[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Expound. A verse-by-verse
study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. A brother showed me before
the service started a bulletin from 1987. We had been in this
building about a year, and I was just looking at
the design, the front cover of the design, just
where we've come from and what it took
to design something then and get on the
typewriter and then reproduce these things. But I remembered back to
getting into this building because I saw that bulletin. And I remember that
it was not easy. It was a dispute. That is, many of us
were excited about it, but there were some
people who just thought it was
wrong that we should get such a large building. And we should just be happy, and
we couldn't ever fill this even ever in our history. And so, why, are you buying
that big building on Osuna. So I smiled at that in my
heart, but then I thought, you know what? That's just typical stuff. That's typical human stuff. Typical family stuff. People disagree. Do you agree? OK, good, didn't
know if you were going to disagree with that. People disagree, all people
disagree on something, somewhere. Give them enough time, and
they'll think differently than the person next to them. Walter Martin used to frequently
say-- the founder of the Bible Answer Man, if you can find
two people that think exactly alike on everything, one
of them is not thinking. And I suppose he's right. Wherever there's a
will, there's a won't. You know, somebody
wants one thing. The other person
wants something else. Well, I set that up because we
are entering a chapter where there is conflict and resolution
of the conflict, only followed by more conflict. And that conflict that we
closed the chapter with, if by God's grace, we actually
do close the chapter tonight, it's a conflict that
will not be resolved here between two mature men of God. So we will see conflict,
and we will see unity in the same chapter. Now when I say, all
people disagree, I would also add that all
spiritual people disagree. You can be spiritual
and yet not agree. And sometimes the disagreement
is over carnal things. It's all about carnal
reasons for it. Remember when Paul wrote
to the Corinthians, and he said, one of
you says, I am of Paul and another says, I'm of
Apollos, and another says, I'm of Cephas, another tries
to trump everyone and be more spiritual and
says, I am of Christ. Paul said, you're all carnal. So there can be division
over carnal reasons. But not always. Sometimes there is a division
not because of carnality but because of caring,
you care deeply. To be unified with
another believer, again, does not mean
to agree on everything that that believer stands
for or believes in or does. And sometimes we are
called to divide. Jude, in chapter 1 of
his little epistle, there is only one chapter
and in verse three, he says, "Contend
earnestly for the faith, once for all delivered
to the Saints." Contend, be contentious over it. Contend means put up a
good fight for the faith. So if someone
blatantly denies one of the pillars of the
historic Christian gospel, we're not supposed to say,
well, it doesn't matter. Who cares, let's
not be divisive. Let's just sing,
all you need is love and we'll sway back
and forth and carry on. That would not be loving at all. The loving thing to do is
to speak the truth in love. So sometimes division
is for carnal reasons, and sometimes it's
for caring reasons. But even spiritual
people disagree. For example, way back
in the Old Testament, Abraham's herdsmen had a
contention with Lot's herdsman over the land that was
before them because there wasn't enough land for what
their cattle and their family needed. So there was a dispute, a
disagreement, an argument. Later on in the same book,
Jacob has a disagreement with Uncle Laban
over many things. Finally, he has to part company. When we get to
the New Testament, the disciples disagreed
with other disciples. They are all following
Jesus in the flesh. They are hearing him
and seeing him every day and yet among these revered
apostles of the faith, they disagreed on who would be
the greatest in the kingdom. There is a disagreement
in the Book of Acts, we've already seen it,
in Acts Chapter 6, where the Hebrews and the non-Hebrews,
the Hellenistic Jews have a dispute over the
widows daily distribution. Some thought the other group was
getting preferential treatment. So a disagreement broke out. And here in this chapter,
we see a disagreement over the most important
thing in the world, how do you get saved? What constitutes a believer
versus a nonbeliever? How does a person get to heaven? That is a dispute
in this chapter, and unfortunately, it's still
a dispute in the church. Because people have a hard
time with a free gift of grace. Surely, there's something I
must do to gain God's favor, or if not gain it, to boost it
so that God will love me more. He will shine his
countenance down on me more, lavish more blessing on
me because I have earned it. We have a difficulty with the
finished work and free gift. They did to. So in chapter 15, that's
where we begin, verse 1, "And certain men came down from
Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised
according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Therefore, when
Paul and--" Barney-- "Barnabas had no small
dissension and dispute with them, they determined
that Paul and Barnabas and certain others
of them should go to Jerusalem to the apostles
