1. Acts 15
The Jerusalem Council

2. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:1
While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the Christians: "Unless you keep the ancient Jewish custom of circumcision taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."

3. The Jerusalem Council Grace + Law = Law Acts 15:2
Galatians 5:2-4
Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ cannot help you. 3 I'll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey all of the regulations in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.
Acts 15:2
Paul and Barnabas, disagreeing with them, argued forcefully and at length. Finally, Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.
Grace?
Free Gift
There’s nothing we can do to make God love us more.
There’s nothing we can do to make God love us less.
Law?
Getting what we earned.
Approaching God based on our performance.
Grace + Law = Law
Ephesians 2:8-9
God saved you by his special favor [Grace] when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Romans 4:4-5
When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive. 5 But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.

4. Background of the Jerusalem Council
Galatians 2:11-12
But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him publicly, speaking strongly against what he was doing, for it was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who don't bother with circumcision. But afterward, when some Jewish friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore because he was afraid of what these legalists would say.

5. Background of the Jerusalem Council
Galatians 2:13
Then the other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their hypocrisy.

6. Background of the Jerusalem Council
Galatians 2:14
When I saw that they were not following the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter in front of all the others, "Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you trying to make these Gentiles obey the Jewish laws you abandoned?

7. The Jerusalem Council Galatians 2:16
And yet we Jewish Christians know that we become right with God, not by doing what the law commands, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be accepted by God because of our faith in Christ—and not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be saved by obeying the law."

8. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:3-6
The church sent the delegates to Jerusalem, and they stopped along the way in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers. They told them—much to everyone's joy—that the Gentiles, too, were being converted. 4 When they arrived in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported on what God had been doing through their ministry.

9. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:3-6
5 But then some of the men who had been Pharisees before their conversion stood up and declared that all Gentile converts must be circumcised and be required to follow the law of Moses. 6 So the apostles and church elders got together to decide this question.

10. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:7-10
At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows: "Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. 8 God, who knows people's hearts, confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he gave him to us.

11. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:7-10
9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he also cleansed their hearts through faith. 10 Why are you now questioning God's way by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?

12. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:11
We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the special favor [Grace] of the Lord Jesus."

13. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:12-13
The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up: "Brothers, listen to me.

14. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:14-18
[Peter] has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16 "'After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,

15. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:14-18
that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things' 18 that have been known for ages.

16. The Jerusalem Council Acts 15:19-20
And so my judgment is that we should stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 except that we should write to them and tell them to abstain from eating meat sacrificed to idols, from sexual immorality, and from consuming blood or eating the meat of strangled animals.
Acts 15:21
For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations."

17. Relevance for us Pure Grace is always the first thing to go.
Why is this?
No experience with Grace anywhere else.
Grace is singled out by God’s enemy.
Offends our pride.
Grace threatens control that religious leaders want.
Galatians 2:21
I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.

18. Relevance for us Pure Grace is always the first thing to go.
We must make a stand for Grace.
Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

19. Relevance for us Pure Grace is always the first thing to go.
We must make a stand for Grace.
Ask ourselves: “Do I live under Grace?”

20. The Jerusalem Council
Questions?
Comments?
Experiences?