If you're a visitor, this morning we have been working through the book of Acts, and this morning we come to Acts chapter 15, the end of 15, and head into 16, verse 5. Acts 15, verse 36, that's found on page 1176 in your Bibles. This is the word of the Lord, let's give our attention to his most holy word. Beginning at verse 36. 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 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take with them the one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.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, But Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra, and a disciple there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. And may the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. Well, how many of you have ever heard the statement that the church is full of hypocrites? And therefore, that is some kind of justification that we don't have to go or be a part of it. Because of all the hypocrisy that we have seen in the course of the church, all the problems, people use this sort of as their chief reason today of leaving the church. And let's face it, it's difficult. You begin to wonder when you see all of the problems, all of the divisions, all the separations, all the fights, all the stuff that we hate, you begin to wonder, is God really a part of all of this? How can he be in the midst of this? It seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit cannot be a part of a project that is this separated. There's got to be more glory to this, right? We're into cosmic renewal talk. There's got to be more glory to this, right? Where is it? Well, Acts has been wonderful to show us how the church preserved the unity of the church. It's really remarkable, isn't it? Acts is a study in showing us much about how the church persevered, even in the threat of the greatest rift that had they not overcome, we would have still felt to this day a rift over the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. And in the last chapter, they had come to a great solution over this great problem. They had worked together, and to this day, we still enjoy unity because of their work. Because of that synod, that council. We can learn a lot in Acts about love, unity, service in Christ's kingdom. If only we would look like this, right? If only we would just do this, then if we could only follow their example and be unified. If the church today would just look like the early church did. I was just reading an article of why millennials claim they're leaving the church and they've got all their reasons. A host of the reasons, again, include fighting, hypocrisy. One of the biggest is we're just tired of the exclusive message of Christianity. It's just uncomfortable, it's too exclusive, and we can't take it, and that's what we deal with now. Well, today, as we open up Acts, after we've had this great big synod where unity was kept and preserved where gospel was kept, we're studying now a sort of interesting section of transition that is really showing us the application of the synod, the application of the synod meeting, the church meeting, and how it went post-meeting follow-up, what happened after that meeting, and that's what we have in front of us, what developed from there. And I was curious as I was studying this week, what would the Spirit want to show us right after this great moment of unity in the early church of all things what do you want to teach us my goal in this sermon is to show you as acts has been showing the great truth from the beginning that the lord through all of these struggles is building his church nothing's stopping that nothing he's not giving up on the project and he's not giving up on the project to this day and that should encourage us that should encourage us because I believe that we're at a point in time in our own day and in our own culture where many are giving up on the church many are giving up on the project they're feeling it they're they're turning away from it this is what I said if you look at the numbers the mass of people who've left the mainline churches is just shocking but it's happening all over the place the mass and exodus out of the church today is that for the simple reason people are giving up they're tired of all this well that's the the message that then comes out of acts chapter 15 and 16 is god is working his will is being accomplished and i hope to show you that today in light of this post council and synod situation two of them that has arised that is very interesting to study and i have to confess it made me pull out a few gray hairs in my study this week i walked away from the jerusalem council on cloud nine i love that chapter it was just a fabulous chapter it really did solve the problem of an attack on the gospel and it solved it in light of all of the struggles that we face with different convictions on things really there as we saw there was a statement made a charge made that unless one is circumcised according to the custom of Moses unless we're we're keeping Moses someone can't be saved and we saw what come out of that was a beautiful moment of church unity wasn't it it was really really something to study as we looked at it this terrible thing had happened on the one hand you had all of the the Jewish community and you had layers of problems going on their traditional conservative in the wrong sort of ways tied to all the customs in the culture of