians, Methodists, and Pentecostals
And when you and a brother in Christ had a problem, you couldn’t just up and leave the church to go to a different one down the street.
There were those who were simply Christians who had been saved by Jesus Christ, and there were those who were not.
While the reformation was necessary to distinguish the true church that was saved by grace through faith, from the false church that taught men to work for salvation, Christinas have continued to divide the church that Christ died to unify.
While there are times to cut ourselves off from godlessness, sometimes if not most often, we divide church the in the pretense of truth when in reality our division a result of our own godlessness.
While unity at the expence of truth is is to be rejected, I fear that we are far too quick to divide from fellow Christians. It seems that division has become the law, while unity has become the exception. But this is not the notion of the church described in the Scriptures.
In Ephesians 4, Paul describes the unity that exists in the church:
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Do you hear the unity found in all that oneness?
You do know that on the Day of the Lord, Jesus Christ will not separate the Baptists from the Presbyterians, nor the arminians from the calvinists. He won’t separate the conservatives from the liberals, nor with he part the anti-maskers from the maskers. Rather our savior will separate the sheep and the goats… the wheat and the chaff, he will separate his church who have believed in him, from the rest of world that has rejected him.
But I fear that so often we more unified by our distinctives from other churches than we are unified by faith in Jesus.
Paul urges us us:
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Unfortunately, unity is often broken in church. As we continue our time in Acts this morning, we will be looking at the transition from Paul’s first missionary journey to his second missionary journey.
By the end of Pauls first journey, we see the incredible unity that is produced by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
A unity that defied Jewish traditions that were followed for thousands of years.
And a unity that even included even least likely people into the family of God
But then from the very start of Paul’s second journey, we see division.
If you were with us last week, you’ll remember we covered the first half of Acts 15 where we heard about the Jerusalem Counsel where the Apostles and Elders came to the agreement that circumcision would no longer be required to belong to the family of God.
This week we pick up on the the letter that recounts that decision. While much of the letter recounts what we learned of last week, I want us to listen to church’s unity in their decision that is recoded in this letter.
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Much of the of the contents of this letter are repetition from what we saw last week at the Jerusalem counsel… but hopefully you heard the repeated theme of unity that the church had in their decisions.
With regard to sending men from Jerusalem to Antioch: v 22 ‘it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas
and again in v25 they reiterate this unity in their letter saying ‘it has seemed good to us having come to one accord, to chose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul’
And with regard to the decision regarding circumcision: v 28 ‘For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements’
Do you hear the amount of unity that the church had
Two things to notice about this:
First, at the start of the Jerusalem counsel, there certainly wasn’t unity.
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.
First notice, that they started with much debate ended with a unanimous decision. Which begs to ask, how is it possible for there to be such unity when the meeting started with debates and division?
Well this question leads us right into the second thing I want us to notice. Did you see the church’s agreement wasn’t based on them all doing right in their own eyes, but instead they said in v28 decision seemed good to the Holy Spirit...
How do can we discern what seems good to the Holy Spirit?
Well what did we see last week? Go back to v 7
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.
The men at the Jerusalem Council agreed, not because of their own shared values, or because of anyone’s great wisdom, rather, their agreement and unity was based on the sovereign decree of God to save the Gentiles through the word of the gospel.
When God’s will is made clear, heated debates turn into unanimous agreements. Because if you or I are ever found disagreeing with God, then we will always be found on the loosing side of any debate.
But how is it that we can know what the sovereign decree of God is?
Again look at the text from last week:
13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
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.’
Notice, James discerns the will of God by quoting the OT prophets who agree with what Peter has said.
1. Christian unity is produced when our consciences are bound to the word of God.
1. Christian unity is produced when our consciences are bound to the word of God.
Jesus never disagreed with the Scriptures, rather he came to fulfill all the Law and the prophets… So too when we are in line with Jesus, we can be sure that we are also in step with the Spirit.
Christian unity, is not unity for the sake of unity itself. Nor is Christian unity is not produced by being in agreement with every new wind of doctrine. If for our unity is not produced by the Spirit and rooted in the word… then it is a unity that is produced by the flesh.