and elders about this question. So being sent on their
way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia." Phoenicia is what is
mostly modern day Lebanon, north of Israel, the
Phoenician-Lebanese seacoast, Tyre and Sidon,
and Samaria, what would be today the central
portion of the West Bank. "Describing the conversion
of the Gentiles, and they caused great
joy to all the brethren." Now they caused joy
to all the brethren because Phoenicia
is Gentile territory and Sumeria is sort of
half Jewish, half Gentile, they were considered more
half breeds, not fully Jewish. So you can understand
there would be a rejoicing in these
areas because Gentiles are saved by faith. "And when they had
come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church
and the apostles and the elders and they reported all things
that God had done with them. But some of the sect of
the Pharisees who believed, rose up saying, it is
necessary to circumcise them and to command them to
keep the Law of Moses." The first missionary
journey was over with. Paul and Barnabas left the area
of modern day southern Turkey, the Province of Galatia, after
being in Cyprus and Galatia they returned now to
Syria, Antioch of Syria. That was the first
real missionary church. Jerusalem was the home base, the
mother church, the mother ship, so to speak. But Antioch is the place
where the Holy Spirit said, "Separate unto me Barnabas and
Saul for the work to which I have called them." So they left on their
first missionary journey. And when they went out
to all of these places, and they shared the
message of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, beginning
in the synagogue first, they made an
astounding discovery that non-Jewish
people were attracted to this Jewish Messiah
because of the gospel as Paul presented it, of
free salvation to anyone who believes. So already, a few
Gentiles had been saved. Samaritans have been saved. Cornelius has been saved. But keep in mind, the Gentiles,
like Cornelius and his family and the Ethiopian
Eunuch, these were people who had a Jewish background. They were God-fearers. Though they didn't keep all
of the rituals of Judaism, they worshipped the Jewish God. They got up close enough to
the Jewish form of worship as is possible without a
full conversion into Judaism and keeping
circumcision, et cetera. So it was accepted reluctantly,
but it was accepted. Peter reluctantly accepted it. The Jerusalem church
reluctantly accepted it. But now they're getting
used to the idea that those who are akin to going
through Judaism can be saved. But just the idea that a Gentile
without a Jewish background, without Law-keeping, without
any ritual of circumcision, without doing anything
in the old covenant, can just believe in Jesus and
be admitted into the church and be guaranteed heaven, well,
it was an affront to the Jews. They didn't understand it. And it's hard for
us to get that, but you have to just think
of what it was like to them. God had given his covenants
in the Old Testament, and they believed in
the covenant of Moses. They believed in the
covenant of Abraham. And they, these Jewish
people who were believers, man, they kept so many
rigid rules and regulations their whole lives. They have gone through
all the necessary channels to be acquainted with the
one true God of Israel. Now somebody comes in and just
says, oh, I believe in Jesus, I'm like you. It was hard for them
to accept it, sort of like expecting somebody to
understand a movie who comes in at the end scene. They didn't sit through the
whole play or the whole movie. Suddenly they just come
in and they go, I get it. And you're-- no,
you don't get it. You don't understand
the setup for this. You don't understand the
early character development. For you to just come in and
see the ending or the trailer and think you've seen the
movie, well, you haven't. And so they felt like, I've
gone through these channels, you haven't. I've been religious my
whole life, you haven't. You've been a pagan. So there is some resistance. Now notice the resistance
comes from Pharisees who are believers. This is why it's important
that Saul of Tarsus is on the scene, Paul the
Apostle, Saul of Tarsus. He once was a Pharisee himself. He understood their
thinking completely. Were it not for the
Damascus road experience, he would have completely
said, yeah, first of all, I don't believe in this
Messiah called Jesus. Second, if there is one,
and he is the Messiah, you can't just, as a
Gentile, believe in him and expect to go to heaven. But he thinks differently now. He's seen it with his own eyes. He's had his own experience. He's been out on
the road preaching, and so he comes with
a different story. Now what starts as
a trickle, that is, just a Gentile here
and a Gentile there. And then a few more here,
is becoming a torrent. Saul of Tarsus, Paul
the Apostle and Barnabas coming back to Antioch
are so amped, man, they're so pumped to
tell the story of how non-Jewish people from the
wildest places and weirdest backgrounds believe. The gospel was the
gospel of faith. Now I want you to
see it so go back to Acts chapter 13 for just
a moment, just turn the page and look at verse 38. Paul and Barnabas
say, "Therefore let it be known
to you, brethren, that through this Man--"
man is capitalized referring to Christ-- "is preached to you the
forgiveness of sins. And by Him, everyone
who believes is justified from all the
