The Jerusalem Confession – part 1
Acts 15:1-35 (1-11)
November 25, 2012
As you know we have been studying through this book of Acts.
It is the record of how Christ built His church.
Well, one of the unique things about Christ as the builder is that He not only is responsible for adding bricks,
But for designing the structure as well.
He doesn’t just grow the church, He builds the church
And one thing we are sure of
Is that His sovereign hand is all over the church.
Nowhere is that more clearly seen
Than in His sovereign addition of the Gentiles to the church.
For example:
As we have studied this book we have looked at three different events
That we called Divine Appointments.
The first was Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.
Now he was certainly a proselyte for he had come to Jerusalem to worship,
But a Gentile none the less, and God saved him.
Then we saw Ananias and Saul.
Now Saul was certainly a Jew, but saved for what purpose?
To be a spokesman to the Gentiles.
Then we saw Peter and Cornelius.
Cornelius was a Gentile, but also a “God-fearer” which meant
He adhered to all Jewish thought, but had not been circumcised.
But we have continually seen the sovereign hand of God
Literally push His church in the direction of the Gentiles.
(That was certainly seen during that first missionary journey)
In fact when Paul and Barnabas returned, we heard their testimony.
Acts 14:27 “When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
It really isn’t hard to detect what God has been up to.
He is saving Gentiles according to His sovereign will.
And so Christ is building His church with both Jewish and Gentile bricks.
BUT CHRIST ALSO DESIGNS THE CHURCH.
He also determines how she looks and operates.
And that is one thing that becomes apparent in our text here tonight.
We get to see the sovereign hand of God direct the doctrine of the church.
Now you may not realize it, but this is really
A very important chapter in your Bible.
I know that as Baptists we pride ourselves in being “People of the book”
• We like to claim that we simply believe Scripture.
• It is our guide
• It is where we go for all our answers
And certainly we strive to do that in all things.
But it might shock you if I told you that your faith
Rests on more than just the Bible.
Our faith not only rests on the word of God,
But on the consensus of what God’s word means.
Let me put that another way.
We don’t just believe what Scripture says,
We believe what Scripture means.
How do we know what Scripture means?
Well, it is the Holy Spirit who interprets Scripture for us.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13 “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
2 Peter 1:19-21 “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
So it isn’t just us reading the Scripture,
But us having the Scripture revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
In order to help us do that, God has granted to us tremendous gifts.
One of those is obviously the Holy Spirit,
Of whom every believer is a partaker.
Every believer gains his understanding of Scripture from the Holy Spirit.
BUT WE DON’T GET ALL OF OUR UNDERSTANDING
DIRECTLY FROM HIM.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
Well, let’s suppose you go home and read Acts 16 to get a head start in our study and in verse 3 you read that Paul circumcised Timothy.
(That will seem strange after the fight of chapter 15,
Not to force Gentiles to be circumcised)
But you read that and wonder, why?
What does that mean?
In order to find out you should pray and ask the Holy Spirit.
But is that all you will do?
No, some of you will come and ask me.
Some of you will go and read a commentary.
WHY?
(Is it because you are giving up on the Holy Spirit?)
No, it’s because this is also how the Holy Spirit works.
Ephesians 4:11-13 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
It is the Holy Spirit who gifts men to be able to understand
And explain and apply and proclaim the word of God to us.
It is still the Spirit, He just does it through us.
WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THIS?
That means your faith doesn’t just rest on
What you go home and read in the Bible in a closet.
Your faith also rests on what Spirit-filled men of God
Have taught you in regard to what the Scripture means.
Our faith not only rests on the word of God,
But on the consensus of what God’s word means.
This is in essence what Paul meant with statements like this:
1 Corinthians 11:2 “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.”
2 Thessalonians 2:15 “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”
Paul didn’t just point the churches to the Scriptures,
He pointed them also to the traditional belief of the church
Which was gleaned from studying the Scriptures.
Now, whether you realize it or not, you and I benefit greatly from this.
