It is Tuesday and in our reading thru the New Testament we come to Acts 15:1-35. This is a crucial section in the book of Acts, and in fact, for the entire New Testament, so take your time and understand what’s happening as you read. After you’ve read it through (we’ll stop at vs 35 today), come back and we’ll look at it together.
There’s a rather old poem I remember from many, many years ago...and I don ‘t know who said it, or what the context was, but it seems applicable often in the church today too:
“To live up above with the Saints that we love,
oh that will be glory”
To live here below with the Saints that we know,
well, that’s a different story.”
If there’s anything we’ve learned about church is that it isn’t always smooth sailing...people disagree about lots of things. The church in Acts had been growing. First it was the Samaritans who believed. Then Peter had a divine encounter with Cornelius, a Roman Gentile, who believed the Gospel message. The Jewish faithful took the message to Cyprus and then on to Antioch - where an explosion of faith to believe took place and Antioch took on a model of church growth with both Jews and Gentiles in the church worshipping, growing in Christ, becoming disciples together - they called them Christians. Paul and Barnabas pushed the boundaries of the church even further by going to the region of Galatia, where again, many Jews and Gentiles came together in newly planted churches. It was looking very good.
Then it didn’t. Acts 15 is a crucial point in the story of the early church. It begins with some men from Judaea who came down to Antioch and began to teach that unless the Gentile believers in the church became circumcised they could not be saved. I’ve heard it in other ways also...it is a message that mixes a certain behavior, or action, or belief with the Gospel message that “salvation is by grace through faith apart from works” (Eph. 2:8-9).
Paul and Barnabas move quickly, “Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them” (vs 2). It was no small question and it had to be settled and so the first council of the church (there would be several more through the first 600 years of the church) was called to gather the leaders of the church together in Jerusalem.
It was no small issue they came to Jerusalem to decide. The question was simple: Do the Gentile believers have to become Jewish first (circumcision) in order to become part of the church?
It is in this context that a reading of Galatians 1 & 2 would be helpful. It’s my opinion that Paul wrote the book of Galatians as a record of what took place during this debate...how it occurred...and why the argument has to be that salvation is by grace through faith alone - for any and all people. Paul came to the conclusion in Galatians first by saying, “we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ...because by the works of the law, no one can, or will, be justified” (Gal. 2:16). Secondly, because of that, he concluded: “... in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith...There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus...” (Gal. 3:28).
The council met together with this crucial issue at stake. They heard from Peter first about his encounter with Cornelius which was a divine encounter, which when it first happened and after Peter explained it, they all agreed that the Gentiles were being included in the New Covenant church.
Peter then makes it clear what his opinion was: “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.” (15:8-11). It was the coup-de-grace of the argument that needed resolution by all.
Interestingly, Luke speaks little here of Barnabas and Paul’s speech to them - perhaps the reason is that he’s already told what they shared in the stories he had just written in chpts. 13 & 14. It was James, the brother of Jesus who spoke next. James had become leader of the Jerusalem church after the martyrdom of James, the brother of John in Acts 12. From 15:12 thru vs 21, James makes a passionate plea for the Gentiles to be included without the requirement of circumcision. His argument is based on what God had already shown them - through Peter and Paul/Barnabas - and also through revelation from Scripture. He quotes a passage from the prophet Amos (9:11-12):
“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.”
What James argues is that the prophet Amos foresaw the prophetic fulfillment of David’s dynasty in the coming of Jesus as Messiah, and that the Messiah would enlarge the tent of God’s people to include all mankind - a.k.a., the Gentiles.
In the end, James asked the council to “not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God”, and included four stipulations he asked the Gentiles to make that are not requirements for salvation; but instead, are things that will create fellowship, sharing the table if you will, between Jewish believers and Gentile believers.
Paul will later write about these in 1 Corinthians 8-10, but in a nutshell the Council in the end addresses two difficulties the church has always had to walk a fine line with - legalism and license. The council agreed. Letters were prepared and sent off - not through Barnabas and Paul - but through two emissaries of the Jerusalem council - Judas and Silas - who carried the decision to the churches in Antioch, and beyond. The letter makes one thing abundantly clear. The way in which this all began was not authorized by anyone in leadership in Jerusalem. That is important to remember, for Paul will continue to have problems with a legalistic element of the church he later calls, “Judaizers”.
The letter is delivered, read, and the people were glad - it was a wise decision and the unity of the church, and its future were maintained. It was a crucial time in the story of the church and we today are part of the consequences of those decisions.
We realize that the church is a collection of saints from all sorts of backgrounds, upbringings, cultures, customs and traditions. It takes a lot of grace to live with others that don’t share those same things with us. That’s the key though - Grace. It is how each of us came to believe in Christ to begin with, and it is how we behave in Christ as believers in the church. Yet, anytime two thinking people get together (marriage?), there is going to be a certain level of disagreement - expect it. Resolving disagreements takes maturity, listening and understanding - endure it. Growing together in both the Faith of Christ, and in our own Christlikeness is not quick, it is slow and requires commitment, forgiveness, and again, grace - have it.
Peace
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