things which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses." Verse 42, "So when the Jews
went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that
these words might be preached to them again the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation
had broken up, many of the Jews and
devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas,
whose speaking to them persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God." Now think about
keeping the Laws. Go to verse 46, "Paul
and Barnabas grew bold and said it was necessary--" he
speaks to the Jewish audience-- "that the word of God should
be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold,
we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded
us, I have sent you as a light to the Gentiles that
you should be salvation for the ends of the earth. Now, when the
Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord. And as many as
had been appointed to eternal life, believed." Chapter 14 verse 1, "Now
it happened in Iconium that they went together to
the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great
multitude of both Jews and of the Greeks believed." Down to verse 23,
"So when they had appointed elders in every
church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord
in whom they had believed." It was all just faith alone, by
grace alone, in Christ alone. And what was the
basis of their faith? The basis of their faith
was the Jewish Messiah predicted in Jewish scripture. They understood that. Paul made that clear,
that we have a book, we have a Bible, the Old
Testament at that time. He was quoting from the Tanakh,
what we call the Old Testament. And he mentioned, he told
them that the Messiah was predicted by our
prophets, our Scriptures, and his name is Jesus. He has come. If you believe in him without
keeping the Law of Moses, you can be saved. They got all jazzed
about that, excited. We'll do it. I can be forgiven? I'll do it. So place after place, that
was the message they brought, and that's what the
people responded to. And it was on that basis. Enter the Pharisees. They're saved. OK, they're saved. They're from Jerusalem,
but they're Pharisees. Now, I don't doubt their
sincerity when they say, you have to keep
the Law of Moses. You have to be circumcised
or you can't be saved. I totally do not
dispute their sincerity. They were sincere. But they are sincerely wrong. And sincerity is not enough
when you match sincerity up to the truth. You might sincerely
not believe the truth, you are sincerely wrong. And so the people
from Jerusalem, Judea, go up to Antioch. It says, down to Antioch because
the elevation of Jerusalem was higher than Antioch. So you're going down hill,
effectively, lowered elevation. But they're going from south
to north, they go to Antioch and they bring this message. Hey, if you want to
be a saved person, you first have to
be a Jewish person and then believe in
the Jewish Messiah. But you can't just willy-nilly
not keep the Laws of Moses. You have to keep them and
be circumcised to be saved. Now the region Paul has
been in-- what region did I tell you he was in? Galatia, he was in
the region of Galatia. He writes a letter to
the Galatians later on. And by now, Paul's gospel
that he preached in Galatia, the Judaizers, the
Pharisees who were saved, who are saying you have to keep
the Laws of Moses to be saved, have gone from Jerusalem to
Antioch and to all the places where Paul started churches. Interesting how heresy develops. A lot of people, they won't
start their own church. They'll just find churches
that are already started and try to just sort of
work their way through. So they made it all the way
over to these places in Galatia, and when Paul writes his
letter to the Galatians, he calls these
people troublemakers. So let me just read it to you. If you've got a Bible handy,
you can turn to Galatians 1. I'm in verse 6, "I marvel,"
he says to the Galatians, "that you are
turning away so soon from him who called you
in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which
is not another" they're not preaching a whole
different gospel, I mean, they're saying they believe. They are believers. "But there are some
who trouble you." These are the troublemakers. "Who want to pervert
the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to
you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Now that's pretty
hefty language. That's pretty strong stuff
that he's dishing out here. Let him be accursed. Why is it so dangerous? It's dangerous because they're
trying to mix two mediums, like oil and water. They're trying to
mix Law and grace, they're trying to add to
the finished work of Christ. They're trying to
stitch up the torn veil. You remember in Luke 23,
the veil of the temple was torn in two. A signification that God
was opening the way freely for those in the future to
come to a relationship with him through what Jesus
did on the cross. The Judaizers, the
Pharisees who are now saved, who have a Jewish
background and think you have to go through the Laws. What they're effectively
doing is saying, hey, let's stitch
that veil back up. Let's make it harder
for people, not easier. God made it easier,
we'll fix that. We'll help God out. We'll add rules and regulations
that God never intended. They're trying to
stitch up the veil. Now, why is this so ludicrous. Well, if it's a
finished work that God did, you coming along
and trying to add to that is as stupid as me
