One-mindedness[1] at the Jerusalem Council

Acts 15

It was the year 49 AD.[2] The ascended Christ had been reigning from heaven and giving direction to his church for well over 15 years.[3] And the gospel was spreading to the ends of the earth.

Gentiles, people like you and me, were coming to Jesus left and right. Phillip had proclaimed Christ among the Samaritans in Acts 8. Peter, in Acts 10, had miraculously been summoned to Caesarea, a town full of what the Jews called “Gentile dogs”, to share the gospel with a Roman Centurion named Cornelius and his family. If you remember that story back in Acts 10, Cornelius was so excited to hear the good news that he invited all his relatives and close friendsto join him when Peter came—Cornelius’s house was packed. And while Peter was preaching, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And when God gives His Holy Spirit, He is pleased with the recipients. In the end, there was no doubt in Peter’s mind (or those with him) that God clearly orchestrated the whole thing. It was God who opened the door to the Gentiles.

In Acts 11 scattered ‘no name’ believers, made their way up to Antioch and a powerful “predominantly-Gentile” church was birthed. And it was from that powerful “predominantly-Gentile” church, that Paul and Barnabas set out on the first missionary journey described in Acts 13 and 14. And in that first missionary journey both Gentiles (and Jews) came to know Christ by believing[4]…by believing, by believing. Chapter 14 ends with these two verses…

27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together (that’s the Antioch church), they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.28And they remained no little time with the disciples.

It’s really clear that up to this point in Acts there’s a Holy Spirit empowered, gospel freight train moving to the ends of the earth and there is no stopping it.

Now by the time we get to the end of chapter 14, we’re at the midway point of the book of Acts. Someone with way too much time on their hands has calculated that the first fourteen chapters of Acts contain 12,385[5] words in the English translation and the last chapters of Acts, chapters 15-28, have about 12,502 words—chapters 1-14…12,385 wordsand chapters 15-28…12502.[6]

So the end of chapter 14 is physicallyhalfway through the book of Acts And in chapter 15, a question is raised among the Jewish believers about the nature of salvation—Does a Gentile Christian need to be circumcised to be saved? and actually it seems that in our passage today the question is even broader“Does a Gentile Christian need to be circumcised and keep the law to be saved[7]?”

Now given Jewish history, this particular question probably needed to bubble up. Circumcision was just so fundamental to what it means to be a Jew. It went way back to Genesis 17 and it was an outward sign delineating who was“in” and who was “out”Listen to these really definitive words in Genesis 17:1414 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised…shall be cut off from his people; hehasbrokenmycovenant.” It’s easy to imagine a Jewish believer asking this question“Did that outward marker, that outward sign of being in God’s covenant just go awaywhen a baby was born in a manger in Bethlehem…a baby who by the way was circumcised at eight days by his law-abiding parents?”

And thinking about those first few chapters of the Christmas story in Luke, Christianity was literally birthed in the fertile soil of Judaism—you remember the story begins with Zechariah, a priest, father of John the Baptiststanding in the holy place in the temple in Luke 1 in front of the incense altar when an angel visited him and said that God was on the move again. You couldn’t get more Jewish with such a “Once upon a time…” beginning like that. Christianity had overwhelmingly clear Jewish roots. So it makes all the sense in the world that there would be some wrestling with the question, “How Jewish was Christianity supposed to be?” These questions and more had to come to the surface to be addressed. And in the providence of God they did come to the surface and were addressed.

John Stott does a good job in the following quote picturing how disturbing and alarming all that was happening in the church, would be for Jewish believers:

“Something quite different was happening, however, something which disturbed and even alarmed many. Gentile converts were being welcomed into fellowship by baptism without becoming Jews. They were retaining their own identity and integrity as members of other nations. It was one thing for the Jerusalem leaders to give their approval to the conversion of Gentiles: but could they approve of conversion-without-circumcision, of faith in Jesus without the works of the Law, and of commitment to the Messiah without inclusion into Judaism? Was their vision big enough to see the gospel of Christ not as a reform movement with Judaism but as good news for the whole world and the church of Christ not as a Jewish sect but as the international family of God? These were the revolutionary questions that some were daring to ask.”[8]

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Just twofinal thoughts by way of introduction.

