Missions Paul

No!

Acts 15:11 “No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

No! We will not become a church that sacrifices grace for performance.

No! We will not become a church where salvation only exists in our way.

No! We will not become a church where the Lord Jesus is not seen.

No! We will not become a church that has controlling disputes.

No! We will not become a church that is full of pride.

No! We will not become a church that thinks more of itself than of others who are yet to come in.

No! We will not become a church that self-promotes and self-congratulates its own achievements.

No! We will not become a church that will not change for fear of offending the past.

No! We will not become a church that carries a sign of purity but not the heart.

No! We will not become a church that enforces our journey on to others.

No to circumcision for all.

No!

 

 

 

The yoke

Acts 15:10

Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

A strange sight to see a harness put around the neck of a person then asking that person to pull farm equipment. A picture we do not see and if we saw it we would call it slavery. It is wrong.

Peter uses the picture for the numerous rituals, regulations and observances like circumcision that are placed on new believers which are just incapable to be carried.

The yoke of Jesus is easy and light, the yoke of man is difficult and heavy.

What the Judaisers did to the Church was repeated throughout the generations, by the Church. We created new commandments from this verse and that verse. Biblical principles became Church commandments that if kept brought you in and if lapsed kept you out.

Many have left us because the yoke was too heavy. We don’t insist on circumcision but we insist on other things. The irony is that not one person in the Church has been able to accomplish its demands.

In the bustle of all this performance we have lost or killed grace, but we have kept the yoke, but the yoke doesn’t bring life.

When will we learn?

Why do we do this?

 

Just the same

Acts 15:9 “He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”

You are as loved as the next person in the eyes of God.

The other person may have had a better start in life, they may have been brought up differently, they may look like they are closer to God than you, they may speak like their salvation is more assured than yours but worry not. There is no distinction.

You may have a list of sins longer than most.

You may be weaker than the weakest.

But you have faith in Jesus and Jesus has purified your heart.

Your purity doesn’t come from the cutting of flesh or some other abstinence but from a cut of brokenness, of the need of a Saviour.

Your purity isn’t from performance but from His action on the cross.

Your purity isn’t from you, it is from Him.

Your purity isn’t announced by man but from Him.

Your purity is not yours, it is His.

But it is the same purity.

No distinction.

Just the same.

Actually, even better!

Grace v circumcision

Acts 15:8 “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us”.

Peter has just started opposing the need for circumcision as a sign for salvation. He has taken the council at Jerusalem back to his testimony story of the household of Cornelius. They were all saved and filled with the Spirit before circumcision.

God knew their heart, he didn’t need an outward sign to know whether they were genuine or not, He knew. Circumcision is therefore not for God’s benefit but that of man.

The Holy Spirit is given before they are able to do any performance ritual or any duty to demonstrate to others that they belong to Him. He moves before we move. Such grace!

Man will always demand some attempt from you to prove that you are who you say you are. Resist at all costs. Do not fall into that trap of performance. Stay with grace!

 

 

The Past

 

Acts 15:7

“After 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 believe.”

 

So here he stands again, the leading apostle, Peter, on his feet, making his argument.

The discussion has been that of circumcision. Now Peter begins his speech.

He will be arguing against the practice of circumcision needing to be used on Christ followers in order of proof of salvation.

How does he address this? “Brothers, you know that some time ago …”

Peter takes us back in the past, 10 years precisely when God had saved the household of Cornelius.

The lesson is that our point of reference should be the past.

Do you know what happened in the past?

Do you know the history of your life?

Do you remember that sermon or that inspired conversation? Do you remember that person?

Some people want to rubbish the past or remove it by saying it never really happened.

Some say looking back means you are not moving forward.

But the past is our teacher. It is our foundation. It contains seeds of thought that help today’s new questions.

Some time ago God …..

What did God do in your past?

Let that be the steer of your life now.

Let it form the correct decisions today.

 

 

Imagining questions

Acts 15:6 “The apostles and elders met to consider this question.”

