Sunday, July 7, 2024 AM

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We do thank you for your providence in our lives. We thank you for your many blessings.

They are too numerous for us to count.

Lord, help us to be all the more aware of the ways in which you provide and the ways that you move, the many things for which we may praise your name.

Lord, we thank you for this word. We thank you for a trustworthy, clear, living, and active word that declares your son to us that we may be brought near to you.

We pray that you would fill us with your spirit today, that the truth of this text would become a hearty amen in our lives.

Help us to look at Jesus in this word. Help us to look like him in this world.

We pray these things for his sake, the one with whom you are well -pleased, amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15.

We'll be reading verses 22 through 29. Acts chapter 15, we're reading verses 22 through 29.

The beginning of the chapter, the beginning of Acts 15, details for us a vital controversy that arose in the early church.

It was a controversy that was directly related to what happened in Paul and Barnabas's missionary journey in chapters 13 and 14.

They had been sent out from Antioch of Syria to go to the island of Cyprus and beyond.

They even went to the region of Galatia and went essentially county by county through the state of Galatia, for lack of better terms, and preached the gospel there in many cities and encountered great persecution from the

Jews and sometimes from the Gentiles who were riled up by the Jews. They planted churches there.

God saved many in those cities. And Paul and Barnabas came home to Antioch.

While there, some men came down from Jerusalem who were believers and yet very committed to some of the old covenant practices.

And they wanted to insist that all of these Gentiles, all of these non -Jews who did not grow up in the faith of Judaism, did not know the customs of Second Temple Judaism, did not understand the impact of Moses, that they needed to be on board with circumcision and keeping the law of Moses.

They said, unless you do this, you can't really be saved. You really shouldn't be saying that you have the grace of God through the person and work of the

Jewish Messiah if you don't keep the law, if you don't get circumcised. This was a great controversy.

Paul and Barnabas contended with these men very strongly.

Such was the nature of the disagreement that they all decided we've got to go up to Jerusalem. These men say they're from Jerusalem.

Is this a word from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem? We've got to go up to Jerusalem and try to clear up this matter because by this time,

Paul and Barnabas had been preaching the gospel, preaching the good news of the kingdom, that all is necessary for salvation in Jesus Christ is to call upon His name and believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ to be saved and you didn't have to become circumcised and you didn't have to keep the law of Moses to be saved.

The very nature of all of those churches that had been planted and all of those people who had come to faith in Jesus Christ, the very meaning of what it meant for them to have received the

Holy Spirit and be forgiven of their sins, all of it seemed to hang in the balance and indeed it did, as far as the church's understanding of the matter.

So they went up to Jerusalem to get this problem solved and they had to work through the meaning of what had happened, not only in Acts 13 and 14, but also what happened back in Acts chapter 10 and 11.

What happened when Cornelius and his family and his household and those who came to visit with him, when they came to be

Christians, what did all of that mean? And as they were trying to work through the resolution of this conflict, two things are made very clear.

First of all, that the church fixed their attention upon Jesus Christ.

So it's His authority that matters. It's His ways that matter. But secondly, they exhibited love for one another in just that way that Jesus had commanded.

A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, so you ought to love one another.

John 13, 35. So that verse has here in Acts 15, a full -fledged story to go along with it.

This is what it looks like. For Christians to love one another in the way that Christ has loved us.

That's what we are examining. That's what we are doing our best to understand and appreciate.

And we also may put that into practice. Remember that Jesus Christ has commissioned

His disciples. All authority, He says, has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you even to the end of the age.

As He's telling His disciples to go to all the nations and preach the gospel to them and to see them come to faith in Jesus Christ, there's only one way that we can achieve

His commission, and it's by obeying His commandment. Not gonna happen unless we love one another the way that Christ has loved us.

So we've seen how Christ rules us in verses 13 through 18. We've considered how Christ receives us in verses 19 to 21.

We've heard from Peter, we've heard from James. Everything seems to be sewn up and resolved.

The statement is clear, the church is unified. And yet, how's it actually gonna work out?

Church history is replete with examples of the church coming together and saying, we have ourselves a controversy.

Let's all agree on the right thing, okay? We all agree on the right thing. And then the following years are full of chaos of people not doing the right thing.