judaism holding on to the one thing they could circumcision which identified them the most and their judaism so that if they could say you've got to have this to be saved they would keep people hold people lay yolks on people still tied to the synagogue they all were and then you have these loose gentiles coming in in droves as one writer said they had a little appreciation for history and tradition and the chapter demonstrated how they worked together in love the apostles paul peter james to bring harmony and unity to the church i mean there was traveling going on far traveling hard work strenuous synod to get this ironed out because you could only imagine if these two groups had allowed had been allowed to go their separate ways you would have had the greatest rift already and christianity would have been ruined right out of the gates over this issue justification by grace through faith alone they came to unity on you do not need to be circumcised and keep the law of moses to be saved so here we are they have a letter in hand i like to collect old documents i would love to have seen this one and have it to this day to walk around with this Jerusalem letter and show it to all the churches look at this look at this it's a document of unity it's a document that'll keep us and now we come then to the aftermath of the synod in verse 36 don't we here's what we come to as we look at verse 36 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. This was a great idea. Really launching us into the second missionary journey. Paul and Barnabas absolutely loved the church. They loved the church. They were churchmen. They went out and they wanted to go and encourage the brothers. They wanted to go out and see them and see how unified they still were, how they're doing with the gospel and now holding a letter in hand saying, listen, we know these things have troubled you, but we've got the solution here and we want to encourage you with this great solution in unity and in the peace of Zion. I don't have to stop and say, I love studying Acts for the single great reason that we see the great passion of these men for the church. They put their lives on the line for it they love the church they love the church which is the body of christ they wanted to go and be a part of it they wanted to see it with their eyes they they gave their whole lives for it even paul would say of all the things that he ever faced in life his single greatest anxiety was for the churches barnabas this is a great idea paul let's go let's go do this then he says to paul you know we really should take john mark verse 38 paul didn't but paul thought it best not to take with them the one who had withdrawn from them in pamphylia and not gone with them to the work now back in chapter 13 you'll remember with the bar jesus episode the false jesus they encountered on the very first general uh first missionary journey that they had taken John Mark with them and they had gone and John Mark was a part of this and there was a major fight on the first missionary field with this bar Jesus. And after a lot of conflict, a lot of pain, they overcame that and the Spirit gave them great success there. But John Mark left. You have a little statement there that says after that episode and John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. So it's an interesting moment. We weren't given anything as to the why about this. We just know that he left. But now this is all coming out. Verse 39 tells us, there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark and sailed away to Cyprus and Paul chose Silas to go the other way. You gotta be kidding me. I mean, you just had a synod, right? You just had a synod, you just had a council that promoted absolute unity. And here you church leaders go, fighting. The very next scene after the synod, they have one big fight from each other. So bad that the word means a heated, sharp disagreement and fight, a glaring word comes out, they separated right there. He took his person and he went his way and he took his person and he went his way. You've never seen this, have you? I remember James Boyce told the story years ago and I think I've used it here of Jesus and how easy we are to divide and that you could imagine a man, two guys who were watching Jesus at one point when he healed and gave people sight. And at one point, he uses mud. Sits on the ground, uses mud. Another point, he doesn't. The one guy saw the one. The other guy saw the other. And he said, well, Jesus heals only using mud. And the other guy says, no, he doesn't. I've never seen that. No, he only uses mud. You can only be truly healed if you have mud put on your eyes. That's not true. Thus, in the early church, you have the muddites and the anti-muddites right out of the gates, right? I always liked that. I just thought that was so good. You guys can't even figure out who to take with you on the journey. You're fighting. And you stand back from this and you begin to think, what in the world? First scene. It helps a little bit to get into the issues, I think. If you're trying to figure this out, as I was trying to do in my study this week, you know, here's how Paul looked at the issue. This guy, Mark, is a gutless compromiser. He's a quitter. He didn't even make it past the first conflict. And then he goes back home. That is not the kind of guy we need out on the mission field. The guy has no courage. Now, I'm trying to