https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/JerusalemConference.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Acts 11:1-18<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. The meeting in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, is used to justify many things<\/p>\n A. The gathering of denominational bodies to consider issues is justified by this\npassage.\n B. Many go a step further to justify decisions of what rules the denomination will\nsupport\n C. Messianic Jews believe that it was here that Christians decided to make a new rule\nthat Gentiles didn’t have to follow the Old Law like the Jews; thus, justifying their\nbelief in two different laws\n
1. Old Testament for Jews or those who want to claim being a Jew<\/p>\n
2. New Testament for the rest<\/p>\n
3. Most though want a blending of the Old and New Testaments<\/p>\n D. I find it amazing that one of the earliest problems in the church was with people\ntrying to get Christians to follow the Old Testament\n 1. Though the issue was answered by God, people are still arguing 2,000\nyears later.\nII. Acts is a history of the church and to understand Acts 15, we need to review a bit of the\nevents that led up to it.\n
A. The New Testament was revealed, roughly, over a 50 year period of time.<\/p>\n B. We see the sum result, but we have to remember that people in the first century\nwere learning what God wanted.\n C. The gospel message began to be preached among the Jews in Jerusalem. Events in\nActs 2-7 all took place in Jerusalem.\n D. Persecution, however, drove the early Christians to scatter, but being Jews they\nscattered to the Jewish regions – Acts 8:1\n 1. Samaria tells us that those of mixed lineage were probably responding to\nthe Gospel.\n E. But it wasn’t until God directly intervened did the message get taught to Gentiles –\nActs 10:34-35\n F. On their return to Jerusalem, the news that Gentiles had been taught did not sit\nwell with some \n 1. Judaism, for centuries, was an us-against-them idea. Ties between\nnationality and belief were strong.\n
2. Acts 11:1-3<\/p>\n 3. Peter, however, reported the vision he had, the angel who visited Cornelius\ncommanding him to send for Peter, and the Holy Spirit giving gifts to the\nGentiles as he spoke – Acts 11:17\n
4. The result – Acts 11:18<\/p>\n G. But it didn’t mean the issue was settled in everyone’s minds, or that the dissenters\ngave up.\n
III. They took their false beliefs to other countries – Acts 15:1<\/p>\n A. Perhaps they believed they could be more open in other countries. Most of the\napostles still were in Jerusalem.\n B. Communication wasn’t easy or quick, so they could claim that their views were\nwhat Jerusalem taught, which no one could disprove and gave weight to their\nwords.\n
C. But they ran into Paul and Barnabas – Acts 15:2<\/p>\n 1. Paul and Barnabas strongly disagreed with their teaching. This is not what\nthey had been teaching among the Gentile churches.\n
D. The church sent Paul, Barnabas and others to Jerusalem concerning the issue<\/p>\n 1. It wasn’t that they wanted a ruling from Jerusalem on whether Gentiles\nneeded to become Jews to be saved. God already gave His ruling.\n
2. Paul and Barnabas already knew it was false doctrine.<\/p>\n
3. So why go?<\/p>\n 4. Because these men came out of Judea. They were using the reputation of\nthe church in Jerusalem to support their teaching.\n 5. Because there was the question of whether the church in Jerusalem had\nstrayed. The church in Antioch wanted to know if the church in Jerusalem\nsupported these men and their teaching.\n
E. As the brethren headed south, they made reports to various churches – Acts 15:3<\/p>\n 1. The reception as they progressed showed that there was wide spread\nacceptance and joy that Gentiles were being saved as Gentiles.\n 2. It tells us that the doctrine taught by the Judaizing teachers was not wide\nspread or widely accepted.\n
IV. The meeting in Jerusalem<\/p>\n A. It didn’t take long after arriving in Jerusalem for these men to bring the problem\ninto the light – Acts 15:4-5\n B. It is clear that the matter raised had not been openly discussed in Jerusalem\nbefore. The apostles and elders met to look into the matter – Acts 15:6\n 1. The apostles were there, including Paul, so if the teaching was false, why\nnot just state what was to be and be done with it?\n
2. They had prophets, why not just ask them to ask God?<\/p>\n
3. God generally expects His people to use the minds He gave them.<\/p>\n
a. Moses and the water from the rock<\/p>\n
b. Saul and the killing of the Amalekites<\/p>\n
c. Job’s misery<\/p>\n
4. God didn’t just dictate laws, He gave the reasons behind them<\/p>\n
5. By not giving a direct answer, we have an example set for us.<\/p>\n a. When a disagreement arises, we see people examining the evidence\nto see what God expects.\n b. We see a procedure that can be replicated today to handle disputes\nin a similar manner.\n 6. The fact that it didn’t take a miracle to understand what God wanted\nshows us that we can understand God even without miraculous gifts.\n
C. There was much disputing – Acts 15:7a<\/p>\n
1. Both sides expressed their views. No one was shut out.<\/p>\n 2. It isn’t that people didn’t consider the reasons people gave for following\nthe Old Testament.\n D. What led everyone to conclude against these Judaizing teachers were the\nfollowing key points:\n 1. Peter recounted that the Gentiles had already been shown to be acceptable\nto God without following the Old Testament – Acts 15:7-8\n
2. There is only one method of salvation – Acts 15:9, 11<\/p>\n 3. Peter also pointed out that even the Jews had found the Old Law a burden\nto follow – Acts 15:10\n 4. Paul and Barnabas testified of the miracles which continued to be done\namong the Gentiles, even though they were not following the Old\nTestament, showing God’s approval – Acts 15:12\n 5. Finally, James cites the Old Testament to show that God planned to save\nthe Gentiles as Gentiles and not as Jews – Acts 15:13-18\n