Now to be clear, we don’t need to agree on everything…
We don’t need to agree on our favorite football team
We don’t need to agree on the color of church carpet
We don’t need to agree on mask policies
And we don’t need to agree on style of worship music.
We will come to many different conclusions on many different subjects…
But if can agree that we are sinners in desperate need of Jesus… then what is there that should ever divide us?
Listen, my wife and I don’t agree on everything… but our disagreement on what sounds good for dinner would never lead to divorce.
So too, our convictions regarding lesser things than the gospel should never lead to division in the church.
So be careful not to rely on your convictions that are not rooted in the word. Rather line your convictions from the word of God… and where you and I see differently on matters of preference that are not rooted on Scripture simply recognize that those are not hills worth dying on. But when you find that preference does not line up with God’s word, then repent and turn from your sins.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.
When the reformation happened, and the Protestant church departed from the Catholic church… it was not because people were being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Rather the Reformation was a result of men and women whose consciences were held captive to the word of God.
Be careful if you are ever found in the place where you might divide what Christ died to unify. For the Scriptures do not speak highly of such people.
9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Reformed people like us have a bad reputation here. Anyone who is familiar with what a cage stager is knows what I am talking about. So don’t make the elders here put you in a cage because you love arguing about theology more than you love Jesus and his church. Be so watchful of yourself if you are inclined towards quarreling and division.
Now if only church life was simple… If only we could always find unity and agreement in the gospel. In a sinless church, such unity would be possible, but the problem is that we are all sinners who disobey God’s word.
And it’s not just us who sin, even Paul and Barnabas fell prey to such sins.
Listen to what happens after the unified letter was sent to the church in Antioch:
30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33 And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
The letter produced rejoicing and encouragement… Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch continuing preach the word... all seemed well.
36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus,
How is it possible that these men who had such unity become divided?
V 26 tells us how both Paul and Barnabas risked their lives for the sake of the gospel
how is it that these men who defended the faith became divided over such a trivial subject
I’ll tell you why they were divided, it was because they were sinners… and Satan is a deadly foe who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
2. Satan will do whatever he can to divide what Christ has died to unify.
2. Satan will do whatever he can to divide what Christ has died to unify.
Here, Paul and Barnabas are divided because Barnabas wants to take his cousin John Mark on their missionary journey, while Paul doesn’t think that John Mark is worth bringing on this journey.
Now if you are like me, you might be asking, ‘who was right and who was wrong in this debate: Paul or Barnabas?’
This is well worth some consideration for a brief moment, because on one hand some might think Paul was right.
Because as we said earlier, our consciences are to be formed by God’s word, and Paul has biblical warrant for his conviction.
Back in Acts 13:13 we read that John Mark left Paul and Barnabas to return to Jerusalem.
Jesus repeatedly spoke of such worthless disciples:
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
We aren’t told why John Mark left Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, be it for the comforts of his home, the love of his family or even perhaps the fear of persecution. All we know is that John Mark dropped his cross and abandoned the mission to return to Jerusalem. Therefore, Paul did not see John Mark as being fit for the journey ahead…
So was Paul right concerning John Mark?
Well Barnabas certainly didn’t think so. Consider for a moment who Barnabas was… In my opinion we all ought to know and love Barnabas more than we do, for Barnabas was a gift to the early church that we often forget about.
Barnabas, who’s name means son of encouragement, was one of the first men to accept Paul after his conversion;
26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
Consider this for just a moment; If God had not given the church Barnabas, we might not have even had Paul as an apostle. It is no wonder Barnabas was called the son of encouragement… for he gave grace and forgiveness to all who needed it… just as Jesus gave grace to Peter and the other disciples after they denied him and fled in fear during Jesus’ darkest hour, so too did Barnabas extend grace to Paul after his conversion, and now he showed grace to John Mark even though he deserted him and Paul.
Barnabas was a righteous man… and so was Paul… so who was right? Are you curious? Because both of them had what seems to be a biblical reason to either leave or forgive John Mark… so how can we know who was right?