So Christ's commandment, this new commandment He has given to us, is not something we simply affirm, that we all pledge allegiance to, and say amen to, and agree on.

It's also something that we have to live out in practical realities.

For that example, let us turn our attention to verses 22 to 29 of Acts 15.

I invite you to stand with me if you are able, and let us read this word. This is the word of the Lord.

And then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely

Judas, who was also named Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter by them, the apostles, the letters, and the brethren, to the brethren who are of the

Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words unsettling your souls, saying, you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment.

It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth.

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. This is the word of the

Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Now, we've considered the doctrinal importance of what happened here at this

Jerusalem Council. We recognize the vital interest of the church in confirming the good news of Jesus Christ.

That we are not saved by ascribing to the shadows of the old covenant, but we are saved by our faith in the keeper of the new covenant, namely

Jesus Christ. We are saved by His righteousness, by His blood, by His person, by His work.

Jesus had explained back in the Gospel of Luke that some would prefer the taste of old wine.

And that when people taste the new wine, they say, oh, I prefer the old. And this is the explanation for why these people, these believers who were in grave error were trying to insist on old wineskins for the new wine.

Old wine had run out. They're tasting the new wine and said, oh, that's sour. That hasn't aged right.

I don't really like this new wine. It would be better if we had these old wineskins of circumcision and keeping the law of Moses.

Of course, that doesn't make any sense. Jesus said, no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

Why? Because the new wine in its fermenting process will burst the old wineskins, won't it?

But this is what they're insisting on. And we discussed the doctrinal importance and we see how

Peter preaches and says, hey, Jesus told me to go to Cornelius and his household and preach the gospel to the

Gentiles and they were saved in the same way that we were. Why are we putting this yoke, this burden on them that neither we or our fathers ever kept?

James pipes up and starts preaching from Amos and said, this is exactly what the Holy Spirit said back in Amos.

He said that this would come about and there's no way we should continue to trouble, to vex and disturb those of the

Gentiles who are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. So Peter and James agree. They're preaching the same gospel that Paul preaches.

Whether, no matter where you go, Peter, James, Paul, throughout, they're preaching the same gospel.

They're in full agreement, evidenced here in Acts 15. So they agree, so they have a plan.

And they have a concern that they would love one another. Truly the concern of these very

Jewish Christians is that there would be great offense if Gentiles paid no mind to the sensitivities of those who grew up as Jews.

The main concern is that they would keep themselves from anything related to idols. And so they put it this way.

In verse 20, the plan was, let us write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols.

And what's related to the practice of idolatry in the ancient Near East and throughout the Roman Empire?

What was associated with idolatry? What all went on in the temples and related to the temple cult prostitutes and the temple sacrifices of various animals being killed in strange ways?

Everything listed here under the heading of idolatry. But we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from being strangled, and from blood.

Why? For Moses had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every

Sabbath. It just got done saying, we are not commanding them to keep the law of Moses.

And then they start talking about Moses. Well, they're not confused. They're not talking out of both sides of their mouth.

They're saying something very much along the lines of Romans 14 and 15 about how to accept one another and bear with one another various convictions that each other has.

And so for a Gentile, they're just fine going to the marketplace and picking up some meat that had been strangled in an idol a couple of days, strangled in a temple, an idolatrous temple, a couple of days before.

They don't care how it was killed. They don't care who it was sacrificed to. It's cheap meat. But for the

Jew, they're saying, don't you know that cult prostitutes were handling that? Don't you care that that thing was strangled as a sacrifice to idols?

Don't you care that they didn't do it right? Don't you care about how you cook that meat? Because that was of grave importance to them because it had all sorts of meaning to them.

And so because Moses had throughout many generations, those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every

Sabbath, the Jerusalem council, Peter and James are saying, it's not that you have to be circumcised.

It's not that you have to keep the law of Moses. It's that you have to love one another and bear with one another.

When you have different sets of convictions and different cultural backgrounds, you are to love one another as Christ has loved you.

They said, let's write out a letter and they wrote a letter. And that's what verses 22 to 29 are all about, the letter they wrote.

Here is the first practical outworking of the church, loving one another as Christ has loved them.

They've met together, they've talked about it, they've affirmed it, but here they've got to live it out. They've got to work it out in real life.

