The Letter to the Colossian Church- 2

Subtitle: A Prayer of Petition

Colossians 1:9-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 20, 2025.

We are continuing in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae.  Last week, we looked at Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving for their faith, their love, and their hope in God.

In these verses, he moves into a prayer of petition on their behalf. 

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul asks for certain things in their lives (v. 9-11)

Just as prayers of thanksgiving are a kind of prayer, so we have prayers of petition, where we ask God for things.  The idea of petition may seem strange to connect to prayer.  However, think about how we use petitions in our society.  At its root, a petition is going before some authority and asking them for something.  Yet, due to the political nature of most authorities, we get as many people as possible to “sign” our petition, basically saying that they are asking for this also.    Thankfully, our prayers to God are not generally dependent upon getting enough people to agree with us.

We should recognize that there are different categories of things in our petitions to God.  Some things like food, money for bills, or healing from a sickness, if they are answered by God, will no longer be in our prayers of petition.  They will be a part of our prayers of thanksgiving, but we will no longer be asking God to heal someone who is already healed.

The things that Paul asks for them are not the kind of things that can be answered tomorrow and be done.  They are the kind of things that are being answered throughout our life and are completed through death and resurrection.

This brings up a side issue.  It is common for people to compare their petitions to those of others.  When we are praying for someone that has stage-4 cancer, it is common for people who are battling a cold to feel like their healing is too small to bother God.  We can find ourselves in a strange place of not praying because we are convinced God is too big to be bothered with us.  The problem here is this.  We don’t realize how we are diminishing God in thinking that He is too big to be bothered.  What we are really saying is that He is not quite big enough to be able to deal with the big and small things of life.  Your petitions are important to God because they are part of the way that He is working to make you like Jesus.

Before we get into what Paul is asking for them, he mentions that he has “not ceased to pray for” them (vs. 9).  To pray without ceasing is not so much about praying every second.  It is a prayer that is always in his heart for them.  He loves them, and he desires things that can’t be answered in a moment in time.  Thus, he continually prays that God will do these things in their lives.  He said the same thing to the Thessalonians and other churches.  Paul’s prayer for one is his prayer for all.

These are not prayers of empty (vain) repetitions.  Jesus didn’t say, “When you pray, do not repeat your prayers.”  Rather, he said, “When you pray, do not use vain repetitions.”  There is a repetition that has meaning.  It is when we are praying for things that take a life-time to complete, and we are doing so out of love.  However, empty repetitions happen when we think that we can get what we want by God through some mantra or mechanism of prayer.  People can build rituals of prayers and activities as a means of acquiring whatever they prayer.  This puts us in the driver seat and makes an answer to prayer all about our ability.  Prayer at its root needs to be a child coming to their father.  There is no way we can force our Father in heaven to give us what we ask.  But, we can seek His wisdom as we ask.

In our flesh, we can grow weary of praying for the same thing over and over.  However, the Spirit of God can stir in us a love for our family (biological or spiritual) to the point that we won’t give up praying, asking, these things for them.

Paul asks God to fill them with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The word for knowledge here has a prefix that gives the added sense of a precise and correct knowledge.  How can we have a precise and correct knowledge of the God’s Will?  In fact, think of all the ways in which we are surrounded by imprecise and incorrect knowledge of God and His will.  The only way we can get this is if God reveals Himself to us, which He has been faithful to do.

Can you imagine this prayer being “answered” completely in this life?  I mean to the point where you never have to pray for it again.  This is the kind of thing that you will be asking God over and over again, not because He isn’t answering, but because the knowledge of God’s will has an incomprehensively large range.  It goes from the micro such as decisions for our individual life: jobs, marriage, kids, etc.  However, it stretches out to the macro, such as the response of our Republic and this world to the Gospel, to the point in time in which the saints will inherit the Kingdom of God.

God answers such a prayer as we live life and wrestle with it before Him in prayer.

Paul adds the modifiers of “spiritual wisdom” and “understanding.”  He calls it spiritual to highlight the source of the wisdom and understanding.  However, we know that Paul doesn’t mean just any spiritual source.  The devil is a spiritual source of false wisdom that many in the world embrace and call wisdom.  Paul clearly is pointing to a wisdom whose source is the Spirit of God.

