Our text this morning comes from the book of Acts. We're going to be looking particularly at Acts 15 verses 22 to the end of the chapter. But I'm actually going to start in verse one of chapter 15, and just read through it, because what we deal with today is in the context of what has just come before. So I think it'll just be helpful to just reread those few verses. Also, it's been a couple weeks since we've been in Acts as we were away, so it's good, good to be back, but before we read God's word, let us go to the Lord in prayer and we we we pray before we read God's word, because we recognize too that unless the Spirit of God opens up our ears and our hearts, we're wasting our time. We are here in vain.
God must open up our ears and our eyes and our hearts that we might hear His word and receive it by faith. So let's pray fervently that God would do that in us. Let's pray our Heavenly Father. We thank you that you are not a silent God, that you speak to us the heavens are declaring the glory of God. But as we come to your word in here, Lord, we hear of Christ and we hear of salvation. Lord, I do pray that you would soften our heart and hearts, that we might humbly rest on Christ alone, that you would unstop our Deaf hears, that we might hear that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ, Jesus our Lord, and open up our blind eyes, that by faith, we might see and behold Christ and embrace Him, Lord, I plead for your mercy upon us. Lord, that is our hope.
Your grace alone found in your son alone, be merciful. Comfort your people. We pray in Jesus's name. Amen, people of God. Hear God's word for us this morning from Acts chapter 15, and I'll begin there in verse one. 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. 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. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers. And 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 belong 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.
And 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, and they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. And after they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me.
Simon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take them from a people for His name, and with this, the words of the Prophet 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 make these things known from of old, 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 for what has been strangled and from Bell. Blood for from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city, those who proclaim Him for He is read every Sabbath in the synagogues. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, they sent Judas called barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brothers with the following letter the brothers, both the apostles and the elders to the brothers, who are the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. Greetings. 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, it seemed good to us, having come to one accord to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth, for it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to you, to lay on you no greater burden than these, than these requirements, 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. 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 rejoice because of its encouragement.
And Judas and Silas were themselves, Prophets encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. And after they had spent some time. They were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them, but Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaim the Word of the Lord and see how they are.
Now, Barnabas wanted to take with them. John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take them, one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other.
Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, and Paul chose Silas and departed having commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. He was ears. Let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated.
I don't know if it happens in your house, but sometimes it happens in mine that children receive mixed messages from their parents. Children, has this ever happened to you? Mom says one thing, and then dad comes in shortly after and says some something completely different, maybe the exact opposite of what mom just said.
Mom says something like, no dessert after dinner because you didn't clean your room. And then dad comes in after work, and he says, We're going out for ice cream after dinner. Well, what happens next in the household?
An argument the kids, they get frustrated. Tensions arise in the house because of these mixed messages have been communicated, mom and dad, they finally are able to get together and have a conference to talk about it, and they emerge finally, then with a unified message, this is what we're going to do, and mom's usually Right, right. No ice cream. You got to clean your room first. But even if it's not what the kids want, when mom and dad come together and they present now this unified front of one one communication and one message, the fog, in some ways, lifts from the house. It dispels the tension that was there, and unity is restored back in the home. In a sense, that's what's happened here in Acts, chapter 15, the gospel has been going out. The church in Antioch has been rapidly growing. Jews and Gentiles are are united, no longer under a background or nationalities, but under the banner of Christian. Remember in Antioch, that's where they were first called Christians, those Christ people, and they were told Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
But then some who come from the mother church arrive in Antioch and they present. A different message. They say, Yes, believe in Jesus. Yes, Jesus saves, but not completely. He does most of the work. He's maybe even a 99% savior, but you can't be saved unless you're also circumcised and follow the laws of Moses and the church in Antioch here is getting two different messages, aren't they? Two completely opposite messages, one from Paul and Barnabas, Christ alone. And another message from the mother church in Jerusalem, from some who were saying, Christ plus, which is it? It creates confusion, and it's troubling the hearts of the church, the people were unsure what to believe. We're even told Peter himself, as Paul writes in Galatians chapter two, Peter himself momentarily falls into this pressure, and he withdrew from the Gentile fellowship until Paul confronts him and says, What are you doing? So Paul and Barnabas are sent to Jerusalem for a council, a Presbyterian meeting. We know that Christ is king. He rules over all. He rules over the church. He rules over everything. But here, Christ continues to govern his church through called men to rule through humility and integrity, and we have these representative elders going to Jerusalem for a presbytery meeting. This is why we're Presbyterian. Much of it we see here in Acts chapter 15.