So a few observations. First of all, they are reconciled even though they're different servants.

As different servants, they are reconciled in Christ. Notice verse two, it says it was the apostles, the elders, and the whole church.

They all agreed. They all agreed with one another and they selected chosen men to go do a particular job and they selected those men in agreement with one another.

And I find that very striking given that we just had a big conflict. There was a big controversy.

People were saying very opposite things. It was very intense there at the beginning of chapter 15, but now we see apostles and elders and the whole church agreeing, working together.

It wasn't, let's have a fight because we have different hierarchies, because we have different positions, because we have different types of authority entrusted to us, because you have more authority than I do, so obviously we have to be at odds.

As Marxism teaches us. There are no class divisions.

There are no power games. Christ has taught them how to love one another. Question, is it within your expectations?

Is it within the categories in which you operate that such a resolution, that such agreement is possible and practical and expected in our church?

Do you expect that there's agreement between elders and deacons and congregation that we're just, do you expect that we're going to be in agreement that Jesus is going to lead us in unity?

If not, why not? If dissent and if dissatisfaction are your normal expectations of the church, you really need to ask why.

Who discipled you in that? It wasn't Jesus. Jesus doesn't teach his followers to expect dissent, to expect disunity, to make class divisions.

Further, in verse 22, we see that these apostles, elders, and the whole church, they sent chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely

Judas, who was also named Barabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. Now, Paul and Barnabas have proven their discernment.

They're the ones who were in contention with those who came down from Jerusalem, insisting on circumcision and keeping the law.

They have proved their discernment. And they're going to go back to Antioch with this letter, with the word from Jerusalem, and their word's going to be ratified by Silas and Judas.

And these are leading men. These, in fact, are prophets, as we see in verse 30.

Once again, reminded from Ephesians that the apostles and the prophets were the foundation of the church.

Jesus used them to lay his foundation. And upon the foundation of the Holy Scriptures, he's been building the church and using us to build the church ever since.

So Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem to get clarity. And now

Jerusalem sends Judas and Silas back with Paul and Barnabas to give confirmation.

And they together exhort and encourage the saints. Now we see this in verses 30 through 32.

Notice, so when they were sent off, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement.

Now Judas and Silas themselves, being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

To put it in one way, here at the beginning of Acts 15, there was a council. And at the end of Acts 15, there's a conference.

They all got together. They read the word and exhorted and encouraged each other. Paul got up and spoke.

Barnabas got up and spoke. Judas got up and spoke. One after the other, exhorting and encouraging the brethren.

Preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. I want you to notice what reconciles, both in the council and in the conference.

What reconciles the church? It is not the credentials of the people who showed up.

There wasn't unity in Jerusalem or in Antioch because of Paul being

Paul. Or Barnabas being Barnabas. Or Silas or Judas because of who they were.

Yes, they were leading men. Yes, they were effective servants. But that is not what unified the church.

They didn't come around and say, well, since all these guys are saying it, I guess we're all going to rally around them.

The reconciliation that came because of Christ was that these are the shepherds. These were the servants who were preaching the gospel of Jesus.

They were presenting Jesus Christ to the brethren. That's why they were exhorted. That's why they were encouraged.

That's why they were reconciled. Elders, that's our job.

That's our job in shepherding and leading in the church to reconcile the body around the head.

Who is Jesus Christ? It's not because of who we are, not our years of experience, not our years of service, not because of what we have done, but because of who

Christ is and what He has done. Thirdly, in verse 23, we observe that these

Christians are reconciled even from distant stations. Notice the way the letter is written.

They wrote this letter by them, the apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are the

Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings. This letter came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

It is from Jews to Gentiles, but notice that they are all brethren.

They're all brethren. Most of them have not met each other, and likely most of them would never meet each other before they went to heaven, and yet they are reconciled together as brethren.

They are reconciled from distant stations. I mean, what does Jerusalem have to do with Antioch?