This is what James speaks of in James 3:15.  He warns to have a wisdom from God, “from above,” versus a wisdom that is earthly, from the earth.   He uses two more words to describe a worthless wisdom.  The second is that it is sensual, that is, from our senses and flesh.  Lastly, James speaks of a wisdom that is demonic.  We can treat earthly, sensual, and demonic as three different kinds of wisdom, but they are tied together.  The devil uses our flesh and the world around us to manipulate us like he did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of our flesh simply becomes a proxy for the wisdom of the devil because he leads us by the nose through them.

What is the difference between understanding and wisdom?  Well, understanding is an aspect.  It is the moments when we gain insight into what God wants and why He wants it.  However, wisdom flows out of understanding and answers the question, “So, what should we do?”  The source of wisdom is critical because it will direct the things we do and don’t do.

How does God fill us with the knowledge of His will?  He does so through the written Word, through mature believers, and through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This means we must be a people who are reading the Word of God (seeking His wisdom), interacting and talking with mature believers, and seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit through prayer.

Paul also asks God that they walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects. There is a lot of water under the bridge in this area within the Church.  There is a whole range of how people respond to a verse like this.  On one side of the range is a group that sees absolute obedience without failing as the meaning of this.  It is a legalistic perfectionism that typically has a group of elders who are the judges of how well you are doing.  On the other side of the range is a group that promotes Jesus as such a covering for our sins that we don’t even have to quit sinning.  They will even dissuade the desire to obey God because you are trying to save yourself.  This is the easy grace crowd that demands next to nothing for those who are in their group.

Let me be clear.  Jesus is worthy of absolute perfection, but Paul is not calling for this.  He is referencing the reality that we represent our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus to a world that doesn’t know them.  Part of the understanding of His will that we need is to see how God works through the way we live our lives in order to draw others to Him.  A manner “worthy of the Lord” is a focused life that seeks to please Him in everything.  Anyone who does this will find themselves failing in many things, not on purpose, but simply out of falling short of Jesus.  Yet, what do we do when we fall short?  God’s word tells us to heed the Holy Spirit, repent, and pray for His help.  We shouldn’t do this out of fear, but out of a desire to please our Lord and help his purposes.

In this area, it is important to distinguish between salvation issues and discipleship issues.  I will come back to this in a moment, but this is critical here.  This “worthy manner” phrase is not about obtaining or keeping our salvation.  It is about our discipleship in Jesus.

Paul also prays that they would bear fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.  There is a theme that begins in Genesis 1 and flows throughout the Bible.  God made humanity to be fruitful like He is.  Yet, he connects it to “every good work.”  God is the one who defines both what is fruitful and what is a good work.  He is the source of every good thing, and it is He who puts good things in front of us to do, whatever that be.  He is the teacher of both what is good and how to do it.

Some people can be picky and choosey about what they want to do or not to do.  This calls for yielding our fleshly desires and surrendering to His heavenly desires.

When we do the work that God gives us to do well, then it bears good fruit.  This involves pruning things that are not good out of our life.  It also involves pruning things that are fine in and of themselves.  However, there is too much crowded into our life, demanding our time.  It can squelch and inhibit good fruit.  Thus, a perfectly good branch can be cut off to give more sunlight and oxygen to the other branches around it.

A person led by the Spirit of God will have the very life of God springing up within their life and flowing out into the lives of others.  This fruitfulness has the by-product of increasing our knowledge of God. 

This brings us back to the tension between salvation and discipleship.  How can we do good works?  I thought all our works were as filthy rags?  The apostle Paul was not contradicting himself.  Rather, we need to distinguish between salvation and discipleship.  None of our works and worthy walking can save us.  In and of themselves they fall short of the absolute righteousness needed to save a person.  When it comes to salvation, it is the work and walk of Jesus that can save.  He creates a place within him that we can step into by faith.  It is a faith in him.  He is the One who performed the work of saving me.  However, now that we are in that saved and cleaned place, he wants us to learn of him, become like him, discipleship.  In that saved place of trusting Jesus, we can do good works and walk worthy.  Our works are no longer filthy rags because they are done by faith in Jesus, and they are stirred up by the Spirit of God.  The works that are done in Christ and by the leading of the Holy Spirit are cleansed by Jesus, and we now do them for the right reasons, to glorify God for Jesus as opposed to trying to impress Him with us.