This is why we govern the church now, as we do, because we see it modeled here, elders and Representative men from the congregation pastors going to settle this matter of the church that's caused disruption and confusion and dissent, and these leaders are gathering to settle the matter, and they're not getting new revelation. God doesn't give them any new revelation here in this text, but they're going back to the Word of God. And the question is asked, What is God's word actually saying? How is one made? Right before God? How is one saved? Can you remember what happens? There was we read it.
Peter. He stands up first, and he reminds them that God himself chose the Gentiles. God chose for the Gentiles to hear the gospel, but not only hear it, but to believe it. And he's given them the Holy Spirit to confirm that his blessing upon the gospel going out to the nations, the very same spirit Peter says, has been given to us, has been given to them. God made no distinction. He's cleansed their hearts by faith, not by sacraments, not by ceremonies, not by law.
Obedience. The Law never saved anyone. That's really the point so far as we've seen in Acts chapter 15 and Peter's making this point, the law revealed sin. It revealed the filth of your heart. It revealed that you fall short of the glory of God, but it pointed you to the Messiah, even circumcision itself was always a sign directing you. That's What signs do they point you to something the circumcision was a sign directing you to Jesus himself, that his blood would be spilt, that he would be cut off on your behalf, and that becomes sealed to you by faith when you believe it that he's cut off so that you are brought in. That's what circumcision was all about in the first place. And Peter concludes, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will the grace of the God alone.
It's a free gift. And then James speaks, and again reiterates, justification by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone. This is not a new idea.
This is not a new idea, even in the New Testament. This is what the whole Bible has been pointing you to. And if you've been here now, for some time at bay, Haven, hopefully you've learned this lesson, right?
What's the Old Testament directing us to? What are the Psalms ultimately about when we when we read the Psalms? Is it like? How is this psalm about me? Who's the psalm about Jesus?
Right? When Jonah's in. In the bell I of the fish, and he spat out, after three days, what's that pointing us to Jesus? King David, all the shepherd King.
Who's that pointing us to Jesus?
Right? And you see, time and time again, the Old Testament is about Jesus, and that's what James here, the brother of Jesus, says. He takes us again to Amos, and he appeals to Scripture and says, Brothers, this is what it's always been about. This is nothing new in the old as in the new. And now, before the birth of Christ and His death and resurrection, the Old Testament, saints were saved in the same way that you and I are saved by faith in Christ alone, by grace, not by works.
And the council judged rightly and says the Gentiles are saved exactly the same way as we are, Christ alone, apart from the law, nothing added, nothing contributed. Period. Now they want to communicate this. This is an important matter. They want to write this confession or profession down that this is what the Bible teaches. We need a doctoral, a doctrine, a declaration for all the churches at all time, because the greatest threat of the gospel is not actually what's out there, but what's happening in here in the church, that we somehow confuse the gospel or muddle the gospel, or we lose the gospel.
So we need to write down for clarity what it is, what does the Bible teach us? And actually, that's why we have confessions. Now some people say, Well, I have no creed But Christ. But then you're like, Well, who is that? Who is Christ?
Is he god? Is he man? Well, now we have to define that, and this is why we are a confessional church. And all we're doing is simply writing out what we believe are the fundamental truths that the Bible teaches.
And that's what we see here happening in our text. They're trying to give gospel clarity.
What does the Bible teach?
Salvation by grace alone, or grace plus something, Jesus plus something. And they're saying not that Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone. And again, I think it's important as they are writing this out about what the gospel is. Is even to ask you the question, do you know what the gospel is? If someone were to ask you, what is that?
