All right, Luke/Acts for Beginners, lesson
number twenty, Paul's First Missionary Journey. We're going to be covering Acts
13:1 to 15:35. A lot of material. So last week we concluded Luke's
description of Peter's ministry among the Jews and the calling that he received
from God to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Now after Pentecost it seemed that the Apostles understood the Great Commission
to be that they preach to all the Jews in the world. They understood going to all the world, preach the gospel in their minds preach the gospel
to all the Jews in the world. It took a miraculous event, that's Cornelius
speaking in tongues, to convince Peter to not only preach to the Gentiles, but
to offer them the same salvation through faith expressed in repentance and
baptism, that he had offered the crowd that he was preaching to on the day of
Pentecost. It took years between those two events. Several years went by.
This breakthrough encouraged others to bring the gospel to the Gentiles in the
area of Antioch, where Barnabas and Paul had an extensive preaching ministry
among the mixed Jewish and Gentile converts. So let's take a quick look at
our outline, and you'll note that we are beginning the second section of
the book of Acts, where Luke will deal primarily with Paul's ministry and his
travels. So Luke has set the geographical seen, there's Antioch, as well as the
historical moment after Peter's contact with Cornelius, when Barnabas and Paul
have gained considerable experience, not only in working together, but working
with the converts to Judaism as well, excuse me, working with
Jewish converts to Christianity, as well as Gentiles who have been converted to
Christianity. So now they're gaining experience in working with these
two individual cultures as they're mixed for the first time in one congregation at Antioch. So now we're going to take a look
at the first missionary journey that Luke describes beginning in chapter 13.
So it says, "Now there were at Antioch, in "the church that was there, prophets and
teachers: Barnabas and Simeon who was "called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and
Manaen who had been brought up with "Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they
were ministering to the Lord and fasting "the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which "I have called them.' Then when they had
fasted and prayed and laid their hands "on them they sent them away." So what we
read here is really the third step in Paul's call to ministry. His call to
ministry sets a pattern for those who feel they are called to full-time
ministry, but are not sure if theirs is a legitimate calling from God. I've known a
lot of people say, I don't know if I should go into ministry or not.
I don't know if I have a calling or not. And whenever that happens, I
encourage them to read the book of Acts and to study Paul's ministry
and how he was called. So there are three stages in a call to ministry that are
demonstrated in these - not just in the passage here, but in the New Testament. The first of which is the calling itself. This describes the
way God has called or directed or led a person into full-time ministry. Paul the
Apostle was called in a miraculous way. He was blinded, he heard the voice of the
Lord, he was healed of his blindness. We read in Acts chapter nine, verses three
to nine and then in verse 17 about his experience, but the manner of his
calling is the exception not the rule. Not everybody is called in a miraculous
way. For most people the calling begins as a desire or an opportunity to serve
in some way, that grows stronger and stronger with time; or it could take
the form of positive feedback from church members or church leaders
who see talent in a person and they encourage them to develop and use that
particular skill in the service to the Lord. If somebody asks you to get up and
maybe you do a devotional or perhaps a lesson and you do that, you do
several. No one ever says anything ever. You do your best. No
feedback, zero. Well maybe that's not your skill set. But if
you happen to get up and do something and you start getting a lot of feedback
and you do it again and you get a lot more feedback, and the elders and the
preacher say, now you've got skill. And you're getting
that positive reinforcement that tells you, well, maybe I do have a gift. Maybe I
do have an ability that can be used for the Lord. Many ministers go into
full-time ministry because they see a great need that the church or the lost
have and they feel compelled to step up and fill the gap, even if they don't feel
qualified a hundred percent. The need is so great
they've just got to go. How many people have gone on mission trips,
young college students who are in engineering or something and then they
go to a mission trip to some country, Mozambique or South America, and it
changes their lives completely. They see the need for the gospel and they just
come back and they just switch out their major and they go into the Bible
Department and decide to become missionaries, because God has put a
burden on their heart for those particular people. We have one young guy
who was a member of the church in Montreal, he comes from Brazil, emigrated
with his family to Montreal, went to church in Montreal and then
went to Harding and then he went on a mission trip to Mozambique and
now he's almost finished and he's trying to raise money to go preach
the gospel in Mozambique. Imagine, a Brazilian who goes to Montreal and then
goes to Harding and then ends up in Mozambique. It's just amazing
how God uses people. Amazing how the call comes. So whatever the way a person is called, one feature is the same for all and that
is the feeling that God is calling. That feeling that God is calling you
never goes away, month in and month out. You try this, you try that, but that
thing is always there, always pulling at you. Some people battle with it for
years. And even when they choose to do something else, they still continue to
feel that calling from time to time. So the first step to the call of
ministry is the calling itself. The second step is consecration. The
consecration or the setting apart is the time that the called person spends in
preparation for their ministry. Now in Paul's case there was a period of
approximately 10 to 12 years between the time he was called on the road to
Damascus and the time in Acts 13 where the church sends him out on his
formal mission trip, his first formal mission trip. During that time, during
that 10 to 12 year period, he spent three years in the desert of Arabia being
taught by the Spirit of Christ, and he explains that himself in Galatians
chapter one verses 11 to 17. He traveled to Jerusalem and then returned to teach in
his hometown of Tarsus, Acts chapter nine, for an additional four years.
