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Acts 15:1-35
BI: We are saved by grace through Jesus alone so use our freedom in Christ to love other
Well if there’s one thing I’d change about the Asian culture it’d be this: learn how to deal with conflict.
don’t get me wrong, there’s lots i love about being asian the food, family, friends loyalty.
But conflict, we’re just so bad at it.
We don’t face it.
confront it.
Work through issues together.
We just swept our issues under the carpet.
You do that long enough, and things will eventually just blow up.
I have seen many churches where people have left, issues unresolved, people have just avoided each other.
it’s sad.
it’s not just an asian thing, stress in the workplace costs the Aussie economy $14.81 billion a year.
Stress from conflict costs $10.11 billion a year.
that’s a lot of money.
But here’s the thing, conflict is not always a bad thing.
I wish I understood that growing up.
The Bible does not speak about it in negatively.
More than that, sometimes it’s necessary.
It helps us clarify things.
It has certainly helped me to understand a situation more fully, be more humble at my lack of understanding and pride, understand how I contributed, understand my own expectations and desires.
Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing.
Whoever you are, this side of heaven, there’s going to be conflict.
Even in the church.
And sometimes the most productive times in the church, our most important doctrines have been clarified because of conflict.
We get it now because people fought about it in the past.
We understand the Trinity – the nature of God that he there is one God in three persons, Father Son and Spirit because blokes like Arius denied Christ was fully God.
He’s wrong.
Christ is fully God, fully human but fully God.
The truth has been clarified through conflict.
The Big Issue: You need to become a Jew (15:1-6)
Here in chapter 15 of Acts we have the first big theological conflict in the Bible.
And it’s not just between two people.
Actually, its the first big council of Apostles and elders coming together to consider and debate this issue.
How did it arise?
This problem started in Antioch, in Syria.
This is the first mixed church of Jews and Gentiles.
We saw this in chapter 11.
It was going okay for a while but it didn’t last.
Look at what happens in verse 1 –
See the issue?
These men insist that Gentile believers need to become Jewish to be saved.
they need to be circumcised.
and verse 5 they need to obey the Old Testaement law.
Now this was a huge issue.
Is it Jesus + Judaism?
Is that how Gentiles are saved?
Is that how we are saved?
The church was divided.
So Paul and Barnabas had a huge disagreement with them.
Come to verse 2
Acts 15:2–5 (ESV)
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.”
Friends, this is still the biggest issue our world faces.
they just don’t know it.
How can we be right with God?
You have to get that right.
it’s spiritual life and death.
this is the issue of our time.
So, given how big the issue is, the church leaders need to settle this matter.
So they appoint Paul, Barnabas a few others and gather to discuss - verse 6 have a look
They come together to debate.
God doesn’t come in a dream or a vision.
There was good old fashioned debate.
1.
The solution: We are saved by grace alone in Christ alone (15:7-18)
In this debate, we find 3 key speeches.
3 really important speeches.
Peter speaks, Paul and barnabas get up and then James concludes proceedings.
And what was the outcome?
It is profound.
Here’s the solution.
We can only be saved by grace alone in Christ alone.
It’s that important that they got it right.
you and I wouldn’t be here if they got it wrong.
Let’s look at the speeches in turn.
1.1 Peter’s speech
First Peter.
Peter the leader of the 12 Apostles, gives his personal account of what God has done.
He has saved Gentiles and given them the Holy Spirit! verse 7 half way in
Acts 15:7–9 (ESV)
“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.
Peter shared the Gospel with Cornelius and his whole family.
These were Gentiles.
We spent weeks looking at this.
It’s that important.
God saved even the Gentiles.
There was no doubt.
God gave them the Holy Spirit, just he gave the Jews the Spirit at Pentecost.
So there’s no distinction between Jew and Gentile anymore.
If he gave them the Spirit, he must have forgiven them.
He must have cleansed them.
They too are saved by faith in Jesus.
So Peter is a bit flabbergasted by their issue.
He asks a piercing question.
Acts 15:10 (ESV)
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?
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