being in the Rembrandt museum, looking at one of Rembrandt's
pictures, taking out a pencil and saying, I'm
going to fix that. I'm going to add to
that masterpiece. Standing in front of a van Gogh,
or a Rembrandt, or a Picasso and thinking, you know, he
wasn't really on it that day. I can see some of the flaws. I'm going to fix what he did. It would be even more ludicrous
for a child with crayons to have that mentality. That's what it's
like to approach the finished work of God
on the cross and say, I'm going to add
my works to that. So he says, be careful of these
troublemakers because they are perverting the gospel. And he says, let
them be accursed. Part of me thinks, poor Paul
and Barnabas, man, they're flying so high. It's been so awesome, in
Iconium, and Lystra and Derby and Pamphylia, Perga, Cyprus. People are getting saved. Now they come back
to the church that sent them and they
find it's divided. Not everybody is
so happy about it. There's the legalist who scowl. The gospel has
often been hindered by closed minds who stand
in front of open doors and keep people from getting in. The door had been flung open,
the veil had been wide open. But these are the
gatekeepers, we're not going to let you in
unless you're circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Now think for a moment,
if those Judaizers would have had their way
in Jerusalem and Antioch. And what if the church would
have just started this way? No, no, no, you have to
be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. What if that's the foundation? What if they would have won? Well, our hymns would certainly
sound different, wouldn't they? We'd be singing,
Amazing Circumcision, how sweet the sound, that
saved a wretch like me. Our anthem would be, what
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the Law of Moses. But it's Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound. And anything other than that
is a perversion of the gospel. Now verse 6, Acts 15,
"The apostles and elders came together to
consider this matter. And when there had
been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to
them, men and brethren--" so they're back
in Jerusalem now. They've gone from
Antioch to go check out what the apostles have
to say, the big wigs, the men in charge. "When there had
been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to
them, men and brethren, you know that a
good while ago, God chose among us that by my
mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the
gospel and believe." What's he referring to? He's referring to Acts
chapter 10 when he went down to Caesarea and there was this
centurion named Cornelius. A God-fearer. A Gentile, but he's
interested in Judaism, the God of the Jews. But he's received a
revelation to go get Peter. Peter tells him about Jesus. This Gentile God-fearer comes
into a personal relationship with Christ. The door has been opened
to Cornelius and his family by Peter's mouth. Then verse 8, "So God,
who knows the heart, acknowledged them by
giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no
distinction between us--" Jewish believers-- "and
them--" Gentile believers-- "purifying their
hearts by faith. Now therefore--" and
I love this verse. "Now therefore,"
and I love Peter for standing up and doing this. Because you know, Peter
wasn't always like this. If you know your
book of Galatians, you know that Paul said
that in Antioch, when Peter was up there for a while
that Peter was two-faced, he would eat with Jewish people
and pretend like he was kosher. But when he was
with the Gentiles, he would pretend like he's
all full of grace, but not with the Jews, like no,
no, we don't do that. And so Paul had to rebuke
Peter publicly to get him back on a course correction. But now at this council in
Jerusalem, Peter is standing up but he's got a right. And so he says, verse 10, "Now
therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the
neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor
we were able to bear?" Oh, I love that. Peter is saying, you're
putting something-- now a yoke was a steering
device they put on an animal to pull a plow. The animal would often
chafe under the yoke. And so you are
laying a device, you are laying a yoke
on the Gentiles, but he says-- it's
interesting-- though you're telling them what to do
to be saved, it's a yoke, this Jewish yoke is something
we've never even kept. We, the Jewish people,
and our forefathers have never kept fully the law. He could have gone into the
reason for the Babylonian Captivity, the Book of
Judges, the Book of Joshua, on and on and on. He had a lot of historical
record against them. Why are you putting
on them a yoke which neither we nor our
fathers were ever able to bear. We couldn't do it. We don't do it. And now you're
telling them to do it. You're telling them
to do something that nobody's done yet. Jesus said of the
Pharisees, by the way, they bind heavy burdens and
lay them on men's shoulders, but they don't pick up that
burden with one finger. They don't do
anything to fix it. Peter is basically
saying the same thing. Why? Well, by this time,
Judaism didn't just have the Old Testament,
they had the oral law. They didn't just have
the Ten Commandments, the rabbis said, oh, no,
there are more than 10, there are 613 commandments. And you have got
to keep them all. 613 commandments, divided
up into two groups, positive and negative, 248
positive, 365 negative, 365 to 248. 365 prohibitions, one thou shalt
