The Church Is United in the Essentials
Notes
Transcript
Recap - What we have covered. We have been in a series that revolves around Unity.
1. The Church Is United in the Gospel - Monty.
Paul writing to believers that were being divided by less important things.
We are to allow for no divisions to separate us, such as ethnicity, financial wealth, nationality, language, politics, or secondary doctrinal beliefs.
2. The Church Is United Under Godly Leaders - Frank
We are all leaders in one way or another. Even if we have not been appointed to a formal position
The Topic today
The Church Is United in the Essentials
We are going to go through a lot of material so is you blink or arent paying full attention you may get lost very quickly.
We are going to be in Acts Chapter 15
From the beginning or time, man has realized that there is a separation between us and God. There is a disconnect that is very apparent to everyone and the question on everyone's mind.
How is that separation between us and God fixed? What has to happen to bridge the GAP
This question also applies to us Christians and even in reference to what God teaches us.
First point
1. The church debates the nature of salvation
1. The church debates the nature of salvation
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.” 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. 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. 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. 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.”
Q: What do we see?
Paul and Barnabas are teaching in Judea, some other guys preaching are saying, in order to be saved you must be circumcised. Paul and Barnabas have a heated debate with them and eventually have to go get this clarified
They leave Judea, go to other cities and when they get to Jerusalem, what do they find?
Another group is preaching to people the same thing, you need to be circumcised to be saved.
Why would they teach that? We need to realize that this is early in the NT, most people still know the Bible as they saw it from the OT. The Jews were God’s chosen people still and if these new people, the gentiles were to join the group well then they had to obey the OT laws
This type of thing happens today as well. People teach that certain things need to be done in order to be saved.
Q: What are some example of those?
“You have to __________ in order to be saved”
Baptized to be saved
Speak in tongues to be saved
Attend church to be saved
Stop being friends with non believers
Vote for a particular party to be save
Be a nice christian to be saved
Give all your money so the pastor can buy a jet plane.
Pause: Some of the things that I have mentioned in that list are better to do than others.
List 5 Essential Doctrines
Scripture alone
Christ alone
Grace alone
Faith alone
Glory to God alone
Others are can be very good for us and we are even told to do in the Bible but are not essential to be saved. Perfect example if baptism. Baptism is good but it does not save.
This idea that we need to do certain other things to be saved is often known as legalism.
Two reasons why it can be destructive.
First. If you can meet the legalistic demand it often makes people proud and look down upon others.
Hey, Im baptised so Im saved, are you baptised?
Well I was baptised in a lake not just a church tub.
This other guy was baptized by the pope himself.
Oh yeah, well that guy was baptised in the Jordon river where Jesus was baptised. He’s extra saved.
You see how it can get out of control?
The Bible, teaches that we shouldnt look down on others because we will all be judged according to the same standard—God’s standard—and God alone is our judge
Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Second, Legalists do great harm to Christians when these Christians are unable to meet the legalist’s demands.
They are discouraged
Arent sure they are saved
No hope
Q: Has anyone seen legalism like this in church or with christians?
Lets keep going in the passage.
2. The church affirms justification by faith alone
2. The church affirms justification by faith alone
The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 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. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 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? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
Q: What do you observe?
There is now more debate, some there believe that you need to meet certain commandments from the OT to be saved, here it mentioned circumcision. Others disagreed what needs to be done to be saved.
Peter’s response. God gave the Holy Spirit to Jews and Gentiles, He cleanses the hearts of both. That process is done by faith.
Verse 10 he says this
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?
What is this yoke thing?
Put up image of yoke.
The big wooden piece between the two bulls is a yoke. It is used to get the bulls to pull extra weight to they can plow a field. Peter here is saying that as you are going through your walk with Jesus in life anyone who tell you that you need to do this additional things to be saved is adding a spiritual weight to you that is unnecessary and is often destructive.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
The point is, we cannot please God or earn His approval through our good works. Not only that our good works are like a filthy garment, a dirty rag.
