The Meeting That Changed History

You may be joining us for the first time as we're sort of right in the middle of a series that we're doing, a study series on the book of Acts. The Book of Acts is a historical narrative, a historical record of the early church, the first generation of Christians after Jesus, and how they grappled with the enormous news that Jesus was God in the flesh who came to live and to die in our place, to correct our relationship with God, to restore our relationship with Him. And as people were wrestling with this enormous thought, they were called into this community which is called the church. And like I said, we stand on the shoulders of those people that have gone before us. And so over the past few weeks, we've been looking at various instances where the church of God has had huge moments of discovery, of understanding, of grappling with these truths, of how big God is, what God's plan is for His people, the church, and what the ultimate goal is, the purpose of this church.

This morning, we come to Acts 15. And many experts in the Bible, many scholars believe Acts 15, this chapter, is the centrepiece of the whole book of Acts. Things lead up to it as the pinnacle and then everything comes out of that as well. The discovery, the revelation, the agreement that is made there, at this meeting held in the city of Jerusalem. This meeting is known as the Jerusalem Council.

It is the first church-wide meeting. It's the first worldwide meeting of the church. And so we're going to read about what happened there. Let's turn to Acts 15, chapter 15, verse one. "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, this is in a place called Antioch, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.'"

"And after the apostle 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. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, that is the non-Jews, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 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.' The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter."

"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. 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.'"

"And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, 'Brothers, listen to me. 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 known these things from of old. Therefore, James said, '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. For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.'" So far, our reading. This is the word of the Lord.

Well, we're going to look firstly at what is going on here for the church to find itself in this situation, and we're going to look at, firstly, the context. At the start of chapter 15, we find Paul and Barnabas having finished their first missionary journey. Now, we find them being settled back in their home church, which is Antioch in Syria. This church in Antioch has become a surprisingly influential church full of non-Jewish people, Gentiles. They had astounding growth, astounding repentance and faith among Gentiles.

The urgency and the fervency of their faith caused Antioch to become an enormous missionary church who raised up and sponsored missionaries to go out and share the gospel all over the known world. In this church, however, we find in Acts chapter 15 that some preachers who had come from Judea were told in verse one, Judea, which is where the Jews resided, started telling the Gentile converts that they not only needed to follow Jesus, but that they also must adhere to the Old Testament laws in order to be saved, in order to be true Christians. Specifically, they said that they needed to be circumcised. The men needed to be circumcised in order to show that they were part of the people of God. At this, we're told in verse two that Paul and Barnabas have a massive argument with these teachers.

Verse two says, "There was no small dissension and debate." But the church in Antioch soon realised that this is a very big issue. It's an issue far bigger than their local context. In fact, this has worldwide implications for the Church of God. So they decided that it needed to be discussed by more than just those few believers in Antioch.

It needed to be taken to the most authoritative people in the church, the apostles, who at this time were still largely centred in Jerusalem. So Antioch, this missionary church, sent Paul and Barnabas to go and seek further counsel on this matter of adhering strictly to the law of Moses, to circumcision for salvation. Then we find that they are in Jerusalem, and we find that Paul and Barnabas are letting the opposition first. The people, Christians from the party of the Pharisees, bring up their opposition to the ministry that Paul and Barnabas have attested to among the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas have shared a testimony, like Kirsty and Maddie almost, of what has happened in their lives, in their witness of the gospel of grace.

These believers from the party of the Pharisees bring up their issue again, and that is stated for us in verse five. "It is necessary," they say, "to circumcise them, the Gentiles, and to order them to keep the law of Moses." It's a very peculiar situation if you think about it. Because so much, if you've been a Christian for a while, so much of the gospel accounts pose the Pharisees as being the enemies of Jesus. Right?

Here we have some Pharisees who seemingly have not denounced the Pharisaic movement, and yet they are regarded as fellow believers. Pharisees that are fellow believers in your church. It reminds us that the church is truly a one-of-a-kind institution. The church is a collection of people from sometimes vastly different backgrounds. Our church at Open House is the same.

