The Acts of the Apostles 80

Subtitle: Showdown in Jerusalem I

Acts 21:15-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 15, 2024.

Paul will now leave Caesarea on the coast and travel inland to Jerusalem.  It is clear that Luke has been setting up what will be a showdown in Jerusalem.  There will be a clash of the Gospel of Jesus with those who refused to accept it.  We are going to take several weeks to look at this clash.

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul meets with the elders of the Jerusalem church (v. 15-25)

As Paul leaves Philip’s home in Caesarea, we are reminded that he not only has a group of men with him who are both Jews and Gentiles from both Greece and Anatolia, but that he picks up some believers from Caesarea who are also traveling up for the feast of Pentecost.

Luke doesn’t tell us how close to the feast it is, and when these coming events happen in relation to the feast.  Regardless, there are a lot of people showing up in Jerusalem every day. 

We are also told that a man named Mnason of Cyprus travels with them from Caesarea.  They will be staying at his place in Jerusalem.  Mnason is not named again in Scripture, but we are told that he was an early believer in Jesus.

When Paul arrives in Jerusalem, verse 17 tells us that they are received gladly by the believers.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that he met with all the believers of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was a large city.  It is tough to know exactly how many believers were there.  But, we do know that it is in the magnitude of tens of thousands.  Note: The word “myriad” (NKJV) in Acts 21:21 literally means 10,000 and it is in the plural.  However, it also can be used metaphorically to mean a great number.  We also know that persecution has come in waves that has caused some to move on, but others to believe.  Regardless, I do not believe Paul has somehow met with all the believers, but a select few that Paul had good relationship with.

This is a good start.  Have you ever been in an environment where you knew it was going to turn bad, but at the moment things were good?  We need to learn how to enjoy the good that God gives us in the now, even when we know that difficulty is coming.  We will talk more about how to do that, but let me say up front that the answer is not in ignoring the difficulty that looms ahead.

We can be this way throughout our life, where we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and we are never embracing the current blessings of the Lord.  Of course, the opposite can be true as well.  I can be thinking that now is always bad or imperfect, and always looking ahead to when it will be “better.”  People who become stuck looking to the horizon of life can lose the peace and rest that God is trying to give to them in the present.  More than just living in the moment, we want to live in connection with The One who is giving us this moment, and to be thankful for the goodness in it.

The next day, Paul meets with James and the elders of the Jerusalem church.  Peter and John are not mentioned in this account so it is likely that they are not there.  The apostles often traveled.  Paul details for them everything that God was doing among the Gentiles through his ministry and the ministry of the people with him.  Of course, the book of Acts is such a detail.

The response of the elders and James is to glorify the Lord (v. 20).  There are some today who would malign the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is generally pictured as a destroyer of wonderful cultures.  There is a certain narrative that is pushed in which Christians are spoken of as oppressors and the cultures they interacted with  are spoken of as victims.

Let me just say up front that not all in the Church were truly saved and understood the message of Jesus Christ.  Even some who were saved were trapped in traditions that developed over long periods of time.  No matter how much truth a community has, there will always be a difficulty in keeping the foundational principles of the group in place due to the tension created by those who are following their flesh and do not believe.

Yes, we all want to be brothers and sisters.  Yet, we know the reality.  Some are wolves who were never saved, and some are believers who have perverted the truth and are apostatizing from the ways of Jesus.  However, none of this changes Jesus, the Christ, who is the hope of glory.  Our hope is not based upon a pastor, a bishop, a patriarch, or a pope.  These can all fail, but Jesus never fails.

The true story is not the destruction of wonderful cultures by Christians.  These cultures were at the end of a long time of descent into ruin.  What started at the Tower of Babel as mere rebellion led to the casting off of truth and exchanging it for a lie.  Of course, each of these cultures were not completely darkened.  Some more than others had remnants, splinters of truth in their mythologies or traditions.  It is a common story for Christian missionaries to come to a particular culture and discover these splinters of truth that are truly God’s grace.

We must understand that any people, or even a single person, that we go to with the Gospel, has been prepared by God to hear it.  He was there before you working in their life.  There are things in their life and experience that can help them to understand the Gospel.  It is through real relationship that we can discover these things and use them to present the Good News about Jesus.

Does this mean that they will always be saved?  Of course, it doesn’t.  What if I do a perfect job in presenting Jesus, would it guarantee their salvation?  You could be the perfect picture of Jesus and share perfectly his message.  You could even lay your life down on a cross for people and yet, many of them will still reject you.  No one is saved by a perfect witness (unless you are speaking about Jesus himself).  Rather, they are saved by accepting the grace that God is giving them.  That grace includes the imperfect men and women sharing the Gospel.  It includes the imperfect societies that they created along the way, or at least were created by a clash of prior cultures with the Gospel.

This is what Paul is doing here.  He is doing this for Jesus.  The Gospel of Jesus goes forth to redeem people and their cultures.  It goes forth to rescue them from the darkness and slavery they have fallen to, even the inheritance that they have lost.

After glorifying God, the elders warn Paul of rumors that are being spread in Jerusalem about him.  I will point out up front that the elders concerns are with how the believers in Jesus will receive Paul, i.e., unity within the church, than they are about how the unbelieving Jews will respond to him.

These believers were very zealous for the Law of Moses, and have been hearing rumors about Paul that somehow he is not zealous for the law.  They have heard that he actually taught Jews in Gentile lands to forsake the Law.  In Particular, the had heard that he was teaching Jews not to circumcise their children nor to follow the customs, traditions of Israel.

