Salvation by Grace
Jeffery Anselmi / General
Proclaim-The Gospel Has Come / Grace / Acts 15:1–21
The first church proclaimed that salvation is by grace.
INTRODUCTION
• When the Reformer Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in Wittenberg and set the world on fire, he wasn’t inventing anything new.
• Point 62 stated, “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”
• Though it may have shocked people who were not aware of what the Bible taught, Luther’s theses were right in line with the first church council, the council of Jerusalem.
• This amazing, historical event is recorded in chapter 15 of Acts.
• It’s the debate that took place there to which we now turn in the fifth week of our series on the proclamations of the early church.
• This time, the proclamation is both a literal proclamation and a defense made at the church council.
• The question at hand boils down to what one must do to be saved.
• This is a question that still plagues many churches yet today.
• The question of how one is saved is still important today.
• It was an important question during the time of the first church too.
• What we can gather from the writings of Paul (for example, Galatians 2:14) and here in Acts 15 Certain Jewish believers in Jesus were following Paul around, and after he left, they would tell the gentile converts that they weren’t fully saved unless they were circumcised and started to follow the Law of Moses.
• Paul and Barnabas disagree with this, so they take their argument to the church's leaders in Jerusalem.
• The leaders gather and debate the matter at length until Peter stands and makes a speech (Acts 15:1–7).
• What’s clear here is that there wasn’t uniformity of thought on all matters in the early church.
• But the church had come to a unified position of what the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus meant for believers.
• Even though today we do not face the Jew/Gentile issue, we still need to know how one is saved, and we need to be able to articulate what needs to be done lest we add or subtract to God’s Word and make salvation something it is not.
• Let’s turn to Acts 15:1-10 to as we begin our dive into the Word!
Acts 15:1–10 (CSB)
1 Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
2 After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue.
3 When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.
4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.
5 But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter.
7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe.
8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.
9 He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
10 Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
SERMON
I. A joyless system.
• Have you had a moment of joy in your life, and not five minutes after the moment, someone comes in and throws water on the fire?
• You have to remember that after Jesus ascended into heaven in the beginning, the gospel was mainly being offered to the nation of Israel.
• Peter changed that in his ministry with the household of Cornelius in Acts 10, then the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, which placed focus on the gentiles.
• Once the gospel was taken to the gentiles, God’s church grew even more.
• The people who were once the enemies of the people of God were now coming to God through Jesus!
• Imagine living in one of the communities that Paul and Barnabas were proclaiming Jesus.
• You may have been drawn to these men by some of the signs and wonders taking place, but what captivates you is the message of salvation, the message of love, forgiveness, and eternal life.
• You sit, you listen, your heart is pounding with excitement because you have been made to feel like a second-class citizen.
• Your life is full of regret, guilt, shame, and brokenness.
• You listen closer as you start to hear the testimonies about Jesus.
• Something in your heart tells your heart that you need this.
• Folks. Can you relate to this?
• I was that young man who was a train wreck filled with guilt, regret, and shame.
• I was broken inside.
• The message of the cross changed me, and for those of you who have given your life to Jesus, you know what I am talking about!
• This scenario played out for Paul and Barnabas’s crowds, they were hearing the Word of God, and they were responding!
• Do you remember the day you were baptized into Jesus? It was a joyful day.
• For me, I was exposed to a religious system, not a saving relationship with Jesus.
• Imagine within maybe a day of your conversion, a group of religious people comes rolling into town telling you that you are not saved and have to become a Jew before you become a Christian!
• For men, you know what that would mean! A surgical procedure that is commonly done today, but not in the days of Paul.
• These, hopefully, well-meaning religious leaders were following Paul and Barnabas from place to place, telling the converts that unless they became a Jew first, they could not be a follower of Jesus!
• The Old Testament was never meant to save you; it was meant to point you to a need of a savior.
Galatians 3:24 (CSB)
The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.
• The New American Standard translates this verse to tell us that the Law was a TUTOR to lead us to Christ.
• These religious leaders sought to bring these new converts into a system; they were seeking to destroy the joy of a relationship they wanted to have with the Jesus who saved them!
• Paul and Barnabas tried to get these leaders to see the light, but the leaders would not back down!
• Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem to see the Elders and the Apostles to try to iron this issue out.
• After Paul and Barnabas speak, Peter addresses the group.
• Peter first makes a point that he’d made in Acts 10 when he was confronted with the believer Cornelius: that God does not make a distinction between Jew and Gentile (v. 9).
• Indeed, “why,” Peter asks, “are we requiring them to do something that we ourselves recognize is impossible?
• In verse 10, Peter says:
Acts 15:10 (CSB)
Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?
• Peter argued that the council should not seek to put on the “necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear.”
• Peter’s point is not that the fathers considered the law to be burdensome. Indeed the words of the Psalmist rang in the ears of first-century Jews: “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me” (119:97–98).
• Peter’s rejection of the law had to do with its necessity for salvation, especially among the Gentiles. “Neither we nor our fathers,” he says, were able to count on our obedience to the law as a means for salvation. (College Press Commentary)
• Don’t let yourself trade in a relationship with Jesus for a system.
