Back in 1995, I graduated from Bible College and started preaching at Berlin Christian Church, in Berlin, IL. Last year, BCC celebrated its 200th Anniversary; During my time, they had their 175th Anniversary. The church is literally one of the oldest churches in Illinois. Back in the 1820s, at her founding, most of the United States was still divided into territories. Soon Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan would become states! Back then we still had a wild frontier, with real Indians. Walking or horseback were the primary modes of transportation. The Civil War was yet to come. Abraham Lincoln was a teenager.
At Berlin, there were people in the church with direct ancestors who started the church in 1820. They saw themselves as the church’s “guardians”. Not guardians of “the gospel”, but of the building (its furnishings, pulpit, organ, piano, framed pictures, historic artifacts, folding chairs, attendance board, flags, pews, rooms). They saw themselves as guardians of the church's traditions, its way of ministry (her bylaws, rules and regulations, order and style of worship, its hymnbook, hymnody, programs, even its weekly bulletin). I was quickly schooled on all that was sacred!
Essentially, I could preach the gospel so long as I didn't disturb the church's artifacts or methodologies. I don't know if you've ever found yourself in an emotionally volatile environment before. The least infraction, even suggestion of change, could set off dominos of chain reactions. You find yourself walking on eggshells, not always sure who will react next, over what, or when, or how.
Ministry felt a little like Survivor Island. Many of the long-standing members were quite resistant to any attempt at discipleship. I served under a constant barrage of criticism. I ministered to everyone “inside" the church the best as I could, showed understanding. At the outset, I resolved that I would preach the gospel as clearly and powerfully as I could, and trust God to sort out the rest.
Now during the week, I lived in the church parsonage. Even though I was going to Seminary, I had tons of idle time. Each day, I'd kind of glace across the street and see what the townspeople were up to. If they were out in their yards sitting, I'd pull up a chair. If doing some yard project, I'd help. If shooting hoops... Whenever the door opened, I'd offer my testimony, invite them to church, share the gospel with them.
After a while, some of these townspeople began to trickle into the church. And soon that trickle became a steady stream! The Townspeople (outsiders!) were quite receptive to the gospel. You'd think this would be great news to a dying church—but the insiders began drawing more and more battle lines. It was crazy.
One of the first lessons I learned was that assimilation can be infinitely harder than evangelism. It can be easier to “reach” people who are different than you than “integrate” people and sort out everyone's differences. How do you tear down the dividing walls of hostility to make the two, one? To make insiders and outsiders, Townspeople and Church people ONE? How do you get them worshipping, praying, fasting, growing, loving, and becoming members of one another?
As far back as Acts 10, God gave Peter a vision to preach the gospel to the first ever, Gentile household, of Cornelius. Phillip the Evangelist followed suit, preaching the gospel and baptizing the outsider Ethiopian Eunuch. By Acts 15, you have entire Gentile cities, districts, and populations responding to the gospel. Let me say it another way. By Acts 15, you have this massive influx of uncircumcised, non-Jewish, non-indoctrinated, formerly pagan people flooding into the church. Insiders and Outsiders; Newberries and Oldberries. Praise God. Evangelism is happening. But Dear God, how do we assimilate all these people, how do we sort out their very profound differences? This is the biggest crisis yet to hit the church. What must you absolutely hold on to with a death drip, and what should you let go?
In Acts 15:1, “Some [Jewish] men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised [just like us] according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.” If you think 175 or 200 years of tradition might be a hurdle, how about thousands of years of history and Jewish traditions spanning all the way back to David, or Moses, or even Abraham? Their message was that accepting Jesus wasn’t enough. One must also take on the whole yoke of all the traditions and laws the Jews accumulated from the time of Abraham and Moses into present. The old guard of Jewish brethren were going “all Leviticus” on the new believers!
Needless to say, in Acts 15:2 Paul and Barnabas engage the old guard in ferocious “argument and debate.” Now Paul was a brilliant mind, probably one of the most brilliant and articulate, philosophical and religious mind in history (second only to Jesus.) Not even Paul could bring these Jewish believers around. So then, the Church at Antioch appoints Paul, Barnabas and others to go back to Jerusalem to take the matter up with Peter, John, James, and the other apostles.
When they arrive back in Jerusalem, they encounter the same issue. Some of the Pharisees who'd converted to Christianity felt the same way. Acts 15:5 says, “But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’” The relationship between Old and New Testament, Law and Grace, Judaism and Christianity would continue to be debated for centuries in the church.
At first, Paul and Barnabas report all that God had been doing in Antioch, Iconium, and all these Gentile cities. They are filled with great joy—they point to all the new life in Christ! They report how they've planted churches, established elders, completed God's work. But the Pharisees are like, “Gee that's great Paul. That's so great Barnabas. But. . .”
