Acts 17:16-34 "The Known God"

                So often, when we think of life during the time of the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, Jesus and his disciples, or even the Apostle Paul in the early church, we think that life back then bares very little (if any) resemblance to life today.  Well, that’s not exactly the case in our text for today.  Sure, there are cultural and technological differences that can’t be disputed, but many factors that existed in Athens at this time were similar to some things we find today in our own country and community.  But first, let’s recap what we’ve missed and where we are in Paul’s journey.  We saw last Sunday the first part of his 2^nd missionary journey.  We paid particular attention to the conversion of the Philippian jailer.  At the end of our text, we read that Paul departed and went on his way.  He went to Thessalonica, only to have Jews form a mob and run him and Silas out of town (a theme for Paul).  Then, Paul and Silas went to Berea.  Now, there isn’t much mentioned here about this town or its inhabitants, but they are quite well known in Christian circles.  The description of this community in Acts 17:11 (Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.) has gained much praise over the years.  Various groups throughout history have adopted the name Bereans as a reflection of their desire to emulate this group here in Acts 17.  The most notable of which has been the followers of Scottish Presbyterian minister John Barclay in the late 1700’s.  Today, many Bible study groups in churches go by the title of the Berean class (or something to that effect), which reflects the devotion and seriousness with which they have devoted themselves to studying and learning Scripture.  Alas, despite the committed group that Paul found in Berea, his fate there was no different than anywhere else it seemed.  He was driven out from there after folks from Thessalonica showed up and started causing trouble.

                Eventually, Paul wound up in Athens.  Now, Athens was a sight to behold in those days.  Not that it’s not today, but this was much closer to what is known as Athens’ golden age.  This was only a few centuries removed from things like the great military conquests of Athens, the age of classic Greek literature, Socrates and Plato, and art that would later inspire folks like Michelangelo.  Even though those days had already passed, it wasn’t as if Athens was completely destitute of their influences when Paul arrived there.  However, we are told that Paul’s “spirt was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.”  Now, we’ll look at this notion of idols in just a moment, but I want to give a little more background here before moving on.  We’re told of the folks that Paul spoke with.  We’re told of two different groups:  the Epicureans and the Stoics.  Now, without going into too much detail, I want to give you the basics of these two belief systems.  The Epicureans got there name from Epicurus, who believed that the primary point in life was to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.  They weren’t complete hedonists in the sense that they always did what they wanted without thought.  No, they were a little more calculated than the hedonists of today.  However, their outlook or motto could be summed up by saying that if it felt good then you should try and repeat it, but if it didn’t then it should be avoided.  That sounds good until you really start to think about it.  The other group of people were the Stoics.  They were founded by a man named Zeno, and he viewed life as being filled with unavoidable good and bad.  The only approach to life was to just deal with it and worry about yourself.  They believed that the only thing worth trying to change was yourself; in essence, promoting the human mind above everything else.  They very much denied or downplayed God’s activeness and intervention in the world.  Now, I realize that I have probably drastically underrepresented these two groups, but I don’t want to turn this into nothing but a history lesson.

                So we’ve got this group that values only pleasure and this other group who thinks that all that matters is yourself and doesn’t really view any greater figure to be present (or at least active).  However, these groups only seem to be the tip of the iceberg for Paul as he begins his famous speech at Mars Hill in verse 22.  I want you to notice something about this speech though; Paul doesn’t just go in and start berating them for their ignorance, but instead he gently and loving corrects their thinking.  He told them that he could see that they were full of religious devotion.  He noticed the altars and the relics that were present all over the city, but they were missing something.  He pointed out the inscription “To the unknown god” that was upon some of the altars.  And after pointing this out, Paul says to them, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”  It was as if Paul was saying to them, “Guys, I’ve got great news for you today.  I can tell how much y’all love to worship, but unfortunately you just haven’t known who to worship this whole time.  Well, I know who to worship, and the even better news is that I’m going to tell you about him too so that you can start worshipping him as well.”

                Paul then went on to point out four things about God to the Areopagus.  He pointed out that God created all things.  He told them how God sustains all things.  He told them how God ordains all things.  And finally, he told then how we should be constantly seeking God.  Now, we’re going to look at these four points really quickly, but I want to back up for a second and connect the dots on something that I’ve already said this morning.  I opened today by telling y’all that things in Athens weren’t very different from our world today.  There’s something that correlates between that inscription that read “to the unknown god” and the view that many folks in our world (and unfortunately many folks who call themselves Christians) take of God today.  You see, we live in an interesting time.  We live in a world full of information, and what a blessing it is.  We are learning new things each and every day.  I’m fearful y’all; I’m fearful that by the time my kids get in high school there going to pass my comprehension level and I’m just going to be left in the dust.  Things that I took in college, my little girl is starting to be exposed to in Kindergarten.  It’s really quite remarkable when you think about it.  However, it is also coming at a price, and the Christian faith is seemingly bearing the brunt of the damage.