not for every day of the year. That was their mentality, that's
how they lived their life. 613 commandments broken by
those who espoused to keep them, and now trying to lay
it on other people. I don't have the
time now, but if you want some kind of
brainiac fun, go look up the 24 chapters written in
the oral law, the Talmud, 24 chapters on how to
keep the Sabbath. Imagine, 24 separate
chapters on how to keep the Sabbath
laws, down to, can you carry a
fig on the Sabbath? Can you carry a comb in
your hair on the Sabbath? And then the disputes
back and forth, how much weight can you carry? How far can you go? Down to the craziest detail. So Peter stood up and
gave that testimony. "But we," verse 11,
"but we believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus, we shall be saved--" and I like this-- "in
the same manner as they." He didn't say, they can
be saved like we are, he says, we can be
saved like they are. We Jews can only be saved by
faith in Jesus, just like them. "Then all the
multitude kept silent and listened to
Barnabas and Paul declaring how many
miracles and wonders God had worked through them
among the Gentiles." Now they get up and go through
their first missionary journey. And you know, there are
speeches in the Bible that just tell you that
they said something, but they don't tell you what
they said, and I always go, man, I hate that. I wish this was recorded. Just like Matthew 24,
the Road to Emmaus speech that Jesus gave. The first
post-Resurrection teaching, and it was a prophetic
sermon, not recorded. This one, not recorded. But I'm sure he
started in Cyprus and talked about Sergius
Paulus, the intelligent man who was interested in the gospel. But Elymas, the Sorcerer
came and withstood him, and so Paul said, you're
going to be blind. And he was, that was a miracle. Then he gets to
Iconium, and we read that many signs and
wonders were done at the hands of the apostles. And they said, then
we got to Lystra, and there was a guy who
had been blind from birth, but he had faith to be
healed, and I knew it. And by the power of God,
stretched out my hand, and the man was healed. But then it got really
weird because they thought that we were their
gods come down from heaven, Zeus and Hermes,
and they started to worship us. And so I told them, not to. And they didn't do it. And they took me out and
threw stones at me instead. And they thought I was dead, but
then when I got back up again, I went back into the city
and I started talking again. What a great, great, great
message this must have been. Sorry, it's not recorded. Though it's not recorded. I ended something. I ended our time last week
saying something that I just want to flesh out a little bit. Some believe that
when he was stoned, and you know when I say that,
what I mean by that, right? I don't have to go through the
modern idea of being stoned versus the ancient biblical
term of being stoned. He had stones pelting his head. They thought he was dead. And some believe that it was
at this point, in that state while he was on the ground
that God did something to him and for him that
changed his whole ministry, and gave him a focus and an
impetus like nothing else. And that is something that
is recorded in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 where he says, "It
is doubtless, not profitable for me to boast, but I will
come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14
years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or whether out
of the body, I do not know, God knows. Such a one was caught up
into the third heaven--" the word is harpadzo,
the same word as rapture. He was immediately taken up
into heaven, the third heaven. "And I know such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows, how
he was caught into the paradise and he heard
inexpressible words which is not lawful for a man
to utter, of such a one, I will boast." In other words, Paul is saying,
I'm the guy that I know. I've been speaking about me
all along in the third person, but now I'm just
saying, I'm the guy. I had an experience. I couldn't tell you
if I was in the body or if I had actually
died and gone to heaven. But I was caught up
in the third heaven. That's the abode of God. The first heaven is the
atmosphere, birds and clouds. The second heaven is
the celestial realm of interplanetary
stars, et cetera. Beyond that somewhere is the
heaven of heavens where God is. He was caught up there,
and he saw paradise. He saw a vision of heaven. And it could be from
that stoning experience that he developed what he
calls a thorn in the flesh, also in this chapter. An impairment could have
been an eye disease. It could have been epileptic
seizures of some kind after that experience. We don't know. But it could be that he
was taken up into heaven. He had this vision,
but then he says, and it was just so amazing,
you know, it's not even lawful, it would be like a crime for
me to even try to describe it. So I won't. And there it is again,
there's another one. It's like, really,
you got to see that, and you won't give me a
taste of how utterly cool that must have been. Because words wouldn't
do it justice. I always found that
fascinating because I've heard of people who claim
to have left Earth and gone to heaven. And they write very
extensive books about it. And for $25 they'll tell
you what it was like. But it's interesting, the
biblical descriptions of heaven are very sparse. Now, we can examine them