Of course, this is a perverted reading of what Paul taught.  In Galatians, Paul warned Gentiles against being circumcised because they were doing so out of fear.  Jewish people were telling them that they had to keep the Law and believe in Jesus.  Paul is telling them that this is not true.  Circumcision cannot save you.  Only faith working through love.  Thus, the real point is not circumcision, whether you do or don’t.  Rather, it is about faith working through love.  It is somewhat unclear what Paul would say to Jews.  However, his point would be similar.  If you are looking to the Law to draw the grace of God, then you have walked away from Christ.  However, if you continue in the traditions out of faith in Christ and seeking to love your fellow Jews, then it is fine.

Ultimately, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Law points to.  In fact, even Gentiles can fulfill the Law, not by trying to keep it, but by obeying the same Spirit of God that was the source of the Law.

Regardless of these misunderstandings, the elders realize that word will spread among believers that Paul is in Jerusalem, and it will cause no small stir within the Church community.

At this point, they present a plan to Paul for nipping this issue in the bud.  They counsel him to assist four men who were completing a Nazirite vow.

The mention of shaving the head is the clear sign that this is a Nazirite vow.  A person would vow to separate themselves from three things and unto God for a particular period of time.  It was usually at least 30 days, but could be longer.  The Nazir (person doing the vow)  would separate themselves to God by not eating nor drinking anything from the fruit of the grape vine.  Secondly, they would not touch any dead bodies, even if it was a close relative that needed burying.  Someone else would have to do it.  The third thing was that they would not cut their hair during the period of the vow. 

It sounds like these four men had come to the end of their vow and needed to go to the temple to present themselves to the priests, do the particular sacrifices, and thereby complete the vow and be officially released from its obligations.

So what are these elders thinking?  Paul would attach himself to this group by purifying himself and then going to the temple with them to cover the expense of the sacrifices.  This would involve three animals for each person (a yearling, male lamb, a yearling, female lamb, and a ram).  It was considered an act of righteousness to help cover the cost of someone’s vow-completion sacrifice.  This would openly demonstrate to the believers that Paul didn’t have a problem with Jews doing things from the Law of Moses.

Of course, the elders are quick to state that they are not calling for Gentiles to obey the Law, as was determined in Acts 15 during the Jerusalem Council.

Let’s move on in our passage.

Paul goes into the temple (v. 26-30)

Luke is not always clear on the details that we may want.  Part of this is due to the fact that he is writing in an environment where people are not so removed from the cultures as we are.  We miss things that he assumed people of that day would know.  Also, part of this is due to the fact that Luke is focusing us on what is important, not satisfying our every curiosity about the story.

I say this because in acts 27:21 it speaks of the ending of seven days.  Is this in regard to the purification of the men?  It wouldn’t seem to be about the feast of Pentecost because this feast happens on a particular day.  It is not like the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles, which both last 7 days.  It could, however, be a reference to the counting of the seven weeks.  Perhaps this is the ending of the 7^th week and the 7^th day of the 7^th week, etc.

I won’t go into the details of how this might connect to the purification because it is clear that this is not what is important to Luke.  What is important is that Paul and these four men have cleansed themselves, and they are in the temple to complete their vows to God.  Thus, they are righteously fulfilling the requirements of the Law regarding a vow.  It is in this environment that Paul is going to be seized and dragged out of the temple.  In short, Paul will be treated extremely unjustly.  There was no call for what they would do.

There would be lots of people in the Temple compound.  Verse 27 has Paul being recognized by some Jews who were from the province of Asia (the area around Ephesus).  The seize him and create a commotion around him by hollering for help.  This leads to the whole city being stirred up as word quickly spread.

Let’s first look at the content of their cries.  “This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place.”  Of course, Paul did not teach against these things.  He did reveal that the Law by itself could not make any man righteous.  He did teach that those who rejected Christ would find no righteousness through the temple sacrifices.

The second thing they cry is this.  “[F]urthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”  This was completely fabricated, and was based upon an assumption.  They had seen him earlier in the city with Trophimus and Ephesian Gentile.  They assumed that Paul had brought Trophimus into the Temple in order to defile it.

We do a similar thing all of the time.  We can make quick judgments about people we disagree with that we would not like being done to us.  We can stretch the truth and assume the worst case motivation for them and not worry about how much evidence we have.  We can act as if we have a gift of intuitively knowing what is in a person’s heart.  This is unjust and against the commands of Christ and the Law of Moses.

Of course, maybe you would never do this.  However, if it was done to you, what then?  We can sometimes feel justified to give back to people what they have given to us.  God will surely understand!  Of course, Jesus rebuked his disciples with these words.  “You know not what manner of spirit you are.”

Is it possible for a person who is following Messiah and being led by the Holy Spirit to end up in a place where they are responding to an antichrist spirit, the spirit of this age?  Yes, it is.  This is the testimony of Scripture.

James and John wanted to call fire down on a city.  Peter rebuked the Lord for talking about being killed.  Judas betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and then he hung himself.

It is not enough to be on the right team.   You need to decrease and Jesus needs to increase.  That is our battle that we will need to armor up to do.  We need the armor of God, which starts with the Belt of Truth!

We are told that Paul is dragged out of the temple and the gates are shut.  This would place them in the large plaza area around the Temple, whether to the north or to the south of it.  The area to the east was not as large, but they could be there too.

I am going to press pause on the story at this point.  But, I want to take some time to ask some questions about the choice of Paul and the advise of the Jerusalem elders.

I mentioned last week that I do not believe Paul made a mistake coming to Jerusalem.  He had “purposed in the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem at a particular point in time.  This reminds me of Jesus who did the same thing.  Jesus purposed to go to Jerusalem knowing he would die there.  It was not a mistake it was the will and the love of the Father.

