Bible Guys Classics: Acts 15

Show Notes

Disagreement doesn’t have to lead to division. In this episode of The Bible Guys, Jeff and Chris walk through Acts 15, where the early church faces a major conflict over doctrine, unity, and what it really means to follow Jesus.

The discussion highlights how the apostles handled disagreement with wisdom, Scripture, and humility—and why clarity in the gospel protects both freedom and fellowship. Jeff and Chris reflect on what this moment teaches us about navigating tension in the church without losing sight of truth or love.

If you’ve ever wrestled with conflict in Christian community or wondered how to respond when believers disagree, this episode offers timely biblical perspective.

🎧 Listen now and see how God brings unity through truth.
#TheDailyBibleGuys #Acts15 #BibleStudyPodcast #ChristianUnity #ChurchConflict #FaithInAction

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Hey, everybody, we're the Bible guys, and if you're just tuning in recently, just know that we are showing a little bit of reruns for a few months, and then we'll be back bigger and better than ever on August thirty first, because behind the scenes we're taking a hiatus to do some very important things. Yeah, we're building building out a new studio and we've got some new structure. Super excited about it. So August thirty first, brand new content. But in the meantime, enjoy some of our greatest hits. Well, today we're going to find out that Paul joins the Jedi Council. What I'm sorry, the Jerusalem Council. Oh, well that makes more sense. He's Chris, I'm Jeff. We're the Bible guys. So Chris, we've been talking the last several days out of the Book of Galatians. Yeah, and he's really talking a lot about the laws and faith and all that kind of stuff, and so it just and now they're getting ready today we're going to talk. The council in Jerusalem is going to argue over the law a little bit. So there's some really weird laws on the books. You're talking about four Michigan and oh. All around the country states have some really weird loss. So this is our segment. We're going to talk about funny laws. Little yeah, weird loss, Yeah, funny loss. So did you know in the state of Michigan it's against the law that cuts in front of women and children? I did not know that. Actually, watch your mouth. And by the way, so that means if you're in a group of men, it's it's legal to cuss. Oh yeah, men can handle it. Is that what it is? I don't know. Well, hey, forget about equality. Let's but watch your mouth. Women should strive for cussing. Apparently, get out on protest. You can cuts in front of us. How about none of us cuss? That might be better. That'd be better. Okay, that'd be a polite society, wouldn't it. Did you also know that in Michigan it's illegal, actually illegal to be drunk on a train? Well, okay, yeah, a lot of people are on trains. I think. Actually there's a train that goes around for wine testing in Michigan. Okay, well you better be careful. They stop and then they do stops and the u wine testing and you're on a train. But so, how drunk is drunk? Like are they saying legally drunk? Because I mean, if you just have one drink, you're drunker then without any drinks. Well, I think there is a legal thing for drunks. It's the number A number. I think it's point I don't know eight. Okay, is it point zero eight? I don't know. I'm not even gonna worry about it. I'm going to stay at point zero zero zero. Yeah, I think it's point zero eight. You have to blow. Okay, So did you know that in Virginia no hunting on Sundays unless you're hunting raccoons. You know, literally, it says it's illegal to here's the cart. Wow, It's illegal to quote hunt or kill any wild bird or wild animal, including any news species. However, it is permissible to kill raccoons. Okay, how about this one. In Louisiana, there is no surprise pizza deliveries. You can be fine five hundred dollars for sending a pizza order to someone's house without his or her knowledge. Have you ever done that? No? No, we did that in college, did you. Yeah? Yeah, we just have pizzas delivered to people. So they made a law. So all the pizza companies got together and was like this nonsense. That's right, Senator, we need to talk about something serious. And then in Oklahoma, did you know eavesdropping is illegal? That's eavesdropping. According to state law, it says, quote, every person guilty of secretly loitering about any building with intent to overhear discourse therein, and to repeat or publish the same to vex, annoy or injure others is guilty of a misdemeanor. Wow, vex annoy or injure others. That is carefully worded. That's right. And no eavesdropping. So so you see somebody eavesdropping and you're like, you're like, hey, you can't do that, and they're like, mind your own business, and you're like, it's the law. They literally outlawed the town gossips, right, that's what they did. They outlawed them. It's a misdemeanor. Wow. I think that's a good law that should stay in play. Well, Oklahoma is known for that, you know, those gossips. All those gossips in Oklahoma. Yeah, I'm so glad we're not from Oklahoma. You know, I got a job offer. We're sorry, We're sorry, Oklahoma listeners. I actually actually get a job offer in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and out of all the job offers I've ever been offered in my entire life, it was by far the most compelling. Really, it was unbelievable. And I can't even believe I said, other than the one to heritage. Well, I actually yeah. So so in terms of salary and position and responsibility numbers and everything. Else, that's pretty pretty compelling. Don't compare. So the I think it's a good law. I think we should outlaw eavesdropping here in Michigan. That's great. If I have a run for governor, that's going to be a pillar of my campaign. Yeah, I'm sure that people are going to support that. That's right. I don't want any any eavesdropping for the purpose of vexing or annoying others. So that's good vexing. Okay. So, So anyways, the whole thing comes out of the idea that you know, Paul has been talking about trying to differentiate between the value of law, the laws of God, and the way of salvation and being made right with God is through faith, not through the law. So the law has benefits, but the law can't save you and get you to heaven. So now particularly he's talking about the Jewish law. So now we're jumping back to X fifteen. We're jumping back to X fifteen because remember the Book of Glatians was written there at like forty eight a d. By forty nine AD, all of the big leaders of the church are are being kind of bombarded with the same idea because throughout all of Christianity, Christianity spread first through the Jewish community and then to the Gentile community, and the Jewish community is quite shocked that there's no requirement that they have to become Jewish first. And so the finally here there's this big council. I think you said somewhere it's the first big conference. