WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.939 So we read two passages this morning, one from Acts 11, one from Acts 15. In the early days of the 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:17.980 church, the question that these guys were wrestling with was very basic. What does it mean to be a 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:25.100 Christian? And in chapter 10 and now repeated in chapter 11, Peter is wrestling with one of the 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:31.640 early controversies related to what does it mean to be a Christian? And in chapter 10 and what he's 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:39.439 repeating here in chapter 11, he tells us basically three things just by way of reminder. He says that 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:46.120 some people have been saying in the early church that Gentiles, if they really want to be Christians, 00:00:46.120 --> 00:00:51.520 that's all of us, I think in here, unless you're culturally ethnically Jewish, that you have to 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:59.080 obey the Jewish customs, if you want to be called a Christian. And so the second thing he says is, 00:00:59.080 --> 00:01:08.240 no, God has told me in a vision that we are free from the old ceremonies. And so that means thirdly 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:15.920 that Gentiles, anybody who's not ethnically Jewish, can be part of the people of God without obeying 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:21.920 any of the Jewish customs. So that's what we learned last week and that's what he repeats in chapter 11. 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:30.439 But chapter 15 is probably something like 10 years later. So there's a huge gap of time and it's the 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:37.879 climax of this controversy, which keeps going throughout the whole decade or two of the earliest 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:44.320 church. What does it mean to call a Gentile a Christian? Because most of the early Christians were 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:48.879 all Jews, the earliest Christians. And so as the Gentiles started, non-Jewish people started to come 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:53.719 to faith, they were asking, can these people be part of the people of God? What does that look like? 00:01:54.559 --> 00:02:00.919 And chapter 15 is a council of the leaders of the worldwide church getting together and trying to 00:02:00.919 --> 00:02:08.479 determine the answer to that question. Now, you may not have ever heard Acts chapter 15 preached on 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:15.560 because a lot of times people don't preach on it very much. It gets skipped a lot of times if you're 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:23.639 going through the book of Acts. And that's because it's a theological debate. And whenever you start 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:30.879 talking about theological debates, especially on Sunday morning, eyes glaze, cell phones come out, 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:35.239 people pretend they're reading their Bible, but they're really reading blogs or something on 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:45.480 Facebook. And you take a nap because I heard Tim Keller preach on this sermon recently. And he's 00:02:45.480 --> 00:02:50.080 been a minister for what, 45 years? And he said it was the first time he's ever preached on this. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:54.640 And he said, why have I never preached on it before? And he said, because it's a long theological 00:02:54.640 --> 00:03:01.960 debate with lots of detail and controversy. And for modern people, theological debate is boring, 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:12.600 right? It's theological debate. It's tedious. It's a little bit tedious. It's about Jews and 00:03:12.600 --> 00:03:19.960 Gentiles. And we're pretty far removed from even using that binary as a category today very often. 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:26.680 But you know what? If you're a Christian this morning, and even if you're not one, if you're a 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:30.960 Christian, you're a theologian. And if you're not a Christian, you still do theology because 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:39.439 theology is simply asking the big questions in life. Who's God? Does he exist? Who am I? How am 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:45.600 I to live? That's theology. That's doing theology. And so you all, everybody does theological debate. 00:03:45.600 --> 00:03:50.080 Even people who aren't Christians engage in theological debate because it's answering the 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:56.159 big questions in life. And this is a critical theological debate because at the heart of it, 00:03:56.159 --> 00:04:02.719 what it's getting at is the basic definition. What's the gospel? That's really the question that 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:11.479 they're asking is what is Christianity? What's salvation mean? And so what you believe really 00:04:11.479 --> 00:04:16.839 matters. That's basically the point. Now there are four lessons, I think, from this passage that 00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:21.600 we'll look at real briefly this morning. The first is that truth is important versus one that's in 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:27.480 verses one to three. The second is that the community is critical. That's in verses four to six. 