Well on this matter, Luke does not speak. Because the point wasn’t who was right in their conscience and conviction. Rather, the point is that they both sinned, for there is never a reason for Christians to be divided!
You mean if a person sins against us that’s not a reason to divide?
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Seven - the number of perfection - seven times do I need to forgive them? Jesus says perfect completion of forgiveness does not excuse us for being unforgiving to another
Listen when a brother or sister in Christ sins against you, you ought to bear with them and forgive them, not divide from them.
There are two things we can be sure to experience around Living Water Church.
The first is this: we will sin against one another… not because we want to, but because we are all sinners and that is what sinners do!
If you are surprised to find sin even among the leaders in the church, let me remind you of a simple reality. We are all totally depraved; meaning each and every one of us is a wicked sinner!
The Bible is not shy about defaming its greatest figures. Take two of the heavy hitters from the OT:
Take Moses. God worked great wonders through Moses, but by the end of his life Moses proved to be just as rebellious and unfit for the promised land as the rest of the children of Israel.
Consider David for a moment, the man after God’s own heart. He was an adulterous murdering lier…
Moses and David represent the best of God’s people in the OT
And Paul and Barnabas were some of the best in the NT. Yet they are just as broken by sin as you and me.
Don’t be fooled by me if I seem put together on a Sunday morning. Sure I might present myself well at times… but spend a little bit of time with me and you’ll quickly find out that I am a broken sinner with feet of clay.
And look around at everyone… we might dress well on the outside, we might even have our doctrine in order, and know when to say amen in the right part of the sermon… but our efforts to clean up on the outside make us nothing more than whitewashed tombs all clean on the outside, but full of death and uncleanness on the inside...
One thing you can be sure to find here is sinners who will sin against you… and when they or I sin against you, don’t leave the church or divide Christ’s bride over it, for doing so will only multiply the sin that has been done.
Remember, Jesus came not for those who are well, but those who are sick, so as long as you are a part of the church, you are bound to find sick sinners…which leads us to the next thing you will find… for where there are sick repentant sinners, you’ll be sure to find great physician who came to heal those who are sick.
You can be sure that you will find grace. For the gospel that we preach is not about pulling ourselves together so that we might be presented well before God. But the gospel that we preach is about Jesus who lived perfectly in our place, and took our sins upon himself and nailed it to the cross, so that all who believe in him can have eternal life.
This is the gospel that we preach, and where there is gospel doctrine, let there also be gospel culture.
What I mean by this is, where grace is given, love will be shown. For the one who has been greatly forgiven will be demonstrate great love and grace towards others.
Let me remind you church, that the great love chapter of the Bible is not about love that is found in marriage, but love that is in the church!
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Let me just pick on this whole mask debacle, because there are those on both sides around here...
Whatever side you are on, be it for masks or against it, I’m not trying to pick on either side…
but let me apply this to the majority around here, since most of you are not wearing masks
If a brother or sister in Christ approached you was wearing a mask…
would you be impatient with them…
would you insist on your own way?
Would you be unable to bear with them?
Would you fail to endure with them?
Listen I’m not for masks, I’m not against masks, I’m for Christian unity…and you ought to be as well. and if you are willing to divide over such a trivial and silly matter, then I fear that you have very little love for those who have redeemed, and where there is little love for God’s people, there is little love for God.
Friends, may this not be so of us, but instead may we be full of love as we bear with one another, and endure with one another. And when our love fails, and we sin against one another, forgive one another, and do so swiftly as Paul instructs us to do so:
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
But here’s the deal… even though I want us to be unified, and even if it is a shared desire among us all to be one, there will be times when we like Paul and Barnabas will part ways because of Satan’s craftiness and because of our sinful flesh. But when it seems like Satan has won, do not lose heart.
