Acts 15:6-11

Let's open our Bibles to Acts chapter 15. We will be today in Acts chapter 15, our text is verses 6 through 11. Acts chapter 16, I'm sorry, Acts chapter 15 verses 6 through 11. We hear the word of the Lord. Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. When they and when there had been much dispute Peter rose up and said to them, men in brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us and made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they. This is the word of the Lord. In our text today, well let's pray. I think it's always good to pray. Father, thank you for your gospel. Thank you for this good news. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that dwells within us, the Spirit that illuminates this word for us today. And would you do that Father? Would you illuminate your word? Would you take your word? Would you transform us and conform us to the very image of Christ? Would you renew our minds to your truth that we would be a people that would shine brightly in the darkness of this world to give hope to those without hope that they would see the hope of all mankind, Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for choosing us. Thank you for making us your people. Thank you for giving us the privilege to make known your glorious name and your glorious gospel. May we do it to your glory in Jesus name. Amen. In our text today, we will continue looking at the work of the Jerusalem Council. And that work resulted in the formulation of guidance for the Gentile churches. It is guidance that still informs us today. It's why we are not obligated today to keep the Mosaic law. Yet there was something much more significant about this council. The apostles and elders who came together to consider the matters that would be addressed by this council were actually considering how the Mosaic law applied in this new era. This was a significant moment in the history of the church. As we said last week, what they were discussing was not new. It wasn't a new subject. These issues had already come up as the gospel had been preached to the nations. But they came to a head and now they were gathered in Jerusalem to deal with this because the circumstances, the legalists, the Judaizers who were going to the Gentile churches and telling them, you must be circumcised. You must obey the law in order to be saved, in order to be truly God's people. That became so prevalent in such a problem and became so divisive that this council was called. And so now this council is actually considering how the Mosaic law is applied in this new era of the New Testament church. This was a significant moment in church history and it would require these apostles and elders to consider the whole council of scripture along with the witness that God himself provided through his Christ and through his Holy Spirit. This council and its considerations confirmed the end of the old order of Judaism where the Sanhedrin and the ruling elders controlled decisions such as the ones being made at this council. Those rulers who rejected their Messiah and now opposed the gospel had long fallen into irrelevance in terms of God's plan to raise up a royal priesthood and a holy nation that is the church. Now known or unknown to them, they awaited the judgment that Jesus promised would come because of their rejection of the Messiah. That happened in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. And meanwhile the church was steadily growing as the gospel went forth to the nations. So the Holy Spirit using the Jerusalem council set the trajectory for the church, verse 6. Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. The matter that the apostles and elders came together to consider was how the Gentiles enter into the Christian community. Specifically what rituals the Gentiles would be required to perform if any in order to join the people of God. This is what this council was about. And this council would consider God's salvation as he had administered it from the beginning. So this was not just a consideration of the law and its connection to God's people but it was a consideration of the salvation of God, past, present and future. The fact that it was the apostles and elders of the New Testament church in Jerusalem that considered these waiting matters indicates that they were now the authoritative interpreters of the law of Moses, the Sanhedrin, the ruling elders of the traditional parties of the Pharisees and the Sadducees had descended as we said into irrelevance. They did not consult them. They didn't care what they thought. They knew what they thought. They opposed Christ. They murdered him. They opposed the gospel. And so this council understood that the authority had been transferred to them by God. Such authority was certainly implied when Jesus declared to Peter that he had given him the keys of the kingdom. We see this in Matthew 16 verse 19. And with those keys came the authority of the church to bind and loose. Jesus entrusted this power to his church under the authority of his name and his word and his stamp of approval was placed upon it by the Holy Spirit, by the operation of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders that had been displayed not just among the Jews but now among the nations. The apostles and elders carried this authority because the one to whom the law pointed, Jesus Christ, is the resurrected and ascended Lord. And he is the word made flesh. He commanded his disciples to take his gospel message to the nations. He poured out his Holy Spirit upon his church to empower and delete and guide them even in matters such as these that the council was considering. Remember it was not whether the Gentiles could be saved but how they would be saved that prompted the formation of this council. The matter considered by the council was what that entry into