What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
Comments (2,829)
And then Paul says that we also use the word of God to take every thought captive to obey Christ, meaning that as we go forward, we continue to hold tight to the truth of God's word so that we can discern the difference between a truth and a lie and then take captive any thought that enters our mind. That is a lie. And so, the picture is this lie comes into our mind, and we recognize that it's a lie because we're holding on to the truth of God's word. We speak the truth to ourselves. And by doing that, we take this thought that is not true.
Captive saying you don't get any real estate in my Saul. You don't get to start building anything. You don't get to come in here, whoever you are. The truth of God's Word is the answer. Wherever we have embraced a lie or a deception, we must repent of it, we must turn from it and instead embrace the truth of God's Word.
If you're not a believer, that means turning from being lord over your own life or allowing anything or anyone else to be lord over your own life and asking Christ to be the lord of your life. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew twelve we talked about this last time you won't be helped if you just want Jesus to come in and clear out these dark forces that are at work in your life and then leave you alone. You won't be helped because Jesus says hey, if I do that, those same demonic forces are just going to come back again later with even more of their friends and you'll be worse off than you Derbe before. If you're not a believer, your call is to repent. Turn from all other gods and turn to Christ as your savior and Lord.
He is greater and more powerful than anything and if you'll give Him the keys to your life, he'll come in, he'll cast out all other powers and he'll establish Himself as king over your life and he will set you free. He will set you free if you will invite him to be the Lord of your life. If you're a believer and you are making contact with the spiritual world outside of what the Bible prescribes, if you're a believer and you are surrendering control of your life to an addiction, if you're a believer and you're walking in any unrepentant sin as a way of life, you are inviting demonic forces into your life to oppress you. That's what the Bible teaches and they're only pointing destruction with them. These are the kind of truths, when you understand them, you understand nobody is getting away with their sin.
Nobody. Even if you think you are, I promise you are paying a high, high price. What holding on to that is doing to your soul, to your mind, to your emotions, to your spirit. If that's you repent, turn from your sin. Embrace the truth of God's Word and he'll set you free.
He will set you free. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up. We're going to pray in just a moment. And so, if you need to repent, do it. If you need to turn to Christ for the first time, do it.
And so we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to show us in this coming time of prayer and worship if that's the case, if that's what's going on.
So would you bow your head and close your eyes? Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you that you have through your Word, pulled back the curtain and given us insight into the true nature of reality. You've given us insight into the secret things of the spiritual world and what is going on in our lives.
So, thank you that we don't need to seek anywhere else than in you. And thank You that when we come to you looking for that wisdom and insight, you protect us from the things that would not be good for us, and you reveal to us anything that would be good. And so, Lord, here's what I know. I know that if there are any among us who are being oppressed because we've been given access to spiritual forces through sin in our lives or dabbling with spiritual things, we should not be getting involved in an addiction, lord, I know that what is good and what you desire is that they would be set free. And so, Jesus, we ask in Your grace and Your mercy that You would reveal to us if there's any area of our lives where we've given the devil a foothold, where we've carved out a little bit of room and said, you can hang out here.
Lord, would you reveal any strongholds in our souls, wrong beliefs that are not true, that lord, maybe we don't even know how to stop believing it because the emotions attached to it are so intense, but we know that you can bring those things down. We know You can set us free from them, lord, reveal to us if we're holding on to any wrong or untrue beliefs and set Your people free, loved. I pray for anyone, any of us, Lord, who's being deceived by the power of sin, lord, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts that are soft and open to Your spirit. Speak to Your people, Lord, so that all of our affections and all of our energies would be rightly directed toward you. Help Your people to walk in freedom and the abundant life that you gave to give us, Lord, and help us not to settle for anything less.
Thank You that whatever the issue is, you're greater. Whatever the addiction is, you're greater. Whatever the hurt is, you are greater. Jesus, you're the healer, you're the Savior. You're the king of kings, you're the Lord of lords, beginning and end, alpha and Omega, lord God, Almighty above all things, and you're our Savior.
So, bless Your people, move among Your people for your glory, Jesus, we pray in Your name. Amen. Amen.
We thank Thee each morning for a new born day
Where we may work the fields of new mown hay
We thank Thee for the sunshine and the air that we breathe
Oh Lord, we thank Thee
Thank Thee for the rivers that run all day
Thank Thee for the little birds that sing along the way
Thank Thee for the trees and the deep blue sea
Oh Lord, we thank Thee
Oh yes, we thank Thee, Lord, for every flower that blooms
Birds that sing, fish that swim and the light of the moon
We thank Thee every day as we kneel and pray
That we were born with eyes to see these things
Thank Thee for the fields where the clover is grown
Thank Thee for the pastures where cattle may roam
Thank Thee for Thy love so pure and free
Oh Lord, we thank Thee
Oh yes, we thank Thee, Lord, for every flower that blooms
Birds that sing, fish that swim and the light of the moon
We thank Thee every day as we kneel and pray
That we were born with eyes to see these things
Passage: Acts 16:6-18...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Paul and his team take the Gospel into Europe for the first time starting with the city of Phlippi, where they encounter two very different women - one a picture of freedom, the other a picture of slavery.
In our previous study, we saw the Lord Jesus direct his church through unlikely means, a sharp division between Paul and Barnabas, resulting in two missions teams going out from the church at Antioch rather than one. Today we will see the Lord give direction to Paul's team through what seems to be an illness and a supernatural dream. We're going to be reminded that Jesus is the head of the church and he's able to work through our strengths and our weaknesses to accomplish his will. And praise God for that. Let's jump in.
In Acts chapter 16, verse 6, it says they. This is the missions team that included Paul, Silas, and Timothy went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. They had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. So let's go ahead and put our first map up on the screen and we'll just orient ourselves where we are. So, Phrygia and Galatia were Roman provinces where Paul and his team went to minister after leaving Lustra and passing through Pisidian, Antioch.
Asia was a region that incorporated the central and southern parts of the coast to the west, that's present-day Turkey. And then it came inland to form sort of an equilateral triangle. So, if you just look at Phrygia on the map and you put sort of one point of a triangle in there, and then you go out to the central and southern coast so that you have an equilateral triangle. That region would be considered Asia at this time in history. And so, scholars tell us that Paul likely wanted to travel southwest from Phrygia to coastal cities like Ephesus when the Holy Spirit forbade him from doing so.
This raises the logical question what does that mean to be forbidden by the Holy Spirit? Well, to state the obvious, Paul wanted to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit did something that made it impossible because God wanted Paul and his team to go somewhere else. We know Paul was relentless. He was stubborn and dogged. And when he got it in his mind that he wanted to go somewhere, nothing could deter him.
When we reach Acts 21, we'll read about a time when Paul became determined to return to Jerusalem. On his way there, they stop at the Lebanese port of Tyre, where God speaks prophetically through some of the disciples who tell Paul on behalf of the Lord not to go to Jerusalem. He keeps going. Then they travel south to the next port, Ptolemais. And Luke tells us a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
He came to us, took Paul's belt, tied his feet and hands, and said, this is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him over to the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the local people pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Then Paul replied, what are you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart, for I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And everybody else is saying, Paul, the Lord Jesus is telling you not to go to Jerusalem. And then Luke writes since he would not be persuaded, we said no more except the Lord's will be done. Paul's determination was the best and worst thing about him. It caused him to do incredible things for God to keep going when many others would have quit. But it sometimes caused him to be blind to the fact that he was actually disobeying God in some instances, like in Acts 21.
And this theory could be supported by the fact that Luke joins Paul's team in verse 10. We know this because Luke is narrating the Book of Acts. And in Acts 16, verse ten, the pronouns change to include him. He begins using we and us. Now, what was Luke's profession?
He's a doctor, he's a physician. And so, it seems more than coincidental at this specific time when something has happened that prevents Paul from going to Asia. A doctor joins the team before they move on, possibly because Paul required his medical knowledge and skills. So, perhaps unable to leave his bed, Paul finally says, I perceive the Holy Spirit is forbidding me from going to Asia. Sometimes we're stubborn.
Not you. I'm speaking, of course, of our online listeners and viewers. But we can be hardheaded. And sometimes the Lord must strike us with trials, obstacles and even infirmities to keep us in his will and keep us from unintentionally loving against. It far better to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.
But thank God he doesn't give up on us, even when we're stubborn and even when we have moments when we don't listen. That's God being gracious to us, that's God being good. It says in verse 7, that when they came to Musia, they tried to go to Bethania, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Let's put up our next map here. And so, what they likely did is that they cut across sort of the east-northeast corner of Musa to try and go north into Bithynia.
But now we read the Spirit of Jesus' prevents them from going north. So where else can they go? All that's left is a west northwesterly direction the Spirit of Jesus is one and the same as the Holy Spirit. And Luke just uses the term here to remind us that Jesus continues to play an active rose in the story of his church, leading and guiding her by his spirit. We know that Paul had to be slapped upside the head in a significant way in order to give up on a plan.
Therefore, I suspect that after Paul recognized that God didn't want him to travel to Asia, the Holy Spirit allowed him to recover. But then when he tried to go into Bethania, the Holy Spirit had to say wrong again and probably cause another flare up of whatever illness he had struck Paul with previously. We're going to see in just a minute that this is all happening, because there's somewhere very specific that Jesus wanted Paul to do, and he was going to get Paul there no matter what. Verse 8, it says, Passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. Let's put up our next map here, Troas.
So, they have only one direction they can go. And so, they go there towards the northwest coast and the ancient Greek city of Troas. They might have even limped their way there with Paul because coastal climates are better for one's health. Troas was a pivotal port city and a center of commerce that connected Asia Minor to Europe. It was in present-day Turkey, across the Aegean Sea.
From the present-day country of Greece, it's Greece, to the west, across the Aegean. It was the kind of city where Paul would usually look to plant a church. But he didn't do it on this journey. That would happen later. And so, Paul and his team spend a few days in Troas as Paul tries to discern where the Lord wants him to go.
It says, during the night, Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, to cross over to Macedonia and help us. Let's put our next map up on the screen. So, Paul is in his dream, he's looking out at the same sea that he was looking out at the day before. And in his dream, he sees a man in Macedonia, present-day Greece. And Macedonia wasn't on Paul's ministry radar at all.
He hadn't even considered it. But then the Lord whacked him upside the head, put some blinders on him, and got him to the place where he was literally facing the ocean he would need to cross to get to Macedonia. And then God said it's that way. Paul. That way.
The only way you can go. And I have to tell you that I've grown to the place where when I am trying to make a decision, my prayer to the Lord is usually this. It's usually, Lord, please give me one option and let it be the one you want because I'm so dumb. As long as there are two options, there's a real shot that I'm going to choose the wrong one. And I want to be in Your will.
So, can you help me out? Just remove one of the options and then I'll go with the only one left so that I can be in Your will. That's the confidence I have in God and the total lack of confidence I have in myself. But I'm so thankful that God is gracious to do this in our lives. And if you haven't figured this out yet, take this to heart.
The Lord speaks through closed doors as much as he does through open doors. He speaks through both equally. So be grateful, don't resist where the Lord has closed a door, and walk through the ones that he opens. In verse 10, it says after he had seen the vision, we underline we and then underline the next word immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. We see Luke begin to use the pronoun we, indicating that he joined Paul's team in Troas.
And I had you underline the word immediately because this is what disciples of Jesus do. When God has given a clear command, they obey immediately. They don't say, God's given us a vision saying, come over to Macedonia. He's removed all other options. We should pray about it for a while, take a few days.