We are different along things like socioeconomic backgrounds. We differ across educational lines. We differ on political issues. And you know what? I am so proud of that.

Because a church that is truly doing God's word and believing in the one thing that is being reasserted here in Acts chapter 15, well, that is something to be proud of because it says that this church has gathered under the single catch cry that Jesus has come to save sinners. And that is the only similarity that we really need, that Jesus has come to save sinners. It's a very simple statement. But that is the only similarity that we need is to know that we are sinners in need of saving, and that Jesus is the one who saves. And so it's a staggering thought that in Acts chapter 15, we have a church with some congregation members who belong to a group who at one point, remember, resisted Jesus Christ to the point of death.

And they belong to your church. So you find it difficult to worship alongside someone in your church sometimes. Imagine what it was like here. Not only do they belong to the Pharisee party, but now again, they are resisting the work of the gospel. They're calling into question what some of the early church leaders were already doing, namely Peter, the leader of the church, and Paul, the greatest missionary of the church.

What they were doing in reaching the Gentiles. The Pharisee Christians wanted to make the Gentiles Jews. So that is the context. What is the problem? Well, the question is, how do people enter and remain in the kingdom of God?

It's very difficult for us to sit on the other side of this decision that was taken here in the Jerusalem Council because it seems to us now to be such a ludicrous problem to have. As Gentile believers ourselves, we think, of course, entrance into the kingdom of God is only tied by faith. It's only tied to our faith, not to an outward act like circumcision. But it's helpful for us to think a little bit deeper about the situation that the church found itself in as they were making their deliberations. The pressing problem of this meeting was that the very identity of God's people in the Old Testament, remember, their entire Bible was just the Old Testament at this stage.

The identity of God's people was framed by the initiation of circumcision. We're speaking of the initiation of baptism. How people entered the kingdom was through circumcision under the Mosaic law. And it's true that both the maintenance of the covenant of circumcision and the keeping of the law, those two things were instituted by God Himself in the Old Testament. Right from the time of Abraham, circumcision was the mark of the covenant between God and His people.

Those who were initiated into the people of God then had to take and live a well-defined way of life given through the law of Moses. This is what you did when you were part of God's people. In other words, circumcision and the law weren't things that one intellectually agreed with and then moved on. They were part of a physical, real life, lived theology. This is a theological matter for these believers.

So when we get to Acts 15, we see the early church leaders who have inherited a long-standing and deeply held religious system. The question that has been debated at a local level, predominantly in the Gentile churches like Antioch, has now been brought to Jerusalem in the heartland of Judaism. And so can you imagine the pressure of these church leaders to try and discern, without clearly written out Biblical foundations, or so they thought, how the Old Testament related to Christ's death, resurrection, and His ascension. In order to do so, we see them listening to certain arguments. This is what happens in our passage.

We see them paying attention to what the Spirit was currently doing among them. And then they decide together to make a binding decision. And it is no surprise, therefore, that verse seven tells us that it was a long debate. It was a long discussion. After this debate, Peter then gets up and he addresses the assembly.

We only get a short summary of his speech, which Luke sums up for us through the inspiration, of course, of the Holy Spirit. But we see Peter doing three things, three points in his speech. First, Peter focuses their minds away from ideology towards the witnessable work of God. Away from ideology towards what God was doing. While the Christian Pharisees seem to insist that the church should go forward based on what God had revealed in the past, Peter opens up the decision-making to include what God is revealing right now.

He urges the leaders to recognise that God was doing something unexpected. But that isn't necessarily new. It's just unexpected. They need to allow for the actual and current work of the Holy Spirit to be considered. In other words, the stories of Peter, the stories of Paul and Barnabas' work among the Gentiles need to be regarded as admissible evidence. This tension between what God has revealed in the past in the Old Testament and what God is doing now, well, I can tell you, it continues to be a challenge for us today.