First, Acts 15 is about what is known as“The Jerusalem Council.”[9] Throughout church history, church councils have been used to resolve theological differences. Here’s a list of the church councils that we as evangelicals recognize…there are seven.

Briefly…

The First Council of Nicea, convened by Emperor Constantine established the Nicene Creed as the fundamental statement of the Christian faith.

The First Council of Constantinople, 381 AD clarified the doctrine of the trinity and categorically determined that Arianism was heresy. Arius taught that only God the father was eternal and that Jesus was his first and greatest creation.

The Council of Ephesus, 431 AD denounced the teachings of Nestorius who had a faulty Christology.

The Council of Chalcedon, 451 AD, confirmed that Jesus was both ‘truly man and truly God’

Notice what’ happening…as we move along ‘clarity’ is being brought to the person and character of Jesus Christ.

The Second Council of Constantinople…basically addressed more issues about the true nature of Christ.

The Third Council of Constantinople, 681 AD… dealt with the issue that Jesus Christ had two natures and two wills rather than two natures and one will (a heresy called monotheletism). As late as 680 AD we’re still trying to figure out who Jesus was.

The Second Council of Nicea, 787 established that it was acceptable to venerate icons but not worship them.

Now here’s the point in all that. It turns out that theology is best done “together”. Can the foot accurately say, “I know exactly what this verse means?”….Can the eye say on its own… “I have found the perfect interpretation for this verse?” No it seems that theology is best done when eye and hand and foot and nose gather together with their Living Head and undertake theology together.

And a second introductory point, in the end how was unity achieved in Acts 15? Let’s lay it out up front and we’ll return to it several times in the message when we see these points in the text.

POWERPOINT

Unity was achieved when godly men…

1. gave each other a hearing[10],

2. recognized and discerned the activity of God in their midst[11],

3. looked to and followed the scriptures unreservedly[12],

4. listened to the Spirit[13]

and 5. were willing to see the difference between essentials and non-essentials[14].

Well let’s jump into the text… Acts 15:1

1 But some men came down from Judea…notice the ambiguity in the description of the men….Were they from the Jerusalem church? Were they sent from the Jerusalem church or had they put on their theological sherrif badges on their own? We don’t know… but they were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Now as we’ve said, this is a big deal. This is the question of all questions. How is one saved? And if you look at verse 5, it seems that these same men, again it’s a bit ambiguous, were arguing not only that circumcision was critical but keeping the law was also critical to salvation.

Verse 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them —andthat word dissension in used elsewhere, Acts 19:40,to describe a riot[15]…so this was no small dissension and debate!, 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 let’s consolidate what we’ve said with a slide…

At this point in the spread of Christianity, some 15-20 years after the resurrection, there are two influential churches. There’s a primarily Gentile church in the north in Antioch and there’s a primarily Jewish church in the south in Jerusalem. And the primarily Jewish church, or representatives that appear to be from that church, come to Antioch in the north teaching a doctrine that is unacceptable to Paul and Barnabas, key leaders of the church in Antioch. It’s actually a doctrine that would shackle the Antioch church in their efforts at evangelizing Gentiles.

And so at the end of verse 2, a delegation of Paul and Barnabas and some others is sent to Jerusalem to discuss the issue, a 300 mile journey that would take between twenty and thirty days.

Coming south, verse 3, the delegation passed through Phoenicia and then Samariadescribing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles. And verse 3 says it brought much joy to all the brothers. Why this detail? It would seem from this that it’s not just the Antioch church that believes that Gentiles can be saved by grace through faith without circumcision and without lawkeeping; others share that same conviction. This makes that which is about to happen in Jerusalemeven more significant.

