The Jerusalem Decree
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 22 January 2017
So the decision is clear, the doctrine is settled and we discussed fellowship last week. And all believers are under is the law of love, the perfect law of liberty, also called the royal law, as James calls it. And we went into that in detail last week. So, the decision then is that we are not going to hassle them, they are saved, we accept them, but we need to be careful in the area of fellowship, so not to offend them. And that is love in action.
Verse 22, “Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.” Do you realize that there is in that verse something that is foreign to most church meetings? The whole church agreed! Because the Spirit never disagrees with Himself, and if everybody is Spirit filled and Spirit controls, then everybody will agree.
And so this early church had the unity of the Spirit. Now you may have a group deciding issues: you may have a class deciding issues, but if they relate to spiritual issues they ought to be decided on the basis of total unity. Then you know you have the mind of the Spirit. If there is a wayward individual there, you need to deal with him on an individual basis and with love lead him back to Christ.
They chose two men to send along with Paul and Barnabas. The Jerusalem Church wanted everybody to know that this teaching was right, so they sent two of their own up there. They sent Judas and Silas. Of Judas we know nothing, but of Silas much has been said. Silas is called Silvanus by Paul and Peter, and he was the guy who accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey. He was also the one who carried the first Epistle of Peter.
Notice it says they were chosen men among the brethren. Jerusalem sent two of its best leaders, to give a solid report on what the decision was. Salvation is by grace through faith, plus nothing! We see here that the authority in the Jerusalem church is granted by God to shepherds of Christ. When you have a church without authority, without strong central leadership, then you have nothing but chaos.
Verse 23 says, “They wrote this letter by them: The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.” The Jewish brethren wrote to the Gentile brethren, just imagine the tremendous positive impact of just that greeting. Cyprus and Galatia are not mentioned because they were extensions of Antioch.
So they wrote to all the Gentile churches. Verse 24, “Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law,” to whom we gave no such commandment.” Those Judiazers were not authorized by the Jerusalem Church to say those things. They pretended to be representatives of the Apostles. Those new believers were not just troubled, they were really torn up and horrified.
And here the word trouble, in the Greek language is used for legalism. The Spirit of God has shown the deep turmoil that legalism brings about when it is imposed on grace. It messes up people. False doctrine is big trouble. Legalism is deep trouble because when we start tampering with the doctrine of salvation, we destroy grace. And when you destroy salvation and you have damned people.
The Old Testament does not teach legalism. God loves the Law, but God hates legalism. God always wants obedience. Obedience is doing something for the glory of God. Legalism is doing something for the glory of self. Legalism is doing something so that people think you are spiritual. There is a big difference between the Old Testament law and the New Testament law.
The Old Testament says, if you do this, then I, God will do this. Exodus 19:5-6 says, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” It is also illustrated by the Sabbath, you work six days and I will give you the seventh day off.
But the law of the New Testament says in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” It is the exact opposite, because we have every spiritual blessing we want to live according to that blessing. Now, some Christians in the New Testament are doing it the Old Testament way. I am going to do this and that and God will like me better. No, no, you have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing if you believe.
Therefore legalism is the wrong attitude. You are not only obedient the Old Testament way but secondly you do it for self-glory. That is the natural outcome when you start doing things as a Christian to earn God's favor. Because you are going to say I did this and I did that, so, God must be happy, and that means you are glorifying yourself. God does not tolerate being superfluous pious. Self-righteousness is terrible stuff.
God says, cut out all of that superficial stuff and get down to repentance and I'll clean you on the inside. Legalism is not obedience, legalism is doing things to earn blessings, and secondly, doing it for self-glory. These Jews were hung up on legalism. There is nothing you can count on except the work of Jesus Christ which has been done, and that is offered to you as a free gift. Obedience will come as a result of it.
In Acts 15:25-29, the decision of the council was given, “it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Paul and Barnabas were given the greatest commendation that you could ever give to somebody. It says that they are men who risked their lives for Jesus. Acts 14:19 tells us that Paul was stoned and left for dead. And the pattern of their lives was always a willingness to suffer for Christ. Paul’s whole life was one dangerous adventure. And that was true of Peter and John, it was true of Stephen.
You ever heard of losing your life for the fellowship of another believer? Some people are giving their lives to minister to believers and unbelievers. Well, sometimes the people who are the highest up in ministry are the loneliest. Well in the end Paul became very ill and plus being a condemned criminal in Rome wasn't real good. Why did Paul do that? He did it for the benefit of others and he was not afraid of death.
