Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00017B
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00:01 Welcome back. We are studying the book of Acts. Jim, right
00:04 before the break we were looking at the Jerusalem council. In the 00:10 early church there was controversy, as we had studied, 00:14 that rose up over some doctrinal issue, specifically over 00:17 circumcision. The one point that we brought out first and 00:22 foremost is that the church was committed to coming to an 00:26 understanding of what the Bible taught and so they came together 00:29 There were some teachers who had a different idea who came to 00:33 Antioch and Paul and Barnabas and others went from Antioch to 00:37 Jerusalem and those who had a disagreement came to Jerusalem 00:41 to headquarters in Jerusalem and they began to discuss this 00:46 matter. One of the things that we were talking about before the 00:51 break was how the issue over circumcision... Circumcision had 00:57 become a ticket, you kind of likened that to, a ticket to 01:02 salvation, a ticket to approval or acceptance with God, which 01:06 is interesting because that's not what circumcision was about. 01:09 No, it was a sign of faith. 01:11 Circumcision had been instituted with Abraham. Before he was ever 01:14 circumcised he believe God, the Bible says, and it was accounted 01:18 for him as righteousness. Then he received the sign of 01:21 circumcision, Paul says in Romans 4, that was to testify 01:26 to the faith which he already had. That was not really the 01:30 understanding of these Pharisees who believed. Now what's 01:35 interesting is, if I take what I just said from Romans 4, I'm 01:38 sure that was the Pharisees who believed position. Hey, we're 01:42 not saying that they have to be circumcised first, but if they 01:46 believe they have to be circumcised just like Abraham 01:51 who believed and he was circumcised. The difference is 01:55 that in Abraham's case, he understood that circumcision was 02:00 merely a sign of his lack of confidence in himself, in the 02:04 flesh, and his faith in God. But what had happened here is 02:09 regardless when the rite took place by the time we come into 02:13 the New Testament church the rite of circumcision had been 02:16 perverted to now be an evidence. It had turned from a evidence of 02:25 no confidence in the flesh to being a reason for confidence. 02:30 And, of course, that is what is being addressed here. As Peter 02:35 shares in verse 10, this a yoke which the disciples or our 02:40 fathers weren't able to bear. In other words, when you put 02:45 confidence in the flesh, we've talked about this before. God is 02:49 spiritual, God's law is spiritual. Unaided by the Holy 02:54 Spirit, by conversion, human beings can't come into harmony 02:59 with the purposes of God and the will of God. So to require a 03:03 fallen human being to meet the character of God as a 03:10 requirement for our acceptance with him is impossible. It's a 03:13 yoke that we can't bear. That's exactly right. You know, 03:16 it makes me think though about that age-old argument about 03:20 whether or not because of faith the law is even necessary. 03:24 Because we can't be justified by the law then we don't need to 03:27 keep it. But that's not what the Apostle Paul says. In Romans 3 03:30 he makes that really clear. He says in verse 31, Do we make 03:34 void the law through faith. On the contrary, it's through faith 03:38 that we establish the law. Because faith is what brings the 03:42 Spirit of God into the life and that changes the heart and the 03:46 attitude and makes it submissive to the will of God and then we 03:50 are brought into harmony with God. These Pharisees apparently 03:53 were bypassing that and saying, no, circumcision. But if 03:57 circumcision is given that type of confidence then it takes away 04:01 the need for faith and by taking away the need for faith it takes 04:05 away the new birth in the life and that just could not be. 04:09 And it becomes formalism, in reality legalism instead of true 04:13 Christianity. So this was something that obviously 04:16 Paul was contending strongly for. The other apostles saw the 04:19 light in it. Peter gets up and he gives his testimony. Paul and 04:22 Barnabas give their testimonies. Right before the break we looked 04:25 at how James, who seems to be presiding, him being the brother 04:29 of Christ, seems to be presiding over the council here, which is 04:34 an interesting point for some churches in their understanding 04:38 of history say that Peter was the leader of the church because 04:42 he was so prominent. But that's not what we find in scripture. 