the community into the church would look like. Would it be through the rituals of the law or would it be through faith in Jesus Christ? Well you know how the story is. It is important to point out that the law has not lost its authority. God did not toss out the law. He didn't do away with the law. And this is true even though in Christ the law no longer governs us directly. Christ is the fulfillment of the law. He is still the fulfillment of the law. He is still fulfilling the law. The law is now administered in and through Christ and all things concerning the law now come to us through Christ. It is filtered to us through Christ. And we see this even before Jesus was crucified. When Jesus was asked the question what is the greatest commandment? His response was the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your mind with all your soul with all your strength. And the second is likened to it. It is to love your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus said these words. He said upon these two things hang all the law and the prophets. Then in John 1334 as Jesus is preparing to leave the Passover feast and go to the Garden of Gethsemane where he will be arrested. And then the next day crucified he is with his disciples and he says to them a new commandment I give to you. Now who has authority to give a new commandment? Well God does. And Jesus is not just the son of God. He is the second person of the Godhead. He is God. And he said a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you. So you are to love one another. So even before the crucifixion of Christ, the resurrection of Christ and the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we see Jesus not doing away with the law but reducing the law down concentrating the law into this commandment which was to love God and to love one another even as God has loved you. Not just love your neighbor as yourself but now Jesus said in this new commandment you are to love your neighbor even as I have loved you. And so this was the question of the council. How do these Gentiles, how are they brought into the church? How would they be saved? And the council is not trying to decide whether we're going to do away with the law or not. That was the misunderstanding, the misinterpretation. Now the law is now administered through Christ to us, through Christ. And as we go through Acts chapter 15 we will see that the administration of the law is informed by the Word of God, both written and living, as well as by the witness, God provided in himself by the work of the Holy Spirit in both Jew and Gentile. And that witness of Word and Spirit gives clear testimony to the gospel of God's grace. There is a reason why today we're not bringing animals to sacrifice to God. There is a reason why today we are not under the yoke of bondage of the mosaic law obligated to fulfill every jot and tidal of it just as the Jews were. And the reason is because the testimony of God, not just the testimony of these apostles, not just the testimony of Peter, Paul or James, but the testimony of God himself by his word, by his son, by his spirit, testifies to the gospel of God's grace. Verse 7, And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to the man and brethren, you know that a good while ago, God chose among us that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the Word of the gospel and believe. The key to Peter's argument in verses 7 through 10 is that God chose, God chose. Verse 7, Peter says, God chose. He chose that I would by my mouth, the Gentiles, would hear the gospel and believe the gospel. Verse 7 gives us a first glimpse of the workings of this council. The words of Luke described for us the goings on within this council. He indicated that it was only after much dispute and argumentation that Peter rose up to speak. If you can picture this in your mind, Peter is sitting there listening to these Pharisees, these Jews argue amongst each other what points of the law would be required for the Gentiles to keep in order for them to be saved, to be considered God's children. Peter listens quietly. Then after much dispute, he rises up to speak. He waited until he had heard what the legalists had to say before he responded. And his response came from his own experience, his own eyewitness testimony. There is no doubt that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas already had their minds made up. They would not be turning away from the gospel of grace to legalism. That was not going to happen. They came to this council with clear understanding what the gospel is, what Jesus came to do, what he accomplished, and how men must be saved. There was no doubt about this. Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago, God chose among us that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and bleed. And if we understand Peter is referring to the gospel encounter in the household of the Roman Centurion Cornelius, and he is, that took place somewhere around the year 38. So in 38, Peter preaches to those Gentiles gathered in the household in the house of Cornelius. And we said last week that this Jerusalem council was taking place in the year 49, 49 to 50 was likely in the latter part of 49 based on the records that we have. So it has been 11 years since Peter first preached to the Gentiles until this council is now meeting. And Peter would give an autobiographical and theological argument for the gospel of grace. Peter would point out that it was God who chose. It was God's choice. You know it's always God's choice, right? It was God's choice that Peter first preached to the Gentiles. It was God's choice that the Gentiles should even hear the gospel much less believe the gospel. It was God's choice to give them the Holy Spirit. Uncircumcised? No, no consideration of the law. It was God's choice to give them the Holy