The First Reformation Part 2

Literally, they erupted in joy. Verse 32 says, Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened their brethren with a lengthy message. But it seemed good to Silas to remain there, but Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch teaching and preaching, with many others also the word of the Lord. The truth is declared. What are the results of this reformation?

Let me give you two of them. First of all, the Jews were silenced, yet stretched. The definition of salvation will not include any work of man's hand. The garments of righteousness have not one stitch that's handmade. Everything about the Gospel is centered on Jesus Christ. Jesus accomplished our salvation and offers it to us freely.

All we contribute is our glad and joyful acceptance of His free gift. That's what the Bible teaches, even though many religions of the world teach something different. They teach that salvation is something that you can earn by being good enough. But to know the truth, we must rely on the Scriptures.

The dividing line between truth and error is this. What does the Bible say? This is wisdom for the heart, and this message is called the First Reformation. During the time Acts 15 was being written, if you had interviewed the average Jewish Christian on the street, they would probably have whispered to you in confidence, Hey, we have way too many Gentiles in the church, and I don't like it. In fact, as we discovered in part one, the church was changing, and the Jews were no longer the majority stockholder in the church. It was taking on a Gentile look, and it was time that somebody did something. So some Jewish leaders left Jerusalem and went to Antioch, and they sort of dug in their Israelite heels, and they said, Look, if you want to be part of us, there are some things you're going to have to do.

And so a Reformation is needed in the first century church, and grace through faith in Christ alone must win. And it will, as we study this, we'll notice, verse four, skip there, when they arrived at Jerusalem. They were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who believed stood up, saying, It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the law of Moses. And the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter, and after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth a Gentile should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are. And all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

And this is sort of where we left off in our last discussion. Peter has clearly declared that salvation is by faith in Christ without any works or man-made institutions. The covenant with Israel had been supplanted by a new covenant, and that covenant had been declared from the cross of Jesus Christ.

As he hung there, he said, to Telestai, it is finished. That means I have paid for everything. I can now offer humanity and to those who will believe a free salvation. This is a gift.

It's not a gift received as a gift if you work for it, if you do anything for it, whether it's baptism or joining the church or doing good deeds or whatever. All those things are wonderful, but you can't add them to the definition of salvation or you have created another gospel. Now, notice verse 13. After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, Brethren, listen to me. Now, stop a second before we listen to him. Why should they listen to James?

Who is he? Well, you want to know that, for one thing, he was the leading elder in the Jerusalem church. He was also the half-brother of Jesus, born to Mary and Joseph sometime after Jesus was virgin born, along with some other brothers and sisters, according to the gospel account.

And they all unanimously denied Jesus. They didn't believe he was the Messiah. In fact, at one point, the gospels tell us that they came to take him away thinking he was mad, claiming to be the Messiah. But the post-resurrected Christ, 1 Corinthians 15 tells us, appeared to his half-brother in a personal, private meeting.

We don't know what was said, what was done, but it was at that moment that James was changed forever, undoubtedly placing his faith to the point where he will later write in his book that we know is the book of James. He will not write of his relationship to Jesus as a half-brother. He will say, I am the bondservant of God and of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He's the one now speaking. He was also particularly careful to keep the law. In fact, in the book of James, he'll refer to the law more than 10 times. So when he stood to speak, people kind of thought, all right, you know, the Judaizers are thinking, okay, James is now speaking. He'll straighten this whole mess out.

Go get him. Here he goes. Verse 14, Simon Peter is related how God first concerned himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for his name.

Wait a second here. James, in this one phrase, not only sides with Peter and Paul, but he uses one of the pet designations used for the children of Israel. They, the Jewish people, were the people called by God a people of his name, chosen for his name. James uses that special designation and applies it to, of all things, Gentiles.

This is not going very well for these people that want him to speak. What they felt was the truth. In fact, James, what kind of proof do you have to ever use that designation for a Gentile? What scripture do you have? I think he would have said, I'm glad you asked that, sir, ma'am, because Amos, chapter 9, verse 11, says something very interesting. And James goes on to quote that passage now that shows up in verse 16. After these things, Amos says, we're quoting God, I will return and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which is fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are what? Called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from old.

Now, here's James' logic. Amos tells us that in the coming kingdom, there will be a Gentile people called by God's name. James, like all the Old Testament prophets, were standing at a distance prophesying under inspiration. And they saw the first coming of Jesus Christ, born as a babe, as the first mountain peak. And behind that mountain, they could make out another mountain peak, and that was the coming millennial kingdom, a literal kingdom in which the Messiah would reign upon the throne of David. What they could not see and did not, God would reveal the mystery of the church to the New Testament authors. What they did not see was the valley in between those two mountain peaks. That valley is what we call the church age.

