THIS One Debate SPLIT the Early Church

So, what we're reading in Acts 15 is truly authoritative doctrine being formed in the early church. This is historical. Is it enough to believe in Jesus alone, or do these Gentiles also now have to keep the Torah like Jews do? As we go to Acts chapter 15, I'm going to give you a paradigm shift that is so contrary to the way that we think today. So without further ado, let's go and begin to read. Acts chapter 15, verse 1. 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 so we have some what we call Judaizers. They're coming down from Judea, and they're teaching Gentile believers that unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. So to put that in today's context, what was going on is someone was going around from the religious district of Judea, probably a Pharisee, teaching Gentile believers like most of you that are watching right now, that you need to get circumcised, not by the medical doctor that you probably got circumcised by, but that you need to get religiously circumcised according to the law of Moses. And unless you do this, he was saying to you, if you're a Gentile, you can't be saved. So this is a debate that's taking place. Then it says, and then when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. And so think about this. Paul is going to the Gentile world. And as he's in the Gentile world, some religious leaders from Judea, from the Jerusalem area most likely, were coming towards where Paul was teaching and preaching into the region where Gentiles were, teaching the Gentile converts, those Gentiles that had put their faith in Messiah to be saved, had put all their trust in his shed blood.

These religious Judeans were going to them, these Judaizers, telling these Gentile converts, it's not enough for you just to put your faith in Jesus. It's not enough for you just to trust in his grace and in his blood. You have to get circumcised according to the law of Moses. And so Paul was really upset about this. And he got into great debate with them about this. And the debate couldn't be settled with them. And so Paul decided to go up to Jerusalem to the mother church where James was presiding and present the case there. And it says, so we decided to 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 Phoenicians, and Myriah, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. So as they're going, Paul is talking about the amazing thing that is happening amongst the Gentile world as God is supernaturally saving them with evidence of signs and wonders as they're receiving the word. Then when they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. So Paul now is in Jerusalem, and he's describing to the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem, in the Jerusalem church, the amazing thing that God is doing amongst the Gentiles who were considered the heathen, how God is supernaturally saving them when they're hearing the gospel of Messiah Yeshua. Now continuing on, it says, but some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up. So these were believing Pharisees. So you understand now that formal doctrine had not yet been formed. So what we're reading in Acts 15 is truly authoritative doctrine being formed in the early church. You see, there wasn't unanimous agreement as to whether Gentiles had to now not only

believe in Jesus to be saved, but also keep the law of Moses, the Torah. And so this is what the debate was about. Is it enough to believe in Jesus alone, or do these Gentiles also now have to keep the Torah like Jews do? And so listen again, some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, these were Pharisees that had believed, stood up saying, it is necessary to circumcise. them, and to direct them to observe the law of Moses. The Apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. So this is really, like, this is historical. This is historical. This is Christian doctrine being formed in the earliest times of the church. Big debate, because up until this time, it was taught that the only way a Gentile could be saved is by converting to Judaism. You had to convert to Judaism to be saved. So now they're saying, okay, these Gentiles, they're believing, but it's not enough for them to believe. They also have to become Jewish converts. They have to keep the law of Moses and get circumcised. This is what the whole debate was about. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brethren, 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. So Peter was saying that earlier I was telling you about this, that the Gentiles were going to hear the Gospel and believe. So Peter had prophesied and taught that Gentiles were going to believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us. So Peter's saying now, we know that they're being saved because God gave them the Holy Spirit. We saw the evidence of it. And He made no distinction, the Lord made no distinction between us, the Jews, and them cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers 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 are also. So Peter is saying that, listen, it's evident that they're being saved. They're not being circumcised. They're not coming under the laws of the Torah. But it's evident they're being saved because they're receiving the Holy Spirit. And it's evident supernaturally. We need to stop, we need to stop debating this. We need to stop trying to force the yoke of the Torah's laws upon them. He says, but we believe that we are

saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they are also. And now listen to the next verse. All the people that were present there, all the people kept silent. And they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. So there's a lot of confusion, a lot of strong opinion, a big debate going on. And the debate was, can Gentiles be saved without keeping the law of Moses? And what's so incredible about this is it's exactly opposite what the church debates today. What the church debates today is, should Jewish people give up the Torah once they put their faith in Jesus? The whole situation has been flipped upside down. It used to be, can somebody be saved without keeping the laws of the Torah? Now the debate is, must Jewish people give up the Torah if they're gonna truly follow Jesus? You see, those early followers of Yeshua, you go back to the earlier days, they would go into Gentile churches and the Gentile pastors would tell them, to prove that you really believe in Jesus, you have to eat pork. To prove that you're really a disciple of Jesus, you've got to give up all your Jewish holidays. You've got to stop celebrating Passover. You've got to stop celebrating the Sabbath. This was what the Gentile church told Jewish believers after some years had gone by. But in reality, the whole situation had been reversed. It wasn't whether Jewish people should still keep Shabbat or still celebrate Passover. The debate in the early church was, do Gentiles have to do this to be saved? So a really interesting flip. That whole phenomenon really kind of puts things in a historical perspective, rather than just looking at things through the lens of time in our day. And so Paul and Peter are saying, look, we don't have to debate this. We know that God has accepted these Gentiles without keeping the laws of the Torah, because supernatural signs and wonders are taking place. Listen again, all the people kept silent and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they had stopped speaking, here we go. We're talking about James, because I'm here in Jerusalem. You see the old city behind me. This whole debate took place in Jerusalem in the mother church where James was the leader. And how do we know that James was the leader? Because everybody was present. Everybody was debating, and finally we read in verse number 13, after they had stopped speaking, James answered saying, brethren,

listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for his name. With this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, after these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind, not just the Jewish people, not just Israel, 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 listen again, 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. James continues, this 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 may abstain from things contaminated by idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. So there's two things that I want to point out here. First of all, we've already stated that James brings the matter to a close. He said, this is my judgment. So everybody went back and forth. James, the half-brother of Yeshua, they had the same mother, but different fathers, because Yeshua was immaculately conceived. James, Yeshua's half-brother, was not only an apostle, he was not only one whom the Lord had appeared to after he rose from the dead, but he was the leader of the mother church in Jerusalem of the Christian faith. And James settled the debate by speaking over it and saying, this is my decision, that we do not trouble those from the Gentiles

who are turning to faith, that they only have to abstain from things, sacrifice to idols, from fornification, from what is strangled, and from blood. Why did he, why did he single out these four things? Because these four things were the things that would have prevented the Gentile believers from being able to have fellowship with the Jewish believers. There was such a division between the practice of the Jewish believers that they wouldn't be able to eat meals together with Gentiles if the Gentiles were involved in these four things. So James laid it out very clearly. We just command the Gentiles to abstain from these four things and we don't go beyond that. But I want you to get the next verse. James continues in the 21st verse by saying, for Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church and they basically agreed with James's decision. But I want to point out what James said. Don't put all this on them. It's too much. It's going to stop the movement of the church, the movement of faith in Yeshua from growing. Instead we just give them simple instructions to prevent them from having fellowship with us, the Jews. And then James continued by saying, for Moses from ancient generations is preached in the synagogue every Sabbath. What I believe James was saying there is we don't want to put a yoke on these new Gentile believers that's going to crush them and it's going to stop the Christian movement from growing. No, Moses is still being preached. He's being preached every Sabbath in the synagogues. I believe what James was referring to there that Gentile believers through the preaching

of the Torah in the synagogue every Sabbath would discover more and more of the Hebraic roots of their faith in Messiah Jesus from the Torah and the prophets because he was being preached, the Torah and the prophets were being preached in the synagogue every Sabbath. And so new believers, they would start going to the synagogue on Sabbath to learn more about Yeshua, the King of the Jews. So James was saying let's not trouble them with a bunch of regulations and laws. They're going to discover the importance of the precepts and the concept that the Lord taught in the Torah because Moses is being taught in the Torah every Sabbath. And these new Gentile converts were going to the synagogue on Shabbat to being taught the Jewish or Hebrew roots of their faith. So this is a lesson for you and I, beloved, that we want to know and discover the Jewish and Hebrew roots of our Christian faith, because our faith is built upon Judaism. Jesus said everyone that teaches how to live by the law and the prophets, not under the law, but live by the concept and the revelation of it, would be called greatest in the kingdom of God. And everybody that knows the law and the prophets, Yeshua said in Matthew 13, would be like the owner of a mansion, is able to bring out of the mansion treasures old and new. In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.