E. The conclusion was that the Old Testament was not binding – Acts 15:19<\/p>\n
V. An open letter to the other churches – Acts 15:22-23<\/p>\n A. The problem remained that there were people roaming the world, claiming\nsupport by Jerusalem for their false teachings – Acts 15:24\n
1. Take careful note of what the letter said.<\/p>\n 2. They aren’t saying they changed their minds. They said they never taught\nthis and never asked anyone else to teach this doctrine\n
B. They announced their stand behind Paul and Silas – Acts 15:25-26<\/p>\n
1. They took sides and said who they agreed was in the right.<\/p>\n C. They sent members to verify what the church in Jerusalem really taught – Acts\n15:27\n
D. They gave a short summary of what they felt were essential doctrine<\/p>\n 1. They aren’t issuing new rules created by them. This is current doctrine\nbeing reinforced and reiterated\n 2. The Holy Spirit is mentioned because they found these things to be what\nthe Holy Spirit wanted taught.\n
E. The reception of the letter – Acts 15:30-31<\/p>\n 1. The church in Antioch was relieved. There wasn’t discord between the\nchurches. Jerusalem stood on the issue along with the rest of the churches.\n
VI. Nowhere is there indication of any change in the teaching of the churches<\/p>\n A. There were some attempting to bring in changes, but these false teachers were\nstrongly resisted by a careful analysis of what God said and had demonstrated.\n
B. As John had taught – John 4:1<\/p>\n
1. They put the teaching to a test and found that it failed.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 11:1-18 I. The meeting in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, is used to justify many things A. The gathering of denominational bodies to consider issues is justified by this passage. B. Many go a step further to justify decisions of what rules the denomination will support C. Messianic Jews believe that it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[478,851,268],"class_list":["post-62894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-false-teachers","tag-messianic-judaism","tag-old-testament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34789,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/judaizing-teachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":62894,"position":0},"title":"Judaizing Teachers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Galatians 5:1-6 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the beginnings of the church, Christians first came from the ranks of the Jews \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Jews had a hard time at first with the gospel being preached to Gentiles - Acts 11:1-3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the gospel spread to the Gentiles, trouble arose as some Jewish Christians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13397,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-are-the-churches-of-christ-so-similar-to-our-beliefs\/","url_meta":{"origin":62894,"position":1},"title":"How are the churches of Christ so similar to our beliefs?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a Messianic Jew. We believe the Jerusalem church is ours of course in conjunction with Acts 2. Yet the Church of Christ is so similar to our beliefs in the Torah of God. (Torah meaning God-breathed).\u00a0 Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. What relation is there of the Church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54162,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-timothys-father-an-aramean\/","url_meta":{"origin":62894,"position":2},"title":"Was Timothy’s father an Aramean?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In\u00a0Was Timothy's father a non-believer? you said, \"In the end, I think all you can state is that Timothy's father was of Greek nationality.\" But Acts 16:1 (translated from Aramaic Peshitta, based on Younan) says, \"And he arrived at the medintha [city] Derbe and at Lostra. Now there was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-messianic-jews-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":62894,"position":3},"title":"Can Messianic Jews go to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can Messianic Jews go to heaven? Answer: The question is can anyone go to heaven while denying portions of God's teachings that they disagree with.\u00a0 Since Jesus said we must do all that he commanded, the answer would be no. \"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, \"All\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-different-gospels\/","url_meta":{"origin":62894,"position":4},"title":"Are there different gospels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have been seeing more and more about the Kingdom Gospel vs the Gospel of Grace. Dispensationalism is becoming very popular on YouTube, and people are actually turning toward this teaching. I have seen comments that the churches of Christ intertwine the kingdom gospel and the grace gospel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25576,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-son-started-worshiping-on-saturdays-with-a-group-on-the-internet-is-he-in-a-cult\/","url_meta":{"origin":62894,"position":5},"title":"My son started worshiping on Saturdays with a group on the Internet. Is he in a cult?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My son was raised in the church. He recently started \"keeping the Sabbath,\" and is taking my three grandsons to a motel where they have a private church -- just the four of them. They study the word with a group on the Internet! 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