Keystone Nazarene Church
Making Christlike Disciples in Okinawa
Who can Follow Jesus? – The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-35)
It is Jesus, not laws and rituals, that can save us; setting us right with God and showing us how to live well with Him in His world.
The Issue
Some Christian Jews argued that circumcision (and the law), not Jesus, was necessary to be saved.
Acts 15:1-2 NIV
The Issue
How are we saved? How do we have a relationship with God?
Genesis 17:9-10 NIV
The Issue
Background: God told Abraham and all male Jews after him, to be circumcised as a symbol of their relationship with him. The law dictated what was required by God to be in this community.
The Issue
Paul and Barnabas deeply disagree. God sent Jesus to do what the law could not, to change human hearts.
Philippians 3:4-6 NIV
The Issue
Paul and Barnabas deeply disagree. God sent Jesus to do what the law could not, to change human hearts.
Acts 15:2-3 NIV
The Issue
To answer this question the Antioch church sends Paul, Barnabas and others to ask the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.
Acts 15:4 NIV
Acts 15:5 NIV
The Courtroom
The pro-circumcision group believes that Jesus enables people to be saved by joining the Jewish religious and cultural community (guided by the law and tradition).
Hebrews 8:7-13 NIV
The Courtroom
Paul believes (from his own life experience) that external compliance with the law can not transform the human heart to love God. Through Jesus and the Spirit God makes a way for inward change.
Acts 15:6-11 NIV
The Courtroom
Peter, agrees, recounting how God clearly instructed him to go to the Gentile Cornelius and how his family received the Spirit as they put their trust in Jesus. Only God could do this.
The Courtroom
Paul and Barnabas tell the stories of what Jesus did for Gentiles as they began to trust him.
Acts 15:13-18 NIV
The Decision
James, the leader of the believers in Jerusalem, agrees with the stories shared and also shows in scripture where God said to expect this kind-of change.
The Decision
But he suggests a compromise: as Jewish Christians accept Gentiles who put their trust in Jesus without becoming cultural Jews, so Gentiles abstain from certain actions (both ritual and moral) that enable them to have interactions with their Jewish family in Jesus.
Acts 15:19-21 NIV
The Decision
The decision was sent to Antioch and showed an acceptance of what God wanted to do to bring Gentiles to him through Jesus.
Acts 15:30-35 NIV
The Decision
It is Jesus, not laws and rituals that can save us; setting us right with God and showing us how to live well with Him in His world.
Next week:
Compelled for Christ – Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey. Acts 15:36-18:22