Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00017A
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00:21 Welcome to Books of the Book.
00:23 I'm Pastor Mark Howard and I'm here with my co-host, my brother 00:27 Pastor Jim Howard and we have been plodding through the book 00:31 of Acts. It has been quite the journey. You feel like you're 00:36 there without some of the scrapes and bruises. Jim, I 00:40 can't help but think when Paul talks about bearing in his body 00:44 the marks of the Lord Jesus and we see how many times he went 00:49 through physical beatings and strain. We don't have that going 00:53 through the book of Acts, but we share some of the excitement 00:56 going through it. It's been an exciting journey. We want to 00:59 dive back in again here in the book of Acts. We're in chapter 01:02 15 and before we do we're going to ask God to bless our time in 01:05 his word. If you'd bow your heads with me today. 01:08 Heavenly Father, we ask your guidance now as we turn to your 01:12 word. We want to have spiritual understanding in spiritual 01:16 things. We pray that the Spirit of Truth will be given to us to 01:19 lead our understanding and we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. 01:23 Now in Acts chapter 15 we find a controversy that arises in the 01:27 early church. Starting in verse 1, the Bible says, Certain men 01:31 came down from Judea and taught the brethren unless you 01:35 are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be 01:39 saved. Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension 01:43 and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and 01:46 Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem 01:50 to the apostles and elders about this question. Now there are a 01:53 couple things here, Jim, that grab me right away. There's a 01:57 dispute over doctrine and the very first thing that happens 02:01 is when this dissension arises is they decide to go up to 02:06 the leaders in Jerusalem to solve the issue or to help in 02:10 solving the issue and bringing unity. Notice what they don't 02:14 do. It doesn't say that Paul and Barnabas decided that they were 02:17 going to branch off and start the reformed Christian church of 02:21 Antioch. The fact of the matter is that if we today as a 02:26 Christian church would follow what they did here and when we 02:29 came to a difference wouldn't say, well that's your 02:31 interpretation, this is my interpretation, which they could 02:35 have done, I believe the Lord would have blessed and we would 02:40 have unity, not just a partial unity, but a complete unity of 02:44 faith and mission in the Christian church. So they go on. 02:48 It says they decide they're going to go up to the apostles 02:51 and elders. Verse 3, So being sent on their way by the church 02:54 they pass through Phoenicia and Samaria describing the 02:57 conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy to all the 03:01 brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received 03:04 by the church and the apostles and the elders and they reported 03:08 all things that God had done with them. But some of the sect 03:11 of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary 03:15 to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law 03:19 of Moses. So we see a little bit of who was behind this. It was 03:23 the pharisaical mindset even though these were the Pharisees 03:26 who believed. There's something I want to touch on in Luke 03:30 chapter 18 that Jesus said in dealing with the Pharisees and I 03:34 think it will help us in getting to the bottom of what's going 03:38 on here in Acts 15. Luke chapter 18 and the verse that 03:44 we're looking for is verse 9. I'm wondering why I'm not 03:50 finding it. It's because I'm in John. This doesn't look familiar 03:55 Luke 18 and verse 9 and what we find here is the parable Jesus 04:00 gives, actually the story of the Pharisee and the publican, or 04:04 the tax collector. As Jesus is speaking regarding these two 04:09 groups and focusing on the Pharisee, he says in verse 9, 04:13 He also spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves 04:18 that they were righteous and despised others. That was 04:22 characteristic of the Pharisee. He trusted in himself that he 04:25 was righteous and I think that comes to play here in Acts 15. 04:29 Yeah absolutely. The issue of trust has a large bearing on 04:33 what we're going to find out here as we keep going. Let's 04:37 pick up in verse 6 where we left off where the Jerusalem council 04:41 here now, the apostles and elders, go ahead and meet. In 04:45 verse 6 it says, Now the apostles and elders came 04:46 together to consider this matter and when there had been much 04:53 dispute, so this was not an entirely docile crowd here. They 04:59 had strong feelings. There were strong opinions. 05:02 Perhaps our viewers may have been in one of those meetings 05:05 sometime where there were church meetings where there is much 05:08 dispute. That happens. That's right. In this particular 05:11 case we don't see everything I don't think. There's a lot that 05:15 is going on. But we see the most prominent aspects. We see Peter 05:20 and his message that certainly probably had the most weight 05:24 of any of the things that were spoken. Then we see the examples 05:29 given of Paul and Barnabas and their work with the Gentiles and 05:32 then finally James stands up and gives a response. So that's the 05:35 only part we see. But there was probably a lot more that was 05:38 going on here. But as we look at verse 7, it says, When there 05:42 had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, Men 05:46 and brethren. You know that a good while ago God chose among 05:49 us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the 05:53 gospel and believe. Now we might think of the Apostle Paul as the 05:58 apostle to the Gentiles and very much so he was. The Lord Jesus 06:02 told him that. But it wasn't just the Apostle Paul. You 06:06 remember as we studied in Acts chapter 10 where Peter received 06:10 that vision that revealed that he should not call any man 06:14 common or unclean and so he had been sharing that with the 06:18 believers in Jerusalem and beyond so they were quite aware 06:22 that God had revealed to Peter that the gospel should go to the 06:26 Gentiles. So he's somewhat of an authority here in a sense 06:30 because of that. Verse 8 then says, So God who knows the heart 06:34 acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did 06:38 to us and made no distinction between us and them purifying 06:43 their hearts by faith. His point here is that their hearts were 06:48 purified in the same way whether Jew or Gentile. And he makes a 06:52 point of pointing to the heart in two places. He