He was then recruited by Barnabas to come and teach at the Antioch Church
where that mixed church, Jews and Gentiles had become Christian. He was
recruited by Barnabas to go there and teach for an entire year. And then
finally he and Barnabas were escorting food and relief supplies to Jerusalem
after a two-year famine had gripped the country. That we read about in Acts
chapter 12. So Paul's consecration period sees him being taught by the Lord,
teaching at the church in Antioch, traveling and meeting with various
Apostles and church leaders, in addition to managing a benevolence program to
help the church in Jerusalem. All of this, a decade or more of training and
preparation for the ministry he was called to do on the very day of his
conversion. On the day of his conversion Jesus tells him, I'm
going to send you to the Gentiles. But he spends 10 years in training
before he's actually sent to go preach to the Gentiles. So what's the comparable thing nowadays? Well, today we have preacher
training schools operated by various congregations in our brotherhood.
There are also colleges and universities where a person with a calling can
receive training to prepare him or her, because there many types of full-time
ministries open to women today. These are the places
where individuals who want to go into full-time ministry go for training. Now
the confusion that some people have is thinking that you begin your ministry
the moment you feel your calling. That's a mistake. If you feel that your calling in life is to be a doctor, do you put on a
white coat and buy a stethoscope and just nominate yourself?
Who would go to that doctor, right? Why would we think it is any
different if you feel your calling is to be a minister? Just because you feel the
calling, doesn't make you qualified. So the consecration time is important
because it usually serves to confirm if ministry is really your calling or not. I
tell young people, especially young guys, if you like to speak in public,
if that's the part of ministry that you like, you're not going to enjoy
ministry, because that part is very small, an hour or two a week maybe. If you don't like to study, if you don't like to read, if you
don't like books, if you don't like to dissect ideas, this isn't for you.
Pulpit ministry is not for you, anyways. If you don't enjoy people, if you don't
have a willingness to help people, and if you're a loner, maybe this is not, it's
not for you. If you like public speaking, well, be a weatherman,
become a politician. There are other things that you can do to be
helpful. So the calling, the consecration, and the commendation. The
commendation to ministry is what is taking place, what we just read there, Acts 13:1-3. The Holy Spirit through the church - and when I say, through the church, I mean through it's
leaders and teachers. So the Holy Spirit through the church commended or sent or
authorized Paul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the world. We have to remember
that God always works through His church, on behalf of His church. For example,
there are no self-appointed elders. Have you ever noticed that? No man ever stands up and says, you know what, I think I'm elder material, and I think today I'm
just going to start calling myself an elder, and I'm going to ask the brethren to start
calling me an elder. There's no self-appointed - I mean, I I know that's ridiculous,
but there's no self-appointed elders. Those who serve in that way are
appointed, they're trained by evangelists. That's the work of the evangelist, to
raise up elders, to train elders, to encourage them, teach them, motivate them.
