The power of the gospel over philosophy, Acts 17:16-34

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the power of the gospel to save, even to the uttermost regions of the world.  We saw in chapter 14 the miraculous power of God to heal the lame man as an illustration of the power of the gospel to give life to that which was not.  And we saw the power of the gospel in chapters 15 and 16 as it confronted demonic possession and  idolatry in pagan societies, resulting in transformed lives and churches being formed in formerly dark cultures. 

Today, we will see the power of the gospel in even advanced civilizations.  In all the world, there was no place more considered the cradle of civilization than was Athens.  It was the birthplace of intellectualism; of education, philosophy and the arts and sciences that was unequaled  in the world.  It was the home of such fabled philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Seneca.  It gave birth to the sciences of medicine and art and literature and reason and architecture that are still studied in arenas of higher learning today.

Now Paul finds himself in Athens at this particular time alone.  He has left Silas and the rest of his entourage in Berea.  In Berea the Jews had stirred up the crowds against Paul and the church there had sent Paul away to Athens because they were afraid for his life.  So as Paul is waiting for them to join him he begins to walk about the city and in so doing he becomes provoked in his spirit by the hopelessness presented by the pagan idolatry of this city.

It was said that the city of Athens was so filled with statues of idols that it was easier to find a god than a man.  One estimate was there were 3000 idol statues or temples that were erected in the city on public property, not including the private buildings which had idols as part of their architecture.  So as Paul walks around the city he is struck with the propensity of false religions that abounded at every turn.  There was an idol of a god of every possible sort, even the foreign gods of other nations were to be found there, as one writer puts it; “their hospitality to strangers extended to the gods too, being very ready to receive any strange objects or forms of worship.”

I think it is possible today to see a parallel in many cities in America to Athens.  New York or Los Angeles for example are centers of fashion, of entertainment, of great architecture, of great institutions of higher learning, of the latest technology and science.  And furthermore, in spite of the moral decline in America, there is still virtually a church on every other street corner in most cities across our country.  Though America was once thought of as a Christian nation, it cannot be said to be anymore.  But as America has become the melting pot of the world, we have assimilated the religions and philosophies of the world, just as the Athenians did, so that you are likely to see every possible religion represented in the average city. 

So I want us to keep that perspective as we study this passage today.  Because the gospel is not just some ancient, out of date, out of touch religion that was only valid many centuries ago.  But I would like to show that as the gospel was powerful to save even amongst the advanced civilization of Athens, it is powerful to save as well today.  As Hebrews 13:8 says, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  It is powerful to save everyone, and it is relevant to every culture, and every civilization.

Now as it says in vs.16, the spirit of Paul was provoked as he observed this city full of idols.  That means he became exasperated as he saw all these idols.  Because Paul knows that they are powerless, that they are false gods that have no power to save, no power to deliver, and he is exasperated at this culture and the hopelessness of their religions.  So he begins to preach the gospel.  That is the answer to the exasperation we may feel about our culture, by the way.  The answer is not politics, it’s not philosophy, it’s not cleaner water or better housing or education.  But the answer to the hopelessness of civilizations, the hopelessness of Chicago, or inner city Baltimore, or the ghettos of New York City, is the message of the gospel.

So true to his custom, Paul begins with the Jews.  He seeks out some God fearing Jews and proselytes who had a synagogue there in Athens.  And he begins to share the truth of the gospel with them. Then he goes into the marketplace and begins to proclaim the gospel with people that he met there.  See, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, because he knows it is the answer to the problems of the world.  It is the antidote that the world desperately needs.  That is why he would later say in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to every one who believes, to the Jews first and also to the Greek.”  Paul was proving that statement right there in the marketplace, in the public arena of Athens, the heart of civilization.

Now as he is preaching the gospel, certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers hear him and converse with him, and they are intrigued by his message.  Some say, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” And others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 

Now I don’t want to bore you with a philosophy lesson so that we might know exactly what Epicurean and Stoic philosophy taught.  I am not  here today to teach philosophy.  I don’t propose to be an expert in philosophy. I propose to know only Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  I know Him to the be truth and the life.  I don’t need to study philosophy to be able to debate with philosophers.  I need to study the scriptures, even as the Bereans who it says in vs. 11, who proved their nobility because they eagerly searched the scriptures to see if these things were so, and were convinced because of the authority of scripture. 

It’s like the old adage about counterfeit money.  Experts in detecting counterfeits do not study counterfeit currency. They study authentic currency and become so familiar with it that they can easily spot a fake.  So it is with human philosophy and false religions.  I hardly need to waste my time trying to keep up with it all.  I just need to spend time studying the truth and then I will not be fooled by false religion.

But suffice it to say that Epicureanism and Stoicism are but twists on the same old lies that Satan has been selling since the dawn of creation and is still selling today under different titles.  As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.  The devil just keeps repackaging the same old lies for each new generation.  Epicureanism acknowledged existence of a type of god, but they denied that they had any power or control over nature.  They believed that life ended with death, and so their motto was to “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”  They loved pleasure and considered happiness the highest goal of man.

Today that view is very much in vogue.  Modern man may tolerate a view of god to some extent, but they don’t see much evidence of him, they don’t believe that he can really affect the events of the world or do anything to help us.  And so the average person on the street is living for today, living for pleasure, living for things that they think will make them happy.  They tolerate religion, but they haven’t got much use for it.

Stoicism believed in a multitude of gods.  It was called pantheism.  That accounted to some degree at least for the thousands of gods displayed in Athens.  And a parallel to Stoicism in our society is the view that all roads must lead to god.  What we call God, someone else calls Allah, another calls Buddha, and so there is not one way to God but many.  All are right, therefore none can be exclusively right. 

Now there were a lot of variations on each philosophy, but both were at odds with the gospel. These philosophies were popular among the intellectual elite, especially among the people of Athens.  And so some proponents of these philosophies ask Paul to come to Areopagus, or what was also called Mars Hill, where there was a council of judgment so to speak, made up of philosophers who judged every new philosophy.  This was the same court that condemned Socrates, and was responsible for his execution five centuries earlier.  By this date their judicial powers had begun to wane, but they still had the authority to debate philosophy and render decisions, and it was to the very spot that Socrates had been summoned that Paul found himself ready to give his defense of the gospel.

But notice how boldly Paul proclaims the truths of the gospel.  He is not speaking here to men who knew the scriptures.  He was speaking to men of science, men of the arts and letters, at the greatest institute of learning  in the world and which is still revered today in educational circles.  And yet he unapologetically preaches the gospel.  Because he knows that philosophy cannot save, science cannot save, the arts cannot save, and false gods cannot save.  There is only one power that can save, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So that is what he preaches.

Now I would point out that what we have here before us is only a synopsis of  Paul’s message.  I think he would have expanded on many points that we see just briefly touched on.  But Luke gives us an outline of his message, and I would like us to look at it, so that we might know how to present the gospel in a pagan culture, and even in a hostile culture.  Both of which I believe our present culture is fast becoming. 