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:35.280 The third is that the gospel is not religion. That's in verses seven to eleven. And then Christianity 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:41.720 offers freedom. And that's in verses twenty-two to twenty-nine. Okay? So the truth is important 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:49.439 verses one to three. In verse one, there's a group that comes, it says they go down from Judea, 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:56.319 but actually in our terms they go up. They go north to Antioch. And they go to Antioch and it's a 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:01.720 group of probably guys that were formerly Pharisees that have been converted to Christianity. And 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:06.240 they go up north to Antioch and they start teaching, if you want to be a Christian and you're a 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:10.800 Gentile, you got to get circumcised if you're a male. And you got to obey the old Jewish customs. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:19.079 Antioch is like the Esk Valley of the early church. Okay? It's a brand new church plant. They got a 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:26.079 new pastor, new elders, new everything. And they're trying to figure things out. And Paul has been on 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:34.120 a thousand plus mile missionary journey around Asia Minor today with his turkey. And he's just 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:40.240 come back and this is the first church that he planted, Antioch. This is home base. This is his 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:46.279 heart, this place. And he comes back and he finds that these people from Judea have come up and are 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:52.000 basically preaching a very different message than the one he had preached. This is the battleground 00:05:52.000 --> 00:06:00.679 over the question, what's the gospel? And this early church is incredibly vulnerable because they 00:06:00.679 --> 00:06:06.879 don't have their doctrines all worked out yet. And so to deal with the problem in verse 3, what does 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:14.519 Paul do? He leaves. He leaves Antioch. This is the battleground. This is where the controversy is 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:22.279 happening. And the apostle himself, Paul, he leaves. He actually goes on a 400 mile trip south to 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:32.000 Jerusalem and to meet with the leaders of the world church. Why? Why does he leave the battleground 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:39.039 of where the controversy is to deal with it? And that's because the elders at Antioch realized that 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:46.800 the most important thing that we can do right now is clearly define our doctrine. In other words, 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:56.080 for Paul in the early church, doctrine really mattered. It was really important. Truth, getting a 00:06:56.080 --> 00:07:03.160 grip on exactly what truth is, was incredibly important to them. And so he leaves the church and 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:08.680 even in a vulnerable state to go work this problem out with the worldwide church, the leaders of the 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:19.800 worldwide church. You know, this is so anti-modern because we live in a cultural moment where feelings 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:25.759 determine reality largely, where what a person feels determines what's true. We live in an 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:31.879 individualistic culture. And in individualistic cultures, what matters is how each person feels. 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:37.399 And how each person feels is the way that they come to know what's true in life, what should I do, 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:43.479 what's true. And that's why for a lot of modern individualist Westerners, when they approach 00:07:43.479 --> 00:07:49.159 Christianity and they see all the parts about love and forgiveness, they say, yay, right? But when 00:07:49.159 --> 00:07:57.159 they see the part about the truth being something completely external to you that's outside of your 00:07:57.159 --> 00:08:03.679 feelings and emotions that cause you actually to submit, modern people have a tough time with that. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:13.560 John is getting at this in 1 John chapter 3. In 1 John chapter 3, he, man, it's so modern. He says, 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:20.560 our hearts, in other words, our desires, our feelings, our emotions deceive us. He says, 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:27.199 emotions, feelings, desires deceive every single human being, but God is greater than our hearts. 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:33.200 In other words, what he's saying there is you desperately need a truth, a God, a truth that 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:38.480 is outside of you, that you can't define the truth based off how you feel, what you desire, 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:44.560 your emotions. Truth has to be greater than who you are, or it wouldn't be truth. And so very 00:08:44.560 --> 00:08:53.600 simply the first point, for Paul, missing out on the truth, well-defined, means possibly missing 00:08:53.600 --> 00:09:02.600 out on salvation. See that? So look, every single human being, whether you're a Christian or not, 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:06.800 and especially if you're a Christian and you grew up in a local church your whole life, 00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:12.920 especially in our denomination, you really need to be serious about the question, what is true? 00:09:12.920 --> 00:09:20.200 What is true is much more important than what church did I grow up in? What's my cultural moment? 