Don’t you wish that when things were going well in the church of God that things would just go smoothly?
When people are getting saved from their sins, churches are growing, and leaders are being developed, it would be so great if things would just go smoothly, wouldn’t it?
However, those of you who have been part of a church for more than a little while know that this dream is just that . . . a dream. It’s not reality.
After all, you may remember what Paul and Barnabas said last week to the churches they were planting.
They said in Acts 14:22, “It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
There are some hardships involved with following Jesus. Sometimes, those hardships take the form of opposition from others.
In today’s passage, some opposition is going to come to the disciples.
Opposition is never fun. However, what makes the opposition in Acts 15 so difficult is that it didn’t come from outside the Church; it came from within the Church. It came from their brothers and sisters in Christ.
All these non-Jewish people (or Gentiles) were coming to faith in Jesus Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit, and becoming part of the Church.
However, not everyone thought it was a good idea to welcome them into the Church. They wanted to add some extra regulations.
So, opposition arose, and disagreement arose.
A question arose concerning “What to say about the Gentiles.” Indeed, that is the title of today’s sermon.
Before we go any further, let’s go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to speak to us as we study Acts 15.
(prayer)
Ok, so let’s look at the passage and see what’s going on. Let’s see what to say about the Gentiles:
Let’s start by looking at Acts 15:1-5:
1 Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue. 3 When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.
4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
Ok, that’s part of our passage today. We’ll continue on in a minute. So today, let’s answer five questions that arose from this issue with the Gentile converts.
First, let’s ask . . .
I. What did the opposition say?
Well, it’s right there in the passage, isn’t it?
Verse 1 says, “Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.’”
Verse 5 says, “But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’”
Here’s what happened: Christianity was born out of Judaism, and some of the Christians who came out of the really strict Judaism (the Pharisees) wanted to force all Christians to fit inside the boundaries of their interpretation of what it meant to be a follower of God. They not only wanted them to follow Jesus, they wanted them to follow the law of Moses.
In other words, these Christian Pharisees did not fully understand what God accomplished with the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
What Jesus accomplished was much greater than what Moses accomplished.
What Moses accomplished was amazing. He delivered God’s law so that the Jewish people might know God and glorify Him properly.
What Jesus accomplished was even better. He fulfilled God’s law so that all people might have the opportunity to know God and glorify Him properly.
Yet, these Christian Pharisees wanted to require more than what God required.
We haven’t seen this in modern church at all, have we? We’ve not seen people require extra rules for people to be followers of Jesus, have we?
We’ve not heard people say you have to dress a certain way to be a faithful Christian.
We’ve not heard that you have to totally abstain from alcohol, even though Jesus and the early Church didn’t.
We’ve not heard that you can’t play cards, go to movies, or dance. We’ve not heard that you can’t have tattoos or piercings.
We’ve not heard that you have to read a certain Bible translation.
We’ve not heard that you have to belong to a certain political party if you want to be a faithful Christian. Of course, we haven’t heard any of that because we are Baptists and we are people of the Bible, right? Of course, we would never try to add extra rules as if the Bible were not sufficient enough!
Well, of course, all of you can probably sense my sarcasm by now.
The reality is the American church has sadly said these things and tolerated these things for far too long.
We should not be people who try to add extra rules as these Christian Pharisees did.
Well, what are we supposed to do about it? Well, let’s see what the Church then did about it.
Let’s answer the question . . .
II. What did the church say?
Do you recall where Paul and Barnabas were in Acts 15? They were in Antioch.
So, these men came from Judea, which is the region around Jerusalem, and came to Antioch to raise their concern.
Notice in verse 2 that Paul and Barnabas first debated this issue with the opposers. However, it seems that a resolution was not reached.
So, in verse 3, we see that Paul and Barnabas were appointed to go to Jerusalem.
By whom were Paul and Barnabas appointed? By the church!
Paul and Barnabas were appointed by the Church in Antioch to take this issue down to the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem to see if they could get this sorted out.
Jerusalem is where the Church was born. Jerusalem is where the Holy Spirit first came upon the disciples. Jerusalem is the place that sent out the first proclaimers of the gospel.
So, the Church in Antioch sent them to the Church in Jerusalem.
Notice this, friends: the Church did not ignore the problem; they dealt with it.
Listen, church: Problems, conflicts, false teachings, and more will arise among the people of God. When they do, we should deal with it.
So, we see what the Church in Antioch had to say about this issue with the Gentiles.
Next, let’s answer the question, . . .
III. What did experience say?
I want to be clear about this, church. What we experience does not mean everything, but it means something.