A broader term is the dispensation of grace, or the dispensation of the church. And James is simply concluding, you know, Amos said that there will be Gentiles in that coming kingdom. Well, they can't get there unless they get in here. So since they're going to be in there, they must certainly be allowed in here. So it's time we open our hearts to the Gentiles.

They are as special to God as we are. This is a shocking declaration, and he now moves into his verdict, verse 19. Therefore, it is my judgment, krino, verdict, decree, it is my decree that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles.

That's it. Faith in Christ alone has won the day. Church bells in the Gentile world could begin to ring. They don't have to do anything man-made to be saved. They are not second-class.

They are first-class citizens along with their Jewish brethren. In the eyes of God, they are full partners in this corporation called the New Testament Church. Sola fidei, faith alone has won based upon sola scriptura, the Scriptures alone. And this is where it really gets interesting. The next word, verse 20, he goes on to say, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

Now, just a second here. You know, we're flying along so well, and the warm breeze of grace and liberty is refreshing to us, but all of a sudden, in the next phrase, you sort of feel this cold chill of legalism. And so soon, ladies and gentlemen, you must understand here that James is no longer referring to the definition of salvation. He is now referring to the demonstration of salvation. He is not a legalist. Well, legalism, properly defined, is the belief that if you don't do this, and don't do that, and don't do this, and don't do that, and you do this, and do that, and do this, and do that. If you don't and you do those things, then you are a believer.

You're a Christian. You see how legalism is tied to the definition of salvation. James is not tying it to the definition of salvation. In fact, look at the latter part in verse 29. He'll read a very key phrase in the middle part as they write this letter, and he says at the end of it, If you keep yourselves free from such things, we'll look at him in a moment, you will, what, be saved?

No, you will do well. The verb is to be strengthened. That is, your testimony will be strengthened in the community where you live if you abstain from these certain things. See, he's no longer dealing with the definition of Christianity. He's dealing with the demonstration of Christianity. And saying, in effect, don't flaunt your freedom, Gentiles. And I, frankly, feel we're living in a day where this struggle is ongoing, obviously.

There's never been a day when it hadn't been. There are two extremes. I believe, personally, that the person who runs around saying, you know, grace, grace, liberty, liberty, I can do anything I want, and if you say anything negatively about my lifestyle, things that I do, then you're automatically a weaker brother. And so none of us want to be characterized as a weaker brother, so we kind of keep our mouths shut and scratch our heads and say, well, boy, how do they do that?

That person is as immature in his faith as the other extreme, the person who runs around looking for rules for everything. He's got his list and his catalogue. He's reading everybody's mail. He's sort of, he was born in the accusative mode. And part of the problem we have today is we're not asking questions. We're not asking distinctive issues. We're not trying to struggle with that. We're just saying, for the most part in the church today, hey, we're under grace, man. Don't say anything about me or you're a legalist and you're a weaker brother.

Only weaker brothers get bothered. And so we struggle today. That's why I find this letter to the Gentiles so intriguing. You see, because most of the New Testament, in fact, you can make a case that all of the New Testament, in its majority part, really doesn't deal with specific activity that we face in the 20th century. It deals in broad principle form. That's what's so intriguing is because James here becomes painfully specific to these Gentile believers.

Let's break the request down into its four components. Number one, in verse 20, if you look there, we'll find the things that they're told not to do. We write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols.

Okay, that's the first one. Does that mean that an idol is a living God? No, they knew it was a dumb lump of clay or wood. Is he validating idolatry? Is something real?

No. In fact, Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 8, we know that idols don't exist. And he deals with the issue of meat offered to idols.

And that was the problem here. Much of the meat for sale on the Gentile market had been previously offered to the idol, the best meat in town. And so to eat such meat in Jewish eyes was to become a partaker in the industry of idolatry.

And that was offensive. So he says to them, don't do it. Now you'd think he'd say, now what I'm going to do, I'm going to write to Jews a letter and tell them to straighten up and grow up and all that. No, he writes a letter to them and says, don't do it.

At least for now. Second, they're to abstain from fornication. Now this is the only part of James' request that's backed up by other New Testament scripture, isn't it? The Gentile world is widely, at this point in time, tolerant of sexual sin. In fact, the word porneia here rendered fornication could refer to the entire industry of immorality. It's the word that gives us the word pornography.