Most church historians recognize at least 7 ecumenical councils
Which shaped what is considered to be orthodox Christian doctrine.
The first would have been the Nicene Creed.
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. AMEN.”
From that some still argued how Christ could be both God and man.
This eventually led to the “Chalcedonian Definition”
stating that “…Jesus Christ is one and the same Son; the same perfect in Godhead and the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man…”
And there were others.
But the point is that throughout history men have read the Bible
And come to different conclusions as to what it said.
But Spirit-filled men of God studied the Scriptures,
Sought God’s wisdom, and laid down for us
What is true doctrine and what is false.
These men helped solidify the church’s belief as to what the Bible means.
And everything else was considered heresy.
For example:
• The Council of Nicea said anyone who denies the deity of Jesus is a heretic.
• The Chalcedonian Definition says that anyone who denies the hyper static union is a heretic.
And that has guided and protected
The true doctrine of the church for generations.
Your faith rests on more than what you have learned
Directly from the Holy Spirit.
Your faith also rests on what other gifted, Spirit-filled men have learned.
Now I tell you that, because tonight we study the first ever church council.
We study the first time that believers gathered together
To determine what the official doctrine of the church would be.
Their decision (led by the Holy Spirit) would
• Shape the direction of the church
• Solidify the doctrine of the church
• Separate what is true from what is heretical
This was an important council.
AND WHAT DOCTRINE WAS DEBATED AT THIS COUNCIL?
Whether or not salvation was obtained by grace through faith,
Or if it was obtained by works.
And this is just one of those areas in which Jesus Christ,
By the power of His Spirit, through His people,
Would continue to build and design His church.
This is a very important chapter.
So tonight let’s begin to work our way through it.
#1 THE DISAGREEMENT
Acts 15:1-5
At this point you know that we have a predominantly Gentile church in Antioch and it is thriving.
We already saw back in chapter 13
• How they loved the word of God,
• How they genuinely worshiped God,
• How they submitted to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
We saw that they were a missionary church
And one that rejoiced at the growth of the kingdom.
The church in Antioch was a great church.
And so it was only a matter of time before Satan attacked.
(1) “Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Not only where they upholding a works-based salvation,
But they were also indicating that
None of these uncircumcised Gentiles at Antioch were yet saved.
• Forget that they already had the Holy Spirit…
• Forget that they had already been walking in submission to Him…
• Forget that they had a love for truth…
• Forget that they had a love for the lost…
• Forget that they had left paganism to worship Jesus Christ…
These men came down and indicated that despite all that,
They were still not saved.
The implications of this are huge.
THIS MESSAGE RAN THE RISK OF WRECKING THE ANTIOCH CHURCH.
In fact later in the chapter when the church in Jerusalem responded
With a church to Antioch they wrote:
Acts 15:24 “Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls,”
This message literally unsettled the souls of these new Gentile believers.
In short they began to doubt their salvation.
The believers at Antioch had believed they were forgiven and saved from God’s wrath, now to find out that this may not have been the case at all.
You can only imagine the fall out here.
And so naturally Paul quickly rose to their defense.
(2) “And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.”
We’ll get into in a little more detail later,
But for now it suffices to see that Paul had “great dissension and debate”
Paul didn’t agree with their assertion one little bit.
He did not hold to their works-based doctrine of salvation
And he challenged them head on.
However, their argument was compelling enough that instead of just dismissing these men from Judea, notice what the church did.
“the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning the issue.”
This was a serious debate, and these Gentiles wanted to know.
And so what we have here is literally a debate that threatened
Not only to wreck the church, but to split it right down the middle.
See, you had Jews who always believed
That Judaism was paramount to salvation.
And they didn’t have any problem with Gentile salvation
So long as they first became Jewish.
But here we had Gentiles claiming salvation,
And skipping over Judaism to acquire it.
No doubt, the fear among Jews is that their traditional way of life would somehow be lost in the mix, and they were fighting to keep it.
But the debate was on.
And Paul and Barnabas and others are off to Jerusalem to settle the issue.
Now I do like Paul’s journey to Jerusalem.
