Acts Lesson 3: 15.6-11, 24-31
LAST WEEK: In Acts 14, during Paul's first missionary journey, we studied an incident in Lystra where, after seeing Paul perform a miraculous healing of a crippled man, a large crowd of pagans thought he and Barnabas were mythological Greek gods and attempted to worship and make sacrifices to them. The point of the lesson: How do you share the gospel with spiritually ignorant pagans who have no understanding of the one, triune God of heaven? APPLICATION: Like Paul and Barnabas, when we find ourselves witnessing to spiritually ignorant people, we should never take advantage of their naïveté in order to gain their trust. The first step is to take a contextualized approach that introduces and explains to them to the essential truth of the one true God, who has revealed Himself to all of us through both His creation and through His Word, taking it step-by-step until they are ready to repent and be introduced to Jesus Christ as Savior. With many of today's Millennial Generation-people who have never been to church or Sunday school-this type of step-by-step approach may be needed. It's a judgment call. (Mention Gideons Lifebook).
THIS WEEK: In Acts 15, we meet Paul returning from his first missionary journey to appear before the Jerusalem Council, which was composed of both apostles and elders of the Jerusalem church. The outcome of this meeting was a watershed event not only for the book of Acts, but in the history of the church. Had it turned out otherwise, we might not be having this Sunday school class today in Mountain Home, AR. Background: As a result the first missionary journey, Gentiles had come to faith in large numbers. At the same time, many Christian Jews were demanding that Gentile converts be circumcised and instructed to keep the Law of Moses, claiming, in effect, that Gentiles could only enter the faith by converting to Judaism. To them, this requirement did not seem to be too large a concession for the Gentiles; but Paul, who along with Barnabas, understood the broader ramifications this would have for spreading the gospel-that Christianity would been seen as Jew-dominated sect-strongly opposed the teaching of these "Judaizers." As a result, the first church council was called, which is the subject of today's lesson.
Read Acts 15:6-11 - In the Midst of a Great Debate, the Apostle Peter Speaks
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 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. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their 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? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."
v. 6: "The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter" - It was just not the apostles who gathered to decide the issue but also the elders of the church at Jerusalem, who spoke with apostolic approval. It was vital that the decision reached in Jerusalem would be accepted by all of the leaders in the church, so that anyone who taught differently would be recognized as a false teacher who wasn't speaking for the church. The question raised by the council was immense: Are Christians saved by faith alone, or by a combination of faith and obedience to the Law of Moses?
vv. 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. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith" - Summarizing these three verses, Peter makes four concise points: (1) Brothers, haven't we already dealt with this issue and made a decision? (2) Didn't we agree that God is saving Gentiles as well as Jews? (3) Didn't we agree that these Gentile believers need only to be saved by faith? (4) Can't we see that God didn't make any distinction between Gentile and Jew, because in both cases our hearts were cleansed by faith, and not by works? Peter was undoubtedly referring back to the events of Acts 10 and 11 when he reported to the apostles and brothers that Cornelius and other Gentiles had been saved by faith at Caesarea. see, Acts 10 and 11 generally.
v. 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?" - In this remark, Peter responds to one of the Judaizer objections: Well, what's so wrong about bringing Gentiles under the Law of Moses? What's the big deal? Adding to his earlier remarks, he's saying here's the big deal: if, in fact, all of us are saved by faith, and not by works, why then should we insist that Gentiles be required to keep the Law when it didn't save any of us (i.e., Jews) or our forefathers? To what purpose?
v. 11: "But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will" - This is a remarkable statement because it was exactly opposite of how the Judaizers viewed the situation. Simply this, identifying himself as spokesman for Jews, he's saying we are saved by grace just like them-the Gentiles-not the other way around. You see that? Bottom Line: Grace overrules everything.
Summary of vv. 1-5, 12-21: Luke makes it clear that he's not reporting the entire narrative of the council. The Judaizers arguments in vv. 3-5 are simply summarized as "much debate" (v.7b). Luke reports a summary of the arguments of four individuals: (1) Peter, as we just heard in vv.7-11, (2/3) Paul and Barnabas in v.12, and (4) James (half-brother of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem Church) in vv. 13-21. James, in the concluding argument, forcefully supported and followed-up Peter with the position that God has revealed His purpose to save Gentiles as well as Jews, citing Amos 9:11-12 to establish his point: 11 "In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, "declares the Lord who does this.