They don't do that. Why? Because when Jesus has given an explicit command, there is nothing to pray about. What's the logic? You're going to go and get a second opinion from the same person who gave you the first opinion?
Let's be real here. When Scripture is clear, when God speaks clearly, but people say, I think I need to pray about it, it's usually just a spiritual-sounding excuse to delay obeying Jesus. If you want to verify that you're understanding the command of Jesus in Scripture correctly, that's good. But do that research ASAP. Call up, talk, and meet with some wise and mature followers of Jesus who know the word.
Why? Because delayed obedience is disobedience. Write this down. Disciples of Jesus are called to obey him ASAP because delayed obedience is disobedience. Paul and his team understood this.
So once the Lord had made it clear that he wanted them to travel to Macedonia, they immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia. I'll give you one piece of parenting advice. If you're a parent of young children, take this to heart. Delayed obedience is disobedience. I'll just tell you.
I'll just say it. Do not be one of those parents that says I'm going to count to three. What do you need to count to three for? And then you always look really weak in front of your kid when you're one, two, two and a half. 2.6.
We stayed in that city for several days. Let's put up our next map here. So, they sail from Troas to the island of Samothrace because the journey would have been too long to do in one go and they generally don't want to be sailing around that part of the world in the dark because there are little islands and rocks all over the Aegean, as you can get an idea from the map. So, they spent a night at Samothrace. The next day they journey to Philippi, and they actually would have gone to Neapolis, which is the port city that served Philippians.
Philippi was about 10 miles, 16 km further inland from the coast so the total journey likely took just a couple of days. And when they stepped off the boat in Neapolis, the Gospel reached Europe for the first time in history. Named after Philip II of Macedon, who was the father of Alexander the Great, Philippi was on the main east-west road that connected Macedonia to Rome. It was the most prosperous and prominent city in its district, and it was a Roman colony. That's going to be important later, meaning that it handled all civil matters the way they would have been handled in Rome.
Instead of being a foreign territory under the Roman Empire, Philippi was actually like a piece of Rome in a foreign country in the way that it functioned and operated. Verse 13. On the Sabbath day, we went outside the city gate by the river where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. Hebrew law dictated that ten Jewish men were necessary to form a synagogue.
And so it seems that there were not enough Jewish men in the city of Philippi to form a synagogue. Hebrew law also dictated that if a synagogue was not available, the Jews should gather on the Sabbath under an open sky next to a river or the sea. And that seems to be why this group of women has gathered by the river outside the city. Paul and his team headed there in keeping with Paul's custom of always first trying to take the Gospel to the Jews in every city. So, he had apparently asked around where the synagogue learned that there wasn't one and then learned that the Jews in the city, when they gathered, would gather at this spot just outside of town.
With no rabbi to teach them, these faithful women took the initiative to gather on the Sabbath to pray, read the Old Testament Scriptures, and discuss what they had read. So, when Paul, a scholar and a student of the greatest rabbi in Israel, Gamaliel, showed up, sat down, and began teaching them from the Scriptures, it would have been a rare privilege and a blessing, and they would have listened eagerly. Verse 14. A God-fearing woman named I got to mess you up. I know you've been reading the Bible your whole life, but we've all been seeing her name wrong.
We've all been doing it. It's Lydia is her name. And so, I'm going to say Lydia. Not to be quirky or weird, but because that's actually her name.
And everyone's just been doing the typical Western thing we do when we meet someone who has a foreign name that we can't immediately pronounce. She's like, my name's Lydia. We're like it's, Lydia, but it's not. Yeah, it is. So, a God-fearing woman named Lydia, because we can do better. A dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thia Tyra was listening.
And that this actually, historians tell us, might have been a shortened form of her business name, which was probably something like the Judea Lady. And so, everyone just called her Lydia for short. Thyatira was famed for its production of purple cloth, and Lydia was a dealer in such textiles. Purple dye could only be produced through a time and labor-intensive process using the glands of a specific shellfish or the root of a certain plant. And this made purple prohibitively expensive, and a color worn exclusively by the wealthy.
It was just insanely expensive. And it says here that regarding Lydia, the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. As we've discussed in previous messages, the Lord gives general revelation to everyone. Paul tells us in Romans one and two that God reveals Himself to every person through the glory of his creation around us and through our inner moral conscience. Solomon wrote that God has put eternity in the hearts of man.
In other words, God has put an existential longing in the hearts of man. This desire to understand why we're here, or what the true nature of reality is, what the meaning of life is. Speaking of his coming crucifixion, Jesus said, as for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. And the interesting thing about the Greek word that's translated all there is, that in English, it means all. Jesus draws, Jesus invites, Jesus calls all people to be saved.
But he honors the free will of man and allows him to draw closer to the revelation he gives, or to reject the revelation that he gives. To those who draw closer, he gives more revelation. And if they continue drawing closer as new revelation is given, they reach a point where God opens up their hearts to receive and believe the saving truth of the Gospel. That's what the Lord did for Lydia. We can see that she had been responding to the general revelation she had been given.
She had been responding to the special revelation of the Jewish people and the Hebrew Scriptures. The text tells us that as Paul spoke, she was listening. Listen. You can sit through a lot of sermons without listening. But Lydia was listening.
She had been drawing closer and had reached the point where God said, because you desire the truth and because you have responded positively to the revelation I've given you, I'm going to open up your heart to understand the Gospel and receive the gift of eternal life. Many heard Jesus teach, but few listened when Jesus taught. You can hear many sermons and you can hear the Gospel many times. But if you don't desire the truth, or if you've already made up your mind that you're not willing to change, if the truth demands it of you, you will be unable to listen. This is what Jesus said about the importance of listening and responding to the truth and light that God has already given us.
It's on your outlines. He said, no one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a basket or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand so that those who come in may see its light. For nothing is concealed that won't be revealed, and nothing is hidden that won't be made known and brought to light. Therefore, take care how you listen, for whoever has more will be given to him.
If we don't respond to the light of truth that God has already given us, the day will come when he takes it away, and instead of being able to perceive it and know that you've been ignoring it, you will no longer be able to perceive it. This is the warning Jesus gives to anyone who would say, I'm just going to live my life the way I want, and then later on, when I have kids or when my kids are all grown up. Then I'll get serious about the faith. Jesus says, Be careful because you don't know that you'll still be able to see the truth later if you put off responding to it. Now.
Take care how you listen. We are responsible for responding to the revelation and the truth that we are given. But make no mistake, none of us would be saved unless Jesus drew us and opened our hearts to the gospel. None of us. It is God who reveals to us our desperate need for him.
It is God who enables us to see clearly that we are utterly lost and hopelessly doomed without him. All we do is say, Agreed. And when the Lord offers us forgiveness, salvation, eternal life and his spirit, we say, yes, please. And then we spend the rest of our lives saying, thank you. That's what we do.
That's our part. God reveals it. You're utterly lost without me. Yes. Would you like me to save you and forgive you and bring you into my family?
Yes. Okay. Thank you. That's it? That's it.
That's all the work that we contribute to salvation. We agree with what God says about us. We receive what he wants to give us, and then we tell Him thank you. This should inform the way that we think about and approach evangelism, the sharing of the gospel. Our job is to share light and revelation, the truth of the gospel, spoken plainly, with clarity.
Why? Because we know and understand that only God can open a person's heart. That dramatic change. Salvation itself is a work of God and God alone. We blaspheme God, and we deceive ourselves when we fall into thinking that the excellence of our presentation or delivery is the determining factor in whether a person turns to Christ.
As Paul told the Corinthians, I planted Apollos, who was a leader in the Corinthian church, watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. And Paul described how he preached the Gospel to the Corinthians like this he said, When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus, Christian and him. Crucified.
Paul shared the Gospel plain and simple, because he understood that it is God who opens a person's heart, not human persuasiveness. You can read through the whole book of Acts, and all you will find is plain gospel preaching. No large events with a band to attract people, no prize giveaways or free stuff offered as a bait and switch to trick people into hearing the Gospel. No props or elaborate sermon illustrations, just plain gospel preaching. Jesus' is Lord.
He's the most high god. Salvation is through Him and him alone. Why? Please hear this. Because nothing can be added to the Gospel to make it more glorious.
Nothing can be added to the Gospel to make it more glorious, and God is the one who opens a person's heart. Make a note of this. Christians are called to plainly proclaim the Gospel, knowing that only God can open a person's heart. We're called to plainly proclaim the Gospel because we know that only God can open a person's heart. Verse 15 after she and her household were baptized, this is Lydia we're talking about.
They were all saved. It's very similar to Peter's experience with the household of Cornelius in Acts chapter ten, and what a saleswoman Judea is. She gives them an invitation they can't refuse because she says, if you think my salvation is genuine, come and stay at my house. They knew she had been legitimately saved, so what could they say? So, they had to go and stay with her.
And I'm sure they would have been grateful for her hospitality, because at this time in history, in the Roman Empire, inns were very inappropriate places for Christians to stay, because most of the time, especially in Roman colonies and Greek cities, they were dirty, dangerous, expensive, and literally just brothels. So, to instead stay among believers and share the love of Christ and fellowship with the saints would have been a tremendous blessing. And it's why hospitality was emphasized so strongly in the early church, especially for any traveling Christians who may have been passing through your city. Lydia's house will become the meeting location of the church that will be planted in Philippi, and she will become a leading patron of God's work in the city, opening up her home for ministry and hospitality and supporting the Lord's work in her city. Through significant financial giving, the church was able to grow significantly in Philippi while still meeting at her house tells us that Lydia had a really big property and ran a very profitable business.
And it's funny that in Paul's vision, if you'll recall, he saw a man from Macedonia calling him to come over and share the gospel, when he got there, he found a woman's only Bible study and his first convert was a single woman, Lydia and her household. And the church there is hosted by and financed by Lydia. And this counters the claims of some who try to paint Paul as a chauvinist. His eagerness to minister to this group of women shows that nothing could be further from the truth. His attitude was completely different from that of the Pharisees, who would never discuss the scriptures with a woman and who regularly prayed prayers in public along the lines of, dear God, thank you that I wasn't born a gentile, a slave, or a woman.
And when you read Paul's epistles, you will frequently find him greeting women by name whom he loved and considered sisters in the faith. Verse 16. Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune telling. So, while staying at Lydia's house, Paul and his team continued evangelizing the Jewish woman and any traveling Jews who were gathering outside the city by the river.
One day, while they're on their way to that spot, they come across, not by accident, a girl, not a woman, a girl who is a slave and is possessed by a demon that empowers her to predict the future, and she's being exploited by her owners as a business. The original Greek says she was possessed by a pneuma python, which literally means a python spirit. And this relates to Greek mythology. You see, the Greeks believed that the god Gaia had a son who was the python, and the python would prophesy from a cave in Delphi, which was connected to the Peter of the Earth where Gaia dwelt.
These are the mythical origins of the actual and historical oracle of Delphi, who was also known as the Pythia. It was a position held by various women over the centuries from around 700 to 500 BC. But it was a position that had not existed for centuries by the time of Christ. And so, because of that mythology, the Greeks and the Romans referred to anyone possessed by a fortune-telling spirit as being possessed by a python spirit. And so, to put it in simpler terms, this was a demon possessed woman who was empowered to speak prophecies about the future.