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:28.480 What is my family believe? What's true? That's the fundamental question that us moderns have to 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:34.800 ask. The modern way of approaching that question is to do this, is to say, what works or what do I 00:09:34.800 --> 00:09:41.519 desire? And then to say, secondly, that is my truth, but that's navigating in the dark. Christianity 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:46.120 says something complete opposite. It says, first we have to ask what's true, and then we have to 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:52.800 ask, do my desires, feelings, emotions, goals, practices conform and submit to the truth? 00:09:52.799 --> 00:10:01.279 C. S. Lewis put it as in his usual genius this way, beautiful quote, if Christianity is false, 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:10.799 it is of no importance whatsoever. But if it's true, it's of infinite importance. The only thing 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:18.519 it cannot be is of moderate importance. In other words, the first point, truth was important for 00:10:18.519 --> 00:10:25.360 the early church. Getting your doctrine right for these guys meant the difference in understanding 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:31.039 salvation or not. So that's the first thing. Truth is of infinite importance. Secondly, in verses 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:37.120 4 to 6, we're getting at the question now, how do we find the truth? And the answer in verse 4 to 6 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:43.960 is that the community is essential. The community is essential. How do you guys approach figuring 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:52.000 out truth? In other words, how do you approach answering the hard questions in life? Who am I? 00:10:52.000 --> 00:11:00.200 Does God exist? What am I supposed to do with my life? In verse 5, you'll see that it's not just 00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:07.879 that the Paul and Galatians cause this party, the troublemakers. In verse 5, they're also in 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:13.879 Jerusalem. They belong to the party of the Pharisees, and they're saying in Jerusalem as well, 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:20.960 it's necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and have them keep the law of Moses if they want to 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:28.039 be Christians. And very simply, it just says that the apostles and the elders gathered together 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:36.519 to consider the matter. So in other words, how did the early church try to figure out what the 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:42.399 truth was? What the Holy Spirit wanted them to believe, and it simply says they got together, 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:50.319 and they talked about it. The community was fundamental. They got together in a community, 00:11:50.319 --> 00:11:57.000 and they discussed, and they thought about it. But in verse 28, at the very end of the passage, 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:02.360 there's something that gets stated that's pretty audacious, and almost comes across to the reader 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:09.080 as incredibly arrogant in a way. I don't know if you called it in verse 28. At the end, when this 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:14.320 council comes to its final conclusion, this is how they present their conclusion. It seemed good 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:21.279 to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements. Now you 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:29.279 see what they're saying? A bunch of old men literally got together in Jerusalem, talked about a 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:35.959 problem, and then at the end of that council, they said, here's what the Holy Spirit says. How 00:12:35.959 --> 00:12:40.439 audacious, right? I mean, they're saying, our council, we're telling you this is what the Holy 00:12:40.439 --> 00:12:48.399 Spirit is saying. And you know what? What that tells us is that what the New Testament thinks 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:55.079 about how to get at the truth, about how to know what the Holy Spirit is saying, right? And it's 00:12:55.080 --> 00:13:02.440 pretty simple, actually. How does the Holy Spirit speak? By doing what they did, prayerfully looking 00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:10.720 at the Bible together in communities. How do you interpret the Bible? How do you come to truth? 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:19.320 They didn't say, I'm going to go do it completely in my quiet time, all by myself. That doesn't 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:23.960 work, although they're good. You can't, that's not the only way, that's not the primary way to 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:30.680 interpret the Bible, to find out the truth, because human beings are biased. Every one of us 00:13:30.680 --> 00:13:35.560 comes with a cultural package already built in feelings and desires and things we want, and we 00:13:35.560 --> 00:13:41.160 read every text that we encounter with certain biases, with certain inclinations, and it masks 00:13:41.160 --> 00:13:46.600 realities. We don't see the whole. And so every person situated in a particular culture, to get 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:50.600 at the truth, to get at the