June 19, 2000
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July 30 Lesson
God has only one criterion for inclusion--Jesus
___Acts 15:1-22
___1Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
___5Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
___6The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."
___12The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13When they finished, James spoke up: "Brothers, listen to me. 14Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
___16"'After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things 18that have been known for ages.
___19"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ..."
___By Rick Willis
___Luke thought the events recorded in this week's text were monumental. A consistent pattern shows up in his writing of Acts. Whenever he tells the story of an especially crucial incident, he finds a way to repeat it for emphasis. The conversion of Paul, the vision Peter had in Joppa and the conversion of the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius all get recounted at least twice in Luke's narrative. These all were occasions of the gospel advancing across major barriers by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
___The results of the Jerusalem Council, the meeting described in Acts 15, fall into that category. The decision of the apostles in Acts 15:19-20 is repeated for emphasis almost immediately in Acts 15:28-29.
___The specific actions at issue in this major first-century church business meeting seem to be far removed from today's Texas Baptists. What do ritual circumcision, animals sacrificed to pagan gods and the ingestion of bloody meat have to do with a world of frozen dinners, cell phones and Internet viruses?
___In fact, the underlying issues couldn't be more relevant. The apostles' decision here is the climax of conflicts that were building up in the churches since the stoning of Stephen--conflicts concerning the heart of the gospel. The decision represents bedrock issues of salvation and fellowship, not only for the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch but also for every church from then until the Lord's return.
___'What must we do to be saved?'
___Two distinct issues are evident in Luke's account of the Jerusalem Council. The first issue is the answer to the question, "What must we do to be saved?"
___Some of the members of the Jerusalem church belonged, like Paul, to the Pharisee party. The Pharisees were dedicated to observing the laws of Moses. They were convinced circumcision and the submission to the law it entailed were necessary to please God. So they could not imagine the Gentiles could be acceptable to God unless they were circumcised and instructed to follow all the Jewish customs.
___After all, God had given the law as his special gift to preserve his special people. The law set them apart as the people of God. It had given Israel the power to unify and to withstand many hardships in its history. The law had fortified Israel against the moral decay of the pagan nations of the world around them.
___If God saved Gentiles who did not observe the Mosaic law, then what was to keep the Jewish believers faithful to the commandments? Without the law, surely a flood of immorality would infect the churches. (Judging by the church at Corinth, their fear was not unfounded.) What's more, the church in Jerusalem lived in a very delicate balance between toleration and persecution by the Jewish authorities and rulers. If the customs of Moses were officially nullified by the church as the martyr Stephen had foreseen (Acts 6:14), it couldn't be long until the disciples in Jerusalem would face the same fate as Stephen.
___If ever there was a group who had a compelling argument for teaching faith in Jesus Christ plus another condition are required in order for people to be saved, it was those who said, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses."
___Trust in Jesus Christ alone
___Nevertheless, at the risk of endangering the Jerusalem church and hampering the evangelization of the Jews, the apostles agreed the essence of the gospel was salvation by faith in Jesus Christ plus absolutely no other condition. The conclusion was not arrived at lightly but after "much debate." The decisive truth was the undeniable reality of God's grace. God poured out his Holy Spirit on those who believed, whether they were followers of the law or not.
___The Apostle Peter reminded them, yet again, of what he witnessed at the house of Cornelius. By his own grace, God saved Cornelius and his household because God knew the faith in their hearts when no one else could see it. Peter was one of the rank-and-file Jews, not as scrupulous about the law as the Pharisees. So he even declared that for the Jews themselves it was the grace of the Lord Jesus and not their observance of Israel's law that saved them (Acts 15:11).
___After Peter got their attention, everyone listened as Barnabas and Paul reported case after case of the same kind of thing Peter had seen.
___Then James the brother of Jesus spoke up. James was the leader of the Jerusalem church. In Acts 12:17, he is mentioned in a place of leadership, and in Galatians 2:9 he is named first among the three "pillars" of the church. He is nowhere described in Acts as one who fraternized with Gentiles, and judging by the New Testament book of James, he was anything but a law hater.
___By his character, James must have had the respect of both factions in the debate. I can't help wondering if he had a family resemblance to Jesus. Franklin Graham has won the respect of many people because of his character and compassion, not solely because he is the son of Billy Graham. But it doesn't hurt that he sounds like his dad.
___James summed up Peter's testimony and quoted a prophecy of Amos that God would restore the throne of David for the sake of making a chosen people from among the Gentiles. The disciples saw the prophecy fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, James submitted the answer to the question, "What must we do to be saved?" can only be, "Trust in Jesus Christ alone." The Jerusalem Council could not compromise on this answer. It was non-negotiable. Salvation comes by faith in Jesus plus nothing else, not even the law.
___We're still tempted to saddle the gospel with "riders." Culture war volleys, pet doctrines, political agendas, nationalism, denominational labels, moral prerequisites--all of these compete for a place in the equation. The only answer true to God is still, "Salvation equals Jesus plus nothing else."
___What must we do to get along together?
___Once the basic message of salvation was settled, there was still a problem. Peter, Paul and Barnabas could rejoice that legalism didn't stifle salvation by grace in the Jerusalem Council. But what about relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish believers?
___While in college, I participated in a Texas Baptist student mission trip to Wisconsin. A group of us from Howard Payne University, led by our Baptist Student Union director, spent part of Christmas break ministering alongside students at the University of Wisconsin. I had never been farther north than Amarillo, and the trip was a case of culture shock.
___Besides the fact it was almost impossible to find a Dr Pepper, I noticed another big difference. Baptist girls from Texas wore makeup, and Baptist girls from Wisconsin didn't. I learned that for some of the very conservative Christians in that part of the country, makeup was a sign of a "carnal Christian woman"--at best. What we Texas students thought of as a matter of personal style was considered an issue of Christian identity by some.
___We all managed to get along just fine, but the anti-makeup party could have looked down on the Mabelline folks with legalistic pride. Or the makeup users could have flaunted their cosmetic freedom offensively.
___This same type of problem on a much more serious level was anticipated by James in the Jerusalem Council.
___In those days, Christians met together in their homes for worship. The members would all bring some food, and the church would have a fellowship meal together, probably observing the Lord's Supper in the course of the meal. By choosing not to impose the Mosaic law on Gentiles, the apostles set the stage for real obstacles to fellowship with Jewish believers.
___The churches were in danger of segregating into kosher and non-kosher congregations. The apostles took it for granted this would be bad, and they wanted to find a way for all the believers to get along together.
___Know how to compromise
___The answer to the problem was to work out a compromise. Salvation comes by grace through faith. Getting along together in church takes work.
___James recommended the Gentiles abstain from meat that had been sacrificed to idols, from meat that had not been drained of blood properly, from meat that had been strangled (maybe another way of saying the same thing) and from sexual immorality. Each of these practices was especially offensive to Jews because of associations with idol worship.
___The terms of this compromise partly were based on the Noah covenant in Genesis 9, which Jews would have considered to be universally applicable. It was a far cry from the legal code of Leviticus 17-18, but it seemed to be the bare minimum of what it would take to keep the Jewish and Gentile believers getting along together.
___Love still requires us to compromise for the sake of avoiding unnecessary conflict. It isn't always easy. Many genuinely important issues tend to divide us. But we can begin by agreeing on the central place of Jesus Christ, and we can trust the Holy Spirit to help us work out the details.
___By God's design, your church has the two greatest offers in the world to extend to those around you. One is salvation by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The other is a safe place to learn how to love one another.
For thought and discussion
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