Paul also asks that they be strengthened with all power for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.  We can get excited about the idea of having power.  Visions of creating worlds and vanquishing the armies of Pharaoh may dance in our heads.  Yet, Paul speaks of a power that is “according to His glorious might.”  This is the power displayed by Jesus when he went to the cross.  It is in contrast to the power that the Corinthian Christians desired.  There desire was all about a power that would distinguish them above each other.  The power of Christ is distinguished by it penchant to place ourselves beneath others in order to lift them up.  It is the strength to die to what our flesh wants.  This is at the root of any good work that we may do for Christ.

Paul sees a connection between the exercise of spiritual strength and something that it produces in us.  It will make us steadfast and patient.  These two words are really about patience, but it is patience looked at from a different facet.  Steadfastness pictures patience as the ability to remain under a heavy load, rather than quitting.  It is perseverance, endurance.  The second word translated patience is the picture of not easily losing your temper and blowing your top.

Only the power of God’s Holy Spirit can help us to persevere and not lose our cool, whether this is with others or towards God.  Yet, we will need to die to the cries of our flesh to quit and get angry.  We will have to picture Jesus on the cross and choose to join Him there.

Some translations connect the phrase “with joy” to patience, i.e., having patience with joy.  Others connect it to the next verse, “joyously giving thanks…”  It is one of those strange cases where the grammar can actually allow for both interpretations.  Whether we can determine which of these Paul intended, I think the difficulty is moot in the end.  Think about it.  Is there ever a time when we shouldn’t be patient with joy?  Or is it okay for our thanksgiving to be without joy?  Regardless of which of these you think is most likely, we should do all things with joy. 

Give thanks to the Father for what He has done (v. 12-14)

We should see this as the last thing that he is praying for them.  Just as He gave thanks for them, he desires that they too become a people giving thanks to the Father, and with joy.  We should notice how all of these things tie together.  Our growing in spiritual wisdom and understanding helps us to know the Lord and be joyful for all that He does in our lives, even just for our lives.

Yet, Paul is transitioning out of what he prays for them and into a treatise about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, verses 12 through 14 describe what the Father has done for us.  When we understand what He has done for us, we will joyfully give thanks to Him even in difficult times.

He points out that our Heavenly Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light.  This could also be translated as, “qualified us for a share [a portion, a lot] in the inheritance.”  What is this inheritance of the saints?  It is the promise throughout the Old Testament that God will give the Kingdoms of the world to His representative and the saints.  This is most clearly described in Daniel 7.  Verses 13 to 14 focus on the Son of Man (aka the Messiah) who receives full dominion over the kingdoms of the world and a Kingdom that will never end.  However, later in verse 22, it explicitly states that the saints will take possession of the Kingdom.  Thus, this singular person, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the One through whom the saints can participate in the Dominion of Messiah.

By ourselves, we were (are) not worthy to receive this kingdom.  At the tower of Babel, God casts off the nations and creates a nation for Himself out of Abraham.  The nations failed to qualify.  However, we have a similar dynamic at the cross of Jesus.  Israel is cast out of the land because it has disqualified itself as a recipient of the Kingdom.  Christ then takes a remnant of Israel and uses them to be a light to the Gentile nations.  The key to this is that Jesus was the only one, Gentile or Jew, who qualified to receive the Kingdom from the Father.  Yet, the good news is that we can participate in his qualification.

There is a present aspect to the portion that we are qualified to obtain, and there is a future aspect to it, but more on that in a moment.

Why does he use the phrase, “the saints of light?”  Saints is a reference to the fact that we are set apart for God’s purpose.  This makes us holy, holy ones, and that is what the word “saints” means.  Light here is used to refer to the God of all Light.  It is symbolic of the way that truth helps us to see the realities that exist around us.  Jesus is the light of the world.  Yet, he in turn tells us that we are the light of the world. How is that?  When we put our faith in Jesus, and his Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, the light of Jesus shines through us like a clay lamp.  In and of ourselves, we are just a clay lamp.  However, with the oil and flame of God within us, we can be used of God to shine the light, the truth, of Christ to the world.

Part of what qualifies us is that the Father has rescued us from the domain of darkness.  This is external imagery that takes on a military feel.  His people have been stuck in a kingdom of darkness and need to be rescued, like Israel in Egypt.  However, this is not a rescue from a geographical place or a particular government. 