The will and love of God can sometimes take us to some tough and harsh places.  Places that our flesh would complain about.  “God, you can’t ask me to do this!  It’s not fair!”

I use the word “ask” on purpose.  God forces nobody to do anything.  He is not a tyrant.  Some will try to complain that the restraints of the laws of nature and creation are themselves a tyrannical straight-jacket.  This is just silly.  There has to be some basis of reality for anything to happen.  We can look God’s grace in the face and claim it is a tyranny, but none of us can create a different reality.  Our problem is not the laws of physics and the nature of man’s mortal being.  It really is the problem in our heart.  We are willing to redefine good things as bad in order to satisfy the lust of our flesh, instead of accepting the goodness of God.

Were the elders wrong to suggest their solution to Paul and was he wrong to go along with it?  Did Paul compromise with the Jerusalem leaders?  First, I remind us that the elders’ concerns were with church unity.  However, this is not the problem.  No matter what they did or didn’t do, the problem would always be the jealousy that the Asian Jews had towards Paul (as well as some Jews from Jerusalem and elsewhere).  These elders are doing their best to keep the peace among believers.  That is good.  However, God doesn’t solve every problem.  Leaders need to keep this in mind.  There is a problem already, and Paul’s coming into Jerusalem only brings it to a head.

How might God be using this event?  He is challenging those in Jerusalem who refuse to believe that Jesus is Messiah.  He is also giving Paul a platform to preach the Gospel one last time to Jerusalem, and to dignitaries and kings.  He is also inviting Paul into a special relationship of suffering with Jesus for His cause.

When things go wrong, even Christians start looking for who is to blame.  Is it Paul’s fault because he didn’t look exceptionally pious when he entered the temple?  Is it his fault because he didn’t foresee the foolishness of having a Gentile with him in the city during a feast?  Could he have done a better job preaching among the Gentiles so that no rumors would have come back to Jerusalem about him?

Listen, there will always be rumors about you.  And, some of them will be true because you are human and not perfect.  But, the reality is this.  Some people do not like what you are doing.  The real question is not whether people are against us or not.  It is about whether or not you are with Jesus.

I may have fallen down, skinned my knees, and broken my arm, but am I with Jesus?  That is what really matters.  Paul was on a mission with Jesus Christ, and it brought him to some tough situations like this one.  Is not Jesus a stumbling block to all people?  We are all going to trip over Jesus.  It will hurt when it happens and part of you will want to shrink away from him.  But, I challenge you.  If you fall and are hurt on the Rock, the Lord Jesus, He can heal you.  If you don’t look to him for healing, then the day of judgment will become a day of crushing.  However, if by faith you call upon him for his grace, he will lift you up.

There are things that we need to do for and with Jesus.  Some of those things require a choice that will bring hurt to you.  Didn’t Jesus make choices that hurt?  Yes, but he did it out of love for the Father and out of love for you and me.

Paul’s heart can be summed up in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27.  Go ahead take the time to read it right now and then come back to this.

What matters is that Jesus be presented to a person in a way that they can understand.  You will have to do this over the top of obstinance and hard hearts.  If Paul needed to refrain from eating particular foods to share Jesus with someone, then he would.  That is a really small sacrifice.

Notice that Paul is not talking about sinful things.  You cannot sin with people in order to save them from sin.  Yet, you can lay down your right to make certain choices that will bring good to you, in order to help others.  This is what Jesus did, and this is what Paul is doing in this moment.  Let’s go forth and be like Jesus.

Showdown I audio

The Acts of the Apostles 58

Subtitle: The Jerusalem Council I

Acts 15:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, October 8, 2023.

The early Church was spreading rapidly, and it was becoming clear that there were some very different ideas on what Gentiles had to do in order to be saved. 

Of course, God was never confused, or unsure of their salvation.  It was the preachers, teachers, and elders who had some conflicting ideas.  To be fair, most of the conflict is caused not among the apostles, but from a group of Pharisees who had become believers in Jesus as the Messiah.

The church in Syrian Antioch had become the main hub of ministry to the Gentiles, specifically through the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas.  Thus, they are the ones who are going to present this conflict before the apostles and elders of Jerusalem because the Church needed to be united on such an important doctrine, salvation itself.  However, that unity needed to be founded upon what the Lord would have them teach.

This issue of unity is important.  Unity is good when it is united upon a good thing.  However, unity around a bad thing is at best a house of cards.  This world cannot deliver anything without God, but an implosion of ideas, activity, and culture.  In reference to the end times, Paul tells the Thessalonians that when the world says, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them.

The key here is determining what God expects from the Gentiles who are coming into the new covenant.  This will even have implications on what God expects from Jews as well.

Let's look at our passage.

A conflict arises regarding Gentile salvation (v. 1-5)

At the end of chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas had come back from their missionary journey in Asia Minor.  They reported to the people all of the amazing things God had done among the Jews and Gentiles there.

It then says that they stayed there "a long time."  Luke is good at giving general statements that make it hard to nail down a perfect timeline.  However, from analyzing the book of Acts along with passages in Galatians that giving timing information, we can determine that within the next year certain people from Judea arrive in Syrian Antioch.  They have some strong opinions on what Gentiles need to do to be saved, which causes a big conflict.

Before we look at this conflict, I want to point out one of the schemes of the devil.  Whenever God's people see a big victory, there will always be a spiritual counter-attack from the kingdom of darkness.  Another thing to keep in mind is that he doesn't always use pagans, witches, and satanists to do his bidding.  Of course, he does use them.  Yet, at the same time, the devil is always on the prowl for unstable Christians who are not grounded in the Word of God, and are not led by the Holy Spirit.