                Our “enlightened” world, much like that of Athens and Greek-thought, is surely a time in which some areas of human achievement are at an all-time high.  However, in our growth of knowledge, we have become vastly more ignorant in some regards, particularly our faith.  Now, I’m not one of those who is under the illusion that everyone around him is a true Christian.  I know that throughout my life, I’ve been exposed to numerous folks who don’t profess Jesus Christ as their Savior.  I’ve been around lots of folks who can’t and won’t agree that John 14:6 is a truthful statement.  And make no mistake about it, many of these folks have been and are good people.  However, I find that more and more Christians are denying the words that no one can come to God except through Jesus.  Now, they’re not outright saying that they deny them, but what they are saying is a denial in itself.  Phrases like, “We’re all worshiping the same God but just in different ways” or “all religions are pretty much the same” are denials of the truths of John 14:6.  You see, there are many religions out there that are of the mindset that Jesus was only a good person; at most he was just another prophet.  And the scary part about it is that more and more folks who call themselves Christians are becoming tolerant of and adopting such a line of thinking.  It’s as if we’re worshiping some “unknown god” that exists out there similar to that which the altars in Athens were built to.

                However, as Christians, we shouldn’t and can’t be so ignorant or inclined as to treat God as some unknown or completely open deity.  Now I’ll fully acknowledge that there are things about God that we quite honestly just can’t understand, his incommunicable attributes, but there are plenty of things that we can understand that we must use in shaping our worship of Him.  As I’ve mentioned already, Jesus, God’s Son, the Word Incarnate, very pointedly said during his earthly ministry that he was and is the only way to the Father.  We can’t deny that or open that up to then include those who deny Christ, or else we are diluting the entirety of Scripture and of God as well.  Instead, what we must do is that we must hold to the truths that Paul spoke at Mars Hills and proclaim their validity and truth today just as he did some 19+ centuries ago.  God made the world and everything in it, God sustains everything in this world, He ordains all things, and that we should be constantly seeking Him.

                God created the world and everything in it.  Of this, James Boice says, “The doctrine of creation…means that God has not left himself without a witness.  It is true that not all peoples have had the Scriptures…But all people at all times have nevertheless had a witness to God in creation, in the heavens, and on earth.  No one can claim utter ignorance of the true God.”  In theological terms, we refer to creation and the natural things of this world as God general revelation.  Even if God has not given the special revelation contained in His Word to someone yet, they still have had the ability to come to Him through his general revelation in the works of creations.  Paul’s second point (that God sustains all things) teaches us about the work of God after creation.  You see, God isn’t a holy watchmaker.  He didn’t create the universe and just sit back and watch it run as some type of perpetual motion machine.  Now, I don’t want to go into this discussion, and I would invite anyone who wants to talk someone on this subject to come and see me any time.  Let me just sum up what our view of God ought to be by saying this:  God sustains all things, maybe not an active moment-by-moment  involvement, but He does continue stability by enforcing His created order.

                Verse 26 speaks of God the ordainer.  God is unfolding a plan.  He’s unfolding something that was planned before the foundations of the earth.  This is a direct disagreement with some of those folks in Athens at this time and our world today that think that everything is some string of random events.  This goes against the notion that we are in control in the grand scheme of things.  This notion flows naturally out of the first two of God as creator and sustainer, but still is much needed in terms of remembering.  The final point is that we should seek God.  I like to think of it this way:  everything in this world is pointing to God.  The question becomes if we want to see it or not.  When we don’t want to see something, when we refuse to believe that something is true even when the evidence is right in front of our eyes, then we just don’t see it.  I see God in almost everything around me, mainly because I’m looking for Him.  For the person who is trying not to see Him, it’s as if He isn’t anywhere to be found. 

                I think that Paul’s argument or speech here is a progressive one; not in terms of radical thinking, but in terms of each idea building upon the last.  God created the world, and since creating it He has continued to sustain it.  He’s sustained it while unfolding a plan that has always been and that we should constantly be looking for.  As Paul says in verse 28, “In him we live and move and have our being.”  This phrase was taken from a common thought about this unknown god and Paul tells them that they’re right, but the one that they are seeking is God the Father Almighty.  He went on to tell them of their need for repentance and the coming judgment.  He spoke to them of the resurrection of Christ and we see that this was all met with mixed reaction; some laughed, some ignored, and some believed.