A child born into this world starts out innocent of any evil.  Yet, the darkness of this world presses in upon them.  It seeks entrance by any means.  By the time we become adults, the darkness of this world has made us a part of its dominion.  In the end, each of our hearts is where the domain of darkness reigns.

It is the Father who sent the Son to take on the nature of a man in order to rescue us from the grip of the devil.  These people in Colossae were under the dominion of the Beast Kingdom of Rome, but now they have been rescued and are no longer at the mercy of that darkness.

Finally, the Father has transferred us to the Kingdom of the Son of His love.  God hasn’t just rescued us.  He has put us in the Kingdom of Jesus.  Of course, they are still in Colossae and must deal with the Roman governance.  This is due to the “now but not yet fully” nature of the Kingdom of Jesus. 

This kingdom will never end, but it will go through phases.  We are in the phase where he is offering terms of peace to his enemies.  “Join me!  Why will you die?  Take my hand!”

He is called the Beloved Son, or Son of His Love, because it is tying into the prophecies about the ultimate son of David.  God promised a forever kingdom ruled by one who would be a son to God and God would be a Father to him.  These prophecies of an Anointed King are fulfilled in Jesus.  He is the One who has a perfect relationship of love with the Father.  It is God’s love for Jesus that is the bedrock of our hope.  If I was alone, then I could fear that He would deny me.  However, when I am with Jesus, God will not deny Himself!

Paul ends by stating that in Jesus we have redemption and forgiveness of sins.  These are also things that the Father has done, through the work of Jesus.  These are the foundation of our qualifying to inherit the Kingdom of God. 

Those who are in Christ have forgiveness of their sins.  However, this is not so that we can go out and sin more, but so that we not lose heart and give up when we fail.  Jesus cleanses us from our sins.  Yet, our cleansed state is only as we stand in Jesus.  Yes, I can be cleansed, but I am also standing within a cleansed place, the Lord Jesus.

How can we be sure that we have been redeemed and forgiven?  It is not because you have never failed, that is for sure.  We can be sure because we are obeying what the word says: put your faith in Jesus, turn from your sin, and follow him by the help of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that you have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and are firmly in the Kingdom of the Beloved Son, Jesus.  Yes, your geography hasn’t changed, but your soul has changed!

Prayer of Thanks audio

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

The Acts of the Apostles 21

Subtitle: The Reaction of the Council

Acts 5:33-39.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 16, 2022.

Last week we looked at Peter’s powerful defense of their actions, and their preaching of the Gospel of Jesus.  Peter ended with a powerful conviction of the religious leaders of Israel for murdering Jesus in the face of what God was doing- see last week’s sermon regarding why it is presented as murder.  This sets us up for the reaction from the Council.

It is easy to become angry with a human being.  Even the best believers have flaws that can be used to discount them, or even attack them.  However, we must always remember that this is unwise.  You will not be judged by Jesus on whether you were more flawless than those you disagreed with.  Rather, you will be judged by what the Spirit of God was trying to say to you, or through you.  Thus, we need to be careful in how we respond to one another.  This is a serious area in which we are easily tripped up by the enemy.

Let’s get into the passage.

They become furious (vs. 33)

Though Peter’s speech is much the same as it was the first time he spoke to the council (Acts chapter four), it seems that the council’s response is far more furious this time.  That makes some sense because this time they have disregarded the council’s earlier command.

Yet, it is not Peter that is bothering them, but rather, it is the Gospel Truth that Jesus has given to the apostles, the fact that they are faithfully speaking with boldness, and the clear presence of the Holy Spirit’s power.  They would have typically dispatched Galilean fishermen with ease, but these guys were not typical.

Some translations say that they were “cut to the heart.”  The word literally means “to be sawn in two.”  Any English speaker would recognize right away that the intent of the original language is far more vehement than “cut to the heart” elicits.  Thus, the term “furious” is used.  They have been forced to hear the truth that they have been avoiding with such shocking force that they are beside themselves with rage and indignation.

We should see a contrast between this reaction and the reaction of the crowd on the Day of Pentecost.  It is a contrast between Israel’s leaders and the average Judean (Jew).  In Acts 2, the word of God from Peter is more of a piercing of their heart, rather than a sawing in two.  Being pierced by God’s word stirs up remorse and godly sorrow within many in the crowd (of course not all). 

