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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. A brother showed me before the service started a bulletin from 1987. We had been in this building about a year and I was just looking at the design, the front cover of the design, just where we've come from and what it took to design something then and get on the typewriter and then reproduce these things. But I remembered back to getting into this building because I saw that bulletin and I remember that it was not easy. It was a dispute. That is, many of us were excited about it, but there were some people who just thought it was wrong that we should get such a large building and that we should just be happy and we couldn't ever fill this ever in our history.
And so we didn't, you know, why are you buying that big building on Osuna? So I smiled at that in my heart, but then I thought, you know what, that's just typical stuff. That's typical human stuff, typical family stuff. People disagree. Do you agree?
Okay, good. I didn't know if you were going to disagree with that. Yeah, people disagree. All people disagree on something somewhere. Give them enough time and they'll think differently than the person next to them. Walter Martin used to frequently say, the founder of the Bible Answer Man, if you can find two people that think exactly alike on everything, one of them is not thinking. And I suppose he's right, wherever there's a will, there's a won't.
You know, somebody wants one thing, the other person wants something else. Well, I set that up because we are entering a chapter where there is conflict and resolution of the conflict, only followed by more conflict. And that conflict that we close the chapter with, if by God's grace we actually do close the chapter tonight, it's a conflict that will not be resolved here between two mature men of God. So we will see conflict and we will see unity in the same chapter. Now, when I say all people disagree, I would also add that all spiritual people disagree.
You can be spiritual and yet not agree. And sometimes the disagreement is over carnal things. It's all about carnal reasons for it. Remember when Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said, one of you says I'm of Paul, another says I'm of Apollos, another says I'm of Cephas, another tries to trump everyone and be more spiritual and says, I'm of Christ. Paul said, you're all carnal. So there can be division over carnal reasons. But not always. Sometimes there is a division not because of carnality, but because of caring.
You care deeply. To be unified with another believer, again, does not mean to agree on everything that that believer stands for or believes in or does. And sometimes we are called to divide.
Jude, in chapter 1 of his little epistle, there's only one chapter in it, verse 3, he says, contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Contend. Be contentious over it. Contend means put up a good fight for the faith. So if someone blatantly denies one of the pillars of the historic Christian gospel, we're not supposed to say, well, it doesn't matter.
Who cares? Let's not be divisive. Let's just sing all you need is love and we'll sway back and forth and carry on. That would not be loving at all. The loving thing to do is to speak the truth in love. So sometimes division is for carnal reasons.
Sometimes it's for caring reasons. But even spiritual people disagree. For example, way back in the Old Testament, Abraham's herdsmen had a contention with Lot's herdsmen over the land that was before them because there wasn't enough land for what their cattle and their family needed. So there was a dispute, a disagreement, an argument. Later on in the same book, Jacob has a disagreement with Uncle Laban over many things.
Finally, he has to part company. When we get to the New Testament, the disciples disagreed with other disciples. They're all following Jesus in the flesh.
They're hearing him and seeing him every day. And yet among these revered apostles of the faith, they disagreed on who would be the greatest in the kingdom. There's a disagreement in the book of Acts. We've already seen it in Acts chapter 6 where the Hebrews and the non-Hebrews, the Hellenistic Jews, have a dispute over the widow's daily distribution.
Some thought the other group was getting preferential treatment. And so a disagreement broke out. And here in this chapter we see a disagreement over the most important thing in the world. How do you get saved? What constitutes a believer versus a non-believer? How does a person get to heaven? That is a dispute in this chapter, and unfortunately it's still a dispute in the church. Because people have a hard time with the free gift of grace. Surely there's something I must do to gain God's favor. Or if not gain it, to boost it so that God will love me more. He will shine his countenance down on me more, lavish more blessing on me because I have earned it.
We have a difficulty with the finished work and free gift. They did too. So in chapter 15 that's where we begin. Verse 1, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension in dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia.
Phoenicia is what is mostly modern day Lebanon, north of Israel, the Phoenician Lebanese sea coast, Tyre and Sidon, and Samaria, what would be today the central portion of the West Bank, describing the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy to all the brethren. Now they caused joy to all the brethren because Phoenicia is Gentile territory and Samaria is sort of half Jewish, half Gentile.
They were considered more half-breeds, not fully Jewish. So you can understand there would be a rejoicing in these areas because Gentiles are saved by faith. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.
