Text: Acts 15:6-21, Title: Church Conflict Part Deux, Date/Place: NRBC, 8/17/08, AM
A. Opening illustration: -66% say their congregation has been in conflict in the past 2 years; 20% called it “significant” or “major.”
B. Background to passage: Last time we looked at a good reason to fight and a good reason to settle. If you remember this is shortly after Paul and Barnabas’s return from their first mission trip, and the Judaizers from Jerusalem came and began teaching the church at Antioch that Gentiles had to first become Jews before they could be Christians and then keep the Law of Moses. And after much dispute in Antioch, it was decided that the church would send a delegation of both parties to Jerusalem and get the official church decision on it. So after being received by the apostles, elders, and church, both sides present their cases. Our story picks up immediately following this
C. Main thought: where we will see four principles regarding resolving church conflict
A. Pastoral Leadership Deals with Theological Controversy (v. 6)
1. I think it is important to notice what didn’t happen. They didn’t have a business meeting with the congregation in general. According to this verse the pastoral leadership came together to consider the matter. In Acts 6 and 11 it was just the apostles, but now it includes the elders of the churches as well. This is not indicative of a closed door meeting, just simply stating who was involved in the decision making process theologically. The priesthood of the believer was still and is now in effect, and they understood that God can and does speak to and through each believer. But God has ordained men to shepherd the church, and one of their roles was to protect the flock from error.
2. Jer 3:15, Acts 20:28, 1 Tim 1:3, 4:16,
3. Illustration: Some things just shouldn’t be voted on, Forty-two percent believe that, when Jesus was on earth, he committed sins. Half of all adults argue that anyone who "is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life will earn a place in Heaven." Forty-four percent contend that "the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths." 4 out of 10 people who are actively involved in a Christian discipleship relationship believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth.
4. Relay some of the discussion that the deacons had during our deacon training day, specifically related to the position of the deacons in the absence of or failure of the pastor. Speak toward the advantages and biblical witness of a plurality of pastoral leadership. This is one of the reasons that I believe in the helpfulness of purposeful theological education, whether formal or informal. This truth also does not rule out help from the congregation when there are tough issues at hand. It simply lets everyone know ultimately who is responsible for the final decision.
B. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ ALONE (v. 7-9)
1. Peter explained from his testimony related to Cornelius that God had decided the issue by cleansing their hearts by faith and granting them the Spirit just like the Jews. Thus God had made no distinction. This is the theological issue at stake, and it is an extremely important one. It is how people get saved. It is the answer to the question: what is the gospel? Explain how crucial it is. This group of leaders held in their hand the fate of the gentile world. Explain that getting close is not enough.
2. Eph 2:8-9, Rom 3:20, 24, 4:5, 9:16, Acts 13:39, 2 Tim 1:9, Titus 3:5,
3. Illustration: explain how the Catholics in Peru get close, explain my wrestling as a young believer about how I was saved, b/c I knew works didn’t save, but they told me to pray a prayer…
4. You cannot add anything. You can’t be good enough. You can’t trust in Christ and something else. It’s all Christ, all Grace, all Faith, or it’s damnation. You can’t go to church enough, or keep the rules enough, or serve on enough committees. You can’t pray enough, pay enough, or come enough to get you into heaven. And you wouldn’t want it any other way. But we must be firmly grounded in this truth. If we are not careful we end up with a mechanical view of salvation, where we try to get all the people that we can to repeat a sinner’s prayer. It is not “the prayer,” it is your heart that exercises faith and repentance toward God. And we must defend it to the death. If we are to be gospel-centered, we must get the gospel right.
C. Don’t test God by going against scripture EVER (v. 10-15)
1. Peter warned those in attendance not to test God. He was saying that they should not dare to articulate a position that would be in direct opposition to God. Peter was reminding them that their purpose was not to speak doctrine into existence, but determine what God had ordained. After Peter spoke, Paul and Barnabas recounted all the miracles that God had done among their ministry to the Gentiles. Then James got up and quoted Amos, indicated that this text was indicative of the breadth of OT teaching on the inclusion of the Gentiles in the future of the kingdom, and declared the final opinion of the Church (as the pastor) was that they should not trouble these new Gentile converts.
2. Ex 17:2, Matt 4:7,
3. Illustration: Judson recounts an incident where a Buddhist priest said that the gospel could not be true, b/c no king would allow his son to be treated like that, and Judson told him that he was not a disciple of Christ, and that “A true disciple inquires not whether a fact is agreeable to his own reason, but whether it is in the book. His pride has yielded to the divine testimony. Teacher, your pride is still unbroken. Break down your pride, and yield to the word of God.” the Anglican Church is about to split over such an issue, we don’t debate whether or not to turn the other cheek, or whether or not to bless those that curse you, we try to figure our how to do it,
4. It is not our place to decide what doctrines or teachings that we like, but what the bible teaches. To edit the gospel is to place ourselves above God and His Word, and is the essence of idolatry. We don’t choose what we believe, we choose what we will submit to. We must always be willing to search, study, understand, but finally to submit to the word. We don’t have the authority to change—baptism. And when we don’t know what the bible says on a subject, hunt it down! 85% of Christians believe that the bible contains most or all of the answers to life, but very few make serious effort to know the content.
D. Freedom doesn’t have to be injurious to other believers (v. 19-20)
1. Now James says that they are saved by grace through faith in Christ, BUT just because one has freedom, doesn’t mean that he must always exercise it. James says, “look we have some sensitive Jewish brethren whose consciences have been trained with the law, and it would violate their conscious to do some of the things that we really have liberty to do, so don’t needlessly offend them.” So James instructs the church not trouble these new believers with rules, but then asks them not to trouble weak believers with liberty. Most of the requests that he makes are related to idolatry which was a very sensitive issue for Jews.
2. Rom 14:14-15, 21, 1 Cor 8:9, 10:23,
3. Illustration: tell about Jason and the tattoo thing,
4. Christian discipleship is all-encompassing. It should affect all areas of your life. And precisely because it does, conflict over non-essentials will arise. The Christian faith and especially the church is supposed to be full of love for others. In fact, Jesus said that the world would know that we follow Christ because we love each other. But there will always be differences in spiritual maturity, preferences, personal opinions, etc, especially as it relates to Christian liberty. You job as a believer and church member is three fold. First determine where specific biblical teaching exists (and follow that teaching). Second, determine personally where your conscience leads you and convicts you on matters not explicit in scripture. Third, know other believers and respect their consciences enough not to cause them to stumble by doing things they would be convicted about, even though you are not convicted.
Closing illustration: They were a homey-looking couple. He was a large man with work-worn hands. Children loved his jokes and easy-going way. A charter member of the church, he served on the board. She was dainty with freckles on her face, everyone’s favorite Sunday school teacher. When they walked into Pastor Jay’s office, she spoke first: "Pastor, we believe you’re a failure, and we’d like to help you." They went on to list every area he was failing in, from his preaching to his marriage. Pastor Jay went home that evening and said to his wife, "I’ve spent three years in seminary learning to be a pastor. Now what am I going to do with the rest of my life?" Sixteen years later he is still the pastor of the church, and the homey-looking couple is still serving, but not without resolving their conflict.
Invitation to commitment
