I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 15. That's found on page 1175 in your Bibles in front of you. Acts chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council. Remember to set the context here. Last time we began with this, that there had been certain troublers who had come down to the church in Antioch and said that unless you're circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And the council had to wrestle with this issue. We looked at last time the struggle of the Jews in this regard to accept Gentile inclusion. Today we look at what they were calling the Gentiles to address, how to handle this unity that they were called to and to go forward in their fellowship in the gospel. And so we're going to look at verses 22 through 35. Let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord. 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 of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Sicilia, 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 has 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 name 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 lay on you no greater burden 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 you keep yourselves from these things 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 rejoiced because of its encouragement and Judas and Silas who 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 there ends this morning the reading of god's word well if you weren't here last time we're we're picking up right in the middle of where we left off in our study of the jerusalem council and i think we see here uh and we've been learning of how important church councils and synods are i was speaking with dr godfrey and he told me that acts 15 was the sermon preached at the opening of the senate of door when they had their major controversy so these very words that we're considering um today were the very words that were considered then and he went on to tell me that in the preface to the writings that came out of that there's actually a statement that God loves to preserve the unity of his church the truth of the gospel through these synods and that is absolutely true in a day where we don't like church structure and anything about it that nobody is on the side of the scriptures if they take that gratitude for this is how the lord has preserved his church this is how the lord has kept his church and we see how important then the work of the church is uh in in these sort of disputes and things that that happen i want to make sure that we understand exactly what happened here the lord had been opening the door to the gentiles this is what the book of acts is all about and they were coming in in droves. It's really encouraging that the gospel ministry is going out to the ends of the earth and today it's reached all the way here. You see how from a little room in Jerusalem the Lord has been faithful and his kingdom is being built by saving to the ends of the earth a people for his name who believe the gospel, who believe in Jesus. It wasn't that the Jews were against Gentile inclusion. That's what we often think. That's how we often pitch it. I believe that if you look at Acts chapter 11 carefully with Cornelius and his household, when Peter was the one who opened that door, which he makes the very case at this council, when he was baptized, it said that all the Jews accepted that God had granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life peter had made very clear that the holy spirit came upon them just as he did us at pentecost who was to stand against the holy spirit in this way so the issue was as we looked at last time the issue was wait a minute wait a minute what about our practices what about our customs what about our traditions what about our ceremonies what about our culture they can't just disregard that they can't just throw that out the door we're the root we're the root they're being brought into us so what about our ceremonies and what about our laws this is um this was their great fear this is going to get out of control real quick if we don't regulate this if we don't put some restraints on this they were having a hard time with the message itself they were having a hard time with the message of justification by grace through faith alone we've been looking that that was the heart of paul's first sermon that was recorded in acts that paul and barnabas were preaching and the gentiles were responding to remember the sermon remember what he said in the first sermon let it be made known to you therefore brothers that through this man jesus forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you. That's the heart of it. And by him, everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified from the law of Moses. That was the message. That was the heart of it. When you have years of tradition, when you have years of practices and customs, it's not so easy just to hear. It's not so easy just to hear and say, the law of Moses doesn't set you free. What does that mean? Come on. When it comes to the law of God specifically, we'll define this a little more as we go here. Specifically, what are we supposed to do? What does fulfillment mean? So they're wrestling with the struggle with how does the doctrine of justification by grace, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, everything that we've professed and believed, how does it relate to obedience, tradition, customs, ceremony, culture, all that? It all runs together. So this led to the greatest challenge that the early church had faced. For fear, the fear of this what you might call ultra-conservativism is the fear that results when people are backed into a corner and their ways and their traditions are attacked. And they feel that the only way to stop this, the only way to stop what appears to be lawlessness, what appears to open the door toward that, to that, is to then respond by laying down burdens and laws in desperation. And that's essentially what's happening here. There were those who came from Jerusalem, the mother church. Even though everything was shifting, the Lord had shifted the sort of center of this all to Antioch. Even though the Jewish church in Antioch, these Jews came over to Antioch and troubled the church with these words. They said very clearly something that the church had to wrestle with. Listen, listen, what are you going to do with circumcision? Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Huh. Interesting they didn't go to Abraham. They're looking at ceremonies. They're looking at the whole tie of the mosaic. They're thinking about the ceremonies and they draw the conclusion. listen you can't dump that if you do that you can't be saved this is the way we're going to absorb them into us this is the way we get a check on this now we've all wondered uh that if if people don't do things just like us right they must not be saved right this is how we think this is uh This is so easy to do. It's a real challenge. Especially when there's such diversity of practice. I mean, there's got to be, right? A heart to this. And there is. The apostles knew to say, and what that means and the whole consequences. They wanted to have the church think about, they were wrestling about very clearly what to do with the law of Moses. And Paul and Barnabas, as they're listening to the arguments, as they're seeing these troublers come of the circumcision party, as these troublers have come to address them and cause this trouble, and remember, I think it's so important to say, this was so effective argumentation, it swept Peter in. This happened before they went down to Jerusalem to deal with the problem. Peter got caught up in it. The consequence then, the greatest threat they saw to the church, The consequence was to make the work of Jesus incomplete. That's the issue for them. As our Belgic says, to add anything to the work of Jesus is to make him what? A half of a Savior. When it came to the truth of how somebody is right before a holy God, that they were so diligent and they were so ready to stand for the great truth that the person and the work of jesus by faith in him you have everything you need to be justified and to stand righteous before god by him that's it faith in christ alone so this broke open and paul and barnabas were sent down to jerusalem to deal with this great problem uh to wrestle with this great problem and the issue there breaks open again as they get there the Pharisees. This is really interesting that Acts 15 says here something that I've never thought about much before, but it says the believing sect of the Pharisees. There were Pharisees who had come in the church that believed in Jesus, but they were still tied to the Pharisee party. Believing Pharisees, it says. They were saying, yes, listen, the people do need to these gentiles do need to be circumcised and keep the law of moses for salvation now you remember last time the arguments that won the day we spent some time on this it's just really fascinating stuff peter stands up and says listen you remember that god opened the door of the gentiles through me not paul and he gave them the spirit just as did us and the crucial words that peter said there were he made no distinction in other words they weren't circumcised when god accepted them he cleansed their hearts by what faith he cleansed their hearts by faith we believe we will be saved by grace through through faith just as they will it's the same message then james stood up simon's right simon's absolutely right and guess what even to make the point stronger this is exactly what all the prophets anticipated this is the israel of god when the gentiles would come in and form together one holy body and he quotes amos to prove it the grafting in of the gentiles he says this is what they all anticipated so it's a remarkable moment in the senate uh or council and these two two men uh their speeches won the day so so what has happened here so far then well last time what we did was we tried to get into the mind of the pharisee a little bit i said it's easy to criticize the pharisee it's easy to run like we do rough shot over them today and call people pharisees but but when you have years of practices traditions and customs when you come to trust in these things it's not so easy for the pharisees just to accept the johnny come lately with the same status especially when they start thinking we had all these things that we thought and they were being challenged with this everything was being made clear for them all these things that we thought made us acceptable to god it's hard through our own obedience it's hard it was a gospel issue the gospel issue the doctrine of justification was at stake and you get the sense that when paul and barnabas came to jerusalem the majority of the jews were willing to accept this you you really get a whole different spirit here which i find so fascinating in the in the assembly itself the spirit that we've been studying unless you do this you cannot be saved or the spirit of the believing pharisees is not the prevailing spirit is it they were open to understanding the gospel it was the extremist ultimate or ultra conservatives among them who had the mentality of we've always done it this way they caused the biggest problems and were laying burdens on people that god had not so so as we'll see in a minute we're going to see how wonderful the Jews really were to the Gentiles. We're going to see how wonderful the Jews really were to the Gentiles. And we're careful not to lay burdens on them that God had not laid. So, here we are. A letter that is sent there is, the letter that is sent and that the assembly has come up with is remarkably short. It's lacking of really any detail of ceremonial requirement. It's somewhat of an enigma today for its brevity and exactly what it's saying. But last time we got into the mind of the Jew, I think it's helpful a little bit to get into the mind of the Gentile. They had a different kind of religious cultural history, didn't they? What do we call it? Paganism, right? Paganism. All this Jewish stuff was brand new. What were the Gentiles hearing in the gospel message? Oh, they're hearing the message that Jesus gives you everything you need. You're set free. You're set free. And the way that was motivated in their newness of life comes in passages like Ephesians. Ephesians 4. Think of them hearing the gospel. You've been delivered from your former conduct. This I say, therefore, in testifying the Lord, that you shouldn't walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. You shouldn't walk as you used to walk, doing those things that you're now ashamed. In the futility of their mind, having their understandings darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all in cleanness with greediness. You know your former conduct. And then what did Paul say to motivate the new life? But you've not