First of all, note that Paul said in vs. 22, ““Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.”  Notice that Paul is respectful in his opening remarks.  He is trying to win them to the gospel, not to repel them or even condemn them.  I think that is far too often the course of evangelists today who try to interact with the culture.  A couple of weeks ago I was watching online a surf contest in Huntington Beach, CA called the US Open.  And it’s always a huge event, with hundreds of thousands of people and exhibits and so forth. It’s hedonism at it’s worst. And there are always these people there at this event that hold signs and so forth and basically picket the contest, and the signs and the message they present is typically one of condemnation and impending judgment on immorality and so forth. I don’t think that they are serving the cause of the gospel in that way, but only serving to further alienate those they are supposed to be reaching.  Paul will speak of the coming judgment as well.  But he doesn’t open up with it.  He speaks of a commonality that they have between them.  Paul was certainly very religious.  It occupied his every waking moment.  So he builds a bridge to them by acknowledging their obvious zeal for religion as well.

But in the Greek language, Paul uses a word which classifies their religion as having more of a superstitious nature.  And that was evident in the pantheism of Greece.  They did not know for sure what to believe, so they believed everything, and worshipped every so called god. 

Now it is necessary that we come to believe in the existence of God; that God is.  The Athenians had come to believe in a form of god.  To recognize that god is, that he exists.  And that much is true and necessary. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  So it is good and necessary to believe that God exists.  But that alone will not save you. 

Because Jesus added that those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.  So we must not only believe that God is, but who God is, and what God says.  That is what it means to believe in God.  To believe in who God truly is, and what God truly says concerning Himself and our relationship to Him.  If God is real, then He cannot be the object of our interpretation, or of our creation.  We must worship Him in truth, or we do not worship Him at all. 

So Paul says, you know it’s great that you guys are very religious.  It’s evident on every street corner in Athens and in all the temples in this city. But I have to tell you the truth about your religion.  Your belief is based in superstition and ignorance, and I want to explain the truth about God to you.  So  in vs. 23 Paul says "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”

And this is a brilliant tactic on the part of Paul.  He takes what they worship, what they agree already exists and is deserving of worship, and says I am going to explain this God to you.

Now there is an interesting side note about this unknown god that should be explained.  And that is that several hundred years before there had been a plague in Athens, and the people of the city believed that the plague must have come upon them because a particular god was angry with them. But they had no idea which god.  They had thousands of gods represented in the city.  So they came up with a plan, which was to drive a flock of sheep into the city and they supposed that the offended god or gods would draw the sheep to them and then they would offer them as a sacrifice to that god.  So as the sheep moved around and settled down in the city, if they laid down near an idol, then they sacrificed those sheep to that idol, believing that the offended god had drawn them to him.  But there were some sheep that laid down in an area that did not have a idol in that spot, and so they built an altar there to the unknown god and sacrificed those sheep to that unknown god.  So that is why there were altars to unknown gods throughout Athens.

So Paul capitalizes on this desire to appease an unknown god, their recognition of a God beyond their pantheon of known gods, and he appeals to that interest.  He says what you have been worshipping in ignorance I will proclaim to you.  He says, I want to introduce the unknown God to you. 

So in vs. 24, Paul says I want to introduce this God to you. I want to explain who God is. Who is He?  Well, first of all, Paul says, He is the Creator.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul didn’t start quoting from Genesis 1:1.  But I don’t know that for sure.  However, we do have the synopsis of what Paul said in vs. 24, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.”

First point then is that God is the Creator of the world and all things in it.  If you have been in our services for the last few weeks, then you know how often I have recounted the power of God as expressed in creation.  God is the creator of the earth and the seas and the heavens and all that is in them.  This is such an amazing statement and it is echoed in the scriptures so many times I cannot possibly recount them all.  That is why the theory of evolution is so damaging folks.  Satan struck a mighty blow to the church in America when he prevailed in the evolution debate and gained the education system of our schools and universities.  I am convinced it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in creation, but the fact remains that our children are indoctrinated in it from the time they are toddlers.  And as such, the gospel has lost one of it’s greatest testimonies as to who God is.  Because according to Romans 1, the creation testifies of the invisible attributes of God.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, the fact that we cannot ascertain the fact that the earth is spinning at 1000 mph, and traveling through it’s orbit at 67000 mph, does not invalidate the facts of science that it is indeed traveling that fast.  But for you sitting here today, it is virtually undetectable and cannot be ascertained by normal means.  And in the same way, the God who made the world and everything in it can not be seen or felt or ascertained through human measurements, but He is and He exists and by His power all things have their life and being, whether or not we can deduct that through human senses or not.  It takes just as much faith to believe science as it does to believe in God.

But that knowledge of God as our Creator is really the foundation of our faith.  When we come to accept Him as our Creator, as the maker of everything, as the originator of everything, then we can come to the point of knowing God and knowing the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.  If we believe in God who holds the earth in space and made the sun and the stars and who made all life, then it is but a small step to believe that He has the power to save and deliver man from sin and death.  So Paul says that the unknown God is the Creator of the world.

And then secondly, Paul says, this unknown God is Lord of heaven and earth and consequently does not dwell in temples made with hands.  I wonder if Paul would have quoted Isaiah 66:1”Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?” So God is not only Creator, but Lord of all.  Oh, that is where most people fall away, is it not?  This would have been the point that the Athenian philosophers would have started to squirm.  They were willing to recognize this unknown God, but they would have a hard time confessing Him as Lord of all. That there could be no other god before Him.  Jesus, who was the physical manifestation of God would say in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  Ouch!  Paul’s judgment panel of philosophers probably winced at that one.  He is Lord of all.  One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Confessing God as Creator, but as Lord of all, our Master and the Ultimate Ruler of all is the foundation of our faith.

Thirdly, Paul says not only is He Creator and Lord, He is the Giver of life. Look at vs. 25, “nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.”  What Paul is teaching there is nothing less than the doctrine of the grace of God which is necessary for salvation.  We cannot give God anything.  He needs nothing.  He is all sufficient.  He is all powerful.  He made everything on earth, so He owns everything.  And there is nothing that we can give Him to endear ourselves to Him because He needs nothing.

But rather God is the giver of all life. James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”  He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust, so that as the scriptures say, the kindness of God calls them to repentance.

Next point in Paul’s sermon was that this unknown God controls man and his destiny.  Vs. 26, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” 

The point being that man is made for God, to know God and to have a relationship with Him.  He made all the nations of the earth from the first man, Adam, with whom that relationship was broken through sin.  But because God gave us the second Adam, even Jesus to be our substitute, we can have that relationship is restored.  Augustine said in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”  There is a God sized hole in every heart, which we cannot fill with anything other than Christ.  Nothing else satisfies.  And so God in His providence and grace, so orders the human psyche so that they should seek Him and turn to Him. 

