Acts 15

What’s really amazing about Acts 15 is that a bunch of people reach a decision that seems to fly in the face of most everything they have ever known and loved.

Think about it: the church at that moment was primarily Jewish.  The “headquarters” was in Jerusalem.  The senior leaders—Peter and James, among others—were lifelong Jews.  The Scriptures they looked to were what we now call the Old Testament, Genesis through Malachi, with no whiff of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

Facing their first big crisis—what do we do with all these Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus the Jewish Messiah? —the answer would appear to be obvious: The Gentiles must conform to Jewish identity markers (circumcision, keeping kosher and Sabbath observance primary among them).  After all, “salvation is from the Jews,” so to get in on that salvation, one must become Jewish first.  This question doesn’t even seem all that hard to answer, right?

The decision that this “Jerusalem Council” reaches heads in a very different direction: “we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God … It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (15:20, 28-29).  No circumcision.  No Sabbath.  Kosher laws … relaxed, redefined for the new Gentile believers.  We assume that the Jewish believers continued to live as Jewish Christ followers.  But they made room – new room—for Gentiles to live as Gentile Christ followers.

What is happening here?  The Gospel.

The Good News of Jesus the Messiah is working its way into a community, then working its way out through that community into the world.

They didn’t “vote” in Acts 15, at least not in the ways to which we are accustomed.  They didn’t brainstorm possibilities, conduct risk-benefit analyses, build constituencies, “meet in the middle,” “split the difference” or other things that make sense to us in our day.

What were they paying attention to, what were they noticing that allowed them to move in a direction that seems to contradict many of their most cherished norms?

First, they noticed what God was doing: bringing Gentiles to faith in Jesus and filling them the same way, with the same Spirit, he had filled the original (all Jewish) disciples.  Peter, an “insider” leader, and Paul, still something of an “outsider” leader, are both bringing compelling reports of Jesus working in Gentiles without regard to their lack of compliance with Torah.

Second, they listened, hard, to their Scriptures.  They did not tear up and toss out their Torah scrolls, they turned to them with greater intensity … and found, we suspect to their surprise, that Scripture had some things to say about God’s heart towards Gentiles that they hadn’t fully seen or understood.  God hasn’t cancelled his covenant with Israel, he has expanded it, extending it now, because of Jesus, to Gentiles.

Third, they listened to trusted leaders.  Acts 15 indicates that there was a great deal of discussion and debate, many voices were heard, but the voice of Peter and James are the ones recorded for us.  Paul’s words in this setting are referred to but not recorded—we don’t “hear” his voice in the way we hear the voices of Peter and James.

But the key to the whole process is the Gospel.  What does the Gospel mean, what does it say, how does it speak to this contentious question?  To our contentious questions?

In a funny way, these Jewish believers kind of “voted” against themselves.  Their decision allowed the Gospel to move outside its Jewish manger.  What had been a movement within Judaism became a movement in and for the entire world.  The church soon became overwhelmingly Gentile—and a terrible anti-Semitism characterized far too much of the church’s history.  In choosing to not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God, they unintentionally made it harder for many of their Jewish people to believe in Jesus, especially in light of how all too many Gentile Christians have treated Jews.  All decisions have unanticipated and unintended consequences.

But they made the right decision, and a profoundly counter-intuitive one … unless you are listening to the Gospel.

Amazing!

Complete the following sentence: “If my church ever allows ______ in, I’m outta here!”  Don’t include unrepentant murderers, racists, bigamists, bank robbers, etc.—that’s too easy.  Who might go in the blank that would make you uncomfortable?  Start a prayer conversation with God about it: is your discomfort truly Gospel-based (it may be!) or rooted elsewhere?