And people would pay a lot of money for this service. No military commander, no civic leader, and no business owner would make a major decision without first consulting an oracle like this girl. And it tells you something about the state of the world and supernatural beliefs at that time in history. There was nobody in the world at the time of Christ, really, who did not believe in the supernatural. Atheism was not really a thing at all.
It's a similar thing if you go to Africa or many parts of the Third World. It's very hard. To find someone who doesn't believe in the supernatural at all. It's extremely rare. But note that this was something that existed in almost every major town and city in the Roman Empire.
There would be someone who was possessed by a specific kind of spirit, and people would pay money to hear prophecies about the future. Now, could she really predict the future? No. While the Bible does teach that Satan holds sway over anyone who does not belong to Jesus, satan and demons do not control the future. But this demon would enable the person it was possessing to speak with eloquence and with convincing words.
Sort of like somebody who could write really compelling horoscopes, someone will have a birthday this year. Something like that. But this demon then would probably also cause some sort of physical state to happen, like violent shaking and eyes rolling back while she uttered these prophecies or foamed at the mouth or something like that. It says in verse 17, as she followed Paul she cried out, these men who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation are the servants of the Most High God. This is interesting.
We're going to talk about some interesting stuff here because it seems that when a demon-possessed person encountered the presence of God in a Christian in the Scriptures, it antagonized them. It agitated the demon. We have two examples of this in the ministry of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Luke. And notice how similar they are to what happens with Paul and his team here.
In Luke four, it says in the synagogue, there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, leave us alone. What do you have to do with us? Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are.
The Holy One of God.
And then in Luke eight, we read a demon-possessed man from the town met him.
For a long time, he had worn no clothes and did not stay in a house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and said in a loud voice, what do you have to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?
I beg you, don't torment me. And now, when this demon-possessed woman comes across Paul and his team, she cries out, these men who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation are the servants of the Most High God. In all these cases, it's as if the demons, involuntarily confess the reality of Jesus, the Holy One of God, the Son of the Most High God, servants of the Most High God. In Deuteronomy 32, verse 8, there's a reference to a reality that most Christians are completely unaware of.
Deuteronomy 32/8 refers to the time when the Most High divided the nations and divided the human race. He set the boundaries of the people according to the number of angels. However, these supernatural beings, these angels who were given charge over the nations, rebelled against the Lord and made themselves the gods of the nations they were appointed over. Are there other gods? Absolutely.
The Bible teaches this, and that's what makes the title Most High God significant. It's a title that specifically designates Yahweh as the highest god among the gods. He is like no other god, and no other god is like him. Even the servants of the lesser gods, like the demon in this girl, know this Yahweh has power and authority over all other gods. And again, I'll throw this out there.
I know you'd love me to explain more, but I'll still just share this. The destiny of the Church is to replace the gods of the nations and to rule over the nations with Christ. It's just a small thing to stay up tonight. Thinking about verse 18. It says, she, the demon possessed girl, did this for many days.
So, this demon possessed girl starts following Paul and his crew around, acting like a herald, shouting, these men who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation are the servants of the Most High God. This was not ideal, as generally, ministers of the Gospel do not seek endorsements from demons. Additionally, because she was promoting them, people would have assumed that she was part of their ministry. Again, not ideal. People may have even then assumed that Paul Silas and Timothy were likewise possessed by spirits from the underworld.
Then we read Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the Spirit, he said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out right away. When demons did this kind of thing to Jesus, we read about his response in the Gospels. It says in Mark One, he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons.
And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. In Luke four, it says demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, you are the Son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak. You see, Paul had grown tired of the distraction and the danger this woman posed to their ministry. And he felt sorry for this girl, who was so clearly enslaved by this demon.
And so, Paul waited for the Holy Spirit to tell him to cast the demon out of this girl. Why did the Holy Spirit have Paul wait? I have no idea. But the second he gave Paul the green light, Paul acted. And the word of God spoken through him, commanded the demon to leave.
And because Paul spoke with the authority of the Most High God, the demon had no choice but to obey. To state the obvious, the fact that the demon left this girl, and she was instantly transformed confirms this was not a mental illness. This was not a sideshow circus act. It was real demonic possession. And I would encourage us to remember when we pray, do not ever forget that we are praying to the Most High God. He's the God over all other gods. They all have to bow to him. He has absolute authority over everything. And so, when we pray, we should remember that, because that's the God that we call upon.
This isn't a message for today. This message has been going on since the 50s, since the 60s, even earlier. But all liberation movements cannot deliver on their promises because you can do whatever you want. You can change laws, you can become celebrated in the culture, and you can change your socioeconomic status. You can adopt a new gender or s*xual identity.
If your heart remains the same, you'll be a slave. The only true freedom that exists is freedom from bondage to sin and death. That is the freedom Jesus was speaking of when he said, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And we live in a time, as others have before us, where Satan is blasting the message out to the culture that it's not the truth that will set you free. We have an enemy who wants to get you to believe in anything other than the truth as the solution to your situation, to deceive you into believing.
No. That is what will give you freedom from the bondage that you're experiencing in your life. But Jesus, the living God, the Most High God, says you need freedom from bondage to sin and death, and you can only find it in me. The prophet Jeremiah pointed out the futility of trying to transform ourselves apart from Christ's writing. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots?
If so, then you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil. So, Jeremiah says, listen, if a person can change the color of their skin and actually become a different ethnicity, or if an animal can become something else, hey, then maybe you can become something else too, by just trying. He says, the point is that you can't. You can't because we are in bondage to sin and death until we are set free by Jesus Christ. We need the freedom that only Christ can offer.
All else falls short. And at this very moment, all of humanity, every single person, is either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. Sin leads to death, but righteousness leads to life. And the good news is that God promises to open the hearts of all who seek Him and set them free. The Lord also said, through Jeremiah, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
That's a promise. You will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all your heart when you say, okay, Lord, no preconditions. I just want the truth. I just want to be free, whatever it costs. God says you'll find me.
You'll find me when you come to me like that. Is there any area of your life I'll ask the worship team to come up. Is there any area of your life where you know that Jesus has given you a clear command, but you're delaying your obedience to Him? I don't care how you're justifying it. God doesn't care how you're justifying it.
Is there an area of your life where God has spoken to you clearly, but you're delaying your obedience to him? You need to hear this because I love you. Delayed obedience is disobedience. You're not just delaying your obedience, you are actively disobeying God. Obey Christ.
Obey Christ and live free. Because if there is a single area of your life where you are knowingly disobeying Christ, you are in bondage in that area of your life, you are not experiencing the life Jesus has for you. Obey Christ and live free. Let's pray. Would you bow your head and close your eyes?
And so, Jesus, first of all, I just pray that You would forgive us where we've ever fallen into thinking that Your commands are for anything other than our good.
Where we've had any construction of You in our minds. That is inaccurate. Lord, our only good. And you're concerned about the good of Your children, and You know that the greatest good for us is becoming more like Your son, Jesus. And so, Lord, we just invite You to do that work in us.
Do it, Lord. Make us more like Jesus, please. Loved where we've been stubborn, where we've said no and come up with excuses so many times that we can't even sense Your conviction anymore. Lord, return that sensitivity to our hearts so that we can obey you. Jesus, fill us with a desire to obey You rooted in gratitude for everything that You've done for us because You have set us free.
You have liberated us from bondage to sin and death. And so, we stand on that. We believe in Jesus name. We have victory because of the victory Jesus won on our behalf. And Lord Jesus, we pray right now for any of our brothers and sisters here who are in bondage in any area of life.
We know that You do not desire them to be. And so, Jesus, would you shine a light on any area in their lives or ours where we are walking in disobedience that we might repent and experience life. And we pray for our brothers and sisters who may feel overwhelmed and feel like something is impossible. But how could God do this? How could I ever stop doing this?
How could I ever not need this? Jesus, we pray that just right now, by our spirit, You would overwhelm them with the reality that You are the Most High God. Nothing is impossible for You. Your arm is not too short. Nothing is impossible.
There's freedom in You from anything and from everything. So, help us to love, help us to praise, help us to speak, help us to think as free men and women set free by Jesus, and to not run back to the change that You have set us free from. Thank You for freedom, Jesus, we love you. In your name, we pray. Amen.
Passage: Acts 15:36-16:5...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Paul and Barnabas have a heated disagreement, part ways, and head out on new journeys to visit the churches they had planted previously and preach the Gospel.
So, as we pick things up, Paul and Barnabas are back in the city of Antioch in present-day Syria. It is the home base, so to speak, of the church in Gentile territory. And Paul and Barnabas are both elders there. They are teaching and building up the saints in the faith.
They're making disciples. But Paul is an Apostle. He's an evangelist. And so, it's not long before he feels compelled by the love of God to check on the spiritual health of the churches he helped plant during his first missionary journey. Additionally, he knows millions have not heard the Gospel, and he can't help but want to do something about that.
As he wrote to the Romans, my aim is to preach the Gospel where Christ has not been named. Paul's passion didn't come from learning some secret evangelistic technique of the pros. It came from loving and knowing Jesus so deeply that God's heart for the lots became Paul's. He described his passion for the Gospel to the Corinthians, pointing, I am compelled to preach, and woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel. And so, we'll pick it up in Acts 15:36, where we read.
After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, let's go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. Paul had the heart of a pastor. He didn't simply drop in on a city, preach the Gospel, count the number of hands raised, take some pictures for his social media, and say, that's 100 decisions for Christ. See you again. Never.
No. Paul planted churches, and appointed elders, and he continued to monitor the spiritual health of those churches. Even from a distance, Paul understood that the command of Jesus is not to make converts, it's to make disciples. Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, and most Christians are familiar with the first part. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But it doesn't end there. It keeps going. And Jesus says, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. The goal is disciples.
Men and women who desire to obey Jesus know how to obey Jesus and then wait for it. Obey Jesus, mature believers. That's the goal. So, write this down. It's your first fill-in.
Jesus commanded his followers to make disciples, men and women who worship and obey Jesus as Lord. That's what a disciple does. They worship and obey Jesus as Lord. The greatest evangelistic technique is not a method or huge events, our big conferences, or Gospel rallies. The greatest evangelistic method is mature followers of Jesus.
Because they reproduce, they make more disciples. In the long run, the good works produced by a well-taught, mature, and spiritually strong local church will have a far greater impact than any evangelistic crusade. We want people at Gospel City who are exploring Christianity, and checking it out, to feel comfortable here. We really do. We want anyone who wants to grow in their faith and follow Jesus as Lord to feel comfortable in our church, whether you're a brand-new Christian or you've been a believer for decades.
But it might surprise you to know there's actually one group we want to make uncomfortable at Gospel City. If you consider yourself a Christian but you do not want to obey Jesus in every area of your life, we want to make it uncomfortable for you to stay in that place at Gospel City church. We really do. Because when we study the Scriptures, we see people who are not Christians who don't want to obey Jesus, and we see people who are Christians who want to obey Jesus.
That's not a thing in the Bible. Christians who don't want to obey Jesus.
Again, just to use my favorite analogy, this is like somebody wanting to say they're a member of Greenpeace while they're wearing, like, a fur coat with, like, a fox head on it. You know, what's the problem? I thought you guys were open to anyone. The Bible views people who don't want to obey Jesus as non-believers, people who are not saved. And so, because we love people, we cannot be a church where it's easy and comfortable for people to deceive themselves into thinking they're in the right relationship with God when they don't even want to obey Jesus.
