Follow The Spirit — Acts 14-15

0:00 Myself that much. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be here. I don't know if... Did anybody watch Artemis two splashdown this week?

0:14 Was it... I'm not I'm not a part of of NASA, but I was... It was nerve racking. I thought to myself, how many times since takeoff did those astronauts like have to worry about a period of time where their life would just like evaporate? Coming back into the atmosphere, that...

0:42 I I don't think I could do that. I'm just picturing like this little thing just falling into pieces, and I'm in it, and then I'm not, and then it's over. But what an amazing work, hey, to launch a spaceship, have it go all the way around the moon and come back. And you got to think, the amount of people that were involved in that mission was incredible. The shots of mission control just cheering when they started taking the astronauts out of integrity, and it was just a really cool moment where you saw a bunch of people came together from all sorts of different places.

1:32 You guys even let a Canadian in the spaceship. That was... Thank you very much. That was cool. But even even in space exploration, it's funny how like the lines of nationality get blurred, isn't it?

1:47 How people from different places oftentimes you hear like somebody from Russia and The US is in the International Space Station. You're like, I wonder what kind of conversations they have at night before bed. But it's incredible how there are some things in life that are so big that a bunch of people will band together who wouldn't ordinarily get along or have a reason to be connected. They do something incredible that's never been done before, like circling the moon and coming back. It's a pretty crazy thing.

2:24 I wonder if when we get to heaven, we're gonna realize just how big of a deal it was that we got to be a part of God's mission on earth. There is no reason for all of these people in this room to be here today except for Christ. And looking back at Paul's first missionary journey and seeing it come to fruition and seeing really this statement of mission accomplished, it almost, you kind of get that same feeling like how many people were involved in Paul and Barnabas going out? How many people prayed? How many people supported?

3:15 How many people encouraged? How many people snuck them around the cities as so many wanted to kill them in their journey? And how amazing it is when God accomplishes a great mission among us and allows us to be a part of it. And we see this where you guys are at in Acts chapter 14. One mission is done, but just like just like the trip to the moon and back, as soon as they land, they start talking about Artemis three.

3:58 The same people are gonna go back to the drawing board, take all of the data they learned, and they're gonna shoot somebody or a team of people back up there, and they're gonna do it again. That kinda... It reminds me a little bit of the Christian life. It's just constant. We're not done until we're done.

4:18 It's not over until we're in glory. We keep going. And throughout Paul's missionary journeys, and we're gonna see this especially in this passage, the the mission of God on earth is full of ups and downs. Times where everyone's rejoicing, and then times where everyone's in a room arguing for what's important. And all of those are part of it.

4:59 From there, they sailed back to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God... Or where they had been commended to the commended to the grace of God for the work that had now been completed. After they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported everything God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And they spent a considerable amount of time there. Many have pointed out that Paul and Barnabas seemed to be in a hurry to come back.

5:31 I don't know how exactly they knew this. How they knew the mission was fully done. But it's it's actually quite incredible. I don't know about you. I like getting...

5:43 I like doing the same thing. I don't like change a lot. If I can get into a groove of doing something, I like to keep it going. But somehow these apostles, these disciples, these believers, they they were so in tune with the spirit of God that as soon as the mission was completed and they knew that they had done the work that God had sent them to do, they come back home to where they'd been sent. And I think it's a really good testimony to just a small little lesson here that when we're doing God's work, we have to be so open to him changing and moving us around and doing different things.

6:25 Knowing that where we are now is where he wants us now. We're so prone to get comfortable. These disciples, when they knew they were done, I think it's John Phillips that the kind of writing of the text makes it act like they rushed back. Apparently, this trip back was around 102 to 130 miles by land and about three twenty miles by sea. That's a long way.

7:04 It's a long journey back. They actually chose to go a difficult way back. People who know the geography better than I do say they could have come back via Tarsus, would have been a much better trip back. It would have been much more comfortable. But they went back and confirmed the believers that they developed along the way, the churches that they built along the way.

7:27 They took the hard way home in order to encourage the saints. You see this through Acts. These these men and women who served God in those days were just so happy to do God's work. Their concern was for God's people. So they come back.

7:49 They confirm the believers there. And I like this. When they got back, they gathered the church to report all that God had done through them. This comes up at least three times in this passage. What God had done through them.

8:05 What God had done through them. What God had done through them. Again, pulling out some principles that I think are important here. It would be crazy, wouldn't it, if an astronaut jumped out of that spaceship and said, man, was I ever good at sending myself to space? Did you guys see that?