It is the same word that Peter is preaching, but it has a different effect on different hearts.  Of course, there is even a third response that can be described as apathy.  How am I responding to the Gospel Truth of Jesus Christ?  I am not just talking about sinners who are not believers, but also about those who are supposed to be believers.  There comes a time when God refuses to wink at sin any more.  He then sends a polarizing event, situation, or person to force us off of the fence, one way or another. 

This is where many in the council are.  They are responding with vehemence against the Gospel Truth.  They are on a course to do the same thing to the apostles that they had done with Jesus.  However, God had a different plan!  Yes, the apostles would give their lives for the Gospel, but not at this time.

The intervention of Gamaliel (vs. 33-39)

At this point, a respected teacher named Gamaliel steps in to dissuade the council from the direction that they are headed in.  So, what do we know about this Rabbi?

We do not have a lot of source documents from that time period to give us information on him.  He is mentioned twice in Acts and a couple of times in the Talmud (a collection of Jewish law and traditions).  He seems to have lived from about 10 BC to c. AD 55-65.  He served as the “Prince” (Nasi) of the Sanhedrin during these years and was a Pharisee, which means that he wasn’t aligned with the high priest.

In those days, there were two mainstream schools of interpretation referred to by their founding rabbis: Hillel and Shammai.  Gamaliel is the grandson of Rabbi Hillel.  It has been pointed out that Hillel and Shammai could have been present at the temple when the twelve-year-old Jesus was teaching and amazing them.  Of course, we cannot know this side of heaven.

Gamaliel had the honor of a familial connection to Hillel, but had also proven to be a wise teacher, having a respect on his own merits.

Gamaliel argues for leaving the apostles alone, which causes some to question why he didn’t do so with Jesus.  We do not have enough information to figure that out, so silent we should remain.  It is possible he was not able to attend the trial of Jesus for some reason.  It is also possible that he went along with the death of Jesus, but now feels executing 12 of top disciples- who were proving to be quite popular with a large number of people- is a bridge too far, and will cause riots.  This is all speculation.

Regardless, this story has more to do with God’s purpose for the apostles than it does with Gamaliel.  He simply becomes a means for God’s purpose to be worked out like Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, or even Judas.

Gamaliel has them put the apostles outside of the chamber so that they can discuss without being overheard.  It is interesting to note that Nicodemus would have most likely been there.  This account in Acts is the only surviving evidence of this trial.

When he is able to speak freely, Gamaliel warns the council that they need to be careful in what they do with these men.  The heated anger within the group was not carrying them in a good direction.  He argues against putting the men to death, which tells us what he didn’t want to happen.  However, an argument is always crafted to be persuasive to others, and doesn’t always represent the main thinking of the person making it. 

At the least, Gamaliel represents a cooler head, which is a hallmark of wiser notion.  Still, we should be careful of turning Gamaliel into more than he is.  He too was kicking against the goads of the Holy Spirit, along with his disciple Paul (see Acts 22:3).  He is trying to find a middle road in a situation in which God is not allowing there to be a middle road.  As I said earlier, there are times where God brings everything to a head and forces people to get off the fence.  He uses circumstances like a bulldozer to remove that fence out from under us.  How important it is for us to see that the issue is not wise sounding words, but knowing the Word of God, knowing what He is doing in the now.  In this case, not even Gamaliel had the wisdom of these fishermen and their friends, in the same way that Pharaoh did not have the wisdom of the slaves before him.

Gamaliel reminds the council of two recent examples of insurrections that were led by messiah-figures.  Each of these are of a person who gathered a large following, had a level of success, was struck down, and then their followers dispersed.  We have no evidence outside of the Bible for these two insurrections.  There are some passages in Josephus that are close, but they do not fit these details.  In fact, there were many insurrections and rising of messiah-figures within Israel.  The most famous of that period, other than Jesus, would come in AD 135 as the Romans crushed the Simon BarKochba Revolt.  He had been backed as messiah by Rabbi Akiva, the top Hillel scholar of that time.  So, it is little wonder that these two events, which were recent to the council at that time, would not be recorded elsewhere. 

The first example is of a man named Theudas.  He gathered up to 400 men, and yet, he was slain.  This sounds like a military death, so it seems likely they tested their metal against the Romans.  Regardless, his followers dispersed and nothing more came of it.