fundamental truth has to come together in community. You have to come 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:55.720 together and read the text in community to get at it. And that's what we see throughout the entire 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:59.480 New Testament, and that's fundamental to what this council tried to do. The most fundamental 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:04.519 controversy in the early church, what is the gospel? The only way that they knew to get at it was by 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:13.240 coming together and prayerfully reading in communities. So the truth is important. To get at the 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:20.040 truth, you've got to come together with other people and get past your own biases to read the 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:26.039 text in community. But thirdly, and this is kind of the centerpiece of the passage, what was the 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:32.039 truth? What truth did they get at? And the truth that they got at in verse 7 to 11 was that the 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:42.279 gospel is not religion. The gospel is not religion. Okay, so let's hone down a little bit on the 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:48.759 problem just for a second. This is where the tedious theological debate starts, but we'll try to keep 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:55.319 it as not tedious as possible. There's an agreement in verse 9. The circumcision party, these guys 00:14:55.319 --> 00:14:59.960 that are saying Gentiles have to be circumcised, they have to obey the Old Testament if they want 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:04.759 to be Christians, they actually agree on something pretty fundamental with the early church, with the 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:11.960 apostles and the elders and all that. And it's in verse 9, and Peter says it in verse 9, God makes 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:19.080 no distinction between Gentiles and Jews. He has cleansed their hearts by faith. And the circumcision 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:24.759 party completely agreed with that, that God does not any longer after Jesus Christ distinguish 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:28.840 between you and Gentiles. Gentiles are part of the people of God. That's what everybody agrees on 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:33.800 now. Circumcision party included, that's why they go up north to tell the Gentiles, you got to get 00:15:33.800 --> 00:15:37.400 circumcised, because they think you are part of the people of God, but this is what you got to do if 00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:43.399 you want to truly stay, remain part of the community. That's what they agree on. The key question is, 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:51.240 but how are the Gentiles members of the people of God? How are they part of the Christian community? 00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:56.919 And what they're basically saying when they say they have to be circumcised, circumcision of course 00:15:56.919 --> 00:16:03.000 is only for males in the Old Testament. And that's shorthand for saying you have to keep 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:10.519 the cultural practices of the ceremonial law in Leviticus. So circumcision is a shorthand term 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:16.840 for the ceremonial law in Leviticus. And the basic distinction in the ceremonial law is between 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:24.440 being clean and unclean. Okay? So every single person in Israel at the time was pronounced, 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:29.799 you're clean or you're unclean. And that was a determination made by the priests. And you could 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:38.919 be unclean for all sorts of reasons, depending on what you eat, what you drink, how old you are, 00:16:38.919 --> 00:16:45.799 what time of the month it is, whether you touched a dead animal. If you go out and hunt and kill a 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:50.919 stag or something, that may, and you touch the body, that makes you unclean. There's all sorts of 00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:56.599 ways of being unclean. And so this is basically, we're going to come back to that in a second, but 00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:02.360 this is, just John Stott summarizes the basic salvation logic of the circumcision party in 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:07.880 just three simple steps. Step one, this is what they're saying, believe in Jesus. Step two, 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:16.839 obey the ceremonial law of the Jewish culture. Step three, you will be saved. Okay? That's the 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:25.000 gospel of the circumcision party. And in verse 10, Peter says, why are you putting God to the test 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:31.720 with this gospel? He says, this is like putting a yoke back on the people that has been removed. 