Jerusalem is a powerful city, very, very Jewish, has the Jewish temple, known for Jewish things, powerful marketplace in the

Roman economy, Antioch is the third largest city in the empire, very cosmopolitan, very Gentile, very

Hellenistic. What does Jerusalem and Antioch have to do with one another? Remember that just a couple of chapters ago, the historical background was that Antioch and Jerusalem were actually at war with each other,

Jews sending soldiers up to Antioch to kill Gentiles because Gentiles were killing Jews. What does

Antioch and Jerusalem have to do with one another? And yet, look, they are at peace with each other, the brothers in Jerusalem and the brothers in Antioch, they are at peace with one another, they care about each other.

The authority and the love and the glory of Jesus Christ so commends us to one another that Christians from distant lands and from different cultures, we are brethren, we are brethren, and we may warmly, freely address one another, pray for one another, encourage one another.

What does Oklahoma City have to do with Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? Our brethren are there, our brethren are there.

Mitch and Baljit Tillman are there, their kids are there, the orphans are there that they care for.

The church in the Gobi Desert next to the hospital, that's there. The church is meeting in yurts out in the back sand of the

Gobi Desert, our brethren are there. What do we have to do with South America?

What do we have to do with Colombia and Brazil and Peru? Our brethren are there.

Churches deep in the jungle next to the rivers, our brethren are there.

Come back tonight, learn more about it. Hear from Brad and Rebecca Howe. I encourage you, sign up for those newsletters.

Read those newsletters. Pray for our brothers and our sisters wherever they are at. Seek to communicate and encourage.

Share letters and greetings. You meet people from other churches, share our greetings, warmly greet them.

Here are your brothers and your sisters. Rejoice in that. Verses 24 and 25, we also see that we are reconciled despite schisms.

Now the controversy is brought up in verse 24. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we have gave no such commandment.

It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved

Barnabas and Paul. So you see this? It was a very controversial problem that came up.

And yet we see that this is not going to stick around and color the church.

No, we are of one accord. We're gonna be clear on what happened, and we're gonna be clear about what we're going to say now, and we're gonna move forward, and we are all of one accord, and we're sending you this word.

They acknowledge the schism. They define it. They frame it. They clarify, and they assure, we never said that, and we're all of one accord here, and we're communicating with you.

We didn't tell them to say that. Now notice how this is working out. This is not a kind of unity in which it said, well, they feel really strongly about this, and so we're just gonna let them be them, and we'll be us, and we're not going to make a big fuss about it at all, and we're gonna call that unity.

Well, I hate to say it this way, but those are the words of Cain. Am I my brother's keeper?

The only answer for the Christian is yes, I am my brother's keeper. I'm concerned about what you believe.

I'm concerned about how you live, and we need to be in agreement. This is not, unity is not a ceasefire.

Peace is not a ceasefire. Unity and peace is a genuine reconciliation, conflict rightly handled.

Nobody has a very strong conception of something that is actually contrary to the word of God, and it's causing division and schism within the church.

How should it be handled? If it's rightly handled, then Christ's supremacy is going to be what is talked about.

And Christ's supremacy is going to be our sufficiency and see us through.

And I have found that these types of schisms can actually help draw the church together in more agreement.

As more and more light is given, more and more praise is given, more and more glory is given to Jesus.

In my former pastorate, there was a situation that came up where a false teacher came into the church and stole a family, for lack of a better term.

Nobody knew what happened. There was great confusion and great controversy. And that was a tough set of eight months,

I'll tell you. But you know, at the end of all of that, the folks knew what the gospel of Jesus Christ was in a more clear and bright way than they ever had before.

There was more unity, more awareness about what really matters than ever before.

And it's not wonderful to go through times of controversy and schisms and problems, but when we turn our eyes to Jesus Christ, He's the one who helps us walk through that storm and He ends up getting all the glory and all the praise.

Also, we see that there is a reconciliation that comes in the church through devoted sacrifice.

Verse 25, again, those who were sent back to Antioch, they said, they're going to send chosen men to you with our beloved

Barnabas and Paul. Our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Paul getting stoned outside the city gates?

He got back up and went back into the city. He moved one town beyond, came back through, strengthening the brethren.

Paul and Barnabas put their lives on the line for the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are dearly loved by the church in Jerusalem, dearly loved by the church in Antioch.

They laid down their lives for Christ and for Christ's church. Meaning what?

Meaning, they love us, they love you, they can be trusted.

Turn over to 1 John 3 and be reminded here of a further explanation of this new commandment that Jesus has given to us, that we should love one another as he has loved us.