What is the gospel? Well, it means good news. Well, what is the good news? What is it? And I think I may even mentioned a few weeks ago, how often if you ask people this question, and maybe it might be even yourself, of your thinking and you're reflecting, well, how, what would I say? How would I even summarize the gospel truth? Most people will say that the gospel is, well, you need the love, love God and love your neighbor.
Well, just be a good person. Is that the gospel? No, it's not.
That's the summary of the law, isn't it? Will you be saved by keeping the law? You will not.
That is not the Gospel. The Gospel reminds us that we have evil and rebellious hearts, that we have that filthy past, that we are selfish and we have destructive hearts. But God promised even all the way back in Genesis that He would send a deliverer, a one who would sprinkle us clean, that he would give us clean hearts, as Ezekiel 36 reminds us, give us new hearts and give us His Spirit.
He will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit within you. That's Ezekiel 36 and all of the promises of the Old Testament are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he dies for our sins, and He lives, and He gives us His perfect record of righteousness as Second Corinthians, 521, one of my favorite Bible verses. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him you might now have the righteousness of Christ. You might be the righteousness of Christ, and that's all given to us, the new heart, through the power of His Spirit. Would we be able to articulate the gospel? It's important to be able to be able to speak it, to know it. But not only that, but do you believe it? Do you believe that the Lord Jesus is. Your salvation alone and holding fast to that. Well, they write this letter and they send it, and they send it with witnesses to make sure that it's clear. They send Barnabas and Paul to go back to the church in Antioch. But they not only send Barnabas and Paul back, but they also send representatives from the church of Jerusalem to make sure that the church isn't going to be divided. Remember that this false teaching was coming out of the church in Jerusalem.
So we're actually going to send representatives from the church of Jerusalem to Antioch to make sure that everything's clear what we are coming now as as mom and dad, if you will, as a unified front of this is what the Bible teaches of how we are saved. And so they send barsabbas and Silas, and they begin the letter, and it begins very tenderly, brothers. And I think that's important just to note too, is think of the the years, the centuries of conflicts between Jews and Gentiles and and this debate had just poured gasoline on it and stirred that back up. And it's reminding them, remember, we're all under one umbrella, whatever nationality or color or race or sex you are were united in the Lord Jesus Christ as one, as one body. Brothers were sold. And it says there are those who unsettled your heart with troubling words. They weren't given instruction to do that.
They didn't actually have authority to do that. But we come now with one accord not to burden you with the law, you're saved by grace alone. This is what Paul will say even later, not by works, not by doing. It's a gift of God, not result of work. So that no one may boast.
We're not going to burden you with the law that you cannot be saved by it. But then we also come across, hopefully, that point's clear. That's the most important point, salvation Christ alone. But then there's these four kind of abstentions that are kind of interesting and actually kind of difficult.
There are four things, though, that you would do well to abstain from polluted food by idols, sexual immorality, meat of strangled animals and blood.
Now, I think if you just read it quickly, you might even be tempted to think hypocrites.
You're you're saying you don't need to keep the, you know, circumcision. But now you're saying, well, now we have to do this, though, what? What's going on here? All the those four things are all things that are listed in the Levitical law and the Mosaic Law back there. So what's happening those four things are all things that happen within the pagan temple rituals of worship. And you think about the people in Antioch, a majority of them are coming out of that idolatry worship, and in their worship, it is mingled and emphasized sexual morality, prostitution is happening as part of worship to God, little g that's what they're used to. Think about that kind of worship. Don't think about too much, but that's gross, disgusting, but that's what they're used to. That's what they're coming out of. And many of the Gentiles, that's the life that they had breathed, that they thought, This is what we do in order to please God.
But they're they're saying, that's part of your old life.
That's not what God desires.