Then the last point describing this unknown God that Paul makes is that God is a revealer.  God reveals Himself to those that seek Him. Jeremiah 29:13says “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”  And Jesus said in Matt. 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” 

Paul is making the point that as you see God in Creation and recognize Him, and as you understand that He is Lord of all and bow to Him, and as you realize that He is the source of all life and goodness and so seek Him and come to Him, then He will come to you and reveal Himself to you that you may know Him.  That we might  know Him that is Unknown.  He has announced Himself in creation.  He has manifested Himself in Jesus Christ.  And He has revealed Himself in His Word.  He is the Revealer of Truth as we are obedient to the truth that is revealed thus far. 

That is the progression of the gospel of salvation.  That we recognize the truth up to the point that it has been revealed to us, and then we are obedient to that truth, and then the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us and guide us into all truth. 

And then like all good preachers, Paul quotes from a poem.  For some reason or other, I haven’t advanced in my preaching to that point of habitually quoting poetry.  But Paul quotes from two poets actually, Greek poets, not Christians by any means.  But nevertheless Paul uses them to make a point and drive it home with these intellectualists. Vs. 28, “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'”  Now that poem was attributing that characteristic to a heathen god, but Paul is using it to say that your own poets have said that we have our being and life from God.  And though you do not know this God, this Creator, this Lord of all, yet He is the source of all life, even eternal life, because He is the eternal God.  And we are made in the image of the eternal God.  In His likeness, in His image, we are made to be like Him, to be in fellowship with Him, and that fellowship is the source of eternal life and eternal joy. 

See how high Paul sets the standard for God?  It is not the purpose of man to live only for  human pleasure, to live and let die, or to stoically endure the ups and downs of life without hope of eternity and without knowing the God who made them for His fellowship.  To live that way is to live in darkness, to be blinded and miss out completely on the purpose of life.

So then Paul wraps up his sermon in one great sweeping closing argument, saying in vs.29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

Paul is contrasting the infinite God who is the Creator, the Lord of all, the Giver of life and the revealer of truth, to their finite dumb gods of stone and wood and metal, the image of God formed by the art and thought of man.  This is the idol of our age; that we form god in our image, according to what we think God is or should be like.  We define Him and box Him in, and minimalize Him with one word descriptions like “love” and say whatever does not fit our description cannot be God.  And so we worship nothing more than an idol of our own design. 

But Paul then inserts the other doctrine of the gospel.  The first doctrine he presented was the doctrine of faith, was it not?  Believing God is, and who God is.  That is faith.  But as I have said over the last couple of weeks, there are two pillars of the gospel.  There are two elements of believing the gospel.  One is faith, but the other is repentance. That is renouncing sin, renouncing idols, turning away from darkness and following God.  That is repentance.  So Paul says in the time past you were ignorant, but now God declares that all men are to repent and be saved. 

This is the other great stumbling block to virtuous, religious and intellectual people.  They  want to philosophize about God and religion, but they do not want to repent of their sins. This is the stumbling block, the offense of Christianity.  When we recognize who God is, and what we are; sinners.  Outside of the fellowship of God.  Unable to ascertain God.  Unable to give God anything with which we may barter for our salvation.  But utterly dependent on His grace to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

And then Paul presents the judgment.  Paul saves judgment for last.  Because the judgment is the last part of the gospel.  It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.  If you reject the free gift of God, if you reject the saving antidote for deadly sin of which we all are guilty, then the judgment will be that we will be forever separated from God who is the source of all life.  And that results in  eternal damnation for those that reject God’s gift.

Paul said that God will judge the world through Jesus Christ, whom He appointed to be our Savior, and furnished proof by His resurrection from the dead.  And when the philosophers in this great university of higher learning heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but some others said we will hear more from you later.  And I think that is very much the case today.  Some hearing this message will sneer and think it foolish.  Others will be convicted or perplexed and say I’ll think about it.  Maybe I’ll decide later.  But chances are they will let the moment of decision pass away. 

But I pray there will be someone here today like the men and women in vs. 34, who believed and followed Paul.  That is what it takes for salvation.  To turn away from false idols, from false relgion, and turn and believe in the true God revealed in His word, and then follow Him as you are taught the truth in His word.  I pray that you will believe in the God of the Bible, accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and follow Him today.  

The miraculous power of the gospel to save, Acts 16:11-40

For the last couple of weeks or so, we have been looking at the miraculous power of the gospel as illustrated in Acts.  If you were here for those messages, you will remember that we highlighted Paul’s statement concerning that miraculous power in his epistle to the Romans, chapter 1 vs.16.   In it he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” 

Paul was the apostle that was primarily sent to take the gospel to the Gentiles.  And we have shown through our study of Acts how powerful that gospel was to save the lost on his missionary journeys.  Everywhere Paul went, the power of the gospel was evident to save, to heal, and to establish churches all throughout Asia. 

Now in today’s passage, we will learn how God directed Paul to make the first foray into Europe, through which the gospel would spread to the whole world, even finding it’s way eventually to us here in America.  We can trace back our religious heritage to this second missionary journey to Macedonia, which was north of Greece, and from which it then spread throughout Europe.

And as we will see, as the gospel spreads into these far regions, it loses none of it’s power to save, but it is able to save even to the uttermost regions of the world.  We will see it is powerful to deliver from pagan darkness, and even demonic possession.  We are going to see illustrated here in this passage three people who are saved by the power of the gospel.  And we are going to consider how diverse these three converts are; they are different racially, socially, and psychologically, and yet they are saved by the same divine power, through the same gospel, and made part of the same church.  So that we might see illustrated in triplicate the power of the gospel to save, not only the Jews, or even the Gentiles in Asia, but also to the Gentiles in Europe.

Now for the sake of context I want to briefly recap how Paul arrived on these shores.  He had come back to Antioch, you will remember, where the Gentile church had it’s first church.  And while there, Barnabas and Paul had some disagreement about bringing John Mark with them on this next journey.  Paul didn’t want to take John Mark because he had left them midway on the last missionary journey.  Barnabas disagreed.  And their disagreement was so sharp that they split up and Barnabas took John Mark and Paul chose Silas to accompany him.  Each went their separate ways.  Luke then follows Paul’s journey  as he travels from town to town, eventually stopping by Lystra, where he picked up another young man named Timothy who would travel with them and who would be trained by Paul.

After that, Paul makes several stops at churches that they had previously established, but on two separate occasions the Holy Spirit prevents Paul from going to a particular region that he wanted to visit. And I would just point out as a side point that often the Holy Spirit leads us by closing doors.  We should pray for discernment that God would show us clearly His leading by closing or opening doors, especially in ministry.  Our goal is to join where the Holy Spirit is working, and not seek to bring the Spirit to our endeavors. 

But one night the Holy Spirit gives Paul a vision, and in the vision a man from Macedonia was calling out to him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  So right away they find a boat that is sailing for Neapolis, a seaport in Macedonia, and after arriving they journey the ten miles inland to Philippi.  Now Philippi was a Roman colony; it was a military outpost for Rome, and as such operated according to Roman rule.  By the way, notice the change of pronouns in the narrative in vs. 10.  Luke who is the author of Acts is presumed to have joined Paul and his companions at this time, and from this point on he will be a constant companion of Paul for most of the rest of his life.  And that is born out by the change of pronouns from they to us, or we, indicating that Luke had now joined the team.