Spirit. Just as he had given it to the Jews, it was God's choice to save and to cleanse them by faith because it is all of God's choice and all of God's work. It is all of God's grace. Verse 8 and 9, Peter continues. So God who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us and made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith. In verse 8 and 9, Peter continues his discourse describing what he witnessed and experienced among the Gentiles. He reminded the Jews of this most amazing fact, saying these words to them that are worth us hearing again, consider the significance, the magnitude, the impact of these words, these Pharisees, these legalists who believe in Jesus are hearing from the mouth of Peter. So God who knows the heart acknowledged them, the Gentiles, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us and made no distinction. Verse 8 starts with the words, so God. God is the subject of Peter's argument because God is the subject of all the actions that have been taken. God chose. God knows the heart. God acknowledged them. God gave to them the Holy Spirit. God made no distinction. God purified their hearts. It is all about what God is doing. Peter is pointing out the outward visible actions of the Holy Spirit but also the inward invisible realities of the heart. He points out that it is God who knows the heart. The Jews couldn't see the heart of these Gentiles, but God could. Just as you and I cannot see into the heart of one another, it is God who knows the heart. God saw the hearts of the Gentiles and he chose to save them and to cleanse them by his spirit and by faith. That was God's choice. That was God's choosing. Peter reminded them. God knows the heart and God acknowledged the Gentiles by giving them the very same Holy Spirit that he had given to the Jews. The point made is very clear. God poured out his Holy Spirit upon a household of uncircumcised Gentiles not because they kept the law but because God is graceful. This is Peter's testimony. This is Peter's testimony of when he preached to that household of Gentiles. We haven't even gotten to Paul and Barnabaschette who spent over a year traveling through Asia preaching to Gentiles straight up pagans for over 12 months, establishing churches, appointing elders and seeing the Holy Spirit move. We'll get their testimony next week. Now we're just dealing with Peter's testimony of a small group of Gentiles, the first group of Gentiles to hear the gospel preached. How did that come about? Well, Peter tells us God chose. God chose for me to preach the gospel. God chose for them to hear. God chose that they would believe. God chose to give them the Holy Spirit. God chose to cleanse them by faith. Peter is reminding them of all of this and God did all of this for these Gentiles not because they were law keepers but because God is graceful. You do realize you're not saved today because you've been a good person. You've done everything just the way God wants you to do it. Now you're saved today in spite of all your failings, in spite of all your sinfulness, in spite of your repeated failings, your continued failings, and your continued sinfulness, in spite of my continued failings, my continued sinfulness now and into the future. God saved me because he's graceful. It's not my work that saved me. It wasn't the work of these Gentiles that saved them and this is Peter's point. They're saved because God chose to save them. You're saved. I'm saved because God chose to save you and to save me. It is His plan and purpose to save the nations by His grace. It is God's choice. In verse 9, Peter points out that God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, cleansing their hearts by faith and God did this apart from any consideration of the law or of Jewish customs. In other words, it was a complete manifestation of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The word used in verse 9 for cleansing or purifying, depending on your translation, God cleans them or purify them by faith. This word in the Greek is the word catharizo. It is the word that goes back to the mosaic law, signifying the purification of things through ritual cleansing. So the things that were used in the tabernacle or the temple had to be continuously purified and cleansed every time they were used, every time they were touched outside of ritual, they had to be re-pureified, re-clinced. This is the word that's being used here of what God did for the Gentiles in cleansing their hearts by faith. God, in other words, cleansed these Gentiles, making them ritually pure. This is how the Pharisees who want to put them under the law would hear this and understand this. This is what Peter is saying. God chose to purify their hearts by faith. God says God has already made them ritually pure apart from any work of the law, apart from anything they did, it was God's work that purified them. Here Peter declares through the inspiration and the witness of the Holy Spirit that God made no distinction between you and Gentile, giving each the same Holy Spirit. Now he has made them clean by faith. In other words, these Gentiles purified by faith are now unpolluted and legally welcome into the temple. Now obviously the Jews in the temple wouldn't welcome them in, but what Peter is saying, it doesn't matter whether those Jews in the temple would welcome them in or not. God has already welcomed them in. God has already given them the same Holy Spirit. He poured out at pinnacle upon the Jews and God has cleansed, purified their hearts by faith. They are unpolluted. They are worthy to go into the temple just as any Jew is. In fact, now, according to the scripture, as we read them now, not only are they unpolluted and legally able to go into the temple, but now they are the temple of the Holy Spirit as much as anyone who is in Christ. They now have the right to