Didn't See That Coming - Acts 15
Sometimes, our concept of God is something we want to fit into a certain box. It becomes challenging for us when God works outside of that box because we need to go one of two ways.
Acts 15
1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem (the religious capital of the world at the time) to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
So, Paul and Barnabas preach about Jesus and this incredible thing happens. Gentiles start believing and coming to faith in Jesus. God’s chosen people were just as much a race as they were a religion. God’s promise to Abraham was to make a great nation of people from his lineage that He would call His own. The Gentiles had no part in that. Fast forward, Paul and Barnabas start preaching to Gentiles, people who are not from Abraham’s lineage or part of the covenant, yet they believed in their God and Jesus.
Jesus shows up in our lives even when we don’t see it coming.
So, while Paul and Barnabas are in Jerusalem, there’s a group of Jewish believers who are also Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders). They know the Old Testament better than anyone else, discuss and debate matters pertaining to it more than anyone else, and obey it better than anyone else. They believe that Gentile believers need to be circumcised and should be required to keep the entirety of Jewish laws. Paul and Barnabas didn’t see that coming.
Before judging the Pharisees, remember what they knew:
So, to them, God was still a Jewish-only God. That was the limit of their understanding.
And just like the Pharisees, we all have limits to our understanding of God. We all have these holes in our understanding of the entire being of God and how He works. His ways are above our ways and beyond our understanding.
Having gaps in our understanding of God is not a problem, but it becomes a problem when we prescribe instead of describe what God is doing in and through us.
For example, the Pharisees had an understanding of God and interactions with God that were based on their adherence to His laws. Rather than describe to the Gentiles how keeping the law changed their lives and brought them closer to Jesus, they are prescribing to the Gentiles that this is the way it has to be.
Whenever you hear someone’s story of being saved, the overwhelming majority of people don’t have the same type of story, but that doesn’t mean they should feel like their story of salvation isn’t as awesome or powerful.
When one of us has an experience of God in our lives that has a tremendous impact on us, and we say this must be the way God deals with everyone, we are prescribing the way God operates. If we are descriptive about our experience and understand that everyone’s personal experience of God is going to differ, that’s describing.
Everyone’s favorite version of God is the box we put Him in.
To be fair, it’s hard not to put God in a box. We do that with everyone and everything else because it’s what allows us to understand the world around us and make sense of it. The Jewish believers were no different because they were looking at God and His word through the lens of their own personal experience. However, it led to misinterpretations and misapplications of scripture because they were prescribing their experience rather than describing it.
The difference between prescribing and describing is pride, which only divides.
Acts 15
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.
The apostles and elders were debating this for a while. It was similar to a town hall meeting where it just needed to end. Peter’s there, and he’s the disciple who always spoke up, so he gets up and describes what God is doing in the Gentiles. Namely, they have been given the Holy Spirit, and that’s significant.
Peter’s testimony shares that he has been given the Holy Spirit, just as the Gentiles had. He’s explaining how God doesn’t discriminate. Instead, He purifies all of our hearts by faith. Peter makes an important distinction between the law and grace. He says we’re all saved by grace because none of us can keep the law entirely. Jesus does the purifying work through faith in Him, and there’s no difference between Jew and Gentile.
Acts 15
13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.
15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’
18 things known from long ago.
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
For James, it came down to 4 principles that the Gentile believers should now try to live by:
Unity and joy came from the testimonies of the apostles because they met those who were prescribing their faith to others with gentleness, kindness, humility, and understanding while describing what God was doing.
Most of us tend to say too much when we know too little.
We need to ask ourselves 3 questions before saying anything:
The wisest people listen way more than they speak, and when they do speak, those around them want to listen because it’s usually something they need to hear or would want to hear.
We should do whatever we say with humility, knowing that God is infinitely bigger than the box we have Him in.
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- We need to expand our horizons to fit our new experiences and understanding of God.
- We need to reduce the stories and experiences to keep God a manageable size so that He fits into our nice and neat framework for Him.
Acts 15
1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem (the religious capital of the world at the time) to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
So, Paul and Barnabas preach about Jesus and this incredible thing happens. Gentiles start believing and coming to faith in Jesus. God’s chosen people were just as much a race as they were a religion. God’s promise to Abraham was to make a great nation of people from his lineage that He would call His own. The Gentiles had no part in that. Fast forward, Paul and Barnabas start preaching to Gentiles, people who are not from Abraham’s lineage or part of the covenant, yet they believed in their God and Jesus.