What I mean by that is that what we experience should never take priority over that which God has already clearly told us in His Word.
However, God does work through our experience to teach us things and confirm what He has already told us in the Bible.
The disciples experienced some things that taught them some truths about what was going on with these Gentile Christians.
Listen to verse 3. Luke tells us, “When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.”
We learn here that Paul and Barnabas have seen Gentiles converted to Jesus Christ, and it stirred joy when they told others about it.
Now, let’s read on a bit more. Look at verses 6-12:
6 The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
We hear in these verses the experience of Peter, and Paul and Barnabas about how the Lord was saving Gentiles through the proclamation of the gospel.
We also hear from both Peter, and Paul and Barnabas their experience of how the Holy Spirit did miraculous things in these non-Jewish converts.
The experience of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas was that God really was saving these people from their sins, He really was making them new, and He really was demonstrating their new life by filling them with the Holy Spirit.
So, in verse 10, Peter asked the natural question, “Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?”
The experience of these Jewish-Christian missionaries was that God was really saving the non-Jewish Christians.
However, experience is not everything (as I said earlier).
So then, we must answer the question . . .
IV. What did the Bible say?
That’s a good question for all of us to ask. Even though it’s helpful to observe what is happening around us, that’s not always the final answer to our questions.
We must ask, “What does God say?” Listen as the leaders in Jerusalem sought to answer that question.
Look at verses 13-18:
13 After they stopped speaking, James responded, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. 15 And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:
16 After these things I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
I will rebuild its ruins
and set it up again,
17 so that the rest of humanity
may seek the Lord—
even all the Gentiles
who are called by my name—
declares the Lord
who makes these things 18 known from long ago.
By the way, Simeon here is Peter. His name was Simon Peter or Simeon Peter.
James (by the way, the half brother of Jesus and author of the Book of James) took the eyewitness testimony of Peter and compared it to the prophecies of the Old Testament. In other words, he compared human experience to what God had already said in His Word.
James referred to what was said in the Old Testament books of Amos, Isaiah, and more.
James pointed out that there was no conflict with what appeared to be happening in the lives of the Gentiles and what God already said He would do in the Gentiles.
Rather than their experience conflicting with God’s plans, it served as an example of a fulfillment of God’s plans.
Church, we must do as James did in this passage. We must be quick to turn to the Word of God to help us evaluate our experience and to help us sort out conflict.
The Bible is God’s guide for the Church and God’s gift to the Church.
Let us always ask ourselves, “What does the Bible say?”
Finally, we must answer the question . . .
V. What did the leaders say?
Early church history reveals to us that James became the leader of the Jerusalem Church as the leadership of the apostles was transitioning to others.
So, where did James and the other leaders land on this issue?
Let’s look at the final few verses. Let’s look at verses 19-21:
19 Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.
James basically says, “We shouldn’t put any roadblocks in the way for these non-Jewish people to come to God.”
James then lays out some basic moral principles that they would expect the Gentiles to follow while suggesting that they don’t need to force the ceremonial traditions of the Jewish people on non-Jewish disciples.
For the sake of time, we can’t get into all of the details, but James essentially said that they didn’t have to live a Jewish life, but they did need to live a holy life as defined by God’s Word.
The leaders of the church considered the conflict, made a commitment to find a resolution, considered the experience of others, considered what the Bible said, and then made a decision.
They decided that followers of Jesus should not have to jump through extra hoops to follow God because Jesus has already jumped through all of the hoops for us.
Rather, they should commit themselves to Jesus and live a life of holiness.
Let this bottom line summarize what we are learning today:
Bottom Line: The Church affirmed the mission and work of God.
God was at work among the Gentiles. The leaders in Antioch and Jerusalem had a choice: get on board with what God was doing or get in the way of what God was doing.
They were wise enough to know (and I pray that we are too) that you don’t want to be in the way of what God is doing; it’s much better to get on board.
To that end, challenge yourself this week in the following ways:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Identify the heart of the gospel.
What does it mean to follow Jesus?
These disciples learned that it’s not about following a list of manmade rules.
They also learned that following Jesus doesn’t mean that we just do away with a life of holiness.
God has a design for us. We’re to chase after God’s design for our lives, not manmade substitutions.
Weekly Challenge #2 – Share the heart of the gospel.
Once we discover the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ, we must share it with others.
So many in our culture have an incorrect view of what it means to follow Jesus. Part of that is our fault. We have not been careful to prioritize the heart of the gospel.
The gospel is the greatest news in all the world. Will you share it with others?
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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