so learned Jesus. You've not so learned Christ. The truth as it is in Jesus. So they're hearing the gospel. They're being set free. The question is, what was setting them free? It was the message of the cross. It was liberating. His life. His death. His resurrection. I have everything. I'm set free. but you see the problem here don't you the jewish tradition with strict regulation years of what had become and remember we looked at last time they had super added over all of the law of god volumes of their laws you have all this in their history this is not easy this is not easy strict regulation yokes burdens traditions all that we talked about last time not all traditions bad i hope no one ever hears me say that um again paul told the thessalonian church keep the traditions we've handed down to you we looked at tradition serves a greater purpose but the jews were holding tightly to this in a yoke sort of way with the jewish law the gentiles none of it so imagine putting these groups together no biblical customs of the old testament no history of circumcision so now as it's been replaced a sign of baptism which is commanded that is a sign of of washing and they're called to believe it's faith everything's brand new they're on their end trying to figure out what freedom means from paganism right the jews don't understand what freedom means from the law so we got a big problem here in this case they want to bring them back into bondage with the law so what do you think happened well it was probably really hard to say initially that for the gentiles to understand the jewish scruples i could just hear it oh what an odd group these guys are just stuck in their traditions can't you hear it and they're trying to bring us back into bondage with weird stuff and when it came to the relationship the problem wasn't like it is in america in america you just stick with your own you know you just find the church you don't have to deal with this stuff right in america if you're if you're just who you are with your own cultural people you sit with them and in america if you don't like that you just go where you want to go and you're never forced to deal with this stuff that wasn't the first century that is not how the first century worked they were forced to deal with it that's why i love the book of acts and it brings us to real solutions on these things you see the problem here how in the world are these groups going to get along in christianity you think we live any of this i think you're starting to recognize this isn't so different today is it one of you came up last week and said to me you said um pastor this is this is really fascinating he said i've always said the longer you're in the church especially if you've been baptized into it the longer you've been in it and the course of the traditions you've been exposed to, the more you're going to function and relate to the Jew. Absolutely true. Absolutely true. If you've been in the Reformed tradition all your life, this is where you relate. This is the struggle. You look more like a Jew in how they functioned with their tradition. Years of traditions and customs can easily, we know this problem, like I said last time, we criticize Rome for it, but we haven't been able to take it very much ourselves to say that we ourselves don't like the critique of exposing tradition over the word of god we're not so willing to accept that for ourselves at times so much so that we think orthodoxy we can slip into thinking that orthodoxy is simply because we've always done something a certain way and we think they don't do it our way they can't be saved what is it that we think and what are we talking about the danger in this is you can miss what all of it's calling us to right this is what we critique last time you can miss that all of the things that we do are calling us to faith to believe the gospel not to trust in the tradition itself even if the tradition's great and right when when when conservatism functions like that. We've always done it this way. It's on a fast track to liberalism. History's proved it. Why do I say that? When you have highly conservative churches that in one generation were strict, precise, and then in the next generation went completely liberal, you got to stand back and say, how in the world did that happen? And we've seen it. Well, that's because the next generation, especially in America, is not going to accept just doing things because, as an answer, we've always done it this way. That doesn't lead anyone to faith. So we have a generation that has come into the church that doesn't understand why we do what we do. And they see that approach as stuck in the past and empty. Some generations will stick around for their own traditions and reasons. Others of the younger generation are gone. They're just gone. In this way, Jew and Gentile relations are kind of still around, aren't they? It's not so much blood, is it, as it is the relationship to convictions and what they are. The longer you hold to the Christian tradition, the more you'll behave like a Jew. The more you reject that, or the newer you are to all of this, the more you're going to function like a Gentile. In other words, the more you have rejected the formalism and traditionalism of the Jews, the more, claiming freedom, you'll be prone to things and behaviors that push boundaries towards lawlessness and worldliness. Understand that? We're always incessantly, have you ever wondered in the church fighting this battle and it never seems to go away? It just never seems to go away that we have the conservatives and we've got the progressives all the way to the far end, the liberals. You've got to explain, we're not so much talking politics anymore, right? All the people seem to run together and the groups all sit and roll their eyes at each other. How did they handle this? Isn't that the question? James made a suggestion that four things should be required of the Gentiles. This is so helpful and this is so important. Four things. The apostles thought this was wonderful. So they send with a letter Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch. But you'll notice here what the Jerusalem council did. They send two of their most influential leaders there back to Antioch too. You'll notice that there. Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas. We don't know much about them. It says they're prophets. Very influential Jewish figures in the Jerusalem council and in the church in Jerusalem. Here's the letter. Just listen to the letter for a minute. It's a remarkable solution to this problem. The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Sicilia, 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 has 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 name 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 lay on you no greater burden than these requirements here we go 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 And you stand back and say, how in the world was that a solution to this massive problem? It's a remarkable letter for so many reasons. You have to understand and appreciate how they solved it. First, you'll notice how tenderly and brotherly the letter was from the Jews to the Gentiles. Big moment. Big moment. brothers there was no sense of suspicion none out you guys are just a bunch of liberals pushing your agendas no not there we want you to know that some have troubled you with words and unsettled your minds we know who that was you see it and we want you to know we know what they're saying and we want you to know we didn't send him saying unless you're circumcised you cannot be saved that did not come from us we realize brothers that has troubled you now remember i have to say it again this orthodox circumcision party was the one were the ones who pulled peter in peter got caught in this and these groups always do terrible damage because they pull in and claim to be the true jews functioning as the true ones the only right ones who are the gatekeepers of the tradition and they're going to go down as martyrs if they have do were the last 7 000 not standing bowing down the knee to bail see and they easily sway people with their power with guilt of breaking it but i want you to notice the balance of the mother church the effect of it was to tear down the perception that they as jews were against the gentiles coming in that's such an important thing to think about we don't believe this they were not sent we know they troubled you that's important because the greatest hurdle often to making any progress and unity in the church with our different convictions is come overcoming the hurdle of perception and judging on that basis. We look at people as this way, this way, this way. And we've got them right where we think they belong, right? And then it becomes us versus them in the church. And we just naturally assume they're against us and vice versa. So our perception drives how we respond we can give a smile on the outside but the talk in our rooms in our homes is heard by the lord the jews worked hard to tear down that perception didn't they they really did so the church in antioch sent paul and barnabas to them they showed their love and care and returned by sending judas and silas back as witnesses who spoke, encouraged them face to face. It's remarkable how they responded to them. They had the whole ceremonial system in front of them. Clearly these Gentiles, everyone's saying, need to keep our traditions, our customs, our laws, and look like us. This letter is so important to study, for what did they say? Here's how we respond to the matter. First, again, and this is why, please don't ever despise our church meetings. They're so important, and I've got to do better with that. I kind of said something last week that I don't like going. I need to like going, okay? It can't just be Pastor Donovan. All right. The Holy Spirit works through this. And they recognize that. They say, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit. They bathe this in prayer. The Spirit guided them, and they came out with a confidence together as in unity at the council, in unity and in prayer. And this is what they came up with, that this is the will of the Holy Spirit and of us. We're in full agreement with this, that we don't want to lay burdens on you beyond what we should. So here are the requirements that you, number one, abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual morality, four things. Well, the question is, what in the world is this? Were they ransacking the Old Testament to find something of the ceremonial law of Moses that they could appease the Jews and keep the Gentiles in check? Is that what this is? Some have really tried desperately to do this using Leviticus 17 and 18, but it just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. The whole message of the New Testament is the ceremonial law is abolished in Christ. We're not doing the ceremonies. So you can read Colossians 2. Paul wouldn't have sat silent for a minute on this. Here's what this was. The Gentiles, in their freedoms, were still heavily involved in the pagan feasts and in many of the temples all around them that had idolatry and sexual morality. and this would be a huge issue to the New Testament church. In fact, well, we've been through Corinthians. We've seen what happened there. Here's what they're saying. Look at verse 21. You know, brothers, that Moses is read every Sabbath in the synagogues. So what is this all saying? We're asking you to be sensitive to this, but keep in mind that these pagan feasts and their food are closely associated with idolatry and sexual morality you know what they're doing and strangling animals and blood and and this happens in these places it is not you need to know it is not disconnected from real moral problems moral issues what that shows is what this shows is the gospel of justification by grace through faith alone never threw out the moral law of God. It proves it right here. Not as a way of salvation, but as a rule for living separate as God's people. So the council was addressing the problem of what? Low Gentile morality. Worldliness. In what areas? Well, worship, worship. If you've ever read 1 Corinthians, you know that the two twin sins the book deals with, which we went through in this church, are sexual morality and idolatry. They're the only two sins I find in the Bible and the New Testament that you're told, flee, run as fast as you can the other way. Why? Those were the two twin sins that Israel got into all their problems with in the wilderness. what did they do they were borrowing from the pagan practices from the culture and it was putting them in the contact with these sins and all that goes with it see the effect this is about the moral law of god not for justification don't chalk that off as ultra conservatism as people do if it's in our day stop with the attitude of rolling your eyes of