Similarly, a man named Judas (Judah) of Galilee rose up during the days of the census.  There were several censuses in those decades, but it is likely that “the census” is a reference to the census by Caesar Augustus during the birth of Jesus.  This Judas also rose up, drew many people after him, and then perished.  His followers dispersed and nothing more came of it.

Gamaliel’s argument comes down to this.  These apostles are either doing a work of men, a human source, or they are doing a work of God.  If it is a work of men, then it will fail and come to nothing, like the two examples he gave.  However, if it is of God, then they won’t be able to fight it because no man can fight God and win.

I would say up front that it would be reading too much into the argument to believe that Gamaliel was thinking God might be behind the apostles, though that is a possibility.  However, it seems most likely that he is logically boxing them into the course of action that he wishes them to take.  There is no way the council will accept that these men are doing God’s work- they were the ones “doing God’s work.”

There are two sides to Gamaliel’s argument.  The side about God is absolutely true.  When God is doing a work, not even the great armies of the world can stop it.  Yet, there is a fallacy on the human side.  Yes, all human endeavors done without God’s help will fail, but there are other factors.  How long will it take to come to nothing?  And, how much damage will it do until it fails?  What about Islam?  Does God want Arabs worshipping a false god in a false religion?  Of course, He doesn’t.  Yet, due to their choices, God has worked it into His plan.  There will come a day when Islam is no more.  What about Mormonism?  They have been quite successful in numbers of people and money spent on a mission that is not a work of God.  However, these things are worked into God’s plan as a judgment upon Christianity and its lack of fervor in His things.

We might also say that this is not the counsel of Jesus.  “Beware of false prophets…”  It is not the council of the Apostle Paul who jealously defended the churches that he started from false teachers and false prophets.  He didn’t just ignore them.

We must always understand that sometimes God brings situations that force us to make a choice.  It polarizes, and there is no middle position.  O Christian, let us be a work of God who is working with God in His work!  If we are only a Christian looking work of man, then we are of most people to be pitied, for we will one day stand before him and hear the fateful words, “Depart from me.  I never knew you!”

Reaction audio

Joining the Family of Jesus

Mark 3:31-35.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 02, 2019.

One of the great themes of Scripture is the family of God.  Some like to use this phrase to refer to all humans.  However, the Bible makes a distinction between natural biology and spiritual life.  Thus, not all humans are a part of God’s spiritual family according to the Bible.  We see this in John 1:12-13.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

This biblical concept of becoming a child of God should not be confused with the many mythologies of the ancient world.  In these we often see particular gods coming down to earth and physically sire an offspring that were referred to as demi-gods.  This idea is diametrically opposed to the testimony of Scripture because it focuses on the flesh and sees the perfection of the flesh as the answer.  Thus, Zeus is actually copulating with a human maiden and she is actually birthing a child that is half human and half god.  These demi-gods would be faster, stronger, smarter, etc. than normal humans.

Yet, the Bible speaks of a spiritual birth that must take place in order for us to become a part of God’s family.  Birth in this case is a metaphor that is used of a person who received revelation from God and faith is conceived in their heart and mind.  They put their trust in God, namely in the One whom He sent, Jesus.  When this happens, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within that person and makes them spiritually alive and alert to His presence.  This is what it means to become a child of God.  We are not stronger or faster than normal humans.  Rather, we are in connection with the God of heaven and are being led by His Holy Spirit to become like Jesus, who is the exact representation of God the Father.

I pray that you are a part of the family of God, but today we are going to spend some time discovering just what that means.

The family of Jesus struggled with his ministry

It is no secret that the family of Jesus had trouble with him.  When he began his ministry, he had multitudes continually surrounding him and imposing on his time.  In fact, it was to the point that Mark says that Jesus had difficulty just eating bread (Mark 3:20).  Also, he was not being received well by the religious experts, who increasingly made their disapproval evident.  In our passage today we find Mary and her sons showing up to talk to Jesus.  However, before we get into this, we should remember the previous episode in this same chapter, verse 21.

There we are told that “his own people” came to take hold of him because they thought he was out of his mind.  When we compare that event with the one in verses 31-35, we see that the latter passage is far more specific on just who is involved.  “His own people” is very general, but clearly could involve any of his family, relatives, friends, and neighbors from the Nazareth area.  Mark has gone out of his way to put two similar events within 10 verses of each other.  Events in which those, who were close to him as he grew up, tried to take him back home.  It happened more than once and involved various subsets of the groups I mentioned above.