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:37.640 In other words, he's saying, this demand that they obey these ceremonial laws is like tying a 00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:44.200 net, a rope around the neck of a person and making them pull a lorry. That's the picture he's describing, 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:48.599 or an 18-wheeler for our American friends here that have no idea what a lorry is. I had to learn that. 00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:53.880 It's actually, people can do that if you've ever watched the strongman competitions, 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:59.640 funny enough, but that's what he's saying. It's like pulling a tremendous burden that even the 00:17:59.640 --> 00:18:05.320 Jews aren't able to pull. You see, that's what he's saying. None of us have ever been able to even 00:18:05.320 --> 00:18:09.800 meet all the requirements of the ceremonial law. And now you're asking the Gentiles to do it as well. 00:18:09.800 --> 00:18:17.000 It's impossible. And so this is what the council says in reply. This is their determination. It's 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:23.799 found in verse 11. We believe instead that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:30.759 just as the Gentiles will. And so John Stott summarizes the council's response of salvation in 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:37.079 three little steps as well. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. 00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:44.279 And then thirdly, now you are able to respond by obeying God's moral law. 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:52.680 Okay, you see the difference? So what did the council accomplish? Here's what they accomplished. 00:18:53.559 --> 00:19:00.039 They have taught the church at this moment in history that Christianity is unlike all other 00:19:00.039 --> 00:19:05.720 religions in the entire world because at the center of it is a gospel that is not religion. 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:19.640 Okay, religion. Religion says believe and obey. Religion, in other words, is good advice that says 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:26.039 perform, do this. We're going to tell you how to live in order that you may hope beyond hope that 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:34.200 you will be accepted before God. The gospel is not advice. The gospel is not telling you to do 00:19:34.200 --> 00:19:41.080 something. The gospel is a pronouncement of what God has already done. It's news. It's not advice. 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:46.440 And that's the fundamental difference between the gospel and religion, between Christianity and 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:52.200 every other religion in the world, including the pharisaical obedience to the ceremonial laws. 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:57.960 The difference is that in the former in religion, you have to earn your wage to get accepted by God. 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:04.759 It's like going to work and getting an income. The gospel says gift, complete and total gift. 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:08.200 It's unlike anything else that's ever been pronounced in all of history. 00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:16.680 The second thing and final thing that the council helped us, the church, our church today to understand 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:23.400 is what's going on with the ceremonial law in the Old Testament. What's up with that? 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:29.400 Okay, if you've read Leviticus at all, you had to have asked that question. What is happening here? 00:20:30.280 --> 00:20:36.040 Because if you read Leviticus, it's super weird at times. There's some weird stuff in there. 00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:42.200 And for modern people, it's incredibly weird, much more weird than it would be for a pre-modern person 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:51.720 even. But let me just give you an example. If you touch a dead animal carcass, you are pronounced 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:57.640 unclean until the evening of that day or if it's nighttime until the next morning. 00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:02.920 Okay, so if you touch a dead animal that you've hunted or something like that, or you want to get 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:10.360 for meat, you're unclean until the next day. Now, why? A lot of people say that that clean, 00:21:10.360 --> 00:21:18.039 unclean distinction is God's way of protecting the early people, the people of God from hygiene issues. 00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:23.399 So in other words, you go touch a dead carcass, you don't want to spread diseases, right? So you're 00:21:23.399 --> 00:21:29.799 pronounced unclean for 24 hours or so. But the problem with that is that actually a person who touches 00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:36.680 a dead carcass, according to the Levitical Law, can go home and kiss their wife and play with their kids. 00:21:37.399 --> 00:21:42.440 And none of the rest of the people in the family would be unclean technically, ceremonially, okay? 00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:49.320 Immediately. So that doesn't, it's not primarily hygiene. That argument doesn't really work. 00:21:51.080 --> 00:21:59.880 Why? Because the clean and unclean laws are symbols. They're symbols. In other words, they're 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:09.240 sacraments. Now, what's a sacrament? A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality, 00:22:09.240 --> 00:22:15.480 a visible picture of something you can't see. And so because the Israelites, because of their sin, 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:21.480 were separated from God, the point was that at every level of their society, there were constant 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:27.319 reminders to them by, and everything they did and what they ate and what they drank and how they 00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:33.079 lived their lives, that they were unclean