By grace alone
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Intro
Intro
Dear brothers and sisters and friends, today we’re continuing our sermon series on Acts and encounter a meeting. You know, when I think about meeting I immediately think, oh no, boring. We not only have physical meeting, we have what virtual meeting. To be honest some of the time, because of the frequency of the meeting, I sometimes just want to switch off the camera and have a nap. But I know this is part of my calling, for pastors and especially Baptist pastor means constantly meeting with people, collobrating on things of the kingdom of God.
But once and a while, you know the meeting is so important that you pay 100%. You know you are witnessing history. I think it was last year, Baptist have a special meeting, to discuss the future of the association and how it will deal with the topic of same-sex marriage. The meeting and debate went from 10am to around 3:00pm. It was an important moment of the association. People prepared whole speeches, som eof their hands are shaking a bit. Everybody lean in. It was bathed with prayers. Even lunch time the debate is going and nobody wants to get lunch, I guess except me. There were back and forth passionate arguments. But I thank God the whole process was very kind to each other and everyone has a heart to discern God’s will together. Don’t know you, maybe you have those meetings in your life as well.
But here, Acts 15, is definitely one of those meetings that defines the world’s largest religion, and after that day, Christinality would forever be different from Judaism . Christians would have a hard time in Jerusalem forever. It is a a momeutual time, a historical time. And it gives us one of the most important truth about our religion, only grace. Only grace do we stand before God today. How God was at that meeting, how much courage the leaders need to take a bold step and not worry people get angry. That’s such much to learn from this passage: Let’s pray.
Background
Background
Last week Rical has been talking about how we need to answer to Holy Spirit’s sending, and God’s hands in the expansion of their work. After Paul’s and Barnaba’s first missionary journey, they gave the church at Antioch a missionary report. Acts 14:27 “And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” The river of God’s saving grace had overflowed its bank. One of the early root ideas behind grace was that of charm, and there was a graciousness among the early believers th at attracted others to Christ. It is a high point in Acts. Everything is going well. THe gospel is spreading, the outpouring of Holy Spirit is sweet. But maybe things wee going to well - too well for the enemy’s taste, and the inevitable santanic counterattack soon came.
The Problem
The Problem
Acts 15:1 “But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” A lot of the meetings we encounter is that we have to solve a problem. And the inevitable conflict between two groups- the Jews and Gentiles have come to a head after the first missionary journey. And it came to the heart of our gospel, heart of our religion. These mans - Judaizers did not deny salavation by grace. They simply said salvation came by grace plus circumsion. What is circumcusim you may ask, in Genesis 17:10-14 “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” For them circumsion marks them to be God’s people, the decendents of Abraham and God’s blessing. The judaizers while know Jesus Christ now, cannot let go on their previous life, the life of law. THis was upsetting, to say the least, Acts 15:2 “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.” Probably a lot of these crucial meeting start with passionate argument, perhaps shouting. There have raised such a conflict amongst Christians because this is no small matter, it affects the core of what they believe. But we also know their organized religion right then, there is power dynamics. Not doubt the juaizers calimed the front-office support from Jerusalem, and Paul and Barnabaes were more outsiders. The result was division among the brothers. this was tragic, it seemed that only solution was to send Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem to meet with the leaders. And in the road to Jerusalem, they spread great joy to other believers. HOwever, when they got to Jeursaslem, they found that the Judaizers were well entrenched. And the meeting began.
Acts 15:4-5 “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.””