Acts chapter 14, verse 23, Titus chapter one, five. There are no self-appointed
evangelists. Even if you know the Bible, you can't appoint yourself. I'm
going to be an evangelist. Really? Where do you see that in the Bible, that an
evangelist, a preacher appoints himself as the preacher to the
church. That doesn't happen. These are appointed by elders, First
Timothy chapter four, verse 14. I mean, if we're serious about New Testament
Christianity, if we're serious about restoring a New Testament church,
well that's how a New Testament church operates. Nobody is self-appointed. There are no self-appointed deacons. These men are
selected by the church, and they're confirmed by the elders, Acts six, verses three to six. And then in Timothy, Paul gives the qualifications of these men.
There are no self-appointed missionaries, excuse me, no self-appointed
missionaries. These are trained by the church and they are confirmed and sent
by the church leadership. Always. We see this taking place with Paul and Barnabas
as the first missionaries confirmed and sent by the church. And this method
continues to this day in the Lord's church. It isn't a certificate of studies
or a college degree that authorizes a person to be an evangelist or a teacher
or a missionary. It is the commendation by the church that sends or confirms
both your calling and your consecration to the Lord's service in and for His
church. The church commends people to go into the mission field. I mean, it doesn't
mean that you're an accountant and you get a transfer to St. Louis
or somewhere, and there's no church in that area and you take it upon yourself
to start meeting in the home to start a church. That happens all the time. But you can't appoint yourself at that
moment as being the elder of that church. It doesn't work that way. So we look at
the first missionary journey, Acts 13, verse four, somewhere around 44 to 46 AD. We
don't have the time to read, of course, the entire passage describing the first
missionary journey. So let's look at a kind of an overview effort, of this
effort, rather, geographically. Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas and his cousin
John Mark leave from the port city of Selucia near Antioch and they sailed to
the island of Cyprus, where Barnabas was originally from. We read about his
background in Acts chapter four. Then they go to Salamis, Acts 13, verse five. That's
their first stop, the friendly confines of the local synagogue where Barnabas
was probably known and welcomed to speak. Isn't that kind of - I always say, isn't
it kind of human nature. Where do we go first? Well, let's go to where I
know somebody. Let's go to Cyprus. Let's go to the church or the
synagogue where I come from, says Barnabas. At this point he's
the leader of the mission team, if you wish. So at this point they're reaching out to the Jews, since this was the opportunity that
was open to them. Where do we go first? Well, let's go here first. I
know the elder of this synagogue and we'll be able to speak there. All right,
let's go. Then they go to Paphos, Acts 13:6-12. Let's read about
that. It says, "When they had gone through "the whole island as far as Paphos they
found a magician, a Jewish false prophet "whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with
the proconsul Bergius Paulus, a man of "intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas
and Saul and sought to hear the word of "God, but Elemis the magician, for so his
name is translated, was opposing them "seeking to turn the proconsul away from
the faith, but Saul who was also known as "Paul filled with the Holy Spirit fixed
his gaze on him and said, 'You, who are "full of all deceit and fraud, you son
of the devil, you enemy of all "righteousness, will you not cease to make
crooked the straight ways of the Lord? "Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon
you, and you will be blind and not see "the Sun for a time.' And immediately a
mist and a darkness fell upon him and he "went about seeking those who
would lead him by the hand. "Then the proconsul believed when he saw
what had happened, being amazed at the "teaching of the Lord." So note that their
work on the island was so successful that the governor sent for them to hear
the message. Now the fact that Barnabas is mentioned first suggests that he is
the leader and the chief speaker at this point. Elemis, by the way, meant the expert. If
you translate that into English. He was known as the expert. So this magician was
called Bar-Jesus the expert, and this magician who had the favor of the
governor interfered with their mission. So Paul denounces him and Bar-Jesus
is rendered blind for a period of time. This is the first miracle credited to Paul. The first miracle credited to Paul, that
we read of. The governor is converted and Luke mentions that it was
the teaching of the Lord that amazed him, not the blinding of the magician. The
miracle confirmed the teaching, but it was the teaching that actually converted
him. We keep reading in Acts 13:13, "Now Paul and his companions put out to sea
from Paphos and came to Purga in Pamphylia, but John left them and
returned to Jerusalem. Note that Luke
now names Paul first, little subtle changes. He was naming Barnabas
first, and there's the miracle, and what happened on Cyprus, but now Luke begins
to mention Paul before he mentions Barnabas, showing the transition of
leadership. John Mark leaves them to return to Jerusalem, probably because he
lacked the courage to travel on in an unknown land. I want you to note also
again the small things between the lines. Note that it was Barnabas and Paul, in
that order, that had been called by the Spirit to undertake this mission. John
Mark was added by Barnabas his cousin, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit didn't
say, I want Barnabas, Saul, and John Mark. He just said Barnabas and Saul.