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big church conference, I guess, But it's really it's more of a council. It's referred to as the Jerusalem Council. And they come from anywhere from it's all over Jerusalem and Antioch, and those church leaders have come together to form this council to talk about these things. And after the dispute, my notes say, a dispute among the Jewish believers got Paul Barnabas and the leaders of Jerusalem and Antioch together to discuss the situation with the leaders there, and after the Jerusalem Council made this decision, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch with the news. Yeah, well, so this could have this idea of whether or not Gentiles have to follow Jewish laws in order to be Christians could have had devastating consequences if they didn't handle this correctly. Yeah, because we're all anybody who is a Gentile is a non Jewish person, right, right, So gentiles refers to everyone who's not Jewish, just in case we have listeners that don't understand. That, right. Yeah, we're explaining that for my brother's sake, because he doesn't understand most of what we say. I think from now on and anytime we have to explain somethinge to say, Mark, this is what it means. Okay, that way, shots fired, bang bang. He doesn't listen. So, but the idea here being that I love this passage because it kind of gives us a model. What do you do when there's a crisis, or there's a struggle, or there's a disagreement with regard to theology in the Church. And this is one of the things the benefit of bringing the qualified leaders in multiple people to talk about it. It's not just one dictator saying, thus saith the Lord. It's a plurality of leadership coming together to work through, talk it out, wrestle. And there are people on two different sides, multiple sides of this argument, and they're sorting it out. And I think that there's a lot to be said, especially in our current culture, about taking the time to be civil, to be ladies and gentlemen, and to have a civil discourse about things that you're disagreeing about, particularly trying to find what is the Holy Spirit telling us to do, rooting it in scripture. So with all that being said, let's read these first twenty one verses and it'll tell the story for us better than you and I can. Says So. While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syrias, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers. Unless you are circumcised, as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent the delegates to Jerusalem, and they stopped along the way in Phoenicians Sumeriati visit the believers, and they told them, much to everyone's joy, that the gentiles too were being converted. When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything God had done through them. But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisee, stood up and insisted the gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses. So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue. At the meeting. After a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows, brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the gentiles so that they could hear the good news and believe. God knows people's hearts. And he confirmed that He accepts gentiles by giving them the Holy spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear. We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus. Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. When they had finished, James stood and said, brothers, listen to me. Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for himself. And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted, as it is written, after what I will return and restore the fallen house of David, will rebuild its ruins and restore it, so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles, all those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken, he who made these things known so long ago, And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. For these laws of Moses have been preaching Jewish synagogues in every city on Sabbath, every Sabbath for many generations. An he kind of ends there. Yeah, so there it is. There's the beginning of the council they've set down, And I love how it very specifically says that a member of the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted because so. This was a Christian pharisee. Yes, I mean that was just about say that. I was about saying there's a lot going on there, because a pharisee was a person who was an expert in the Old Testament. They were short of the religious leaders when Jesus came to walk the earth. And quite honestly, it's not even close the number of times that Jesus rebuked somebody, it was most likely a religious leader or a pharisee. And it's not because they were necessarily bad people, though a lot of them were a lot of them just were misguided and misled, and they believed with their whole heart they were. Doing Righties typically would have been more evil inside. Their exterior would have been very clean living, yeah, right, they would have been. They would have appeared to be upstanding moral citizens in the community, but they were very judgmental and angry and hateful inside. So in other words, they didn't necessarily cuss out loud. But were they ever? Were they spit the grass dies? Yeah, exactly, exactly. So here we are roughly twenty years in from the resurrection, right, and at this point now Christianity has spread through all of Israel, gone up through leben At what is now modern day Lebanon, and Syria. It's pushed over a little bit into what would be modern day Iraq. It's pushed into modern day Turkey at this point, over into Crete, the island of Crete. It's really starting to spread. It