But next, the Great Apostle Peter intervenes. This whole time, he's been sitting over in the corner, taking it all in, no doubt praying in the Spirit. “Dear God what ever are we to do?” But then the room falls silent as Peter stands up to speak! He says, “You know guys, in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth, the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe.” {This is reference to God's vision to Peter in Acts 10. Remember how God told Peter to take the gospel to Cornelius? At first Peter declined because Cornelius was unclean… uncircumcised…a dirty Gentile… not Jewish… not kosher... Not one of us! But in the end Peter relented, because God told him to go, eat, preach, and baptize Cornelius' household. And then God also poured out his Spirit on Cornelius's household? So, Peter says, “Remember all that guys? This is an extension of that”
Peter continues, “God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.” There is one Lord, One faith, one baptism, One Spirit, One body. God gave them exactly what he gave us. “Guys, God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” So, the first part of Peter's argument is how can we deny the Harvest, the Gospel Fruit that is happening? Or the presence, power, and activity of the Holy Spirit?
But then Peter goes nuclear with the Gospel argument. He asks, “Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?” The old guard was raising cane about circumcision. You’d be hard pressed to dismiss the centrality and importance of circumcision to the Jew and all of Judaism. But circumcision is just the tip of the iceberg, of this gargantuan monstrosity, of what we call the Law of Moses.
The easiest thing to do in the Law was circumcision. Not that it wasn't painful, but it was a one and done thing. If you were a baby, just few days old, you weren't even aware of the procedure. But with circumcision you submit to outpatient surgery, your body is cut, but it heals. In a matter of week you can check circumcision off the list! It’s done and over. But just because you've been circumcised hardly means you’re done or finished with the Law.
The Law consists infinitely more than mere circumcision. There are the Ten Commandments (don't murder, steal, commit adultery)… but then as Jesus taught there is “the spirit or the heart intent” of the Ten Commandments (don't even be angry, don't so much as insult brother, don't so much as lust or covet, don't so much as swear or overpromise, forgive generously, love neighbor, pray enemies). Beyond the Ten Commandment, there were all the nuances of loving God, loving people in the public, social, political, religious, and internal spaces. There were laws concerning sacrifices, festivals, the Sabbath. There were dietary, ceremonial, priestly and Levitical laws. And there were also matters of mercy and justice—which prophets take up.
A verse in James 2:10 perfectly captures the limit of the Law. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” The Law is an all or nothing proposition. Not just with circumcision, but you strike out in just one commandment and you don't just lose your at bat, or inning, you lose the whole ball game! You’re guilty of breaking the sum total of all the Law!
In Romans and Galatians Paul offers a complete Treatise on the Limits of the Law. In Romans 3:20 (ESV) Paul says, For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” The Law of Moses doesn't justify you—the law simply shows you how utterly unjustifiable and guilty you and the whole world is. The Law shows you that your only hope is if God were to justify you by his own mercy, grace, and pardon. Your only hope is that God would cover your sin, and justify by Christ's blood your otherwise unjustifiable, inexcusable, filthy-rags, impure life of sin. **So, the Law of Moses was a titanic yoke even for the Jews, and how much more the Gentiles? The Jews were trying to impose something on Gentiles that not even they could manage.
Which brings us to the gospel. Peter asks, “Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.” Boom. Circumcision doesn't save us. We're saved by grace and grace alone through faith (through trusting Christ). They need it, you need it. The outsider, the insider. In Christ there is no distinction. Jew and Gentile, Male and Female, Slave and Free. We are all under grace.
It's at this point the Great Apostle James stands to speak. And James essentially says, “Guys it’s not just a matter of what seems to be getting blessed… it’s not just a matter of what Paul said, or Peter said or Barnabas. . . the gospel of grace isn’t some human innovation, Hegelian synthesis… What does Word say?”
In Acts 15:15-19, James says, “15 And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: 16 After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again, 17 so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord—even all the Gentiles who are called by my name—declares the Lord who makes these things 18 known from long ago.” 19 Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God. . .”
What James demonstrates is that the gospel has been the whole of humanity and nations from the beginning. Paul and Barnabas aren't a deviation from Peter, James, and John. Nor are they a deviation from Jesus' life and message; Nor is Jesus a deviation from the Prophets, nor the prophets from the Law of Moses, nor Moses a deviation from Abraham or even Creator God Himself. The gospel of grace is for Everyone, Everywhere.
Now I have to wrap this up. There is a whole other sermon here at the end of Acts 15. If were saved by grace and mercy, does that mean we can go on sinning however we like? The best way I know to say this is that even though grace saves us from the penalty of the law, which is death… grace still inspires us to live according to the Spirit of the Law. Jesus, Peter, James, John, Paul, Barnabas… in preaching grace they never set aside the Spirit of the Law… which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, soul and love neighbor as yourself.
Acts 15:19-21, “19 Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God 20 but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.”
In Acts 15:24-29 the Apostles write a letter to all the Church clarifying the gospel. In part it read, “Greetings. . . 28 For it was the Holy Spirit’s decision—and ours—not to place further burdens on you beyond these requirements: 29 that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.”
Outcome …. Acts 15:30-35, “30 So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, and after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter. 31 When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 Both Judas and Silas, who were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and sisters and strengthened them with a long message. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord.”