Now usually when Paul visited a new area he would look for a synagogue in order to find Jewish people who believed in God.  But in this far off region they did not have a synagogue.  Jewish law required that there be 10 men in order to establish a synagogue.  Obviously, this town did not have 10 Jewish men.  But there were some women there, more than likely they were Jewish proselytes, who met together on the Sabbath day to pray to God.  And Paul heard of this prayer meeting and went there by the river to meet them the next Sabbath day and sat down and began to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

And the text says there was a lady there named Lydia who was likely a proselyte to the Jewish faith, she was originally from Thyatira, which is in Asia. She was a wealthy woman, a dealer in purple fabric which was highly desirable and costly in those days.  And she is either living there or temporarily visiting the city of Philippi perhaps as part of her business travels and has come to this meeting to worship God as she has been taught in Judaism.  And when Paul explains the gospel, the scripture says that the Lord opened her heart to receive the gospel and respond so that she was saved. Note that she was religious, but she wasn’t saved.

Now I want to emphasize that it was necessary for the Lord to open her heart in order that she could respond to the message of salvation.  Because even though she was religious, yet she was spiritually dead. See, the Bible tells us that the penalty of sin is death.  And while that certainly speaks of eternal death that the lost will suffer as the penalty for their sins, it also means that we were spiritually dead and as such cannot accept the things of God for they are spiritually appraised.  In order for a dead person to respond they must be made spiritually alive, they must have their heart opened to receive the truth, and they must have their eyes opened to see the truth.  I can preach the gospel week after week and some people never respond.  And that is because they are spiritually dead.  They may recognize intellectually what I’m saying, but at a heart level, at the level of their desires and will, they are stone cold dead. They cannot accept it.  And so Christians must pray that God opens the unsaved heart to respond to the gospel, even as we present the gospel.

Because the spiritually dead may hear the gospel but they cannot accept it or respond to it without a supernatural intervention.  It reminds me of the man who was trying to make a point to another person, and he was saying, “Why it’s as simple as A, B, C!”  And a third person said, “yes, but the man you are talking to is D, E, F.”  The unsaved cannot hear the gospel unless God opens their ears to hear. God has to activate our hearts if we are to respond to the gospel.

And that requires a supernatural miracle.  That is why I say the power of the gospel is a miraculous power.  It is a miracle when a person’s heart is suddenly opened to accept the truth.  They suddenly see the light, they see the depravity of their sins, and they are convicted and respond in repentance and faith.  I cannot open hearts.  The Holy Spirit opens hearts. 

So Lydia is the first convert in Europe.  A woman, you will notice, is the first convert in Europe.  You know, in the family God has given man the responsibility of leadership.  But I am afraid that very often today men have reliquished their spiritual leadership of the family to the woman.  I would to God that men would step up and take stewardship of the responsibility that God has entrusted to them and say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  I think the church and the family would be dramatically changed if men would take charge of their families spiritual well being and lead them as they should.  But unfortunately, that is not often the case.  The women are the ones that pull and drag the husband to church, make sure the kids are dressed and get the family involved in the church.  And thank God for them.

Lydia is quite a woman.  She is an independent business woman.  She is probably quite wealthy and therefore socially influential.  She may be a widow, since her husband is not named.  But she has brought her household to church with her.  And not only is she converted and baptized, but her whole household follows her lead and  believes and is baptized with her.  And then notice that she urges the apostles to stay with her in her house.  And that very likely becomes the physical address of the first church of Philippi.  If you want to see what becomes of that church, you should read the letter to the Philippians which Paul writes later.  Undoubtedly, this woman Lydia is a major force in helping to establish the first church in Europe. 

So the power of the gospel is mighty enough to open the heart of a wealthy, independent woman so that she might be saved as the first convert in Europe, who becomes a prime benefactor of the first church in Europe.  In a time and culture  when women were valued as little more than slaves, because of the power of the gospel we find the name of Lydia resounding through the centuries, so that more than 2000 years later we still remember her as the first convert in Europe.

And then in vs.16 we are introduced to another woman, the second person we are looking at today as illustrative of the power of the gospel to deliver.  This girl was a slave who had been possessed by a demon and in this tragic condition was being exploited by her owners who were profiting off of her wretched situation.  You couldn’t ask for a more pitiful state of affairs.  Being a slave was the worst possible position you could be in Roman culture, especially as a woman.  You had no rights, no prospects of freedom, and no hope.  Furthermore, she was possessed by a demon.  At the very least that indicates that she is a prisoner of an even greater evil than human slavery.  She is tormented by the demon, and used mercilessly  by her human masters.

What a tragic figure of depravity and helplessness and hopelessness.  By the voice of the demon she recognizes Paul and Silas as ministers of God and she cannot help but follow them, shrieking and crying out that they were servants of the most high God, proclaiming the gospel of salvation.  It might seem to us that saying this should not have been a source of irritation to Paul.  After all, what she said was the truth.  But the fact is that it was truth spoken by a demon, not to encourage, but to distract.  It was screamed out to every passerby so as to diminish Paul’s authority, to take away from the gospel message and draw attention to herself. 

Satan uses that strategy even today in the church.  There are some people under his influence that stand up in the church, or proclaim from television statements that may be true in and of themselves, but they do so to distract and distort and diminish the gospel and to turn the attention away from Jesus Christ and His church to themselves.  They want to get attention, because ultimately they want to defraud you, and that is illustrated by the fact that this woman charged for her services so that her masters made a lot of money off of her.  There are a lot of false teachers out there, especially on TV, that want to distract people from coming to salvation, and deter them from the church, and instead focus their attention on themselves to defraud poor naïve people who are watching, urging them to send them money.  And meanwhile they are raking in money hand over fist, flying around the country on private jets and living in luxury.  They are nothing short of demonic.

But notice vs. 18, it says Paul was greatly annoyed.  I love that.  Because I’ve been known to get greatly annoyed myself at some of these false prophets out there.  And I am comforted to know that it is possible to get greatly annoyed and yet not sin.  As Eph. 4:26  says, “Be angry and sin not.”  I don’t care for this mamby pamby Christianity which says I have to tolerate every false teacher and accept every false teaching, especially when I know it is hurting the cause of Christ or hindering the gospel.  There is a time for righteous anger, and there is a time when you get annoyed to the point that someone may need to be called out and exposed for what they are. 

And that is exactly what Paul does after several days of this girl following him around, shrieking and crying out and distracting people’s attention from the gospel.  So Paul commands the demon, ““I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.