and get some information, but it's very
little information. So it could be that during this
time is when he was caught up into the third heaven, couldn't
be sure, but many believe so. So he goes through his
speech in Jerusalem about what happened on
that first trip, how God worked among the Gentiles. Verse 13, "And after
they had become silent, James answered saying--" and
you go, what do you mean, James, I thought he was killed. He was. This is another James. The James that was
murdered, killed, beheaded, was James
the brother of John. This is James, the
half-brother of Jesus. After Jesus was born
by a virgin birth, Joseph and Mary had normal
husband or wife relations, had many children. One of them was James. So James is the
half-brother of Jesus. Also James, this James is the
author of the Book of James. He is known as, in
history, James, the Just, or James the Righteous. If you've ever read
the Book of James, it's very fitting because it's
a very righteous-oriented book. And he was also, because
of his prayer life, known as James the Camel-kneed
because the stories say he spent so much time physically
on his knees in prayer that he developed these gnarly
looking calluses like camels do. This is that James. Now, James stands up after
hearing the testimony of Peter and Barnabas and
Saul, and he is going to make the final deliberation. Why is this important? Because it shows you
that historically, biblically, Peter was not the
first leader of the church, James was. So if you try to
say, well, we have a Papacy that is based on
historical evidence that goes all the way back to
the first Pope named Peter, you have a real problem
with Acts chapter 15. Because Peter is not
calling the shots, Peter is being sent
out and dispatched by James, the
half-brother of Jesus, who is the first
leader in charge of the Church of Jerusalem. So James stands up, not Peter,
and he speaks and notice what he says in verse 14. "Simon has declared
how God at first visited the Gentiles to take out
of them a people for his name." When he says Simon,
who is he referring to? Peter, but why
didn't he say Peter? Now, I'm asking you
the question because I want you to start asking
those kind of questions when you read your Bible. And you'll look, and
you'll find the answer, but let me just tell
you, so you don't have to do a whole lot of digging. The issue he's dealing
with is a Jewish issue, a Hebrew-oriented issue. So he uses his Jewish name, not
Peter, not the new name Jesus gave him, but the birth name,
Hebrew birth name, Simon, Shimon. So he uses that name
because it's a Jewish issue. And verse 15, "with
this--" what he just said. What Peter said,
what Simon said, "and with this, the
words of the prophets agree just as it is written." Now he's going to
quote Amos chapter 9. "After this I will
return and rebuild the Tabernacle of David,
which has fallen down." The Tabernacle of David
refers to the House of David. The House of David has
been busted up because of the sins of the nation. Do you remember that? Because of the
sins of the nation they were taken into captivity. The bloodline, the royal
bloodline stopped at Jeconiah. The bloodline was
cursed after that. There is absolutely no
hope for the Messiah to come since the royal blood
line of David has been cursed. The only fix to that bloodline
curse could be a virgin birth. Which is why Jesus
was born of a virgin, and why one geological
record traces the ancestry of Jesus back to David through
Solomon, the line that was cursed. That's Joseph's genealogy,
and traces Jesus' bloodline back to David through
another son of David named Nathan, not Solomon. So the blood line is
cursed on Joseph's side, but it gives Jesus the
legal right to reign, but the blood line is cursed. That's OK, God got
around his curse by having Jesus born of
a virgin in Mary's womb. So the Tabernacle
has been broken down. The House of David is the
promise of the Messiah through the lineage of David
that's fulfilled in Christ. That's why he's quoting this. "I will rebuild his
ruins and set it up. So that the rest of mankind
may seek the Lord--" now watch this-- "so that
the rest of mankind--" not just Jewish people--
"may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are
called by my name says the Lord who does
all these things." Now, he's rooting his
decision in Scripture. He's quoting Amos chapter 9. And he's showing
them, oh, by the way, Amos says nothing
about them first becoming Jewish proselytes
and then they're admitted into the kingdom. It says that all the Gentiles
may come to this knowledge. Verse 18, "Known to
God--" verse 18-- "known to God from eternity
are all his works." That's a verse you may
want to memorize because from time-to-time,
you're going to run into people who believe in
what is called Open Theism. Open Theism says that
though God is omniscient, knows everything, that
because God has given volition to mankind, free will,
you have the will to choose this or that,
that God doesn't know what you're going to choose. So that God is learning by the
choices that you are making. You're teaching God. Isn't that a fabulous thing. You're God's instructor. Open Theism teaches that
though God may be omniscient, there are certain things
where that is limited. So then, he's not omniscient. And that is, will a
person choose or not choose to believe? This verse flatly says, "Known
to God from eternity are all--" all-- "his works," including salvation
works, the work of salvation. "Therefore I judge that we