spread originally through the synagogues, through the Jewish synagogues. The majority of the original Christians in this first twenty years were Jewish. But then it was a surprise that God was making this gospel available to everybody. And they're saying, the Pharisees, go Ah, they need to be convert to Judaism first, and then they can be Christians because Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. And Peter was like, wait a minute, We've already dealt with this. We dealt with this the last time we gathered together to talked about it. Remember back to Cornelius. We talked about the Holy Spirit because Peter kind of got in trouble for baptizing Cornelius, remember, in his household, And he says, so, we've already dealt with this, and you guys all agreed that they also receive the Holy Spirit. That's the confirmation that the Gospel is available to the Gentiles. And then Paul and Barnabas talk about the miracles God did among them, and that seemed to be fairly sufficient. But then James steps up and he goes, let's go one step further. This is an actual fulfillment a scripture. And he so he doesn't just take Paul's or Peter's testimony. He doesn't just take Paul and Barnabas's testimony. He compares it with what the scriptures actually say, and the scriptures in the book of what book was this that he was quoting from. The book of Amos. Was it Amos? It was? He's quoting from Amos and it literally says, so that the gentiles can also bear my. Name Chapter nine, Verses eleven and twelve. Yeah, isn't that great? And so yes, testimony is important, personal experience is important, Holy Spirit experience is important. But none of those things will ever that the biblical things will never cross scripture. And so he was able to confirm it through scripture that God had already promised the gentiles will be followers. Yeah, let me, let me, let me uh, sort of applied this to today. So let's let's let's give this pharisee who stands up and says these comments, let's give him totally the benefit of the death. Sure, right, sure, trying to do the right thing, because after all, he's now a Christian. Right, So these aren't like the evil pharisees that are, you know, spitting in the grass dying. This is a guy probably who has sort of accepted that Jesus is the answer to the scriptures, that he knows right. And so I could totally see where a pharisee would say, well, oh no, I'm not going to bend on the on this rule right, you know, the whole circumcision, because that's always been a requirement. And I've given my whole life to this, you know, and so therefore it's still our God, it's still our religion, right, you know. Any An, he's sort of like not bending on something and instead of like trying to compare it to you know, the the evidence of God, the Word of God, the visions that Peter had, every everything else that God has declared as clean. Instead of doing all of that, this guy sort of hangs on to something that he's not willing to let go. And so you know, what it reminds me of is do you ever get somebody who's mad at something in the church, Like somebody just gets mad every day? Yes, And what they do is so think about this. Okay, So you know, we we work really hard to put on services, you know, and by the way, not just us. Church is all over right, and and somebody will get upset about something, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm not. I'm not mad at people for getting mad at things, you know, for questioning things. We should always be willing to be questioned always. The Brians, the Book of Act celebrated the fact that the Brians went home and checked out what Peter was. So check it out. Let me go on record and say anybody, anytime somebody comes to me and says, hey, I can't believe you don't do communion every week, and I'm upset about it because because because you know, I'm just really upset, and I'll say, well, let's look at that together, right, Because the Bible actually doesn't give a requirement on how often, although the tradition of some religions and faiths say that they do it every week, some do it once a month, some do it like once a year, right, but it doesn't matter how often you do it. As often as you do it, do it rememberance of me. So but it could be worse than that. I could be like I was offended by this lyric of a song or whatever it is. But whatever it is, I love the fact that clearly we know reading this story that this Pharisee is in the wrong right. And yet instead of shaming or anything like that, what they did was they gathered together and said, okay, let's talk about this, and that's really measured against scripture, and eventually what we're about to see, is this Pharisee's going to concede not because he's a bad or a good person, but probably because he sort of is willing to change his mind and say, you know what, I think I should be open and not so strong willed. It's like, why are you hanging on to this position? And so he eventually let's go of this position, and he's open to the fact that this is what God says about it, this is how God feels about it anyway. All that to say, I just think that's completely relevant because I'm assuming most of our people who are listening are church people in some way, probably probably the vast majority, right, and so they relate to what I'm saying. They relate to the fact that, like we all have disagreements. Yeah. So if you look at it, there's three things happening here. There's Peter testifying about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit confirmed this. Yes, Paul and Barnabas are testifying about changed lives. The evidence is their lives are changed. Yeah. Yeah, the Jewish converts r happening. And then James steps up and goes and by the way Scripture says it, So these three things together, those three things confirm it. You know, when I was growing up, the version of Christianity that I was in had a lot of extra rules, and you know, people get kicked out of the church for disobeying specific rules that weren't biblical necessarily but were social. For instance, like drums and music and Christian music. You were allowed to have drums and. Christian music, right, and because it was about was full of drums. That's right, that's right, it's it's it's evil, right, it's wicked or whatever. And but I would sit in class even even the Bible, one of the Bible colleges I went to, had very strict rules