Consider these questions as you dwell in Acts 15:22-41:

1. The Council of Jerusalem played a pivotal role in shaping the early Christian community's understanding of salvation for Gentile believers. How did the decision to abstain from practices associated with pagan worship, rather than imposing circumcision, reflect a commitment to the core message of salvation by grace through faith? How can this decision guide contemporary discussions on essential Christian practices?

2. The sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas led to their separation, yet both continued to advance the gospel in their respective ways. What does this episode reveal about the importance of maintaining unity around the central message of Christ's atonement, even when there are differences or disagreements in secondary matters? How can modern Christian communities navigate such situations while prioritizing the proclamation of the gospel?

3. The unity of the early church was anchored in the proclamation of the gospel of God's grace. How can contemporary Christian communities ensure that the core message of salvation through Christ remains central, even amidst differing theological or practical perspectives? What practical steps can be taken to prioritize unity in the mission of spreading the gospel?

Transcript:

 This council at Jerusalem was a very big deal. As we've seen, a big part of the Book of Acts is this movement. Of the gospel going out to the gentiles not just going to the Jews to the Hebrew people But out into the whole world and then we come up against this for lack of a better term obstacle In the middle of acts these people are saying hey if you want to be circumcised if you want to be saved You have to be circumcised.

This was a major obstacle for the proclamation of the gospel and so at the council of Jerusalem, they said hey you're saved by grace through faith, putting this burden on people is not going to save anyone. It has never caused righteousness to, to flow out of the Jews. Why would it cause anything greater than that to happen among the Gentiles?

And so instead, what did they do? They had these things that they wanted to tell the Gentile people what they should do. And it was what we read here. It was, it's repeated from. Last time, abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality.

These are important things to avoid because they're all related to pagan worship. They're all evaded, uh, related to paganism. So, they want them to stay away from those things. And not only does it lead people astray, but it's a bad witness. All of these things that they're sinful, particularly the sexual immorality is sinful.

That is what they are to do. And so, they give this information to the congregation, to the people in Antioch. And when they hear it, we read in verse 31 that they rejoiced because of the encouragement and then Judas and Silas the other men who went with Paul and Barnabas They speak words to the congregations there and everyone is encouraged.

This is a big moment for the church in Antioch and for all Gentile believers. They can freely proclaim the gospel of God's grace without having to worry about somebody coming along and convincing people that they need to have this act of circumcision done on them.  Well, we see that Paul and Barnabas remain in Antioch.

They teach and they proclaim the word of the Lord. Things are going good. But then they decide to go back and to follow up with the churches that they have planted in these different areas. Well, Mark had, had ditched them at one point and Paul is not wild about taking him along. I'm guessing that he is concerned that he hasn't matured and that he will do this to them again.

And Barnabas is his cousin and I think he wants to give him a second chance. Now, we read here that they have a sharp disagreement.  We don't know what happens. We don't know how, uh, how the separation happened, but we see that they, they separated. And that's not a good thing. Division is not a good thing.

But what do we see?  We see that they go their own ways, and they continue to proclaim the Word of the Lord. And in other parts of the New Testament, Paul speaks well of Barnabas and Mark. And so, we see that even though they split, They remained united around the proclamation of the word. We see that they continue to advance the gospel.

Remember how many times I've said the importance of what is going on here is that the gospel continues despite the obstacles that they come up against. The apostles and the disciples, they are going out and proclaiming the gospel, making sure that it advances. And so, I think there's a good point of application for us here today.

We know that there's, there's unity in the church around the message of Christ and Him crucified. But there are other divisions in the church. But as long as we have that gospel, that gospel of God's grace, the atonement for our sins, as long as we have that at the center, may we go out and may we have unity in that message.

Regardless of our differences in other areas, obviously those things are important, we need to discuss them. But we need to be encouraging one another to go on into the world and faithfully proclaiming the gospel of God's grace because that is the thing that truly unites us. That truth that Christ has lived for us, suffered for us, rose again for us, and is now at the Father's right hand, interceding for us.

So may we unite with all our brothers and sisters who hold strongly to that truth. That the gospel might continue to go forward, just as it did in the book of Acts.