Participants: Tony Moore
Series Code: IFP
Program Code: IFP000006
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01:35 After returning from their successful journey to Cyprus
01:40 and Galatia, Paul and Barnabas rejoiced with the church 01:44 here at Antioch. 01:45 They were praising God for how the Holy Spirit had 01:48 answered their prayers beyond their wildest hopes 01:51 and fondest dreams. 01:53 Yes churches had been planted throughout Cyprus, 01:56 Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Galatia. 02:00 Cities like Perga and Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Derbe 02:05 and Lystra, they were rejoicing at what God had done. 02:09 But soon a crises developed here at Antioch that 02:13 threatened to destroy the church in its infancy. 02:17 The basic issue is this, Was Christianity to remain a 02:22 sect to the Jews, or was it to stand apart on its own? 02:26 This issue is often misunder- stood in modern times because 02:31 we tend to read it from our Western modern perspective. 02:35 You see the church was still very, very Jewish. 02:40 They still circumcise their sons. 02:44 They would still go to the temple to honor the various 02:47 festivals, and would pay the temple tax, they would 02:51 take the ritual baths. 02:53 Yes the believers were still very, very Jewish. 02:57 This was fine as long as the church was focused in 03:01 Jerusalem, even as it went beyond that holy city to 03:05 Judaea and Samaria. 03:07 The converts were still largely Jewish. 03:10 Jewish believers accepted Jesus as their Messiah and this 03:16 fulfilled their Judaism, it made them complete Jews. 03:19 But as the gospel went beyond the borders of Judea and 03:23 Samaria and came to the region of Phoenicia and Cyprus 03:27 it up here to Antioch, more and more Greek and Gentile 03:32 believers were joining the church. 03:34 They were accepting Jesus as their Messiah and joining 03:38 the largely Jewish church. 03:41 The church here at Antioch, was very open-minded. 03:45 They accepted this mix with an open heart. 03:48 They rejoiced at the fact that the Greeks and Gentiles 03:51 were joining the church. 03:53 They commission Paul and Barnabas to go out and proclaim 03:56 the good news of Jesus in distant lands. 03:59 Paul and Barnabas returned and rejoiced with the church, 04:02 and God continued to add to their numbers more and more 04:06 people, it was a thrilling time. 04:09 But soon, some of the Jewish believers began to be 04:13 concerned, the additional Gentiles joining the church. 04:18 Was this weakening the Jewish-ness of the church? 04:22 Would Judaism be swallowed up by the growing movement 04:27 of Christians in this city? 04:29 Some believers came from Jerusalem and began to stir 04:33 up a controversy here at Antioch. 04:48 Some brothers came down from Judea, here to the city 04:51 of Antioch, and they began teaching that unless you are 04:54 circumcised, according to the customs taught by Moses, 04:58 you cannot be saved. 05:00 Now notice they didn't say, it would be nice if you 05:03 are circumcised, they said unless you are circumcised 05:06 you cannot be saved. 05:08 In other words, they were saying, unless you become a Jew 05:12 you cannot be saved no matter how much you believe in 05:16 Jesus, no matter how sincere your faith is in Jesus, 05:20 you cannot be saved unless you also first become a Jew. 05:25 Paul recognizes this was contrary to the gospel. 05:29 He and Barnabas recognized that this would destroy the 05:32 church if it was allowed to continue. 05:35 So what led them into a sharp dispute with the people 05:38 who had came from Jerusalem. 05:40 It was decided that they should send a delegation from 05:44 the church here at Antioch down to Jerusalem to settle 05:48 the issue, Acts 15:2. 06:06 Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem and now we look 06:09 on our map and we see that it's south. 06:11 Why would it say going up? 06:13 Because now we are at sea level, and Jerusalem is 2500 06:17 feet above sea level. 06:18 Paul and Barnabas went with some of the other men and 06:21 journeyed up to Jerusalem, visiting the churches through 06:25 Phoenicia, and Samaria, Judea, until they came to the city of 06:30 Jerusalem where the church convened a council to 06:34 decide this issue. 06:38 When Paul and Barnabas finally arrived in Jerusalem 06:41 they gave a thrilling report, to the church, of how God 06:44 had worked miraculously among the Gentiles. 06:47 You see Barnabas had long been a leader of the Christian 06:50 church in Jerusalem, and had been sent up to Antioch 06:53 to organize the work there. 