- Sermon Notes
- Scripture
How to Walk Through the Door of Faith
Acts 15:1-11
Illus. One way in!
As we turn to Acts chapter 15 this morning, we find Paul and Barnabas back at the church at Antioch after being sent out on a missionary journey to preach the gospel, the good news of Salvation in Jesus Christ to many cities throughout the world. While on their journey, they faced difficulty, but also great joy in seeing many people believe the gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ and give their lives to Him personally.
While preaching in each town, they would start in the Jewish synagogue, find common ground in the Old Testament Scriptures, and then point them to Jesus as the Messiah. Some in the synagogues would believe, but many would not. Then they would move on and preach to the Gentiles in each town. What we see on their journey is that people were coming to Christ, both Jews, and Gentiles (non-Jews). In Acts 14:27, Paul and Barnabas bring back a report to the people in Antioch, when was the church they were sent out from:
Acts 14:27, When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all the things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
Paul and Barnabas were excited about the open door to faith for the Gentiles, that all people could put their faith and trust in Jesus and receive Salvation. God had opened the door of faith, and salvation in Jesus Christ to the Gentile, and they were walking through that open door, by God’s grace, through faith.
But as we turn to chapter 15, we see some men come from Judea who begin to teach differently. They began to teach that in order for a person to be saved, in order for them to truly walk through the door of faith, there was more they needed to do. Specifically, they began to teach and say that a person must endure a physical circumcision (1) and keep the Law of Moses (5) in order to be saved.
What their teaching then creates, is a heated argument and debate around the way a person is saved. It would come down to the question: Is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone? Was there some other step or source they needed prior to walking through that door?
The content and conclusion of this chapter then is not only important to the people who were coming to Christ in that day, but those who choose Christ in our day today.
Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Many people have a hard time with a free gift of grace. Many people believe there are more things we need to do or more prerequisites one must complete before a person can receive salvation in Christ and be set free. What is affirmed in Acts 15 is that grace is a free gift, and it is a truth that cannot be missed. There is only one Way to walk through the door of faith.
- Jesus Christ is the Key
Acts 15:1-2, Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
- The men who noted in verse one who had come from Judea are a group called the Judaizers. As noted, they held the opinion that Gentiles could not be saved without circumcision.
- The word “Judaizer” comes from a Greek verb meaning “to live according to Jewish customs.” In the early church, those who taught a combination of God’s grace and human effort (keeping of Mosaic Law and Circumcision) as necessary for salvation were called Judaizers.
- Their belief was that Gentiles could, in fact be saved, but prior to salvation, there was an admission requirement…Circumcision.
- Circumcision was a covenant given to Abraham in Genesis 17. All Jewish males were to be circumcised on the eighth day. It was a sign of obedience, and it signified, and separated the Jews as God’s covenant people.
- When a Gentile wanted to adopt the Jewish religion, they could become a proselyte. There were levels of this, but a person who wanted to be a proselyte of righteousness, would need to become a full Jew in lifestyle and circumcision.
- The Judaizers here are essentially saying, that a Gentile can be saved, but they must first become Jews before they can become Christians.
- The idea that a Gentile, without Jewish background, without law-keeping, without circumcision, without pursuing anything associated with the old covenant, could just believe in Jesus and be forgiven of sins and guaranteed heaven, was too difficult for them to believe.
- The Jewish people had adhered to and believed the covenants of Abraham and Moses. They kept rigid rules and regulations. They tried their best to adhere to the laws of Moses, all 613 of them. They did all they could to pursue God, and now “just believe in Jesus” is what is being preached.
Acts 13:38-39, Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.
- After Paul goes around preaching this message, after many Gentiles had believed in Jesus, walked through the door of faith and received His grace and mercy. The Judaizers come to town and teach differently.
Acts 15:2, And after Paul and Barnabas had a heated argument and debate with them, the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.
- Paul and Barnabas hear what they are teaching and disagree strongly. There is a heated argument that takes place.
- Paul and Barnabas had been going around teaching the free gift of mercy and grace through faith, these men were teaching things a different way.
- The word for “heated argument,” is a term defined elsewhere as an insurrection, strife, uprising, uproar, or revolt. It is used elsewhere in the Bible as a riot.
- What the men from Judea were teaching was a major theological crisis. This was something they were not united on; this was something they were divided on and it was essential that they get this right.
Illus. An Issue.
Acts 15:4-5, When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to keep the Law of Moses.”
- The sect of Pharisees referred to here are those who were Pharisees before they came to Christ. They are noted as the sect of Pharisees, but those who “believed.”
- After hearing from Paul, Barnabas and the others who traveled with then, the believing Pharisees insisted that Christians must be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses.
- It is interesting that the believing Pharisees stand up, because Paul, who was standing in front of them, was also a Pharisee who believed.
- He would have been one who understood their thinking, and at one point in his life he may have adhered to their thinking, but he had seen the Lord, and he now knows differently.
- Jesus is the key. Paul was preaching that adamantly. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Jesus Christ is the key.
Illus. Unlocked.
Romans 3:23-25(a), All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith…
- The attempt was to add to what Jesus Christ had already done.
Illus. 99/100?
- When Jesus was on the cross, He said the words, “it is finished…” Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, making the way to the Father and paying the debt we owed but could not afford.
Jesus Christ is the key…He is the only way to walk through the door of faith…
And that door had been opened!
- Those who believed and put their faith and trust in Jesus had been given His amazing grace, but now their needed to “get” it in terms of understanding it.
- “Get” the Gift of His Amazing Grace
Acts 15:7-9, After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
- When Peter refers to the early days, that God made a choice that the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe by his mouth, he is referring to the time he went to Caesarea to preach the Gospel to a man name Cornelius, a Gentile, and his family.
- Peter had shared the message of Salvation in Jesus Christ to Cornelius, his relatives and close friends. In Acts 10:43, Peter said to them boldly that the message of salvation.
Acts 10:43-44, All the prophets testify of Him, that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
- Here in Jerusalem, as the debate is going on, Peter points them back to the fact that God had testified to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit.
- He continued, God made no distinction between us and them, He cleansed their hearts by faith.
Acts 15:10-11, Since this is the case, why are you putting God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”
- Peter said in verse 9 that their hearts were cleansed by faith, and in verse 11, through the grace of the Lord Jesus.
- Peter also made the point that there was no distinction between “us and them,” and that they were saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just like them.
- And if it is by grace through faith, then why is God being put to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that nobody was able to bear.
- A yoke is a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox, or oxen that was just to steer them when they were pulling a plow.
- The animal did not like it, it was a heavy and controlling burden.
- Peter says, you are laying a heavy burden on the Gentiles, you are telling them they need to bear heavy burden and weights in order to be saved…It is yoke, he says, and then adds, the yoke you are applying is something we have not even been able to bear.
- You are telling them to do something that neither us, nor our forefathers have been able to actually do.
- Speaking of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:3-4, Jesus said these words, “do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
Illus. Burdens?
- We also make many troubles and burdens for ourselves by how we live out our lives. But the greatest burden of all is the burden of our sin and it is a burden we simply cannot and could not carry.
- Peter tells them, it is by faith, through grace…That is the way they are saved, and that is the way we are saved. We are all saved the same way.
Ephesians 2:8-9, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
- Grace is most often defined as the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. It is God’s favor toward the undeserving.
- In God’s grace, He forgives us and blesses abundantly, even those we have done nothing to deserve it.
Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace.
Titus 3:5, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy…
Romans 11:6, If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, since otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Illus. Amazing Grace.
- I encourage you to know that God’s amazing grace is available to you today.
Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Enter In as You Are
Acts 15:13-17, After they stopped speaking, James responded, saying, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has described how God first concerned Himself about taking a people for His name from among the Gentiles. The words of the Prophets agree with this, just as it is written: ‘After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David, and 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.
- The James speaking here is Jesus’ half-brother. He is also the writer of the book of James. He has a prominent role here in the early church and is the one who brings about a final decision.
- What he points the people to, what settles the debate for them surround the door of salvation, is what the Scriptures have to say.
- Specifically, he looks back on Amos 9:11-12.
- It is a prophecy from the book of Amos that deals with a future day, the house of David is noted as being in ruins, but it would be rebuilt.
- The rebuilt house of David would only be possible through the Messiah, born of a virgin. This is Jesus.
- And the rebuilding was inclusive of not just the Jews, but “the rest of mankind,’ and “all the Gentiles who are called by His name.”
- The text in Amos says “the nations,” the point is, that the house of David that will be rebuilt by One whose throne would last forever (1 Chronicles 17:12).
- And all mankind, and all the Gentiles may seek the Lord (Verse 17).
- Verse 18, the Lord said this, and made these things known from long ago!
- Verse 17 does not say “the circumcised” Gentiles, or the “law keeping” Gentiles, it just says “the Gentiles.”
Acts 15:19-20, 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.
- James makes a two-fold decision to take back to those in Antioch.
- The first is for the legalists: Do not to trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles. In other words, don’t put anything in the way, or a stumbling block before them.
- The second is to the new converts, and he is essentially saying, be sensitive. There were practices that were offensive to the Jewish converts…They all needed to learn how to be “one” in Christ. Stay away from these things, these practices are offensive. If you do these things, you will do well.
- Ultimately, James looked back on Scripture. That is what settled the debate. And we look back on Scripture today, to settle the same.
- Jesus Christ is the key, it is all about His amazing grace, and whether a person is near or far prior to coming to Christ, they can enter as they are.
- In John 10:9, Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.”
Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Acts 15:1-11