Acts 15:1-35 Seeking Unity Amidst Disagreement
Good morning! We are back in the book of Acts this morning, so turn with me to Acts 15:1-35, page 923 in the pew Bibles.
This is going to be a big bite of text this morning as most of this chapter is dealing with one topic. The challenge for us this morning is going to be seeing through the issue to the real issue.
So, let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Acts 15:1-35. Our account begins in the city of Antioch where Paul and Barnabas had returned to and shared all that the Lord had done, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. It’s going to be important for us to remember what a Gentile is as we look at this. A Gentile is anyone who is not Jewish, by birth or by conversion, like probably most of us here today.
Up until this period Jews were not allowed to associate with Gentiles, they couldn’t go in their houses, they couldn’t even eat with them. And this is important to remember because the church, at least at first, was considered just another sect, or denomination, of Judaism.
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
16 “ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33 And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
Now here we are faced with a choice. We can spend the rest of our time dealing with the issue on the surface, which is whether or not Gentile believers must become Jewish before they can become Christians, to include getting circumcised, following the Kosher laws, along with all the rest of the rules and regulations that governed Jewish life, making salvation works based, versus faith based, or, we can look through the issue on the surface and deal with the issue underneath.
I know you were all looking forward to a sermon on circumcision, but I already decided to focus on the issue behind the issue. Sorry, not sorry.
Now we all know that everybody within the church has always agreed on everything, but just in case, at the principle level, the Lord still gave us some guidelines in dealing with disagreements… just in case.
Now in the example before us in Acts 15, we have a group of people that the New Testament refers to as, “Judaizers.” This was a group that thought that in order to be a Christian one first had to become a Jew.
Now don’t forget that the New Testament hadn’t been written yet. One of Paul’s first letters, the letter to the Galatians, had yet to be written, and it addresses this very topic and was written to these very people. I encourage you to read it for further study on this issue of being saved by the Law versus being saved by grace. The Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, did a much better job than I could dissecting the issue of Law vs. grace.
What’s really at issue here, the pattern for us to rediscover is, how did the early church deal with doctrinal differences?
Now, don’t get me wrong here, these two groups were not both right. They were not disputing between two equally true truths. The Judaizers were dead wrong, and the final decision in our text shows that. But this does put on display an example of what to do when disagreements arise.
Now I know that we in this church family never disagree on anything, so this is all clearly hypothetical, but on the off chance that someday some other people disagree on some doctrinal issue maybe it’ll be helpful for them to have this on record.
So in verse one, an issue comes up and what do they do?
Verse two says that they talked about it. They had no small dissention and debate over the issue.
Now we can see at this point, they had not reached a resolution. So what did they do next?
They appointed Paul and Barnabas as well as some others to go to Jerusalem to the Apostles and elders and ask them about the issue.
4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees (that’s the Judaizers) rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
As you can see this issue was pretty big, and there was a pretty big division in the church about it and it lasted for a long time. There are some that would say that the spirit of the Judaizer is alive and well even today. Not that people want new believers to become Jewish before they can become a Christian, but that they have to do certain things first in order to be saved. Whether it’s requiring baptism in order to be saved, or just cleaning up your act before you can come to church. Don’t smoke, drink, dance or chew, and you have to quit dating the girls that do!
Anyway, what is the equivalent to taking the issue that is under debate to the Apostles? After all, we don’t have Apostles to go to anymore, right? Well, at least we don’t have living ones. What we do have is their letters to the church, we have the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned by His Apostles.
So the first step is to examine the Scriptures.
We stand on the Word of God to be our only rule of faith and practice, church life and discipline. The Bible is 100% true and accurate and is the final authority on what we are to believe, and do, and not do.
But there’s still lots of different debates over what the Bible says about a lot of different doctrinal issues, what do we do when it’s not clear, or we still can’t agree, or we just don’t understand?
We can still do what they decided to do here in our text in consulting those teachers that they trusted to handle the Word of God accurately.
Every week I consult scholars that I trust to interpret the Word of God. I have my list of favorites, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Warren Wiersbe, RC Sproul, JJ VanOosterzee. These are not the only trustworthy teachers out there but they are ones that I trust.
There are a lot of lousy, untrustworthy teachers out there too, telling people what their itching ears want to hear, so we have to be discerning. But if any teacher that you read is not concerned about what the Bible actually says, and finding the meaning in the context of the verses they quote, I recommend you avoid them.
I’m not suggesting that we have a prescribed reading list, but I can certainly recommend some authors to avoid.
In truth, at the principle level, there is no doctrinal dispute that has not already been settled. The problem comes when we decide that we like our idea more than we like submitting to the Word of God.
Preferences are often beholden to our pride, and personal preferences are not what I’ve been talking about. The color of the carpet, or the walls, the style of music, or how we dress to go to church, that’s not what I mean.
Neither have I been talking about what sins we are willing to live with. The Bible is very clear on what sin is, and when we sin, when we choose to sin, we are merely allowing our own pride to take the wheel and making Jesus’ sacrifice and separation from the Father that much more necessary. In the words of Bob Newhart, “Stop it!”
But doctrinal division, disagreements on what the Bible says about life and faith and salvation, who the Lord is, and who we are, these are the things that, by God’s grace, we should seek to settle in our own minds and with each other.
As Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:1,
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Amen.