06:55 They came and shared how God had been working miraculously 06:59 amongst the Gentiles, not only at Antioch, but in 07:03 Cyprus and throughout the regions of Phrygia and 07:06 Galatia and in Pisidia. 07:08 They gave are tremendous report and the church was 07:11 thrilled to hear what had been said. 07:13 Then some of the Pharisees who have become believers in 07:16 Jesus laid out their concerns. 07:19 They were concerned that Gentile believers must not 07:23 only accept Jesus as their Messiah, but they must 07:26 also become Jews. 07:28 That is that they must be circumcised, they must be 07:32 complete Jews. 07:34 This threw the council into turmoil and the council 07:38 wrestled with the problem for some time, finally Peter 07:42 stood up and shared how God had worked in his experience 07:46 about the Gentiles. 08:29 The situation Peter refers to was critical to understand. 08:33 It shows just how prejudiced the Jews at this time were, 08:37 and just how Jewish centered the young church was. 08:41 The story is recorded in the 10th chapter of Acts. 08:44 Where God moves upon the heart of a Roman 08:48 centurion who was in charge of the garrison 08:52 at the port city of Caesarea. 08:54 Caesarea was the administrative center of the Roman 08:57 province of Palestine. 09:00 Cornelius was a devout man, he was a God fearing man 09:04 who gave generously to charity. 09:06 One afternoon, while he was praying, an angel appeared 09:09 to him in vision and instructed him to send two servants 09:13 down to Joppa, to the house of a leather worker by the sea 09:17 where Simon Peter was staying. 09:19 Immediately Cornelius dispatched two servants and a 09:23 trusted soldier to go down to Joppa, 30 miles south 09:27 of Caesarea, near the modern port city of Tel Aviv, 09:31 to look for Simon Peter and to bring him back to 09:34 teach him as the Holy Spirit had revealed to Cornelius. 09:39 The problem was, Peter was an extremely bigoted man. 09:43 He was extremely prejudiced, Peter would never think 09:47 about going into a house of a Gentile, 09:49 or eating with a Gentile. 09:51 Peter was a Jew, indeed he was a believer in Jesus 09:54 but he was Jewish. 09:56 It's amazing to the Western Christian perspective, the 10:01 religious prejudice that was being exhibited by 10:04 a person like Peter. 10:06 Peter was an extremely bigoted person and so God had to 10:10 prepare Peter's heart. 10:12 Peter went up on the rooftop toward noon to catch the 10:16 gentle sea breezes there at the house of the 10:19 Tanner by the Sea. 10:21 When Peter drifted off to sleep, 10:23 God revealed to him a vision. 10:26 In vision he saw a sheet coming down and being held by 10:30 four corners, inside the sheet he's saw all kinds of wild 10:34 unclean animals. 10:36 There were dogs and cats and pigs and snakes, 10:39 all kinds of animals. 10:42 We read about the story in Acts 10:13. 11:08 Peter were shocked by the vision, it was a Jew's worst 11:11 nightmare, but he wanted to be obedient to the Lord so 11:15 he immediately got up and went to local barbecue and 11:18 ordered a rack of spareribs, right? 11:20 No! Of course not. 11:22 Let's read on. 11:36 Scripture says while Peter was wondering what the vision 11:40 meant, there was a knock at the door. 11:43 The men from Cornelius's was standing there asking if 11:46 this is the house where Simon, call Peter was staying? 12:28 What a tremendous story. 12:30 God has a high-ranking Roman official, who was 12:33 spiritually hungry, to understand more about the Lord. 12:37 The problem is, the Christians are so prejudiced that 12:41 they will not share the gospel with Gentiles. 12:45 They don't understand that the good news of Jesus 12:49 death, and resurrection from the dead, is for all 12:53 people regardless of their ethnicity, 12:55 regardless of their racial backgrounds. 12:58 How can God get through to His main man Peter? 13:03 There is a spiritually hungry Gentile who needs 13:07 to be fed, and Peter considers that Gentile and 13:11 unclean dog, and unclean animal. 13:14 God gets through to Peter by sending him a vision, 13:18 and in vision He tells him that Peter is a Jew needs to 13:22 get up and eat unclean animals. 13:25 We read about it in Acts 10:23 and onward. 13:55 Peter went in response of the vision that God had given 13:59 to him, when he reached the city of Caesarea, he went 14:02 into the house of Cornelius the Gentile. 14:05 This had been previously unthinkable for a good Jew like 14:09 Peter to do, we read on in Acts 10:27. 14:29 Peter reminds his guests that it is unlawful for a Jew 14:32 to associate with a Gentile. 