The devil finds fertile ground in these men to stir up conflict in the church even though they are believers in Jesus.  This is why it is important for us to pay attention to what the Bible says about our relationships in the Church.  We do need to be forgiving and work for reconciliation, but we also need to be firm on the truth.  This helps to defend against the devil's ability to find leverage within someone's heart and mind.  He knows how to ask slippery questions that get us second guessing, and thinking that we know what others are thinking and what their motivations are.

These Jews from Judea, the area surrounding Jerusalem, were teaching that a Gentile had to be circumcised in order to be saved.  However, circumcision was just the cause célèbre, the tip of the conflict.  Notice that verse 1 mentions that the custom of Moses is why they think that.  Of course, Moses instituted other customs as well.  We will see in verse 5 that they believed Gentiles should obey the whole Law of Moses in order to be saved.

It is important to understand what they are doing.  If you think about it as a formula, it would look like this.  Obeying the Law of Moses + Believing in Jesus = Salvation.  To them, Jesus is simply an addendum to the Old Covenant made with Israel through Moses.  They fail to see that this is a new covenant altogether.  It is based upon God writing laws upon our heart instead of on stone tablets.

Verse 5 also relates that the source of this persuasion are a group of Pharisees who had become believers.  Of course, the apostle Paul had also been a Pharisee who came to believe in Christ.  However, Paul learned his lesson about kicking at the goads of the Holy Spirit the hard way.  They on the other hand have not. 

Now at the first, this argument of the Pharisees might sound wise.  They would just cast the aspersion against Paul and company that if a person is merely saved by faith in Jesus, then they can sin with impunity.  Of course, this would be an error.  You can say that you believe in Jesus, but have you really put your faith in Jesus?  God knows.  He is not playing a game of words.  He deals in reality and truth.  However, let's keep walking through the passage.

Paul and Barnabas quickly get wind of what these guys are teaching and a strong dispute breaks out between them.  Neither side is backing down.  

Let me just remind us something Paul taught in Acts 13:39 when he was in Pisidian Antioch.  He said, "and by Him [Jesus] everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses."  So, Paul does not just see this as an issue for the Gentiles.  He sees it as critical to understanding even how Jews are made right before God.  There were certain things that the Law of Moses could never justify.  Only God's perfect sacrifice could make right those things, and that is Jesus.  The Law's weakness is not what it says, but that I cannot fulfill it in the flesh.  I need a redeemer, and that redeemer alone can make me right with God.

As I said before, if we make unity the cardinal doctrine, we must make it a unity upon what God is saying and doing.  This is why it is a good thing, a necessary thing, to stand strongly against those who teach error, especially when they claim to be believers.  These men were in danger of supplanting the truth in the hearts and minds of the believers of Antioch, and anywhere else they would go.

In Galatians 2, Paul refers to these men as false brothers (in the same fashion as the Bible speaks of false christs, false prophets, and false teachers).  He most likely did not call them that up front.  But later, he would see that many of them never truly embraced the grace of Jesus.  They were more about keeping the Law and its traditions than they were about coming into the new covenant.  In Galatians 2, Paul says that they did not submit to those false brothers for even one hour.  In our day, he would probably say not for one nano second.

When it is clear that neither side intends to relent, the church of Antioch decides to send Paul, Barnabas, and some others to Jerusalem in order to talk with the apostles and elders there.  This issue had to be ironed out now.

It is interesting to me that Paul and Barnabas did not jump on a ship to Jerusalem, which would have been quicker.  Instead, they travel down the coast through Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon) and Samaria (northern Israel).  As they travel, they share with the churches they find about God's gracious work among the Gentiles.  We are told that this brings great joy to the believers.  It is always wonderful to hear stories of God moving powerfully anywhere in the world today.

I think the main purpose was to counteract any of the false teaching that may have happened by this group of men who had stirred up so much conflict in Antioch.  By the way, the term "Judaize/Judaizer" is often used of Christians who teach others to obey the Law of Moses in addition to believing on Jesus for salvation.

This group from Antioch is received by the Jerusalem church like any group of believers coming from abroad.  Paul and Barnabas share all that God was doing through them, particularly among the Gentiles.

This initial report is quickly resisted by a group of Pharisees who were now Christians.  In verse 5, we have their main argument.

First, they state that "it is necessary..."  Necessary things have no wiggle room.  They are not saying that they think it is wise for Gentiles to do this.  There are thing that I myself choose not to do out of wisdom, not because I believe they are necessary.  I will not drink alcohol because of the damage it did in my life before I surrendered to Jesus.  I do this not because it is necessary for salvation, but as a matter of wisdom.  I've never looked back.  Yet, they are emphasizing that there are some things that the Gentiles necessarily have to do.

Now, let's be honest.  There are some things that God says are necessary, and when He does, we do well to pay attention and obey.  Acts 4:12 says, "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Jesus is a necessary condition to salvation.  This cannot be rejected without losing salvation.

Second, the first necessary thing is circumcision, according to the Judaizers.  Circumcision was a sign that you were under the covenant of Moses.  They believed it necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised to be saved.

Third, which actually incorporates the second, the Gentiles should be commanded to obey the Law of Moses.

This contention precipitates a gathering of the apostles and elders.  It is not referred to as a council in Acts, but historically it is viewed as an official gathering of the leaders of the Church to hammer out doctrine, so it qualifies as such.   They gather to determine exactly what should be taught to Gentiles in regard to salvation.