piece this together. We're not taking him, Barnabas. He left us. Barnabas says no. You know, this is not the attitude to have Paul. You know, Barnabas is the son of encouragement, isn't he? Paul, you're being way too hard on this guy. Way too hard. We need to give him a second chance. Come on, this is what the Christian gospel is all about. It's about forgiveness, and you're not doing it, man. This is a pretty abrasive response to our brother. Are you saying, Paul, that he is no longer useful for us in the ministry? Yep, he left. You don't abandon. You ever heard of desertion of office? It used to be a bad thing. You don't desert your office. Now, we know a little bit more as we put this together. Later on in Colossians, we read this. Now, Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. Oh, this is blood, right? Now, Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him. Paul, you're not coming down on my cousin like this. You're just not doing it. Barnabas' aunt, Mark's mom, was Mary. This is really fascinating to study this because this was Mary whose house was at the very last supper, remember. This was Mary's house, and they were meeting in when Peter was released from prison. This was Mary's house. That was Mark's house. This was Barnabas' aunt and Barnabas' cousin. Blood, Paul. Neither was willing to concede. Toe to toe, right up front, with a letter of peace and unity in hand. you've got to be kidding right what is this they both stormed off away from each other they both separated in the ministry from each other and you stop and you say as you're going through this this is the stuff that makes us sick today this is the stuff that just makes us absolutely sick about the church it's this kind of division and it's this kind of hypocrisy i mean come on didn't this command come out of the mouth of paul i appeal to you brothers by the name of our lord jesus christ that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you but that you be united in the same mind and in the same judgment knock knock paul you listening listening to your own advice do i need to remind you of barnabas are you going to quote that verse now that love should be without hypocrisy? Do you say love should be without hypocrisy, Paul? Rick Phillips observes, from one point of view, Paul was a difficult guy to work with. He was multi-talented, he was rigidly focused, and he didn't suffer fools gladly. He could appear overbearing and over-calculating. He had a single vision for God's kingdom and glory and had little time for underachievers. Many of us would rather work alongside of Barnabas than Paul, right? Of course, right. Son of encouragement. Reverse that. From one point of view, these are my words, the son of encouragement was just too soft. Not strong enough, putting blood over truth, not being logical about what the mission really needs, underachieving, compromising, and willing to let all the wrong people in. Well, there you go. There's your first scene after sin. There's your first scene. I'm trying to understand, after looking at what seems to be as a major hypocritical fight and separation, what the Spirit is intending to show us here. I really am. I struggle hard with that. He could have said, the Spirit, right here, yep, they're unfit. These guys are totally unfit for ministry. How in the world could they be Christians and act like this, right? How in the world? Well, let me ask this question. Do you know people who have not fulfilled well their callings in life? Do you know people who are believers, who put their blood before anything else? Do you know people who change their focus in life due to hardships and circumstances? Do we know people who are highly driven and overbearing that we don't want to work with? Do we know pastors who say one thing and do another? Do you? Do you follow through on everything you say you're going to do? Are there people here today you refuse to talk to? or in your life? Have you ever said, oh, I'm all about unity? Are you? Is there somebody here right now, in all honesty, you wouldn't even greet? You've gone the other way when you see him? Are you yourself a guide to the blind? A light to those who are in darkness? An instructor of the foolish? A teacher of children? having the law in your hands of truth? You who teach yourself, do you teach others? Do you not teach yourself? While you preach against doing this or doing that, do you do it? You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law. The excuse of, I'm going to leave the church because it's just full of hypocrites is its own kind of worst hypocrisy. for it assumes that they have a consistency before God in keeping his law in their lives. But the scriptures are clear. All of us have hypocrisy to some degree. Now that's the first scene. You might say, is that really what's being shown here? Let me come back to that. Second scene. We're done with Barnabas. He's gone for good out of Acts. We know nothing more about his missionary journey. We now zero in on Paul and Silas. And they take off and they head to Derbe and to Lystra. And verse 4 tells us that they went on their way through the cities. They delivered to them, here's the letter, here's the letter of unity. They delivered the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem. The heart of it was, you do not need to be circumcised to keep, you do not need to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved. That was the heart of it. We're not requiring that. Here comes the next post-Synod scene. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. This is the guy Paul thinks I can work with, this guy right here, this guy. Everyone speaks well of him, not like John Mark. He's the best of both worlds for the mission. Think about it. His mom is Jewish. Eunice, remember we find later, Lois, his grandmother, I hope I didn't get that backwards, Lois and Eunice, you can look. His father was Greek. he was well spoken of by the brothers at liconium and and and lystra this guy this is the guy he understands both worlds this is the guy we need now they're holding up a letter that essentially says you don't need to be circumcised to be saved paul would later write in galatians against these people or what because of false brothers secretly brought in who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so that they might bring us into slavery. To them, we didn't yield submission even for a moment. Here comes a shocking verse. You ready? Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him. So, he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places for they all knew his father was Greek. You did what? Now, I won't talk too much about what it was like to circumcise a 40-year-old man. That's Josh Van Ease area. If he wants to talk about those things, he can do that. I told him I was going to say that, okay? You just had the counsel on this matter. Do you know how many commentators are baffled and torn about this? It is all over the map. Why would you give way to that? Especially when you know the Jews struggle with this problem. You know that if you give them this, it's going to feed that wrong view. That's not what we would do. Why would you give in to that, Paul? Especially when you said elsewhere, I'm not giving in for a minute to this stuff. Not a good showing after sin, is it? Two scenes, and this just doesn't make a lot of sense. And again, I stood back from this wrestling hard. We're being pressed here. We're being pressed here with the synod, the decision, and church life. On the one hand, he was a completely rigorous, unwavering Jew. Unbending, inflexible. And then in the next scene, he seems to be lawless and compromising. What is God telling us? I think we're meant to read these two events and ask the question, how are these not major inconsistencies, even hypocrisies and roadblocks to the ministry? If we read this just on the surface, as many are doing, and the challenge with millennials today, just reading it and say, well, there's hypocrisy. We're out. We're out. That's what people do. If you look on the surface, that's how you'll see it. In one way, you realize this is exactly what the devil wants, right? Right after a unifying moment, this. So take the first situation. In one sense, they're all wrong, aren't they? Well, they're sinners. In another sense, they all used their convictions and their reasoning to make the decisions that they did. Paul looked at Mark, right, and believed he needed more time to prove his character. Talks about that later in qualifications for office bearing. Barnabas believed, no, it's worth the risk, Paul. It's worth the risk right now. Give the man a second opportunity. They both made judgments. They both had convictions, they both had personalities, they both had temperaments. What do you do in this moment? They couldn't come to an agreement, so a separation happened. You ever seen that? In the second event, after circumcising Timothy, the council had said, if we're looking out a little deeper, circumcision does not need to happen to be saved. In other words, you're not finding yourself in favor with God by circumcision. But, so you don't need it for acceptance with God. But Paul did think, I do. He does need it for the acceptance with the Jews so that I can get to them. This is what he said later in 1 Corinthians 9. To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, not being under the law myself, that I might win those under the law. This is how he's thinking. Inflexibility at times is going to happen. Concessions at times are going to happen. It's when you try to stand back and understand why people do what they do that you're able to move beyond the shallowness of the charge. They're just a bunch of hypocrites. Or they're just a bunch of conservatives. Or they're just a bunch of progressives. You see the connection now to the council. It's helping us see how conviction in the truth is to be assessed. it's easy to throw out the line, hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites. I'm so tired of that. I almost put as my sermon title, relax, the church is full of hypocrites. But there's a lot more to why people do what they do and why some separations occur and why some concessions occur. And I believe this is telling us something very important about ministry and about the church. The charge of hypocrisy is made by those who easily have no conviction or try to understand what's being said. At times, there are needed separations. Do you understand that? We sometimes tend to look at the early church and think, oh, they were so perfect, they were so pure, they had no problems. It wasn't that way at all. What we learn is that at times, division is fitting, healthy for the church. It's what Machen said. The greatest menace to the Christian church today comes not from enemies outside, but from the enemies within. From a