Found it interesting in studying Roman history that Tiberius, the Roman emperor, had collected the largest library of pornography known to the Roman empire as his own private collection. It was rampant in this day. I happen to believe that the Gentile Christians were challenged here to clean out their closets as well as purify their relationships. There is to be no intimacy outside of the bonds of marriage. That was the point, and he said to stop it. Third, he said abstain from what is strangled.

Now this is really, really specific, isn't it? This is simply a reference to non-kosher meat. The Jews had a practice of killing an animal in such a way that its blood would drain away and that some cleansing ceremonies related to those kinds of things. So they're telling the Gentiles now, when you go to the butcher to buy that meat, we want you to ask a question to that butcher, old Sam.

We've been working with him for years. You ask Sam, how'd you kill that animal? Now wouldn't that be awkward for a Gentile?

You can just see old Sam going, what? How'd you kill the animal? Well, I don't know, we had some guys that probably strangled a bunch of them. Well, I can't eat that.

The fourth is even more specific. They were to abstain, in fact the last part of verse 29 gives the same list again, I'm not giving them in the same order that James gave them, but he says to abstain in effect from blood. Touching blood? Eating blood? Leviticus 17 is the axiom around this Old Testament principle that the life of the flesh is in the what? The blood then belonged on the altar of God. It was a sacrifice to him, representative of the life, it didn't belong on your plate, so Gentiles, no more rare steaks. No more rare meat, even if you like it that way.

Cook it well, done. How incredibly specific. Why these rules, James? Okay, if he were speaking to us in here, we'd say, okay, give me 10 good reasons.

Why? Wouldn't we? He gives them one. You might not like it, but here it is, verse 21. For Moses, from ancient generations, has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. That's it.

That's it. Because the Jewish people you're trying to reach and the Jewish people you've already reached would be offended in their struggle between the law of Moses and the grace of the New Testament church. So out of deference to them, he says, limit your liberty so that the cause of Jesus Christ can be advanced.

Have you ever done that? That's what he's telling them to do. Put it in common terms, he says, don't let a rare steak get in the way of the gospel. It was no longer a matter of law.

It was now a matter of love. So let's read this letter dictated by James, starting with verse 24. Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these.

Now follow this. He's admitting that he's laying a burden on them. But he says, I don't want to lay a burden that's too great.

So I just give you these. And he uses the word essentials. Interesting word.

We would call them trivial. At this particular point in church history, these characteristics were what he considered essential to their testimony and integrity. He says, these essentials, what are they?

Verse 29, did you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication? If you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.

Fascinating. I could give you a list right now of hot issues. But I'm not going to because I want the issues in your mind right now to trouble you if there are any. Where is it that you're losing distinctive character and testimony before a watching world? When we live in a generation where for the most part the church has sort of melted into the world, we don't usually ask the question, how does what I do, how does what I eat, how does what I wear affect the testimony of the church? We have adopted the relativistic attitude of the world that says, this truth is for me, it's good for me.

And so the talk shows are filled with people that everybody applauds about because they're doing what they think is right for them. And now that sort of comes into the church where we say, well, this is right for me and there's no verse. So don't be a weaker brother.

Grow up. Or do we out of deference and love consider those who are walking behind us for the sake of the testimony of Jesus Christ? I was invited sometime ago to speak in a conference and I knew, I'll give you a couple of illustrations, that the majority of people there would be carrying King James versions. And if I got up and preached out of my translation, which is sort of a little bit of translation work that I do in the Greek text and I read from the New American Standard, that that would immediately put up a wall.

So what did I do? I could spend a whole session explaining the issues of translation. Or I could get one of my old King James versions and preach out of that, which I did. See, that I think is coming out of this, choosing to act by the law of love for the sake of Christ.

Let me read you what Chuck Swindoll writes on this subject. He says this, Wishing to avoid needless and often unintentional offense, James wanted to remind the Gentile Christians to love their Jewish brothers and sisters by voluntarily restricting their liberty in these kinds of practices. Don't flaunt your freedom, James was saying. Restricting one's liberty is a burden, but limiting our freedom for the sake of others shows maturity. Harmony in the body of Christ often depends on our willingness to forego a privilege.

That good? This is not capitulating to legalism. It is a sign of maturity and love. Well, would the Gentile believers love the Jews enough to change their eating habits? Isn't it interesting how we've been studying how the Jews had to do all the changing and now all of a sudden, bang, the Gentiles have to change. Will they reciprocate? Will they graciously demonstrate the gospel of grace?

Well, let's find out. Verse 30. So when they were sent away, that is from Jerusalem, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.