1 John 3, verse 16, by this we know love.

Looking for the definition of love. Just, if you're confused, the definition of love is not, love is love is love is love.

That is not a definition. That is a ludicrous tautology. Here's the definition.

By this we know love. You want to know what love is in an objective, real, genuine sense. Here it is, because he laid down his life for us.

Because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Love is a righteous and sacrificial devotion.

Jesus Christ is for us in the right way at great cost to himself. Loving one another means

I'm going to be for you in the right way, even if it costs me. That's what love is.

By this we know love because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. In other words,

Jesus says a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another, even as I have loved you. But let's get practical about this, verse 17.

But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Meaning this love is not theoretical only. This love is not just simply in the idea or in the expression.

But this love has a real, genuine follow through to it.

Verse 18, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Paul and Barnabas had demonstrated their love for Christ and their love for the brethren by continually sacrificing themselves and risking themselves throughout their history with the church.

Even from the very beginning, Saul of Tarsus, after his conversion, had to be rescued by the brethren more than once because he was preaching gospel at his own personal risk and the disciples had to keep on smuggling him out of town because people were trying to kill him.

Verse 19 says, and by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.

When do we deeply know unity in the church? When do we deeply know communion in the church?

How can we be assured of reconciliation in the church despite there being a divisive issue that has disturbed or concerned us?

When we love one another in the way that Christ has called us to love.

When we're willing to sacrifice ourselves. It's not about me. I want to be for you. I want to be for you in the right way, even if it costs me.

So yes, I'm gonna say something here that you may get upset about, but I want you to know how much

I love you and I am so concerned for you. And you know what? It's gonna take me a lot of time to come spend time with you and talk with you about these things, but that's okay because I'm putting your interest ahead of my own.

And so on. And oh, this family is in need and they have some needs.

What are those needs? Please tell me. I want to find some way to help you. And we're gonna know reconciliation in the church through our devoted sacrifice to one another.

There's an actual follow -through component to Christian love. But not only reconciled through devoted sacrifice, but also reconciled in doctrinal statements.

Verse 27. Verse 27, it says, we have therefore sent

Judas and Silas who will also report the same things by word of mouth. In other words,

Paul and Barnabas along with Silas and Barsabbas, they're going to be saying the exact same thing.

There was confusion in Antioch. Some people were saying this. Other people were saying this.

Great controversy. So they went up to Jerusalem and now men from Jerusalem are coming back with those from Antioch and now they're gonna say the same thing.

We're going to agree and say the same thing. Paul and Barnabas were in heavy contention with the

Jewish contingent in verses one and two, but now we have the resolution of the whole matter.

So think about this. Paul and Barnabas, Silas and Judas are all together with the apostles and the elders and the congregation of Jerusalem.

They're all saying the same thing. Now that's unifying, isn't it?

When everyone is saying the same thing. I want you to see how this reconciliation and doctrinal statement is married to being reconciled through devoted sacrifice.

So here's a cautionary word. The way to be reconciled and in unity is not necessarily to start with a detailed doctrinal statement and ask everybody to sign on.

Now, is a doctrinal statement important? Yes, it is. We don't want to be preaching a false gospel.

But notice that these two things are set together. The clarifying act, this clarifying act of a doctrinal statement is supposed to be a loving service.

It's not supposed to be divorced from the experience of Christians bearing with one another and sacrificing for one another.

Let us say the same thing along with Christ as much as possible.

That's the point. Let us say the same thing along with Christ as much as possible.

And do you know that this doesn't happen necessarily by everybody agreeing to a historic confession.

But what does it look like? It looks like us being in submission to the

Word of God, being in submission to Christ, and as we grow together in Christ, that we agree more and more and more.

We have a statement of faith as part of our constitution and bylaws. Bare bones necessities.

Why don't we have something more robust? Because we're growing. People are growing.

Someone coming in who doesn't know much about the faith needs to know who Jesus Christ is and believe in the basics of the

Gospel. But if they don't know a bunch of details as somebody else knows, that's okay.

We're gonna grow together in unity and this person who doesn't know a lot and this person who does know a lot, perhaps in a discipling relationship where there's patience and kindness will come to more and more and more agreement.