The question of circumcision as an important addition to belief as the means of salvation is under scrutiny. Peter was amongst the group but there were the others also plus the elders of the Church. The apostles who had spent 3 years with Jesus are meeting to consider circumcision. Jesus hadn’t given them any instruction on this matter. This had come about because of the advancement of the gospel by the Spirit. The questions of your life yesterday are not sufficient for today. Not if you are growing and experiencing the surrendering of your life to the Spirit. You need to keep considering more questions. In a world that seeks answers, the church is tempted to declare they have all the answers. We don’t. There is a shortage of questions. We got rid of many of those who considered new questions, they moved to the fringe and today some have left the house. The church is unified in its sameness. But we are also stuck.

Vision is not only that of seeing where we are going and what we will be doing or what God will be doing for us. Vision is becoming unstuck from where we are through considering questions we have never asked.

There needs to be a new imagining: The imagining of questions.

We need to find the question: Why do we do what we do? Why do we believe what we believe? Why are we who we say we are? Why are the important unshakeable truths so? Why?

Vision only comes through the consideration of questions. If we don’t question then we will stop making new discoveries.

One thing

 

Acts 15:5

“Then 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.”

You see it is never just one thing.

Just when you think it is just about circumcision then comes an add-on. Not just one more thing but a list of requirements. Sabbath observance, the key Jewish festivals in fact the whole law of Moses is now required if you are going to be a true follower. So says those who were Pharisees before conversion and Pharisees after conversion! These people continually increase their list of rules. It never ends, there is no pleasing them and their God. We have to jump through hoops in order to be accepted.

If Paul had given into the need for circumcision then it would have been the whole law that was needed to be saved.

Sometimes there is no alternative but to reject the whole. Don’t allow any part of the law to be attached to your faith. There is nothing you can do to cause you to be saved, not one thing, it is total grace. Not one performance, not one sin-free day, not one commandment or act of purity or sacrificial giving, nothing. Get rid of the whole notion.

Don’t be friends with Pharisees because you will lose the one thing that is of all importance, grace.

 

 

 

In and through us.

Acts 15:4 “When 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”.

 

“This is not us, this is God.

Our report reveals the responsibility lies with God.

We did not do those things, God did them.

It looked like we had done them and people thought we had but we know it was God behind it all.

We found that it isn’t what is outside of us that is most powerful but what is moving through us.

This is God.

God is moving through us.

There is so much more to happen.

He is moving.

Please do not stand in the way.

That is our report”

 

Stories

Acts 15:3

”The 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.”

They were sent on their way to convince the Jerusalem church leaders that the Gentiles did not need circumcision for salvation.

They are ready to vehemently stand and oppose the position of circumcision. They will fight this at all costs.

So along the way what is their focus? When they are travelling and stopping by these new churches that have been established, what do they talk about? Is it circumcision? Is it Jerusalem?

They focus on the salvation of the Gentiles.

Paul was consumed with the desire to see people find Christ. It was everything to him.

The gospel was not a past-time it was everything.

So as he travelled he told people stories of the power of the gospel.

I know something of this personally.

I love to tell stories too. The stories of salvation, visions and dreams of Christ, disciples made, churches planted, healings and all these things are happening now.

Never underestimate the power of a testimony of a life that has been sold out for God.

Keep the stories ever before you. Let them keep your focus. Let them guide you along the way. Let them bless you.

Fight for freedom

Acts 15:2 “This 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.”

The questions was that the Gentiles according to certain parts of the Jewish Church must be circumcised and follow the commands of Moses in order to be saved. Without this it is not possible. Those who held to this view were passionate and believed they were defending God therefore they would do whatever was needed to put a stop to this, even if it meant a 300 mile journey.

The Church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas once more. But this time it wasn’t to the Gentile world but to the Church in Jerusalem that the mission team was sent.

Sometimes it is necessary for the mission to be directed towards the Church.

The Church has the habit of being its own worst enemy. Who needs the devil when the Church can do his work for him? The Church can lay expectations, requirements and responsibilities at the feet of the converted and then wonder why they never grow into disciples.

We must at all costs stand up against anything that would suggest it is Jesus plus = salvation.

We must defend and fight for freedom.

How easy it is for people to walk in freedom and then end up in captivity to things stronger than what they were freed from. They do it because unless there is freedom in the heart they will always find themselves held in chains of compromise.