We stand firm on the one hand in God's full and final revelation in the Bible. This is full and final. Nothing needs to be added. We say that God will not do anything contradictory to what He has revealed in His word. And yet, at the same time, we need to be aware that God can surprise us.

God can do the unexpected and that it will be completely within His will, His revealed will in Scripture, but it can be completely outside the limits of our narrow imagination. As we will see, even though it is seemingly shown to be that God is doing something new in reaching the Gentiles, the apostle James quotes Amos from the Old Testament in verses 16 and 17 and says, well, it's always been there, actually. God is going to reach the Gentiles. God is going to rebuild the house of David, rebuild the kingdom by bringing the Gentiles in. So actually, it's not so new, but it is unexpected.

Second, Peter reminds those listening that the entrance to the kingdom can only ever be by faith alone. Peter moves from the question, "What must Gentiles do to be saved?" to ask, "What have they done to be saved?" And the answer is, they simply believed in Jesus. When they look around, the evidence showed that not only were the Gentiles coming to Christ by faith alone, but God Himself, through the Holy Spirit, seemed to be accepting them by producing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.

They were changed people. Circumcision was not the initiating factor into the entrance of God's people. Faith was. Believing the message of the gospel was. And the Holy Spirit wasn't given more liberally to the Jews and just dabbled with in the Gentiles, just drizzled over a little bit.

No. They received the Holy Spirit fully, both Jew and Gentile. The one and only factor that really mattered was not what ethnic background they came from nor how well they adhered to the Old Testament laws. The factor was whether they trusted in Jesus to have been what the gospel message said He was, the Saviour who has come as a payment for sin.

Thirdly, and lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Peter dismantles the pride that always undermines the gospel message. And that is where this came from. As noble as they may have thought they were, while the Pharisee Christians were asking for Gentile Christians to go through the same approval process that they, as Jews, had to go through in order to be Jews, to be God's people, Peter reminds them that this approval process is one that even they haven't been able to live up to. If they were worried that circumcision and the Mosaic law might keep people out of the kingdom, they're not only saying that the Gentiles may not be saved, but that they themselves may not be saved either.

You see, the first function of the law of God that we find in the Old Testament, if you go and read that, is not to go, "Well, I'm pretty good. I do like eight out of the ten of them really well." The first function of the law of God, the Ten Commandments, is to go, "I am so broken. I am so lost. I cannot adhere to these laws perfectly, not to the perfection, which is a 100% adherence, all the time."

The first function of the law is to break us, to make us realise we're in trouble. We're in trouble and we need forgiveness. We need a Saviour. We need renewal. Peter needs to remind the Pharisee Christians of their sense of self-righteousness because only then will they realise that God's grace is needed.

Whether someone has been trying to follow the law or whether they have disregarded it, all have sinned. All have been saved by grace alone. It seems that this speech by Peter is compelling because we're told that the whole council fell into silence. There was silence after this speech.

They give Paul and Barnabas a second chance. Okay, Paul, tell us again what happened with the Gentiles, to tell us again how the Holy Spirit worked among them. Wow. They are amazed.

Shortly afterwards, James, the brother of Jesus, James, the brother of Jesus who becomes eventually the leader of the Jerusalem church, he speaks up and he quotes the prophet Amos, reminding them that God's plan of salvation always included the non-Jews. In fact, the plan of salvation is for the whole world. God's kingdom is always meant to be bigger than the Jewish people. James then suggests four things that the church should encourage the Gentile believers to do in verse 20. That is to abstain from things polluted by idols, things sacrificed to idols, from sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, meat that has been strangled, and from drinking blood.

Now, if you're like, "What?" don't worry, we all are. There has been plenty of ink spilled by commentators on what the apostles were really saying at this point in these four laws given as recommendations. It's not mandates, by the way. It's recommendations.

"You will do well," James says, "if you do these things." But basically, it comes down to encouraging Christians to prioritise Jesus as their one and only Saviour. Just as the Jewish Christians had to be reminded not to trust in their own righteousness, so the Gentile Christians have to be reminded not to trust in pagan worship. In other words, these four rules have to do with worshipping pagan gods, abstaining from sexual immorality, abstaining from idolatry, from meat strangled from animals, and from drinking blood. It was all tied with pagan worship.