should not trouble those from among the Gentiles
who are turning to God, but that we write to them
to abstain from things polluted by idols,
from sexual immorality, from things strangled,
and from blood. For Moses has had
throughout many generations those who preach him
in every city being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath. Then it pleased the
apostles and the elders--" probably not some
of those Pharisees-- "with the whole church to send
chosen men of their own company to Antioch with
Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who is
also named Barsabbas, and Silas, leading
men of the brethren." So a two-fold decision
is formulated by James. For the Legalists, he's
saying, be inclusive. Be inclusive you Legalists. Don't add man-made rules
and man made regulations to the faith of
non-Jewish people. Don't make them
become Jews first. That's what they
were saying, you have to become a Jew before
you can be a Christian. So to the Legalist he is saying,
be inclusive, lighten up, don't add your own
man-made regulations. To the converts, he's
saying, be sensitive. You need to realize that these
people with this background, this baggage of religious law
have certain sensitivities that's going to drive them up a
wall if you do certain things. So when he says-- and he gives three restrictions
one of them is moral, two of them are sensitive,
just kind of conscious sensitive, Jewish sensitive. "That you abstain
from--" verse 20-- "things polluted by idols." In those days, they would take
animals and sacrifice them in the altars, the pagan
altars, and sell the meat in the butcher shop
of the pagan temple. So it had been
sacrificed to idols and then purchased
in the butcher shop, taken home and eaten. That's why Paul later on when
he writes his letters, he goes, don't even ask where
they bought it. Just eat it. If you don't want to eat
it, don't eat it, but tell the other people not to. So when he says, things
polluted by idols, that's what he's referring to. "From sexual immorality--" it
doesn't just mean laying around or sleeping around together. That wasn't as big of an
issue as it is in our day. The idea is associated
with worship. The pagan worship was
very sensually oriented, and sexual acts were
often undertaken during pagan worship. So it's avoiding a pagan
worship system altogether. Buying meat that
has been sacrificed to an idle in a temple
butcher shop, and from blood. Now you can go today
to the UK and you can go to Scotland to get
what they call blood pudding. I don't recommend it. So I have no problem at
all with this restriction. I don't say, wait a minute,
I have freedom in Christ, I can eat blood, OK. I have never been
interested in that. I'm not like, oh, I can't
wait to get a blood pudding. Now some like it, but
I wouldn't recommend that with your Jewish friends. Because of the restriction
in Leviticus that says, "The life of the flesh
is in the blood." So everything had to be bled
according to kosher law for it to be suitable to eat. So he's saying, you
need to be sensitive. Things that have been sacrificed
to idols, sexual immorality, refrain from that,
and from blood. It pleased the whole
multitude, and then he's going to write a letter to them. And the letter says as much. So I love this. He's saying look, we believe
you're saved by faith. Just be careful morally
and sensitivity issues with Jewish believers. The law of love, now I like
this because it's not like, OK, what are those things again? There's like 613 things
I have to memorize. No just remember these
three, just do that. You're saved by faith,
now in your practice, do these three things, or stay
away from these three things. These are the restrictions. And I love this because Jesus
said, my yoke is easy, man, my burden is light. He didn't say, my
yoke is very hard and my burden, it
will crush you. It's light, and they all agreed. So they wrote a letter,
"The apostles, the elders, the brethren to the brethren who
are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that
some who went out from us have troubled you with
words--" now you know what troubled means
from Galatians 1-- "unsettling your
souls saying, you must be circumcised and
keep the law, to whom we gave no such
commandment, it seemed good to us being
assembled with one accord to send chosen men to you with
our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives
for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore
sent Judas and Silas-- this is a different Judas,
not Iscariot, of course, he's long dead-- who will also report the same
things by word of mouth--" report the same things
by word of mouth-- "for it seemed good to
the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you
no greater burden than these necessary things,
that you abstain from things offered to idols, from
blood, from things strangled, from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from
these, you do well, farewell." So when they were sent
off, they came to Antioch. When they had gathered
the multitude together and delivered the letter,
when they read it, they rejoiced over
its encouragement. Man the burden was lifted. Peter said, you're trying to lay
on them a burden, a yoke, which neither we nor our fathers
have ever been able to bear. They're hearing these
Judaizers come from Jerusalem into their church, saying
no, no, no, no, you have to do these things. And so they've been
weighed under that. Now comes the letter saying, you