We should note that the kingdom of God is not about a democracy where everyone votes, and each votes is equal, regarding what we are going to teach.  What we teach must be based upon the decrees and work of God, and it should be led by spiritually mature believers.  Like a family, we would not expect the toddlers to help with the security and provisioning of the household.  Moms and dads are accountable before God to make decisions that are in conformity with God's Word for the sake of the children in their home.  Similarly, the apostles and elders are supposed to be a safety, and a help, to the new believers coming into the Church.  Of course, those elders would one day pass on, and young believers would become the elders of tomorrow.

They gather in order to make a decision (v. 8-12)

Luke tells us that there was much dispute, and then he gives us three testimonies that seem to have helped the group make their decision.  It is not important what all the intricacies of the arguments were.  Rather, Luke gives us the important testimony.  He gives us what we need to know.

The testimony of the apostle Peter is given first.  He was one of The Twelve taught directly by Jesus, and God had worked powerfully through him in Jerusalem and the surrounding area.  He also did not represent the "extreme" of the position of Antioch.  He was from Jerusalem, not one of "them."  Of course, the position of Paul and Barnabas, even that of the Antioch church, was not "extreme."  It is only extreme to a person who is unwilling to listen to God, and continues to resist what He is doing.  If God is moving and we are dead set on staying still, then even He will seem extreme to us.

So, what is Peter's argument, and which side does he take?

Peter points out that God's ministry through him made no distinction between Gentiles and Jews, especially in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.  They knew the story of Peter's vision of the sheet let down from heaven and how God told him to go to Caesarea and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles there.  In fact, even before he finished his sermon, God poured out the Holy Spirit upon those Gentiles in the same manner as had happened to the Jews on the Day of Pentecost.  Peter says that God, who knows the heart of a man, poured out the Spirit upon them.

How do you argue against that?  So, you are left with disagreeing that God had actually led Peter to do this.  However, that leads you to having to deny that they actually received the true Holy Spirit.  They would have to reject Peter's clear ability to know what God is doing before everyone.

Peter was not participating in an intellectual exercise of who-can-outwit-whom.  He was dealing with the reality of what God was telling Him, and what God was doing among Gentiles.  Jesus was saving and filling Gentiles with the Holy Spirit without them being circumcised.  This is a bigger deal than we might think.

Peter then says that God purified their hearts through faith (verse 9).  How could God take up residence in an unclean vessel (Gentiles were considered such under the Law)?  God had to purify them first.  On what basis?  Purely on the basis of their faith in Jesus.  There is no way theologically around this except calling Peter a liar, which would not be based in reality either.

In verse 10, Peter clearly separates himself from those who are pushing for Gentiles to be circumcised and follow the Law.  He asks them why do they "test God" by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples that even we Jews couldn't carry.

This phrase "testing God" is loaded with the connotation of Israel in the wilderness where they tested God.  Those who tested God in the wilderness perished while others went into the Promised Land without them.  These Pharisees may not have known it, but they were acting the part of their forefathers in the wilderness.  They were rebelling against God.

Peter could not have put this in clearer terms.  He is firmly on the side of Paul and Barnabas, but really on the side of Jesus.  He believed it to be dangerous to persist in requiring Gentiles (or Jews) to follow the Law of Moses in order to be saved.  Why would it be dangerous?  This is the argument Paul makes in the book of Galatians.  It is dangerous because it teaches you to lean upon all the wrong things for your salvation.  It diminishes Jesus to something less than your total hope of salvation.  Salvation belongs to the Lord, and is not a work of man, though we can work with the Lord in it.

Peter ends his testimony in verse 11 by giving a summary that parallels that of Paul in Ephesians 2:8,9.  "We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they."  When you couple that statement with the statement earlier that they were purified by faith, we see the grace of God working through our faith in Jesus to save us.  "Not of works lest any man should boast," as Paul would later say.

Peter had come to see salvation as a gift, a grace, of Jesus, and that even Jews are saved in the same manner as Gentiles.  There are not two paths to salvation: one for Jews, and another one for Gentiles.  In Jesus Christ, we are saved the same way, into one body, the Church (English), the Ekklesia (Greek), the Qahel (Hebrew), the People of God.

After Peter's testimony, we then have Barnabas and Paul testify.  Instead of focusing on a biblical argument, they give evidence of the work of God among the Gentiles.  In a sense, they are packing the testimony of Peter, which involves the work at one point in time among one group of Gentiles, with that of many groups of Gentiles, and many points of time, and many different places.

This creates a mounting question that is harder and harder to overlook.  Why would God fill Gentiles with the Holy Spirit and do miracles among them, if they now needed to be circumcised?  If circumcision was needed at all, then God would not do the other.  They would not be fit for service, and for His presence.  A holy God filling an unclean vessel would have been a concept that was anathema.  The vessel is cleansed first, and then it can be holy unto the Lord for His work.

The Pharisees are faced with either obeying God in this matter, or continuing to hold on to their traditions and points of pride.

We will finish up with the council next week.  Yet, let us notice that the freedom of Christ for believers is often put in contention with obeying the Word of God.  However, this is a false dichotomy.  We who have put our faith in Jesus have been purified by faith and now stand in a place of safety, on a foundation of salvation.  From that safe place of Jesus, we are enabled to partner with the Holy Spirit and follow the commands of Christ.  We are enabled to walk out the righteousness of Christ by the grace of God.