spiritually before God, that the only way they could come 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:38.120 into the presence of God is by becoming clean again, that they were filthy on the inside. And 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:44.359 that was the point. Being unclean in the Old Testament simply means you are spiritually dead 00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:51.719 and you need to be reminded of it. That's what the ceremonial law was about. And so why is it 00:22:51.719 --> 00:22:58.599 that the Jerusalem Council doesn't want to uphold this ceremonial law? Why do they want to get rid 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:05.879 of it? Because those were shadows. Those were shadows. They're not the real thing. You see, 00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:10.920 the blood of bulls and goats going to the temple and sacrificing and becoming clean again, how did 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:15.560 you become clean? They had to sprinkle blood on you. It was a dirty mess. You didn't actually become 00:23:15.560 --> 00:23:20.520 physically clean. You had to get blood all over you to become clean again. That was always just 00:23:20.520 --> 00:23:26.760 a shadow. It was never the point. And that's what the early, the circumcision party doesn't realize. 00:23:26.760 --> 00:23:31.480 It was never the point. The point was that that was always pointing to something else, something 00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:37.960 bigger, something better, something to fulfill it. And you know what that was? I bet you know, 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:45.880 it was always about the man of power. The man of power who would come on the, you know, do you 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:51.400 know how you would become clean when you went to the sacrifices? You would bring an animal 00:23:52.120 --> 00:23:59.079 and you would put your hand on the head of that animal, ceremonially, symbolically, transferring 00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:06.439 by your action, your filth onto the animal's body so that it could then be killed for you. 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:17.799 Ah, substitutionary atonement. You see, this is exactly what Jesus came to do. He came to, 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:25.639 so that you could transfer your filth into his body so that he could become the spotless land, 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:32.040 land become filthy on the cross for you. It was always a shadow. It was always about the greater 00:24:32.040 --> 00:24:39.320 man of power to come. One of the best illustrations of this reality, and we'll finish this point and 00:24:39.320 --> 00:24:48.120 then have one brief point, is this, in Luke chapter five, Jesus goes out and he confronts a leper, 00:24:48.119 --> 00:24:57.639 and a leper, this leper says to him, will you touch my skin and make me clean? And if you touch a 00:24:57.639 --> 00:25:05.079 leper according to the Levitical law, you would become unclean, ceremonially. And so the disciples 00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:10.679 say, don't do it. Don't do it, Jesus. You won't be able to go to the synagogue. You'll be unclean. 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:19.640 And he says, be quiet. I will be clean. And he touches the man. And what happens? The man becomes 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:28.360 clean, but Jesus doesn't become filthy. He doesn't, he doesn't become unclean. The man transfers his 00:25:28.360 --> 00:25:35.640 filth to Christ, but Christ swallows it and kills it. This was a picture of what was to come. 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:39.960 This is exactly what happened on the cross, the great exchange, you for him, him for you. 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:47.080 You transfer your filth to him and he swallows it and death so that you get his righteousness. 00:25:50.120 --> 00:25:56.040 One last little thing about, why circumcision? Why was circumcision the fundamental sign of 00:25:56.040 --> 00:26:03.800 the ceremonial law? Because circumcision is a bloody mess. And at circumcision, 00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:10.839 a cutting takes place. And every single male would be reminded amongst those people 00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:16.519 that the only way you can have a relationship with God is by something dying, by something being broken, 00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:21.319 by something being cut, by a bloody mess because you are so removed from God. 00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:26.519 You see, Jesus is even the fulfillment of that bloody act of circumcision. 00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:33.400 So the gospel is not advice, it's not religion, it's a pronouncement of what God has done. 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:38.440 All right, fourthly and very briefly, finally. I had a brilliant illustration at the beginning of this, 00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:43.400 but I kind of skip it because we were out of time. Sorry, I'll fix it back in later. 00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:50.680 Verses 22 to 29, Christianity offers freedom. That's one of the main determinations of the 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:57.560 Jerusalem Council. Verse 28, verse 28, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you 00:26:57.560 --> 00:27:04.759 no greater burden than these requirements. In other words, we will not lay on you another burden. 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:11.320 Okay, we'll come to the requirements in just a second. Christianity frees from burdens. It's true freedom. 