                Friends, we live in a world not too dissimilar from Athens in terms of thought.  When we speak of the One True God and Christ and the resurrection, we too are met with some laughter, some avoidance, some hostility, and also some belief and conversion.  However, we must not allow our message, the message of the Gospel, the good news, to become watered-down or diluted.  We must not allow anyone, especially those within our churches, to deny John 14:6.  We must continue to remind ourselves and others how much God has done for us in His creating us and the world, His sustaining all things, His ordaining all things, and we must respond by seeking Him and His will day and night until such time as we are called to stand before Him and give account.  We must not let our thoughts be shaped by this world, but seek to shape this world with our beliefs.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Acts 16:25-40 "Believe and Be Saved"

                I knew it was going to happen.  I knew that it wouldn’t take long for me to semi-regret this notion of skipping through portions of the book of Acts in order to cover more of the major events.  However, I also know that none of you want to spend the rest of this year and quite possibly all of next year looking at this book (at least that’s my guess).  The reason why I hate skipping over sections in Acts is that we miss so much great stuff, and that’s especially true this week.  I can’t encourage you enough to go back and read (or read ahead) the information that we will miss in Acts each week.  A safe rule of thumb is to just read one chapter ahead and you’ll know that you’ve probably covered everything.  You see, we ended our time together last Sunday by seeing the conclusion of the Jerusalem Council and the sending of the letter they constructed to the Gentile believers.  Just to give you a quick overview of what we are skipping, we are now in the midst of Paul’s 2^nd missionary journey.  As soon as our text from last week ended, Paul and Barnabas split and went in different directions.  Paul took Silas and went through Syria, Cilicia, Derbe, and Lystra.  He picked up a young apprentice named Timothy along the way.  He went to Macedonia and there met a woman named Lydia.  After she converted to Christianity, Paul then baptized Lydia and her entire household (16:15), one of the texts traditionally used in support of infant baptism.  Then, Paul found this slave girl who was possessed and drove a demon out from her.  However, her masters, instead of being grateful for what Paul did, were upset with him because the girl was of more use to them possessed than she was cleansed.  When she was possessed (or as Luke writes “had a spirit of divination”) she was able to tell the future, which was very lucrative for her masters.  After she was healed and lost her ability, the slave girl’s owners have Paul and Barnabas thrown into prison.  However, they weren’t just put into prison; they were beaten with rods 39 times, placed in the inner prison cell (usually reserved for the most heinous offenders) and kept with their feet bound in the stocks.

                It’s in that prison where our text for today starts off.  It was the middle of the night and Paul and Silas were sitting there singing hymns and praying.  Now, I don’t know about you, but at first glance this just seems odd.  When I’m in midst of strife and struggle, I no doubt pray to God.  However, I have found it difficult in those moments to sing.  Much of our singing is done out of joy, which in times of sorrow can be hard to muster.  However, that’s exactly what we find Paul and Silas did.  They were singing to God and all the other prisoners there were listening to them.  Now, they were doing this not out of fear, but out of joy that God had placed them in the midst of such an attentive audience.  God had led them to a place where there were so many folks in need of hearing of the good news of Jesus Christ.  How funny (or rather not funny I should say) that many times we have the exact opposite reaction.  Remember when we kept talking about comfort zones and our being placed outside of them.  Those are typically our greatest times of fret and worry.  How rarely do we count it a blessing to be surrounded by so many non-believers?  Instead, shouldn’t our thinking be like that of Paul and Silas?  Instead of them having to go to the people, the people were already where they were.

Then, there was an earthquake that hit and it shook the prison so hard that all of the doors within the prison flung open.  Not only did the doors fling open, but the shackles around the feet and hands of all the prisoners just fell off.  Now, the earthquake caused the prison guard to wake up and after he woke up and saw the doors open he just figured that everyone had escaped while he slept or daydreaming or whatever he was doing.  Without even checking to see if anyone had indeed escaped, the guard pulled out his sword and was about to take his own life.  In those days, the punishment for allowing a criminal to go free was that you were given the same punishment that they were owed.  From the guard’s perspective, death was a better option than the punishment of an entire collection of prisoners falling upon one man, particularly himself.

                Now, we probably would expect Paul to just sit silent here.  After all, the doors are open, the shackles are loose, and now the jailer is about to take his own life.  Once he does that, then Paul, Silas, and the rest of the prisoners would have been free to just walk right out of the prison.  However, Paul stopped him.  Paul called out to the jailer, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”  The jailer then called for a light (which why he didn’t do that before even thinking about killing himself is beyond me) and went and saw all the prisoners.  We’re told that he then brought Paul and Silas out of their prison, looked at them and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  He had seen the power of God in the earthquake.  He had seen the prison doors open up at the trembling of God’s hand.  And he had felt the grace and mercy of God, through the Apostle Paul, calling out to him in the darkness.  It’s as if God was speaking to this jailer saying, “Do not harm yourself, for I am right here.”