3. God is able to take what is evil and use it for our good and His glory.
3. God is able to take what is evil and use it for our good and His glory.
This is one of the great wonders of the God that we see time and time again with varying degrees of clarity.
we know that for those who love him, God works all things together for good … Rom 8.28
While this is a wonderful promise, it is easy forget about when we experience sin. The reason we forget this is because we are too shortsighted to recognize what God is doing because it seems to us an impossible thing for God to use sin for our good and his glory...
But there are times where God graciously shows us what he was up to. It’s these moments that we can see God’s sovereign hand at work
We can see it when Joseph was sold into slavery, which was a wicked and sinful act by his brothers, but listen to how God used it:
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
there God shows us how he sovereignly planned mans sin for his people’s good
God’s sovereign hand was even at displayed in raising up the pharoah when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt. God revealed why he did this:
16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
there God raises a wicked man up to power so that he would be known and glorified in all the earth
There are varying degrees of clarity of God sovereign goodness that redeems man’s evil purposes the Scriptures, but here in Paul and Barnabas’ sin we see how God is both glorified, and how God even redeemed the sin of these men for their good and for ours.
At the close of our Acts 15, Luke records;
39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Look at how God is glorified… even though the two part ways because of sin, their effort of gospel proclamation were doubled. As the two parties went their separate ways, many more would be saved upon hearing the gospel, the churches were strengthened, and God was further glorified as.
If this were the end of it, that would be incredible wouldn’t it? That God could redeem even our sin for his people’s good and his glory is an amazing thing to get a glimpse of… but even this is not the end of what God was doing. Even though Paul was shortsighted in John Marks usefulness, God would go on to use him in ways that Paul could have never expected.
What God continued to do with John Mark wasn’t recorded in Acts, but is found throughout Paul’s prison Epistles. Even though Paul was bound by chains towards the end of his life, his ministry continued, in part due to guess various ministry partners like…guess who John Mark
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him),
Listen, not only were Paul and Mark reconciled by the power of the gospel, but they even became partners in ministry together. For when Paul could no longer travel to check in on his beloved churches due to his imprisonment, he would send Mark in his place.
Paul writes of Mark’s usefulness again in 2 Tim
11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.
What a wonderful thing, God restoring these men to one another to be partners in ministry to further the gospel!
Now if this God did, it would be marvelous wound’t it… but there is more even still!
John Mark is the author of what we call, the Gospel of Mark.
Mark’s gospel is the earliest gospel account that we have in our Bibles. The gospel of Mark is there, not thanks to Pauls shortsightedness, but we have Mark’s gospel, because God sovereignly restored him despite Paul’s and Barnabas’ division…
Consider how many people have read the Gospel of Mark, and have been saved through reading his account of the life and death of Jesus…
Again, even though man sinned, God used it for our good and his glory.
What a wonderful thing our God has done… He takes our sin, yes even Paul’s sin, and uses it for Paul’s good, and our good and his glory
Our God, who works all things, even evil things, for our good and his glory, is seen no clearer than when Jesus died on the cross.
What a horrendous sin to crucify the Son of God. If murder wasn’t wicked enough, combine it with the betrayal, denying, mocking, and crucifying the sinless Son of Man as a criminal. Left to our own reason, we would never see any good that could come out of such wickedness.
And yet, in all of history, there has never been a greater gift to the world, or a more magnificent display of God’s glory. Even there from the cross Jesus looked at those who were murdering him, and what did he do? he began interceding for them, praying to the Father for their forgiveness. Oh that we would learn the ways of Jesus… that we would learn to bear with one another and forgive one another, even when we are sinned against.
So if you look at sin, even sin in the church, and loose heart, remember… Jesus is working, and interceding on our behalf. And even if we never see what he is doing, we can have confidence that God is working all things together for our good.
If it were not for God’s sovereign hand, we would be doomed. But he has promised us that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. And it’s of little thanks to his servants, and all because God is gracious to bless despite our sin.
We serve a good God amen?
The Lord Jesus himself prayed that we would be made one… hear Jesus’ prayer, and may his prayer be our prayer as well
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Oh church, might we be a picture of God’s perfect love, and his perfect unity for the glory of his name. Let us pray as Jesus did, and ask him to unify us to one another as we are made one with him.