That's not what he wants for you. In here the letter the brothers the presbytery, both Paul and Barnabas and now barsabbas and Silas and the representatives, they're saying, stay away from these things for your own sake. Don't bring any of that culture, that pagan culture, into the church for your own sake. Stay away from those things. It's good for your soul. These things won't save you, but for your own sake. Stay away from it, but not only for your own sake, for the sake of your Jewish brothers. Stay away from these things. Paul will later talk about. It's not what goes into a person that defiles you, but what comes out, if you remember that, remember, food is just food. It doesn't matter if, if, if you know food has been offered to idols, it's just food. Paul says it's just ordinary food. It doesn't mystically or magically change that. Now, this food is somehow bad. It's food. But Paul is also saying, but for the sake of your Jewish brothers and for unity, even maybe for your weaker brothers, who might might not see that. But if you're eating that food that's offered the idols and the blood and all that stuff, and you're thinking, well, it's just food that, you know, they just need to get over it. He's saying, for the unity of the church, just withdraw from that. Well, you'll do well to not just to not be a part of that. We want unity in the church for even for the. Sake of your brothers, I think that's what's happening. There's a lot of people who have written a lot on that, and also to just notice too, that if you do those things, it says not that you'll be saved, but that you'll do well. These are, these are good things to do. So they deliver this letter to Antioch, and then how is it received? Well, we're told that they rejoice because of its encouragement. They were strengthened by the gospel. When the gospel is clearly presented, it settles the heart. When the gospel is clear, it calms the conscience when the gospel is presented, when Christ, alone for salvation, is presented to you, it brings peace and joy.
And John will even write this in first. John one four. He says, These things are written so that your joy may be full. Are you lacking in joy, in peace? Do you have anxiety? Do you feel unsettled? Well, this letter, and even what John reminds us, we get back to the Gospel, get back into the Word of God. These things are written that your joy might be full. So if you're lacking joy, the solution to that, what does the Bible say?
Who is Christ? My joy is lacking. What I need more is more Christ, more of my savior, more of remembering my sins, not in part, but the whole are nailed to the cross, and I bear them no more, remembering that I will never earn my way to heaven.
Christ has already earned it, and I just rest in Him. I receive Him by faith alone, and the church in Antioch, which is was being choked by false teaching. You get the sense in verse 15 that the fog is lifting and they're beginning to breathe again. And we'll even see this next, because now let's send more missionaries out. Let's make this known more. We've already had one missionary journey from Paul and Barnabas, but it stirs them to say we got to spread this out, we got to let others know what the gospel is, and hopefully that's working in our hearts too. And just when unity seems to be restored and everything seems to be going great again for the church, a fight breaks out, right? And this is both again, challenging and comforting. It's sad, because here you have these two great instruments of of Paul and Barnabas, and they're at odds.
But I think this is also comforting for us, because it's a reminder that the book of Acts, it's not a glossy brochure about perfect Christians in a perfect church. This is a real book that we are looking at, a real historical account that has real people, just like you and me, with real personalities like you and me. I know it doesn't happen in our church, but sometimes in other churches, I hear that there are conflicting personalities, and people sometimes won't get along. You might have heard that. Well, that's what we see happening here, conflicting personalities.
Paul says, let's go back and strengthen the churches. Come on, come on. Barnabas, let's go.
Barnabas, hey, let's let's take John Mark. I think he'll be help, helpful to us. And Paul says, No, he's a quitter. He left us. We tried to do this, we tried to do this, and he left us. We're not told Why, what happened, but he left. Paul says something like, you know he's not ready. He's not mature enough. He's not ready to get into it. I'm not risking this mission trip. Barnabas by taking John Mark. Barnabas says, I think you're being too hard.
Just give him another chance.
And then Paul says something like, well, you're only saying that because he's your family, he's your cousin, which he was.
So who's right here? Well, we might think, Well, Paul might be right, because Barnabas kind of withdraws in the background. We don't really hear anything else about Barnabas, and it's Paul who kind of rises and in notoriety for us and writes these letters. So Paul must be right, right? Well, we're not told Luke doesn't take a side.