come to the very presence of God into the most holy of holies, face to face with God Himself. How did they achieve that? God did that. God purified them. God cleansed them by faith. Paul and his later epistles will dismantle the distinctions, the false distinctions that persisted and will make it clear beyond any doubt that there is now only one new man in Christ. In other words, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, the oldest passed away and behold, all things are made new, more than being welcomed into the temple. Now we are the temple of God in Jesus Christ. We are living stones being built into a holy habitation in the spirit. You are the dwelling place of God. That means there is no longer June or Gentile, but we all are one in Christ, or as the Apostle Paul pinned it in his letter to the Colossians in chapter 3, verse 11, where he writes, where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcised nor uncircumcised barbarian, schithian, slayed, nor free, but Christ is all and in all. We are of one spirit. There is no longer a distinction in the hearts of any and all who trust in Christ are purified by faith. Verse 10, now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Peter asked a penetrating question to those of the counsel who advocated for law instead of grace, in light of all that God has done, in light of God's choice to save the Gentiles, to abolish any distinction and give them the same Holy Spirit to purify their hearts by faith. Why do you test God by putting a yoke on them that even our fathers could not bear? And Peter warns this counsel that those who seek to put a yoke of bondage on the neck of the disciples are testing God. This harkens back to Israel in Exodus 17, when the people tested and contended with God at Massa and Maraba, there are a number of places where Israel did this. This is only one example of many. And it was there at Massa and Maraba where the people questioned whether God was among them and their God made water flow from the rock. And all this taking place shortly after God showed his power and might in delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt. How soon we forget. We read about Israel in the Old Testament and we look at them and we say, boy, I can't believe they forgot so quickly. Be careful because we are prone to the same mistakes and the same sin because we too forget very quickly the goodness of God. All that God has done for us, it is so easy for us to get captivated by our present problems, our present distress and forget all that God has done for us. And if God did nothing else for us, other than save us, has he not done more than enough and more than any of us deserve? Peter asked this question. Why do you test God? Israel questioning whether God was among them after seeing the might and the power of God deliver them from the bondage of Egypt and here at the Jerusalem Council, Peter is warning that God is again being tested in a similar way as God has once again shown in clear demonstration his saving power on behalf of both you and Gentile. And it is God who sent his son to redeem his people. It is God who sent his Holy Spirit to fill into empower his people, the church, and it is God who sends his church, you and me, to take his gospel, the gospel of Christ and disciple the nations. This is what Peter had done. This is what Paul and Barnabas had done and would continue to do. God has revealed his will not only through his word, but in the demonstration and power of his Holy Spirit through his apostles. He has poured out his Holy Spirit on all flesh both you and Gentile making his will clear. Therefore, to put the disciples back under the bondage of the law would be questioning whether God was among his people after he had performed such mighty and awesome acts of salvation on their behalf by his spirit. Peter correctly points out that not even the Jews could bear the yoke of the law. And now the proposal is to put the Gentiles under the same unbearable yoke. Peter warns that this would be testing God. It would be ignoring the clear signs that God had performed among the nations, among the Gentiles. And this was certainly not the yoke God would choose for either Jew or Gentile. Thus the words of the Lord Jesus and Matthew 11, 28 through 30 where Jesus bids us come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is lied. Yoke is not inherently a bad thing, though it is being portrayed here as a bad thing by Peter. When we read scripture, yokes are not inherently bad. Yokes are spoken of in both good and bad ways. The yoke of bondage in the yoke of bondage one would bear under the mosaic law was meant to crush us. It was meant to crush us to the point that we would seek a yoke more easy in a burden more lied and this is what Jesus is inviting us to. The yoke Jesus invites us to come under with him is a good yoke. It's the yoke we need to be under. It yokes us. It joins us to him. The yoke that these Pharisees wanted to put the disciples under was not a good yoke. It was a yoke that would crush them just as it crushed their fathers. We find that the easy yoke in the light burden is in Jesus and the picture of being yoke with Jesus under his light burden is a yoke we are blessed to be under. On the other hand the yoke in the burden of the law is meant to crush us until we come to Christ and find our rest in him. This is why Paul writes the law is my school master that brought me to Christ. The law when we live under the law we realize we can't keep it we can't fulfill it. It condemns us to death that we rightly deserve. It puts us under the wrath of God that we rightly deserve. What is the answer will the answer is Christ and the law brings us to Christ in hand to us off to Christ and we look to Christ as the only one who perfectly kept the law as the only one who perfectly fulfilled the law. So God doesn't