Ben Witherington, in his commentary, he's a scholar of the New Testament, says that these four practices were all found in the temple feasts of the Greek gods or the Roman gods of the day. In fact, it's hard to believe, but sexual immorality with prostitutes took place alongside the offering of sacrificed animals. It was part of worship in order to sort of bring in, usher in fertility. Pagan worship was, in essence, a very sensual, seductive, and carnal experience. Another scholar, David Peterson, explains the outcome of the Jerusalem Council's decision.

He says, "The warning to abstain from the acts that would offend Jewish scruples, those things would have been deeply offensive to Jews, and hinder social intercourse between Jewish and Gentile believers, had a deeper significance in the implied challenge to break completely with every pagan association and practice, and to do all things, even eating and drinking to the glory of God, causing no one to stumble." In other words, Gentile Christians don't think that Jesus Christ is now just one of many gods. He is the one and only. In choosing Him, you forsake all others. Therefore, stay away from these four things that are related to showing your affection to other gods.

Another, our third and final scholar to quote, is John Stott, who sums up the outcome of this decision in this way: "The Jerusalem Council secured a double victory. A victory of truth in confirming the gospel of grace and a victory of love in preserving the fellowship by sensitive concessions to conscientious scruples." So at the end of the day, we see that Peter and James convince these brothers. They convince the church to keep the main thing the main thing.

And it brings relief and hope to both Gentile Christians while appeasing the concerns of the Jewish believers. It's really hard to overestimate, to overstate the significance of Acts chapter 15. This is single-handedly the most important event in church history. More important, I would say, than the Reformation. And as reformed Christians, we all hold that in high esteem.

If we didn't have this meeting go this way, there would have been no Reformation. I don't think we realised just how close we came, in fact, to the brink of Christianity's annihilation right here. In essence, these early Christians were debating the issue that stands at the crux of Christianity and an issue that is in every generation, inches away from being amended to the point of destruction. And that is that people are saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. So what does it mean for us?

Why would Luke need to write this down? Why does God need us to know it? Well, it's the same truth that is under attack in our generation as well. And it's not like it was here. It's not from an outside force.

These are believers. These are people inside the church. It is our own hearts that can bring it to this point. Because on our worst days, when we forget what the gospel actually means, we will be tempted to stew on thoughts like this. "Surely, there's more to being Christian than simply believing in Jesus."

If God can save any old fool, if God saves a Labour voter, if God saves a greenie, if God saves an anti-vaxxer or a pro-vaxxer, if God saves a conspiracy theorist or a pro-government patsy, if God saves all of these types of people and they audaciously, in our eyes at least, continue still being Labour voters, pro-climate science advocates, pro-government patsies. Then they haven't been circumcised of all those things that they should have gotten rid of by now as good Christians. If they are to be considered the right type of Christians, then they need to behave the way that I behave. It's true, isn't it? How often are we tempted to become frustrated, bitter, and deeply proud about all the ways that people live as they call themselves Christians.

Meanwhile, they should live the way that I live. They need to try harder like I am trying harder. Today, we have the very popular term "virtue signalling," and often we use that of the left. But virtue signalling, signalling virtue, is something we all do. This is how good I am.

Secretly, I know I'm probably not that good, but I want to be. And you all need to do what I think is very important. It's another way of saying you're a hypocrite. You're self-righteous and you're proud. Place yourself in the shoes of these first-generation Christians, Jewish Christians.

And you're being told that Gentiles can go on with life without ever having to endure the pain of circumcision? Can you imagine how jealous some of these Jewish men were of the Gentile men? It doesn't seem fair. Here, we've been slaving away at a strict set of laws compared to the raunchy, out-of-control lives of these Gentiles. My sinful heart is jealous of all their sin and their so-called freedoms that I have just been having to lug around all my life.

