Through The Bible - Acts 15 - Part 1

Brett Meador: When Paul's articulating in Ephesians 2, and it says you're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it's a gift from God, not of your works, lest any man should boast. That's a really clear stated verse right there. You're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, not of your works.
Kurt: On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador and our reliance on faith for salvation.
Brett Meador: You see, faith is what saves you. By God's grace through faith, you're saved. You see, when Jesus saves us by His grace, you can't add to that. But these guys are trying to add to it.
Kurt: As many Gentiles come to faith in Christ, a dispute arose over whether they should also follow Jewish customs and laws. Pastor Brett Meador finds the compelling statements about salvation from Peter, Paul, and James key to what the new believers should do and why. In a study of Acts 15 in today's word, we'll gain important clarity for how one is truly made right with God.
Brett Meador: Acts chapter 15, as we continue verse by verse through the Bible. We have the early church dealing with a dispute of a theological question. It's a big one. It centers around what constitutes salvation. The Jewish believers are struggling with this idea of these Gentiles coming to Christ and believing, and now they're being called saved and part of the Christian church. The Gentiles are happy as clams, and the Jews are going, "But wait a minute, they've got to be circumcised, right? They've got to be following Judaism and the Law of Moses, right?" Some Jews assumed that that must be true, and it comes out here in their teaching. So the question is going to be asked and dealt with in chapter 15 and answered. Yet we're going to find out this debate still rages today, even though the Bible already answers the question. We're going to see how this Acts chapter 15 is divided up. In fact, there are several sections of this I'd like to draw your attention to. The first one is the dispute. Verses 1 through 5 define the dispute that we're going to have here. Let's read in verse 1. "And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, 'Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.'" Now that's a very definitive thing to say, wouldn't you say? You cannot be saved unless you're circumcised. From Abraham all the way to the time of Jesus, the Jews had practiced circumcision. Now these teachers here in verse 1 are teaching that they must be circumcised after the manner of Moses, or else you cannot be saved. That's a pretty strong thing to say. One of the things that we need to be really careful about, and I want you to notice these teachers, because these teachers, even though they're being fairly dogmatic right here, they're also correctable. Are you correctable? Are you teachable? I think that's one of the more important attributes of a Christian is to be teachable and correctable. I've noticed in today's world, people love to have their strong opinions and they're really accountable to no one but themselves. They like to be dogmatic about this or that or the other. It's amazing how many people just go on social media or YouTube and just say what they want to say. But there is something that is important. I think that when you have issues like this, you really need to do what these guys do. They're going to consult the word. They're going to consult the elders of the church, which I think is an important thing—the elders of the true Christian church and the apostles. They're going to really go to the right sources. That's what you and I all need to do. Be careful about your opinions, but always go to the word for the final say along with the elders of the church, the Christian church within the pale of orthodoxy. These Judaizer guys or the Jews are saying, "You've got to be circumcised or else you're not even saved." So that's the dispute. Verse 2 says, "When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question." And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. Paul and Barnabas were big-time in the church. They were sent by the apostles in Jerusalem to go out on this first missionary journey that they're now just finishing up here in chapter 15. They were held accountable to the church government of Jerusalem. That's why these guys are like, "Well, you guys better go check with the guys in Jerusalem." Even Paul and Barnabas submitted themselves to the leadership of Jerusalem and were submitted to that leadership. Question for you just to ask yourself: Who are you submitted to? Who is it that you would hear a word from and absolutely say, "Well, I'm submitted to this person. This person is an actual authority in my life." The sad thing is I think a lot of you probably don't have anybody. We live in a culture that doesn't really believe in that anymore, the idea of submitting yourselves one to another, even though the Bible says that. And the idea of submission is a get-to, I think, not a got-to. Submission means to be under the covering of someone else or something else. A lot of us in this modern day, we just like to be the lone ranger, doing our thing, saying whatever we want to say, and building our own little worldview. Then if somebody comes in your life and says, "Man, I think you're headed in the wrong direction on that one," it's, "Who are you to tell me this?" It's really something. You can find somebody who'll