You will notice that the moral aspects of the Law (forbidding sexual immorality, murder, hatred, dissensions, etc.) are all restated in the New Testament.  However, the dietary laws, the temple ordinances, the special days of observance, et. al. are not reiterated as obligations of believers.  However, regardless of this, even the moral requirement to love one another is not a work I am doing to obtain salvation, but an act of love out of thanks for salvation.  Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey my commands."  Let us love the Lord our God with all our heart.  And, if we stumble, let us confess our sin, repent of it, and let him do his work of cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

Jerusalem Council I

The Acts of the Apostles 23

Subtitle: Taking Care of Widows

Acts 6:1-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 13, 2022.

Today, we will look at a passage that serves two purposes.  First, it helps us to see how the early Church dealt with conflict, and it also serves to introduce Stephen to us.  The second half of this chapter describes his arrest, and chapter 7 is a very long treatise from Stephen before the Sanhedrin.  We will talk more about this next week.

Conflict is not always a bad thing.  It may simply be the motivation to fix something that is not as it should be.

Let’s look at this passage.

Conflict arises vs. 1

There has developed quite a large group of Christians in Jerusalem, and it is hard to have a large group without any conflict.  Even two people will no doubt develop conflicts that they need to work out.  However, any time you gather a large group of people, the more likely you are to see conflict. 

Verse 1 tells us, “When the number of the disciples was multiplying…”  This multiplication is driven by the work and blessing of the Holy Spirit.  The fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee the absence of conflict.  Rather, it must be walked out in our natural life.  This is where the fruitfulness is evidenced, or seen.

We should not think automatically that conflict is a bad thing.  All groups who are trying to accomplish a mission will develop issues that bring passion to the surface.  The personality of people tends towards a Fight Instinct or towards a Flight instinct.  This gives us different components of the conflict.  There is the source, the responses, and the solution.  Each of these components are fraught with pitfalls, and “getting it right” in one component does not guarantee doing so with the others.

The main thing for Christians is to guard against being controlled by our natural responses.  God always has a purpose in conflict, even when the other person may be wicked.  In short, increased size will always bring increased conflict.  Your heart is your main concern throughout this.

In this conflict, there is a cultural issue at the heart of the conflict.  Two groups are introduced.  The Hellenes were those, whether Greek or Jewish, who lived according to Greek culture and mainly spoke Greek.  Hellenes was a name that the Greeks came to use for themselves, but by extension, it came to be used for anyone who adopted their culture.  This is not a reference to Helen of Troy, but to the mythological son of two flood survivors.

In contrast to these Christians who lived according to Greek culture, there was the Hebrews.  These Christians were Jews and converts who lived according to the culture of Judea.  They mainly spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, also having the dress and lifestyle of Israel in those days.  Ever since the return from the Babylonian Exile, this distinction existed among them, whether Greek culture, or Persian and Babylonian culture.

This is not an issue of salvation.  Both Hebrew and Hellenists were believing in Jesus, and joining the Church.

Now we can begin to talk about the conflict.  There were widows among these two communities who needed help with food and necessities, and so a daily distribution was started in order to care for them.  Of course, these were not rich widows who would have slaves and could care for themselves.  They would not be young widows who would often still have family and could remarry.  They were older widows who were left without a husband, without means, and without adult children who could care for them.

The Apostle Paul speaks about this type of situation in 1 Timothy 5:3-5.  Paul is not putting down those who remarry.  Rather, he is saying that a church should not be supporting those who already have familial supports around them.

We see this in the Law of Moses, where God threatens Israel not to mistreat widows and orphans (Exodus 22:22).  In Deuteronomy 10:18, God describes Himself as one who gets justice for the widow and the orphan.  Early Christians took this seriously, and cared for the widows in their midst who did not have natural family to care for them.  We do not know who was doing it, but there seems to have been no group plan.  It was just happening.

However, the fact on the ground is that some widows were being overlooked, and they were Hellenists.  This does not appear to be in dispute at all.  Now some conflicts happen over immoral issues, but there is no idea that this is being done on purpose, as a result of ethnic rivalry.  Some conflicts are simply logistical issues that require a better plan of operation.  Humans forget things and any plan that does not plan to cover for such moments is a plan that will have failures.

In this case, the source of the conflict does not have a moral failure.  This brings us to the next stage, the stage of response.  If we are easily offended, we tend to see purposeful actions in others, and ourselves as innocent.  This can affect our response, even sour it.  I can respond sinfully to a conflict that is not over a sinful matter.  Pause and think about that for a moment.

A solution is found vs. 2-6

As certain Hellenists speak among themselves about this problem, it comes to the attention of The Twelve.  They recognize that this needs to be solved publicly so that everything is done in the open for all to see.  This will make it easier to keep group unity down the road. 

Thus, they have all the Christians in Jerusalem gather.  This will not be a time for a sermon, or teaching, or even worship in song.  It is a time for ironing out a problem in the day-to-day operation of the Church.  Notice that in this conflict there are already cultural divides between the people.  It is wise to pay attention to such matters.

The call to gather is put in the mouth of “The Twelve.”  They were united on this issue and no one is credited with coming up with the solution.

Part of the solution is nipping in the bud the idea that the apostles should oversee everything that the Church does, or even do it themselves.  We do not know how many widows there were.  However, they are a large group, and they are under Roman occupation.  This may mean that there is a substantial number.

They state that “it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.”  “It is not desirable” has the idea of that which is fitting or proper, and thus pleasing, or desirable.  They are not saying it would be undesirable to them, but to God.  They had a calling on their lives that required being in the Word and spending time in prayer.  An enemy to reading the Word and prayer is often sinful tendencies, but it can also be other good things that need to be done and eat up our time.  There is a tyranny in the urgency of good things that take us away from better things.