You see how that works? Too often I think when it comes to doctrinal statements, it's one official statement pitted against another and great doctrinal controversies being hashed out.

And we forget that we are supposed to be trying to say the same thing along with Christ as much as possible, laboring to understand and to express our doctrine carefully for the good of each other to the fame of Jesus Christ.

Doctrine is so vitally important. So vitally important. Stories abound about people saying, well,

I think of God as, and after they're done talking about how they think of God, like, thank you for sharing so much about yourself.

But when we're submitting together to the word of God, we're learning about who God is revealed to us by Christ in the power of the

Spirit so that we can say the same thing together to His name, to the glory of His name. Lastly, we are reconciled by the direction of the

Spirit, verses 28 through 29. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. And we've already described why it is that they're encouraging the

Gentiles to stay away from these things, to flee every appearance of the form of evil, to keep their distance from the practices of idolatry, which has so characterized their lives in their past.

But notice how the apostles, elders, and the whole church put the matter, verse 28.

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.

You remember that greater burden that was in consideration? That yoke that neither they nor their fathers were able to bear?

That thing that would trouble the Gentiles who were turning by faith unto God? It was the circumcision and the keeping of the law.

It was good to the Holy Spirit and to the whole church not to put that on the

Gentiles as a restraint unto who could be saved and who couldn't be saved.

How do we know it was good to the Holy Spirit? Well, first of all, we have

Peter, in obedience to Jesus Christ, in obedience to His commission, in obedience to the vision that God gave to him, going and preaching to the

Gentiles of Cornelius' household, and the Holy Spirit filling those as they are being saved, as they were repenting of their sins and believing upon Jesus Christ.

As the church rejoiced that repentance was granted to the Gentiles as well, the Holy Spirit comes down and fills these

Gentiles and therefore He shows His delight and pleasure in the salvation even amongst the nations.

But even further than that is the fact that the Holy Spirit breathed out

Amos 9. And James preaches

Amos and says, what's going on here with the nations turning to Jesus Christ? This is the fulfillment of what the

Spirit said back in Amos. So again, it was clarified not simply by the experience of Peter, but it was affirmed by the

Word of God. How do we know if our experiences, if our thoughts, if our concerns are of the

Spirit? How do we know? We know if they're in agreement with the

Word of God, which is breathed out, where holy men who were born along by the Holy Spirit, every word breathed out by the

Holy Spirit to us. That's how we know if we're being led by the Spirit, is if our experiences and our thoughts and our concerns are in agreement with the

Word of God. The Holy Spirit is not manifested by every warm feeling and intriguing thought that we have.

Because I am not the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit does work, and He does lead,

He does guide, He does prompt, He does bring to mind the things that we need to think about. This is what

Jesus promised as our present, everyday, real, living comforter.

In this new commandment that Jesus gives, we certainly know how to affirm that we are to love one another as He has loved us.

We certainly can give an amen to that. But how do we practically live it out?

We need to recognize that even though we are perhaps distant from one another, that though perhaps we might be in disagreement with one another about certain things or from time to time, we can still be reconciled in Christ.

And that He has provided everything we need to be in unity. He has supplied unto the church the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,

Himself being the cornerstone so that we have a sure word of agreement that we can always come together around.

He has gifted unto the church evangelists and preachers, pastors and teachers so that we would be built up in the word of Christ, in the name of Christ, being matured unto

Christ. He has granted to the church a clear word, one from God Himself, who is not a bad communicator, but the perfect communicator, so that we would know what

God has to say. We have been given the Holy Spirit, that we might be in union with one another and in direct fellowship with God.

So this new commandment that Jesus gives to us, this new commandment that He gives to us is something that He fully supplies our obedience to and our experience of.

So let's pray and give Him thanks. Father, we thank You for this day. Jesus, we thank

You for the commandment You gave to us. As You have loved us, so we are to love one another. Spirit, we ask that You would fill us and bear this fruit out in our lives.

Give us this desire and awareness and ability. God, I pray that in all things, as we continue to grow in Christ and take each new challenge as it comes, that You would strengthen our faith in You and also strengthen our love for one another, our love for You.

We pray for these graces, looking to Your Son, Jesus Christ, and it's in His name that we pray, amen.