                Without missing a beat, Paul and Silas answered the jailer’s question of what he must do to be saved by saying, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  Notice that Paul didn’t go into all the steps of being saved.  He didn’t go into the ordo salutis, the order of salvation.  He didn’t talk to him about good works or growing in the knowledge of God’s Word.  He didn’t even talk to him about baptisms or professions of faith.  Now, I realize that some of you may be a little confused by some of this.  You see, Paul and Silas didn’t talk to this jailer about those things because they didn’t have to.  My beautiful little girl Ashby has brought a lot of joy to the lives of her mama and daddy.  She (along with her brothers) has helped us to know things like love, responsibility, and heartache like we could have never imagined.  She has especially been a life-changer for me.  You see, she is her mama as a little girl.  Now, I was a typical little boy who couldn’t pay attention, acted up, and it took threats from my daddy (not mama) to make me even remotely behave.  But my little girl is different.  Ashby is as innocent and kind-hearted as you will find.  However, that has come with a price.  Any time that she gets sad or feels that she has disappointed anyone in any way it crushes her.  It crushes her so much that she cries and she cries so hard that she hyperventilates.  We have to calm her down and remind her to breath because she’s forgetting to take in air.  What does all this have to do with Paul and Silas telling this jailer that all he has to do to be saved is believe in Jesus Christ as Lord?

                Well, it’s this.  I don’t have to tell Ashby to breathe, to make her lungs work, to make her heart beat, to make her blood flow, and so on (you get the idea).  She just has to breathe and the rest will take care of itself.  If this jailer just believes, then the rest will take care of itself.  If someone that you know, or maybe even yourself, would just believe, then the rest will take care of itself.  I’m not downplaying things like repentance, and baptism, and confession of sin, and profession of faith, I’m just saying that those things will come if genuine faith is there.  We don’t get baptized or have our children baptized because it’s on some sort of salvation checklist.  We do so because it is an outflowing of our belief, our faith, in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  In other words, when we truly believe in Jesus Christ, then all the other things like good works, growing in knowledge and understanding, and strengthening our relationships with God naturally come.

                Several years after this event here with the Philippian jailor, the Apostle Paul would write in his epistle to the Christians in Rome, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved…For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom. 10:8-10, 13).   You see, Paul didn’t have to go into some long-winded answer over what it takes to be saved because it’s pretty simple:  believe.  Now, let me make a distinction here really quick between believing and acknowledging.  There’s a world of difference between these two words.  After all, Satan acknowledged Jesus.  Satan acknowledged him as the Son of God; he even used that specific title to refer to him.  It’s not enough for us to just acknowledge that Jesus is real.  It’s not enough for us to just acknowledge that God is real.  We have to believe it.  We have to believe it with every fiber of our being.  And as Paul says numerous times throughout his various epistles, a truth belief in Christ will change us.  Make no mistake about it, there is no probably to it, it will change us.  If you or someone that you know thinks that they have a new-found belief in Jesus Christ and yet nothing changes, then I’m afraid that it quite simply isn’t belief, it’s acknowledgement.

                During the course of both the material that we jumped over and our text for today we have three different conversion accounts.  We have the conversion of Timothy as he was convicted by God’s Word as Paul and Silas preached.  We have Lydia, who overheard Paul and Silas praying and her faith was taken from simply acknowledging God to believing in Jesus Christ and being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Then we have the Philippian jailer who came to God not through prayer or hearing his Word, but through the power of his works.  Three people all with three different types of conversions, but they all have one thing in common.  Do you know what it is?  Well, it’s not that they were converted by Paul or Silas.  It’s that in every instance, the immediate response was belief, which ultimately led to some type of change.  Timothy became a disciple of Paul.  Lydia was baptized along with her entire household and seemingly changed who she was before.  The Philippian jailer went from caring not for Paul and Silas to cleaning their wounds, caring for their needs, and ultimately having himself and his entire family baptized too.  He and his family even brought Paul and Silas (mind you criminals in the eyes of the officials) into their home to eat.  We could even make the case that the slave girl who was cleansed of the demon was converted as well, which would bring our total up to four.

