The Acts of the Apostles 60

Subtitle: The Jerusalem Council III

Acts 15:22-29.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 22, 2023.

We will finish up our look at the Jerusalem Council, which took place between A.D. 48 to 50.  The decision of this original group should settle the issue of what is required for Gentile salvation because it has the apostles trained by Jesus, as well as the elders and people who witnessed the life, ministry and resurrection of Jesus.  Yet, it is amazing how many ways through the years individuals and theologians of the Church have come up with to go wrong on this issue of salvation.

Down through the ages to our time, Church councils haven’t always done us a favor.  The further you move forward in time from the resurrection of Jesus, the more we see such councils supplanting Scripture with human reasoning.  It may even lead some to see such councils as a mistake, and against the will of God.  Yet, here we have a council set in the Word of God, and it is clear that it is a good thing for the Church.

The problem is not in convening a council to determine what the truth is in a matter, and what should be taught.   When you look through the history of these councils, you will always find an individual, or group, who are pushing a teaching that is new, or novel.  This creates turmoil among the churches as people deal with the confusion that new teaching brings.  They want to know what the truth actually is.  In Acts 15, that problem, or teaching, is the idea that Gentiles have to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses in order to be saved.  Believing in Christ and following him by faith was not enough for them, and it began to cause trouble.

Leaders can cause trouble, but sometimes trouble percolates up through the group and leaders have to step in for the sake of group cohesion.  This is normal and good, if it is done correctly and in the right spirit.  These leaders job is not to determine what is best for the group, but rather to determine what the Lord Jesus is saying through the Holy Spirit.  Thus, we should have some mercy on the generations that convened councils, and stick to criticizing only the decisions, and reasoning behind them.

Thus, you will notice that this first council becomes a good template for how councils should operate.  The people should gather, look to what the Spirit is doing, and what the Scriptures say.  Even then, if we are not actually seeking God like we should, if we are not living in communion with Jesus through the Spirit, our fleshly approach to truth will not follow the Spirit of God, no matter how much we protest that we followed the template.  It is not a scientific formula.  It is a relationship with Jesus.

At the base of errors in doctrine are at least two persuasions.  We can over emphasize the role of human reasoning in coming to truth, even elevating a group or man as the ones, one, who have a sanctified mind for the group.  The more human reasoning is the foundation of our beliefs the more we will be off-track.  The other persuasion is that we can ignore reasoning, and the reasoning of God’s proven Word in Scripture.  This persuasion over-emphasizes the spiritual ability to know truth of the leader, or leaders.  It shuts down all debate because “I have the mind of the Lord and don’t have to answer your critiques.”

Let us recognize that God is the One who gave us our minds.  He does intend us to use them.  However, our minds are not capable of assessing truth in these spiritual matters without God’s help.  At the best, our minds can only help us discern what God is showing us is the truth.  Even then, our reasoning is fraught with pitfalls, and humility is the order of the day.  The Lord has given us a foundation of His thinking in the Old Testament and the New Testament.  We need to take seriously their importance as well as the importance of what the Holy Spirit is doing now.  This will help to guard us from going into error.

Let’s look at our passage.

A letter is sent to the church in Antioch (v. 22-29)

We noted last week that it was James who had brought up the idea of sending a letter addressed to Antioch and the Gentile churches beyond them concerning this debated issue (v. 20).  This is exactly what they do.

Thus, we end up with a decision from a group of people at a particular point in time, and we also end up with a written record.  Paul and Barnabas will be able to tell what happened in Jerusalem, but there will also be an address from the church in Jerusalem describing things from their perspective.

We do not know if they had a vote, or people simply quit arguing against the truths that are recorded here.  Yet, they did come to an agreement, and create a letter, which Luke inserted in his Acts of the Apostles.  It is a good thing too because this is how we end up with the actual wording of the letter established for all time.  The church at Antioch was over-run in the 600’s by Muslims, and the original document is lost to us.

Three times in this passage (v. 22, 25, and 28), we have a word that is variously translated as “it pleased…,” or “it seemed good to…”  It is a word that has a range of certainty connected to it, from judging that something is certainly true, all the way to believing that something has a good probability of being true.  I think this passage the council was pretty certain that they had determined the mind of God on this matter.  They were not just giving their best guess, or sheer human reasoning on the matter.