04:45 Peter is not the leader here. James is the leader and what's 04:48 going to happen is James is going to make a decision that 04:51 Peter and the others including Paul are going to submit to. 04:55 So James quotes the scripture, a portion of it, as a way of 04:58 testing what's being presented and saying this is in harmony 05:02 with the word of God and he's about to render a decision. 05:06 That's right. If we look at verse 18, Mark, it's very 05:09 interesting. It says, Known to God from eternity are all his 05:12 works. And he's revealing, as he did in Ephesians also, that this 05:17 mystery that has been hidden from the world for ages is now 05:21 being revealed and this mystery is that God always intended 05:25 there to be one united body, Jew and Gentile. So he's saying, God 05:30 has known this from all eternity and then in verse 19 he says, 05:33 Therefore, I judge. This is what you were referring to Mark. 05:37 James says, I decide. Now certainly he wasn't making an 05:40 authoritarian decree. This had been a joint decision and they 05:43 had come to a sort of consensus. 05:45 But they came to him. There was established leadership that they 05:49 understood. There was an organization. 05:50 That's right, that's right. So he says, Therefore, I judge that 05:53 we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are 05:56 turning to God. So the sense of troubling them would be putting 06:00 obstacles in their way that are unnecessary and that's how they 06:04 viewed circumcision at this point because God had opened 06:09 the door and the genealogy itself, or the ethnic sign of 06:14 Judaism was not necessary. So circumcision is not in the list 06:18 of what is required here of the Gentiles. But it specifically 06:23 says Gentiles who are turning to God which in the New 06:26 Testament it uses that word a few times to talk about 06:29 conversion. They're turning from an old way of life to a new way 06:32 of life. And since they're turning from an old way of life 06:35 this list actually references things that were a part of their 06:39 old way of life. It said they are turning to God and then in 06:42 verse 20 it says, But that we write to them to abstain from 06:46 things polluted to idols, from sexual immorality, from things 06:50 strangled and from blood for Moses is had throughout many 06:54 generations those who preach him in every city being read in the 06:57 synagogues every Sabbath. Now let's just look at this list 07:01 real briefly. First of all it's interesting that this list just 07:06 about everything, and you know you might look at that a 07:10 little bit differently, but the things strangled might not be 07:14 specifically delineated but in Leviticus 17 and 18 there are 07:18 regulations given to both Jew and Gentile that seem to match 07:22 these particular requirements that are given, talking about 07:27 not eating animals that are strangled or die on their 07:31 own or that sort of thing. It doesn't mention strangled but 07:34 it does specifically mention not eating animals with the blood in 07:39 them and that actually has been a distinction all the way back 07:43 to the book of Genesis. You go back to Genesis chapter 9 and in 07:48 verse 4 it says but you shall not eat flesh with its life, 07:53 that is, its blood. So even when God allowed the eating of the 07:58 animals there in Genesis, he said not the blood. There was a 08:03 sacredness to the blood and they held it very sacred and because 08:08 of that we see that the Gentiles with their pagan gods they 08:12 didn't hold it sacred. They would sometimes mix blood in 08:17 with their drinks, their drink offerings and things like that. 08:20 They had no problem eating things that had blood in them. 08:23 There are a number of areas... 08:25 But all of these things, Jim, had a place in the heathen rite. 08:28 That's exactly right, that's exactly right and I think that's 08:32 really the point here. Every one of these things were connected 08:35 to what they were associated with already in their pagan 08:38 worship and, therefore, it was very important that the 08:41 disciples clarified. They were thankful, I'm sure, that rites 08:45 such as circumcision that were unnecessary were not included 08:49 to be as obstacles. But it wasn't a small sacrifice for 08:54 them to do these things. It says things polluted by idols. 08:58 Well most of the meat in the meat market and that sort of 09:02 thing came from offerings to idols and you couldn't tell when 09:06 it was and when it wasn't, so you would have to restrain 09:09 sometimes and later there's actually a concern about this in 09:14 Corinth and they asked Paul about it and Paul says well okay 09:18 an idol is nothing in the world so it would be permissible to 09:22 eat meat that was sacrificed to idols but he affirmed this 09:25 decision by saying but so that you're not a stumbling block to 09:28 someone else. So they don't get drawn into that idolatry you 09:32 want to make sure that you prevent that. 09:33 Well you mentioned the market place. But think about their 09:35 friends and family members. That's right if you have a 09:38 festive feast. That's exactly right. No question. 