8:31 Did you see how I see how I perfectly landed that thing? Pulled the parachute right at the right time. I don't even think they have anything to do with that. But let's just say they took credit for it. Be very off putting, wouldn't it?

8:45 It's like you had a whole team of people behind you. But in the church it's different. Too often we're tempted to take credit for what God has done. And we're tempted to look at the gifting and the power that God works through us and say, look what look what I did. When they come back, they're very careful to say over and over again, look at what God has done through us.

9:22 What an encouraging thing that God is willing to do things through us. In fact, in many ways, isn't it crazy to think that the gospel traveled all the way from Jerusalem and eventually found its way here. Aren't you thankful that God's been working throughout the world since Pentecost? And and we get to be a part of that. So they come back and they report.

10:22 She's not really a girl. She's very much an adult. Married. But the Lord called her to go to a Middle Eastern country as a single woman working at a university. She wound up marrying a guy there.

10:37 They have a child, but they work in secrecy and they use VPNs and WhatsApp and all sorts of different things to stay under the radar as they try to reach people. It's incredible. It's like a... They were just recently back and I was talking to her husband and I'm like, he literally will get up and walk around the city and just pray, Lord, who do you want me to speak to today? And funny enough, the spirit of God shows him.

11:11 And they get in conversations with people who are interested. It's so encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing around the world. Because the Lord's working. He hasn't stopped. And he's doing amazing things.

11:24 And he calls us to be a part of that. And that's amazing. So whenever you get to be a part of what God's doing, make sure that the the organizer of the effort, God Almighty, the Holy Spirit gets the credit, not us, Because it's his work. So they come back. They travel a long way.

11:46 And they tell them how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And this will become kind of the theme for chapter 15. Becomes a bit of a sticking point. Some have pointed out that Paul doesn't head back out again on that missionary journey until this problem that comes up gets solved. Because it's very important that the church has correct doctrine and that there's unity for the evangelistic work to go on.

12:16 So we see that they come back. It's estimated that they spend about a year back at Antioch encouraging the disciples there. And in verse 15, the plot thickens. Those who are who are doing God's work, invariably somehow problems will come up. You'll see this through the book of Acts.

12:35 If you if you are in the middle of doing some sort of ministry for God and you keep having trials come in your way. For one, you've got to be careful and make sure that if there's problems coming, it's not you. So I want to make that qualifier. But look at everything that Paul and Barnabas just went through. They just got back.

13:00 I I think their last their last, the last episode in their story was they they got stoned. And then they would go back out again, and Timothy would come with them. And it'd be a different group because there's a bit of a spat, and that's not in my section today. But they would have these inner problems, these external or internal problems, meaning Paul had... He had his thorn in the flesh.

13:26 But then there was people around within the church. Problems would arise there. But then there was the unsaved world. Problems would arise there. And then there were people within their own life personally that there would be disagreements with.

13:44 And sometimes that throws us for a loop when inside of the church itself there's internal problems. It makes sense that the government didn't want Christianity spreading. It makes sense that the Jews would oppose the Gospel. It makes sense that Rome would oppose Christians. It does not make sense that Jewish believers would oppose God's work.

14:15 And we... I'm not smart enough to know whether all of these people who were propagating this problem that came up were saved or not. It says believers. I imagine some of them, I don't even want to guess because I don't know their heart. But within the book of Acts, see people who are unsaved, protagonists of the church acting like they're a part of it for their own gain.

14:40 And then you see some people within the church who stumble upon the wrong teaching and need to be corrected. And at the end of the day, as we go through this, it's very important in God's church that our egos get pushed aside and God's word gets elevated. Because at the end of the day, if we fail to deliver to the world and to God's people the truth of the word of God in exchange for our own ideas and our own ego, the ramifications of that are really horrible. Think about it. The community around hearing the gospel, that's what's at stake if we don't get God's word right.

15:58 So you have some come from Judea. These people, we don't have social media and we don't have email back then. So it was very possible for people to leave Jerusalem, which would have been seen seen as kind of a doctrinal hub. In fact, that's why they send them back to Jerusalem to get the truth, get it sorted out. So you would have people in that day, they would come from the church at Jerusalem.

16:28 They would say, we're from Jerusalem. And there would be a long time lag before you'd ever be able to confirm that they are who they said they are or not or if they were sent. In fact, the disciples and the apostles at Jerusalem say later, men have gone out from us who weren't sent by us. Don't believe them. But because information traveled on the back of a camel and not through light speed of a cell phone, these people could do a lot of damage.