00:27:11.320 --> 00:27:16.680 And this is completely contra the monarchy. And it's not a burden. It's a burden. 00:27:16.680 --> 00:27:23.720 True freedom. And this is completely contra the modern definition of what it means to be free. 00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:29.160 In the modern world, what does it mean to be free? It means to have an endless array of choice, 00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:35.720 an endless buffet of choices. You can be anything you want to be. You can do anything you want to do. 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:40.519 That's the modern notion of freedom. Christianity's idea of freedom is different. 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:49.160 It says that true freedom is actually having your choices constrained. In other words, being able to 00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:54.359 live within the boundaries of the way God has made the world in order that you can flourish. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:01.559 It's total opposite, ultimate choice, the modern concept of freedom. The modern concept of freedom, 00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:07.559 by the way, is wholly incompatible with the most fundamental aspect of human society. And that's 00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:13.879 relationship. Because what is it, what's demanded of you to be in a relationship? Love. And what is 00:28:13.879 --> 00:28:19.079 it to love? It's to give up your freedoms for the sake of another. If you're married, you know how 00:28:19.079 --> 00:28:24.839 true that is. You see the modern notion of freedom of liberty is completely incompatible with the 00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:30.919 most basic aspect of what it means to be in a relationship. That's why it's very difficult to 00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:36.840 have long-term relationships in the modern world because of our cultural bias that way. But here's 00:28:36.840 --> 00:28:43.720 the point of the Jerusalem Council on Freedom. The gospel, you are free from the law, from the 00:28:43.720 --> 00:28:49.160 burden of the law. You do not have to carry a yoke to be justified before God. The gospel is good 00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:55.800 news. You do not have to work for it. He works for you. That's the gospel. You're free. And then 00:28:55.799 --> 00:29:03.480 secondly, now you are free and able to live within the boundaries of God's moral order, constrained 00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:12.519 by the good boundary of his moral order. You see? The church needs to remember this because even the 00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:20.119 church throughout history has always been prone to return to Phariseeism. One of the great church 00:29:20.119 --> 00:29:26.119 fathers in the second century, a guy named Tertullian, he was prone to return to Phariseeism. Just listen 00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:32.039 to what he says. You hear it in the little phrase, if you want to be a Christian, you have to, or 00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:37.639 Christians don't do this, right? And adding something to the gospel. And this is what he said. 00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:46.759 Christians cannot go to the theater because the theater has its origins in pagan worship. The 00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:53.240 Christian must not dance. And some of you out there are like, that's right. But the Christians must 00:29:53.240 --> 00:30:01.400 not dance because it might create sexual passion. Christians, this is the best one, must not wear 00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:09.640 perfume because if God, this is a quote, if God meant for you to smell like a flower, he would 00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:18.520 have given you a crop of them on your head. There's the logic. No, the Jerusalem Council says, you 00:30:18.520 --> 00:30:28.360 are freed in Christ. You have liberty of conscience before the gospel. But, and this is very 00:30:28.360 --> 00:30:36.040 last thing, just two minutes when we're done. But in verse 29, they actually do give the 00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:40.200 the anti-Achians of requirements. And did you see what some of the requirements were? 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:49.079 No to sexual immorality. That makes sense. That's, that's breaking the moral law, right? We get that 00:30:49.079 --> 00:30:56.119 one. But they also say, no to food that has been sacrificed to idols. No to eating or drinking blood. 00:30:56.119 --> 00:31:01.480 And that was part of the Levitical Law. And no to what has been strangled, also part of the Levitical 00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:09.160 Law. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? That they're coming back on the liberty that they have 00:31:09.160 --> 00:31:17.400 pronounced in Christ. So what's happening here? Two things I think. One is in 1 Corinthians 8, 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:23.240 Paul directly takes up this issue and says, you want to eat food sacrificed to idols, go for it. 00:31:24.360 --> 00:31:28.920 As long as it doesn't burden your conscience, because food sacrificed to idols, idols don't 00:31:28.920 --> 00:31:32.759 exist. And so if you know food's been sacrificed to idols, you see that piece of chicken in the 00:31:32.759 --> 00:31:36.680 marketplace and you want it, you buy it and you eat it. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8. 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:42.279 You're free to do that, right? So why are they putting this boundary back on the anti-Achians? 