Listen, not only are sinners spiritually dead, but they are imprisoned by the lies of Satan.  2Timothy 3:6 describes the unsaved as in the snare of the devil, held captive by him to do his will.   That is the reason for the depravity of our culture today.  Sinners are held captive by Satan, the prince of this world, enticed and ensnared by his lies that drugs will bring you happiness, that alcohol will not harm you, that a little sexual experience is not such a bad thing, everyone is doing it.  And soon that chink in your armor becomes a foothold of Satan, which he continues to work at until he completely corrupts you and holds you under the power of addiction, or does irreparable harm to your wife or husband or family.  

Well, Christ came to earth to set the prisoners free.  Jesus at the first service in His ministry quoted from Isaiah 61:1 which says,  “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” 

And I am here to tell you today, by the authority of God’s word, that there is no power on earth, no power of hell, no scheme of Satan, no power of drugs or alcohol, no power of sin, that God is not able to overcome.  He is able to set the prisoner free.  I love the hymn we sang earlier which says, “Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that  bids our sorrows cease, ‘tis music in the sinner’s ears, ‘tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free, His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.”

Well this poor young girl was delivered that day from the dominion of darkness, and I believe God completely healed her, saving her as well.  Because God doesn’t half heal someone.  God heals completely, the body and the spirit.  But her cruel owners weren’t very happy that this girl was freed from demonic possession, because they lost their source of income for which they had been exploiting her.  So they dragged Paul and Silas off to the magistrates and charged them with sedition.  And so without a trial, they ordered them to be stripped and  beaten with rods.  Now that was not a minor spanking.  Luke says they were beaten with many blows.  Their backs were more than likely shredded by the force of those rods hitting their exposed flesh.  And then to add to their pain, they were put into stocks, forcing them to sit bent over in an unnatural position, their backs throbbing and scabbing over only to be torn open again and again each time they moved.

And in that pain and discomfort, Paul and Silas decide to start praising God.  About midnight they started praying and singing hymns.  I guess they hurt so bad that they couldn’t sleep, and since they couldn’t sleep they figured it would be a good opportunity to start singing hymns.  I sometimes find myself thinking like that.  I wake up at least three times a night it seems, and usually around 3am I think about my kids in California and imagine what they might be doing there, knowing it is midnight in California.  And that really wakes me up, and I decide that perhaps I should pray for them. 

Well, I don’t think Paul and Silas had any kids living in California, but I will suggest that perhaps they did what I sometimes do.  Sometimes when I am in distress, when I have prayed until I don’t know what to pray anymore, or when I am so upset I can’t hardly think straight enough to pray, I turn to the Psalms.  And I start reading the Psalms aloud as my prayer.  Sometimes I change some of the words so that I put in my children’s names, or I put in my name, but I pray the Psalms.  And it is amazing how they speak to my concerns.  And you should know that the Psalms are also meant to be sung.  Just before Jesus went out on the Mount of Olives,  He and the disciples sang a hymn.  And Jewish tradition tells us that they probably sang Psalms 113 -118, which were traditionally sung after the Passover feast. 

All hymns don’t have to be scripture, but hymns should teach scriptural doctrines.  You know, we made a strategic decision here at the Beach Fellowship to sing congregational hymns that we feel teach doctrinal truths.  Our salvation, our faith, our sanity if you will, is founded on truth, not on feelings.  There are a lot of songs out there in the Christian music category that may be appropriate in some settings, but we feel that as a congregation we want to teach and affirm Biblical doctrine in our music. We may be up one day or down in the dumps the next day, but we don’t base our faith upon our feelings, we base our faith upon the timeless, unchanging truths of God’s word. So we don’t try to manipulate our feelings through music, but use music to teach us principles of our faith that will sustain us regardless of what is going on around us.  And that is our witness by the way to the community.  We aren’t trying to convince them of how cool we are, or how appealing our music may be.  But we are trying to convince them of the truth of the gospel and the power of salvation, and we best do that as we strengthen our faith by the congregational singing of hymns which support our faith.

I’m sure that was the intent of Paul and Silas.  There weren’t any electric guitars, no spotlights, no microphones, no drums.  There were just two very beat up old guys in chains who should have been cursing and crying and complaining, and instead they were singing hymns of praise to God at midnight. They were expounding the gospel in song; the wonders of salvation, the glory of God, His faithfulness to all generations.  And I can only imagine the impact on the rest of the prisoners there who were listening to them in the darkness of this dungeon. 

Well, God certainly heard their prayers and their songs.  And God answered their prayers with a song of His own, a song of deliverance.  He caused an earthquake to come upon the prison, so severe that the foundations were shaken, and their stocks and chains became loose.  God was showing once again that He is able to set the prisoners free.  No matter what your situation, no matter how dire your circumstances, I believe if you truly call out to God in repentance and faith He will break whatever chains have bound you and set you free.

The jailer is the third and final character that we will see in this passage as illustrative of the power of salvation.  He comes running out of his quarters and sees the doors of the jail flung open and he imagines the worst possible scenario for a jailer.  He imagines that his prisoners have escaped, and in that culture, under Roman military rule, he would be executed for dereliction of duty.  And so he takes his sword and prepares to fall on it and commit suicide.

Vs. 28-31 “But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!’ And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’

Listen, I think this jailer is a picture of the hopelessness that so many people in our culture feel today.  Did you know that today in the US there is a suicide every 13 minutes? Depression affects 25% of all adults, and it’s the leading cause of suicides. And men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women.  I don’t need to recite for you all the scientific data.  But I can tell you that there is help for depression. And it’s not in a bottle, but in the Bible. There is hope for all who have considered suicide.  It is the gospel of salvation.  God is able to deliver from depression.  He is able to save.  He is able to give you a new heart, a new outlook, and a new life.  He is able to put his Spirit in you, to give you a future and a hope.

In Jeremiah 29:11-13 God says,  “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for good and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

I think the jailer must have been listening in his quarters when Paul and Silas were praying and singing.  He had lain there in the darkness hearing the testimony of their unfailing faith, in spite of being beaten, in spite of their physical condition.  And so when he witnessed the power of God to deliver, and when he saw that Paul and Silas hadn’t escaped, he trembled and asked how he too could have that salvation. Paul told him that he just need to believe in the Lord Jesus and he would be saved.   As a result of his belief, that is repentance and faith, he would be saved and his whole household.  Folks, I hope you realize that how you go through trials is a testimony to the unsaved, watching world.  We all go through trials, saved and unsaved alike.  But as we go through trials with Christ, praising God for His faithfulness to us, it becomes a testimony to the watching world.

It says in vs. 32 that Paul and Silas went in and spoke further with him and his household; I think that means they explained the full gospel to them, how Jesus was the Son of God and came to earth to be born of man, to bear our sins upon the cross, to die in our place, and then He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, to be our intercessor before God, that we might be the sons of God.  And as a result of that late night sermon, the jailer and his whole house were saved and were baptized immediately.