Some of the pharisees who had been convereted to Christ were insiting their version of CHrsitinality. To become a Christian, according to them, one must go through a procedure very much like becomeing a Jewish Proselyte. The apostles were faced with a huge problem. It would be easy if these Pharsaic Christians are evil. But they have genuinely come to know Christ, and their faith cost them dearly. But they were also the produce of their upbrining. In a meeting, and in any debate, you need to know who you are talking, or debating to. Think of the stability of the Phrasee’s training, his immersion in Mosaic Law and traidtion, his pride in being part of the chosen people of God. live in his shoes as we live his rigorous education and joyous particiaption in Israel’s custom. Feel the loving arms of family as his circumcised, catch the awe and wonder he felt sitting under Pharissees studying the scripture, identity the pride he felt when he becamse a son of the Law at his bar mitzvah. Become one with him as he grew to full manhood and earned the revered status of a Pharisee, and consider how he must have burst with satisfication as he put on the dignifited robes of a leader of Israel.Into the Pahrises neat well ordereed life came the claims of Christ, and with that an agonizing vicil war within. Then came conversion - new life from above. To be knowing Christ, means parents, firends considered them dead. They lost everything because of their association with the Saviour. Though Christians, they could not bring themselves to give away centuries of distinction that set their people apart from the world. The Phraisee Christians banded together to make sure no one slipped by Mount Sianai on the way to Calvary. The law of Moses is not to be abandoned.
But given time, their view, tighly held would pull them so far away from the doctrine of grace they would become apostate. We all are influenced by our backgrounds. Each of us has expeirenced some doctrinal or praticial distoration because of past experience or enviornment. The challenge is to dinetiy those points of error before we drfift too far away from Christ. Here, because of that the future of the church and the doctrine fo the way of savlation were at stake. History and experience have proven that anything made a co-requirement with faith soon shoves faith aside and becomes the means of salvation. Theologically, the truth of the gospel were at stake in Jerusalem, and relationally the stakes were just as high. A wrong move in this meeting in Jeursalem and gracious openess would be replaced with Jaundiced exclusiveness.
The Debate
The Debate
Peter’s speech
By verse 6,7 the council had convened, and there had been much debate. No doubt some of the hootter head had said some things for which they were already sorry. Perhaps there were even times of chaos before Peter raise to speak. But then Peter raised. Often in meetings, arguments may get so heated, you need somebody with some authority to calm everyone down. This seems to be the case. Jesus inner circle of disciple, the first diciple who recognized JEsus as the messiah, and the one Jesus gave a leadership role of the church. he recalled his expeirence with the Gentiles, Acts 15:7-9 “And after there had been much debate, 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. 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.” He was refering to his ministry years earlier in seeing the GEntile Cornelius and his entire house receive CHrist and the HOly Spirit through faith. The conclusion, God made no distinction between us and them.”
Then came PEter’s stunning pronoucement Acts 15:10-11 “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.”Peter here in the debate not trying to only defend the gospel. He goes onto the attack as to why this is such an offense to the true gosepl. The thing is to keep the law, is to keep something even the Isralites could not bear it . At the end, through all these years, the Old Testament, right from the law was given to Moses to the time of Jesus. In a way a story that law could not lead to salvation, in a way, any other religion that based on work could not lead us to salvation. Because nobody is that good in front of a perfect GOd. God has given them the Law as a schoolmaster to lead them to CHrist by demonstrating at every turn they were sinners in need of mercy. They transgressed even the basic commandment to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and their neighbor as themsevles daily. The conclusion to all this? Grace alone! WE believed that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. Every person - the oldest to youngest, least educated to most well-educated, whatever race we come from - comes into God’s family the same way - solely by the undeserved kindness of a forgiving God!
With the conclusion of Peter’s speech, a turning point came in this meeting, as evidenced in verse 12 by the multitudes silence. In a way probably the Judaizers has demoninated the conversation, they are the elders in terms of knowing God, but now finally with Peter’s speech the tide of this meeting is turning. During that silence, Barnabas and Paul seized the moment and verified what Peter had said by relating the sings and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. The miracles of their first missionary trip was recited, and the COuncil was awestruck. Heart are turning at this moment.
James speech
After some time Barnabas and Paul finished and James stood up. Who is James and why is he so important? He was Lord’s earthly half-brother and it seemed that he was a pillar of the church and now kind of a moderator of the assembly now considering an all-important disupute.