But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. The first missionary journey was over with. Paul and Barnabas left the area of modern-day southern Turkey, the province of Galatia. After being in Cyprus and Galatia, they returned now to Syria, Antioch of Syria. That was the first real missionary church. Jerusalem was the home base, the mother church, the mother ship, so to speak. But Antioch is the place where the Holy Spirit said, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
So they left on their first missionary journey. And when they went out to all of these places and they shared the message of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, beginning in the synagogue first, they made an astounding discovery that non-Jewish people were attracted to this Jewish Messiah because of the gospel, as Paul presented it, of free salvation to anyone who believes. So already a few Gentiles have been saved. Samaritans have been saved.
Cornelius has been saved. But keep in mind, the Gentiles like Cornelius and his family and the Ethiopian eunuch, these were people who had a Jewish background. They were God-fearers. Though they didn't keep all of the rituals of Judaism, they worshiped the Jewish God. They got as close enough to the Jewish form of worship as is possible without a full conversion into Judaism and keeping circumcision, et cetera. So it was accepted reluctantly, but it was accepted.
Peter reluctantly accepted it. The Jerusalem church reluctantly accepted it. But now they're getting used to the idea that those who are akin to going through Judaism can be saved. But just the idea that a Gentile without a Jewish background, without law-keeping, without any ritual of circumcision, without doing anything in the Old Covenant can just believe in Jesus and be admitted into the church and be guaranteed heaven, well, it was an affront to the Jews. They didn't understand it.
And it's hard for us to get that, but you have to just think of what it was like to them. God had given His covenants in the Old Testament, and they believed in the covenant of Moses. They believed in the covenant of Abraham.
And they, these Jewish people who are believers, man, they've kept so many rigid rules and regulations their whole lives. They have gone through all the necessary channels to be acquainted with the one true God of Israel. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, we want to help you learn more about God's radical love for all people by sending you four booklets by Skip Heitzig that will encourage you in God's abounding love and challenge you to love even the unlovable, just like Jesus did. This resource is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share solid biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Now, let's get back to today's message from Pastor Skip. Now somebody comes in and just says, I believe in Jesus, I'm like you. It was hard for them to accept it, sort of like expecting somebody to understand a movie who comes in at the end scene. They didn't sit through the whole play or the whole movie. Suddenly they just come in and go, I get it. And you're kind of like, no, you don't get it. You don't understand the setup for this. You don't understand the early character development.
For you to just come in and see the ending or the trailer and think you've seen the movie, well, you haven't. And so they felt like, I've gone through these channels, you haven't. I've been religious my whole life, you haven't.
You've been a pagan. So there is some resistance. Now, notice the resistance comes from Pharisees who are believers. This is why it's important that Saul of Tarsus is on the scene. Paul the Apostle, Saul of Tarsus. He once was a Pharisee himself. He understood their thinking completely. Were it not for the Damascus Road experience, he would have completely said, yeah, first of all, I don't believe in this Messiah called Jesus.
Second, if there is one and he is the Messiah, you can't just, as a Gentile, believe in him and expect to go to heaven. But he thinks differently now. He's seen it with his own eyes. He's had his own experience. He's been out on the road preaching.
And so he comes with a different story. Now, what starts as a trickle, that is just a Gentile here and a Gentile there and then a few more here, is becoming a torrent. Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, and Barnabas coming back to Antioch are so amped. Man, they're so pumped to tell the story of how non-Jewish people from the wildest places and weirdest backgrounds believe. The gospel was the gospel of faith.
Now, I want you to see it. So go back to Acts chapter 13 for just a moment. Just turn the page and look at verse 38. Paul and Barnabas say, Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man, man is capitalized, referring to Christ, is preached to you, the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all the things which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Verse 42, So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them again the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
Now think about keeping the laws. Go to verse 46. Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said it was necessary. He speaks to the Jewish audience that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have sent you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be salvation for the ends of the earth. Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as been appointed to eternal life believed. Chapter 14, verse 1, Now it happened in Iconium, that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude of both Jews and of the Greeks believed.
Down to verse 23. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. It was all just faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone. Now what was the basis of their faith? The basis of their faith was the Jewish Messiah predicted in Jewish scripture.
They understood that. Paul made that clear that we have a book, we have a Bible, the Old Testament at that time. He was quoting from the Tanakh, what we call the Old Testament, and he mentioned, he told them that the Messiah was predicted by our prophets, our scriptures, and his name is Jesus. He has come.
If you believe in him, without keeping the law of Moses, you can be saved. They got all jazzed about that, excited. We'll do it. I can be forgiven.