                However, what I want all of us to take away from this text isn’t the number of conversions or how they happened.  We know that numerous people come to Christ through all different types of events.  Not everyone is changed by hearing a rousing sermon or exposition.  Some folks are claimed by God through life-changing experiences, moments of isolation, or seeds that lay dormant in the heart for many years before finally beginning to grow.  No matter the way in which we come to Christ, the answer is still the same:  believe and you will be saved.  Belief must come with growth.  Growth must come with change.  Change must come with obedience to the will of God.  It’s like we said last week with the Jerusalem Council, we don’t do good works to be saved.  We do good works because we are saved.  All of the things that we think of when it comes to becoming a Christian aren’t done so that we would believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  They are done because we believe him to be.  I’ll leave you with this question (and I don’t mean to offend if I do), but how have you changed since your belief in Christ became real?  How has the person you are (actions, thinking, priorities, etc.), how has that person changed since experiencing for the first time the true, inescapable belief that Jesus Christ is Lord?  If that belief is truly there, then change must be present.  If we are left unchanged, then all we have simply done is acknowledge him, which shows no greater faith than Satan himself.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Acts 15:1-35 "The Jerusalem Council"

                Well if any of you have ever sat around and wondered what the first meeting of a presbytery or general assembly was like, here it is in the form of the Jerusalem Council.  I’ll explain that statement in just a moment, but first I want to catch all of us up with where we are in the narrative of Acts.  You see, now that we’re jumping around the book of Acts, I’m going to very quickly bridge the gaps between where we leave off one week and where we pick up the next.  In essence, what we skipped over since last Sunday is Paul’s first missionary journey.  We saw him start it by going to Cyprus and encounter Bar-Jesus, but we ended after the governor of Cyprus believed in Christ as the Messiah.  Well, from there Paul went to Antioch in Pisidia (a different Antioch than the one we’ve seen, that one is Antioch in Syria).  While there, he preached, he told the people the story of God’s people from Moses to Jesus.  And in his preaching, he gained much attention, which angered the Jews.  So, the Jews there drove out Paul and Barnabas.  They escaped to Iconium, where after preaching the gospel, both Jews and Gentiles tried to stone him and Barnabas, so they fled from there as well.  They made their way to Lystra.  While there, Paul healed a lame man who believed in Jesus, but the people interpreted it as if the Greek gods had done it.  They mistook Barnabas and Paul for Zeus and Hermes in human disguise.  While Paul was trying to make them see otherwise, Jews from Antioch and Iconium (the two places they had already fled from) came and stirred up people to stone Paul, and they did.  They stoned him and drug him outside of the city and left him for the vultures and buzzards to finish.  However, Paul survived and went on his way with Barnabas to Derbe, where they continued to preach.  After their time there, they went back to Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra and encouraged the Christians that were there.  They even appointed elders to care for the spiritual welfare of the churches in Paul’s absence.  Finally, Paul and Barnabas were summoned to Jerusalem for a meeting.  Now, it’s somewhere either on the way to and/or in the context of this meeting when Paul penned his first epistle, his letter to the Galatians (14:27).  His returning to Jerusalem marked the end of his first missionary journey.

                So, that all happened in the jump that we made between our text last Sunday and our text today, and it all took place in somewhere between 1½ to 2 years.  Then there’s the Jerusalem Council, as we Presbyterians like to call it, the first General Assembly.  Our Baptist brothers and sisters refer to this as the first Convention.  Either way, this is the first recorded meeting of the church as a whole.  Council meetings just like this very much would shape the early church and were (relatively speaking) quite common between the 4^th and 7^th centuries.  By common, I mean that there were a handful of them over a 400 year period.  What these meetings or councils were were gatherings of the leaders (as well as others) within the church in order to discuss and decide a very crucial issue in the life of the church.  Now, this isn’t a meeting to decide what time worship was to be held or anything like that.  This particular council, the Jerusalem Council, wasn’t even a meeting about something like women ordination or infant baptism, something that we might view as a bit weightier matter.  No, those are matters for smaller branches of church government to decide.  These councils dealt primarily with issues of heresy (or the potential for it); things that had to do with who God is or how we are to view Him and His governing of the world and all who dwell in it.  This particular council was faced with the issue of whether or not it was absolutely essential for a person to be circumcised in order to be saved.  The larger context was that there was a disagreement amongst the Christian brethren as to the need to adhere to the Mosaic Law as it is found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.  In essence, was there something else that was needed in addition to faith in order for a person to be saved?  For an expanded view of this issue, you can look to Paul’s letter to the Galatians that he wrote during this time.  For additional clarity, Tim Keller has written a book titled Galatians for You that I have found to be of help in cutting to the heart of the issue in the church of Galatia.  It’s very apparent from that particular Pauline epistle that this was an issue that caused great disruption in the Galatian church, as well as the Church around the world.

                However, when you think about the growth of the Church during this time, something like this was bound to happen.  After all, the Church was really growing.  It was growing in different regions and it was growing amongst different people groups.  However, with these different regions and different peoples came certain differences in traditions, ideas, and practices.  Most notably, the Jews and their notion of circumcision being THE sign and seal of the covenant that God made with Abraham.  Remember, they’ve only just recently come to accept (at least somewhat) that the promises of God to Abraham are even open to the Gentiles.  However, the view of many Jewish Christians was that these promises were open to them as long as they converted to Jewish traditions.  They had to convert from being Gentiles to Jews and then they could convert to Christianity.  In other words, the only barrier that had seemingly been removed in the eyes of the Jews for the Gentiles was one of nationality.  The rites and practices of the Jews were still seen as being essential as far as they were concerned.  Obviously, those who were counted among the Gentiles (i.e. not national Israel) were of a different mindset.  They viewed circumcision to not be essential for salvation, which we will see why in just a second.