don't have to do those things. Just refrain from
these things, farewell. It was like, a sigh
of relief, heavy sigh. "Now Judas and Silas,
themselves being prophets, also exhorted and strengthened
the brethren with many words. And after they had
stayed there for a time, they were sent back with
greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However it seemed good
to Silas to remain there. Paul and Barnabas also
remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the word
of the Lord with many others also. Conflict resolved,
but now there's another conflict
that goes unresolved. In fact, whereas the first
conflict is reconciled, the second one makes them
part company with each other. It's a conflict between two men,
two ministers, two brothers, two friends who don't see
eye to eye on something that's not even substantive. It's not a doctrinal issue,
they all agree on that. It's not a biblical issue, they
all agree on the scriptures. It's a methodological
issue of how we're going to go on the next
missionary journey, who's going to be on that team. Verse 36, "Then after some
days, Paul said to--" Barney-- "let us now go back and visit
our brethren in every city where we have preached
the word of the Lord." Let's see how they're doing. Now why would they
need to do this? Well, they were
gone from Antioch and everything was going
good when they left Antioch, but they came back and
it was already divided. It doesn't take long. The cat's away,
the mice will play. Now Paul and Barnabas
founded those churches, but he's probably
thinking, man, by now, who knows what they're into. Let's go back and see
how they're doing. "Now Barnabas was determined
to take with them John called Mark, but Mark insisted
that they should not take with them the one
who had departed--" the word departed is
a very strong word. It means deserted,
failed them in Pamphylia and had not gone with
them to the work. "Then the contention--"
very strong word, again-- "became so sharp that they
parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark
and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose
Silas, and he parted being commended by the
brethren to the grace of God, and he went through
Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches. Now we're about to enter the
second missionary journey. When we pick up next time,
we're going to pick up here. But we're going to pick
up with this dispute and here's the question
as we close, who was right and who was wrong? I know, the easy answer
for us would be well, Paul was right, because Paul,
like, wasn't he always right? And so to determine and
discover who was right in this, we're going to have
to wait for next time. And we will pick it up
as we go into chapter 16, into the second
missionary journey. But I want to save time for the
distribution of the elements and for us to focus on our
unity because the truth is, not all of us
agree on everything and we have to declare and
agree on this that that's OK. We have to understand
and agree, I believe, that God reserves
the right to use people who disagree with you. And I've noticed that God uses
people who disagree with me. I don't understand
that he would do that. But because he does,
whenever I have a dispute over an
issue with somebody, I'm able to walk away and give
them the freedom to be wrong and to live in inaccuracy,
while all the while loving them and having communion. As long as we agree on
the historic pillars of the Christian faith, there's
a lot of stuff in between that really is irrelevant. Like who should go on
the missionary journey, on the second one, or not. We can agree on what's important
and throw the rest to the wind. Jesus loves you, Jesus died
for you, and he died for me, and he loves me, and we're
going to take these elements, and they're going
to go into my mouth and they are going to
go into your mouth. And the bread that comes
from the common loaf is assimilated into me
and assimilated into you. And thus in a sense,
we are becoming one. We're being nourished
by the same source. Just as we are
nourished by Christ in His death and Resurrection. And so we're symbolizing our
unity, our communion tonight. And so we do it with respect
and with great regard. As I pray, I'm going
to ask the communion board to come forward. Father, thank you for the
time we've had in your word. And thank you, Lord, now,
for this time of worship where we take these
elements that Jesus said we ought to do often
in remembrance of him. And we do remember him. We remember by reading the
scriptures of those things that took place long ago, but we
understand that principally, "For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
Him would not perish but would have
everlasting life." So Lord, we who believe
from different backgrounds, some atheists, some
very religious, we've all come to the
common understanding that it's by faith alone,
through an act of your grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone,
that we are in your family. And when we look
at those around us, we've been saved the
way they've been saved. We've come into the fold the
way they've come into the fold. And so Lord, may we express,
not only by these elements but by our deeds, our love. May we express
that love, and may we feel satisfied to be
part of a family that loves each other deeply,
sincerely, in Jesus' name, amen. For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org. [MUSIC PLAYING]