throw the law away God fulfills it in Christ and what do we do we look to Christ we trust in Christ as the one who will fulfill the law for us and we obey his commands under his grace. His grace that knows we can't perfectly obey those commands we can't even near perfectly obey them but do you have a willing heart are you quick to repent when you do fail when you do sin because God is quick to forgive if you will be quick to repent this is the gospel this is the good news not that we get to sin now but because we are sinners we now have grace that covers and takes away our sin in Jesus Christ Christ is arrest this is the gospel of God's grace the Gentiles just as the Jews will not be saved by law keeping or submission to all manner of Jewish customs that is a yoke impossible for any to bear save one Jesus Christ therefore salvation is by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and that is the good news and Peter affirms this grace of the Lord with his next statement in verse 11 in full opposition to the demand of putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples Peter declares we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they you notice what he did here he doesn't say they will be saved in the same manner as us Jews he says those Gentiles us Jews will be saved in the same manner as those Gentiles and what Peter is doing here is saying not only is the law not fit for the Gentiles it's not fit for the Jews either if you think you're a Jew that's going to be saved by keeping the law you are mistaken because God has shown that it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that shall save us in the same manner as he saved these Gentiles here Peter is the leader of the Jerusalem church one of the 12 apostles who walked with Christ and was eyewitnessed to his death his resurrection and his ascension it was Peter who preached the great sermon on the day of pinnacost that saw God bring 3000 souls into the church that day his testimony is powerful it is this significant figure the apostle Peter that now affirms it is by grace the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we shall be saved both Jew and Gentile alike and there is no other way to salvation Christ said as much there is only one way to the Father Christ himself said I am the way I am the truth I am the life no one comes to the Father except through me and just as God chose us in him before the foundation of the world God chose a single way to salvation and that way is not the way of the law it's not the way of works but it is the way of grace and truth in Jesus Christ Peter affirms in a powerful way this is God's choice we are saved by his grace and what we see with Peter's testimony as we will see with the testimony of Paul and Barnabas and James is that the Gentiles were saved and welcomed into the community of God's people just like the Jews by the act of the Holy Spirit the same way Abraham was saved and welcomed in Abraham was saved and welcomed in before there was Moses before there was a law the very same way every one of us have been saved and welcomed in it is God's for ordination it is the work of Christ and it is the Holy Spirit's power that is how we are saved and welcomed in this is the gospel of God's saving grace in Jesus Christ and you have been entrusted with this message of salvation go therefore and tell it to whoever will believe and to whoever will be saved by its message and by its power and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen here is your charge church thanks to the work of the Jerusalem Council salvation was formalized as being by grace through faith not by the deeds of the law praise the Lord when we talk about salvation and becoming part of the people of God we're speaking of two things that are synonymous to be saved as to become part of the people of God and to become part of Christ church is to enter into the ark of God's salvation those who are faithful members of his church the body of Christ are partakers and beneficiaries of God's salvation just as with each of you who assemble for worship each week who come to the Lord's table each week who faithfully provide and receive blessings as members of this local expression of Christ's body each week you are counted as those who have received the salvation of God whether you are elect can only be assumed even safely yet is truly known only to God as members of Christ's body it is not just your words but the faithful testimony of your life that gives witness to faith in Christ and therefore gives witness to God's salvation in other words how you live your life matters you can't just say I'm saved by grace and so I'm good to do whatever I want to do by God's grace no Paul says God for bid because only God can see the heart you and I do not look at one another squinty eye nor do we try to peer into each other's hearts to discern our true condition by faith we love and we walk with one another as brothers and sisters if you are his elect you will never depart from that salvation he has brought you into by his grace for you have been saved by his work of grace it is God's gift and not of work so that you will never be able to boast in anything except the cross of Christ Christ is your perfect law giver and he is your perfect law keeper and may you strive to live a holy life obeying his commands but always realizing that you fall infinitely short therefore put your trust in Christ in his complete righteousness in his complete holiness before the Father in your stead this is the good news of salvation by God's grace this is how the nations are brought in this is how you and I are brought in may you know it and may you make it known and amen let us sing our thanks to God the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace the Lord be with you

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