against drums, and but I would sit and I would ask, well, doesn't the Bible talk about tambourines and rhythm instruments all the time? By the way, that's that's the nature of footloose, it says David Danced. Remember that, Yeah, yeah, remember that? Yeah yeah. So they had all these reasons why but then it turned into well it's a voodoo thing, right, that there's But I'll tell you I've sat in the churches in Tanzania and in Kenya and in Rwanda and the Uganda, and and there there are no other instruments people support. They're not. They're not. They're not sitting there their trumpets and their pipe organs. There's no pipe organ in the little hut made out of dung with with you know, a thatched roof. There's no pipe organ there to be able to play your Western European classical music for Sunday morning. Right, we're gonna sing praise God from whom all blessings flow. Right, There's no Martin Luther songs to be able to be sung there. So instead people are just thumping on the their seats and stuff. But I can tell you this, the worship i've seen there is more passionate than some of the worship I've seen, and the people have the correct version about it. And what I'm saying is I think that this Pharisee was imposing his cultural lens on the faith community, and he was having a hard time separating his cultural preferences from what God's word and the movement of the Holy Spirit and the results of that moon in the Holy Spirit actually we're producing. And I think it's a temptation for us to do often that's what you know, when I was grown up, that's what that's what they would say. And it's that way in so many things. I think we do it in our politics. I do think that we ought to have a biblical moral worldview as Christians. And you have a vote, and your vote matters, and you should vote for what is biblical and moral. But we shouldn't then, you know, we shouldn't constantly be trying to create these these fake religious structures where we think that this uh, you know, candidate is a man of God or whatever. We need to vote our conscience based on what scripture tells us. We have to be very careful about casting this social lens from the outside into the church or on the church. Right, Yeah, And you can just go on and on and on and on and on with all these things. So this pharisee, it doesn't surprise me. He lived his whole life as a pharisee. Now he's discovering grace. And sometimes we can beat up on that guy and think what a jerk. Right, well, he was figuring out grace too. He was just figuring out from the law side. And then there are people who have no law who are trying to figure out. So then because we're gonna read more of Paul's writings where he's like, quit living like a heathen. Right, when he writes to Corinthies, he's like, what in the world are living like pagans? Quite living like pagans? Right? So you know, just because you live in a grace doesn't mean there's nothing that's right. The law isn't beneficial. Well, Book of Romans, he said, what should we then just live in sin all the time so that grace can abound God forbid? So he's writing to the pagan to the people coming from a pagan lifestyle and going, hey, you need to come and be more whole in your lifestyle, Whereas to the Pharisee, his cultural experience was the other way. And both sides need to learn how to live in God's grace and extend grace to the other side. And so instead of me being angry about the environment I grew up in right on some of these things that made rules where there were no biblical rules. Instead, I can say I can respect and honor them and say they were doing the best they could, They were trying to honor God. They inadvertently made a rule that doesn't exist in scripture. But I don't think that they're bad people. I think that maybe they just misapplied a few things. And so if we can make room for those who have stricter rules in us and those who have a looser rule than rules in US, extend grace to all them because we're all discovering how to live out God's grace. Yeah, you know, it's funny because you often talk to me about this, you know, like I get angry at my past, you know, for being around the strict people that are silly, goofy, and those are polite words. But you know what, I actually don't get mad at the people. So everything you're saying, I'm I'm trying to measure myself and saying is that true for me? It is true. I actually don't despise the people who were so goofy to talk about no drums in the church. It's sinful. What I get angry at, very angry at, is the damage that it causes. Because what ends up happening is people walk away from church, they walk away from faith, they walk away from God. They have horrible church experiences. And you know what it's like, It's like setting free a bull in a china shop. That's what it is. Legalism is bulls in the china shop. And what ends up happening is is at the end, you know, you can just say, oh, the bull didn't know any better. And by the way, that is true, the bull didn't know any better. But what you end up having is all of your china is broken and your shop is absolutely destroyed. And that's what legalism does. It destroys. And so I don't get angry at the people I really don't like. I get angry at what the potential and all the damage that it's reaked over the years. And I think that people who are willing I just want to go on record and say, the people who are just willing to say, hey, I'm open to hearing what your view is. It is very reflective of what you said at the very beginning of this. The Jerusalem Council, the Jerusalem Council coming together with different opinions, and here's this Pharisee standing up and instead of them, there's no rebuking happening here, right. No. No, what they do is they get together and they say, let's talk about this and the three things you just said. Let's look at the evidence of God, Let's look at the Word of God. Let's look at the Holy Spirit of God. And that's such an unbelievable place to end. Really, Yeah, yeah, I think so. So we're going to continue on with this concept because they're going to write this letter and they're going to send out and it's a beautiful letter that they send to the Gentiles. So that's coming up tomorrow. Like us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube. That helps so much, and we'll see you tomorrow. He's Chris, I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys.