Put it in a letter

Good morning. As we step into the book of Acts, we're in the middle of chapter 13, Acts 15, 13 through 21, as Randy just read for us here. But just one thing I want to make note of here, just for those of you who might not be aware, we've been offering, just starting as of last Sunday, the three electives, Ephesians, and Romans, and the unfathomable riches of Christ. We decided to add a fourth elective, and that'll be Hemenway Hebrew, taught by Courtney. So anyway, just so you'll keep up with that. Anyway, so we're in Acts of the Apostles 15, 13 through 21 here. This is really an amazing, astounding chapter. Here it is in the middle of the book of Acts. It is just passed by chapter count, the halfway point.

It is a time of unique things that are said, unique appearances of people. The apostles and elders gather for the last time that is recorded historically, all of them together. It doesn't mean that it didn't happen at other times. It very likely did, but this is the last time it's recorded. That's a biggie.

Another thing we saw in last week's passage that Peter was present, and he speaks, as we saw in last week's passage, for the last time recorded in Acts. We don't see him speaking again. Up until this time, he has been a prominent spokesman, not always the only spokesman, but a prominent spokesman from the very first chapter of the book of Acts. And now we've heard from him for the last time in the book of Acts.

Paul and Barnabas are present, telling of their missionary travels. And so this is the first missionary journey. They are sharing together what the Lord has done and accomplished. And so they're telling the believers in Jerusalem this news for the first time. They're hearing from Paul and Barnabas on this first missionary journey, if you can imagine that. and hearing all these things, the likes of which had never happened before.

We're going to hear in this passage here from James, Jesus' half-brother. Imagine he was an unbeliever until Christ appeared to him resurrected. This is what we find out in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 7. Can you imagine, here's James and he absolutely hated Jesus. The evidence was that he just absolutely hated him. Now here he sees Christ resurrected and that radically changes him in ways that we'll soon see here.

He's the author of the book of James, and he's named by Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, who by the way has his own amazing story. Josephus was born a Sadducee, but became a Pharisee. How about that for a conversion? And he started off fighting the Romans and ended up siding with them. So anyway, quite a story there.

But James is also in a more recently found ossuary. And so we'll want to take a brief look at that. This box here was owned by a man named Oded Golan. Oded Golan presented this ossuary box and it was found essentially about a hundred yards away from where Courtney parked when we were there in Jerusalem and we were at the exit to Hezekiah's tunnel. And so we have here The box, it became a matter of great controversy as the owners actually were charged with fraud. The Israel Antiquities Authority charged them with fraud. And so right here is an inscription, and the inscription says, Jesus, brother of Joseph, son of Jacob, or James. So, at any rate, this is the burial box, the bone box of James, Jesus' half-brother.

It is after a 10-year trial. Imagine this trial. Thousands and thousands of pages of testimony. Some of the people who were hired by the prosecution said, if this is a fake, I quit. Another one hired by the prosecution said this is the genuine article. The actual bone box of James, the brother of Jesus, both of them being son of Joseph.

So anyway, it is still by the way controversial. Nonetheless, there are people who really don't like that because it sounds a little too good to be true. Paul and Barnabas told all of the church gathered there about their missionary journey to Cyprus and Galatia. So they told them all for the first time. Of course, people were eager to hear this. This is an amazing thing that's going on, all the different things that took place. We're given a summary account in Acts 13 and 14.

But the really big question here at this, what we'll call the conference in Jerusalem, is do we put the Gentiles under the law of Moses? There were those who apparently had become believers out of the Pharisee party, But we're saying, no, in order to be saved, you've got to be converted to Judaism.

And that starts with being circumcised. It is often thought, well, the Ten Commandments, that's really the big deal. And actually, among the Jews who know the Ten Commandments is not the ultimate big deal. It's circumcision. The Jews were called the circumcised. And the Gentiles, the non-Jews, were called the uncircumcised. And that big division was really the front end. So here's the start of it.

As we saw in Acts 15.1, Acts 15.5 elaborates on it. Some men came down from Judea to Jerusalem and began teaching the brethren there in Antioch, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

So, and then in Acts 15.5 it adds to it that you're signing up for the whole law of Moses. So that's one thing that people forget. Conversion to Judaism is not signing up for the Ten Commandments. It is circumcision as a part of the conversion, and you are signing up for the entire law of Moses, not just Ten Commandments. The whole thing. By the way, in Judaism, are there baptisms? Yes, you baptize yourself. You baptize yourself.

