Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
As you look around your part of our world today is CONFUSION a fair word to use in describing much of what you see in education, business, politics, health care, social media, entertainment and even religion? And when you consider my question through generational lenses, do you find the younger the person or group you are considering, the greater their confusion especially about what is true, or what is right, or what is even common sense?
Come with me again back to the great city of Syrian Antioch, about 2000 years ago, and let’s join up with Paul and Barnabas. You’ll recall they had returned from their first ‘missionary journey’ which had taken them to Cyprus Island and then up into modern day Turkey, and back again to Antioch. Acts 14:28 reports: “They stayed there in Antioch a long time with the disciples.” We presume that means they both fully re-engaged with the amazing spiritual movement happening in Syrian Antioch, as thousands of people, from many different backgrounds and even ethnicities, were hearing the Gospel of Jesus; experiencing spiritual transformation as they trusted Jesus to be their Savior; and earnestly learning from Paul and Barnabas, about this new life in relationship with resurrected Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Now, it is vital that we remember this: they did NOT have the New Testament as we do today! They had what we know as the Old Testament and now, as we’ve seen in the past five days, this first letter written by James, the 1/2 brother of Jesus. Everything else that we have in our New Testament had NOT yet been written, thus it was vital for this first generation of Christians to know that those teaching them had been eyewitnesses and disciples of Jesus Himself or had been taught by the Holy Spirit of God, as Paul was. With that in mind, we should be able to understand the problem which arose in Antioch and elsewhere as Luke describes it in Acts 15.
“Certain people came from Judea to Antioch and taught the believers: ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’ This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute with them.” (Acts 15:1,2) Exactly WHO these traveling teachers were or why they even received a hearing in Antioch, we do not know. And while their claim that circumcision is required for salvation may not be the issue subverting God’s truth in your city or even your church, I have an important question: Can you and I discern when ANYONE declares something they claim to be God’s Truth but in fact it is contrary to or a distortion of God’s truth as we have it in the Bible?
To help us consider that important question, let me add these clarifying questions:
First... How many Bibles do you have in your home?
Second… How often do you read your Bible and with what effort do you pursue understanding your Bible?
Third… How well do you know the contents of your Bible, and can you identify a false teaching from someone? Can you show them, from your Bible, where their false teaching conflicts with God’s Truth in the Bible? (2 Tim. 2;15)
Fourth... As you consider the changes in opinion about what is considered truth in your city or coming to you via the internet or AI or social media, what is God saying to you about your need to immerse yourself in God’s Word so you can know His truth and discern distortions or outright contradictions of God’s truth? (Is. 45:18,19)
Fifth… What is the Spirit of God saying to you about your privilege and responsibility to help your children and grandchildren know God’s truth; know how to dig into God’s Word to find His truth, to counter the lies of our world? (Deut. 6:4-9)
The very powerful spiritual movement, which had been happening for several years in Syrian Antioch, and had earned the name “Christian”, was under attack and beginning to unravel as false teachers were breeding discord and confusion in the church of Jesus in Antioch! The fracture was happening in the very foundation of the Jesus movement. It was a simple yet profound question: What must a person do to be saved from their sin condemnation and what does God do in that salvation experience to free a person from their sin condemnation? Pause. What is your answer to that essential question? And what truth support can you provide to prove your answer to be true?
This situation was so troubling in Syrian Antioch that Luke reports: “Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers in Jesus, to go to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.” (Acts 15:2) This is now the second time the Syrian Antioch church had commissioned Paul and Barnabas to take an important trip taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a specific need. But this time it is not to places where the Name of Jesus is unknown. This time it is to Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ Himself had taught His God given Gospel; died His atonement death; was raised from the dead by God the Father; proved His resurrection with 40 days of appearances and further teaching to many people; and then ascended back to heaven in full view of a crowd watching Him go. (Acts 1:9-11) And this is the same Jerusalem to which the Holy Spirit came upon the 120, launching this great spiritual movement of the Gospel of Jesus, which had reached and powerfully impacted Syrian Antioch. (Acts 2)
As they traveled through towns and villages along their way toward Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas of course paused often to hear the stories of how lives had been radically changed as people put their full trust in Jesus Christ for salvation from their sin, and the life transforming work of the Holy Spirit within these new believers. Finally, Luke reports: “When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.” (Acts 15:3,4)
The last time Paul and Barnabas had been in Jerusalem was perhaps 4 years earlier when they had brought the wonderful financial help from the Christians in Antioch, to the starving Christians in Jerusalem. (Acts 11:27-30) It was at that time James, the brother of John, had been executed by King Herod, and Peter had been miraculously freed by an angel from Herod’s prison. (Acts 12:1-19)
In the subsequent years Paul and Barnabas had taken the Gospel to Cyprus & modern-day Turkey. Now, they stood with those who had known Jesus best, His disciples now called apostles, to discuss what Jesus had been doing to fulfill His promise to build His church. (Matt. 16:18) In Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria and at least to a beginning of ‘the ends of the earth’. (Acts 1:8) We cannot minimize the significance of this meeting in Jerusalem and that’s why we’ll pause here and return tomorrow to look closely at what was discussed and decided. You and I, 2000 years later, are powerfully affected by the discussions during those days in Jerusalem.
The ‘lessons learned’ notes today will help you dig more deeply into the CONFUSION problem and the worship song I’ve chosen will, I trust, bring you out of the confusion, to Jesus. And I’ll be here waiting for you tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 15:1-4.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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