agree with what you have to say. That's not that hard. You can surround yourself with people that agree with you all the time, but that may not be the most healthy thing. We're going to see this chapter, chapter 15, really sort out that sort of concept where they've got a dispute, but they're going to submit themselves to the apostles and the elders of the church. This is the doctrine, this is what it's about, so they're going to nail it down. And we have even more than these apostles; we have the Word of God. If you're submitting to someone, let me just say this: make sure that they're opening the scriptures to you. The word is the standard and we've got that. These guys have got the Old Testament, which is great for them, but we've got the Old Testament and the New Testament to help define some of those things. Be careful. Have you surrounded yourself with people that will hold you accountable, letting the word be the standard, but those people being into the word? That's what you need to look for. In verse 3, the Gentiles are being saved here. It says being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. People are rejoicing. Wow, even Gentiles are being saved. What an amazing thing. And they're being saved by grace, and because of that, there's great joy. So this is such a cool thing. Now in verse 4, it goes on and says, "And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders," that's Paul and Barnabas, "and they declared all the things that God had done with them." That's on the first missionary journey that we've already covered. "But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and command them to keep the Law of Moses." These guys are saying the same thing the guys in verse 1 were teaching. Verse 1, these guys were teaching you've got to be circumcised. So now Paul and Barnabas come back to Jerusalem and say, "Yeah, this is what's happening. These Christians are being saved," and the Pharisees stood up. Can you get the Pharisee out of the Pharisee? That's the question. Because these guys were legalists to the nth degree. And now they're saved by grace, but the problem is it's hard to get that Pharisaism out of them. And that's to be legalistic. They'd better be circumcised. These guys jump right into the argument right out of the gate. But they also add they must be circumcised and command them to keep the Law of Moses. That's a big "and." Circumcision's bad enough, if you ask me. But to say "and" 613 laws written by Moses himself. That'd be discouraging. If you're a Gentile going, "Man, I'm saved by grace. Praise the Lord," all of a sudden, "What? You mean I've got to be circumcised? You mean I've got to keep this list of rules and regulations?" By the way, I've noticed there's a modern-day version of this. Most of us aren't seeing a young new believer saying, "You've got to be saved by Jesus by His grace through faith, and you've got to do these 613 laws." Not too many people are saying that today. But as soon as you say the "and," whatever comes after that is wrong. Did you hear what I just said? As soon as you say you're saved by grace through faith, yeah, but to be a real Christian you also have to fill in the blank, you're wrong already. Now, here's where that goes sometimes. Some people say, "Well, Brett, James says faith without works is dead. So that means you're not saved unless you do works." And I'm going to say that's clearly wrong; the Bible doesn't support that. What is James talking about then, Pastor Brett? Well, it's not just me; it's most of the people within the pale of orthodoxy. The Jehovah's Witness, the Mormons, there are others that add works to what saves a person. A lot of the cults will even do that. They'll add, "You need to do this, you need to do that." But there are too many other scriptures that don't align with that. What does it mean, faith without works is dead? Well, hold that for a second because you'd think that they'd say that every time if that was the truth. For example, when Paul's articulating in Ephesians 2 and he says you're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it's a gift from God, not of your works, lest any man should boast. That's a really clear stated verse right there. You're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, not of your works. That's all throughout the Bible. Even the way to be saved, Romans 10:9 and 10, I talk about it every Sunday: if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. You see, when Jesus saves us by His grace, you can't add to that. But these guys are trying to add to it. And so people get confused when they hear James later on say faith without works is dead. Paul and James don't disagree with one another. Peter and James don't disagree. It's true: faith without works is dead. But here's the problem: people try to say it's faith and works that saves you. No. Some people say it's faith or works that saves you. No. It's faith that works. You see, faith is what saves you. By God's grace through faith, you're saved. Then one of the natural byproducts of being saved will be that you will have works. Works will follow them that believe. That's part of the deal. If you're truly saved, you will see works. How much good works? I don't know. I haven't the foggiest idea. Hopefully, it's a lot of good works, because we're meant to do good works. Once you're saved, God wants you to serve Him and walk with Him and do good works. That's part of being a Christian. But