14:35 The question is, why is Peter now entering into their 14:39 house? The key is found in the remainder of verse 28. 14:59 Peter had been wondering with the vision could mean. 15:01 He knew that God did want him now to eat, rats, and snakes, 15:06 and camels, and cats and dogs and pigs. 15:10 No, God was revealing to him that he should call no man 15:13 common or unclean. 15:15 You see before the vision, Peter considered the Gentiles 15:19 to be common, to be unclean. 15:22 But now God had revealed this vision to him. 15:24 So Peter could go into the house of Cornelius the Gentile 15:28 and share the good news of Jesus with him. 15:31 Isn't it amazing how God could work through someone 15:35 like Peter, in spite of his prejudiced, 15:38 in spite of his bigotry? 15:40 Yes, the Lord accepts us in spite of our backgrounds, 15:43 in spite of our limited perspectives, and yet He 15:47 chooses to change those perspectives. 15:49 Peter now had a new worldview. 15:52 So he asked Cornelius why have you sent for me? 15:56 Cornelius explained how an angel had appeared to him in 16:00 vision, and Peter was amazed and now he explains 16:05 the Gospel to him. 16:15 This was a major step for Peter and for the church. 16:19 To underscore the fact that Jesus had accepted Gentiles, 16:22 the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentile believers and 16:25 they spoke in tongues just like the apostles had on 16:29 the day of Pentecost. 16:31 Yes Peter was in shock when he stayed in step with the 16:34 Holy Spirit, he says. 16:51 Yes this was exciting, it was wonderful. 16:54 Peter and the disciples were thrilled, everyone was 16:57 thrilled until Peter went back to Jerusalem. 17:11 Can you believe it? 17:12 Jews who accepted Jesus as their Messiah were now 17:15 criticizing Peter for going into the house of a Gentile 17:19 and eating with them. 17:21 Instead of rejoicing that the lost had been found, 17:24 they were criticizing Peter for sharing the gospel 17:28 with a Gentile and baptizing him in the name of Jesus. 17:32 Yes people who had accepted Jesus as their Messiah were 17:36 still controlled by their personal worldviews. 17:39 This should tell us to be very careful and to make a 17:43 careful distinction between what our opinions are and 17:47 what we believe and what our Lord actually said. 17:50 Peter reviews with them what had happened in Acts 11:7-18. 18:54 This was a major step for the church. 18:57 To admit that God was opening a door of salvation 19:00 to the Gentiles. 19:02 Who was Peter? Better yet who were the believers in 19:05 Jerusalem to oppose the work and plan of God? 19:08 Gradually began to dawn upon them that the gospel 19:12 was more than just for Jews or Jewish converts. 19:17 Gradually they began to understand that when Jesus said, 19:20 "for God so loved the world," that it meant more than 19:22 just the Jewish world. 19:25 The gospel was for all people in all places at all times. 19:29 Yes the divided Council at Jerusalem began to understand 19:33 that you did not have to become a Jew before 19:36 you became a Christian. 19:49 With the backdrop of Simon Peter's experience, 19:52 the elders listen carefully to Barnabas and Saul as 19:56 they describe carefully how God had worked through 20:00 their ministry to reach the Gentiles. 20:02 Then James, the brother Jesus, spoke up and said. 20:31 Perhaps what he didn't say was more important than what 20:34 he did say, do you remember why the Council was called? 20:38 Do you remember why the men were stirring up controversy 20:41 in Antioch, and why the church sent Paul and Barnabas 20:45 down to Jerusalem? 20:46 Remember we read about the controversy in Acts Chapter 15:1 20:59 James said that the Gentiles did not have to be 21:02 circumcised to be saved. 21:04 That meant that they did not have to become Jews 21:07 before they could believe in Jesus and be baptized. 21:10 Theologically this is a very important point. 21:13 It was a crucial time, for it meant that the church was 21:17 moving beyond the boundaries of Jewish ethnicity. 21:20 You see the church began as a sect of the Jews, but now 21:24 it was moving beyond that, it was emerging to stand 21:28 upon its own. 21:30 Jewish believers understood this in principle, 21:33 even Peter did not understand the full implications 21:37 of what this meant. 21:38 Yes it was a very, very important time for the church. 21:42 We examine what the council didn't say. 21:45 Now let's look into what the Council did say. 21:48 Four points, they said the Gentile 21:51 believers were to follow. 