In verse 22, we have listed that the apostles, elders, and the whole church were in on the decision.  The decision and plan to send a letter seemed good to all of them.

The judges in the Old Testament were not supposed to imagine the best solution for a case.  Rather, they were supposed to render the decision of the LORD.  Of course, they would look to what the Law said on a matter, but they would also seek wisdom from God’s Spirit- that is if they had a heart for God.  The Scriptures and the Holy Spirit help God’s people to understand truth when they are truthfully seeking it. 

You may also recognize that there is no sense in the story that an approach is being ramrodded through by leaders.  Even Paul and Barnabas are quite subdued in Luke’s account, only giving testimony to what the Spirit was doing among Gentiles.  I believe that they exercised wisdom to let the Jerusalem church come to a decision without undue pressure from them.  It was important that God showed them the truth.

We can be guilty today of practicing the leadership style of the world.  We can learn how to manipulate the stupid sheep to do what we know they need to do.  It is stylish to build forums and means for the little people to feel like they had a say and participated in the process, but in the end, the group will end up at a pre-decided decision that was made by the ultra-smart leaders.  Such manipulative activity is not of the Spirit of God and is not a proper, godly way to come to decisions.  Of course, this about sums up our politics, and many of our churches in the land.

Praise God that this is not what happened back in Acts 15 at the Jerusalem Council.

In verse 25 it mentions in the letter that “It seemed good to us, being assembled in one accord.”  There is that word again.  They were in one accord.  They had a singular passion for determining what God would have them believe and teach.  They wanted to rightly represent the Lord Jesus, since they were subjected to persecution by people who assumed that they had the corner of the market on representing God.

Many have a singular passion alright, a singular passion for their own way.  If we gather in a group and everyone is fighting passionately for their own way, then we will never have a true spiritual unity.  However, even if we are manipulated into a decision that everyone agrees to, it is not a unity of the spirit, but a unity of the flesh that is guaranteed to breakdown along the way.

We lastly recognize that verse 28 mentions that “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit…”  Of course, God is absolutely sure what the right thing is.  There is no range of certainty when it comes to Him.  The seeming is all on the human side of this equation.  They had come to the conclusion that this is what the Spirit of God was teaching them.  Yet, they are being humble enough to recognize the fact that their reasoning was involved in this process.  Unity must always center upon God’s decisions, and leaders, churches, ought to be very humble in any such process.

They determine that it would be best to send some men along with the letter.  This would give the Jerusalem Church some official representation along with the letter, not that they would doubt the veracity of how Paul and Barnabas portrayed the council to the church of Antioch.  Yet, the original issue had to do with men who had come from Judea, but did not officially represent the church.  The bad experience they had with the earlier Judaizers could be overcome with the good experience of the true, official representatives sent with the letter.

The first of the two men listed is Judas, also called Barsabas.  This is the only time that this individual is mentioned in the New Testament.  The second name helps us to differentiate him from other men with the name Judas (Judah in Hebrew) like Judas Iscariot, or Judas, also called Thaddeus, or Judas (Jude) the brother of our Lord.

The second man listed is Silas.  He is going to become one of the men who helped Paul in his missionary journeys to come.  He will faithfully minister with Paul to the Gentiles.  He is always referred to as Silas in the book of Acts.  However, in his letters, the apostle Paul calls him Silvanus.  Silus is just a shortened form of Silvanus.

What were the qualifications of these men?  They were leading men from among the Jerusalem church.  They had risked their lives for the Gospel (v. 26), which means that they had a vested interest in promoting the true Gospel.  Also, in verse 32, we will later see that they are both prophets, and able to spiritually minister to the group in Antioch.

Luke gives us a word for word copy of the letter starting at verse 23.  It starts out by clarifying that the men, who had “troubled” them about following the Law of Moses, were not sent by Jerusalem.  I am sure that the intent is not only to state the truth for the record, but also to restore goodwill between Antioch and them.  The Jerusalem church had never been behind the attempt to trouble them on this matter.  Yet, they are helping to make things right because of the presence of the apostles of Jesus in their city, as well as many elders who had close connection to the ministry of Jesus.  They have a responsibility to the rest of the Church.