17:02 And Antioch was kind of like a hub. And so one sidebar on this is it's really interesting that God brought Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch for a time when God knew that the Gospel would be challenged and the perfect person to meet that challenge would be Paul or people, Barnabas as well. And so they, it says that there's no small disagreement. It means that there is fierce debate. When it comes to salvation by faith and faith alone, if you're wondering what in the Christian experience is worth like fighting tooth and nail for?

17:43 What is it that's worth going to the mat on? What is the hill that's worth dying on? It is salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and his work alone. Nothing added. If you lose that, if you compromise on that, everything else is a waste and you're found spreading a gospel that's not true.

18:10 The implications of those men coming to Antioch and that message being shot out throughout the world would be cataclysmic. And God put his men there to stop it. And so they're there arguing it. You know what? This message is still debated today.

18:29 Isn't it interesting you guys are going through acts? Don't you find it funny that all of the debates that happened back then are still happening today? There are still many people who are shouting from the mountaintop, faith plus works. And we're still declaring faith in Christ alone is what saves. I can't add anything to what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

18:58 And how dare I try? So Paul and Barnabas with a few others get sent to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. On their way there, they stop at Phoenicia and Samaria, and they keep doing this thing. They explain what God had done through them and how the Gentiles were saved. This was a big deal.

19:25 The nation of Israel, the Jews, they really, the Christian Jews really had to get this through their mind. God is saving the Gentiles in the same way he's saving you. By faith in Christ, not the law. And those who had power based off of the law like the Pharisees, even those Pharisees it seems who came to Christ, they couldn't seem to get past the fact that God didn't need them to be the policeman of the church or the policeman of his people. And to hold down people with legalistic qualifications to get into heaven that God himself wasn't asking.

20:08 So they get sent there and on the way they describe in detail the conversion of the Gentiles in verse three, which brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. You're gonna see two occasions where this happens, these first two. They go back to Antioch. They tell them what God is doing. Everybody's ecstatic.

20:28 They go to Phoenicia. They go to Samaria. They tell them what God is doing. It brings great joy. Can I give you a tip in the Christian life?

20:36 If someone has come to tell you about the work of God and how God is saving souls, the correct response is joy. That's the correct response. But now it's going to happen a third time. And I want you to notice the response. Verse four.

21:27 Can anyone tell me the difference between the requirements that the men from Judah had made versus this one? What's the addition to the Gospel and how does it change in verse five? Just shout it out. Yeah. They added the law.

21:49 When you start adding to the word of God and you get to be the rule maker and you get to decide what it is to be a Christian, not only somehow men went out saying, we're going to say circumcision. But now these men, these Pharisees are saying, it's not only circumcision, but you must keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. Well, that's a lot tougher. In fact, again, I'm not a scholar, but some point out that what these pharisaical Jews were asking of the Gentile Christians was more than what God asked for proselytites in the Old Testament law. Isn't that crazy?

22:37 They were actually asking for more of them than God had in the old way of doing it. When you create a bunch of extra rules apart from the Bible in order to come to salvation, guess who gets to be the arbiter of those rules? The people who made them. And the rules change, they get harder, they get more, because it's more about those people having power than it is about Christ having preeminence. And so we have to be very careful because in a different way we can fall into this.

23:20 It's very good for us to question like is the Lord working? Is the Lord doing something? But if our first response to God doing a great thing through a missionary as well, were you doing it all right? Were you telling them to keep the law? There's something wrong when you can't feel joy about people coming from death to life.

23:44 If the first thing that comes to your mind is what's wrong with what they're doing, I think there's something wrong with our attitude. And it's something that you see in people like this throughout the New Testament. And it's seen in the church today. And I think in different ways. Maybe not perverting the gospel, but we can fall into cynicism where we just stop.

24:11 We start. We're more excited about being critical than we are about what God is doing in the lives of people. Like people went from going to eternity in hell to being saved by Christ and spending eternity in heaven. And so it seems here that there's more of a focus on their own power than on caring about the souls of lost people. If we ever get there, we have to really check our heart.

24:50 Because God is in the business of working in the lives of people. He's looking for people who are willing to shepherd and guard and look after and nurture and tend to his own. He's not looking for someone to club them and hold power over them and use the gospel as a means for control. That's not why we're here. Now it's important we stay biblical and it's important that we hold people to a biblical standard.

25:22 But these men were not doing that. They were using the word of God and the gospel to garner power and control. And they were willing to pervert the gospel to do it. So the apostles in verse six and elders gathered to consider the matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stands up.