Like, this weighs on me as a pastor that I would ever end up standing next to someone before Jesus. And this person would say, I went to your church for years and you let me think I was saved. Because I just said, well, the important thing is let's just be gracious everyone's at different places. And so sure, they're a Christian who doesn't want to obey Jesus, but who am I to judge? It haunts me, the idea of that ever happening.
And so, we want to be explicit that Christians who don't want to obey Jesus are not a thing in the Bible. The only time you see anything like that is when the Bible says you need to check yourself to see if you're actually saved because Christians want to obey Jesus. Now, people deceive themselves and they find a way out of this. And perhaps someone here is already thinking this, well, Jeff, nobody's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes, and everybody sins.
And all those statements are true. But that's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about perfection. We're talking about intention. We're not talking about our countless failures and sins on our journey of sanctification.
We're talking about our desires. A Christian desires to obey Jesus. There's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't desire to obey Jesus. A Christian fails over and over and over again. Our brother John tells us if we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves.
And the truth is not in us. But the desire of the Christian is to be righteous. The desire of the Christian is to be holy, set apart for the glory of God. The desire of the Christian is to be set free from sin. The Christians hate their sin.
They don't coddle it or excuse it. They wage war against it. Write this down. Christians desire to obey Jesus. It's not about perfection.
It's about intention. It's about intention. Here's why I can say this with such confidence. Because the Christian who doesn't want to obey Jesus doesn't want Jesus to be their Lord. It's that simple.
If you don't want to obey Jesus, then you don't want him to be your master. You don't want him to be your Lord. So how can you be a Christian who doesn't want Jesus to be your Lord? It doesn't even make sense. At Gospel City, the elders desire to have Paul's heart for the Church.
He wrote this to the Colossians. We proclaim him the Lord Jesus, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. If you're checking out Christianity, we're so glad you're here. Welcome. I hope you don't feel any pressure in any way.
If you are a Christian, we will never apologize for never stopping, doing everything we can to help you grow into greater maturity in Christ. We'll never apologize for that. We'll never apologize if it makes you uncomfortable that we call you to be more like Jesus'. We're always going to do that. And if you're a member of Gospel City, then you've made the commitment to your brothers and sisters, you've made the commitment to BJ and myself.
If I need someone to pray for me, be there. When I ask you to, I'll be there for you as well. That's what the church does. We follow Jesus together because we want to obey Him. That's our desire.
And so, with all that in mind, Paul wanted to check in on the spiritual health and development of the new believers that he had left in the many cities and towns in which he had previously ministered. In the next chapter, we'll be told that they also took the letter with them from the Jerusalem Council so they could share the decision that had been made and James's instruction for Gentile disciples to abstain from s*xual immorality and pagan idolatry. And we discussed that in our previous study. If you missed it. Verse 37.
Barnabas wanted to take along John, who was called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to work. To refresh your memories, John Mark had joined Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. But for whatever reason, when he got to Pamphylia, this region around Galatia, he decided to split and go back home. We aren't told why, but it's likely either because he got scared by the danger inherent to their mission, or he didn't like the fact that Paul had emerged as the leader of their team and not his Uncle Barnabas. The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas is understandable.
Paul believes that the nature of their mission work will require them to depend on one another and trust each other with their lives. The stakes are high. The preaching of the gospel to men and women who have never heard it, to risk the mission being sabotaged by someone who lacks the necessary commitment and is not ready to yet lay down their life for the Lord is not an option in Paul's mind. On the other side, you have Barnabas, who believes in second chances and views John Mark as a young man who loves the Lord, has learned a painful and embarrassing lesson, and is ready to try again. Barnabas had to be frustrated by Paul's seemingly short memory, because you may recall that Paul was at one time the foremost persecutor of the church before being radically transformed by an encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus.
But when Paul journeyed to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles, none of them were willing because none of them trusted him. But who was it who believed that people could change? Who was it that did go and meet with Paul, even though he didn't yet know if Paul's conversion was sincere? It was Barnabas. And it was Barnabas who vouched for Paul and brought him to the apostles.
And so, Barnabas must have been full of righteous indignation. Really, Paul, you don't believe a person can change. You don't believe that a person can change. And what we see is there are different personalities and giftings in play. Barnabas had such a heart for the individual.
He's all about one person at a time. He was totally present with who they were at that moment, and he was laser-focused on how he could help them move forward in Christ in a greater way. And he was willing to risk his life for just the potential opportunity to help one person move closer to Christ. Barnabas had the heart of Jesus. That leaves the 99 to go after the one.
Now, I don't mean to imply here that Paul didn't care about people, because he obviously did. But Paul was gifted with an obsession and drive for the Gospel, for the big picture of the kingdom of God. We need to plant churches. We need to preach the Gospel where people have never heard it, heard it. We need to make sure that churches are teaching truthful doctrine.
It was contentious and interestingly, the Bible doesn't tell us who was right. John Mark later became a valued co-laborer of Paul in the work of the Gospel and such a close associate of the Apostle Peter that he helped him write his Gospel. That's the gospel we know is the gospel of Mark. It's Peter's gospel recorded by Mark. So, was Barnabas right?
Well, I think we can say that Paul was not the right person to disciple John Mark at that season in time, but Barnabas was. You can argue for Paul and say, well, the text says that only Paul was commended by the Church before he left. It doesn't say Barnabas was, but I think that's kind of an argument from silence. But I think we can also say that Barnabas was not the right partner for Silas, but Paul was. The result was that both John Mark and Silas ended up on a missions team with the right leader for them.
And the Gospel went out with twice the efficacy as two teams now went out from Antioch instead of just one. So why didn't the Holy Spirit just tell Paul and Barnabas, it's all cool, you take Silas, you take John Mark, double the work for the kingdom? Why didn't the Holy Spirit just tell them that? He probably did. He probably did.
This might shock you, but sometimes we're not good at listening when God speaks, sometimes we make assumptions. And what we notice is that Paul and Barnabas just assumed that if there was another mission trip to go on, it would be the two of them going together. They apparently didn't stop and seek the Lord and say, lord, do you want us to go together again? They just assumed and they didn't ask. But praise God.
Praise God. When we desire to do his will, he will do good through us, even through something like a sharp disagreement to get us where we need to be. And I'm so thankful that God is gracious to work and move even through hard-headed people like you and me. He really does look at us and say, your heart's in the right place and so I'm going to use you even though you're doing everything you can to make it as difficult as possible. In summary, it seems neither of them was wrong.
God was just doing something neither of them had considered. God gifted both Paul and Barnabas. God used both men, and the church grew because both men operated with their gifts. We need different gifts in the Church. We need different gifts among elders deacons and church members.
We need people with a heart for different areas of ministry. We need advocates for different causes so that the full heart of God can be reflected in his church. We need that. This will be the last time we hear about Barnabas in the Book of Acts. He continued to be fruitful in ministry, but the focus of the text is going to move to Paul's missionary travels.
And we know from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians that he and Barnabas later reconciled. So, Paul takes on a new partner, Silas. Silas was a leader in the Jerusalem Church. He was a recognized prophet, and he would have been adept at teaching the Word of God. He was a Jew, so he would have had full access to any synagogue.
After spending some time with the brethren in Antioch, he felt like the Lord just wanted him to stay there, and so he did. He didn't know why. He just felt like he should stay. And now we see why God had chosen him to be a traveling companion of Paul's in his next missionary journey. And that's one of the ways the Lord leads us.
He gives us an affection, a bond with a place, a people, a ministry. He inclines our hearts in certain directions in accordance with his will. And so, when he does that when he gives us an extra affinity for something, we pray, we fast, we seek wise and Godly counsel. What do you think the Lord is doing? We search the Scriptures, and if there are no red flags, then we trust the Lord is leading us and we move forward in faith.
So, make a note of this. God sometimes directs us by giving us a heart for a specific place, people, or type of ministry. Place, people, or type of ministry. Please make sure that you didn't use selective hearing and block out the part where I said that we seek wise, godly counsel. That's really important.
I don't want anyone to show up next week and be like God's given me a heart for the Mime community. And so, I need to start a miming ministry in this church. Please seek wise counsel. Let's pray and discern together what the Lord might or might not be doing. So don't just follow your heart.
Scripture says the heart is deceitful. So, you want to pray, you want to search the Scriptures, you want to get wise counsel. Is it possible? Yes. Not in this church, though.
Just putting that out there. Silas joined Paul as he revisited the towns and cities where he had previously ministered in Paul's second ministry. Sorry. Paul's second missionary journey is going to begin in earnest. In verse 11 of the next chapter, it says, He - that's Paul - traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Let's throw our map up on the screen and take a look here. So, from their home base of the Syrian city of Antioch, Paul's team traveled around the Roman province of Syria, and then up north to the Roman province of Cilicia, where they almost certainly passed through Paul's old stomping ground of Tarsus. It seems that they were likely following the route taken by the false teachers who had been spreading the heresy that salvation is by keeping the law instead of by faith in Christ. So, they visited those churches to expose that heretical teaching, share truthful, correct teaching, and share the verdict of the Jerusalem Council and encourage the brethren in each of those churches. These were courageous men who were setting out on these mission trips.
Remember what happened to Paul on his first missionary journey. He still bore the scars from the stoning that almost ended his life. And he certainly would have laid out the risks to Silas before inviting him to partner with him. These men put their lives on the line for the Gospel, as I've shared before. Men like Paul and Silas did this because of their love for the church.
Their love for the people of God was greater than their fear of earthly death. They knew there were Christians who were young in the faith who needed to be encouraged, strengthened, and built up in their knowledge of Christ. And their hearts loved to visit those saints and provide what they needed.
Series: Acts...Passage: Acts 15:1-12...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Paul, Barnabas, and some of the other brothers from Antioch journey to Jerusalem for the first apostolic council to answer the vital question, “What must a man do to be saved?”
Acts chapter 15 requires us to set the scene so that we can understand the context of events. During the first decade of the Church, from around 32 AD. To 42 AD. Almost all believers were Jews who had recognized that Jesus was the Messiah and that the Church was headquartered, so to speak, in Jerusalem.
In the second decade of the Church, from around 42 AD to 52 AD, the Gospel spread in earnest to the Gentiles, resulting in thousands and thousands of them turning to the Lord. It wasn't long before most believers were Gentiles, and the headquarters of the Gospel outreach to the Gentile world was the Church in Antioch in present-day Syria. So at the time in history we'll be studying today, the demographics of the Church had changed radically as most believers were Gentiles and their numbers continued to increase. Simultaneously, the influence of the Church in Jerusalem was decreasing, but the influence of the Church in Antioch was increasing.
And these dynamics created some cultural tensions in the Church at large. The Jewish believers in the Church had spent their entire lives living uprightly. They followed the law of Moses, the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws given to the nation of Israel by God. They were okay with the fact that the Gospel was for Gentiles too, in the same way that they had been okay with a few God-fearing Gentiles sitting in the back of the synagogue service quietly to check out Judaism. But they were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that pagan Gentiles could just convert, join the Church, and immediately share equality with them.
How could that be? They had been partaking in pagan s*xual rituals, some of them just a few weeks ago, and now they're brothers and sisters just like that. What? And now their numbers are overwhelming the Church and they're gaining more and more influence. The Jewish believers rightly believed that the Church had been founded upon Jewish believers and they feared that the Gentiles were bringing anarchy into the Church and threatening Jewish culture, Jewish traditions, and Jewish influence.