                So we’ve got this blending of all different types of opinions and beliefs within the Church, and they’re making it work, but there’s still this major issue that hung over them.  You see, there were those in some regions who were teaching that all that was needed for salvation was faith.  Paul was one of these to be exact.  He taught that we are saved by grace alone.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  And you see, if circumcision were absolutely necessary for salvation then what Paul had taught would have been erroneous and heretical.  If salvation was and is truly accomplished by grace alone (i.e. unmerited favor) from God, then there is nothing that we can add to it.  Well, if you have to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law as the Jews suggested, well then the whole notion of being saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is dead in the water.  As Paul says in Philippians 3 when speaking of Christ’s followers, “For we are the circumcision, who worship the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”  He makes similar remarks in Colossians 2 as well.  You see, Paul was teaching that it wasn’t about the physical acts that we see in the Old Testament, but it was about the spiritual act of faith in Christ.

                Another reason why circumcision and the keeping of the law of Moses couldn’t be a must for salvation was that if it was essential, then that would imply that faith simply wasn’t enough by itself.  Now at first that seems like I’m arguing the same thing twice.  On one hand, I suppose that is true, but on the other, it’s a very different argument.  You see, salvation doesn’t work off of a faith+ system.  When we all became Christians, it wasn’t as if we started some salvation meter that keeps running like a cab drivers meter.  We don’t have some combination of faith and good deeds that builds up to grant us entrance into heaven.  No, it is by our faith and faith alone that the righteousness of Christ is imparted to us.  The good works are the products, the fruit, the outward expressions of our love and gratitude to God for the salvation that He has given us in His Son.  In addition to this, the words of both Romans 4 and Galatians 3 speak that Abraham (the very one whom the promises were originally made to) was saved by faith and faith alone.  If there were something else required for salvation, then both Abraham and all those who came prior to and after the council who didn’t adhere to the Mosaic Law would find themselves outside of God’s kingdom.  That would include us.  I don’t know about y’all, but I know that I don’t keep the Mosaic Law as it’s found in the Old Testament.  I’m not even completely certain I could tell you everything that it pertains to either.  I know where it’s found and some of what it commands, but I don’t know it by heart.  And I most certainly don’t offer repentance for my failure to meet all of it.

                You see, for me, this entire debate hinged upon Jesus and what he came to do.  I want you think back with me to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, to his famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel.  Shortly after he began and gave us what are known as the Beatitudes, in 5:17 Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  You see, part of our being united with Christ in his death and resurrection is that his life, that life-lived-to-perfection, that life completely in line with the will of the Father, that life is counted towards us.  In one sense, it’s credited to our salvation account.  You see, we are not bound by the Law of Moses (i.e. all of the laws in the Pentateuch) because we have already fulfilled them in Jesus Christ.  Now, don’t let me give the impression that they can be ignored or that we are freed from obedience because we’re not.  However, what we have been freed from is the sacrificial system for the forgiveness and repentance of sins that was in place as atonement for breaking the Law.  As far as the Law itself is concerned, Jesus not only fulfilled the law, but in many cases expanded the law.  We saw that during our look at the Ten Commandments at the beginning of this year.

                When we look at the passage before us, what we ought to come away with is two things.  First, there was and is a system for handling issues within the church.  We see that no one person (not even Paul) exerted dominance over the rest of the group.  We see that not even Peter (whom supposedly according to Catholic tradition had already been declared the first pope) exerted any type of power or status dominance over anyone else.  When there was a problem, the discussion was entered into by all, with the primary goal being to seek the will of God.  The second thing that we ought to take away from this passage is this, grace is the answer.  As the council conveyed to the Gentiles in the letter that composes the second half of our text, it’s not about some strict adherence to the law.  Jesus had already fulfilled the law for all those given to him by the Father.  One of the most (if not the most) debate topic in all of Christianity is the nature by which we are saved.  What role does works play in it?  Well, I’m going to say this, “The only work that matters is the work that is represented on the table before us today.”  The only work that matters is the work, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.  That’s the only work that counts for anything when it comes to our salvation.

