Salvation is through Faith Alone

Acts 15:1-11, 14-21

Paper airplane contest!

Take 5 minutes to fold and construct your paper airplane then we will test them to see who flies the farthest.

Take top 5 finishers and have them weight the plane with a pen/tape

Transition:

Were your paper airplanes designed to hold the load you put on them and still fly?

No… adding weight to a paper airplane will cause it to crash.

In the same way, adding to the gospel causes us to crash. It causes destruction in our lives.

The gospel doesn’t need any additions or subtractions…

The gospel is perfect the way it is and all it demands of us is one thing.

Faith.... Faith alone.

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Read Acts 15:1-11, 14-21

The book of Acts basically records 3 different missionary journey’s of Paul.

It’s not 100% clear, but in other books of the Bible it seems Paul may have taken a 4th journey in his life as well.

During these missionary journeys, Paul would take the gospel to a city, if the Holy Spirit moved, people would believe and then a church would be planted.

Ephesus, Corinth, Collosae, Galatia, Philippi, All of these were places where Paul was successful in planting churches on his missionary journeys.

Now, what’s also cool, if you don’t recognize the names… That’s most of the New Testament books right there.

Ephesians, 1&2 Corinthians, Colossians, Galatians, Philippians…

Now I need to clarify something else.

What is the difference between Jews and Gentiles?

Jews - Family Heritage ties into Israel.

Gentiles - everyone who isn’t part of the Jewish heritage.

Now, during this time, the Spiritual climate was volatile.

There was lots of debates about customs and traditions.

One of the hotly contested issues was that of what “Saved a person.”

The Sacrificial system (sacrifices to atone for sins), circumcision for men, the law.

- All of these things were not, and are not bad…

HOWEVER, Do these actions SAVE a person?

Many Jews argued that they do! Many Jews today STILL argue these actions contribute to one’s salvation.

These actions though can be summed up in two words. External Functions.

Now here’s what I mean by that.

External Functions are things you DO that make you APPEAR saved.

Again, this isn’t bad.

In Galatians, it lists some external functions as the Fruit of the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Now, all of these fruits of the Spirit aren’t necessarily shown through actions, but most of them are.

We feel love, but we also show love.

We feel peace, but we also respond with a calm demeanor.

We believe in faith, but we respond by walking in faithfulness.

Actions aren’t bad. I want to be very clear.

But there is a difference between what you do, and what motivates your actions…

Our salvation is much more a motivation, a driver behind our actions.

Ultimately.

Salvation is through faith alone.

And I want to break that down a bit this morning.

EXEGESIS:

Vs. 1 - Unless you are circumcised, you can’t be saved...

Do you see the issue with this right off the bat?

2 things can’t be true.

Salvation is through faith alone… but you must then also do something for salvation.

vs. 2 - There is an argument about this… a debate.

Vs. 3 (phonecia and samaria - people come are saved by faith.

vs. 4 Jerusalem - Report what God is doing.

vs. 5 Circumcise and keep the law!

Uh ho… So there’s more? To be saved we have to have faith, circumcised, and keep the law?

That’s like adding 2 pens to your airplane now.

vs. 6 - another debate

vs 7-11, Peter’s closing argument.

Believe the gospel.

Giving of the Holy SPirit

No distinction between Jew and gentile.

Faith in the gospel gives salvation (vs. 9)

vs. 10 Peter asks a question: “Why are you putting a yoke on the disciples’ neck that even their ancestor’s couldn’t bear?

Great question Peter…

What is a Yoke? Well. A wooden beam used to attach animals to heavy loads that the animals pull around the farm.

vs. 11 - “we are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus...”

Hallelujah!

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Breakdown

Ultimately the question this morning is: What saves me?

What gives me life on earth? Heaven in eternity? Peace through hardship?

What eliminates the possibility of hell? squashes the power of Satan? gives hope to the broken?

Jesus. Faith in Him alone. That is the answer.

And the key here is “Him Alone.”

If you were drowning in a pool, lake, or river, What would you want to see that would save you?

Rope, life preserver, another person!?

If you were hanging off the side of a cliff, hanging on for dear life, what would you want to save you?

Rope, another person?

If you were going down towards the earth in a falling airplane, what would you want to save you?

Parachute!

Isn’t it interesting that in all of these life or death situations, your best efforts, your best actions, won’t save you?

You could be the most loving, kindest, gentlest, selfless human hanging from the side of a cliff…

But your actions won’t save you…

You need someone else to save you.

This is a good picture of life.

In our normal, every day lives, we are living with that same amount of desperation for salvation.

One problem is this:

We don’t recognize our need for salvation.

If you don’t think you have sin.

If you don’t think you have a problem.

If you don’t think your drowning, going down in the plane, or hanging off a cliff, then you won’t ever believe you need saved!

Most people live this life, partying it up in the plane that is half on fire and headed straight for the ground. The issue is, they don’t care. They would rather enjoy the hear and now rather than think about eternity.

But that’s the sway of evil.

This life is so small compared to eternity.

If i stretched a white rope across the entire parking lot outside and somewhere on that rope I marked a red dot, that red dot could represent your entire life on earth while the white rope represents eternity.

Doesn’t it seem silly to live for the red dot, when we have the option of the white rope?

Why would we make that trade?

Because we don’t take seriously our need for salvation

If never before, today… recognize you need salvation.

Another Problem.

2. We think Faith in the gospel isn’t enough…

- We add to the gospel too often.

- Obey the law, don’t ever miss church, All you should ever do is read your Bible!

- Now we should do these things. These are good things!

Reading the words of God… definitely do that.

Go to church.. definitely do that. Don’t miss out on fellowship with believers.

Obey the law… we should do that…

However, recognize that none of that SAVES YOU!

That’s key.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.”

God gave us the gospel in His grace

What he asks is that we respond to it in faith.

Are you doing that?

Am I doing that?

Why would we add to that?

Application

Do you realize that faithfulness is what God wants from you?

That’s it… but that’s also alot!

I’m not always faithful.

When money is tight and we are struggling (which is alot in our family btw lol)

When I feel like a failure because I didn’t read God’s word alot this week.

When I feel like God is distant based on my life circumstances.

When I acted more like a bully today making fun of someone rather than being a linebacker, defending the defenseless.

Lots of things can make our mind spiral downward and make us feel worthless, useless, and broken.

Only faith in the gospel restores our purpose.

The best way to have faith in the gospel too is this…

Imagine for a moment that you’ve just done the worst sin of your life.

Think about whatever that is or could be.

Now imagine you are sitting at the foot of the cross, right below Jesus dying on the cross.

What do you think Jesus thinks of you?

For Believers listen to this...

Colossians 1:13 “13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”

You’ve been rescued from darkness and transferred into His kingdom.

Don’t miss how huge this is.

We are part of God’s kingdom. His family. Adopted as sons and daughters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Rescued… simply by faith in His incredible, great actions.

That is salvation.

Don’t add to it.

Don’t miss its significance.

In faithfulness, give everything you’ve got to the gospel.

What’s holding you back from that today?