What is a watershed moment of all time for you? This event in your life that has a lot to do with who you are. Today we come to one of those moments in the life of the Church, where everything hung in the balance. The question was asked “what at the very least do we need to be if we want to be a follower of Jesus?” We have a gospel for all was the answer that came back. A very personal gospel about the very person of Jesus. As Jesus isn’t a distant idea, a philosophy of life. We are forced to wrestle with the reality of the person of Jesus is the one who is interceding for you, working out a living salvation in you as he meets us in real life. As we read in verses 1-2 (The Message)
It wasn’t long before some Jews showed up from Judea insisting that everyone be circumcised: “If you’re not circumcised in the Mosaic fashion, you can’t be saved.” Paul and Barnabas were up on their feet at once in fierce protest. The church decided to resolve the matter by sending Paul, Barnabas, and a few others to put it before the apostles and leaders in Jerusalem.
The question was being asked what must you do to be saved? What made you saved? Was it based on your national identity? Was it about keeping the laws of Moses? Was it even about rituals and laws? Our future as followers in Christ hung in the balance for how this was answered. So let us drill down then on the problem. This all started when the Jewish believers from Judea arrived at the church in Antioch urging Gentiles who had become followers of Jesus to be circumcised in order to be saved. What they were saying was that to be a Christian Gentiles must become Jews first, that was the problem. Now you would remember the church in Antioch started when Paul & Barnabas preached the gospel there. We are told by Luke that a number of Gentiles were saved, maybe we struggle to relate with today’s passage because that’s not my problem, as we’re not affected by a pull to observe Jewish Laws. We can easily enough point out our modern day additions, and they might even be over good things; like how you take Communion, or follow a certain worship style, or the way you dress or speak. The thing is if anyone of these things become the compulsory condition for salvation, they become subversive, they take the focus away from what Jesus has done, is doing and will do. This dispute was getting at the heart of what God’s grace means. The gospel requires faith alone in Christ alone for salvation. It cannot be supplemented by circumcision or obedience to the laws of Moses. This matter was to be resolved in Jerusalem with what we call the Jerusalem Council. It was a watershed moment in the life of the church. Peter, Barnabas & Paul & James make the case with Peter addresses the Council. He had gained his freedom from being imprisoned when he was nearly executed now. He reports on what he had seen with his own eyes and how God has included Gentiles like Cornelius the Roman Centurion in his salvation plan, it what Peter’s talking about as we read in verse 8-9 of Acts 15
8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
Peter was pointing out that with God there are no favorites and birthright doesn’t determine how we’re saved; just like coming here to church isn’t what saves us, it is by faith alone in Christ Jesus. Peter makes himself clear in verse 10-11
10-11 “So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too? Don’t we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us just as he did those from beyond our nation? So what are we arguing about?”
Barnabas & Paul join in with speaking about their experiences and of those who came to put their faith in Christ. The reports were many, and what is clear is that salvation is not restricted to just one nation or people group. Jesus death was a watershed for all who will put their trust in him. Finally James the brother of Jesus, as the new leader of the church in Jerusalem speaks, he gives the decision of this council that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
19-21 “So here is my decision: We’re not going to unnecessarily burden non-Jewish people who turn to the Master. We’ll write them a letter and tell them, ‘Be careful to not get involved in activities connected with idols, to guard the morality of sex and marriage, to not serve food offensive to Jewish Christians—blood, for instance.’ This is basic wisdom from Moses, preached and honored for centuries now in city after city as we have met and kept the Sabbath.” (vs 19-21 The Message)
It is put more formally by the council in a letter that went out to all the churches in verses 28-29
28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
Food – sexual immorality– and alternate spiritualties are what the council lands on. Let us now look at each area. In the areas of alternate spiritualities we’re told not to eat the food that’s sacrificed to an idol, which I think we’re fairly comfortable to do, as we don’t see that much of it happen in our country anyway. The closest I guess I can come to apply it to our lives here in Australia is if you’ve ever been in a Thai Restaurant where you’ll notice in the corner, they’ll have a shrine with a Buddha with a food sacrifice or even an incense sticks burning. What would you do if they raised your food to that idol and muttered some words of praise to that god for this food? And other people you knew were watching that as well. This ruling went far deeper than what we say we believe, this gets at the way we live. Food is about fellowship
it’s at our meal tables we get what our soul needs in company and friendship. Something else was also at play here as back in the first century in a Roman occupied town the local temple was the place where you did business. The local temple was also your meat market stall
so it’s where you held social functions all the meat there was dedicated to the gods of the place. A businessman would have to attend the temple to have a meal with others to get deals made what the Jerusalem Council decision here tells us is guard your heart from idols. In the area of sex we’re told here to watch out with what we do in our minds and what we do in our relationships. To guard the morality of sex and marriage, also in our mind space are you finding yourself watching or thinking explicitly sexual things with someone who is not your spouse, as sexual immorality enters into our behaviours with what we do. The question is Has your view of sexuality been twisted either by idolizing sex as the supreme good or by demonizing it as an abyss of
badness? Has it become a place of darkness and sorrow. If it has you need to reach out. It is Jesus who makes things new, even us
Jesus brings us sanity and good sense. We’re reminded the place for sex is in marriage, not only we are told to abstain from anything that would cause us or others to fall act with purity, but also were told don’t become polluted by the world. As someone puts it this way…
“We often underestimate just how radically biblical faith relies on grace. Grace means that what makes things right comes to you from the outside. It’s the sheer gift that someone else gives to you. You don’t get it by jumping through certain religious hoops. You are forgiven, accepted, saved from death outside of yourself and because of Another.”[1] Because of Jesus. Again in the areas of food we’re told here what might not be all that obvious on the surface not to eat the meat of an animal that’s been strangled or the animals blood products. In the end after this council ended the decision was then sent far and wide, bringing clarity, verse 30-32
30 The men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.
The question is are my standards of acceptance higher than God’s? We are driven back to our fellowship together reminded that we belong to a church family and how our growth is a community experience we are reminded to be pointing to Jesus who is the one who brings the gospel to all.
Let’s pray…
David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 21/5/17
[1] David Powlinson “Making All Things New” Sex and the Sufficiency of Christ, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, Crossway, 2007.