JUL 28 2013PM A Model of Love
Acts 15:22-35
The great decree of salvation issued by the early church should have settled the issue forever. There is no question; salvation is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But some people still insist on adding to the plan. They believe things like not only should you accept Jesus, but you need to baptized to be saved, or you need to be confirmed to be saved, or you need to take the Lord’s Supper to be saved.
We are in chapter 15 of Acts verses 23-35. We are going to look at 5 points tonight to cover this passage.
Point #1 is that there was the attitude that brought about this decree of salvation and that attitude was humility. READ 23. The leaders, the apostles and elders, placed themselves on an equal level with the brothers of the church. They never insinuated that they were higher up the ladder than anyone else. They humbly declared that the decision was a decision of all the brother.
In the oldest manuscripts of this passage it reads, “the apostles and elders. Brothers send greetings to the brothers which are of the Gentiles.” They were writing brother to brother, placing themselves on the same level as the brothers among the Gentiles.
There’s a lesson in this for us today. We are equal in the eyes of God. Sure there has to be some sort of authority to keep things organized and running well in any church. But just because someone has a position of leadership, does not mean they are more important than others, or closer to God than others. Deacon, S/S teacher, Directors, even ministers are no higher up or closer to God that anyone else.
So this great decree of humility is based upon humility. Everyone involved, and in particular the leaders, including the apostles themselves, realized that they were humble recipients of salvation just as all other men were. They were all “brothers in the Lord.” That means that we are ALL saved alike, “through the grace of the Lord Jesus.”
POINT #2. There was the declaration of the decree. Ritual and law are not necessary to salvation and the disputers of that were rebuked. READ v. 24. No matter anyone teaches, no matter who they are or how influential they are, salvation is: By the grace of the Lord Jesus and by Him alone. Ritual and law are not necessary.
The persons who taught otherwise, the false teachers, were strongly rebuked. They troubled the believers with their words. The picture is that of words heaped upon words, false words that disturbed the believers. But they should have noted as should we that the false teachers proclaimed mere words, empty words, and we must always remember that mere words spoken by someone who thinks he or she has authority are just words.
Salvation is by grace alone and nothing is to be added to it. God and God alone saves. A person either accepts God’s salvation or rejects it. It’s that simple. We do nothing to earn salvation.
These false statements that were made troubled the believers’ minds. And all of this was for naught. These guys that stirred all this up with the new believers in Antioch were not authorized by the church to do that. They were never commissioned by the church to declare that to be saved you not only had to know Christ and believe in Him but you also had to be circumcised. No one ever gave them the authority to do that.
And on that note: many, many times in our church, someone self-appoints themself
to make rules or to make others think that I made a new rule and they are just carrying it out. Never assume someone knows what is going on enough that they have been appointed to be the rule enforcer. If ANYTHING like that ever comes up, please come to me and ask. Most of the time, you will find that what is being said is false. My name gets used a lot in vain. Help me stop it.
Well that’s what these Pharisees were doing. They were believers, but they tried to add to the plan of salvation to include circumcision. It wasn’t true and they were not authorized to even say it.
POINT #3. There WERE men chosen to proclaim the truth. READ v. 25-27. The church sent Paul and Barnabas as men who had proclaimed the truth. They were known for declaring the truth so they were the best ministers to send. The church also sent Judas and Silas, prophets, worthy men, men gifted by the Holy Spirit. They were chosen to go with Paul and Barnabas to confirm what they told the new believers in Antioch.
This decree of salvation was so important that the written message wasn’t enough. It needed exponents, Judas and Silas, who knew the writing or the truth of salvation. This message was so important that it needed to be proclaimed also by word of mouth.
POINT #4. There were a few rules that were necessary. READ v. 28-29. The Holy Spirit and the church were both involved in the decision. It was the Holy Spirit that led and guided the church to declare salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus.
These rules that were listed in v. 29 weren’t given for the purpose of saving men, but for the believer’s welfare. By doing these things, the believers. “do well”. They will fare well and experience good both within their own heats and lives and between themselves and other believers.