But in addition to these cultural issues, there was a glaring theological issue coming to the fore that was increasingly unavoidable. This issue put the Jerusalem Church on a collision course with the Church in Antioch. What was the issue? Well, even around 52 AD, The Jerusalem church was pretty much still entirely Jewish.
And it turns out they were still to a large degree holding to the belief that since Christianity was the continuation of Judaism, since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, it was necessary to continue obeying the law of Moses to be a Christian. Yes, Jesus saved you, but you also had to keep the law of Moses to maintain your salvation. And for Gentile men who converted to Christianity, that included being circumcised. Circumcision was the outward mark God had commanded the men of Israel to take, beginning with Abraham's to distinguish them from all the surrounding pagan nations. It was a sign of the covenant between God and the men of Israel, a mark in their flesh that meant I belong to God, I am his property.
And so, knowing that you can see the logic of the leaders and many of the men of the Jerusalem Church, because they would have been thinking, well, circumcision marks men as belonging to the people of God. And so, if Gentiles are now part of the people of God, then obviously they need to take the mark too.
At some point in the months that followed, the Apostle Peter came to visit the brothers in Antioch. Peter has been traveling all over the world at this time, doing mission work. And Paul writes about Peter's visit to Antioch in Galatians, chapter two, beginning in verse eleven. Let's read it together. Paul says, but when Cephas, which is the Greek version of Peter's name, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned or he was in the wrong, for he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from Jambres.
So, Peter comes to visit Antioch, he's having a great time, and he's enjoying the grace of God in the church. He's rejoicing at how the Gospel has saved thousands of Gentiles. He's munching on some tasty pork chops at the communion feast. It's all God. And then some brothers show up from Judea.
Judea is the southern part of Israel that includes Jerusalem. The Apostle James was the most prominent elder in the Jerusalem Church at this time. So, when we read that certain men came from James, it would seem that they were sent by the Jerusalem Church at James's request to just check up on how things are going in Antioch. And as soon as these guys show up, Peter's behavior changes. Paul says.
However, when they came, he that's Peter, withdrew and separated himself because he feared those from the circumcision party again. Now, if you're thinking what the heck is a circumcision party? It doesn't sound like much fun. Just know that it means they were part of the majority group in Jerusalem who believed that Gentiles needed to be circumcised to follow Jesus. As crazy as it sounds, despite being an uppercase-A apostle for 20 years, Peter still gives in to the fear of man.
He craves the approval of those brothers from Jerusalem for some reason, and so he stops eating with the Gentile believers because these guys visiting from Jerusalem who were part of the circumcision party believed that every Gentile Christian man needed to be circumcised. And if they weren't, then you shouldn't be eating with them. You shouldn't associate with them because they're unclean. They're not real believers. So, can you imagine how hurtful this would have been to the brothers in Antioch who were Gentiles?
Overnight? Peter shifts to treating them like they're unclean. He won't talk to them, he won't acknowledge them, he won't eat with them, he won't even associate with them in any way. They would have been deeply hurt and they would have been dismayed because as Gentile believers who had been taught by men like Paul and Barnabas, they would have understood the doctrine of salvation by faith. The Bible teaches explicitly that we are saved, our sins are forgiven, we are adopted into the family of God, we get to go to heaven, we are made right with God, all those wonderful things, solely because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
We get all those eternity-altering blessings, not by doing good works, but by believing what Jesus has done for us in our place and placing our faith in him as our Lord and Savior. That is salvation by faith, and it's what the Gentile brothers in Antioch would have been taught. But Peter's actions were communicating to them that they weren't really saved by faith. There were works that they needed to do to be saved, starting with circumcision. Instead of viewing them as brothers, Peter was now viewing and treating them as unbelievers and directly contradicting the Gospel message they had heard from their own elders.
So all of the Jewish believers in Antioch followed Peter's lead and separated themselves from their Gentile brethren. Even Barnabas, an elder, got caught up in this, just tearing the church apart. In just a few days, the church that had been the model of Jewish and Gentile believers fellowshipping in unity had fractured. Why does Paul call this behavior by the Jewish believers' hypocrisy? He's going to explain in just a minute.
Verse 14, but when I, Paul, saw that they were deviating from the truth of the Gospel, I told Kefas Peter in front of everyone. So, Paul decides that public sin requires public rebuke. And because Peter has been communicating a wrong Gospel publicly, Paul confronts and corrects him publicly. When Paul wrote to his pastoral protege Timothy, he told him that if several witnesses affirmed a charge against a church elder as being true, he should publicly rebuke those who sin so that the rest would be afraid. Afraid of what?
Afraid of sinning. Afraid of hypocrisy, afraid of teaching false doctrine. So, Paul likely did this during a church service or during a communion feast. Can you imagine? Paul yells across the room.
Everyone falls silent. like that. Paul walks right up to Peter. Peter stands up and Paul begins correcting Peter he was loud enough for everyone to hear what was going on. And he says to him, if you who are a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews? Peter. You're a Jew? And a few days ago, you were fellowshipping with all of us here in Antioch.
You didn't turn down those tasty pork chops. Yes, I'll have more bacon, thank you. You were living like you were free from the Law, because you are. So why then did you suddenly turn into Captain Kosher as soon as those guys showed up from Jerusalem? You're an ethnic Jew, Peter, and you don't even follow the Law.
So why are you now telling these Gentile believers to follow the Law? Why are you being a hypocrite? Peter would have been kind of tense. Verse 15. He keeps saying that we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.
And yet because we know that underline this a person is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we ourselves have believed in Christ. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. Because underline this, by the works of the Law, no human being will be justified. That's an emphatic statement.
Paul says, no one has ever been justified. No one's ever been made right with God by the Law. No one's ever been made right with God by doing good works, and no one will ever be justified by the Law. End of discussion. David, who lived under the Law, wrote of God in Psalm 143, verse two in your sight, no one living is righteous.
David's, one of God's favorites, if you've read the Bible. And David says, even me, I know in your sight I'm not righteous. Paul says, Peter, we've been devout Jews our whole lives, and yet we both believed in the Lord Jesus because we know that nobody can be saved by the Law. So if the Law can't even save a devout Jew, why are you pretending that it can save a Gentile? Verse 17 but if we ourselves are also found to be sinners while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin?
Absolutely not. It's a bit convoluted, but the original Greek tells us that what Peter is saying is something along the lines of Peter. Sorry. What Paul is saying is Peter, in your version of the Gospel, obeying Jesus would lead us to sin. Are you claiming that Jesus wants us to sin?
Part of Jesus's message was that the Jews had missed the heart of the law of Moses' and were misinterpreting it as a result, Jesus David, things that appeared to violate the law as it was viewed in his day, it didn't actually violate the law, but the way they were interpreting it, it did. He ate with people he shouldn't have been eating with based on their view of the law. And Paul devastatingly points out that Peter is holding to a version of Christianity that would make Jesus a sinner because he ate with unclean people. And so as well, would anybody else who follows Jesus's commands also be a sinner? But Peter won't even eat with Gentile believers.
So, does this mean that Jesus was promoting sin? Peter, shall we correct Jesus for eating with sinners? Peter, verse 18. If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. Jesus has fulfilled the law on my behalf because I couldn't do it.
In a million lifetimes, I couldn't do it. But if I choose to then try and be saved by my good works through the law, then I'm rejecting Christ's work on my behalf and I'm making myself a sinner once again. When I'm under the grace of God, I'm righteous. But when I'm under the law, I'm a sinner. It's a binary option.
It's one or the other, works or faith. How are you going to be saved? Works or faith. And no man is saved by works. The second we say, well, you know what?
I'm just going to do my best to be a good person, and everything will work out in the end, we are chosen to try and be saved by our works, and we will not be, because none of us is perfect. And perfection is God's standard if we want to try and be saved by our good works. This is the mistake everyone makes. Everyone acts like you're going to be Judea by a mirror version of yourself, like you're going to stand before God one day and he's going to be you, and his version of good is going to be whatever you think good is. Like God's going to say to you, well, you know, what do you think good is?
And then tell me why you're a good person. You're not going to judge you. Your friends aren't going to Jude you. God is going to judge you by how he defines good. And I always say this.
He doesn't grade on a curve. He doesn't say, Tell you what, I'll let you into heaven if you can name five people, they're bigger jerks than you. It's not how it's loving to work. If you want to be judged according to your works, your good works will be compared to one person, and that's God. You're not going to hold up.
You're not going to hold up. It's faith in Christ or nothing. That's why Jesus could truthfully declare, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So, write this down.
When we add additional requirements to salvation, we claim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are insufficient, and we blaspheme the saving work of Christ. When we add additional requirements to salvation, we claim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are insufficient, and we blaspheme the saving work of Christ. That's why Paul couldn't do it, and that's why he had to call out Peter, verse 19. For through the Law, I died to the Law so that I might live for God. Paul says my whole life used to be about trying to keep the Law.
The Law controlled my whole life, and despite my best efforts, I was still guilty under the Law. I couldn't keep it perfectly, and so I was separated from God. But Jesus set me free from my dealings with the Law. He lived the perfect life that I could never live in my place, and then he took the punishment that I deserved under the Law in my place.
Through his life, Jesus met the requirements of the law.
And through his death, Jesus paid for my sins under the Law. And because he did those things on my behalf, my business with the Law is done. My debt is paid, and God's perfect standard has been met. The Law is no longer my master. The Lord Jesus is my master, and he set me free from the Law so that I could live for Him.
Verse 20 is the gospel. If you don't have it underlined in your Bible, do it. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ loves in me the life I now live in the Body. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
When Jesus died on the cross, he died in my place. The old me died with Jesus, and when we place our faith in Him, he places His Spirit in us, bringing our dead Spirit to life in him. That's what Paul means when he writes Christ lives in me. His presence does not come and go based on my behavior or my performance. He never leaves me.
He never forsakes me. Christ lives. He permanently dwells. He's made a forever home in me. We're free from the power of sin and death, and all we want to do with that freedom is live our lives for the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Paul says. Don't ever forget that, Peter. As Paul would write to the Romans, we have been released from the Law since we have died to what held us so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the Law. Verse 23. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.
If we could be loved by simply doing our best to be good people, then Jesus suffered and died for nothing. That would have hit Peter like a punch to the gut. We need to understand this on a theological level, because it destroys any notion of pluralism, the idea that there are many ways to get to God. If there is any other way for us to be saved other than by Jesus's death on the cross, then God the Father ignored the cries of his only begotten Son when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest. My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me yet, not as I will, but as you will.
The reason the Father did not provide an alternative is that there was no alternative. There was no other way. Jesus was and is the only way for us to be saved.
From an apologetics, from a philosophical perspective, it creates all kinds of problems when you claim that there are multiple ways to heaven because it would mean that God the Father let Jesus die unnecessarily and that Jesus chose to die for no apparent reason, and that is not something an all-powerful, all-knowing God would do. That's something a delusional, crazy person would do. There's no logical room to have Jesus be a great moral teacher and simultaneously a delusional fool who died for nothing. You can't harmonize those two realities. .
S. Lewis famously wrote, Jesus is either a liar, he's a lunatic, or he's Lord, he's who he says he is. Write this down. If we could be loved by our good works, then Jesus died for nothing.
