Clarifying the Gospels

Acts: The Gospel in the City PART XIX
Rev. Leo Schuster
14 April 2013

Acts 15:1-11, 22-29
1Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the customs taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."  2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them.  So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.  3The church sent them on their way, and as they travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted.  This news made all the believers very glad.  4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

5Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses."

6The apostles and elders met to consider this question.  7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believer.  8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  9He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.  10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have able to bear?  11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

22Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.  They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders amont the believers.  23With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:
Greetings.

24We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you troubling your minds by what they said.  25So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with out dear friends Barnabas and Paul--26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  27Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing.  28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements.  29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.  You will do well to avoid these things.

GRACE THAT FREES
--Controversy over circumcision.
--Paul is sent to deal with it.
--Grace is good news in light of bad news.
--Grace is getting what we don't deseve.
--Rule of law becomes a burden and a yoke because we fail.
--Matthew 23:4
--Our identity is grounded in what God thinks of us.

FREEDOM THAT LOVES
--Be sensitive.
--Higher goal is love and respect.
--Don't be dismissive.
--Obey God even when it's hard.
--Don't allow the dilution of the gospel by worldly things.

LOVE THAT PURIFIES
--Love of Jesus purifies us.
--Friends in which we can be completely honest and transparent.