Now, these very Gentiles receive a favoured son's welcome into the kingdom of God, just like me. It'd be fair enough to let them into the kingdom if they had repented properly. If they stopped being such hedonistic Gentiles, and if you are in the kingdom, you better look and act like me. But now you're saying that any old Tom, Dick or Harry can enter God's eternal kingdom and continue looking like a non-Jew? They can continue being Labour voters.

None of it seems fair. But guess what? Grace isn't fair. The Jewish Christians needed to be reminded that their salvation and their inheritance into the kingdom of God did not come through outward obedience to the law. Because in reality, they didn't even come close to keeping it.

Grace isn't fair, and even the Jews needed the grace of God. And friend, you and I will always do well to remember that grace isn't fair because it's been totally unfair for you and me. It is so unfair that you will continue sinning against the holy God of all perfection for the rest of your life. And by the end of that life, you will be spared God's wrath by the simple fact that you just trusted in Jesus. We are challenged this morning to ask ourselves what it is that we are most likely to add to the gospel message.

And I want to encourage you, go and write those things down. Know them. I am tempted to add this to what Christianity should look like. Make a mental note of them and ask yourself, do you have a subtle or even a blatant requirement that you heap on the shoulders of others in order for them to look like a Christian? Do you, on your worst days, jealously stand over others with bitterness, with suspicion over their worthiness to be considered your brother or sister in the Lord?

Have you ever been convicted by your own sinful heart that is actually jealous over the sin of others? There's a problem with our hearts. Perhaps you realised this morning that you are listening to preachers like the ones who came to Antioch, who are convincing you of heresy, preachers that tell you that you must add something to the simple truth of the gospel in order to be true Christians. Stop listening to them. Let the conclusion of the Jerusalem Council make your heart change so that you can say with Peter and what he says, "We believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus."

And finishing, friends, we have brothers and sisters who two thousand years ago offered their sweat, their toil, their tears to confirm the ageless truth that no one can be saved unless it is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. Paul and Barnabas, Peter and James, giants of the faith, praying on worn-down knees and tirelessly striving for unity within the church. Hus, Luther, Calvin, fifteen hundred years later, on worn-down knees in exile and in martyrdom, fighting to refocus the church back to these truths. And now in 2021, with the same pressures of self-righteousness in the heart and the satanic forces of evil outside in the world, we must come back again and again to fiercely fight and defend the unity amongst brothers and sisters that comes from the ageless truth: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

It is only by God's grace, not by anything that I have contributed or will contribute in the future, that Jesus Christ saves me. There is nothing more that I can offer than to simply trust that Jesus has died for me. I believe this, and now I give my life completely over to Him in worship and in thanks. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the testimony of our two sisters who have professed simply those words, this truth.

"I just believe in Jesus. And I trust that what He did on the cross for me was enough." Thank You for Your forgiveness. Thank You for the freedom that You have set us free into. Lord, we know that You have good desires for us. We know that Your law, after it has shown us that we are fallen and broken, that that law is ultimately still good, still worth aspiring towards.

Help us, Lord, never to put the horse before the cart. Help us to understand that true virtue, true holiness, true godliness, a good life can never save us, can never, in its own strength, make us worthy of what You ultimately did in Jesus Christ. Forgive us, Lord, when there are aspects in our hearts that are jealous over those who still need to learn the truths of Your word in terms of holiness, in terms of walking consistently in the freedom of the gospel. Help us when we are frustrated and envious of them. Help us to see that there is still much work You need to do in us.

Lord, help us to stay united as a church through all things, to see and recognise and understand that we are different, and that there are things that are primary and things that must be defended just as things were defended here. There is one truth. Help us, Lord, to understand, well, that there is so much complexity, so much to do with wisdom, and help us to hold things that are secondary very loosely. Thank You for Your grace in making all of that possible. Thank You for Your word and encouragement to us again this morning of these truths.

And Lord, help us to reflect the calling, the forgiveness, the new life that You have already guaranteed us. Help us to live up to that again from today onwards. In Jesus' name, amen.