But, if we dont earn salvation then how can we be saved?
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Go over that last part again, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. When we all face God one day no one will be able to say to God “look Lord how many great things I have done to earn my salvation”
Salvation is simple, we try and make it complicated by adding things to it that God never intended.
Salvation is crossing the line from darkness to light, that burden is light but the journey afterward is not.
After you cross that line into saving faith in Jesus the life of a saved person to be made to be more like Jesus is very hard. You should count the cost of following Jesus, he says
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Lets get back to the passage in Acts. v 12-18. This is right after Peter spoke up.
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. After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, “ ‘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, 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 known from of old.’
Q: What do we see?
The Jews were amazed by what Peter said, they went silent and were listening to what amazing things God was doing with the gentiles.
Then James here makes an statement, quoting the Prophet Amos. He talking about a tent that David was in. This is where David ruled over God’s chosen people as their King during battle.
The prophecy says that that tent was torn down but God will rebuild a place where He himself will command His people, He will be King and ruler over those who call His name. Both Jews and Gentiles.
James is saying this is the fufillment of that prophecy.
This statement is important to the Jews because he is further tearing down the divisions of what they thought about being made right in God’s eye’s. It was no longer Jew’s who performed certain rituals like circumcision, animal sacrifice or good works that were saved. It was open to everyone who called on God by Faith that will be saved.
Lets continue in the passage.
Third and final point
3. The church advocates freedom in love
3. The church advocates freedom in love
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 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. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Q: What do we observe?
James keeps going and immediately responds to what many people would say. Its the same objection that I hear from the Mormon and Jehova’s Witnesses when they knock at my door. “You are saying that you can have faith and are free to do whatever you want you can sin and God will just forgive you”
This is where I need to point out verse’s that are often used against the idea of salvation by faith alone.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Q: How can we be saved by faith alone but faith without works is dead? This is a clear Bible contradiction right?
Q: Thoughts?
First, the passage I just read to you was written by James the brother of Jesus, the same James that was with Peter and Barnabas when they were affirming that we are saved by faith alone. If he disagreed with them he would have said so.
Secondly, to illustrate. Picture a lineup of people all wearing police uniforms. With the inscriptions, the hats, the guns on their hips etc.
In that image, can you tell me who is a real police officer and who is not? What do I mean by that.
If someone just puts on the uniform, does that make them a police officer?
NO
When a real police officer takes off the uniform, do they stop being a cop immediately, have they quit the force then and there?
NO
Is it possible for someone to be know the laws, recite the laws by heart, wear the badge and uniform and make people believe that they are genuine police when they are not?
How can we find out who are real police officers?
We go to the police precinct. They are the authority that knows who belongs and who doesnt. The academy sets the standard of what someone needs to do be considered a cop.
If I showed you a picture of a bunch of people helping others, doing good works, could you tell who is a christian?
Aren’t they being more like Jesus then you and I?
Yes they are, this is what Jesus commands us to do. It is a picture of God working through people, believers or otherwise to help those in need but it cannot be used
Can a person know the Bible, perform good works and fool people into believing they are a real believer when they are not?
Yes, we see this often with people who pretend. The Bible even warns us about these kind of false believers.
So we are not saved by works. We are saved by faith alone, but our faith is not alone because a genuine faith produces good works. It becomes an outpouring of gratitude for what God has done in the believers life.
Q: Is it possible to disagree that faith alone saves and still be saved yourself?
I’ll answer that in this way. Is it possible for a true believer in Christ to believe that there is another way to God beside Jesus?
NO
Is it possible believe that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was not enough by itself to save us?
NO
Is it possible for a true believer to believe that they can earn their salvation?
NO
So then there is no way to disagree on this topic at all. A person who believes that faith alone in Jesus doesnt save belives that we need to help Jesus out with our own good works in order to be saved, that Jesus is not a perfect Savior, that our sin is greater than his righteousness.
It diminishes Jesus Holiness and it is not Biblical.
I leave you with this final verse.
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