Of course, everyone needs time in the Word and in prayer.  This is not only an issue for the apostles.  However, they are not the best ones to step up and fulfill this ministry.  Someone else needs to assist in this ministry.

The apostles tell the people to pick seven men to oversee this ministry.  Notice the qualifications that they advise the people to use.  Clearly, they do not see this ministry as something lowly that anyone could do.  It is not that this ministry is beneath them, but that it is not for them.  They have a different ministry to do.  They are to pick “men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.”  Even something as menial as serving tables in the name of Christ should be taken seriously.  We all need the help of the Holy Spirit to do everything that we do, and not just the “great things.”

It has been suggested that the number seven basically puts one man in charge of each day.  It is speculative, but also quite reasonable considering that it was a daily distribution.  Many hands make light work, and light work makes for joyful work.  Learn to be joyful in the duties that you have.  God has a good blessing for you on the other side.

We should also notice that there is no election or electioneering mentioned.

Seven men are picked and they all just happen to have Greek names.  It may be a stretch to say that they were for sure all Hellenists, but it appears that way.  With all or most of them being Hellenists, there will be no question going forward that ethnic tensions are playing a part in any errors.  Stephen leads this list because he is the next focus of Luke’s account.

These seven men are only going “to feed widows,” but they are publicly commissioned to this task in front of the group by the apostles.  There will be no question that these men are the ones who will take care of the ministry and that they should deal with any further problems or issues.  It also is a reminder to the men that they are to do this ministry in the name of the Lord.  They will be the hand of the Lord to these widows in their time of need.

The apostles lay their hands upon them and pray over them.  This picture of placing a call of God upon others through prayer is a beautiful one.  Practical service is a spiritual service.  Just as God was using the apostles to lay a foundation for the Church, so he would use them to set the Church in order.  These men are not entitled deacons at this point, but the word for “serving” tables is the verb form of that title that we will find later in the New Testament.  These are the first deacons of the Church.

The effect upon the spread of the Gospel vs. 7

I am sure that the enemy was hoping to divide and conquer the early Church through this matter.  It is good to pay attention to the schemes of the devil.  If we will not buckle to brute force attacks against our faith, we may respond to divisions and conflict with fellow believers.

What we see here is a Spirit-filled response to a very practical problem, and it protects the work of God from being diminished, “the Word of God spread.”  Distraction and group squabbles can keep us from the mission of sharing the Good News with others.  It can put out the Spirit’s fire within our hearts. 

This does not mean that we do not pay attention and speak up when things are not right.  God used this to deal with a problem.  Some widows were not receiving the food and care that they should have.  No one should want that to go unnoticed for the appearance of group unity.  Leaders in a church should not emphasize unity so strongly that voices that bring up problems are squelched.  It is the unity of the Holy Spirit that we work for, and sometimes, the Holy Spirit wants something to be said.

We are also told that the number of disciples multiplied greatly.  It has already been multiplying greatly, so we can say that they continued in the blessing of God.  Feeding widows and proper conflict resolution are not the secret to growing the Church.  Rather, it is responding to issues that need to be addressed with spiritual maturity and grace.  It is too easy to let the chores go undone, and then go on about your life.  Sometimes God lets the roof leak so that you will get up and start doing something about it.  It is in an environment of taking one another seriously, and properly dealing with conflicts, that the blessing of growth in the believing community can happen.

Lastly, Luke mentions that “a great many of the priests” became believers in Jesus.  Not all of them were like Annas and Caiaphas.  They had grown up in a system of tradition and control that had taught them not to question what they saw.  It gave them a “correct understanding” of the law that was not actually correct.  It was not until someone, who knew the truth, started teaching and living out the truth in front of them that they were able to break free from the intellectual hold upon them.

This happens today in churches, denominations, nations, even in constitutional federated republics.  It is only by the grace of God by His Holy Spirit that we can break free from the lies that were taught to us by our fathers, often because they were taught them by their fathers.  Jesus is no lie!  The Holy Spirit is not a lie, and those who believe in Jesus will be filled with the Spirit in order to make a difference in their life.  God help us to be “serving tables” by helping those who have no help in this life.  However, let us not overlook the need of people to be served the Word of God, so that they can believe!

Widows audio

The Things that God Hates 8: One Who Sows Discord among Brothers

Proverbs 6:16-19; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Matthew 5:9-12.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 3, 2021.

This morning, we will look at the last thing on the list of things that God hates in Proverbs 6.  It ends with describing a person who sows discord, or strife, among brothers.

God hates the sowing of discord among brothers

This image of sowing begs the question, “How does one sow discord, strife, and conflict among brothers?”  Or, we could also ask it this way.  “Just what does a discord seed look like?”

Perhaps it is simply a question about another person in their absence, perhaps about their motives, or a remark about them.  We might tell a story about them that we have heard, maybe even completely slandering them.  It might be less aggressive by stirring up the irritations that others already have against the absent person.  We really are only limited in this hated sin by our imagination, and people have honed this craft to an art.

Today, I want to look at the passage in 1 Corinthians 3 to bring out some things involved in this issue.  Paul is speaking to the conflicts and strife that were going on in the church at Corinth.  He puts his finger on their main problem: spiritual immaturity.  Though a person cannot become any more saved than they are, we may or may not become spiritually mature.