And one last little note I just have to mention while we're here. If you come from a Catholic background, this interaction between Peter and Paul is very problematic, because if you're Catholic, you believe that Peter was the first Pope, and to this day, Catholics believe that Popes are infallible. In other words, they're never wrong when it comes to doctrine and theology. And yet here we have Peter, supposedly the first and greatest Pope, 20 years into the Church age, being publicly corrected on matters of doctrine and theology by Paul. So I would humbly encourage you to think through the implications of that, because it's here in black and white in the Bible, in Galatians, chapter two.
In other words, these were rogue troublemakers who were acting outside of their authority, but they still represented the views that many Jewish believers held in Judea. And we read this about them in verse one. Some men came down from Judea and beggar to teach the brothers in Antioch that unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved. After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue. The debate was vigorous, and they were unable to change the minds of these men from Judea.
So, because it was such an essential theological issue and because it put the two most influential churches in the world at odds with each other, they decided to escalate the debate by bringing in the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem. Paul, Barnabas, and some other elders and deacons from Jerusalem sorry, from Antioch made the journey south to Jerusalem for the first Apostolic Council in 52 Ad. Verse three when they had been sent on their way by the Church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. So, as they journeyed south down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean toward Jerusalem, they visited churches in the regions of Phoenicia and Samaria that's southern Lebanon, northern Israel, Galilee, and central Israel, which is Samaria. As they visited these brothers and sisters in those regions, they reported how the Gospel had gone to the Gentiles all over the Roman world in places like Galatia, and thousands had turned to the Lord Jesus.
The churches in these areas consisted mostly of Hellenistic Jews rather than Hebrew Jews and Samaritans, who had been led to the Lord by men like Stephen, Philip, Peter, and John, because they weren't Hebrew Jews themselves, they were more open to the idea of Gentiles being part of the Church. And they rejoiced at the news that Gentiles were turning to Jesus across the empire. They agreed that salvation was by faith alone because they had been saved by faith alone. Verse four when they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. It's a subtle thing, but just keep noticing that whenever they report, they report what God had done.
They never take credit for anything. They give all the glory to the Lord. So, the team from Antioch reported to the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, including some of the apostles, all that God had done in their city. And through Paul and Barnabas's missionary journey, thousands turned to the Lord, churches being planted, elders being appointed, and the Gospel loving in power among the Gentiles. What a sweet time that must have been for these warriors of the kingdom as they shared battle stories about the things they had seen the Lord do.
I would have loved be have been a fly on the wall for that discussion. But for some of the Jewish believers present, it was not good news that pagans were joining the Church in astonishing numbers. Paul and Barnabas are talking about all the Lord has done, and there are some guys there who are like, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, god's moving. We get it, we get it.
These guys who belong to the party of the Pharisees are Gentile believers. Verse five tells us that, and they're not saying, you can't be saved until you're circumcised. They're saying, okay, they're saved, but now they need to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to maintain their salvation. You can see from their statement that while they believe Jesus was the Messiah and that he had paid for their sins, they also believed that Jesus wanted them to keep obeying the law and bear the mark of circumcision. They believed it wasn't a prerequisite to salvation, but rather necessary obedience to Jesus following salvation.
They still committed to keeping the ceremonial parts of the law which Christ had fulfilled and put away. Paul would later chastise the Galatians when they got into this type of thinking, writing "Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?" So, you're saved by grace, but now you're going to keep your salvation by works?
How does that make any sense? Paul says you're delusional. Jesus is the one who saves us, and Jesus is the one who maintains our salvation. So, write this down we are saved by faith, and our salvation is maintained by faith.
In verse six, we read the apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter. History notes seven ecumenical councils that were convened during the first few centuries of the Church. These were special meetings with representatives from across the upper KC Church that met to settle doctrinal issues and establish what the official position of the Church would be on different areas of theology. Two of the most famous are the Council of Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Chalcedon in 51. But the most significant council ever convened was the one that we read about here in Acts chapter 15.
For it settled the most important question of all what must a man do to be saved? Then we read. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up. Peter will not make the same mistake he had made in Antioch. He has received Paul's correction.
He's taken it to heart, and he's grown in his convictions and theology as a result. Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you're aware that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the Gospel message and belief to refresh your memory, Peter's referring to the events of Acts, chapter 10, where the household of Cornelius was saved. That had happened 13 years earlier. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. Peter says, Guys, I saw it with my own eyes.
God saved uncircumcised Gentiles and gave them his Spirit, just as he did us. Peter was able to observe the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles because they miraculously spoke in tongues, just as the Jews who received Christ on the day of Pentecost did in Acts chapter two. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just go back and listen to the teaching in Acts chapter 10, verse 9. He that's God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts underline this by faith. God didn't seem to care about the fact that they were uncircumcised Gentiles.
They were saved the same way we are by faith. Peter's point is, so what right do we have to demand more from the Gentiles than Christ has? And he also points out that in order to receive the Holy Spirit, they had to be forgiven and cleansed by God, because God cannot dwell in an unregenerated person. As Paul would later write to the Ephesians, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So, here's Peter's argument if the Gentiles have already been forgiven, cleansed, and filled with the Holy Spirit
What's left? What's circumcision going to do that they don't already have? They've already been justified. Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples' necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? None of our ancestors were able to faithfully keep the Law.
The Law has not been able to save anyone ever. So why are you insulting God by acting as though we can be saved by keeping the Law? Why are you demanding that we put this impossible standard on the Gentile disciples of Jesus? Have you learned nothing from our history? The Pharisees worked with the scribes to add all kinds of extra laws to the Law of Moses.
They did this by breaking laws down into practical sub-laws that would tell you how to fulfill them. Things like do no work on the Sabbath. And they would decide at what point walking would become classified as work. It would be if you took more than this many steps from your house. It was classified as work.
So if you want to be safe, you get a hose that length, you tie it to your house, and then you can walk as far. As your leash goes, basically. And they would add all these kinds of additional laws to the law to make it even more cumbersome. Jesus said of their legalism they tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people's shoulders. The load was too heavy for them or their ancestors to bear.
All had failed to keep the law, and now they wanted to place that same burden on these Gentile Christians with no defensible reason or logic other than tradition. Well, they need to fail like our ancestors did too. Peter continues and says in verse 11 on the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way, they are in contrast to the unbearable weight of salvation by works. Jesus taught the gospel of grace, and salvation by faith. And he said, Take up my yoke and learn from me because I am lowly and humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
There's only one way to be saved. If there were more than one, we would have a Jewish church and a Gentile church, because why bother with all these issues if some can be saved by works and some can be saved by faith? They had to resolve this because there's only one way to be saved, and it's by faith in Jesus, In verse 12, the whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. So Paul and Barnabas keep driving home Peter's point by revealing all the Lord had done through them among uncircumcised Gentiles. They had countless stories, like Peter's experience in the house of Cornelius.
And again, the point was, if circumcision was required, God would not be giving his spirit to uncircumcised Gentiles, but he was, by the thousands. And if Paul and Barnabas were in the wrong in their understanding, why was God empowering their message by enabling them to perform miracles? Why was God giving their teaching of salvation by faith, his divine stamp of approval? The reasoning was inarguable.
Some believers get nervous when we speak strongly about salvation by faith alone, and I understand why, usually because there are always people who hear salvation by faith alone, and I'll be blunt in their wicked thinking. They go Sweet, I'm saved by faith alone, and not because of anything I do. Therefore, I can do whatever I want and still be saved. Not true. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:21 I am not without God's law, but under the law of Christ.
We do not belong to us. Paul explained it to the Romans like this if you're quick, you can turn to Romans, chapter six, verse 15. We're going to read a chunk here. Romans, chapter six, verse 15. Paul says, what then?
Should we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? Absolutely not. Don't you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one? You obey either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
I'm using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit has produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.
So, he says, when you were free from even wanting to try to be righteous, how did that go for you? What did it produce in your life? Death. Relationships, thinking, everything death. But now, since you've been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life.
So, he says, when you're a slave to sin, the only thing that gets produced in your life is death and destruction. But when you're a slave to Christ, a slave to righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit is produced in your life. Loves, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. All these good things begin to appear in your life when you serve the Master that is Christ and his righteousness. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Again. Ask the worship team to come up. In 1865, a 47-year-old widow named Alvina Hall was sitting in the choir loft during a Sunday morning service in Baltimore, Maryland. The pastor's concerning prayer was long. So was his sermon.
Her mind began to wonder, and on a blank page in her hymnal, she wrote a poem. She shared it with the pastor, who thought it might go well with the music from a new song they had sung that morning called all to Christ I Owe. And so Elvena worked with the church organist and turned it into a hymn that they titled fullness in Christ. That hymn would grow to become famous under the title Jesus Paid It All. And here are the lyrics of the 1868 version of the song when it was first published.
I hear my savior say thy strength indeed is small. Thou hast not thy debt to pay. Find in me thy all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Yea, nothing good have I whereby the grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb and complete in Him. My rose is righteousness close sheltered, neath his side I am divinely blessed when from my dying bed my ransomed soul shall rise Jesus paid it all shall rend the vaulted skies and when before the those I stand in Him complete I'll lay my trophies down all down at Jesus's feet Jesus paid it all and we are loved.
By placing our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior, Sola Fide the work of Jesus is sufficient. Whoever you are.
I hear the Savior say
Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness, watch and pray
Find in Me thine all in all
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone
Can change the leper's spots
And melt the heart of stone
Jesus paid it all
All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete
Jesus died, my soul to save
My lips shall still repeat
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a
white as snow
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
He washed it white as snow
He washed it white as snow
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh praise Him
Oh praise Him
Oh praise Him, yeah
Oh oh You brought me, oh You saved me
Oh You brought me back to life, yeah
You rewrote my story
You changed my destiny God
Oh You changed my life, yeah
I praise You, I praise You, yes
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Oh, praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
'Cause Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow (sing that again)
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed me white as snow
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriter Alvian Hall
Date:5/7/23...Series: Acts
Passage: Acts 15:13-35...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
The Apostle James settles the Jerusalem Council with a letter to the Antioch Church that calls Gentile Christians to cut all ties with pagan idolatry and s*xual immorality and affirms their identity as full members of the Church.
We're in the middle of the first Apostolic Council known as the Jerusalem Council. The issues at hand revolve around questions like how is a man saved. And what is the relationship between a Christian and the Law? The Law is the Old Testament commands of God given to the nation of Israel through Moses. Certain Jewish groups within the Judean Church were arguing that Gentile Christians still needed to follow the law of Moses, including circumcision, to be truly saved.
Paul and Barnabas were arguing that salvation is entirely by faith alone and not by any works, including the works of the Law. In our previous study, we heard Peter's testimony, as well as Paul and Barnabas reporting on all they had witnessed firsthand God does among the Gentiles. And so, we continue today in Acts chapter 15, verse 13. After Paul and Barnabas stopped speaking, James responded brothers - he's addressing all of those present - Listen to me.
This is James the Apostle, the half-brother of Jesus, and he appears to be chairing the Jerusalem Council as the most prominent elder in the Jerusalem Church at the time. He's going to summarize the arguments for salvation by faith alone and render the equivalent of a verdict on the matter. Verse 14. Simeon that's Peter has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. James is a wise man, and so he uses Peter's Hebrew name, which is Simeon, when he addresses the concerns of the Jewish believers.
And then he refers once again to the events described in Acts chapter ten, when Peter preached to the Gentile household of Cornelius and saw them all filled with the Holy Spirit. And James's point is, guys, the issue was settled 13 years ago when Peter witnessed the first Gentiles being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I love the way James phrases it. He says God intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. Through Abraham, God made a people for Himself, the ethnic nation of Israel.