Now to summarize the remainder of the passage, in the morning the magistrates sent word that Paul and Silas should be released.  But Paul got annoyed again and said he wouldn’t leave quietly.  He had been mistreated as a Roman citizen.  They were not supposed to be beaten without a trial.  So the magistrates were so afraid after that they came and escorted Paul and Silas out of prison, apologizing and asking them politely to please leave town.  And so they did, but not without leaving on their own terms. First they went by Lydia’s house and talked to the saints there, the brethren, meaning the members of this newly formed church.  It must have been quite an eclectic mix of people in that little church that they spoke to that morning.  The successful business woman Lydia and all her household, the former demon possessed girl, now sitting in her right mind, and the household of the Roman jailer.  A small, seemingly inconsequential group perhaps, but the start of the Gentile church in Europe.  And from these humble beginnings would come a great movement of God which would sweep through Europe into England and on to us here in America in due time.  God often uses seemingly insignificant people to accomplish His grand design.

In closing, I just can’t help but reiterate the three different people represented in this passage.  I can’t help but think that perhaps one of you sitting here today identified with a person in this passage.  Perhaps you are a wealthy woman, an independent business woman of social influence, perhaps you have been seeking God, desiring to worship God, and yet you have never been saved.  You have never been born again by the Spirit of God and given new life.  Today you too have heard the gospel.  Today I pray the Spirit of God has opened your heart to respond to the gospel invitation.  Call on Jesus today in faith and repent of your sins, that you might be saved.

Or perhaps you find yourself here today as a young person, trapped by drugs or alcohol, like the slave girl.  You are a prisoner of your addiction.  You want to be free, but you don’t seem to have the power to get free.  Today you have heard the good news of the gospel.  That Jesus Christ came to set the prisoners free.  That the power of Christ is powerful enough to break every chain, to forgive every sin, to set you free.  Here is the antidote for your disease; call on Jesus in faith and repentance to save you, to change you, to set you free. Surrender your all to Him and He will set you free of every sin that has enslaved you.

Or perhaps you find yourself here represented by the jailer.  Maybe you have been struggling with depression.  You believed the devil’s lie that there is no hope for you, that you might be better off dead.  I want you to hear loud and clear the message of the gospel;  call on Jesus to save you, and He will come into you and live with you and give you a new life, and a peace that passes all comprehension.  God loves you.  He loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you, so that you may have life and have it more abundantly.  There is hope in Christ.  There is the power of salvation in the gospel.  Please come and talk to me afterwards and I will explain to you more fully how you can be set free today.  Let us pray.

The third element of the gospel, Acts 15: 1-34

Last week as we looked at the previous chapter, we talked about the miraculous power of the gospel to save.  Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

And the way I illustrated that power of God, if you will remember, was to say that God’s power is so great it is incomprehensible.  God not only made the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but He also by His invisible power suspends in space the earth which weighs trillions and trillions of tons.  And by His power he then spins the earth on it’s axis at 1000mph, and by His power He shoots it into orbit around the sun at just the right distance to keep life from either freezing or burning up, at a speed of 67000 mph.  That is just a taste of the tremendous power of God.

Yet here is the amazing thing.  Though we are spinning at 1000 mph and orbiting the sun at 67000mph, yet we sit here right now without being aware of it at all.  Our hair is not even being blown by the force of that power.  If you were to try to tell that to a person 100 years ago, they would tell you that you were crazy.  There is no way the earth is moving that fast and we cannot feel it. But science has since proven that it is so.

Yet here is the ironic thing.  If we tell people today that God’s power is working in the world, they will say you are crazy.  They will say that there is absolutely no evidence of God.  But on the other hand they accept science which tells them things for which we experience no evidence.  I would suggest that the power of God is an invisible power, but that it has tangible results.  And I would rather trust in God than in my experience.

Now that trust in God’s power is what is called in the Bible faith.  Believing that God is who He says He is and that He is able to save those that come to Him.  That is faith. I said last week that faith and repentance are the twin pillars of the gospel.  They are the means by which the truth of God, the power of God is made efficacious for us.  But faith and repentance are not works that we do to earn our salvation.  In fact, repentance is recognizing that you are spiritually bankrupt, without merit, without a leg to stand on before a just and Almighty God.  And faith is believing that God can and will save you, based on His power and His character and His promises.  So there is nothing there for you to brag about.  Your faith is not a means of earning salvation, but a means of receiving salvation.

But there is a third element to our salvation as well.  Repentance and faith are the visible pillars so to speak of the gospel for they come out of us, but there is a third element which is invisible, without which not even faith and repentance could stand.  And that is grace.  Grace is the gift of God.  Grace is the power of God towards us.  Faith and repentance are our response towards God.

So the transaction of salvation is initiated by God as a result of grace.  Grace is simply stated the gift of God, all the gifts of God.  It is the gift of salvation which was purchased for us by Christ.  It is the inheritance of heaven, the gift of eternal life.  Whatever goodness or righteousness or works that we might try to do, could never come close to paying for forgiveness of sins, eternal salvation, and being made an heir of God and a co heir of Christ.  So God has ordained that what is impossible for men  would be achieved by Christ, so it is by grace and not dependent upon our works.

Now the lame man we looked at last week who was healed illustrates beautifully, not only the power of God, but the grace of God.  Remember what the author Luke said about the lame man?  He said he  had no strength in his feet, he was lame from his mother’s womb, and he had never walked.  You can’t get more lame than that.  Three different ways Luke describes his lameness in order to conclusively show that the man was powerless, helpless, and hopeless.  He is a picture of mankind before salvation.  Not having the strength to be righteous.  Being born unrighteous.  Never having been unrighteous.  We were helplessly, hopelessly lost.

But in the example of the lame man the grace of God supplied what was impossible for him to achieve, the power of God for healing.  Paul seeing the man’s faith to be saved, said, “Stand upright on your feet!”  And immediately the man leaped up and began to walk.  Now that demonstrates not only the miraculous power of the gospel, but it illustrates the grace of God.  The lame man was unable to walk, to even move his legs, had no strength in his legs, but God was able to give him instant strength, even to the ability to leap and walk.  It was a gift from God.

So we learn from that example that the power of salvation is able to save, to save from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, but we also learn as it says in Ephesians 2:8  that salvation is by grace through faith, and not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.

Now remember Romans 1:16 which we looked at in the beginning? At first glance there would seem to be no mention of grace in that verse;  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jews first and also to the Greek.”  But I would suggest that the last section, to the Jews first and also to the Greek teaches the grace of God as we shall see in the passage we are looking at today.

Our text addresses the  issue of whether or not salvation is given only to Jews or also to the Gentiles or Greeks or Romans or Americans for that matter.  Is it necessary to become a Jew in order to receive salvation?  That is a question that was extremely relevant in Paul’s day, and it is still important for us to consider today.

And as we begin this chapter we see that very principle being debated in the early church which had started in Antioch.  At this very beginning of the Gentile church, there is an insidious attack on the church, and it comes from within it’s own ranks.  Notice it says that certain men from Judea came down and started teaching the new Christians at Antioch that they needed to be circumcised in order to be saved.  We saw the same tactic used in Jerusalem when that church was first established.  There were attacks from without, which were to be expected.  But then came the attacks from within which were more difficult to discern.  But attacks of Satan nonetheless which were designed to undermine the doctrine of salvation and thus dilute and ultimately destroy the power of the gospel.