                As I said earlier, our good works, the things that we do in service of God and our fellow men and women, are the right responses to the good news that we are saved through the work of Jesus Christ.  The things that the council called the Gentiles to do (abstain from what had been sacrificed to idols, and from blood and what had been strangled, to abstain from sexual immorality), weren’t requirements of salvation.  These were right responses to the salvation that is found in Christ Jesus.  I’ll close by making this comparison.  I got a thank you letter in the mail the other day from a donation from a charity organization that Amy and I gave some money to.  Now, that thank you note wasn’t sent because we would withdraw our money if they didn’t send it.  No, it was sent simply in appreciation for what we had given them.  God wants our thank you letters, he wants our prayers of thanks, but he also wants our good works.  They are the thank you letters and right responses to the salvation that we find in Christ.  But the fact that we are saved has nothing to do with our work or our keeping of the Law, but the work of Jesus that is applied to us by the Holy Spirit.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Acts 13:1-12 "What is the Mission Field?"

                One of the best and most effective ways to go about developing a working knowledge of Scripture is to break it down into parts.  For example, the Old Testament is made up of the Law, the historical books, poetry, and the prophets.  The New Testament has gospels, history, epistles, and prophecy.  When we choose to go even further, we need something for remembering the context of particular books of the Bible.  At first we get a theme for each book, a one or two sentence statement that sums up the gist of the book.  From there we go on to make outlines of each book.  These are brief and concise divisions that help us to develop an overall flow and picture of the individual books of the Bible.  Then, for those who really want to crank things up, we can take to remembering specific verses from God’s Word.  Now, why am I talking about the process that so many use to remember the content of Scripture as a means of introducing our text today?  Well, it’s because no matter how many outlines of the book of Acts I either look at or create myself, just about every single one has a division starting in chapter 13 that carries through the end of the book.

                I want to remind you one more time of the theme of the book of Acts.  Yes, I’ve said over and over that Acts is a picture of the early church in the decades after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, but that’s not the theme.  The theme for the book of Acts comes directly out of the first chapter of the book, verse 8 to be exact.  Jesus told the apostles as they were gathered together immediately before his ascension that, “[they would] receive power when the Holy Spirit [had] come upon [them], and [they] would be [his] witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Well, the first seven chapters of the book are all about the apostles (and the rest of the church) being his witnesses in Jerusalem, the place where they were already located.  Then, chapters 8-12 are all about people who are his witnesses in Judea and Samaria.  We have seen that over the past several weeks through the ministries of people like Philip and Peter, and the conversion of Saul and the ministry that he began.  Well, beginning here in Acts 13, we see the beginning of the church witnessing to the ends of the earth.

                Now, up until this point, we’ve looked at every word contained in the book of Acts.  However, over the next few weeks, we’re not going to be looking at every word, but we’re going to be jumping around a bit.  We’ll glance in on Paul’s journeys to one location, we’ll see his struggles and his pains, and then we’ll jump to another place and see something entirely different.  Many times, we’re going to be looking very quickly at Paul’s labors in areas where he penned one of his epistles that are included in the New Testament.  So, Paul will be our primary character over the next few weeks, with Barnabas, Peter, and Mark all being examined as well.  But all of that will come over the next few weeks and months.  Our focus for today, however, is on the church as it existed and worked just prior to the beginning of this great effort to take the gospel out into the world and literally to the end of the earth.  Our focus is on the view that the church had of itself at this time and how that view relates to the one that we take of ourselves today.

                We noted a few weeks ago that it was in Antioch where the people of the church were first called Christians.  Well, I can think of no better place to have a picture of the church at this that time than in Antioch (and good thing because that’s where Luke points us).  We’re told that the church in Antioch had amongst their membership some who were called “prophets and teachers”.  Now, forgetting the actual words and titles for a second, I want you to notice something, both of these are plural words.  There was Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul.  There was a group of men, whom we know from historical records that I don’t have time to get into today, that came from various backgrounds in their upbringing.  Some of these men were of a different race than others.  Some of them came from different religious backgrounds and different regions.  However, they all were used in the proclaiming of God’s Word to the end of the earth.

                At the end of our text last Sunday, I read the last verse of chapter 12 and never even made mention to it because it seemed to not have much to do with our text.  Acts 12:25 says, “And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.”  Now, it may not seem like it because it really doesn’t come across in the text, but there is a considerable amount of time that passed since the last time we saw Paul.  During that time, we’ve seen Peter’s numerous ministries to various people in various places.  We’ve seen James killed and Peter rescued from facing the same fate.  We’ve seen the church change as it existed at the time of our text today.  You see, it’s also been some time since the church first started.  It’s been a few decades since Jesus ascended into the heavens to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  In actuality, the church has now reached a pretty comfortable place.  They’re now in Antioch, a region that is not hostile towards Christians.  Many of the rulers in the area around them that are against Christianity have passed and more tolerant governors are in place.  As we mentioned earlier, they even had a nice little contingent of leaders in the church made up of people from several different walks of life.  Plus, we’ve already said that they had a large congregation.  By our modern definition of the church, they would be a successful church.