POINT #5. There were glorious results. READ v. 30-35. When the four men arrived in Antioch, the whole church was called together and the great decree on salvation was read. When it was read, four great things resulted from it. Note how God took the dissension and its subsequent events and worked it all out for the good of the Antioch church and for the cause of Christ.
1. First, there was great gladness over the encouragement and the help that was given by the Jerusalem church.
2. Second, there was great encouragement. Silas and Judas were encouraging and strengthening the faith of the Antioch believers. In v. 32 is says Judas and Silas “said much.” They encouraged for a long time, building the believers up more and more, assuring them of their faith in the Lord Jesus. They preached that the believers were saved by the grace of God and His grace alone and the two visiting preachers wanted the believers to know that the apostles and elders of the great Jerusalem church strengthened the glorious truth.
3. Third, there was the discovery of the great missionary, Silas. Silas will later return and will travel with Paul on his second missionary journey. Paul discovered that Silas was a good missionary in Antioch. Apparently Paul invited Silas to go with him on his second missionary journey.
4. Fourth, a great teaching ministry grew within the church. In v. 35, Paul and Barnabas were busy teaching and preaching. They were not idle. But there are also other teachers and preachers that were not idle. And the message they taught was the Word of the Lord, not their own theories and ideas.
So, the Gentiles had come to Christ, left a life of darkness to pursue the light. But they weren’t quite ready for Jerusalem. So they stood alone, having been told that if they cleaned up their act, obeyed the Law, they could be a part of the group.
We saw last week the theological debate that raged, and was settled in favor of grace, but the communication of that inclusive decision was a miracle of God’s love. And it serves as a wonderful model of love that we can practice every day.
Love Ministers in Person. We have a hierarchy of value in communication, don’t we—email, form letter, phone call, hand-written note or card, personal visit.
Personal involvement communicates a strong message of love and to those Gentile believers wondering where they stood up in Antioch and Cilicia, it meant the world to have these personal emissaries, these Jews willing to travel 300 miles to eat with them, speak with them.
We can never forget that God, who revealed Himself in creation and wrote us a very long letter, ultimately spoke to us by sending His own Son to become one of us. Love isn’t afraid of contact, love isn’t afraid of what others might think. There are a lot of ways to do ministry in our hi-tech age. But from personal experience, nothing exhibits love like our physical presence in a person’s life. And no ministry is as powerful as the one done face to face, hand to hand, person to person.
Love Takes the Side of Truth. There were plenty of forces that would push the church toward compromise. People teaching adherence to the law were powerful.
As we saw last week, the very gospel was at stake, whether we need to add to the sacrifice of Christ. This passage is full of love, but sometimes love has to be very forceful. The false teachers in this passage were rebuked but in love. Sometimes love has to be very tough, and even take sides! But if the church ever has to take sides we must make sure it is the truth, and then defend and apply the truth.
Love Encourages. No Jew called a gentile a “brother”, but here they are. This would be like meeting a former enemy on the street and he greets you by calling you “my brother”, and he doesn’t just want money. And then the content of the letter itself is freeing them from the impossible task of keeping the Law, but setting out a path that would lead them away from their former corruption and more deeply into the life “set apart” to God.
Were there differences between these Jewish and Gentile believers? Absolutely!
But love finds what is praiseworthy, the evidence of God’s work, and encourages.
The Gentiles were accepted! They were loved! They were no longer people without a group to belong to. And then the personal emissaries continued in that same light, teaching not the discouraging message of Law, but the encouraging and strengthening message of full acceptance by the Father, and by the church.
So we see a good model for love in this passage. The Father loved us, and sent His Son to us in our need to die in our place. We are now to be continual funnels for that love to flow to others. We do it by sending missionaries, and we do it in our own circle.
We take the side of the truth, even it is means rejection by those who persist in the lie. We encourage the evident work of God, embrace and accept the believer in whom God is at work. And continue to love the person who is different than us, and yet so much like we used to be before Jesus got ahold of us.
Love should flow out of us like it flowed out of this wonderful group of former racists in this passage, being transformed by the love of God