• A relationship will bring great joy; a system will be empty and void of joy!
• Let’s turn to verse 11!
Acts 15:11 (CSB)
11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”
II. True joy.
• Peter concludes that the Law of Moses could not and did not save anyone, but rather we are saved by GRACE!
• We seem to find comfort in systems, rules, and feeling like we have to earn something.
• When you TRY to earn your salvation, you will fall short.
• Have you ever tried to do something that you found to be impossible to do?
• I have tried to do a couple of puzzles that I felt were too difficult, I lost patience, and I lost my drive to put them together.
• I love doing puzzles, but if I come across one I feel I cannot do, my frustration level grows to the point I lose my joy for doing the puzzle.
• SO what do I do? I put it back in the box!
• When you try to save yourself, you will be frustrated, and you will feel empty inside, and eventually, you will give up!
• How about trying to let Jesus do what you can never do?
• What is God’s grace? It is God’s unmerited favor.
• Grace is kindness that is not deserved or earned.
• Imagine a parent sets a jar on the counter.
• Every day that the kids are good, they each get to put a penny in the jar.
• Every day they are bad, they take a penny out, and if they are all really, really bad, the parent has the option of emptying the jar.
• When this jar is full, the kids all get to go out for ice cream.
• Now, imagine a day at home with the kids when every one of them is as bad as can be.
• The day starts with screaming and crying and fights.
• They yell at the parent. They insult one another. They refuse to do their chores.
• If a rule can be broken, it is broken, and if there is a chore to be done, it’s ignored.
• There is total chaos.
• The agreed “contract” in place is that the jar gets emptied on a day like that.
• But instead, the parent calls the children into the kitchen and says, “I love you. Let’s go get ice cream.” That’s grace.
• Those kids DESERVE NOTHING but discipline and punishment; grace says I will give you favor you do not deserve!
• True joy comes when we are free in Christ!
• True joy happens when we are not in bondage to some system, but we are in a saving relationship with Jesus!
• Listen to Paul in Colossians 2:12-14!
Colossians 2:12–14 (CSB)
12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.
14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
• Do you want FREEDOM!
• True joy is found in freedom in Christ!
• Let’s finish with verses 12-21 with our final observation!
Acts 15:12–21 (CSB)
12 The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
13 After they stopped speaking, James responded, “Brothers, listen to me.
14 Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name.
15 And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:
16 After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again,
17 so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord— even all the Gentiles who are called by my name— declares the Lord who makes these things
18 known from long ago.
19 Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God,
20 but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.
21 For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.”
III. Joy for all!
• I will keep this one short and sweet!
• At this point in the story, James, the brother of Jesus, takes the mic!
• James quotes the Old Testament Prophet Amos to conclude that the Gospel is for EVERYONE who will accept it!
• James’ major emphasis was that “David’s fallen tent” would be rebuilt, a reference to the restoration of the kingdom over which David ruled to its former glory.
• He also focused on the phrase “the Gentiles who bear my name,” a concept that could also have been drawn from the Hebrew text. (College Press Commentary).
• James concludes that the Gospel is for everyone. In verse 19, James concludes that Gentiles do not have to become Jews to come to Jesus!
• Then James does something that seems contradictory.
• In verses 20-21, he seemed to lay some Old Testament Law restrictions on the Gentile Christians.
• What he is actually doing to laying out four things that would have been common pagan practices.
• He is telling the Gentile believers they need to get away from those practices as Christians.
• James was seeking to knock down barriers between Jew and Gentile.
• The principal barrier to social and religious unity among the Jewish and Gentile Christians was the low standard of behavior among Gentiles.
• Idol feasts were shameful debaucheries, marked by the most vulgar and immoral behavior, the prohibitions against pollution of idols and fornication being almost, in fact, one prohibition.
• All four of these restrictions may relate to idol worship.
• All Christians are to live up to who they are in Christ!
CONCLUSION
• The children’s story Eric Says Sorry by Dai Hankey has a great illustration of grace.
• Eric has broken his neighbor’s flowerpot, and after a series of mishaps, he finally confesses to his dad.
• His dad takes him to the store to buy a new one.
• Eric takes out his money, all he has, but it isn’t enough.
• His dad tells him not to worry, that he has paid for all of it.
• “‘Thanks,’ said Eric, ‘But I don’t deserve it!’
• “You’re right! … But no one’s perfect! Learn this lesson and never forget it—this is called grace—and grace is epic!” [Epsom, UK: The Good Book Company, 2016]).
• Folks, we are saved by grace!
• We need to quit trying to follow some joyless system to earn salvation, and we need to bask in the joy of God’s grace!
• How do I receive God’s saving grace?
• Place your faith in Him for your salvation.
• Confess Him as your Lord.
• Repent of your sins to Him.
• Meet Him in the baptismal waters, and you will have your sins washed away, and you will rise and walk in a newness of life!
• That is how you are saved! Are you ready?