All right, so here's a map. It's also on page one of your handout. It shows here is Antioch up in the upper right there. And so that's the church where they started from and where Paul and Barnabas had returned to. This is the Antioch of Syria, to be clear.

And they went down to Jerusalem, a journey of not quite 500 miles, if they went the most direct route, and certainly taking at least 18 days, if not longer, especially if they decided to spend more time talking to people along the way. Here is a general chronology, and I think just to kind of get the picture, the first missionary journey occurred from April 48 AD to September 49 AD. And then after returning from that first missionary journey, we have these things that happened in the autumn or the fall of 49. And that is first Peter was in Antioch. That's recorded in the book of Galatians. Galatians was written from Antioch. So Galatians was written by every evidence we have before this council.

So Paul had already told the believers in Galatia He asked the question who has bewitched you you have fallen from grace, so he's already made this clear and then next Autumn or fall of 49 Is this Jerusalem Council, so this is the third event that we see in that sequence all in autumn or fall of 49 okay So, Acts 15.13, which starts the passage we have today, After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, Brethren, listen to me.

So, what is remarkable about Acts 1.14, which we saw some time ago here, is that Jesus' brothers were there praying and of one mind with the others and waiting for the Holy Spirit to be given.

So John 7, 1-9 says that Jesus' brothers did not believe in Christ and even hated him. But Jesus appeared to James after he was resurrected. So here is James, a radically changed man. Imagine going from absolutely hating Christ and his brothers along with him.

You can imagine how difficult it was. Here's Mary saying, How come you aren't a great kid like your brother Jesus? Right? That would be a tough act to follow. So they loathed him, but he became a believer. James' heart was turned from unbelief to belief and from hatred to love.

Now, here's where you want to get your binoculars out, unless you can see it on your handout there, and you get your binoculars out there in the pew racks, I'm sure. So here's this chart, this chart that should be on the middle of page 2 in your handout. This is the family tree of Jesus. And, of course, there are some complexities to this. One is that Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus, and so that's there.

We have from the book of Mark 6.3, James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon are the names of Jesus' brothers. and very likely in that order.

And then he had sisters, as all of the Bible says. Outside of scripture, we have writings that say the sisters were named Salome and Mary. And that, of course, doesn't have the same authority as scripture. So that gives us a family tree with the names with, again, the sisters are from a separate document outside the Bible. So we get that family tree. This is a fairly large family.

You will hear from some people that Joseph, you know, had these other sons by either an earlier wife or other wives and those kinds of things. The Bible doesn't really describe that. The Bible zeroes in that these were born of Mary, these other brothers and sisters born of Mary. after Jesus was born. So I'll let you look at all the details on that. We won't go into that, but I'll leave that up to you.

Now, so James addresses them as brethren. Now the word brethren is the same word in the English and in the Greek, but it has different significance in different parts of the Book of Acts particularly. People are addressed as brethren for different purposes. Sometimes the word brethren is used to address or to mean fellow Jews.

That's in Acts 2.29. I've got my picture here somehow jumping over it, but also in chapter 3 as well. Peter addresses the Jews who are at that point unbelievers as brethren, which was commonly done among the Jews here. In other times, brethren is used to address or to mean fellow Christians, and that's exactly how James means it here. He's addressing fellow Christians and using the same word, but we tell by context who he's referring to. He's addressing fellow Christian believers, as we would call them, fellow believers in the body of Christ.

Here's Acts 15.14, Simeon has related how God first concerned himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for his name.

So this is called Simeon. Some of your translations may have just simply Simon. And what they've done is to try to simplify it. In fact, it's one of those things where the name had various versions where they would call Peter different things. I recall over the years I've been called various things. I won't repeat some of them. But Peter was called various things, and one of them is called Simon, or in this case Simeon, most explicitly.

He's also in other places called Cephas. Actually, that's taken from the Aramaic Kephas. And both Peter and Kephas mean stone. So that's the meaning there. This Simon or Simeon is probably the tribal name, one of the sons of Jacob. that may indicate the tribe that he's from, but may not. So either one, he would be understood as that.

So Peter told the people at this conference about how he had brought the gospel to the house of Cornelius. And that he draws from Acts chapter 10. He also repeated that to the leaders in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 11. But here he had, as we saw in last week's chapter, Peter set aside the law of Moses for himself and for the Gentiles that were saved. He found, as he testified in chapter 11 of the book of Acts, that the law got in the way, got in God's way.

And he mentioned that they received, the Gentiles, received the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish believers had at the very beginning here. without being under the law at all. Peter didn't come in and say, well you guys got to follow this and that and the other law. God acknowledged that these were saved here in the church by clearly giving them the Holy Spirit. They were indeed saved and they were not under law. They weren't following the law. Now here's the thing that comes out.

This is out of Zechariah 2.11. The Gentiles, a people for his name. We hear of the Jews being God's chosen people. Ever hear about that? But what the Bible also says is that the Gentiles are God's people as well.

And that's out of Zechariah 2.11. What we see, as we've been seeing in Acts already, God is acting and working among people.

James sees God acting to bring the Gentiles into the church without any regard for ethnicity. See, the Jews were all about ethnicity, and so that's why some of them were saying, well, in order to be saved, they have to convert to Judaism. Paul has been saying, and he wrote in Galatians, no, they do not. And Peter has said it, and now James is about to say the exact same thing.

God acted to save the Gentiles and bring them into this newly created body called the church. He did not intend for the Gentiles to be brought to salvation by having them convert to Judaism. You don't have to become a Jew. One of the things that we sat about as elders many years ago was to talk about that the groups, the Gentiles, the Jews, and the church, those three groups are identifiable as separate groups on into eternity, even into the new heavens and new earth and the new Jerusalem. Those groups are separately identified even on into eternity.

Here's Acts 15.15, with this the words of the prophets agree just as it is written.

So James doesn't provide a chapter and verse reference here. For the passage, he's about to quote, and there's a reason for that. Chapters and verses were not put in the Bible until many centuries after the time that any of the Bible was written. If you had told Paul, Paul, let's talk about Romans 6, 1 through 10, he'd say, what? What's Romans 6, 1-10? James did, as we see many New Testament speakers and authors also doing, including Jesus.

It is written, or similar words. As a matter of fact, it even gets more vague in a couple places in Hebrews. It says, somewhere it says, right? And it's because they had book designations, but no chapters and no verses. So in the authors of the Bible, there are about 40 of them. wrote over about 1,500 years time. Isn't this amazing? Here is the Bible inspired by God and he inspired it in different authors, about 40 authors, over 1,500 years time. None of those were written with chapter and verse breaks in the book. We have no evidence that they had those breaks at all.

Other people tried different kinds of systems about a thousand years after the New Testament was completed, to break the Bible up into different sections. One of the systems was to take every single Bible book and divide it up into seven sections. So you imagine, so Genesis would have a fairly large set of sections, right? being dozens of chapters long, and then you divide the book of Jude up into very small sections. So that was not very handy. It didn't work very well.

So a guy named Stephen Langton, who boy is quite a piece of work himself, he put in the chapter breaks that we now use, and that was in the Latin Vulgate. He also later got involved in the Magna Carta, and we won't go into that because we don't have enough time for that. But anyway, so that's the guy. He put in the chapter breaks we now use, but that was in the Latin. So people at best could, in the Latin version of the Bible, refer to certain chapters. And so that got established.

Verse breaks in the Bible began with the Reformers in 1550. They first put it in the Greek text in 1557. They put it in the first English printing of the Bible with verses, the Geneva Bible. And it so happens that I have one page out of a Geneva Bible from that era, and it includes Ephesians chapters 1 through 3. So those particularly who are in the Ephesians elective may be interested, but I've left some copies of that out on the cabinet here so you can pick up that if you'd like. If we run out, I'd be very happy to print more or send via email. It's fascinating to read what the Geneva Bible, which is the first Bible in English that had the verses, look like so many centuries back. And so anyway, that's rather amazing. But that's how the verses first got entered.

Before that, if you said, you know, turn to, you know, Romans 6.11, people would say, Romans what? You know, and they would have no idea because there were no verses there.

Now, he does refer to the prophets, so the term that the Jews would often use for what we call the Old Testament is the Law and the Prophets. The Law was the first part, that's the part that Moses put together, the first five books, right? And then the Prophets were the major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and then the more minor prophets ending with Malachi, right? So you'd have the Law and the Prophets, that's what we call the Old Testament.

If you went to people back in those days and talked about the Old Testament, they'd look at you, what? They wouldn't have any idea what you're talking about, right? But, that's what they call it. He refers to the Old Testament, he then quotes from several books, you've got Amos, Jeremiah, and Isaiah.

And quoting from at least three of these books, and he also earlier quoted from the book of Zechariah 2.11, quoting from these three of the Old Testament prophets, he's confirming that the prophets agree. Not just one, but the prophets together, several of them, agree on this point. Here's Acts 15, 16 through 18.

After these things, I will return. I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord. And all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago."