(3-4) “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. 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.”
Paul really sounds confused doesn’t he?
The debate is supposed to be that these Gentiles aren’t yet saved
Because they aren’t yet circumcised.
But that didn’t stop Paul from stopping in every town on the way
To share about God’s salvation of the Gentiles.
And perhaps it was Paul’s zeal to speak of Gentile salvation
That caused the issue to flare up again in Jerusalem.
(5) “But some 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.”
Now there is a similar argument,
But I want you to notice a bit of a difference.
The first group had said back in verse 1, “Unless you are circumcised…you cannot be saved.”
I think we can assume that those men
Were for the most part indifferent to Jesus.
It doesn’t appear that they minded people following Jesus,
They just wanted to keep the focus on Judaism.
But this group is different.
• They were a “sect of the Pharisees” which says a lot.
• But they also “had believed”
These men were saved and yet they said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
We can probably classify the original group as non-believers.
And we can classify this group as weak believers.
They are similar to those weak believers we find in Romans 14
Who think you can be saved but must still honor one day above another,
Who think you can be saved but still must maintain a certain dietary restriction.
The danger is that the weak faith of these believers
Had united with the unbelief of the Judaizers
And it has put the church at a dangerous cross-roads.
At the heart of the discussion was: SALVATION
What is required for a man to be saved?
And to answer the question the council of Jerusalem is about to convene.
The Disagreement
#2 THE DEBATE
Acts 15:6-21
Now we won’t make it all the way through this section tonight,
But quickly let me point out to you what we see.
Now first it is important once again to notice
How the church handled this matter.
(6) “The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.”
This issue was not opened up for a church-wide debate.
They didn’t take a majority vote among the people.
The spiritual leaders of the church convened
To determine what God’s will was on the matter.
The rest of the congregation isn’t involved until verse 22,
When the decision of this council has been reached.
And even then the only part the rest of the congregation has in the matter
Is to determine who goes, not what the verdict is.
This was how the early church handled doctrinal issues.
It was left up to the spiritual leaders to come to a consensus of God’s will.
And in this debate, it would be nice if we had a transcript,
But Luke gives us the responses from three people.
Peter’s Reaction
Paul’s Recollection
James’ Recommendation
All three of these apostles weigh in, and all are vitally important.
• Peter’s response is based on experience and belief.
• Paul’s response is based upon God’s activity.
• James’ response is based upon God’s word.
(all three of these matter in discerning God’s will on the subject)
Well, let’s get into Peter’s Reaction
And according to Peter, there are three problems
With seeking to force the Gentiles to be circumcised.
1) CIRCUMCISION IGNORES GOD (7-9)
Now you will see that this council began with “much debate”.
There was no obvious answer for them.
After all, those who held to the necessity of circumcision had a wealth of Old Testament Scriptures to support their view, but one would be hard-pressed to find a verse that said circumcision wasn’t important.
This was an intense debate.
And then Peter stands and starts his reasoning.
And Peter’s first point is that requiring circumcision ignores God.
How?
Well look at what Peter remembers.
GOD CHOSE GENTILES
(7) “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 would hear the word of the gospel and believe.”
And we certainly remember that.
• Peter didn’t choose the Gentiles.
• The Jerusalem church didn’t choose the Gentiles.
It was God who sent Peter to Cornelius.
Peter didn’t even want to go, and God had to convince him.
There was only One who wanted Gentiles saved, and that was God.
GOD CONSECRATED GENTILES
(8) “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;”
God has a unique and special way of setting apart those who are His.
WHAT IS THAT METHOD?
He gives them His Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
And Peter said, God gave them the Holy Spirit.
GOD CLEANSED GENTILES
(9) “and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”
Not only did God choose them and consecrate them,
God also cleansed them.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
A mark of a genuine believer is the process of sanctification in their lives.
These Gentiles had left pagan lifestyles filled with idolatry to walk in righteousness and serve Jesus Christ.
God did that in their lives.
And this is Peter’s point.
God Chose them, God Consecrated them, God Cleansed them
And all of that without ever circumcising them.