But through Jesus, God has made a new people for Himself. It includes not only those of Israel who love Him but those of every nation who love Him. And they are bound not by ethnicity, but by the blood of Jesus. This new people is the Church, the spiritual nation of Christ. Jesus still has plans for ethnic Israel, but his work on the earth is currently being accomplished through his spiritual people, the Church.
God intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. That God ever looked upon me and said, I want you to be part of my people. I want you to be part of My portion from the nations is astonishing. It's astonishing. And when you understand just a little of how amazing it is that God wants you in his family, it causes you to lose interest in any accolade that this world can offer.
For what could possibly compare to the honor of being wanted by the living God, adopted to be part of his family, chosen to reign and rule with Him in the ages to come? When people talk about winning at life, let me tell you something. Those who belong to the Lord aren't winning. They've already won. The victory has been secured.
And no matter how the rest of our lives play out, we are blessed, we are honored, and we are victorious because we belong to Jesus.
To put it simply, they were concerned about what it meant for Israel's future. If the law was now done with if it had been put away by the finished work of Jesus, was the nation of Israel still going to be restored one day? Was Messiah actually going to sit on David's throne in Jerusalem one day as prophesied? Or was that all done with now? And James will now quote from Amos, chapter 9, where the Lord says in verse 16, after these things, I will return.
Underline in your Bibles, that phrase, I will return. Now, this is really interesting, because, again, this is God speaking centuries before the incarnation. And here's where I'm going with this. Jesus had to come the first time before he could return in the future. So, this is not speaking about the incarnation, because that's Jesus's first coming.
He has to come the first time before he can come again before he can return. And so, if you're not grasping how amazing that is in and of itself, let me just say it again for you. The second coming of Christ is prophesied in the Old Testament centuries before the first coming of Christ, over 700 years before Jesus came to the Earth the first time, the word of God prophesies that he will come a second time. It's astonishing. And what will the Lord do at his second coming?
It says Rebuild David's Fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. This is a way of saying that when Jesus returns at the Second Coming, he will restore the family line of King David over the nation of Israel. Jesus was born into the genetic line of David, and so when he reigns over the nations from Jerusalem in the millennium, he will have rebuilt David's fallen tent. James was saying, brothers, that's still going to happen.
That's still the plan. If you don't know what I mean when I talk about the millennium or the Second Coming or the millennial kingdom. Just go to our website and just casually go through the 28 hours of teaching we have on the Book of Revelation. That's all. That's all you got to do, and then you'll be up to speed.
But Amos also prophesies that when that happens again when Jesus returns to reign over the nations of the Earth as the King of Israel, it's not going to be a Jews-exclusive thing. He's going to come back and reign. Verse 17, so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, declares the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago. So, the Jewish Messiah, Jesus will one day rule over the nations of Israel, but everyone will be invited, all the Gentiles who are called by My name, not only the Jews. It's going to be different from when King David reigned.
And verse 17 makes it clear that all of the Gentiles at that time will seek the Lord as Gentiles, not as converts to Judaism. Now, of course, it was always possible for a Gentile to convert to Judaism and join the nation of Israel. But Amos is envisioning a different time when all the Gentiles, the rest of humanity, will seek the Lord in Jerusalem. In the King James Version, verse 18 reads, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. And so, James's point in quoting this to his Jewish brethren is that the Lord declared all the way back in the Book of Amos that it had always been his plan.
Take a look on your outlines. All the other verses I'm going to quote today outside of Acts will be on your outline. In Zechariah eight, it's prophesied the Lord of Armies says this people will yet come, the residents of many cities. The residents of one city will go to another, saying, let's go at once to plead for the Lord's favor and to seek the Lord of armies. I am also going, many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the Lord of Armies in Jerusalem and to plead for the Lord's favor.
The Lord of Armies says this in those days, ten men from nations of every language will grab the robe of a Jewish man tightly urging, let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you, describing a time in the future when Jesus will indeed reign on the earth from the city of Jerusalem. It was always God's plan to save Gentiles as well as Jews and to save those Gentiles without making them Jews. James was pointing out that Peter saw Gentiles saved by faith alone, and the Old Testament's prophets prophesied that Gentiles would be loved by faith alone in the future. Therefore, we can safely assume that likewise for the period in between the Old Testament prophets and the time when Jesus reigns from Jerusalem, gentiles will be saved by faith alone as well. Now, if you're not hanging with me about what's going on in the Jerusalem Council, I have distilled all of the events of the Jerusalem Council into this meme for your convenience.
There you go. Perfectly done, and perfectly executed. I was pretty proud of that one. So, all the young people are on the same page as us right now, and there's really nothing that makes you sound older than using the phrase young people, right?
Paul summarized the issues of the Jerusalem Council in his Epistle to the Ephesians. This also be on your outlines, writing in Ephesians chapter three. Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you. That is the mystery made known to me by Revelation. As I have already written briefly in reading this, then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Antichrist, which was not made known to people in other generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's, holy apostles and prophets.
This mystery is that through the Gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israelite members of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. Paul speaks about the Gentiles becoming part of the people of God, and he explains that it was a mystery that was not made known to people in other generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's, holy apostles and prophets. So, in other words, it was always God's plan. It was always in the Old Testament prophets, but it was concealed. People couldn't see it; they couldn't perceive it until the Holy Spirit revealed it to them.
And he chose to do that only after Jesus had completed the work of making a way through his life, death, and resurrection. It's very interesting. It was in the Scriptures, Paul is saying, but nobody could perceive it until the right time. And if you're into eschatology at all, then you're aware that with Daniel, a similar thing is told to Daniel.
And there are things we understand now about the Book of Daniel that nobody else understood over the past few thousand years. It's incredible. Paul continues, and he says, I became a servant of this Gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power, although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people. This grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in him, and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
And James will now share his verdict. In verse 19, he says, therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God. Still, instead, we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from s*xual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood. When teaching about the cost of following him, the cost of making a commitment to become a Christian, Jesus said, which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? His point was that each person should understand the cost of following him before they commit to follow him. Jambres lists four issues that should be clearly explained to Gentiles as part of the cost of following Jesus.
In other words, these things need to immediately change when you begin following Jesus. These are not things to gradually work on or phase out over time. They are things that must immediately stop if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. Now, why these four things? I did a bunch of reading, and there are multiple theories, but the most reasonable and the most plausible is that they all relate to pagan worship.
We know from history that during the first century, which is when these events were taking place, Jews believed that the primary way they could be made impure by contact with Gentiles was because Gentiles were involved in pagan idol worship. They weren't first and foremost concerned that Gentiles were eating non-kosher food. They were concerned that Gentiles were engaged in pagan idolatry. And we all need to understand that there are still some things that must immediately stop when a person becomes a believer. Some things take years to work on, like changing your thinking, but some behaviors must change immediately, and two of those issues are pagan idolatry and s*xual immorality.
If you are going to follow Jesus, he must immediately become the only God that you follow. You must disavow all other religious and spiritual belief systems; they must become dead to you. You must turn your back on them. It does not matter if it offends your family. It does not matter if it is your cultural or ethnic tradition.
You must renounce them all to follow Christ. It's a non-negotiable. Paul praised the Thessalonians because they quote turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Remember how Paul and Barnabas preached to the crowd in Lystra to turn from worthless idols to those living God? That's the picture.
You're here. You're engaged in these forms of spiritual worship. To turn to God, he is over here means turning your back on those things. You can't grab them all and shift them here next to God. You're there or you're there.
If anyone said, I'm living with someone, I want to follow Jesus, I know I got to move out right away. I just don't know what to do. We'll figure out a way. We will figure out a way. If you're watching porn, you need to take practical steps to stop immediately.
And again, the Church can help with that. If you're hooking up with people, that needs to stop immediately. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about this too, saying, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God, as you are doing, do this even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is God's will, your sanctification.
That you keep away from s*xual immorality. That each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions like the Gentiles who don't know God. This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity, but to live in holiness. Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
s*xual immorality in the Bible refers to any and all s*xual activity outside of the context of marriage between a man and woman. That's what s*xual immorality is, simply. Paul hits on the issue of s*xual immorality further in 1 Corinthians, chapters five and six, if you want to look that up on your own.
But I really want us to note what Paul says. The last verse I mentioned there 1 Thessalonians four- eight. It's like Paul can just anticipate that we're going to look for wiggle room. We're going to look for a way to say, well, it's a little bit nuanced as an issue. We're going to try and find a crack to exploit.
And so he just throws in an absolute killer line there and he says, consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. Paul says, you disagree with me. You're not rejecting me. You're not rejecting my teaching, you're rejecting God. No wiggle room there.
So write this down. Converts to Christianity must immediately renounce all other gods and belief systems and turn from s*xual immorality. And turn from s*xual immorality. And I want to be clear what we're talking about here. We're talking about that being the agreed-upon goal.
Any person who comes to Christ must be in agreement. Yes, that's what I need to do. I see that clearly in the Scriptures. That is what I want to do, and I will do everything in my power to do that. Might it be a struggle?
Yes. Will there be challenges? Yes. But there is clear agreement, understanding, and desire that this is what needs to happen. Those are the non-negotiables.
And again, if there's a practical step I can take, I understand I must do it. I can't continue to live with my boyfriend or girlfriend and say, I'm working on it because I can make a single decision to move out and change my behavior. That's what it's talking about. Everything in my power I'm going to do. And my desire is to obey God in this.
That's what we're talking about. The four things James says gentile converts need to abstain from are, firstly, things polluted by idols. Scholars generally agree this refers to participation in pagan temple feasts or cultural celebrations held in honor of pagan gods. And these were the big societal events of the day in the Roman Empire. It may also have included eating meat that came from an animal that had been sacrificed to a pagan god.
And this is what Paul says. He says, So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ he's speaking of? Communion. The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ because there is one bread.
We who are many are one body. Since all of us share one bread. Consider the people of Israelite. Do not those who eat the sacrifices likewise participate in the altar? What am I saying then?
That food sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No. But I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons. I love Paul for his clarity. 'Second thing that James lists is s*xual immorality. The pagan gods that were worshipped by the Gentiles in the empire at this time in history generally required s*xual immorality as part of their worship.
I know it's weird that cults dreamed up by men would have s*xual immorality as part of their worship rituals, but I guess it happened. This could involve orgies, temple prostitution, and other wicked practices. And so, as I said, s*xual immorality refers to any s*xual activity outside of the marriage between a man and a woman. And when Paul and James are speaking about it, they're generally referring to it in the context of being involved in pagan idolatry and worship simply because that was the most prevalent form. The commands apply to all s*xual immorality.
But it was out of control through participation in pagan cults at the time. The third and fourth prohibitions are connected to eating anything that has been strangled and from blood. The Mosaic law forbade the Israelites from eating any meat that still had the blood of the animal in it or from drinking blood. Because God declared the life of every creature is its blood. And it's interesting that most pagan cults at the time believed the same thing.
They believed in concepts like gaining the strength or characteristics of an animal by drinking its blood, that there would be some sort of supernatural impartation to the self. But God declared that since he alone is the author of life, it was wicked to even desire to enhance one's life by taking life. That was a wicked desire. And so pagan cults would sometimes kill animals by strangulation so that when they ate the meat, it was still full of the blood of the animal. And God obviously says it has nothing to do with that.