Paul pictures spiritual maturity as receiving nourishment from God’s Word.  Just like a newborn baby cannot digest complex foods and must drink milk, so a new Christian cannot immediately digest much of God’s Word.  They need to feed on the simple milk of the Gospel until they have grown enough to take in the deeper things of God.  The proper effect of God’s Word will be spiritual growth, as opposed to remaining carnal, or focused upon the flesh and its desires.  Thus, spiritual maturity involves putting off carnal motivations, carnal thinking, and the actions that come with them, and putting on the mind of Christ taught within God’s Word.  A spiritually mature person has motivations and thinking that come from God and His Word.  They do the actions that have good spiritual impact upon themselves and others.  Many in the Corinthian church were sowing seeds of conflict among the body of Christ, and Paul knew that this was breaking God’s heart, something that He hated.

Though spiritual immaturity is the main problem for the Corinthian church, there are other possible reasons why a person might sow discord.  A person may simply not be saved.  Jesus speaks in a parable (Matthew 13:24-40) about his enemy sowing “tares” in among the wheat.  These would be people who are carnal because they are not born again by God’s Spirit.  They have not been regenerated spiritually.

Of course, this is often the first accusation against others when you are carnal.  It is easy to always believe the other person must not be saved when there is conflict.  The spiritually mature person recognizes that even godly people can disagree on issues.  However, we would be asleep at the wheel if we didn’t recognize that the external Church has many tares that have been sown into it by the enemy, and some of them are leaders.

Sometimes the sowing originates within the group as we have described, and sometimes it comes from outside of the group.  Paul spoke of this in his farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church.

“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.  Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”  -Acts 20:29-31 (NKJV)

The savage wolves can come in among you, but they can also be government leaders giving decrees that cause problems in the group.  It is easy to miss the true source of conflict and only see the surface reasons.  It is important for us to step into spiritual maturity by checking our own motives first.  Line them up against God’s Word so that they can be purified.  Then, look for any deeper causes for the conflict that are not readily obvious.  Conflict always pushes us to rush our judgments, but this is not the will of God, nor the character of Christ.

In the end, we must learn to see through the schemes of the devil.  Our true enemy is him and his evil spiritual forces.  They are arrayed against the Church, and they use all manner of people: power hungry secular leaders, spiritually immature believers, con-artists, false prophets, etc.  The devil has schemes and a mode of operating that become more evident as we spiritually mature.  Whether whispering into the ear of Cain about his brother Abel, or catching Ahab’s eye with Jezebel, his strategies are generally the same, but his tactics are manifold.

So, what does God love?  Let’s go to Matthew 5:9-12 for that.

God loves those who promote peace between others

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.  Jesus, the Unique Son of God, came to earth on a peace mission, and so we are sent forth as his ambassadors also offering peace.  We are to speak peace from God to those we meet.  It is when we have peace with God that peace with one another is possible.  Do not fool yourself.  True peace is not possible among those who reject God and His Anointed One, Jesus.

There is a kind of anti-peace that is promoted by the antichrist system of this world.  The anti-peace is not a peace at all, but it can result in a cessation of some strife.  The Pax Romana (peace of Rome) protected many nations from invasion by others.  However, they were always under the strife of Roman rule, and were conquered by them in the first place.  If this is your definition of peace, then you can keep it.

True peace is built upon the foundation of a healthy fear of God and His judgment.  It is not a fear that God will be capricious, but that God will not be mocked or fooled.  He is not swayed by our words to Him.  He judges in truth, reality.  Anti-peace is built upon the foundation of the fear of man, and the powers of this earth.

Jesus said that if you stand for true peace with Him, then the world will hate you.  The world offers a false gospel that delivers a false peace.  Look around you.  You see groups trying to build Utopia without God, without truth.  Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief!”

When Jesus says that we shall be called “sons of God,” he leaves off just who will call us sons of God.  In fact, the next two verses talk about persecution.  Who is the “they” who will revile and persecute the peacemakers?  It is the world and all those who are one spirit with the false peace.  Christians are makers of true peace, and thus God is not ashamed to call them His sons, but the world that loves false peace uses worse epithets for us.  This persecution will come from outside of the Church and from within it.  It has always been so.  The early Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah were persecuted by other Jews who claimed to love God.  In the Middle Ages of Europe, Christians were often persecuted by other Christians who had power and authority, both religious and secular.

Don’t kid yourself.  A new morality is being raised up even today that is not of God.  Slowly, but surely, many denominations and Christians are moving from God’s Truth, to the anti-truth.  May God help us not to be caught up in our conflicts with one another and lose sight of the true enemy and his tricks.  The enemy is even now coming after believers that cling to the old ways of Jesus.  The heat is being turned up.

Ultimately, Jesus promises a reward for those who promote true peace and pay the price for it in persecution.  Not only will they be called the sons of God by him, but a day of manifesting just who are the sons of God is coming.  We will share in the glory of Christ as he returns to earth in order to set up the kingdom that God has given him. 

Now, your reward comes from the one you are serving.  If we serve ourselves, and thus the world, we will receive the world’s rewards.  The world will call us peacemakers and sons of God, but it will all be a lie.  For those who fear God and work for true peace, God has a reward that outweighs any difficulties, tears, and trials on this earth.

Yes, in some ways, we are already sons of God who are participating in his kingdom.  However, the terminology is “reward.”  Rewards are handed out after a contest, or project.  Jesus is pointing us to a point after the Resurrection in which we will stand beside him in his kingdom, a true utopia that will last for 1,000 years.  The world that has rejected God’s peace offer sees His peace emissaries as those who are obstructing the peace that they envision.  Christian, you must get used to being labeled by this world the opposite of what you truly are.  No, it is not fair, but it is part of the path ahead of us.  We can ignore their aspersions against us not in a sinful obstinacy, but in a steadfast, faithful determination to please our Lord Jesus!

Sowing Discord audio