4 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.Upon arriving at Jerusalem it appears that there was some kind of preliminary meeting and notice the Jerusalem congregation is involved, a fact that makes this council different from every other council in church history. Verse5 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.”

Now let’s stop and reflect on the fact that verse 5 tells us that there were Pharisees in the congregation of the Jerusalem church—in other words there were Pharisees besides Paul who had put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah. That’s a really cool thing! But it also makes sense, given the Pharisees’ passion for the Law, that they would be the last to give the Law up. “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the Law of Moses.”

Verse6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. We don’t know if this is a separate gathering from that mentioned in verse 4 or not, the first phrase of verse 12, might indicate that the congregation is still involved.

Verse 7--7 And after there had been much debate, …the discussion was extensive and profound…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.8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit[16] just as he did to us,9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Look at what Peter says--and this is the Peter who had been intimidated by the Judaizers in Galatians 2 and stopped having table fellowship with Gentiles, in other words he’s different-- “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you….look what he’s saying…in the early days…and we know that the Cornelius story would have been about ten years before this[17]… God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.In other words, “Ten years ago I was summoned to Caesarea to share the gospel with Cornelius….God used my mouth...Cornelius and his family heard the gospel and they believed!” Could Peter have said it more strongly? “Hey guys, this conversion of Gentiles stuff is a God thing… God made a choice…He used my mouth (yeah I was in the room at the time buy Heusedmymouth) to share the gospel and God saved them just like He has saved us Jews.

8 And God, who knows the heart,…God the “heart knower”, great word…great truth about God… cardiognostes…the one before whom all hearts are laid bare….the word was used of Jesus in Acts 1:24...He too is a heart knower… God the ‘heart knower’ bore witness to them, …in other words God showed his approval of them…God knew what was going on in their heart and he showed His approval of them by giving them the Holy Spirit[18] just as he did to us,… He saw their hearts and gave them the Holy Spirit just asGod saw our hearts and gave us the Holy Spirit. 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Peter makes an important point there in verse 9… it’s inward purity of the heart which makes fellowship possible. We can be brothers with Gentiles who haven’t been circumcised because we know that God has cleansed their hearts by faith, like he cleansed our hearts by faith…

10 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?

How were these Jewish believers puttingGod to the test requiring circumcision and obedience to the Law? Well they were provoking God by resisting what He had clearly revealed. Like the Israelites in the wilderness they were grumbling about what God was doing and they weren’t trusting him.[19] And how were these extra requirements putting a yoke on the necks of the Gentile disciples? Well the yoke was a picture of a burden. Why burden the Gentiles with what didn’t work for the Jews? No Jew was ever saved by the law or purified from their sins by the law, no Jew had ever received the Holy Spirit by keeping the law. Since keeping the law could not do any of those vital things for them, why require it of the Gentiles?

11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

There’s the gospel and it rang in the room where they were! If you’re here today and you think it’s your good works that win you favor with God…or you think it’s your church attendance that win you favor with God…or you think that surely God will accept you because you’re a lot better person than the people you hang around with. If you think any of those things you’re mistaken. We all fall short of the perfection God requires and God saves us by grace when we put our faith in Jesus and the work He’s done for us on the cross. He sees our hearts and he cleanses us when we put our faith in Him.

Peter’s words…We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus. Have you put your faith in Jesus?

There’s something else about Peter’s statement in verse 11 that is remarkable. A Jew, like Peter would normally say it this way (“they are saved as weare”) but Peter remarkably says “we’re saved as they are.”

12 And all the assembly fell silent… was it the hush of agreement? Did the silence reflect that the debate had effectively been decided by Peter?[20] We don’t know

Well in the rest of verse 12…Barnabas and Paul share their story…

….and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

The emphasis on signs and wonders seems to communicate that God’s blessing was on the ministry to Gentiles. With signs and wonders, God had put his signature, so to speak on all that has gone on among the Gentiles.

Let’s stop and look at our summary slide on how unity is being achieved…

Unity was achieved when godly men…