WWUTT 2648 The Problem for the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-5)

The Apostles preached a message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But there were false teachers that tried to add works to that message and say, you have to do this to be saved.

Same problem we have in our world today when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

The Jerusalem Council Addresses Salvation by Grace

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come to chapter 15, reading here about the Jerusalem council. And to start things off, keeping it all in context, I'm going to read the entire council, the matter that led to the council, and then the gathering of the council itself and what they decided.

So let me read from verses 1 through 35 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

And when Paul and Barnabas had not a little dissension and debate with them, the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.

Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brothers.

When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Both the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 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 would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us. And He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are. And all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

James Appeals to the Prophets and Clarifies Gentile Duties

Now after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the fallen booth of David, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.

Therefore I judge that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

For from ancient generations Moses has those who preach him in every city, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brothers, to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, and they sent this letter by them.

The apostles and the brothers who are elders, to the brothers in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles,. Since we have heard that some of us, to whom we gave no instruction, have gone out and disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, that they themselves will 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 essentials, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which, if you keep yourselves, you will do well.

Farewell. So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

And both Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with a lengthy message. And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brothers in peace to those who had sent them.

But it seemed good to Silas to remain there. But Paul and Barnabas spent a long time in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also the word of the Lord. And there you go. There is the entire account of the Jerusalem Council, that we have in Acts 15, verses 1 -35.

The Circumcision Controversy in Acts 15:1-5

And we will continue to discuss the things that are laid out for us here over these next several lessons. For this lesson today, we're only going to get as far as verse 5, where we see the problem, the dilemma that is being presented, that is set up here at the start, prompting, therefore, the gathering of this council and what they decide.

So let me read again verse 1, where it says,. Now that statement bookends the section that we're looking at today. That's in verse 1 and in verse 5. So as you have the setup of the problem, it's stated twice.

Because then the Pharisees stand up in verse 5 and they say, it is necessary to circumcise them, talking about the Gentiles, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And not only are we going to consider this problem today, but we're also going to tie this into false teachings that may exist in our world today, from those who call themselves Christians, that would be the same level of legalism that we see here.

So that you may be warned against false teachers, who will likewise try to impose upon you law, that God does not impose upon us in order to be saved. So coming back up again to verse 1, remember that Paul and Barnabas are still in Antioch.

Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch After Their Mission

They had returned after Paul's first missionary journey, on which he had taken Barnabas with him. Later on, and it's actually at the end of chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas have a division among themselves.

So Barnabas does not continue to accompany Paul on the other missionary journeys that he takes. His next partner is going to be Silas. But for the time being, Barnabas was the one that retrieved Paul.

They had left Antioch after the Holy Spirit had led them out and made this circle down to the island of Cyprus and up into Asia Minor and then back around to Antioch. And this was over a period of a few years.

As they retraced their steps and went back through those cities, where they had planted churches, they appointed elders in every one of those churches. That was the section that we read yesterday. So then they come back to Antioch, and they are recalling to the brothers there all of the things that God had done through them, preaching the gospel and verifying through signs and wonders to the people that this message was truly from God.

Sola Fide and the Pharisees' Legalistic Challenge

But as they are speaking in Antioch, even among those who would still consider themselves to be Jews, even those who would call themselves Pharisees. Now, later on, it mentions that these Pharisees who stand up and contend against Paul and Barnabas's message of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, right, sola fide, that is the message that was going out by the apostles in the early church.

And incidentally, reading through the Book of Acts, I've never been more certain of that. As much as the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, even Mormons and many others want to push back against this doctrine of sola fide by faith alone.

We have seen this over and over again in the Book of Acts, and the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15 affirms it. This is exactly the conclusion that the council comes to. We should not trouble them by imposing upon them law that they cannot keep, but we are saved by belief.

We're saved by faith in Jesus, just as our father Abraham believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness. So it is with everyone who puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

We are saved by faith in him. But the Pharisees, who it says believe, so these are Pharisees who claim to believe the gospel, but they're still imposing rules upon the people. Pharisees and other Judaizers are making this imperative.

They are saying, you have to be circumcised. You have to do it according to the custom of Moses, or else you cannot be saved. And now they're trying to impose this upon the Gentiles. And you can understand why the Gentiles would be troubled by this.

Not just because of the spiritual trouble that this causes, so I can't really be saved by faith. I actually do have to do the law. I have to keep all of these things in order to be saved, and how many rules is that going to be?

How many of them do I have to do before I can finally call myself a Christian? So you can see why that would be spiritually troubling. But not only that, I mean, can you imagine being a Gentile male and going, I have to do what now?

I have to do this in order to enter the kingdom of God? Suddenly I'm having some second thoughts about this Christ that I decided to follow. So you can see the kind of trouble that this would be causing among Gentiles in a multitude of different ways.

Paul and Barnabas Defend the Gospel of Faith

So Paul and Barnabas, it says in verse 2, they had some dissension and debate with them. We just read in chapter 14 that when Paul and Barnabas were preaching at Lystra and Derbe and all the other places that they went on that first missionary journey, Luke, who is the author of Acts, is sure to tell us that their message was, you're saved by faith in Jesus.