what you think is just mere traditionalism and formalism there are real threats there are real threats to the problems here of sexual morality and idolatry and the closer you are to the world the closer you are in it the more you mingle up with it the more you are engaged in it the closer you are to the fire and the more in certain practices you are involved the more you easily will fall into these immoralities and then what you're going to do is justify bringing them into the church which is exactly what happened in corinth in their worship you don't believe this was a problem what did they do in the wilderness they brought back from egypt the golden calf into the worship of god bringing idolatry right into worship this is why in these worship discussions i i stand back and say you know it's almost like the gentiles today in the church think there's no standard at all for worship anymore because of the gospel you know they are unwilling to have any stance for what they do in worship and no sensitivity to borrowing from the pagan practices of culture and bringing it into the holy place dear gentiles stop beating up the jews be sensitive to them love them remember at the heart of these concerns the jews are not willing to burden you see but want the moral law of god to be taken seriously as it should and that's right and that's good legalism and obedience are not the same things stop acting like they are now i come back to the thought the jew gentile relationship is very alive in the church today may i be a little direct here in application then we'll close in god's providence i grew up in what is known as the dutch reformed church baptized into it predominantly dutch The ongoing joke growing up, we were German and Irish and all that was, the sticker on the outside car, if you're not Dutch, you're not much, right? Right? And so we had to find something to say. If you're not German, you're not learning, right? So you do something like that to respond. I've enjoyed the stability in our churches. I wouldn't trade that for a thing. It's a strong root. It's a strong tradition. I have come to treasure you. I have come to treasure what God has done to a commitment to His Word. And yes, truth be told, we function a lot like the Jews in some ways. We love our customs. We love the way we do things. Yeah, we need to be confronted at times not to trust in them, don't we? Sure we do. Sure we do. We need to be confronted, as we have, of opening the doors to the Gentiles, to all tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations. Sure we do. We need to be challenged not to put our trust for our justification in anything other than Jesus alone. And in both churches that I've served, you know what I've witnessed? An overwhelming response of the congregation to that message. Belief. willing to make great efforts and sacrifices in these areas that they need to for their children, for missions. It's remarkable what this church has accomplished in sending out missionaries. Remarkable. But I have been incredibly frustrated at times for how browbeat we are in the community for who we are. I've seen reverse discrimination in the worst sort of ways. I did an internship, And I remember being sick to my stomach that the older people who were the backbone of the church, who had labored for years, who had given faithfully and their whole lives to the commitment of Jesus Christ, the next generation completely ousted their voice as just writing them off as old and traditional. The worst part is that it wasn't coming from the outside, it was coming from the inside. The problem was, what they were pushing was complete lawlessness on the church. And those churches went full on into liberalism. Lo and behold, idolatry and worship. As they rolled their eyes with the attitude being, oh, just stuck in their old ways. I thought to myself, these are dear long church members who've been around, who've seen a lot, have been through wars, traveled from countries to countries, marriages kept, families together completely disregarded and silently scoffed at. I can hear Paul right now. Don't boast against the root. I can hear it. He does this in Romans 11. Stop. It's not only arrogant, but you can't replace a tradition with your own tradition of lawlessness. Thinking that's freedom. I think some attitudes of the Gentiles need to change toward the Jews as I challenge the Jews' attitude to change toward the Gentiles. There's no loving. But here's the answer to the whole struggle. They came to Antioch. They read the letter. The Gentiles' church saw how concerned, how much care, how considerate the Jews were and what happened. They read it and rejoiced because of the encouragement. Two Jewish men stood up and preached and encouraged them. And the scene you have is one of love and harmony and it's beautiful. This is what love produced. You see? Isn't that the calling? If we have not love, what are we? Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. it doesn't insist on its own way it's not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things it doesn't run away it believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never ends and that's how Jesus has loved you I pray that what's described here would be true in us that we would be a church that has come together for the truth of the gospel never compromising how a sinner is right with God and with that great truth learning how to sacrificially put those with convictions differently than ours above ourselves and realizing that we have a church family and councils and synods to help us with these issues elders pastors but that we would be strengthened together as the body of Christ discerning what is His holy will for us. Well, I hope that helps you to think about these things. There's obviously much more that could be said but may God give us the grace as the Escondido you are see to fulfill what is here described. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, this passage is so important for us and we realize that. Or it does go both ways. Sacrifices indeed are made. But never in compromise of the truth as it is in Jesus. Help us as a church to look like this. Help us as a church to function like this. And let us be united together in love. Removing sour attitudes. Giving us an exciting, joyful spirit to be here. and to be united together in the truth of the gospel. For that's most what we need today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.