09:40 It certainly was a sacrifice for them to make. 09:42 You know, something that dawns on me here is this was not a 09:46 comprehensive list. Some people look at this list and say well 09:49 see it doesn't say anything in here for instance about the 09:52 Sabbath, so God didn't require the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath 09:55 Well it doesn't say anything in here about murder either or 09:59 lying. No this was not intended to be a comprehensive list but 10:03 to deal with those issues that were specific to those Gentiles 10:06 and their worship. And the church was pleased with 10:09 the decision. Verse 22 says, It pleased the apostles and the 10:12 elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own 10:16 company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas who was 10:19 also names Barsabas and Silas, leading men among the brethren 10:22 and they wrote a letter, etc. And it tells that they sent this 10:26 letter throughout the churches. They communicated this and this 10:30 was a decision that was made in Jerusalem that was expected now 10:34 to be abided by all the churches in the area and you've 10:38 got to keep this in mind that if indeed they followed through 10:41 with that, it would bring the church to unity. Now you're not 10:45 going to have your reformed church of Antioch and your new 10:49 church of Jesus Christ of Iconium. You've got the 10:54 Christian church unified throughout. 10:57 That's right. As we go through the book of Acts we see them 11:00 continually sharing the news of this decision with all the 11:04 churches. Now you get to verse 30 and it says that they were 11:07 sent off and they came to Antioch and when they had 11:10 gathered the multitude together they delivered the letter. When 11:13 they had read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. Then it 11:16 says, Now Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also 11:19 exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words and 11:22 after they had stayed there for a time they were sent back with 11:25 greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However, it seemed 11:28 good to Silas to remain there and Paul and Barnabas also 11:31 remained in Antioch and they were preaching and teaching. 11:33 So again we see Paul. He likes spending time in Antioch. It was 11:38 home base for him and so they went ahead and delivered this 11:42 letter to Antioch and spent some time there. It was encouraging 11:46 to them that these obstacles were not in the way and he 11:50 remained there for a period. 11:51 That's right, but not forever. 11:52 That's right. Because we pick up in verse 36 11:55 and they say, Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, Let 11:59 us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where 12:02 we've preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. 12:05 A lot could be said there about the discipleship factor. 12:08 In verse 37 it says, Now Barnabas was determined to take 12:11 with them John called Mark but Paul insisted that they should 12:14 not take with them the one who had departed from them in 12:18 Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the 12:21 contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. 12:25 So Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cypress. Paul chose Silas 12:28 and departed being commended by the brethren in the grace of God 12:30 and he went to Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches. 12:33 Now we mentioned this when Mark departed. It didn't say a lot 12:37 then in Acts chapter 13, but evidently Mark was intimidated 12:41 by some of the trials and he wavered a little bit. But it's 12:45 good to know that Barnabas saw confidence in Mark. Now Mark was 12:49 his nephew, but beyond that the Bible tells us later that the 12:52 Apostle Paul saw Mark as a value to his ministry. 12:55 He mentions him in II Timothy chapter 4:11 talks about Paul 12:58 bringing Mark with him because he found him as a value to his 13:02 ministry. You know sometimes we may feel in that same place that 13:06 John Mark was. Maybe we quail at some of the intimidating 13:10 factors of sharing our faith and what have you, but you know the 13:13 Lord sees through those things and he sees the potential in us 13:16 just like Barnabas and ultimately the Lord saw the 13:19 potential in John Mark. He ended up writing one of the gospels. 13:23 God has a plan for each one of us and by his grace let's take 13:26 hold of him and be a part of that plan. I hope you join us 13:29 next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17