In our passage today, it merely states that they show up while Jesus is teaching and send word that he should quit and come out to them.  This time it is not as explicit as saying they think he has lost his mind.  However, they are clearly antagonistic to what Jesus is doing.  Why not wait until he is done?  Why interrupt him in front of a large crowd who want to hear what he is saying?  It is because they do not respect what he is doing.

Let’s look at the brothers of Jesus first.  It is worth noting that they are not full brothers because Jesus is not the offspring of Joseph and Mary as they are.  Yes, I am aware that some groups teach that Mary had no kids, but this flies in the face of the text and requires special pleading for the normal interpretation of these familial words.  In John 7:5 we are told that his brothers did not believe in him.  On top of this, none of the brothers of Jesus are mentioned among the disciples of Jesus until after the resurrection of Jesus.  So, it is no shocker that they arrive and were most likely also a part of the earlier group in verse 21.  They also think that Jesus has lost his mind and needs to settle down and be a good Israelite.

However, the mention of Mary in this group may be more puzzling.  By the way, the Gospel’s silence regarding Joseph throughout the ministry and execution of Jesus is usually taken to mean that he has passed away at some point.  This idea is further supported by the words of Jesus to his disciple John, telling her to take care of his mother as a son (i.e. in his place).  This would not be needed if Joseph were still alive.

So, Mary, who saw and heard the angel Gabriel, who said “Let it be to me according to your word,” this very same Mary is in the unbelieving group demanding Jesus to come out and speak to them.  Most likely, she has been convinced and persuaded by her younger sons, and the pressure of her family and neighbors.  Still, even Mary is lending her familial relationship to this cause of having an intervention with Jesus.  In the best of intentions, they believe that they are stepping in for the good of Jesus, but in the worst of motivations, they are most likely afraid of what people are saying, and most likely some jealously on his brother’s behalf, among many other emotions.  Flatly stated, even Mary struggled with what Jesus was doing.  I am not painting her out to be a complete unbeliever, but we see her struggling much the same way John the Baptist struggled as he pined away in prison.  Was I wrong about Jesus?  Did I misunderstand?

All that to say, these intervention groups in verses 21 and 31 come trying to do the righteous thing.  Yet, there is a sea of unrighteous things going on under the surface.  It is easy to cover impure motivations with a thin veneer of righteousness.  In fact, we see it everyday within our own society: at work, in politics, in business, in families, etc.

By the way, I should make a few parenthetical statements about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Over the centuries, an increasing devotion to Mary has led to all manner of unbiblical teachings about her.  Contrary to what some teach, we have no reason to believe that Mary was “immaculately conceived.”  This idea is that God kept her from being contaminated with the sin-nature during her birth.  This is so that she would not pass it on to Jesus.  Of course, this doesn’t make sense, since God could have done so to Jesus if it was needed. However, Mary herself declares that she has needed a Savior, i.e. had a sinful nature that needed saving, in the Magnificat of Luke 1.  There she states, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior!”  Of course, in our passage today, her faith is wavering and she is helping to be an obstacle to the ministry of Jesus.

Another thing that some teach about Mary is that she was a perpetual virgin.  The straight-forward teaching of Scripture is that she and Joseph came together sexually after the birth of Jesus.  She birthed at least 3 sons and 2 daughters, most likely more.  These all would have been at most ½ siblings to Jesus (Scripture gives no clue to the degree that God may or may not have used the genetic material of Mary’s ovum).

Lastly, it has become popular to teach and speak of Mary as the Co-Redemptrix of the world along with Jesus.  This is illogical because it confuses the clear biblical message that Jesus alone is the Redeemer of the world.  Yes, Mary plays a critical part in God’s plan of salvation, but it is Jesus alone who does the work of redeeming mankind.  Thus, Mary should be respected as a godly woman who was willing to do the will of God even though He asked her to do a difficult thing.  She should be honored, but not revered as a quasi-divine being.  In fact, we should recall the words of Simeon the prophet in Luke 2:34, who spoke to her in the temple.  “Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts  may be revealed.’”  This is exactly what we are seeing in our passage today.  Their hearts are being laid bare so that they can make a real decision and not one that is masked by a veneer of goodness.  No matter how critically we have been used by God in the past, we must work to remain open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit and what He is doing today.