26:32 There's debate on where this falls into the timeline. Whether Galatians was written before this or after this. There's many who believe both. I kinda like the idea that Galatians was already written, but I'm not a historian and these aren't aren't hills I want to die on because I just I feel there's people who put so much more time into to it than I have. But if Galatians had already been written, and if Peter and Paul had already had their face to face argument, remember where Paul just has had enough of Peter's hypocrisy and and he goes right in his face, right in public and says, you're wrong.

27:20 Peter here has learned his lesson. That's the thing I love about Peter. He's got so much passion, and oftentimes he'll do the... He'll do what seems right in the wrong way. Like, no Lord, you can't wash my feet.

27:37 Wash all of me. You know, he has these swings. But when he gets it, man, you cannot hold that guy back. So he stands up. And this is like a courtroom, if you will.

27:49 It's like it's a council. They're trying to decide what's true. And and these Jewish believers, these pharisees... It says the pharisee party. I'm not exactly sure, but again, I imagine some of them probably weren't saved who are promoting this.

28:05 And some of them were, but were just really misguided. I don't know the full details. But they're there to prove by evidence what's the truth. And Paul and Barnabas have come and they've given their eyewitness testimony to God's work. And all these jokers can do is say, wait a second.

28:28 Did you circumcise them and tell them they got to keep the law to be saved because I don't care what God was up to there? If you forgot that detail, they're not saved. Come on. These men told you what God had done. And so Peter one ups the testimony of the disciples of of of Paul and Barnabas.

28:50 And he says, you know what? I know someone who bore witness to the exact same thing. God. Okay. Well, if you want to bring God as a testimony into the equation, maybe we should perk up and listen.

29:04 He's pretty authoritative. He did create the world. He created the whole thing. He sent his son. It's his gospel.

29:11 It's his church. So Peter invokes the witness of God. And he says, God bore witness to these people being saved because the Holy Spirit came on them exactly the same way as it came upon us when we were saved. That's what leads me to believe in more ways that a lot of these guys are Christian but were just really misled and needed to be corrected. But Peter is saying, you guys know full well that God put it on my heart to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel.

29:46 And we saw, we saw with our own eyes the same signs and wonders. That's why it was really important that those signs and wonders were done in order for the Jews to believe that God was working in the Gentile believer in the same way as he was working in the Jewish one. Because God knew how much it would take for the Jewish mind to be able to believe this. And so he says, God has bore witness to their salvation. What does he say?

30:21 I love this. Cleansing their hearts by faith. He really simplifies it. That's how they were cleansed. They weren't cleansed because they all of a sudden believed the law.

30:35 They weren't cleansed because they were circumcised. They were cleansed because they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the work on the cross just as you Jewish believers did. And God did the same thing to them. He cleansed their heart and gave them the Holy Spirit. Now he says this.

31:32 The Jews are in shambles as a nation because they failed to obey the law. They are in shambles as a people. They're under Roman rule. They have no king. God had been silent for four hundred years, not because the Pharisees were good at keeping the law, but because the Israelites, the Jewish people had been trash at keeping the law.

31:56 They couldn't do it. It was a yoke they couldn't even bear. And Peter is saying, listen, we grew up in this thing. We knew the law and we couldn't even get it done. Why in the world would we test God who has chosen to save by faith by adding a yoke to these new believers next that we who knew the law couldn't even meet?

32:21 And he warns them. Without saying it, but it's there. God will judge the one who distorts the Gospel and spreads a false version of the Gospel to the world. God will judge that one. And in fact, Paul would say in Galatians, if anyone comes to you preaching another Gospel than this, but faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ, Let that person be cursed.

32:53 And so he reminds them of the implications of what they're doing. You're not challenging men. You're opposing God. And God will not, will not put up with that. And then I like this.

33:12 It's cool you guys have been going through the book of Acts. I think we're almost out of time, but just a couple things. You'll see through the book of Acts this phrase, they were saved just like us. Just like us. This happened to them just like us.

33:26 Well Peter, I wonder if it was just to make the Pharisees eye twitch a little. He says, we were saved just like them. Notice this in verse seven. On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of our... Of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way they are.

33:48 I like that. Because so much of the time when people are getting saved in the Gentile community, the Jews are like, oh yeah, this is happening just like it did to us. But Peter flips it now and says, you guys were saved the same way the Gentiles were. How do you like that? The grace of God.

34:07 Faith in Christ. That's how. And he doesn't care who you are. He doesn't care what your last name is. He doesn't care what your bloodline is.