And you just want to hang on to your hat. And when they had read it, notice, they rejoiced. Literally, they erupted in joy because of its encouragement.

What an incredible attitude. They just were burdened, but they are erupting with joy. And after they had spent time there, verse 32 says, Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened their brethren with a lengthy message. And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from their brethren in peace to those who had sent them out. But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.

But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching, with many others also the word of the Lord. This is incredible. The Reformation has come. It's finished. The truth is declared. What are the results of this Reformation?

Let me give you two of them. First of all, the Jews were silenced, yet stretched. The definition of salvation will not include any work of man's hand. The garments of righteousness have not one stitch that's handmade. It's all of God. And then they were stretched to incorporate a people that God had chosen for his name, and they had to get used to that.

And they did it. Secondly, the Gentiles were included, yet cautioned. They were challenged to do three things. If you're following in your notes, they were challenged to avoid anything associated with idolatry, anything associated with sexual immorality.

Then they were challenged to limit their liberty in order to advance the church. Do you see yourself as part of a family, part of a body? Have you ever asked the question about where you go and what you do and what you wear and what you eat and drink and all of that? Have you ever asked those kinds of questions in relation to the church? How will this affect the testimony of my spiritual family?

How will this advance the cause of Jesus Christ? That's what he wants us to ask. In fact, let me give you two personal questions as we race toward the conclusion here. Number one, is there anything in my private life that is disobedient to God's will? Where nobody can see, it might be my plans, my dreams, my intentions. It might be things I listen to or watch, things I hide. Is there anything that would be disobedient to God's will? Secondly, is there anything in my public lifestyle that could hinder God's work? Is there anything about the way you talk at work that would confuse people about your testimony? Is there anything about the way you act, how you're entertained?

All those questions that would hinder, confuse, disrupt the advancement of Christ's church. Stephanie Stevenson, you've never heard of her? She was talked about in this article that I received this month. You will hear of her if you at least get this magazine, Moody Monthly, great magazine.

Jerry Jenkins is writing and his article is entitled, A Matter of Principle. And I thought she's a classic illustration of something we're talking about that other people might say, oh, you know, you just need to lighten up. But yet she felt that it would obstruct and confuse her testimony for Christ. Listen to what happened to her. She was a freshman at Southwest Missouri State University, music major. And her teacher encouraged her to try out for the Broadway production for experience, say. And so she did with hundreds of others. It was coming to Brandon, Missouri and would be played there and so she was trying out for that part. She was shocked to get a phone call from the director in New York a few weeks later asking her if she would be willing to travel to New York and audition.

They had whittled it down to five women. She was one of the five. She had always dreamed of playing on Broadway. And her family was excited. She was a farm girl. Her parents were farmers, deeply committed to Jesus Christ.

And they talked about it and they agreed. And so she got on a plane and went to New York and auditioned. A few weeks later she received a phone call that she'd landed the role. But because she didn't have as much experience as other veteran actresses, she was asked to join a traveling group that would travel for one year to give her stage experience and then she would join the Broadway cast of Les Misérables. So she joined the troupe and the first performance the parts were handed out and she was given the part of a prostitute who wore a very revealing costume. She was torn over this dilemma.

And she struggled with everything that you would assume she'd struggle with. In fact, she approached the director and asked if she could have a different part and he gave her the typical answer you would expect. It's just acting. You cannot separate your personal life from this role. You'll never make it in this business.

She appealed to higher authority and they gave her the same answer. You need to get over this. It's just acting.

It's not really you. And get on with your career. She resigned and walked away from her hopes. The associate director and executive producer of Les Mis told the Associated Press, it wasn't in the newspaper, you don't hear this kind of stuff. But what a great testimony.

Here's what he said to the Associated Press. She's gorgeous and she's talented and she could have played the daylights out of the role, probably to great acclaim on Broadway. But I respect what she did. She's a brave young girl to forego an amazing career. She walked away from a career.

But in the process, she honored the name and the cause of Jesus Christ. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. Would you like to receive occasional text messages and updates from Stephen? Or maybe you'd prefer email.

Well, we'd love to communicate with you. Stephen sends ministry updates and words of encouragement to those on his email or text list. If you're not receiving those, please sign up today. You can navigate to wisdomonline.org forward slash email. That's the address for both email and text updates. Once again, it's wisdomonline.org forward slash email. Once you're signed up, you can also send Stephen a text or email. We'd enjoy interacting with you this way. To receive ministry updates and words of encouragement, sign up today. In the days ahead, we're going to continue through this vintage wisdom series from the book of Acts. Make plans to join us for more Wisdom for the Heart. .