Hello,
Read Acts 15:1-35
Today’s passage is the Jerusalem Council where the early church met and debated how to include non-Jews in the church.
Well, we made it the Jerusalem Council. If you’ve never studied this passage before, we could spend days on it, but alas, we’re spending one day with it. However, its impacts will be felt throughout the rest of Acts and indeed, in the rest of the New Testament.
I invite you as you look at this passage to take on one of the groups/leaders present—Christian Pharisees, Peter, Barnabas and Paul, and James. Think about how the church in Jerusalem handles conflict, and what might be helpful for churches today when dealing with difficult questions.
The church in Jerusalem is wrestling with how much of the Jewish law, non-Jewish believers need to keep in order to be considered part of the church. There are Christian Pharisees who hold all believers need to be circumcised and keep the law (15.5). There are people like Peter who retell his interactions with Cornelius and others from 10-15 years ago (that’s most likely how much time has passed since Acts 10). Barnabas and Paul have keep the audience with rapt attention as they retell their stories from Acts 13-14. And James talks about how this move of the Spirit lines up with their scriptures in including Gentiles in God’s people.
Somehow, the whole church comes to agreement, or at least to consent to the decision made. They send a letter and authoritative leaders to deliver the message back to the church in Antioch. The letter states, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials:” not eating meat sacrificed to idols, or meat with blood, meat that was strangled, and sexual immorality (15.28-29).
There is much rejoicing in Antioch at Jerusalem’s decision. Church unity is maintained across an incredible ethnic and social divide, as the church discerns, interprets, compromises and partners with the Spirit. We might be wondering how this is possible. And that is a good question to wrestle with? How does the church come to this decision? What posture is needed for it to happen? What is missing in our own churches and denominations when it comes to decision making? How might we better live in to Acts 15 principles when we face conflict in the church?
Grace and Peace,
Matt
P.S. I don’t believe I’m doing this, but if you’re interested, my seminary capstone project was on Acts 15. If you want to take a listen, here is a link to an audio presentation/sermon/Q&A time I gave in seminary. It takes place within a worship service. If you want to jump ahead to the scripture/presentation that starts somewhere around the 11:15 mark. https://emu.edu/now/podcast/tag/matt-weaver/ I might also be able to wrangle up an electronic version of the paper if you’d like to see that instead.