The hopes of the Pharsaic sect rocketed as James stood to speak. Surely he would set Peter and Paul and Barnabas right. They were undoubtedly surprised at the aspostles’ response, for James first showed how the conversion of Gentiles was in accord with the Old Testament Scriptures.
Acts 15:14-18 “Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, “ ‘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.’”
Through this combination of passages taken large from Amos 9:11,12 James was saying that according to the Old Testament prophets GOd’s people would consists of two concentric groups. At the core would be, and gatheredaround them would be the Gentiles, who would share the messianic blessings without becoming JEwish Proselytes. THus, everything that was happening was just as the scripture prophesied.
Then came James’s pronoucement, the heart of the whole scene in Acts 15:19-20 “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.”
In doing this, James had some advice for both groups. To the pharisaical Jewish believers he said, “Lay off these new Gentile Christians - do not trouble them”. To the Gentile beleives, he gave three restriction, and verse 21 tell us why, Gentile converts were not to do anything that would offen the Jews’s religious practice. Witherington persuasively relates the prohibitions to participation in temple feasts, where sexual immorality was regularly found in association with meat offerings that were an abomination to Jews. And therefore we get a mix of moral and ceremonial restriction. Even sexual immoraility of course is always wrong, here it is talking about Gentiles to not use their freedom to hurt their Jewish counterparts, to refrain in all temple feasts at that time for these Gentiles, so there would be a courteous and temporary concession to Jewish consciences.
James gives us two complemtary principles for grace-filled living. First, as those under grace we are not to make non-Biblical requirements to others, those that come from secondary cultural traditions. Today this means we are not to make areas of our lifestyle normative to others, such as how we dress, the stand of living we think proper, tastes, musical and culture preference. IF we thrust any of these on others as necessary to a life of grace, we repeat the sin of the Judaizer. Two, because we are under grace, we galdly restrict our freedom for the sake of others. There was not anything intrinsically wrong with eating a rare steak, but James said boil it and eat it well-donw for the sake of fellowship with the JEws. Paul satated the same principle in 1 Corinthians 9:19-21 “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.”
James mangificiant pronoucement carried the day!
The outcome
The outcome
Once the debate is over, the council immmediately drafted a letter and sent it along with Paul and Barnabas and their friends, Silas and Judas Barsabbas, to take back to Antioch. THe letters conclusion was almost word for word as suggested by James. This councils proclamation has been called one of the most courage docuemtns in the annals of church history because it authors declared the truth even though they knew it would fully antagonize the Jewish establishment from this time on, Christina work in JErsualem became very difficult as tilll today. While still trying to carry on a ministry to the JEwish nation, the apsotles herocially refused to do or say anything to imped the progress of the gospel among the Gentiles. But this decision, will follow exactly what God said, to bring the the gospels to all nations, to all continents of the world, to become the world’s largest religion. So today you and me could receive this grace without have to circucisms, or do good works. That we could open our hands, and cry Lord have mercy on us and be saved. The power of grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Acts 15:30-31 “So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.”
Why were they encouraged? The letter imposed some dietary restriction plus sexual immorality. Why were they happy about that? For the believers in Antioch, a few minor restrictions in the law compared with the Jerusalem COuncil coul dhave inisted upon, to be a Jewish prolyste, it was such a great relief.
What does it mean to us today. FIst we must preach grace alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Second, like James the Just, we must tolerate nothing else. Grace is risky and can be abused and must not be rejected. God allows us to choose, even wrongly. His continuing grace sustains and empowers us daily. CS Lewis , Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people – for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.
As the story goes, 1500 years, the church again is entering a chasm. The church itself has gone very far from the doctrine of grace only. Like James, Martin Luther came back to the source of religion, the Bible, and saw again that our relationship with God is solely by faith through grace only. This time, there is no chance of a meeting, but a revolution needs to happen to secure the pure grace of God, as the church became corrupted with indulgence, with