So, as you can see, the prohibitions laid out by James were not arbitrary selections from the law of Moses. They were commands that would demand Gentile converts to make a clean break with their old life and their pagan practices. And this is consistent with the gospel. This is not adding anything to the gospel. These were instructions that were to be clearly communicated to Gentile converts so they would know what would be immediately required following conversion and so that existing converts would know how to walk in the newness of life in Christ.
James's point is that the law of Moses was taught in synagogues in every city across the empire, such that even Gentile converts to Christianity would immediately understand and know why these four prohibitions were so important and why they mattered to Jewish believers. In the events of the Jerusalem Council, we see some basic guidelines for solving theological disputes. Issues of doctrine. When somebody says, well, I think that this is what God wants, the other person says, this is what God wants. And there's a conflict.
We can take a few pointers from how they handled things. I just noticed that they recognized in their context that each person there was actually coming from a place of sincerity. They weren't trying to lead anyone astray. Everyone was trying to be faithful to the Lord. And so, therefore, because they know that they engage with each other respectfully, addressing one another as brothers, I notice that they recognize that whatever the correct theology is, it'll harmonize with observable reality.
They take seriously the eyewitness accounts of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas. You see, correct theology will work in any part of the globe, and it will actually explain observable reality. If you have a doctrine that can be disproved by just looking at reality, it's not a correct doctrine. Correct doctrine explains reality. It doesn't require you to ignore reality.
I noticed that they recognize correct theology must agree with the Scriptures, because God will never contradict His Word. We see James refer to the book of the prophet Amos. And then lastly, they recognize that there must be agreement among the elders of the Church. Because they had selected Godly discerning and faithful men to be elders. They could trust that they were listening to the Holy Spirit and desire to do the Lord's will.
Therefore, unity was vital. The leaders of the Jerusalem Church and the brothers from Antioch showed an understanding of the truth that it is not the job of elders to dictate God's will, but to discern it and call the Church to walk in it. We should also note that while there was unity in their decision, their approach was not that unity should be attained at any cost. To agree that salvation was by faith alone, they had to also agree that what certain men were teaching was wrong. Those who wanted Gentile converts to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses were wrong.
And I point that out because some people will criticize churches for ever disagreeing with another church. And they'll say all churches should be unified, there should be no division. And yet, just 20 years into the Church's existence, we see here a disagreement that caused some division in the Church, because the result was they drew a line in the sand and they said, Christians believe that salvation is by faith alone. Anyone who disagreed could not be part of the Church because this is what the Church believes and teaches. Jesus does not want people to be united at any cost.
The First Apostolic Council concludes, and they arrange a contingent to join the brothers from Antioch on their return journey to share the council's verdict with the Church in Antioch. This Judas and Silas would have been deacons or elders in the Jerusalem Church, and their presence was needed to authenticate the letter they were sent with, for without them, those claiming Gentiles needed to become Jews in order to be saved would have surely accused Paul and Barnabas of forging the letter. But by their presence, they could authenticate not only the letter but Paul and Barnabas's report of how all the events had unfolded in Jerusalem. Verse 23 they, the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem Church wrote from the apostles and the elders, your brothers - underline your brothers - to the - and then underline this - brothers and sisters among the Gentiles. To the brothers and sisters among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.
The term brothers and sisters was a big deal because it affirmed Jerusalem's acceptance of Antioch's Gentile believers as legitimate greetings. Since we have heard that some, without our authorization, went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts, we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with underline our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. They cleared the air by letting the brethren in Antioch know that those who had been stirring up trouble. For them had not been sent by or authorized by Jerusalem. They shared their affection for Paul and Barnabas, who were of course elders in Antioch, and they paid them the highest compliment they could, pointing out that they had risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We learned all about that during their first missionary journey. Therefore, we have sent Judaism and Silas who will personally report the same things by word of mouth. For it was the Holy Spirit's decision and ours not to place further burdens on you beyond these requirements that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from s*xual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.
The doctrinal questions were answered with clarity and practicality. Guidance was given that would spur the sanctification of Gentile Christians and foster genuine unity across cultural lines. In the church. Verse 30. So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, and after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter.
And when they read it - underline this - they rejoiced because of its encouragement. They rejoiced because of its encouragement. There were a lots of relieved recent male Gentiles converging who rejoiced in the Church in Antioch. But this really was a big deal. It was a huge deal.
For this reason, they had been waiting for an answer to the question, are we truly saved? Are we saved? And when they heard that they were, they rejoiced. Their reaction reveals the sincerity of their conversion. They rejoiced because they were saved.
That's the part of the message they responded to. Notice this they weren't focused or concerned about the prohibitions. They weren't concerned or complaining about being commanded to give up pagan idolatry and s*xual immorality. All they cared about was that they were loved. And that principle is still true today when a person claims to have converted to Christianity. 'Become a follower of Jesus.
It's on everything they've gained in Christ. I'm saved. I'm a new creation. I have Jesus. I'm in his family forever.
He's with me. He's in me. We're human. I know that we can struggle with breaking away from parts of our old life, but we should never be found lamenting. The fact that we can no longer sin like we used to.
Instead, we should be found lamenting. The fact that there's any part of us that even still wants to do that.
Lord, please help me. I don't want to go back to that. I don't want to be a slave to that sin again. I don't want to return to those things. Lord, change my heart, change my mind, change my desires.
It's telling that when the letter from Jerusalem was read, the Gentile believers rejoiced over their salvation. That was their focus. That was the part of the letter that stuck out to them, not the things they could no longer do or the places they could no longer go.
Make a note of this. Sincere converts to Christianity rejoice over the righteousness they have gained rather than lamenting the sin they have lost. We rejoice over the righteousness we've gained rather than lament the sin that we've lost. Then it says both Judaism and Silas, who were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and sisters and strengthened them with a long message underline a long message in your Bibles, and let the Lord speak to your heart. After spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them.
I love that those Jerusalem elders and or deacons stayed fellowshipped with, encouraged, and strengthened the church in Antioch because they were staying to model what the letter they had brought said that Gentiles and Jews were one in Christ Jesus and therefore one in his church. And it would have added a whole 'nother level to their presence when they sat and ate with Gentiles and fellowshipped with them and modeled it. Some manuscripts add the detail here that Silas actually decided to stay in Antioch. He sensed the Holy Spirit leading him to stay and not go back to Jerusalem. And so, he did, and we'll see why later in the chapter.
But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch teaching and proclaiming the word of God. They're going to stay in Antioch for about a year or two before Paul takes on his second missionary journey that we'll read about. Next time I'm going to close by talking about this for just a couple of minutes. You know, every person wonders at various points in their life, how can I know the will of God? How can I discern the will of God for my life?
And while it may not be a complete list, we see several ways that we can discern God's will for us. Demonstrated in how the participants in the Jewish in the Jerusalem Council discerned God's will for the Church. And I put these on your outline. So firstly, we won't be long on each one. But God speaks through circumstances.
He speaks through circumstances the Jerusalem Council thinks about this would never have happened unless those troublemaking, unauthorized men from Judea had gone down to Antioch and started teaching that salvation was not by faith alone. It wouldn't have happened. God works through unlikely circumstances and even trials to direct our paths. We're playing checkers, he's playing chess. Secondly, God speaks through the testimony of believers.
God speaks through his word. James directs the brothers to the Book of Amos to reveal that the Lord has always planned to save Gentiles as Gentiles. And we can go to God's Word for direction whenever we choose. And when brothers or sisters share a word with us, we can compare it to the Word and see for ourselves if what they are saying lines up with the truth. I'll be honest when people tell me, Jeff, I just... I just can't figure out what the Lord is telling me.
The first question I try to ask is, well, what is, what does His Word say? What loves the word say. I don't know. Well, you haven't even started trying to discern the will of the Lord then, because that's kind of where we start. What does the word say?
What does the word say? What does the word say? Fourthly, God speaks through the gifts of the Spirit. We see James operating in the gift of prophecy when he connects the current issue to the words of Amos from 700 years earlier. He also demonstrates spiritual gifts of a word of wisdom and leadership.
And so, God may choose to speak into your life and give direction through a brother, our sister, employing one of the gifts of the Spirit. It can happen if we don't share the issue we're struggling with, but it's far more likely to happen if we open up and share with someone the issue that we're having that we're trying to discern and ask for prayer and ask for help. It's amazing how many times I've experienced God speak to me through the prayers of somebody else who's praying for me. Fifthly, God speaks through the elders and deacons of the church. God told the Ephesians that God gave certain men to the church as gifts for their good.
He wrote, He himself - that's Jesus - gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. You know, people Peter, reach spiritual maturity when they say, I've heard it all, nobody needs to teach me anything. I had a guy one-time years ago come up to me after the message and he was like, oh, just great message, Pastor Jeff. I mean, I could have taught it myself because I've heard it all before and I thought in that minute, I thought, wow, that was the quickest 180 on a compliment I've ever experienced in my life. It's like, bam.
Just like that. But then I was saddened immediately because I realized this person is never going to learn anything new about the Lord as long as they keep that attitude. You come into church, you go into a Bible study thinking, I've heard it all, I've seen it all, I know it all, then you're right in the sense that this is all you're ever going to know because you're saying that there's nothing more for me to learn, and that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the person who says, I want to know more of Jesus, I want to know more of God, that's my prayer and comes with that attitude will be given that. Can I tell you a secret too?
They'll be given that even if the preacher is terrible because God will honor that desire. God will honor his word. God will honor that heart. I regularly ask BJ about stuff and ask what he thinks about all kinds of things. Why?
The wise part is super important, okay? In the context of discerning the will of God, I am talking about men and women who have demonstrated spiritual maturity, knowledge of the Word of God, and faithfully walking with Jesus for years. That's what I'm talking about. Counsel is not hard to find. Just tweet out your question.
They'll get all kinds of counsel. Wise counsel is a completely different matter, and far too many people fail to distinguish between counsel and wise counsel and do so to their own detriment. When you consult multiple wise counselors and observe a pattern in their counsel, that can be God leading. In the Book of Proverbs, which you're reading if you're in a home group, Solomon writes, without guidance, a people fall, but with many counselors, there is deliverance. And he says, Victory comes with many counselors, many wise counselors.
And then lastly, God speaks through prayer. While not explicitly mentioned in Acts chapter 15, we know from their lifestyles that all of those present at the Jerusalem Council would have been praying in the lead up to the meeting, during the meeting, and after the meeting. That was just their custom. And today, God still speaks to his people when we pray. He can speak to us directly by guiding our thoughts, by leading our minds to a specific place in Scripture, to inclining our hearts in a certain direction, reminding us to ask for prayer or seek counsel, et cetera.
Those are seven ways that we can discern the will of God. So, if you ever feel lost, look at that list and begin to say, which of these have I done? Which have I not done? You'll be amazed how the Lord will speak to and lead you.
There has always been and will always be only one way to be saved, and we're so thankful for that. The glorious reality of our hope was stated by our brother Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, where he wrote, you are saved by grace through faith. This is not from yourselves. It is God's gift, not from works so that no one can boast. Whoever you are, Jesus has died for you.
He's done the work. He's lived the perfect life that you can't live. He's paid the price for every sin that you've committed, and he's risen from the dead so that you can live forever with Him. Jesus did it all. But you got a really, really big part to play.
I got to lay it out for you. It's a super big task. And when I explain it, you'll understand why you're so crucial to the entire process of salvation. Because your part, everything you bring to the table, is to say, thank you. That's it.
That's our great contribution to the divine exchange. Thank you. That's it for today.