A Disagreement over the Gospel...

For the past several months, we have been looking at a letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Acts, which records the story of how early followers of Jesus responded to the mission that they were given to be the vehicle that God used to reveal His Son Jesus as they partnered with God to advance His kingdom mission in the world. This week I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a story in which Paul becomes involved in a disagreement so significant that it almost destroyed this new community called the church. So let’s enter into the story together as Luke provides us the context in which this disagreement takes place, beginning in Acts 14:27:

When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they spent a long time with the disciples.

Luke begins by sharing how Paul and Barnabas gathered together the members of the church at Antioch, which was located in what is now modern day Syria, to report to them all God had accomplished through them during a mission trip to southern Turkey. This was the first of three mission trips that Paul would take and is recorded for us in Acts chapters 13-14. In Acts 13-14, Luke records for us how God had used Paul and Barnabas as the vehicle to reveal His Son Jesus and the message of the gospel in powerful ways throughout this region. Upon returning to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas spent a great deal of time sharing all that had happened. Now the church at Antioch was the largest church in this region and was comprised mainly of Gentiles, which are people that are not Jewish ethnically or culturally. And it is this context that this significant disagreement appears, beginning in Acts 15:1. Let’s look at it together:

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren.

Now, to fully understand the nature and significance of this disagreement, we first need to ask and answer several questions. First, who were these men were traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch? These men were Jewish ethnically and culturally who attended the church at Jerusalem. And as a result of their Jewish background, they began to teach and preach to the Gentile members of the church at Antioch that unless they were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they cannot be saved.

But what does that mean? What is the big deal about circumcision? Circumcision is a surgical procedure that involves removing the foreskin from the male genitals with a surgical knife, or in this case, a knife made of stone. And right about now every man is cringing at that thought.

The reason that circumcision was so significant was that circumcision was a covenant sign that identified the Jewish people as being God’s people. Circumcision was a religious act that was required to be performed under the Law so that you would be able to be identified as being right with God as part of the Jewish religious system. Circumcision was something you did for God in order to be right with God. The vast majority of Gentiles, however, having not been a part of the Jewish religious system, had not been circumcised.

So what these Jewish members from the church at Jerusalem were saying to these Gentile followers of Jesus was this: “If you want to become a follower of Jesus, not only do you have to believe, trust, and follow Jesus as Lord and Leader; you also have to follow all the Laws that God gave the Jewish people through Moses. And one of those laws is that you have to be circumcised”. In other words, these Jewish followers of Jesus were basically telling these Gentile followers of Jesus that a person needed to become a Jew before they became a Christian. That becoming a follower of Jesus involved faith plus works.

Now imagine yourself as a 20-something male member of the church at Antioch. You are at church one Sunday and, all of a sudden, a Jewish guy comes up to you and says “oh, by the way, in order for you to be a part of this community, you first need to be circumcised. We have a booth right around the corner where we can take care of that for you. But if you do not become circumcised, you can’t be a part of this community and you are not really a follower of Jesus and right with God”.

Now, how would you respond? Would you be more likely or less likely to buy into this new community called the church? Do you think that this would be a help or a hindrance to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel advancing? This was a huge issue that caused a huge controversy and disagreement. Luke tells us that Paul and Barnabas, upon hearing about these Jewish men and their teaching had great dissension and debate with them. In other words, Paul and Barnabas had words with these Jewish men. They engaged in a heated and aggressive discussion that involved strife and disunity. Neither side was going to budge.

You see, this was more than a disagreement over a potentially painful surgical procedure. This was a disagreement over how a person was able to enter into a right relationship with God. This was a disagreement over the message of the gospel. Is the message of the gospel that we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion because of what we do for God? Is the core message of the gospel that we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion because of what we do for God plus trusting in what God has done for us? Is the gospel faith plus works? Or is the core message of the gospel that we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion because we place our confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus Christ and nothing else?

This was a huge issue and a huge disagreement. This is a gospel issue that threatened the very existence of the church during the churches infancy. Most scholars believe that this debate and controversy occurred in 49 A.D., which is within fifteen years of the birth of the church. In addition, Paul provides us greater detail of this conflict in the second chapter of a letter that he wrote that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Galatians.

Luke tells us that this controversy and debate was so heated that the members of the church at Antioch decided to send Paul and Barnabas, along with other members of the church, who would serve as witnesses to what had happened, to Jerusalem. The leaders of the church at Antioch desired that Jesus closest followers and the leaders of the church at Jerusalem, would hear this controversy and render their decision as to who was right. So Paul, Barnabas and the others traveled to Jerusalem to attend what would become the first church council.

Tomorrow we will look at what happened during this council...