Don’t be surprised that Satan’s most effective strategies often come from within the church, oftentimes from the very leaders themselves who purport to be teaching the gospel.  Paul would say later in 2Cor. 11:14 that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

And furthermore, be aware that Satan is a much better theologian than you.  He is the doctor of all doctors of theology.  He studied under the feet of God Himself.  He has seen and heard the Word of God made manifest and he knows every law, every ordinance completely.  So if there is an area in the law of God which is obscure or difficult to understand, then we can be sure that Satan will attack in that area, where the church is weakest.  And since God is invisible, requiring faith to know Him, count on Satan to attack at this principle point; faith.  Because he knows that faith is the fundamental principle of our salvation, and so he will attempt to add to it, or detract from it, in order to steer us away from the true faith which was handed down by the apostles from the mouth of Christ.

Now notice that just as God uses common men such as the apostles to proclaim His gospel, so also Satan uses his messengers to spread deceit and fraud.  And such come through the church no less. These men from the church in Judea, are identified in vs. 5 as Pharisees from  Jerusalem who came down to Antioch and started teaching the Gentile believers there that they could not be saved unless they observed the customs of the Jews taught by Moses, particularly the rite of circumcision.

Now that these Gentiles had already been saved was testified by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the household of Cornelius when Peter preached the gospel to them.  And from that first attestation by the Spirit confirming Gentile salvation had emerged Greek speaking Christians who fled the persecution and had come to the region of Galatia, and to the town of Antioch preaching  the gospel of Christ.  And the people of Antioch had accepted the gospel happily and many were saved, and a thriving church sprung up there from which was sent missionaries such as Paul and Barnabas to go to even further regions.  So that now the Gentiles everywhere were coming to Christ with even greater eagerness than the Jews.

So we can infer that when some Jews from Judea heard of this great revival happening in the lands of the Gentiles, that jealousy arose in their hearts, so that they tried to tone down the revival so to speak, by saying that while it was good that the Gentiles were desiring to turn to God, yet it was necessary that they become like the Jews, and accept and follow all the ceremonial prescriptions that had been given to the Jews through Moses in order to be saved.  Notice in vs. 1 they are not adding circumcision to salvation, but they say you cannot be saved without it.

Now circumcision was the primary means that the Jews were distinguished from the rest of the world. One could not worship in the temple without being circumcised.  One could not participate in the blessings of the Jews without being circumcised.  In fact, the Jews would go so far as to say that one could not know or be accepted by God without being circumcised.  Their rabbis in Judaism even taught that Abraham was stationed by the gate of hell to make sure that no one that was circumcised would enter into hell.  So without question, their belief was that circumcision was the rite of the flesh which placed you into the family of the Jews, which they believed was God’s chosen people.  In effect, they were teaching that one had to become a Jew in all manners and customs if they were to be saved.

So the question of whether or not believers had to be circumcised like a Jew and observe the rituals of the Mosaic law like the Jews was a question that caused a great dissension in the church in Antioch.  And it got to such a heated discussion between Paul and Barnabas and the Judaisers, that the church decided that they should go to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders of the church there in order to work it out.

When they arrive in Jerusalem, they are received by the church and the apostles and elders and Paul and Barnabas related all that God had been doing among the Gentiles through them.  But then the Judaisers from the sect of the Pharisees who had now believed and were part of the church rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”  So that was the formal charge brought before the church.  That Gentiles must be circumcised and observe the laws of Moses.  And what they are talking about specifically is the ceremonial laws of Moses.  There is no doubt on the part of Paul and Barnabas or anyone for that matter that they should obey the moral law of God.  But specifically the ceremonial laws which distinguished the Jews from the rest of the world, notably circumcision, but it would also include dietary laws.

So when the apostles and elders gathered together to discuss this, there were three arguments presented to defend the doctrine of grace.  And the first one to speak was Peter.  Peter basically reiterates what he had already presented to them earlier, that is the vision that he had from God who directed him to go to the house of a Gentile centurion named Cornelius.  And the Spirit of God directed him to preach the gospel to them without reservation.  When Peter preached, they believed in Christ by faith and they were saved.  And the Holy Spirit fell upon them that believed just as he had upon the disciples at Pentecost which testified that God had accepted them in salvation, without having to become Jews, but while they were still Gentiles.  And Peter wraps up his presentation saying, “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are."  And what is interesting in what he says is that he turns the proof of salvation around.  Rather than saying, they are saved the same way we are saved, he says, we are saved the same way they are.  So he is saying not only are they saved without having to become Jews, but we are saved in spite of our Jewishness, in the same manner as they were saved, by grace through faith.  So there is not a Jewish salvation and a Gentile salvation, but as Paul would say later, “one God, one faith, one baptism.”

Then the second argument is presented by Paul and Barnabas.  They tell the church the miraculous signs and wonders that came through them as they ministered to the Gentiles.  Just as Peter appealed to the testimony of the Holy Spirit coming upon the household of Cornelius, Paul appeals to the testimony of the Holy Spirit by signs and wonders such as the healing of the lame man.  The testimony of the Holy Spirit confirming the salvation of the Gentiles.

And then the final argument is presented by James.  This is James the Just, sometimes called Camel Knees in tradition, which indicated that he spent so many hours on his knees in prayer that he wore out his robe.  That reminds me of how surfers used to have this badge of honor back in the sixties because they paddled their surfboards on their knees rather than prone like we do today.  The result of all that time on their knees produced these big ugly bumps on their knees and sometimes on their feet.  They were called “surfer knots”.  During the Vietnam War some surfers were able to be disqualified from the draft because of them.   I wonder if any Christians have any “prayer knots” on their knees?  I wish that would be a badge of honor for Christians today.  I believe the church would be a different place if we spent time on our knees before God in prayer.

So anyhow, James presents his argument.  By the way, this in not James the brother of John who was one of the original apostles.  He was martyred by Herod.  But this James was the half brother of Jesus, who had not believed He was the Christ originally, but after the resurrection believed and became a leader of the church in Jerusalem.  Tradition says he would later be martyred as well by being thrown from the temple wall and then clubbed to death.

James starts his argument by agreeing with Simon Peter who had said that God had taken from among the Gentiles a people for His name and offering a scripture from Amos 9:11-12 to back it up.  And this principle is so important, ladies and gentlemen.  Our doctrine must not be based merely on experience, but it must be in accordance with the word of God.  James places his authority on the word of God, which in the passage in Amos God says He has taken Gentiles who are called by His name.  He did not say He called Gentiles to become Jews, but Gentiles who are called by my name.  Remember, these Gentiles in Antioch were the first to be called Christians.  So James relies upon the authority of scripture.

So there is a three fold argument, the argument of history, as given by Peter, the argument of experience given by Paul and Barnabas, and the argument of scripture as given by James.  And in all three there is agreement, that the Gentiles are saved while still being Gentiles, without conforming to the ordinances of Judaism.