00:31:42.279 --> 00:31:49.720 That's the question. And I think it's for two reasons. One, this is a young church. And all of 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:55.320 these people in this church have been pagans, not long before this. And they have been sacrificing 00:31:55.319 --> 00:32:02.839 food to idols their whole life. And that means they cannot handle eating food sacrificed to idols, 00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:12.519 because it means too much to them. If you're an alcoholic, it's best not to drink alcohol if you 00:32:12.519 --> 00:32:17.480 freed yourself from that burden, right? But people are free to drink alcohol in Christ. You see, 00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:23.799 it's the same logic. It's the question of wisdom. It's not wise. Don't drink blood, because that's 00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:28.119 what the pagans do. And you were a pagan. And for you, it means more than just drinking blood. For 00:32:28.119 --> 00:32:36.519 you, it's worship. And it always will be, right? And if you struggle with particular types of sins 00:32:36.519 --> 00:32:41.000 that occur every time you go to particular types of film, stop going. That's the point, you see. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:46.680 But you're free to go to movies. You see, it's the same idea. And then the second reason is this, 00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:53.960 and this is beautiful, because the Jewish Gentile hostility in that city demanded it. You see, 00:32:53.960 --> 00:32:59.400 the Jews couldn't handle seeing their brothers and sisters in Christ eat food sacrificed to idols, 00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:04.680 because the Jews were actually weaker. They couldn't deal with the liberty of the gospel. 00:33:05.480 --> 00:33:08.279 So yeah, the people were free to eat food sacrificed to idols, but for the Jews, 00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:12.519 it crushed their heart when they saw their new brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gentiles 00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:18.200 doing it. So he's saying, for the sake of love, don't do it, because it constrains your Jewish 00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:26.359 Gentile relationships. You see, I'll just close with an illustration. When I was in seminary, 00:33:26.359 --> 00:33:31.240 I was told, don't ever confess your sins in the pulpit. But I'm going to do it right now. 00:33:32.759 --> 00:33:36.359 This, I think this one's not too bad. So people shouldn't be upset. 00:33:36.359 --> 00:33:44.599 When I grew up in Mississippi in the southern US, this was an area deeply affected by the 00:33:44.599 --> 00:33:50.759 prohibition, the prohibition, the outlawing of all alcohol in the early 20th century. In fact, 00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:57.000 there are still counties in Mississippi that are dry. In other words, you cannot, it is illegal to 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:03.319 have alcohol in particular counties in my state still. And because of that, the church culture 00:34:03.319 --> 00:34:12.360 I grew up in basically had added something to the gospel. The common pop notion was Christians 00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:17.319 cannot drink out any alcohol, no matter how moderate, no matter how self-controlled. 00:34:18.599 --> 00:34:22.759 And so much so that, of course, we didn't have wine in our communion or anything like that. It's 00:34:22.759 --> 00:34:28.759 all grape juice, of course. Christians cannot, they do not. You cannot be a Christian and consume 00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:36.040 even the mildest portion of alcohol, even wine at the Lord's Supper. So that's cultural. That's 00:34:36.040 --> 00:34:42.600 not biblical. That's not freedom. That's, that's the, Acts 15 says you are free. That is constraining 00:34:42.600 --> 00:34:48.200 and it's wrong. That's what the Jerusalem Council teaches us. So when I got to the age of 21 and 00:34:48.200 --> 00:34:54.440 I was legal and I had come to the Presbyterian world and changed my views, I said, I'm going to show 00:34:54.440 --> 00:35:00.679 them. And so I went back to an engagement party for some of my best old school friends and all of 00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:05.639 these guys were still kind of steeped in that, that culture that said Christians cannot, they, 00:35:05.639 --> 00:35:11.880 you cannot be a Christian and drink. And we went to dinner and I ordered a blue moon, a beer. 00:35:13.400 --> 00:35:19.400 And just one, and nobody said a word to me at the dinner. And then later that night, one of the 00:35:19.400 --> 00:35:24.280 wise guy who was also in seminary at the same time as me for a different denomination, he pulled 00:35:24.280 --> 00:35:31.080 me aside and said, Hey man, you really hurt the people there tonight because you drank that beer. 00:35:31.640 --> 00:35:37.720 And he said, I understand it, but they do not. They can't, they think they look at you and say, 00:35:37.720 --> 00:35:45.000 that's outside the bounds of Christianity. And they're wrong, but you crush their hearts. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:57.320 And that was a sin. You are free in Christ to eat and to drink, Paul says. But the unity of truth 00:35:57.320 --> 00:36:05.559 with love means you have to love enough to lose your freedoms. You see, you have to become a slave 00:36:05.559 --> 00:36:11.880 to others because that's exactly what the cross was. Jesus, the most free man who ever lived, 00:36:11.880 --> 00:36:19.000 gave up his ultimate freedom to become a slave out of love for us. And so that's the call of 00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:43.000 Jerusalem Council. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would bless the word to us in Jesus' name. Amen.