And I think it's important actually even to note that Luke doesn't give us tell us who's right or wrong and why, because the point is not so much who is right? But the point is here what God does, even through broken instruments, we see two missionary teams now go out instead of one, Barnabas will take John Mark and Paul will take Silas, one of the remember, one, the representative from Jerusalem. And now we have two missionary teams going out rather than one God. Using crooked sticks to make straight blows. Isn't that the theme, one of the themes that will of acts that we've often seen. Think about the death of Stephen. It's terrible. It's awful, stoned to death, and then after that, there's a great persecution of the Christians. But what does God do? The Gospel goes out because of that, and here we see again, there's this kind of infighting in the church. We don't want that. But what does God do? He uses it to glorify himself, and the gospel is now going out again. Christ is advancing his kingdom through imperfect servants. Remember, the book of Acts is really the continuing acts of Jesus through the power of his Spirit, by the apostles, Jesus by the power of his Spirit, he's the only perfect missionary. Jesus is the one who never fails and never quits and never gives up on his people. We fail in all of these ways. We're not great missionaries. We don't we're not bold as we ought to be, but God is using us, and we pray Lord, use us, and the power of Christ here and the gospel is going to go forth. And what we'll actually even see later that in the power of the gospel is a heal, healing of relationships.
I get the sense Paul is not the easiest person to work alongside of. But I want you to note too, if you look at Second Timothy, chapter four, verse 11, and you can just write that down and look it up later, but Paul's writing to Paul's writing to his his son in the faith, Timothy.
And one of the ways he ends his letter to Timothy, as he's encouraging Timothy, as Timothy is is pastoring the church in Ephesus, he says. He writes to Timothy to tell Timothy, get mark and bring him with you to visit me. Why? For he's useful to me. And so we see somehow the gospel is reconciled and brought restoration to these brothers who were even at odds. And we also know that whatever happened to John Mark and why he left, we don't know, but God worked in his heart and even used now John Mark to write one of the gospels that we have, the gospel of Mark. You know, the church, we are constantly under attack from without and from within. A century and a half after, and I'll end with this a century and a half after, what we find here in Acts the church would face another crisis, a priest, again, someone within the church. His name was arias. He started teaching that the Bible taught that Jesus was not equal to God the Father, but was a created being, the first and greatest of all creatures. The saying was that there was a time when the sun was not and it went through the church like wildfire. It divided the church, and arguments sprang up in the church. People in the church were confused. They were uncertain. But what does the Bible teach about the Son of God, who is Jesus? And the church gathered like they did here in Acts chapter 15 in the city of Nicaea in the year 325, and concluded, and you've stated this today, very God, a very God begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, the result the Nicene Creed, the deity of Christ, was settled with clarity and became a unifying confession across the Christian world. That division led to doctoral precision and lasting unity. And so we even see that whenever these kind of divisions arise, it often benefits the church to get greater clarity. Maybe that's happened to you, too. Maybe you're talking to someone.
Someone asks you a question and you don't know exactly how to answer it or what you know. What is the right answer? But what's it make you do? Typically, get back in the Word. What's it say?
Help me to know So Lord, help us to know your word better, to get people back in, to be Bereans, into the word that we might know the gospel. And we cannot compromise there on the gospel.
We cannot compromise on how we are made right with God. Christ alone saves For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And then God sends us to share that message, so that all will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let's pray our Heavenly Father. We thank you for giving us your word.
Written Word that you've given to us, that is declared by your messengers, Lord, I pray that you will give us greater and greater clarity of what your Word teaches that we might be settled in it, that we might be as that tree that is rooted by streams of water that is producing fruit, even in in dry and off seasons. But Lord, we even know Lord we know that that Psalm one is even about our Lord Jesus Christ, who always produces fruit, who is never out of season. And so Lord, I pray that you will help us to look to our Lord Jesus Christ to rest in faith alone in Him, knowing that it is by grace alone we are saved and that would produce and bubble up in our hearts gratitude and joy. Lord send us out now with this message to proclaim it to the world. In Jesus's name, we pray, Amen.