Those who believe and come to faith in Christ, you are saved. And as Paul had taught also at the end of chapter 13, that Christ has come even for the Gentiles. Those who believe by faith are being added to the kingdom of God.

This has always been a message of faith in Christ. It's never been a gospel of faith plus works. It's certainly never been a gospel of works will cause your faith. If you just work, it will make you believe or something like that.

There has never been anything like that in Paul and Barnabas' teaching. We have seen this over and over again in Acts, that we're saved by grace through faith alone. Peter preached this also. And Peter is going to stand up in defense of Paul and Barnabas and everybody else who has been preaching this gospel and seeing Gentiles come to faith.

Peter is going to say, as we just read, I was the first one who was sent to go to Gentiles. Remember, Peter going to the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. I went to Gentiles and I can verify that Christ sent me there.

I preached there and the Holy Spirit was manifested there. Showing that even those Gentiles had come to faith and were added to the kingdom of God through what was preached to them. So Paul and Barnabas are contending with these guys.

They're debating with them now who are saying, you have to be circumcised according to the custom of Moses or you cannot be saved. It should be very obvious that Paul and Barnabas were on the side of opposing this particular teaching.

Because even Paul, though he had been such a faithful Jew, and even as he talked about himself, and we'll hear his testimony again later on in the book of Acts, he said he was a rock star among Pharisees.

He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was the son of a Pharisee, probably even the grandson of a Pharisee, and had learned so much that he had already exceeded those people who had taught him. And yet, this man, who had been so zealous for the law, so zealous that he was putting Christians to death, because Christians were saying that they were now the people of God by faith in Jesus, this man, who had persecuted the church over this very kind of thing, was now defending the gospel and salvation by faith against those who were trying to say, well, no, you've got to keep the law.

You've got to do what Moses said. You have to be circumcised or else you cannot be saved. And after they had some debate over this, there were people who said to them, well, why don't you go up to Jerusalem?

Talk to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. And you'll notice here that going from Antioch to Jerusalem is always talked about as going up. Going from Jerusalem to Antioch is talked about as going down, because that comes up later on in Acts.

And as I've mentioned before about this, even though Antioch was far to the north of Jerusalem, it's described as going down to Antioch because you are descending in elevation. Jerusalem was higher in elevation.

And any time you went up to Jerusalem, no matter where you came from, that's where you went. You went up to Jerusalem because it was an elevated place where the temple of God was. It was customary among the Jews to say that.

When we go to Jerusalem, we're going up there to Jerusalem. So that's what's being said to Paul and Barnabas. You should bring this up with the apostles and elders and see what they have to say. Verse 3, So they made a whole missionary journey out of this.

Not just a beeline from there to Jerusalem, but even stopping in various places to continue to share the gospel and seeing more come to faith. And joy spread among Jewish Christians. As Paul and Barnabas recount in detail, the conversion of the Gentiles.

Now, Phoenicia and Samaria would have been filled with Gentile Christians, Phoenicia. And Samaria would have been Samaritan Christians now. But these people even are rejoicing at hearing that the gospel was spreading in the Roman Empire.

Many are coming to faith and believing and are being added to the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit has come not just to Jews, but even to non-Jews. Anybody, anybody can believe in Jesus and be saved. And that fills them with such great joy.

The Jerusalem Church Hears the Gentile Testimony

So verse 4, And here we have that statement that's made again. This is what bookends our section here. And to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now, like I said, this is not just a false teaching that was existing in the church here that was therefore prompting them to gather together and make a decision about this.

What should we tell the Gentiles in light of this false teaching that is going out? But we have similar kinds of false teachings that will be imposed upon the church today. Things that are being said to the church that unless you do this, you cannot be saved.

And there's some sort of work or law that is attached to the gospel. And it's being said, you must do this or else you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now, let me give you some examples. Let me give you, let's say, five.

The Hebrew Roots Movement and Torah Observance

Number one, the Hebrew Roots Movement or the Torah Observant Movements. They fill their teaching with this stuff. They teach that everybody must keep the Mosaic Law, including dietary laws. You must worship only on Saturday.

You must keep all of the festivals. And if you do not do this, then you're not saved. And I have encountered these men, and I have debated with these men, and they are exactly the same kind of heretics that are mentioned here in Acts.

Now, you may not hear them say you have to be circumcised in order to be saved, but I guarantee you there are those among them, even in the Hebrew Roots and Torah Observant Movements, who would say the exact same thing.

They would make the same claim that these false teachers are making in Acts 15 .1, as if these guys have never even read the Bible before. I mean, it's absurd that there are still people out there who will make claims that they will say this is what you have to do to be saved when the Bible speaks exactly in opposition to that claim that they make, like word for word against it.

But they will continue to push this false teaching that the Bible calls false. Here's another one. Now, this one has less to do with circumcision and more to do with the New Testament practices of baptism.

Baptismal Regeneration and the Meaning of 1 Peter 3:21

Those churches that teach baptismal regeneration is an absolute necessity for your salvation. And you cannot be saved unless you are baptized and regenerated in water. But as I've mentioned to you many times before, you have been justified and are saved in the Lord Jesus Christ before you ever even hit the water.