They just - Barnabas decided to take his cousin. And we see what took place. So
God knew that John Mark wasn't ready. It took Barnabas and John Mark and Paul
a little bit longer to discover this as well. So we move on to the city of Antioch,
give you a little closer view of that. There we go.
That's where we're talking about. So Paul and Barnabas do no work in Perga, but
they make their way north to the city of Antioch, located on the border of
Pisidia, thus named to differentiate it from the city of Antioch which is
located in Syria, from which they come. So there are two Anthiocs, that's the confusion.
One is in Syria, near the coast, and one is up in Pisidia. It's like Paris, Texas and Paris, France. You have a lot of
similar sounding - cities with similar names. So this was the case
here as well. So they're in this particular Antioch. Here, Luke gives a detailed
account of Paul's preaching and the reaction of the people to him and
Barnabas' teaching. So let's read a snip of that, verse 14, "But going on from
Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, "and on the Sabbath day they went into
the synagogue and sat down. After the "reading of the law and the prophets, the
synagogue officials sent to them, saying, "brethren, if you have any word of
exhortation for the people, say it." So Luke describes the method that Paul used
in preaching the gospel among the Jews and the converts to the Jewish
faith. The service was led by elders or officials who would invite visiting
rabbis to speak or to teach. So Paul, I mean, let's face it, for that day and time,
Paul was the famous student of Gamaliel and Barnabas a Levite and resident of
Jerusalem, both of these men were known among the Jews. And so Paul was asked to
speak. He was relatively famous. Luke records the lesson that was
probably a basic lesson that Paul preached when addressing a Jewish
audience. And so, his lesson has four parts and could be entitled - if
his sermon had a title, it would be Israel's Savior is Jesus Christ. That would
be the title of his sermon. And it had four parts. The first part was Israel's
History Leads to Jesus. And I'll read the section, "And while John was completing
his course he kept saying, 'What do you "suppose that I am? I am not He, but behold,
one is coming after me, the sandals of "whose feet I am not worthy to untie." So Paul quotes this particular verse, in order to explain who Jesus was historically. Who He was to the Jews historically. The
second section of his sermon: Israel Rejects its Savior. The Savior spoken of
by the prophets and sent by God." So he says," When they had carried out all
that was written concerning Him, they "took him down from the cross and laid
Him in a tomb." Like I say, I'm only reading little parts of what he
says, but he mentions this here to convict the Jews for having rejected
the Messiah. Part three of his lesson: God Raised Him From the Dead. And so, God
fulfills His promises to Israel by raising the Messiah from the
dead. Acts 13:32-33 says, "And we preach "to you the Good News of the promise made
to the father's that God has fulfilled. "This promise to our children that He
raised up, Jesus, as it is also written in "the second Psalm, You are my Son, today I
have begotten you." The fourth part of his lesson is: Forgiveness and Salvation are
Only in Jesus Christ. He says, "Therefore, "let it be known to you, brethren, that
through Him forgiveness of sins is "proclaimed to you, and through Him
everyone who believes is freed from all "things, from which you could not be free
through the law of Moses." So there's just a summary of
his sermon. This was his basic stump sermon. Like politicians have a stump
speech, that they kind of give over and over again. This was Peter's
stump sermon. This was his basic sermon when he went into a synagogue to preach.