type of faith and practice that is anti-Christian to the core. A separation between the two parties in the church is the crying need of the hour. Yep. And sometimes we're not willing to do that. And then we're willing to separate on all the wrong things, which seems to be here. and if you're looking at what Paul does here to circumcise Timothy, it just seems like sheer compromise from the outside. What now? But as I thought about this, I gave a lot of reflection on the whole teaching of Scripture. This is the struggle of the church in this life among those who care about the truth. Understand that? You are studying men who are willing to put their lives on the line for this. You don't think they're going to be passionate about this? You don't think you expect no struggle among those who care about the truth? Is it not really the case that most of us have taken a balcony seat in fighting about anything that we have no separations? Because we're compromised. They're full of conviction and they're full of passion. Remember R.C. Sproul used to say, people who don't fight for the truth or anything for that matter is for two reasons. They don't know or they don't care. Let that not be us. That is not justifying sin. That is not justifying sinful separation. it is to say we need to be a lot more thoughtful as to the understanding of the actions of others and to care and appreciate those who care about the truth. Whenever I hear frustrations of those who write off all arguments and separations that it's just hypocrisy, I want nothing to do with it, I come to the second conclusion. You forget about the Lord of the church. Do you know what God brought out of all this? You know what he did? From one missionary team now came two. Wow. Two people holding letters. The end of both sections end with what? Look at it. Verse 5, so the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily. And again, it says the same thing. Verse 41, so they went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches. That was the result. Really? Let me take it further. You know what God did in using John Mark? Oh, only wrote the most powerful gospel we have. That weak compromiser. It's a powerful gospel. Read it. The guy that Paul thought was a slacker is your second gospel writer. And you know what God did in Paul's heart? over time oh well this listen to 2nd timothy 4 at the end of his life and ministry as he's old timothy make makes a great request of him he makes a great request of timothy get mark this is paul get mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me in the ministry He wasn't because I didn't think he was, but you know what? I was wrong. Don't you love this? The beautiful thing was the Lord was working through all this. Look at His patience. Look at His building through the lives of messy people like this. Through the lives of messy people, okay? Every bit of it, He was working out and accomplishing His perfect will. Now, I don't know how that doesn't encourage you. The Lord will make known the name of his son the lord will take his gospel to the ends of the earth he will bring the salvation of jesus to the nations so don't always look merely at what's in front of you shallow in a shallow way i understand in closing the church is a mess today i get so discouraged about it i know that we're totally divided this is where we are i know you hate separations So do I. I know that separations have occurred between brothers and sisters. And sometimes those separations are absolutely necessary when there is compromise for the truth. Hear me. But when separations happen, even when it's something like this that seems ridiculous, don't forget the Lord is working. look what he did here look what he reconciled in the end how are we being faithful today to the truth of the gospel as we have heard it as it is in jesus this is what we need today most of all are convicted people convicted passionate people about the truth these things will happen along the way and there'll be things at times you don't understand there'll be things that are confusing but be assured the lord will accomplish his purpose in fulfilling his word don't give up on the church because he's not isn't that it why would we abandon or despise the project that he's promise to complete in the project that his son gave his blood for it's the height of hypocrisy he makes this promise one day one day we will all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ until that time care love his church and care about the truth the Lord will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail. Heavenly Father, we give you praise today for this text that is challenging and challenging to us. But we see your wisdom all throughout it. Thank you for guiding us and helping us to understand its truth. Let us then apply it in ways that please you. For we hate the vision as we should. We hate to see separation as we should. But we realize until that great day, these things will occur. We realize that you are building your church and nothing will stop that. And that you are working to bring the unity of Jerusalem, the peace of Jerusalem. Thank you for showing us these servants who care. Messy is their lives worth. And thank you for giving us the truth as it is in Jesus. Give us that kind of commitment to it here at the Escondido United Reformed Church as we remember that it says united. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.