To come in now and declare the necessity of circumcision
Completely ignores all that God has already done in their lives.
• Was God’s choosing and consecration and cleansing all for nothing?
• Did God accomplish nothing by this?
By coming in now, you ignore the obvious work
God has already accomplished.
Circumcision ignores God
2) CIRCUMCISION TESTS GOD (10)
Now that is really an interesting statement.
Peter directly confronts his opponents.
“Now therefore why do you put God to the test..?”
I think we all know the implications and problems of this.
Namely you aren’t supposed to put God to the test.
Matthew 4:5-7 “Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'”
Hebrews 3:8-10 “DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;
You don’t test God.
You don’t push Him to prove Himself to you.
Jesus preached that “an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign”
And yet Peter says that these people,
By enforcing circumcision were testing God.
“by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear”
HOW WAS REQUIRING CIRCUMCISION PUTTING GOD TO THE TEST?
By ignoring God’s obvious work and now requiring their own conditions
They were calling into question the effectiveness of God’s salvation.
Remember the Israelites?
Exodus 17:1-2 “Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”
Then after Moses brought water from the rock
Exodus 17:7 “He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
They called into question the REALITY or GENUINENESS or EFFECTIVENESS of God’s salvation.
And that is what these Judaizers and this sect of Pharisees had done.
They completely ignored God’s salvation, called it into question
And then declared that more was needed.
WHO WERE THEY TO CHALLENGE GOD’S SALVATION?
Furthermore you are requiring something of them
That we couldn’t even live up to.
You are completely overlooking God’s work and enforcing your own.
Circumcision Ignores God, Circumcision Tests God
3) CIRCUMCISION MINIMIZES GOD (11)
And there is Peter’s complete and total doctrine in regard to salvation.
“We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”
Peter says, “We aren’t saved by our works, we aren’t saved by our efforts, We were saved by grace.
• Which one of you earned God’s favor?
• Which one of you achieved righteousness on your own?
The only reason you are saved is not because
Circumcision earned you the right to be saved,
It is because God was gracious to you.
You didn’t atone for your sin, Christ did.
You didn’t satisfy God’s righteous requirement, Christ did.
He graciously granted you salvation when you did not deserve it.
Peter’s question now is, “Do you think God saves us by grace and them by works?”
And the answer is obviously no.
But see, to require circumcision is to minimize the grace of God.
And there really is a lot more to say about this,
But we’ll have to get to it next time.
I don’t want to short cut over Peter’s main point.
But tonight, I want you to see how the church handled doctrine,
And that their decisions were so important for us.
It was these Spirit-filled men who saved this precious truth for us.
And now, it requires Spirit-filled men to preserve it.
But we’ll have to continue on with this next time.
This was in essence what Paul wrote to the Galatians who were most affected by this heresy.
You will remember in the second chapter of that letter Paul recounted an argument he had with Peter over Peter’s inconsistency regarding this issue.
It ended with Paul saying this:
Galatians 2:15-16 “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”
And then Paul said:
Galatians 2:20-21 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
See, to trust in works is to nullify grace, it is to minimize the power of grace to save.
It is to say grace is good, but not good enough.
It is to say Jesus paid a lot of it, but not quite all of it.
And that is what these men were doing, they were minimizing the power of grace.
We sing that grace is amazing and rightly so.
We sing that grace is marvelous, infinite, matchless
We sing that grace exceeds our sin and our guilt
Don’t nullify it.
Paul will go on in his letter.
Galatians 5:2-6 “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”
There again Paul is saying seeking to work for it is to disregard the power of the grace that was offered.
And this is Peter’s argument.
To push for circumcision on these Gentiles is
To Ignore God’s work,
To Question the effectiveness of God’s gospel,
And to minimize God’s role in salvation.
Why would you do that?
Now, there is obviously a whole lot more to be learned from this council, but I hope you see the tremendous fight that occurred to secure a salvation for us that was void of all human effort.
This was an important event, hopefully we’ll conclude it next time.