22:11 The first request of the Council of Jerusalem was that 22:14 Gentile believers abstain from eating food that had 22:18 been polluted by idols. 22:20 This would be a problem that would plague the church 22:22 for years to come. 22:24 Paul would address this issue in his letter to the 22:27 church at Rome, and also in his first letter to the 22:30 church at Corinth. 22:32 The crux of the problem was basically this. 22:34 Often animals would be sacrificed in pagan temples 22:39 to heathen deities, then the meat would find its way 22:43 back into the public marketplace. 22:47 Sometimes sold at a discount, the crux of the problem 22:50 was if you ate this meat that had been sacrificed to a 22:54 heathen deity, were you in fact worshiping that deity? 22:58 When Daniel went into Babylon, he and his three friends 23:02 chose to follow a vegetarian diet in order to avoid the 23:06 consumption of animals that have been sacrificed to the 23:09 Babylonian deities. 23:12 Many believers were choosing to be vegetarians in order 23:17 to avoid eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. 23:21 The second principle that the Council of Jerusalem asked 23:25 Gentile believers to abide by, was to avoid or abstain 23:30 from fortification or immorality. 23:32 There really wasn't the word morality as we would know 23:35 it today in the Roman world. 23:38 Often part of the ritual of worship, in heathen temples, 23:43 had to do with immorality. 23:45 We think of the famous worship of Aphrodite's in places like 23:49 Corinth, that actual immorality was part of their religious 23:53 worship and exercise. 23:56 Yes, prostitution was rampant in Roman society. 24:00 Immorality was rampant and so the church at Jerusalem 24:04 requested that the Gentiles believers follow a moral 24:08 life, that sex only could be in the context of marriage. 24:12 Third principle, they asked them to abstain from eating 24:16 animals that had been strangled. 24:19 Often animals would be beaten to accentuate the hormones 24:23 in their bodies, they would be beaten and strangled to 24:28 prevent the loss of blood. 24:30 Blood was a great delicacy in the Roman world at this 24:33 time, and this was to be avoided. 24:36 Cruelty to animals was to be avoided and so they asked 24:40 the Gentiles believers to abstain from eating animals 24:44 that have been sacrificed. 24:46 The fourth was quite similar. 24:52 This is a very fundamental teaching in the Old Testament. 24:55 The entire Council endorsed the idea and wrote it into 25:00 a letter, they decided to send several men of respect and 25:04 authority from the community in Jerusalem to accompany Paul 25:08 and Barnabas back to Antioch and present before the church 25:12 there the decision the Council had made. 25:15 One of the men that went with Paul and Barnabas was Silas 25:19 who had joined Paul on his second missionary journey. 26:46 Yes, this was the heart of the gospel. 26:48 Paul contended for the gospel, he did not want the 26:51 church to be relegated, to be a sect of Judaism. 26:55 He saw that it had to emerge and go beyond that. 26:58 He championed the gospel of Jesus Christ so that you 27:02 and I might be part of the church today. 27:05 We praise God for that and thank God for a man like 27:09 Paul who had the vision to see the church emerge from 27:13 the shadows of Judaism. 27:17 Join me as we pray. 27:18 Father we thank You for using the apostle Paul to have 27:22 the clear vision and foresight to contend for the 27:25 gospel even against men like Peter and Barnabas who 27:29 were waffling over these issues. 27:31 And to allow the church to develop from the shadows 27:34 of Judaism's. We thank you for Paul, help our 27:38 faith to grow and be steadfast in You, 27:42 just like his we pray, in Jesus name Amen! 27:45 Paul and Barnabas had returned to the church up in 27:50 Antioch and after sharing the good news with the church 27:53 at Antioch, the decision of the Council of Jerusalem, 27:56 they decided it was time to go revisit the churches 27:59 that they had established in Cyprus and throughout 28:02 Pisidia, Galatia and Pamphylia. 28:05 Soon a dispute developed between the two men and 28:09 Barnabas decided to take his nephew John Mark and go 28:12 back and visit the churches in Cyprus. 28:15 Paul invited Silas, one of the men sent up from the 28:18 Council of Jerusalem, to accompany him and he would 28:21 take his journey up through Tarsus in the Cilician 28:24 Gates into the regions of Galatia to share this 28:26 important message with them. 28:28 Join us for the next episode as Paul returns to the 28:32 area of Galatia, sharing the good news of the 28:35 Council of Jerusalem. |
Revised 2014-12-17