34:13 You come through Christ and Christ alone. So James stands up. He he talks about how he confirms what Simeon said. But between that, after Peter's done, seems to me Peter's probably pretty good at this, everyone's quiet. If there were crickets in Jerusalem, they were chirping and you could hear them.

34:41 And then now when the people's heart was right, Paul and Barnabas do what they did before. They declare what God had done in the Gentiles' hearts. James responded that Simeon reported how God had first intervened to take from the Gentiles the people to his name. Now in a council like this, you would want to go back to the word of God to solidify what's being said or to back it up. He goes to Amos chapter nine eleven to 12 and he reads a verse about how God will go to the Gentiles and call a people to himself from them.

35:21 And then verse 19, just in the sake of time, I think this is really important. It says, therefore in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God. Now I believe there's two different kinds of legalism. This is Ben Davy's opinion. This isn't thus saith the Lord.

36:04 I think there's also another kind of legalism that adds rules to Christians' lives that don't exist in the word of God. That take preferences and turn them into laws. One of the things about the Christian life is we rely a lot on the spirit of God working in our heart to change us. And so you see in church today, I'm not... I want you to hear me without thinking poorly of what I'm about to say.

36:34 But we have a lot of people who will judge you based on what you wear to church, what you sing at church, what you what Bible you bring into church. And all of those matter. They do, they actually do. I think we should pay attention to all of those things. But when you start making rules, I know a guy, a church not too far from us, if you didn't come to church in a black suit and a black tie, the elders are sitting you down.

37:02 Does God... Is that what God wants of us? There's so many big things that we need to change in our life. Does God want us to make sure the young Christian knows the color of his tie is wrong? I think if we're teaching the full counsel of God, and God really wanted every Christian to wear a black tie to church, that the Holy Spirit would convict every man to wear a black suit and a black tie to church, if given enough time to work in that life.

37:37 Do you know what I'm saying? If we teach what the Bible clearly says and let the Holy Spirit work in a life, we don't have to make rules that we hold over top of people to say, if you're Godly, you'll look like this. There's space for grace and growth. I'm not saying none of those things are important, so don't hear that. God does care about those things.

38:02 But when we make rules on how each of those things are to go, I think we do a very big danger of hurting Christians by giving them difficulties to bear that God did not put in his word. We have to be very careful to let the Holy Spirit push them towards that. I just, I think of, you know how Jesus, I wonder what it was like to be Jesus. He knew where he wanted his disciples to be in their life. But the amount of patience, care and love that he gave to them as he led them along the way oftentimes is missing from Christians.

38:37 And I think if Jesus was able to show that kind of grace to his disciples when he was perfect, We ought to be able to show grace and mercy as we, along with the help of God, push people towards the great and high goal of looking like Christ. James at the end says to them, this verse is kind of difficult. There's a lot of debate on it. But he basically says, let's instruct these people to live godly lives. And for the sake of the Jews especially, let's not drink or let's not eat meat offered to idols or drink blood.

39:11 And let's abstain from sexual immorality, which is part of the Christian life anyway. But then he says, for since ancient times Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city and every Sabbath day, he has read aloud in the synagogues. There's a lot of debate on what this verse means, exactly what he's talking about, but some think, and I think it makes sense that he's kind of being sarcastic and saying, hasn't the law been taught forever even in the Gentile community? It's not like they were without it. Moses has been taught in synagogues in Gentile countries for generations.

39:53 They're not without the law. What the Gentiles were without is Christ. What they need to know is him. They need to know that they can be saved through faith, that God has made room for them, that they can come to faith in Christ. And upon coming to faith in Christ, they're to live a godly, sanctified life.

40:16 And now through the completion of the rest of the word of God, we know what it means to live a godly life on this earth. And we're reminded in this verse that yes, we're saved by faith, but God wants us to live a life of sanctification for him. Not living in sin, not living however we want, but living to please the one who saved us. And that is what we should encourage every Christian. When you become a Christian, endeavor through the Holy Spirit's power to live like Christ.

41:15 Lord God, I'm so thankful that I don't have to get on a treadmill of good works to try to earn my way to heaven. Because Lord, you know that I could never ever ever do enough good to do it. So Lord, we wanna thank you this morning for the finished work of Jesus Christ. And we wanna thank you that the way we're saved is by realizing we've sinned, by coming to you for salvation and asking you for forgiveness. And Lord, we thank you that you save us.

41:45 You save all of those who would call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. Help us to live, Lord, in a way that glorifies you and says thank you for what you've given us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.