Jesus shows up in our lives even when we don’t see it coming.
So, while Paul and Barnabas are in Jerusalem, there’s a group of Jewish believers who are also Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders). They know the Old Testament better than anyone else, discuss and debate matters pertaining to it more than anyone else, and obey it better than anyone else. They believe that Gentile believers need to be circumcised and should be required to keep the entirety of Jewish laws. Paul and Barnabas didn’t see that coming.
Before judging the Pharisees, remember what they knew:
- Their understanding of God and His interactions with His people - as recorded in the Old Testament.
- Their own personal experiences with God through their religious practices.
So, to them, God was still a Jewish-only God. That was the limit of their understanding.
And just like the Pharisees, we all have limits to our understanding of God. We all have these holes in our understanding of the entire being of God and how He works. His ways are above our ways and beyond our understanding.
Having gaps in our understanding of God is not a problem, but it becomes a problem when we prescribe instead of describe what God is doing in and through us.
For example, the Pharisees had an understanding of God and interactions with God that were based on their adherence to His laws. Rather than describe to the Gentiles how keeping the law changed their lives and brought them closer to Jesus, they are prescribing to the Gentiles that this is the way it has to be.
Whenever you hear someone’s story of being saved, the overwhelming majority of people don’t have the same type of story, but that doesn’t mean they should feel like their story of salvation isn’t as awesome or powerful.
When one of us has an experience of God in our lives that has a tremendous impact on us, and we say this must be the way God deals with everyone, we are prescribing the way God operates. If we are descriptive about our experience and understand that everyone’s personal experience of God is going to differ, that’s describing.
Everyone’s favorite version of God is the box we put Him in.
To be fair, it’s hard not to put God in a box. We do that with everyone and everything else because it’s what allows us to understand the world around us and make sense of it. The Jewish believers were no different because they were looking at God and His word through the lens of their own personal experience. However, it led to misinterpretations and misapplications of scripture because they were prescribing their experience rather than describing it.
The difference between prescribing and describing is pride, which only divides.
Acts 15
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.
The apostles and elders were debating this for a while. It was similar to a town hall meeting where it just needed to end. Peter’s there, and he’s the disciple who always spoke up, so he gets up and describes what God is doing in the Gentiles. Namely, they have been given the Holy Spirit, and that’s significant.
Peter’s testimony shares that he has been given the Holy Spirit, just as the Gentiles had. He’s explaining how God doesn’t discriminate. Instead, He purifies all of our hearts by faith. Peter makes an important distinction between the law and grace. He says we’re all saved by grace because none of us can keep the law entirely. Jesus does the purifying work through faith in Him, and there’s no difference between Jew and Gentile.
Acts 15
13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.
15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’
18 things known from long ago.
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
For James, it came down to 4 principles that the Gentile believers should now try to live by:
- Abstain from food polluted by idols – Eating meat where the animal was killed and used as a sacrifice to worship a false god.
- Abstain from sexual immorality – This was built into the Roman world's culture because it’s how we maintain good, healthy, trusting relationships and sets the right example for everyone watching.
- Abstain from eating meat where the animal had been strangled – Blood is the life of any animal, and so it’s sacred to God. If an animal is strangled, its blood isn’t drained properly.
- Abstain from blood – same reason as number 3.
Unity and joy came from the testimonies of the apostles because they met those who were prescribing their faith to others with gentleness, kindness, humility, and understanding while describing what God was doing.
Most of us tend to say too much when we know too little.
We need to ask ourselves 3 questions before saying anything:
- Is what I’m saying really true, or is it true to just my experience and current understanding?
- Is what I’m saying really needed by the person who is going to hear it?
- Is what I’m saying going to be helpful, bring unity and encouragement, or strengthen another’s faith?
The wisest people listen way more than they speak, and when they do speak, those around them want to listen because it’s usually something they need to hear or would want to hear.
We should do whatever we say with humility, knowing that God is infinitely bigger than the box we have Him in.
For more LHC content, subscribe to our newsletter below or follow us on Instagram.
Want to play catch-up, or are you looking for a specific topic? Check out our collection of sermons here.
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