Jesus defines his true family

This event gives an opportunity for Jesus to define what it really means to be in such a close relationship with him that he would consider you his brother or sister.  Jesus is apparently in a house of some kind and it is full of people listening to him teach.  At some point, word comes to him that his mother and brothers are outside and they want him to come out to them.

As I said earlier, they are not there to receive his teaching and learn.  They are not there on a mission from God.  They are there on their own terms and for their own purposes, which happen to be contrary to the will of God the Father.  Jesus is doing exactly what he knows the Father wants him to do.  This sets up a chance for Jesus to teach on what is important when it comes to family, from God’s perspective.

It doesn’t matter into what family you were biologically born.  It could be the most spiritual family on the planet, or it could be the most heathen family on the planet.  This is not what connect you to God, nor is it what keeps you from connecting from God.  Some very wicked people grew up in Christian homes, and some very godly people have come from homes that were wicked and often so dysfunctional that the term home should not be used.  Thus, this saw cuts both ways.  The spiritual state of my biological mom and dad does not guarantee me a ticket, nor does it disqualify me.

This means that something besides physical birth has to happen in order for me to become a child of God.  Kids raised up in Christian homes have to come to Christ for themselves, at some point.  Parents can often lose sight of this fact.  We can be so focused on making them outwardly conform that we forget that works without faith are dead.  The Scriptures say, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” 

Jesus is not being insensitive to his family.  They are the ones being insensitive to the call of God on his life.  Jesus is not teaching us to blow off our biological family and do whatever we want.  Rather, he is challenging us to place the work of God in our life above the desires and purposes of our biological family.  The best-case scenario is to have our biological family pulling together with us for God’s purposes.  In this sense our biological family is also our spiritual family.  The reality is that this is easier said than done.  Thus, we must desire to be spiritually born into the family of Christ.  Jesus takes advantage of this situation to define for us what puts a person in his spiritual family.

Whoever does the will of the Father is a part of the family of Jesus.  What do I mean by that?  Jesus points to the crowds who are sitting around him listening to the words of God and declares that they are an example of spiritual family.  God wanted all of Israel to listen to Jesus, but many didn’t.  These ones who were there that day were there because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, or at least a prophet sent from God and worthy of their devotion and attention.  His biological family is there that day for the wrong reasons.  They aren’t the devil, but neither are they supporting what God is doing through him.  Times like these require getting on your knees in prayer and asking God to sift your heart and help you to see any impure motives that might be in your heart.

When you think about it, it is relatively simple for the devil to convince good Israelites, and good Christians, to do his bidding, if they do not guard their hearts and remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  He just comes as an angel of light doing what is right, but his every word is a lie.  In fact, Jesus explains this clearly in John 6:28-29.

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Jesus is the One whom the Father has sent to the world.  It is not believing in the sense of intellectually believing that he exists, but rather believing that he really is the Son of God who was sent into the world to save us.  It is believing in the sense that we pick up our cross and follow him, first as a disciple or student, and second as one who has been sent to the world around them, to draw them to him.  Yet, true belief is not just an inner disposition.

True faith always makes an external difference.  It is the Father’s will that all people everywhere repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.  If we have true faith in Jesus then it will produce works of righteousness that come from the leading of the Holy Spirit, rather than a conformity to culture (religious or secular).  No matter how Christian the culture of America was in the past, no one was ever saved by conforming to the Christian culture.  In fact, even a Christian culture finds itself fighting against the will of God, just as the religious culture of Israel did in the days of Jesus.

Make sure that you are not just coasting along in a Christian Family or a Christian subculture, and yet not truly believing in Jesus as your savior and lord. On the other hand, make sure that you are not remaining in sin and pushing Jesus away because the people around you won’t understand, or you are afraid of how they will react.  The Holy Spirit is working every day to convict people of their sin and the judgment that looms over them.  Yet, He also convicts them of the righteousness of Jesus that can save them from that sin and judgment.  He is really all that we need.  If everyone forsakes you and ridicules you; if the comfortable Christians around you think that you have lost your mind and need an intervention; regardless of all these things, look to Jesus and the Word of God, and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in the will of God.  It is His will that you be a part of His family today!

Family of Jesus audio