Over the last few weeks, we’ve been learning that: Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church at Antioch had commissioned Paul and Barnabas to head out to take the good news of Jesus into the surrounding region. Paul and Barnabas spread the gospel into the Galatian region, seeing both incredible receptivity and immense opposition to their message. Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, sharing with the church there all that God had done through them.

“Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”  This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad.

“When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” The apostles and elders met to consider this question.  After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.

“He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

“When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’— things known from long ago. “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

“Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers …”

“So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.”

In the book of Acts, we’ve seen two major churches develop in the Christian world: Jerusalem led by “the apostles” and Jewish in nature. Antioch led primarily by Barnabas and Paul, and Gentile in nature. The question for the first century church quickly became how can these two historically antagonistic groups – Jews and Gentiles – coexist within the developing church?

Initially, the Jewish Christians had been supportive of Peter’s conclusion that salvation and church inclusion were equally available to Gentiles. The Jewish Christians throughout the church were rightfully concerned with how a strong moral standard in the church could be maintained with the influx of people who had until very recently been rooted within a pagan worldview. Many Jewish Christians probably expected that the “impurity” would come from outside of Jewish followers of Jesus – Gentile believers then became an obvious source of such impurity.

To guard against such impurity, one option favoured by some members of the early church was make Gentiles enter Christianity through the rigours of Judaism. This was a majority view in the church at Jerusalem, while the church at Antioch seemed unconcerned with this issue. Of the Jewish rites necessary for a Gentile to enter into Judaism, circumcision was the pre-eminent and most recognized form of entrance in to the Jewish community.

Our text indicates that a group of Christians came from Jerusalem to interact with the church at Antioch. They began teaching that unless one entered Christianity through Judaism, they could not be saved. Paul and Barnabas quickly refuted their insistence that Gentile Christians be forced to adhere to the laws of Moses, maintaining that salvation is attained through the grace of God alone and not by jumping through various religious hoops The church at Antioch decided to send Paul, Barnabas and others to Jerusalem to seek resolution to this issue.

The envoy from Antioch shared reports of Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus, which was celebrated, even in Jerusalem. We are told that “some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses” (Acts 15:5).   Peter made an appeal, suggesting that if God Himself showed that the rigours of Judaism were neither required for salvation, nor for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, how could they now insist on this of Gentile converts to Christianity?

James, the brother of Jesus, supported Peter’s words and remarked that in times past, God had taken from the Gentiles a people for Himself, yet now, He was taking for Himself a people consisting of Gentiles! In Jesus, a new “Israel”, a new people of God chosen not by ethnicity but by the grace of God was being formed. In light of this, the church ought to stop making “it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God”; the inference is that the insistence on circumcision as a route to salvation ought to end.

The only necessary requirements of Gentile Christians ought to be that they “abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood”. God was forming a new people, who would live in dynamic community with one another, made up of both Jews and Gentiles. The developing church ought to be careful of practices that might offend Jewish believers, while at the same time protecting Gentile believers from the influence of familiar pagan practices.

To ensure that the church in Antioch knew of the decision of the council in Jerusalem, they drafted a letter to be read to the scattered Christian communities and sent two men of high standing in the Jerusalem church to give testimony that the letter contained accurate information. The letter was gladly received by the church at Antioch. Our text then ends with the church having taken a definitive stance in support of Gentile Christianity and salvation through faith.

APPLICATIONS Are we as a church today still making it difficult for people to turn to God? Our passage outlines some very clear criteria – avoidance of idolatry and sexual immorality – which are incredibly helpful, but are there other areas where we’ve turned a gray into a black and white? Are we “grace and truth” people? Have we understood the ministry extended to us through Jesus - “a ministry of reconciliation” - or has our ministry become one of conviction and condemnation?