So James is largely quoting millennial promises, that is, these are passages in the Old Testament that look ahead to the time when Christ will reign upon the earth for a thousand years and he will be king of Israel, the king of the Jews, and the title, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is his title over the Gentile nations. And so he will have that title ruling over the Gentiles and they will be his people as well.

So the Church, however, is not revealed in the Old Testament, which is why he doesn't make reference to an Old Testament passage about the Church. When is the Church revealed in the Bible? It's not revealed in the Old Testament, and it is not revealed in the first part of each of the four Gospels. The Church is revealed only in the last part, roughly the last half or later, of each of the four Gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is not referred to earlier. James was saying that God did not plan to make everyone a Jew in order to save them. Even in the Millennial Kingdom, we won't have everybody converting to Judaism, but rather you'll have Jesus as King of the Jews over a promised land that will extend all the way from Israel over to Kuwait. All the way north up into Syria, it will encompass what is now eight different countries. That will be the promised land, the land promised to Abraham, and Christ will reign over that. That will be the land of the Jews. The rest of the world will all still be Gentiles, And there will be Gentiles who are saved by faith, separately, and not by becoming Jews.

Here's Acts 15.19, Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles. This I want to expand on, because that word trouble is actually a very rich and colorful word.

So we'll talk about that. The first thing is, what do you hear James say? Therefore. Sounds like Paul, doesn't it? He's drawing a conclusion. So after there had been much debate here, after Peter had spoken his thoughts about how God had directed him to share the gospel with the Gentiles, after both Paul and Barnabas had shared about how the Jews and the Gentiles were saved by faith and not by the law of Moses, And James had drawn upon the wisdom that was in the prophets, James was ready to draw a logical conclusion here. As Paul often did, right?

Therefore, he says what? We do not trouble those who are turning to God. So the Greek word that is translated trouble means to continue to cause hardship and difficulty by annoyance. But we can say more things about that word. By the way, this Greek word is only used here in the entire New Testament. It's not used anywhere else. But it is used in the Greek Old Testament, so we'll go there. This word that's translated trouble here is in the Greek Old Testament the same word that is used of what the lions could have done to Daniel. That's real trouble, right? So we're not talking about a little bit of annoyance. You ever have something that's a little annoying, but you get past it and it's no big deal? This is not a minor annoyance. This is big enough.

It is used to describe what the lions could have done to Daniel. It's not small trouble. It's big trouble. Also, the same Greek word is used of Delilah nagging Samson until He finally told her, here's what it takes in order for me to lose my strength. It's that word for trouble. So the law imposed upon the Gentiles is not just annoying like you've got some fly or mosquito bothering you. This is an annoyance that is a massive, massive disturbance.

It is really big. So we get the idea that James is not talking about a mild annoyance. So this word trouble, maybe we could put it in capital letters, bolded, italicized, and underlined, in order to get the idea of how big trouble is. It's not small.

Those who are turning to God are those Gentiles being converted by faith and the gospel being preached. The Gentiles are turning to God, believing the gospel so as to receive forgiveness of sins, to be redeemed and declared righteous. We get that picture all the way from the book of Acts on into several of Paul's letters, connecting those things up. We do not cause this massive amount of trouble and disturbance about those who are turning to God, and they're turning in a big way, turning, ending in faith.

So, to read verses 19 and 20, Therefore, it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood. So are we writing to them that they follow the Ten Commandments?

Not exactly. What is this? So he's saying in sharp contrast, because by the way, that word but is a sharp contrast. There are a couple of different ways to say that word in the Greek, and this one is a sharp contrast. Saying that in sharp contrast to troubling the Gentiles who are coming to faith in Christ, and this is really big troubling, By imposing the law of Moses on them, we should write to them, giving them clear direction. And what is that? Abstain from things contaminated by idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

These are the key things that are really going to offend and irk the Jews. The Jews did not expect that Gentiles would follow all the Jewish things. And the Jews did not expect the Gentiles all to have to convert to Judaism and become Jews. But what they did ask of those Gentiles who would hang around them is very close to these things. So we would rightfully ask the question, why these things specifically?

So, Moses 15-21, For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. The Jews have their spokesman among themselves. And the Jews hear about Moses, they hear about the Law of Moses constantly, as the Law of Moses is being read in those Jews' synagogues every Sabbath. The Jews would have a copy of the Torah. They would read from the Torah and the other what we call Old Testament books. They would do so every Sabbath. There was a schedule of readings and assigned readers.