The history of the Jews leading up to Jesus, what they did to Jesus, what God
did to Jesus by raising Him from the dead, and that now you're responsible God appeals to you through Jesus to have faith. So in the following verses a
familiar pattern emerges, where Paul's words draw crowds, which antagonized the
Jewish leaders who begin attacking Paul's teaching, because he is rocking
the boat here. Many Jew and Gentile converts decide to follow Paul and
his teachings, to the point where Paul declares openly that because of Jewish
rejection and persecution he's going to focus his ministry on the Gentiles. Now
remember, he's originally sent to the Gentiles. That was the ministry
that God gave to him, but with time - he begins with the Jews, that's the point
I'm trying to make. He starts with the Jews, but he's always pushed to go and
preach to the Gentiles. So this produces joy and enthusiasm among the Gentiles,
because salvation was now offered to them by God, and they could now be equal
partners with Jewish Christians, with whom they would share a place in God's
kingdom, which is the church. So we move along: Iconium, Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe. In
Acts chapter 14 Luke mentions several towns where they continued preaching and
teaching. He focuses actually on two places, one is Iconium. Acts 14, the
same pattern appears here, as they're preaching divides the audience. Some
believe, others don't believe, and the Jews step up their opposition by
enlisting Gentiles to form a mob to stone Paul and Barnabas, but they escape
to another one of the cities mentioned in verse six, another city.
This time Lystra, Acts 14:8-20, Luke describes a second miracle
performed by Paul: the healing of a man who was lame from birth, which causes a
stir in the crowds, who think that Paul and Barnabas are the incarnation of
the pagan god Zeus, the Greek god of the sky and thunder, and
Hermes, son of the Greek god Zeus. So the inhabitants mistake them
for some of their Greek mythological gods. So let's pick up a small portion of
the passage here, verse 14, "But when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul, heard of it,"
in other words, they heard that the people were going to offer sacrifice to
them, because they thought they were their mythical gods, "But
when the Apostles Paul and Barnabas "heard of it, they tore their robes
and rushed out into the crowd, crying "out and saying, 'Men, why are you
doing these things? We were also men of "the same nature as you, and preach the
gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who
made the heaven and the earth and the "sea and all that is in them. In the
generations gone by He permitted all the "nations to go their own ways; and yet He
did not leave Himself without witness, in "that He did good and gave you rains
from heaven and fruitful seasons, "satisfying your hearts with good and
gladness.' Even saying these things with "difficulty they restrained the crowds
from offering sacrifice to them." So Paul takes advantage of the situation
and he begins preaching to these Gentiles using the very situation at
hand as a kind of a starting point. Let's keep reading, verse 19, it says, "But Jews
came from Antioch and Iconium, and having "won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and
dragged him out of the city, supposing "him to be dead. But while the disciples
stood around him, he got up and entered "the city." So Paul has no chance to
continue his teaching, no chance to keep going, as the Jews from other cities
begin following them from town to town. Bad enough he goes into a city and he
preaches and some of them reject him. Now these people are forming a
vigilante, posse, if you wish, and they're kind of following him from city to city,
trying to disrupt his ministry. He's been harassed, he's been chased, but
this time the Jews managed to capture and stone him on the spot, and then drag
his body outside the city, leaving him there for dead. Luke simply states that
Paul, surrounded by disciples, probably gathering to bury him. They thought he
was dead. We might as well bury the body. He wakes up. Now there's no
mention of a miracle here, so he was probably unconscious. And what does he do?
