(From Steve Shepherd) ILL.- A very wealthy man was dying and decided to face up to the fact. He called his attorney to his bedside and after telling his wife not to cry, he started to dispose of all his worldly possessions.
“I want to leave my Cadillac to my son George.” His wife Bertha interrupted and said, “You should leave it to Joe. He’s a better driver and he’ll take care of it.” “Okay,” the man said.
He went on, “I want to leave my Rolls Royce to my daughter, Linda.” His wife Bertha interrupted again and said, “You’d be better off to leave it to the your nephew Willie.” “All right,” he said, “I will leave my Rolls Royce to my nephew Willie instead of my daughter, Linda.”
He went on, “And I leave my Volvo to my niece, Sally. She is such a sweetheart.” Again, his wife Bertha interrupted and said, “I think Judy should get it.”
Unable to take it any longer, the man said, “BERTHA, PLEASE, WHO’S DYING? YOU OR ME?”
Disagreements happen all the time, don’t they? Some are serious and some are just a bother. What we see in Acts 15 are two disagreements, the first is serious enough to split the church and the second is serious enough to split up a mission team.
The first disagreement involves the truth of the gospel, the second involves the trustworthiness of a traveling companion.
Let’s read this account together and then draw some applications for us and the lesson will be yours.
Acts 15:1-41 And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."
2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.
3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren.
4 And 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.
5 But certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."
6 And the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.
7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, 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, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
10 "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?
11 "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are."
12 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.
13 And after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren, listen to me.
14 "Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.
15 "And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written,
16 ’AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT,
17 IN ORDER THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’
18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM OF OLD.
19 "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,
20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.
21 "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath."
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas-- Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren,
23 and they sent this letter by them, "The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings.
24 "Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls,
25 it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27 "Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth.
28 "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:
29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell."
30 So, when they were sent away, 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, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message.
33 And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out.
34
35 But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching, with many others also, the word of the Lord.
36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are."
37 And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them also.
38 But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.
39 And there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.
40 But Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.
41 And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
In the first disagreement of Acts 15, the truth of the gospel is at stake. There was a disagreement on how we are saved. We read this today and think, why on earth do these people think you have to be circumcised to be saved? What were they thinking??? It’s a bit difficult for us to understand, being Gentiles and almost 2000 years removed from this controversy. But we must remember that at that time Matthew – Revelation wasn’t written yet. Their Bible ended at Malachi, so as Paul went out preaching and accepting Gentiles when they simply believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and were baptize in his name, some had real problems with this. They even sent teachers to the various Jew/Gentile churches to straighten them out and get those Gentiles circumcised. Why?
Well, again, remember they didn’t have a division in their Bibles called the Old Testament and the New Testament. All they had were the first 39 books and there were things in there that made it hard to believe that circumcision was unnecessary for salvation.
Look at Genesis 17:9-14 Ask this question: How long is this covenant of circumcision to last according to what God said here?
Many Jewish Christians couldn’t understand how Paul could get around this. Didn’t he know that God’s covenant with Abraham was an everlasting covenant? Didn’t he know that opening the doors to the Gentiles without requiring his covenant seal of circumcision was unbiblical?
That wasn’t the only difficulty they faced. Even Apostles had some difficulty with this. Remember Acts 10 when Peter saw the vision of the sheet let down with all the reptiles and unclean animals in it and the Lord said, “Arise Peter, kill and eat!” What did Peter say? “Not so Lord, I’ve never eaten anything common or unclean!”
One time Peter went up to Antioch to the church there, a Jew/Gentile church. At first while he was there, he mixed and mingled with the Gentiles and acted like they were fine, but listen to what happened later. Galatians 2:11-16. What happened to Peter? What happened to Barnabus? Are the Gentiles saved by faith or not? This thing was tearing the church apart! Paul has to step in and defend what he calls “the truth of the gospel.” What is he talking about? The truth of the gospel is mentioned in verse 5 and verse 14 of Galatians 2. He’s talking about the truth that Jews and Gentiles are saved by faith apart from the Law. This means that God has given a new covenant, one that supersedes the Old one! Can he do that? That’s what Jesus death on the cross is, a new covenant in the blood of God’s only begotten Son.
God has radically changed the way we have access to him. He has given a radical new way of salvation to all people. It is through Jesus Christ and faith in Him, a faith that includes baptism but not circumcision. Look at Galatians 3:26-29.
Actually, there is still a circumcision, but it is not physical. Look at Colossians 2:9-14.
In a sense, baptism has replaced circumcision as the mark of the covenant for God’s people. So much so, Paul can write, there is One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all who is over all and through all and in all. Eph. 4 Jesus, in the great commission gave this charge to the Apostles in Matthew 28: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you…
All of the conversion examples in Acts demonstrate that those who come to Christ in faith are baptized in his name. This is a covenant act, just as communion is a covenant renewal for all who have been baptized into Christ, where we remember the body and blood of Jesus’ sacrifice each Lord’s day.
These things were not obvious and clear to everyone in the early church. It took time and struggle to work out the details of these matters and come to understand God’s will. Thus we have the Jerusalem counsel in Acts 15.
1. The church met, drawing in all its leadership to discuss it.
2. The focus was on finding God’s will through scripture and the activities of the Holy Spirit.
3. The conclusion was that all are saved by the grace of God in the same way and enter the same church without observing the covenant of Abraham in circumcision and the Law of Moses.
Then a letter is written and sent out to all the churches telling them of these conclusions and instructions.
The final disagreement in Acts 15 is between Paul and Barnabus. It is purely over an opinion about who is trustworthy to take on a mission trip. You’d like to think they could work these things out better, but God shows us, everybody’s human.