says, So God 06:55 who knows the heart. This is a heart issue. And lastly 07:00 purifying their hearts by faith. And you know, as we think about 07:04 this challenge they were facing of whether or not circumcision 07:08 was necessary in order to be saved, Peter is pointing them 07:13 back to the issue of faith. Because even before circumcision 07:17 ever happened Abraham who was the one to whom circumcision was 07:21 committed, first had faith. Faith came first. We go through 07:25 the Bible and we see that faith is the handle by which we lay 07:29 hold of the blessings of God. The Bible says in Ephesians 07:33 chapter 2 that we are saved by grace through faith. It says in 07:37 Romans chapter 5, I believe you mentioned this in a previous 07:42 program, that we are, in verse 1, justified by faith. Then in 07:45 Acts later in chapter 26 it's going to tell us that we are 07:50 sanctified by faith. So all the blessings of God come through 07:53 faith and this is the emphasis that the Apostle Peter is trying 07:58 to make. But then in verse 10 he says, Now therefore why do 08:02 you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples 08:07 which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. So now 08:11 he's talking about this yoke. It makes me think of a couple 08:15 of passages. One is in Matthew 23. Let's look there together. 08:19 In Matthew 23 in what we refer to as the woes to the Pharisees 08:25 it says in verse 4 speaking about the Pharisees of that day 08:30 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on 08:34 men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them 08:38 with one of their fingers. So what had happened, and 08:41 circumcision is the issue here, but he's talking about this yoke 08:44 and circumcision had spawned a legalistic attitude. 08:51 Circumcision was somewhat of an ethnic rite to becoming a Jew. 08:57 So what really was at question here is how someone is saved. 09:02 What gives someone the right to heaven. Do they get their 09:06 ticket to heaven, as it were, through Christ? Is he what 09:10 merits us salvation. Or, do they get that through being a Jew? 09:15 So the issue was, is it important to be Jewish in order 09:19 to be saved, this circumcision rite. And the Apostle Paul is 09:23 not silent on this and I want to look in Philippians chapter 3 at 09:28 another passage that I believe really hits on that word. You 09:31 mentioned the words, They trusted in themselves that they 09:35 were righteous. Well notice in Philippians 3 when the Apostle 09:38 Paul is talking about circumcision, he speaks of it in 09:41 a little bit different light. He says, For we are the 09:45 circumcision who worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ 09:50 Jesus. What verse did you say? 09:51 Philippians 3 and verse 3. Oh, verse 3, thank you. 09:55 For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit. 09:59 Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. 10:04 Now he's trying to say that the circumcision is not necessarily 10:08 those who are physically circumcised, but those who fit 10:11 this category. And the key part of this passage to me is he says 10:16 that there are those who have no confidence in the flesh. 10:20 They don't trust in themselves to be righteous. 10:21 That's right. And it helps us to understand a little bit about 10:24 what the issue here was with circumcision. You know 10:27 circumcision, there's nothing inherently wrong about it but 10:31 they were putting confidence in it. It's what gave them 10:35 confidence. Now if I wanted to go to some wonderful concert and 10:40 I wanted to make sure I got in but there were only so many 10:44 tickets going around. If I got a ticket, if I could lay hold of a 10:49 ticket then that ticket itself would be my confidence that I 10:53 would get in. If I didn't have a ticket but you knew the singer 10:56 you might be the confidence. I have confidence in you. But 11:01 ultimately my confidence is in that which is going to get me 11:05 in. And when it says that we have no confidence in the flesh 11:08 it's trying to say that ultimately those who are relying 11:11 on circumcision were relying on it to give them salvation. They 11:16 were seeking to merit salvation through the circumcision and the 11:21 Apostle Paul was very clear. That detracts from Christ and 11:24 detracts from the fact that faith in Christ is really the 11:29 only way to salvation. It continues in Acts chapter 15 now 11:34 Pick up back there in verse 11 where it says but we believe 11:38 that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be 11:44 saved in the same manner as they. So here we see that faith 11:49 is going to be the key, faith in Christ, is going to be the 11:54 key that gives them eternal life and not circumcision. 11:59 And Jew or Gentile, both have access to Christ through faith. 12:04 Circumcision divided, but faith has now united Jew and Gentile. 12:08 That's right. And we see then the experience of the apostles 12:13 in verse 12, it says, Then all the multitude kept silent and 12:16 listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and 12:21 wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. So they 12:25 are basically testifying to the validity in their experience of 12:30 what Peter has shared and along the lines of what you have just 12:33 shared about that confidence. And the fact of the matter is 12:36 that the Lord is the one that gives salvation and they've seen 12:39 that poured out among the Gentiles. And it goes on to say 12:44 in verse 13 that, After they (Barnabas and Paul) had become 12:48 silent, James answered and said, Men and brethren, listen to me. 12:52 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles 12:55 to take out of them a people for his name and with this the words 13:00 of the prophets agree just as it is written and he quotes from 13:05 the prophets as a testimony, or what do I want to say, as a 13:09 confirmation. Because when Peter refers to his experience with 13:13 Cornelius he's really referring to a vision and he's using his 13:16 prophetic authority when he speaks and then we have 13:20 Barnabas and Paul that are speaking of their experience. 13:23 But then it's taken all back to the word and James says, you 13:26 know with everything that's been said this is not contrary but 13:28 it's in perfect harmony with what the prophets have written 13:32 beforehand and therefore that leads James to make a concluding 13:35 statement that's going to resound through all the church. 13:40 We don't have time actually just yet to get into that. 13:43 We're going to take a short break and then we're going to 13:47 come back and I hope you join us as we continue on in our 13:50 study of the book of Acts. We'll see you in a minute. |
Revised 2014-12-17