Therefore, James says, it is my judgment, or I resolve, indicating that James, not Peter had the deciding position in the church at Jerusalem.  That is important to note.  We won’t take the time to go into it here, but there is ample evidence in Galatians that this was the incident by which Paul had rebuked Peter for not eating with the Gentiles when the Judaisers came to visit from Jerusalem.  So there is not much evidence to support the idea that Peter is the first Pope.  Peter is an apostle, and a key apostle and a missionary, but so is Paul and God used elders such as James to lead the church at Jerusalem.

So then in closing, let’s consider the judgment that James gives.  It seems at first glance a rather odd assortment of injunctions that are written down to be given to the Gentiles who have been saved.  On the one hand, they have just determined and declared that Gentiles are saved by grace through faith, and now they seem to be adding a few ordinances and commandments as instructions to the Gentile church.

So it is important that we clear up any misconceptions as to this statement.  First of all, James says that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. James essentially says, "Let them alone. They are turning to God, and we should not add unnecessary burdens on them."

But then he adds four injunctions which are; “But that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.”  Now we might think we understand the first couple of injunctions, but what do we make of the last two, things strangled, and from blood?

Well first of all I suggest to you that these are not the only commandments that we are obliged to keep in the new covenant.  That is not what James is referring to at all.  Some commentators have tried to say that this is a short list of the most vile sins, ie, idolatry, adultery, and murder.  But I would say that is not the case.  If you want a list of vile sins, the New Testament in Galatians 5, or 1 Timothy 1, or 1 Cor. 6 gives many such lists of sins that are not to be named among Christians.

But rather I would suggest that the principle thing that James was concerned about was restoring the fellowship of the church in Antioch from this dissension.  The church at Antioch, as in most Gentile cites, was made up of a mixed congregation, both Jews and Gentiles who had been saved by grace.  And that salvation is by grace alone has just been established by three testimonies of the apostles and elders.  Salvation by grace is not what he is addressing now.  What he is addressing is the need to come together in fellowship, that there would be no more dissension, but rather unity in the church.

That is what Paul addresses also in Ephesians 2.  We all are familiar with Eph.2:8 which says “For by grace are you saved by faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”  That is the famous proof text of grace.  But less attention is usually given to the rest of the passage.  It continues in the next verse; “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  So the point being is there is a place for works in the life of a believer.  We were created FOR good works.  We were given grace and power so that we might walk in good works.  Grace is never given as a license to sin, that grace might abound.  God forbid!

But then read on in Ephesians 2: 11, “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands-- remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”

See, what Paul is teaching is that the wall of separation between the Jews and Gentiles has been broken down at the cross.  Christ fulfilled all the law, and His death reconciled the two groups into one body, which is the church.  Christ has made peace between Jew and Gentile.  That we might become one.  That we who were far away from the promises to the Israelites might be drawn near, and that the Jews who were under the yoke of the laws of Moses might be made free from that burden which Peter said they could not bear.  That both entities being made one body, might have fellowship with one another in Christ.

So that is the basis for the injunctions that James instructs to be written to the church.  Because in order for there to be fellowship in the church, the members of the body need to be mindful of the needs of each other more than their own freedoms.  So James list four things which he wants the Gentiles to be mindful of lest they cause a stumbling block to the Jews who are fellowshipping with them in the church.  And all of these really have to do with the Gentile temples of false gods or idols.

In the Gentile society, the temple was not just a place of occasional worship, but it was a primary part of their culture and it affected much of daily life. Weddings, birthdays and all sorts of celebrations were commonly observed in the pagan temple. And many pagan temples practiced prostitution as a means of offering worship.  There were temple prostitutes that were part of the fabric of the community and it was considered normal to have those kinds of sexual encounters as part of their religious practice.  And so what James is warning against is that Jews would find any association with those pagan practices offensive.

So the first thing James tells the Gentiles is to abstain from things contaminated by idols.  He is not saying don’t worship idols.  Of course they knew that they must turn away from idol worship.  Paul preached that very thing in the last chapter.  The Gentile Christians understood that.  What James means is to avoid anything contaminated by idol worship. Particularly I think he is saying avoid food that was offered to idols.  There were markets in these Gentile cities that offered meat at wholesale prices which had been offered to idols in sacrifice.  There was nothing wrong with the meat, it was cheap and fresh.  And many people would have been used to buying their meat from those markets. But this would have been a great hindrance to fellowship when you invite a Jewish believer to your house for Sunday dinner.

And the second is associated with idolatry as well.  The word used there for immorality is porneia.  That is the root word from which we get pornography.  Now it includes all sorts of immoral behavior, but I think James is specifically referring to objects associated with immorality which they could see.  Objects like art, jewelry.   For instance it was customary to wear in these Gentile countries jewelry depicting certain immoral goddesses or things associated with immorality.  So James is saying, get rid of those things on your person or in your home which are associated with immorality.  They are offensive, and will cause others to stumble.

And the third and fourth are speaking of virtually the same thing.  The Jews found it offensive to eat anything with blood or in it’s blood.  There were several injunctions in the OT concerning avoiding the contamination of blood.  And so James is saying, avoid blood, for the sake of causing your Jewish brother to stumble.  I think science today has shown the wisdom of scripture in avoiding blood.  Most restaurants are required to put on their menus that it is dangerous to eat meat that is raw.  But while no longer under the Mosaic law to not eat raw meat, it would have been offensive to a Jew to be served that if he were a guest in your house, or you had a fellowship meal in the church.  So for the sake of fellowship, avoid those things which can cause offense to others, especially your Jewish brothers.

So that is the extent of James decision.  Not to put a burden on the Gentiles who were coming to God, but that they would be mindful of their brethren from the Jews who were coming out of Judaism.  And Paul would later make a similar argument in 1Cor.8, speaking about meat offered to idols, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” He is talking about meat offered to idols that would offend other Christians.

So then in conclusion, there is two lessons here that is made.  One is that we are saved by grace through faith.  We don’t have to add any ritual or ceremony as a basis for our salvation.  It is a gift of God.  He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, namely; purchase our salvation by His sacrifice, bestowing it upon those who repent of their sins and believe in Him, and then giving them an inheritance in heaven that will never fade away, eternal life with Christ.  Such an extravagant gift to us who did nothing to deserve it.  But then the other lesson is the though the grace of God gives us freedom in Christ, yet we dare not use it for selfish gain, but rather instead be mindful of one another, putting their needs above our own, even if we have to restrain our freedom for the sake of a brother.  As we have received grace, let us be gracious to others, treating them as we would like to be treated.  Giving preference to one another in love that the body of Christ may be united.

Vs. 32 concludes by saying that after presenting this decision from Jerusalem to the church, Silas and Judas encouraged and strengthened the church with a lengthy message.  I have tried to do the same.  I hope that you are encouraged and strengthened as you respond in repentance and faith to the grace of our God, and His power towards us in salvation.  Let us pray.