Romans 14:7-9 says, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” Paul says, it does not matter if I am alive or dead, I am the Lord's anyway. That is called continuity of life.
When you understand the continuity of eternal life you have no fear of death, when you have no fear of death you're willing to do a lot of dangerous things. If you see death as a great giant monster on the road of life that is going to consume you in some horrible way, well of course you’re going to be afraid. If you see death as the release of all your hang ups and freeing you to experience all the blessings that God has, it's a different attitude.
How do you feel about the name of Christ? Psalm 115:1 says, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory.” Exodus 34 tells us that God is a jealous God. How can God be jealous, that's a sin. No, jealousy is neutral. It can be a sin if you are jealous of your neighbor's wife, his job, his money, his car and his house. Jealousy like that is a sin.
But if you are jealous for the sacred name of God and the honor of Jesus Christ, that's good. We should set aside our egos for the sake of Christ. You know what Jesus said? Look at Matthew 10:39, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” If you died fighting for the honor of the name of God, you will never die, you will live eternally with God.
Verse 27-28 say that they also sent Judas and Silas to confirm the testimony and “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us,” now there is the key to their success. And that was beautiful, there is unity because they were all filled with the Spirit. So they were of one mind, simply because the Spirit was in control.
Usually I hear, I am going to do this, but I don’t know what the Holy Spirit wants me to do. Or I do know what the Holy Spirit wants me to do but I do not want to admit that and obey that. That is why we all must be filled with the Spirit in order to serve God with all our heart and strength and in unity.
Well they gave their decision in verse 28, "to lay upon you no greater burden." We’re not going to impose law on your grace. Only these necessary things in verse 29, "that you stay away from idols and fornication and strangled things and blood,” which will offend the Jews. Then he says, "From which, if you keep yourselves, you shall do well." If you don't do these things it will be to your benefit.
So we have seen dissension, the discussion and the decision. Let us continue with the development. Verse 30, “So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch; and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.” What it means is everybody was there. Verse 31, “When they had read it, they rejoiced for encouragement.” Grace is really encouraging, isn't it?
How would you like to have to keep your salvation by works? Would you be encouraged by that? I don't think so. Grace is encouraging, in legalism there is just guilt and fear. There is a blessing Paul gives in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.”
First there was encouragement, then rejoicing, so the second thing was celebration. It says in verse 31, "When they read it they rejoiced,” Look at Mount Sinai, what came out of Sinai before the law? Thunder, smoke, fire, quaking of the ground. Now compare that to what comes before salvation. Luke 2:10, “Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.”
Verse 32, “Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.” They were ranked next to Apostles in the church in terms of importance, they spoke directly from God. Verse 33, “And after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles.” These two guys stayed long enough to teach those Gentiles, isn't that unity of the church?
And the Gentile arms were wide open. They had these two Jewish teachers from the Jerusalem Church teaching them. Now they were encouraged, and full of joy. Acts 20:32 says, "The word of His grace is able to build you up." Only grace builds you up. So grace is cause for celebration and encouragement. What does Peter say? "But grow in grace."
Well, lastly there was continuation. Verse 34 isn't in the original manuscripts. So let us look at verse 35, “Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many others also.” They just picked up where they left off. And once the message of grace was understood and established, they went away following where the Holy Spirit was leading them next.
Satan must be getting tired of having all of his plans reversed. Satan says, I'll move into the church with a false doctrine of salvation. What happened? As a result of that the church crystallized its doctrine. Satan says, I will split the Jews and Gentiles, but as a result of this effort the Jew and the Gentile were blended together.
Satan said, I will halt the progress of the gospel, the crystallizing of the doctrine of salvation, the unity of the Jew and Gentile, but it only resulted in speeding up the progress of the gospel. Satan sets up the most perfect circumstances for God to accomplish what He wants. Let us thank God for reversing everything that Satan does for positive results.
Well, and they went about doing two things, teaching and preaching, evangelism and edification. The message came back and what happened? The church established the doctrine of salvation, picked up where it left off and took off in greater ways than it had ever seen. There's no other salvation, except in the name of Jesus Christ, and that alone.
And God does not change, He knows what is going to happen here in America with all the unrest and the plans of ungodly people to cause confusion and fear. God knows the end from the beginning and His goal is to call you to Himself. Matthew 10:26 says, “Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”
Be strong in this time of uncertainty, continue to serve God in whatever capacity He has assigned to you, be persistent and faithful to the God of the Bible, who knows your problems and who is full of grace and mercy. And remain close to Him in whatever situation you are, because His promise is to not leave you nor forsake you ever. Let us pray.