I'll do it. So place after place, that was the message they brought, and that's what the people responded to, and it was on that basis. Enter the Pharisees. They're saved.
Okay, they're saved. They're from Jerusalem, but they're Pharisees. Now I don't doubt their sincerity when they say, you have to keep the law of Moses, you have to be circumcised, or you can't be saved. I totally do not dispute their sincerity. They were sincere, but they are sincerely wrong, and sincerity is not enough when you match sincerity up to the truth.
You might sincerely not believe the truth. You are sincerely wrong, and so the people from Jerusalem, Judea, go up to Antioch. It says down to Antioch because the elevation of Jerusalem was higher than Antioch, so you're going downhill effectively, lower elevation, but they're going from south to north. They go to Antioch, and they bring this message. Hey, if you want to be a saved person, you first have to be a Jewish person and then believe in the Jewish Messiah, but you can't just willy-nilly not keep the laws of Moses.
You have to keep them and be circumcised to be saved. Now the region Paul has been in, what region did I tell you he was in? Galatia.
He was in the region of Galatia. He writes a letter to the Galatians later on, and by now, Paul's gospel that he preached in Galatia, the Judaizers, the Pharisees who were saved, who were saying you have to keep the laws of Moses to be saved, have gone from Jerusalem to Antioch and to all the places where Paul started churches. Interesting how heresy develops. A lot of people, they won't start their own church.
They'll just find churches that are already started and try to just sort of work their way through. So they made it all the way over to these places in Galatia, and when Paul writes his letter to the Galatians, he calls these people troublemakers. So let me just read it to you if you've got a Bible handy. You can turn to Galatians 1.
I'm in verse 6. I marvel, he says to the Galatians, that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. They're not preaching a whole different gospel. I mean, they're saying they believe. They are believers. But there are some who trouble you. These are the troublemakers who want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Now, that's pretty hefty language. That's pretty strong stuff that he's dishing out here.
Let him be accursed. Why is it so dangerous? It's dangerous because they're trying to mix two mediums, like oil and water. They're trying to mix law and grace. They're trying to add to the finished work of Christ. They're trying to stitch up the torn veil. You remember in Luke 23, the veil of the temple was torn into a signification that God was opening the way freely for those in the future to come to a relationship with him through what Jesus did on the cross.
The Judaizers, the Pharisees who are now saved, who have a Jewish background, think you have to go through the laws, what they're effectively doing is saying, hey, let's stitch that veil back up. Let's make it harder for people, not easier. God made it easier. We'll fix that. We'll help God out. We'll add rules and regulations that God never intended. They're trying to stitch up the veil.
Now, why is this so ludicrous? Well, if it's a finished work that God did, you coming along and trying to add to that is as stupid as me being in the Rembrandt Museum looking at one of Rembrandt's pictures, taking out a pencil and saying, I'm going to fix that. I'm going to add to that masterpiece. Standing in front of a Van Gogh or a Rembrandt or a Picasso and thinking, you know, he wasn't really on it that day. I can see some of the flaws. I'm going to fix what he did.
It'd be even more ludicrous for a child with crayons to have that mentality. That's what it's like to approach the finished work of God on the cross and say, I'm going to add my works to that. So he says, be careful of these troublemakers because they are perverting the gospel.
And he says, let them be accursed. Part of me thinks, poor Paul and Barnabas. Man, they're flying so high.
It's been so awesome in Iconium and Lystra and Derby and Pamphylia, Perga, Cyprus. People are getting saved. Now they come back to the church to send them. They find it's divided. Not everybody's so happy about it.
There's the legalist who scowl. The gospel has often been hindered by closed minds who stand in front of open doors and keep people from getting in. The door had been flung open.
The veil had been wide open. But these are the gatekeepers. We're not going to let you in unless you're circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Now think for a moment if those Judaizers would have had their way in Jerusalem and Antioch. And what if the church would have just started this way?
No, no, no. You have to be circumcised to keep the law of Moses. What if that's the foundation?
What if they would have won? Well, our hymns would certainly sound different, wouldn't they? We'd be singing Amazing Circumcision, How Sweet the Sound, that saved a wretch like me. Our anthem would be, What Can Wash Away My Sin? Nothing But the Law of Moses. But it's amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
And anything other than that is a perversion of the gospel. We're glad you listened today and hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource, the Jesus Loves Them bundle, which comes as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your bundle when you call and give, 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