He goes back into the city. Another place that they go to is Derbe. Luke briefly
mentions that Paul and Barnabas go to this city to preach and they have many
converts and no opposition in Derbe. Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. At this point
they begin to backtrack and revisit the people and the young churches that they
had planted during this first two-year mission trip. So what I've just explained
to you, two years, in just a few words. So let's read Acts 14:23, it
says, "When they had appointed elders," see, you see there? When they had appointed
elders. No elders appointed themselves. "When they had appointed elders for them
in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord,
in whom they had believed." So, many Jewish converts had the moral and spiritual
maturity to serve as elders in these young churches. If you were an
elder in one of the synagogues, you had the moral and intellectual maturity to be an elder in the church. What you needed was an
understanding of the gospel, of course. But a man who was qualified as an elder
in a synagogue, had all those qualifications, had all those type of
qualifications that are required by an elder in a Christian church. That's
why they could do this so quickly. Christianity was the fulfillment of the
Jewish faith. And the knowledge of the gospel was the final mystery that
rounded out and completed all that they had learned and believed as Jews. In that
first generation church many Jewish converts continued to practice their
Jewish faith, and they held to the Jewish liturgical calendar. You are a Christian,
but you still celebrated Passover and you still went
for Pentecost. You're, culturally, still a Jew, even if you had become a
Christian. With time, however, and the destruction of the temple by the
Romans in 70 AD, the distinction and the practice of these two faiths became
quite separate, with Christianity being recognized as a standalone faith and not
simply a sect or a type connected to the Jewish religion. So it took several
generations, especially for the Jewish Christians to realize that, no,
this is a different religion altogether. Pamphylia, Perga, Italia and Antioch
are the cities mentioned next. Luke continues naming the various stops along their route home to Antioch in Syria. Luke notes that Paul and Barnabas
gather the church that had originally sent them out, in order to give them a
report of their work and especially about the breakthrough they had in
preaching and converting Gentiles. This sets up the next scene where Luke
describes an important meeting and decision concerning the Gentiles and
their entry into the church. So Luke summarizes the issue and the approach to
its resolution in these first two verses. So let's look at that now, "Some men came
down from Judea." Now realize what's happening, Paul and Barnabas have come
back. They're back with their home church, okay. Then it says, "Some men came
down from Judea and began teaching the "brethren, 'Unless you were
circumcised according to custom of Moses, "you cannot be saved." There's the issue
right there: Jewish Christians from Jerusalem - when you're talking
about Jerusalem, you're always going up to Jerusalem or coming down from Jerusalem. If you were north or south, it didn't matter, you always go up to Jerusalem
in Jewish thought. Okay, so Jewish Christians from Jerusalem,
probably Pharisees who were converted to Christianity, came to Antioch teaching
that Gentiles had to first adhere to Jewish laws of conversion before they
could become Christians. This meant that they had to first be circumcised before
they could be baptized. Well, you think it's hard to get somebody to accept
baptism, imagine if you say, well yeah, but before you're baptized you also
have to be circumcised. Yeah, that would be an uphill battle, because most
Jewish men had been circumcised as babies, alright. So if you were
a Pharisee of that era, converted to Christ, this idea was quite
logical, nothing crazy about this idea. I mean, Judaism came first. Jesus was a
Jew. Christianity was simply an extension of the Jewish faith, so adhering to
Jewish law and custom before identifying as a Christian, this made all the sense
in the world to them. It was like an easy sell. It was easy to preach. It was easy
to prove, to argue. For them, baptism was a kind of an add-on, if you
wish. Fine, you want to be baptized? Good enough, fair, go ahead. The problem with
this mindset and the teaching that came from it was that it did not understand
Christianity's relationship to Judaism. Judaism and its religion was a vehicle
that was designed to deliver Jesus, the Son of God, Savior of mankind, to the
world. Judaism, if you wish, was a historical and cultural and religious
stage or platform upon which God would place Jesus the Savior. Let me read
something out of Matthew here, it says, "So that the rest of mankind may seek the
Lord, and all Gentiles who are called by "My name." So the gospel was not just for
the Jews, the gospel was for everybody. And so Jewish rituals and laws and
practice were meant to be a preview and a practice of what was to come: Jesus
dying as a perfect sacrifice to save mankind from condemnation, due to sin.
That's what all the animal sacrifices were supposed to be pointing to, were
supposed to be preparing them to. That a death was required to
absolve one of sin, and for centuries they practiced that idea using animals. Why?