                However, a church ought to never be measured as “successful” based on any factors that have to do with numbers, size, or anything along those lines.  What makes a church successful is what they are doing in terms of growing God’s kingdom and proclaiming His Word.  What we find when we look at the church in Antioch is anything but contentment.  What we find is the preparation and equipping of folks to take the Word out into the world.  We see that there was a time of preparation and even an ordaining and commissioning of Barnabas and Saul as missionaries and evangelists, people specifically tasked with taking God’s Word out into the world.  Now, I want to say just very quickly here that you don’t have to be ordained or commission to proclaim God’s Word.  You don’t have to be a pastor, a missionary, or even an officer in your own church to speak with people about Jesus.  That’s not what is being talked about here at all.  What we see here is that the church is praying and fasting and asking a special blessing upon these two men, Saul and Barnabas, as they prepare to leave the friendly confines of their church community and take the gospel out into places that might be less receptive of it.

                So, Paul and Barnabas went.  They went out into the surrounding regions to share the gospel.  The first place we’re told that they went to was Cyprus.  Now, we’ll see Paul in all sorts of places as we go throughout, and we’ll see him encounter all sorts of opposition and hardships.  Well, the very first place that he goes, Cyprus, he found opposition in the form of this man known as Bar-Jesus.  Now, I’m not going to dissect this encounter between Paul and Barnabas and Bar-Jesus because it’s pretty straightforward.  Bar-Jesus was trying to thwart Paul and Barnabas’ efforts and as a result ended up being blind for a time.  This is a classical battle of evil (or as Paul called him, “son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy”) vs. good.  This is a battle of God vs. Satan and God comes away victorious.

                Now, that’s really nothing new in Scripture and it’s nothing that we won’t see repeated numerous times again.  However, I don’t want to focus upon the battle here.  I don’t want to focus upon the actual events as they unfolded here, but on the fact that they happened at all.  You see, this battle of God vs. Satan would have never come about had Paul and Barnabas not gone.  This battle wouldn’t have happened had these two men just remained in their very successful church in Antioch that was enjoying a time of prosperity.  You see, we can think of a thousand excuses why not to engage ourselves in missions and evangelism:  I’m not really suited for that type of work; that’s the pastor’s job; it’s dangerous; I’m just too busy with what I have going on right now; I’m not knowledgeable enough of Scripture to lead people to Christ.  Well, I hear all those reasons and to a certain extent I’m sympathetic to them and understand the hesitations.  However, I don’t really view them as reasons for our not engaging in missions.  Sure, I don’t expect someone who isn’t gifted from God in the area of evangelism to open up a community outreach center, but I do expect them to witness to the people that are around them in their daily lives.

                As I said earlier, we’re going to see Paul in some really difficult situations.  We’re going to see him in some really difficult places.  As I mentioned, that’s the reason why I included the entirety of the rest of the book of Acts in the reading for today even though I am only looking at the first part of chapter 13.  Paul and Barnabas left a safe and comfortable place and went out into the unknown.  They didn’t go because of business opportunities.  They didn’t go because they had a strategic plan for turning other parts of the world into Antioch.  They went simply because they were called to go.  Just like Abraham when God told him to go and gave no direction, Paul and Barnabas went, and they went in search of people to proclaim the gospel to. 

                Now, very briefly I want to put this question to us today.  None of us think twice about evangelism and outreach when it comes to foreign missions.  When we just hear that title, we think of people going out in search of the lost and leading them to Jesus.  However, our understanding of missions and the mission field shouldn’t be limited to somewhere over there.  The reality of it is that mission trips are difficult.  They’re increasingly expensive, tedious to plan, and many folks will only take a couple (if any) in their lifetime.  Well, if we’re only thinking about seeking out the lost when it comes to being somewhere else, then that means that we’re only thinking about seeking out the lost for at most a few weeks out of our entire lives.  The question I have is:  Why are we not seeking out the lost right here?  Why is it that we view the mission field as some else that we have to take a plane or boat to get to?  I had a seminary professor who refused to use the term mission trip.  He did so because he viewed a trip to the grocery store as a trip with a chance of encountering someone who was lost and in need of being shown Christ.  Paul and Barnabas knew the importance of not just being stagnant in their faiths.  They knew that the gospel needed to go to the end of the earth.  Well, how is the gospel every going to reach the end of the earth, when we only proclaim it somewhere else and not where we find ourselves.  Yes, this text is about going, and I think that that is an important aspect of missions.  But remember, there is also a great need for those of us who stay where we are.  We are to seek out the lost and dying (literally dying of separation with Christ) in our own backyard.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.