However, the Jews had not recognized that God is doing something new among the Gentiles to save them, apart from anything that they had seen before. And that was certainly not by making them Jews, not by having them to convert. So the apostles and prophets in the church are going to tell about what God has done, this is what Paul and Barnabas are doing, and is doing to save the Gentiles and Jews together, and it's not in the old mold. God is not operating the same way that he did before.

So what is he doing? He's not putting the Gentile converts under the Mosaic law. You notice he didn't say, hey guys, let's just have them follow the Ten Commandments. Notice that? I mean, that would have been easy. Paul even does it in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He calls them the stones, the lithos, right? It would have been real easy for him to say. He doesn't say that. He doesn't even put them under principle of law, as we'll see here. by calling for these constraints on them.

Instead, James was urging them to limit their exercise of Christian liberty, to make their witness to unsaved Jews more effective, and their fellowship with saved Jews more harmonious. So let's not get the Jews either unsaved or saved offended here. But we want instead to not offend them, those within the church body here. This is exactly what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, 19-23, in Christ I have liberty for things, but I will refrain from doing things not because I'm under law, but because under grace, grace may restrain us in ways that the law never even conceived of. I will hold back from doing something that offends my brother. I'll hold back in doing something that offends my brother because of grace and not the law.

So what God is not doing here, God is not desiring that Gentiles become Jews to convert to Judaism in order to be saved. He's not calling for the Gentiles to take on the law of Moses and hold her in part in order to be saved or stay saved. God is not calling the Gentiles to take on the law of Moses and hold her in part in order to maintain their relationship or have fellowship with Him. That would be troubling in a big way the Gentiles. Not going to do that. Not happening.

So what is God doing? God is telling the Christian believers that are present that a letter should be written from the apostles and elders, and we're going to see that next week. What is that letter? What's the content? That calls for the Gentile believers to live for the sake of ministry to the unbelievers and the believers alike. So he's calling him to do this. Point one, the things that James is calling for the Gentile believers do and not do are to preserve the opportunity with the unbelieving Jews.

As a Christian, is there a problem with me eating strangled meats? Not really. They seem a little repulsive to us, but that was done among the Gentiles. He's saying, don't do that. Not because God has a problem with it, but because You want for consideration of ministry to unbelievers as well as believers. And two, to stand back from offending the Jewish brothers is a principle of grace.

How are these things to be done? Are they to be done now we've got a new set of laws? No. By Christ who lives in me. Paul had written that just before this conference as he sent the letter to the Galatians. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who does the living, so to speak, but Christ does the living in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. The Christ who indwells us, Christ who indwells us is the one who restrains what he does out of grace and not just by the law.

Paul and James are in total agreement. One of the things I've done oftentimes is I listen to people as I look at them and say, well, you know, Paul says this and James says this, and they interpret Paul and James as at odds. Do you find Paul and James at odds here as you read this passage? No. And so that's one thing, as people go through the book of James and they go through Paul's letters, if they are interpreting with Paul and James at odds, they are misinterpreting scripture. Paul and James were not at odds with one another.

Now, one of the things we're going to find out is back ahead of us in Acts 21.18, James and the other elders are going to meet together with Paul again.

This is in Acts 21.18. That day, by the way, is going to be May 28, 57 AD. That date, Paul is going to meet with James. We're going to get there. There's nothing to indicate that Paul and James were at odds with one another. So an understanding of the book of James or an understanding of Paul's writings that appears to be in conflict is not a proper interpretation of one or the other.

We've talked about the big picture in God's will. God's sovereign will is fixed and irreversible, includes your position and possessions in him. What's a great thing is we've got three electives that are each of them dealing with our position and possessions in Christ, as we've called it in the one that meets here, the unfathomable riches of Christ. God's moral will is revealed in Scripture. People will often point out that, oh, here is the Ten Commandments quoted in Paul's letters.

Yes, and it's to draw principle, but not place people under law. We learn from the law. We get understanding and insight from the law, which was inspired by God and given to the Jews. But life is to be lived out by life of Christ, not by our following the rules of the law. God's will individually consists of learning to make wise decisions with godly wisdom rather than worldly wisdom as we walk in fellowship with the Lord and in dependence upon Christ.

One of the things we're seeing in this book of Acts, and we're going to see it again and again, is God did things because people depended upon Him. That's how He wants things done. Not by, here's your rules, do your best. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for your care and your love for us. As we see here, James, who is often pointed to as someone who brings about legal things, he is in fact exceedingly gracious here. And we thank you for that. Thank you for your amazing grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.