Read Acts 15:24-29 - A Letter of Decision is Drafted
Note: vv. 22-23 (skipped) form a salutation stating the "apostles and the elders, with the whole church," are sending this letter to the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.
24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell."
v. 24: "Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions" - The first thing we should notice was that the decision was unanimous, i.e.,"the apostles and the elders, with the whole church." The council completely disavowed the Judaizers as "some persons [who] troubled you with words"; and the statement "we gave them no instructions" made it clear that those persons were false teachers who had no authority from the council. By stating this, the council confirmed the decision that justification by faith in Jesus Christ, apart from works, was the fundamental doctrine of salvation.
v. 25-27: "it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth" - The false teachers were not named, but the Gentile believers in the new churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia knew who they were. These verses name four teachers designated by the Jerusalem leaders to speak with their authority: Barnabas and Paul, who are noted men who have risked their lives to spread the gospel; and two men from Jerusalem, Judas ( also called Barsabbas) and Silas. As mentioned in v.7b, notice that the gospel was preached and passed from person to person "by word of mouth," insofar as the book of Mark, the first written gospel, did not appear until about 50 A.D.
v. 28: "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements' - This tells us how the decision came to be unanimous: through the Holy Spirit, forming a bond of unity between these men of Jerusalem, made the decision. The phrase, "no greater burden than," could be restated: In addition to being justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we require only these things (as detailed in v.29).
v. 29: "that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell" - The first three restrictions, none of which were essential doctrinal issues, represented small concessions made to Jewish Christians in relation to Jewish dietary laws. The intent was not to be judgmental but to encourage Gentiles be sensitive in matters that caused offense to the Jewish believers. The last restriction-a prohibition of sexual immorality-was a moral standard to be applied to Jew and Gentile believers alike. In general interpretation it prohibited sexual relations outside of marriage, which imposed a higher standard than observed by many of the Gentile culture of that era in which sexual immorality was commonplace. The council undoubtedly added this because many of the new Gentile believers did not yet understand God's moral standards.
Read Acts 15:30-31 - Joyful Reception among Gentile Christians
30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.
30-31: "gathered the congregation together * * * when they read it, they rejoiced..." We can imagine these Gentile Christians, anxiously wondering what decision would be made: were they not saved after all because they had not submitted to circumcision and Mosaic Law? "Rejoiced, when they read it" is probably an understatement; I imagine they heard them cheering all the way back to Jerusalem.
Comment: The decision of the Jerusalem Council reported in Acts 15 represented a vastly important turning point in the future of the church. Peter virtually disappears after this chapter and the church in Jerusalem fades to relative insignificance. At the same time, Gentile evangelism grew explosively in the known world, spurred by the fact that the theological basis for evangelism-salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ-had firmly been established. We stand here today because of it.
APPLICATION:
PRAYER: LORD GOD, our Father and Creator, we come before You this afternoon with humble and grateful hearts, thanking and praising You for Your love, mercy, and undeserved grace toward us. We thank and praise You for the countless blessings you give to us each day of our lives, but we thank You especially that You sent Your only Son, Jesus Christ, to give His life so that we may live-now and forever. We also thank You, Lord, that You've made this gift of eternal salvation so freely available that it reaches half way around this world to us today, right here in Mountain Home, AR. As we studied this important lesson today in Acts, it reminds us of how You have called and used men like Peter, Paul, Barnabas, James, and countless others to make sure that this tremendous Gospel of eternal salvation through faith alone in Jesus Christ is available to all people everywhere. At the same time, Lord, we realize that as Your witnesses, we are duty-bound to share this Gospel with others who haven't heard it. So Lord, as we prepare to gather together again as a body of believers and take up the prime mission of this church, please equip us to be better and stronger witnesses for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. And it's in His Name, I pray, AMEN.