Some point to the words of Paul in Galatians 2:12.  They interpret them to believe that James was at least a stickler for Jews continuing to obey the Law of Moses, which would include separation from Gentiles.  To whatever degree James believed this, something was behind Peter’s change of attitude about eating with Gentiles when “men from James” arrived in Antioch.  We do not know exactly when the Galatians 2 incident happened.  Was it before or after this council?  From the words said and the decision made, you would think that it would have to be before..  However, we do not know for sure.

It is believed that some confusion on what Jews needed to do, may have lead to some over-zealous teaching on what Gentiles needed to do.  Regardless, the decision in the letter is quite clear.  Gentiles do not need to follow the Law of Moses.  Although the Church had never officially taught that Gentiles needed to obey the Law of Moses in order to be saved, it did take about 18 years for the Church to denounce the idea officially.

In fact, close attention to Peter’s testimony will even clarify salvation for Jews.  He questions in verse 10, “Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”  Also, he said in verse 11 that “we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”  Earlier he had described that manner as “by faith.”  This council didn’t just hammer out the means of salvation for Gentiles, but for Jews as well.  Even Jews do not need to follow the Law of Moses in order to be saved by Jesus.

The letter next declares that two men named Judas and Silas are accompanying the letter.  This is a first-century security mechanism for validation.

Finally, the letter stipulates the three issues that were being prohibited to the Gentiles (and Jews).  They were to abstain from things offered to idols, abstain from eating or drinking blood (things strangled still have blood in the meet), and they were to abstain from sexual immorality.  They are referred to as necessary, and yet, it simply says that if they will restrain themselves from doing these things that they will “do well.”  It is a burden being placed upon the Gentiles, but no heavy burden as Peter called the Law of Moses.

This is not only wisdom, but also obvious.  If you are following Jesus, then all hint of following idols and the things associated with idolatry needs to drop off.  You cannot have loyal faith in Jesus and still remain attached to idols and idolatry.  This loyalty issue has trust and faith at its core.

The blood issue was addressed last week, but would help Jews and Gentiles within the Church to be able to get along with one another.  Plus, it would retain a clear line around the subject of how we obtain life and power.  The pagans ate and drank animal blood for ritualistic reasons connected to their idols.  Jesus is our source of life, and our sacrifice now.

Lastly, we are told in the New Testament in many places to flee sexual immorality.  The moral components of the Law of Moses are reiterated by the apostles throughout the New Testament and Christians need to obey them, not because we are following the Law of Moses, but rather, because we are following Jesus Christ and His apostles who laid down these necessary things to avoid and necessary things to do.

Let me close by revisiting this issue of dead works versus works of faith.  We can fall into two extremes if we are not careful.  On one hand, we can be so against “dead works” and working for salvation that we promote doing nothing, even sinning.  However, on the other hand, we can be so intent against sin that we make a long list of things people have to do in order to be truly saved.

We need to go back to the Word of God.  What does it say is necessary for salvation?  It is to believe in Jesus, to put our trust in Him.  We then follow Jesus, who gave us the apostles and the Holy Spirit, and they gave us the New Testament.

This calls for humility in any issue.  I can be wrong and should not stir up trouble within a church.  Yet, whole churches and denominations can be wrong because they have inherited a system that has error riddled within it.  Only Jesus can save us, and it calls for faithful, courageous trust in Jesus, both to save us and to help us come to the knowledge of the truth.

None of us can do enough to save ourselves.  We can only put our faith upon Jesus.  However, once Jesus has accepted my faith and put me in a safe place, I can do good works that are clean before God.  What makes them clean?  They are clean because they are not done out of the selfish reason to make ourselves look good to God.  Rather, they are done out of thanks to Jesus for salvation and the belief, the faith, that He is helping us to become like God through the works He leads us to do by His Word and by His Spirit.

So, when you help people, or go to church on any particular day, and you do it because you love Christ and want to honor him, it can be a clean work acceptable unto God and makes you more like Jesus.  However, if I do these things because I believe I have to do these things to achieve my way into heaven, then they become dead works.  They are not really done in Christ by the Spirit, but in the flesh.

May God help us to come alive to Jesus by the Help of the Holy Spirit in order to do the works that He has created us to do.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:10).

Jerusalem Counsel III Audio