that's not what saved you. Don't be confused and don't let any man fool you into saying, "Oh, it's faith and works that saves you." No. A lot of people on YouTube and social media will try to tell you that kind of stuff. It's just impossible. By the way, how many of these laws do you have to be guilty of to go to hell if you break one? Just one. If you just break one of these, no one's ever been saved by keeping the law. That's what the Bible says. But this is really the dispute. They're saying you've got to be circumcised and you've got to keep the Law of Moses. So that's verses 1 through 5, the dispute. Do the Gentiles have to be circumcised? Do they have to keep the Law of Moses? Number two on the list here is now the discussion. We have the discussion between the apostles and the brethren there at the Council of Acts chapter 15. Let's pick it up in verse 6. "And the apostles and the elders came together for to consider this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, 'Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.'" Now pause for a second. A couple of things about this. It starts with Peter. You might say, "Well, that's not unusual. Peter is always the one opening his mouth, right?" But before we're too quick to say that, did you notice that Peter didn't jump up as the first one? I see a maturing in Peter. It starts with Peter, the same guy that was always standing up and saying stuff at the wrong time. But I believe Peter was kind of a ready-shoot-aim kind of guy, at least in the Gospels. But I see a sort of a reserve here. Why did Peter wait? After verse 7, it says after much disputing. A bunch of people were bantering back and forth already, and then eventually in time, Peter stood up. I see a guy who's more measured and more patient than the Peter of the Gospels. I love that. I see a maturity here. Proverbs 18:13 declares, "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is a folly and a shame unto him." And we're seeing a new Peter here exercising wisdom, waiting to hear even the bantering back and forth, and at the time appropriate, he now stands up and he gives this great discussion. He says a good while ago. You see there in verse 7. That was probably, if you do the math on this, about 13 years ago when Peter had the vision of the bringing down of the sheet. Kind of interesting. When he says that, "A good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us." So I love how he says this: that God knows the hearts, verse 8, and bare witness. I love that God knows the hearts. Jeremiah 17 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Ezekiel 36:26 says the Lord can give you and me a new heart and a new spirit He'll put within us; take away the stony heart of our flesh and give us a heart of flesh. And that's the Lord doing a work. But the point Peter's making here is the law never really purifies the heart of a man anyways. That's kind of what he's saying here. He's saying that the Lord knows the hearts and bare witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as He did to us. Now, if you remember, that was earlier in the story when the Jews were saying, "Can Gentiles really be saved?" And Peter's like, "Well, watch this." And they got saved, and now they're speaking in tongues and they have the Holy Ghost on them. So the Jews are like, "Wow, how can we deny that they're saved when the Holy Spirit is obviously on them in the same way that He came upon us?" That's what Peter's talking about. Verse 9, "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." How are their hearts purified? By faith, not by works. That's his point. Verse 10, "Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." So Peter is amazing here. He's kind of unveiling something that they sort of knew, they should have known to a degree, but Peter's just saying it really clear, what Paul is going to argue in much of his epistles. And that is: listen, we're saved by grace through faith, not of our works. That's what Peter's saying. This is kind of a new thing. This is hard for some of these Jews to even imagine that someone could be saved without keeping the wall of laws. Sometimes I wonder if Peter feels a little responsible for not dealing with this issue a little sooner. Would you do me a favor and flip over to Galatians chapter 2? And there's a thing that happened. I think this might have to do with Peter and how boldly he's saying now at the council in Acts chapter 15. He's boldly at the council standing up and saying the first intelligent thing that's being said. Here in Galatians chapter 2, we'll start in verse 1. It says, "Then 14 years," this is Paul of course, "14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of the reputation, lest by any means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised." Okay, pause for a second. Remember I told you that Acts 15 may have surfaced even the discussion bringing the council together? It wasn't just that Paul and Barnabas were coming from Antioch of Turkey, but it's also because Paul has a guy hanging out with him named Titus who's a Greek saying, "I'm not going to be circumcised, but I believe in Jesus." That's what's going on. And so this is part of the issue. Verse 4, and Paul goes on, "And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty," that we don't have to be circumcised, the Gentiles' liberty, "which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. But of these who seemed to