Because one day it would be a man who would die; the Son of God, actually, who
would die. So these Jewish Christians thought that their religion was the
substance of God's will, when in fact it was only a shadow of what God had
planned to do through Christ. And that is: make eternal life possible through
faith in Christ expressed in repentance and baptism. This teaching was dangerous,
also, because it substituted a salvation based on law. The principle of law: you be
circumcised, you obey food and other kind of laws, in order to be worthy to be
baptized, and then become a Christian. Wow, talk about narrowing the doorway to the
kingdom of God. So they were replacing a gospel based on grace and faith that
said, I am saved because I believe in Jesus and I express my faith in Him
through repentance and baptism, Acts 2:38. This was being replaced with, I am saved
because I obey the law of circumcision and rules and regulations of Judaism. In
other words, I am saved because I do things, instead of, I am saved because I
believe something. Big difference, big difference. So the solution is in Acts
chapter two, verse 35. I don't have time to read that, but we'll just read the
opening sentence for now, "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." So we don't have time to read this entire passage all the way down to 35,
but I did want to examine the approach that they took to resolve this matter.
Since Antioch was a church consisting of both Jews and Gentiles, and since much of
Paul's ministry involved outreach to non-Jews, there was a lot at stake for
him. I mean, they'd been out on the road for two years. All of this was going down
the drain. Now note that all parties, the missionaries, the Jewish Christian
teachers, the elders of the church, and the Apostles, all together came to
discuss this issue. This was not decided by an executive group or Peter, as some
kind of chief apostle. Luke records that there was extensive discussion, and records part of Peter's argument.
Let's read Acts chapter 15. Here's Peter arguing, he says, "Now therefore, why do you
put God to the test by placing upon the "neck of the disciples a yoke which
neither our fathers nor we have been "able to bear? But we believe that we are
saved through the grace of the Lord "Jesus, in the same way that they also are."
He also argued that bringing the gospel to the Gentiles was part of God's plan,
recorded in the scripture. Read that passage there. He said Simeon has related
how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people
for His name, with this the words of the prophets agreed just as it is written." So
these are just a little bit of the argument and the discussion
going back and forth. And Peter makes the argument that no, no, the gospel was meant
for the Gentiles as well. And certainly, we're not going to lay the law on them,
because we found out that we couldn't obey the law. That's why Jesus
came, because we couldn't be perfect through obedience. We have to be made
perfect through faith. And so, Paul - Peter of course, has a firm grasp on what the
gospel is. And you kind of pick up the argument as you read through.
Peter also argued that bringing the gospel to the Gentiles was part of God's
plan, recorded in the scriptures as I've just read here. In the end everyone
agrees to continue preaching to the Gentiles, with a caution to avoid sexual
immorality. And the reason for that is that sexual immorality was a large part
of the Gentile lifestyle, because many of them participated in religious
rituals that involved sexual immorality. So the extra warning to them. They need
to be careful. They need to work on that. Also, respect of certain Jewish
sensitivities towards eating meat that was previously offered in pagan
sacrifices and then sold in the public marketplace. And of course, the eating of
blood, which was forbidden for Jews. In other words, he's saying, look you're
saved, you're good. And I say to you, in order to maintain smooth
relationships in a mixed congregation, he says to Gentiles, make a special effort to
maintain sexual purity and make an effort to be sensitive to the food
laws that many of your Jewish brethren still find themselves under. So these
were given to guarantee peace in the assembly where both Jews and Gentiles
worshiped and often ate fellowship meals together. Had to be careful. Paul talks
about this meat offered to sacrifice again in First Corinthians.
That's nothing for us today. You buy hamburger at Walmart, you're not
afraid that that hamburger, that cow was offered to a pagan God, or
something, right? But in the first century there was always that possibility.
So you have the problem stated and debated and resolved according to
God's Word. And you notice that even the Apostles and the leaders in the Jewish
church were quoting scripture to each other to make their point, as we still do today. Luke finishes this section by recording
the joyful reaction of the Gentile Christians at the news that they were
not to be subjected to the Jewish law and were accepted by no less than the
Apostles themselves as equal and full members of God's church, along with their
Jewish brethren who had been converted. The final scene sees Paul and Barnabas remaining in Antioch, busy teaching and preaching to the brethren there. So we're
going to stop right here. A good stopping point. Here's the assignment for next
week: read Acts chapter 15, verse 36, all the way through to Acts chapter 18, verse
22, as we make our way through the book of Acts. Alright, that's the lesson for
today. Thank you very much for your attention. I appreciate it.