But wait a minute. Doesn't 1 Peter 3 .21 say baptism now saves you? This is the passage that those who believe in baptismal regeneration will often come back to. But they don't also use 1 Timothy 2 .15, which says that women will be saved through childbearing.

Okay, well, if you are saved by baptism, then does a woman have to bear children in order to be saved? No, and of course they don't use that passage to mean that, because they understand what the context is.

They, however, want to ignore the context that's given in 1 Peter 3. In context, in 1 Timothy 2 it is saying that a woman can be sanctified through childbearing, which is an activity that men don't do.

So a man cannot bear children and therefore be sanctified through that practice of fulfilling that duty, whereas a woman can be. So it's not saying that women who bear children, or that any woman who bears children is now saved, and she has to bear children in order to be saved, but rather this is a sanctifying work for her, if it is done in faithfulness to God.

And so it is the same with baptism. Baptism itself won't save you, but if done in faithfulness to God, it is a testimony, a demonstration, of the fact that we have been baptized in Christ Jesus, buried with him in our sins, and risen to walk in newness of life.

Anybody who imposes upon you that you're not saved until you go under the water and comes back out again, they are adding law to the gospel, and saying that you have to do this in order to be saved. If you don't do this, you're not saved yet.

But like I said, you've been justified by faith in Christ before you ever hit the water. It is a responsibility of every Christian to be baptized, but it's not as if you haven't been saved until you're baptized.

Tongues and Claims of Required Spiritual Manifestations

Here's a third example, and that is when you encounter those Pentecostal-slash-Charismatic churches that require spiritual manifestations in order to be saved. So you might call yourself a Christian, but have you spoken in tongues yet?

Because if you haven't spoken in tongues, then you're not a Christian. And they're taking those passages out of context that talk about people speaking in tongues, like the Holy Spirit fell upon them, they spoke in tongues, and that, therefore, was the verification of their salvation.

So if you have not spoken in tongues, then you don't yet have the Holy Spirit, and that is another example of those who impose upon the gospel laws that become heretical. That's just a false practice anyway, because the gibberish that they do claiming to be speaking in tongues isn't even what Acts describes as speaking in tongues, and we've already talked about that going through Acts.

Works Righteousness in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Mormonism

Here is a fourth example, and that is a works-righteousness system. And this is the exact kind of system that you will see in Roman Catholicism, in Eastern Orthodoxy, in Mormonism, in the Jehovah's Witnesses, anybody who adds works to faith.

Yeah, you have to believe, but you also have to do these things. It's the exact same error that was being committed by these Judaizers in Acts 15 .1. Yeah, you got to believe in Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised.

If you're not circumcised, then you're not a Christian. So we see that same kind of error being committed by Roman Catholics today, and all of the dogmas that they impose on people. You have to believe this, or else you're anathema.

You have to acknowledge the primacy of the pope, or you're going to hell. You have to acknowledge that Mary was blemishless and without sin, or you're going to hell. You even have to acknowledge that Mary was assumed into heaven, or else you are going to hell.

All of these dogmas that Roman Catholicism imposes that the Bible doesn't even teach. This is exactly the same kind of heresy. You have to do this, or believe this, or else you are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.

Denominational Exclusivism as Another Gospel

And then finally, here's a fifth example, denominational exclusivism. Like, we're the only true denomination. You have to be in the Church of Christ, because this is something the Church of Christ teaches.

And if you're not in the Church of Christ, then you are not saved. Or as Mormons teach, you actually have to follow all of the requirements of Mormonism, or else you cannot ascend to the highest heaven.

You are not doing the thing that God intends for you to do most and to fulfill, if you're not following all of our rules. You have this denominational exclusivism, that only we have the truth, and if you don't do what we tell you to do, then you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

These are just five examples that we see the same kind of heresy practiced in the Church today, and we must beware these things. Now, as Christians, we are called to do good works. Our good works do not save us.

They are the evidence of our salvation. They are the fruit. They are the things that we will do because we love Jesus. It's not that those works save us. They are because we're saved. That's why we do them.

So we understand Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. It is by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. But verse 10 goes on to say, For you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared for you beforehand that you should walk in them.

So, yes, we should do good works. And Jesus said in Matthew 7, You will know them by their fruit. But it's not that the works save us. It's because we're saved that we will do them. They don't justify us before God.

As said in James 2, they justify the statement that we make when we say that we are a Christian. Then you should be able to look into a person's life and see evidence that they are a Christian. But they don't justify us before God.

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and no other way. And let no one distort that gospel for you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read, and as we embark here on this study of the Jerusalem Council, I pray that it brings us even to a deeper knowledge of who we're supposed to be as a church, and a fuller appreciation of the true gospel that has been proclaimed to us in Christ our Lord.

We're saved by grace through faith, and we thank you for that. And may we continue to do good works in light of that good gospel that has been preached to us, and brought us into your kingdom, and has promised for us eternal reward with you in glory.

Help us to be bold to share that gospel with others, and never to add more to it than what the Bible says to us about the Word of God. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.