be somewhat," I think that's funny, Paul's saying they seemed to be big shots but they kind of weren't. That's what Paul's saying. This is interesting. But verse 7, "But contrariwise, when they saw the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me," that is to the Gentiles, "as the gospel of the circumcision was to Peter," that's the Jews. Peter got the Jews, Paul got the Gentiles. "For," verse 8, "he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles: and when James, Cephas," that's Peter, "and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; and the same which I also was forward to do." So Titus is saying, "I'm not going to be circumcised." Paul says that they were trying to take away their liberty, the Gentiles' liberty. Paul's saying, "I'm the preacher to the Gentiles, and I'm saying you shouldn't be taking away that freedom that they have in Christ." So you say, great, happy little story. Well, this is where it gets interesting, verse 11. "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision," fearing the Jews. "And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation." The word dissimulation means hypocrisy. Remember we talked about this. Peter's starting to eat with Gentiles, which was forbidden to the Jews. But then James from Jerusalem shows up. He's one of the bigwigs, James the Apostle. And Peter suddenly moves away from the Gentile table and sits with the Jews again. And Paul's saying, "What a hypocrite. One day he's eating with the Gentiles, which he has liberty to do, but now he's holding up appearances with the other Jews because he's afraid what they might think about his liberty or whatever." And so Paul's calling him and Barnabas hypocrites, which is kind of interesting. Well, verse 14, it says, "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 'If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?'" "We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Remember justification means just as if you'd never sinned, having your sins washed away. Verse 17, "But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. For I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." I'm sorry, you say, "Brett, I thought we were studying the book of Acts, now we're studying the book of Galatians." You've got to see what's going on here because Paul's referring back even to this very council that we're talking about in Acts chapter 15. Paul's the guy who kind of already gets all this stuff, it seems, and Peter's the guy it's been a struggle. All the way from the time he saw the sheet come down and God said, "Peter, don't call unclean what I've made clean," in reference to the Gentiles. And now the big council. Paul and Barnabas had been preaching salvation by grace. And Peter's going to make a very hard case. But most scholars believe this declaration Peter made was after Galatians chapter 2. So you read Galatians 2 and you realize, "Oh, Peter already was kind of smacked around a little bit theologically by Paul." Saying, "Peter, don't be a hypocrite. Don't go back to the law. Don't be back to acting like a good Jew, thinking that that's going to make you saved or set apart from the Jews." And that's where I think Peter in Acts 15 comes on strong after Paul gets on him on his case here and even calls him a hypocrite. And then it also explains why Peter is actually saying such a bold statement. He and Paul will agree on what Peter's saying here in Acts chapter 15. But it's because I think Paul had to kind of whip him into shape a little bit.
Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador turning to additional writings of Paul to the Galatians to help clarify understanding man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in the work of Christ alone. And there's much more to come in today's word as we continue our study in the book of Acts next time. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment to share what the book of Acts means to him. But first, today's word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. Well, I have Pastor Brett with me. Brett, we've been studying the book of Acts, of course, and one of the things I wanted to know is what this book means to you personally. Can you share that with us?
Brett Meador: You bet, Kurt. You know, I think the book of Acts for me is sort of the owner's manual of the church. How to really operate, how to prioritize the church. I think that even though it was a couple thousand years ago, the same objectives that they had are our same objectives, or they should be our objectives. And like Acts 2:42 where they continued steadfastly with the apostles' doctrine, which is teaching, prayer, fellowship, breaking of bread—those four things were the main thing. And as they did those things, man, the church just flourished. And I see for me personally, the book of Acts is a safety net as a pastor of a modern-day church just to say, how can we model the church today after the book of Acts? So it's an important book to me personally.
Kurt: Well, thank you, Pastor Brett, for that explanation of what a church should be even today from the book of Acts. Well friend, if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or today's word, you can just go to our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well next time, Pastor Brett will share how good works can't earn salvation; rather, they're the result of salvation. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.