Acts 15:1-21

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. Thank you for joining me. I know it's probably your lunch break rather than your breakfast, but that's where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, we'll make it from the Book of Acts to the Book of Philemon. So good to be here with you this morning. Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee?
We'll pray and we'll get in the Lord's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to study your word, to hear from you. Lord, we pray that we would know the good news of Jesus Christ and we would walk in the hope of the salvation you have given us in him, in Jesus' name, amen. Here we go, Acts chapter 15, the first 21 verses.
And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem. to the apostles and the elders about this question.
All right, so let's go ahead and just stop there. We're going to do this kind of chunk by chunk here. And so what's this section about? Well, people are up in Jerusalem, they come down to Antioch and Syria, and they got a problem. Whoa, hey, listen up, you Gentiles. You need to be circumcised if you're actually going to be a Christian. And Paul and Barnabas go toe-to-toe with them. Oh, hold on, hold on, hold on. That's not how we were saved. That's not how these people received the Holy Spirit. And so the church actually sends Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to go talk to the rest of the apostles and the elders about this. Verse three.
So being sent on their way to the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses."
All right, so what's going on here? Well, Paul and Barnabas are sent by the church, and so they make their way uphill going up towards Jerusalem. You always go up to Jerusalem, and so they're going up to Jerusalem, and as they're going, they're telling the good news. They go through Phoenicia and they tell the Christians there and the people are overjoyed by it. They go and they tell the good news to people in Samaria, hey, the Gentiles are believing and they're rejoicing in it. They get to Jerusalem and the church and the elders and the apostles, notice there are elders even in Jerusalem, they get together and they are hearing the good things about the Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
And they hear this, they rejoice, but then the group of the Pharisees stand up. Now it's interesting that the Pharisees, there's this group who believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, who believe that he's the Messiah, but they're still wrestling with the law. And so in their minds, it's okay, we can believe in this Jesus fellow and we can be saved by him, but they still need to keep the commandments. They need to be proselytes. Well, let's go ahead and read what happens in verses six through 11.
Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God? By putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they."
So Peter stands up and he says, whoa, hold on guys. Remember the Lord told me to go to Cornelius. The Lord told me, he put the words in my mouth to go to speak to them, to the Gentiles first. And God knew their hearts and saved them. He saved them by his grace. He saved them and gave them the Holy Spirit the same way he did to us.
And it wasn't by the yoke of Moses. Peter is sitting here saying, whoa, hold on, this is not how this happened. And you're trying to put a yoke on them that neither we nor our fathers could bear. God knows the heart. And he purified their hearts. He washed them clean from the inside out. It wasn't about the external rituals and the external cleansing, but it was Jesus Christ who cleansed them.
Then, verse 12, then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describing how many miracles and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they had become silent, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, listen to me.
Simon has declared, how God at first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophet agreed, just as it is written, after this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up. so the rest of mankind may see the lord may seek the lord even all the gentiles who are called by my name says the lord god who dwell does all these things so now it's interesting james stands up and it seems he's one of the elders he's got some voice in the assembly And I just want to, on a side note here, just say Peter later on is going to speak of himself as a fellow elder.
It's not—the apostles were set apart for this work, sent by God, appointed by Jesus Christ for this work. There was a set number of them. And yet, it seems here in Jerusalem, it's not just the apostles. It's not just Peter who has final say, but here James stands up.
He says, brothers we know this is true. We know that this is what's going on and it's being fulfilled what God said in Amos chapter 9. That from the remnants of David he would build up a house and he would call the nations to himself. He's doing this. So James is giving testimony that the Gentiles are being brought in. And so he continues on and he says, known to God from eternity are all his works.
Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."
And so this is the end of his speech and what's he getting at here? Well what he's saying is that don't hinder the Gentiles from coming. But that doesn't mean that they should do whatever they want. No, they've got to come out of their pagan ways. The list that he gives here, interestingly enough, when he says, abstain from things polluted to idols, sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. He's talking about stuff that would go on in the pagan temples, about temple prostitution, about this wanton open sexual immorality, about going to the temple and often in those days, remember this is in Antioch. There's pagan temples right near where Paul and Barnabas are doing their ministry.
And that's the cheapest place to get meat. That's where the social events happen. That's where the life of the community seems to happen. It's that way at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. It's that way in Antioch as well. And so, this social event, this cultural milieu in which they're living, they're telling them, come on out of that.
You got to come out of those old ways. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and follow Jesus Christ. But it's not just reading of Moses. Moses has enough. If you want to go read Moses, go to the synagogue and there are preachers of Moses there. People who will declare the words of Moses. But don't stop these ones from coming in.
They need to repent, they need to turn away from those things that are abhorrent to the Lord. But it's by grace that they've been saved. This is what God had promised. And so, yeah, it's going to be tough, and we see the tension happening in the early church. Well, what's the best verse to summarize this in your Bible? Well, I have in my Bible a bunch of things underlined, but I have verse 8 double underlined. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. And then also, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they? Maybe you would underline something else different in your Bible.
Feel free to let me know. Send me a text or an email or write it down in the comments if you're on Facebook or YouTube. But lastly, what are we called to do in response to these words? Cling to Christ. It's not the yoke of Moses that's going to save you. But it's the grace of God. Purify your hearts. Go to Christ. Confess your sins. Be forgiven. Be washed in the blood of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. Seriously, today, spend some time praying to the Lord. Ask Him for forgiveness. Turn from idolatry.
And follow after Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The King lives. The promises are being fulfilled. We have been saved by grace through faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for the one who tells us to take up his yoke and that his burden is light. Lord, we thank you for giving rest to our souls. In Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you rest in Jesus Christ. May you love him and enjoy him forever. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.