15:1 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.14 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
16 “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant2 of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Footnotes
[1]15:3Or brothers and sisters; also verse 22 [2]15:17Or rest
15:1 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.14 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
16 “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant2 of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Footnotes
[1]15:3Or brothers and sisters; also verse 22 [2]15:17Or rest
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you would turn in your bibles to Acts chapter 15, and we're gonna read the first 21 verses. We also have the text available in your worship guide. Acts 15. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
Joel Brooks:
And after Paul and Barnabas had no small discussion or dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that god had done with them. But some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider the matter.
Joel Brooks:
And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth mouth, the gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear. But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the lord Jesus just as they will.
Joel Brooks:
And all the assembly fell silent. And they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how god first visited the gentiles to take from from them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written.
Joel Brooks:
After this, I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it. And the remnant of mankind may seek the lord. And all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the lord, who makes these things known from of old. Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the gentiles who turn to god, but should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.
Joel Brooks:
For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues. Pray with me. Our father, we take time every Sunday to read from your word, because we believe your word has life. So we ask that you would bless the very reading of your word, that that even now through the power of your spirit, it would begin doing its work. Lord, I pray for, whatever hearts need to be broken, that you would break them.
Joel Brooks:
Whatever hearts that need to be healed and restored, you would heal and restore them. God, I pray that you would sharpen our dull minds, and you would open up our closed hearts to receive truth from you. And we need to hear from you. I put pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they forever change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. I'm gonna start just by telling you something you probably already know. Maybe a few of you don't, but all of you grew up in a dysfunctional family, every one of you. It's true. There's, Every one of you.
Joel Brooks:
It's true. There's there's no such thing as a perfect or a normal family. If right now, you're going through your family and you think, no, everybody's pretty perfect, everybody's pretty normal, that means you're the source of the dysfunction, because everybody comes from a dysfunctional family. I I just just to kind of illustrate a few, I can do this because my mom doesn't listen to podcasts, but my mom, you know, she's obsessed with weather. She has to, watch the 5 o'clock news, the 6 o'clock news, the 11 o'clock news, weather, in order to, and also check it on the internet.
Joel Brooks:
Check it in the paper, and she probably goes out and gets her mail once a day. She just wants to know what she needs to wear to get her mail. After 9:11, my mom, she, she worries a whole lot. She sent me a survival kit. She actually had it shipped and delivered to my mouth or my house and it was a, it was a big Tupperware container that had different types of food in it.
Joel Brooks:
It had, lots of duct tape for some reason, plastic sheets. And, my favorite was it had 10 magazine, 10 guidepost magazines from 1995, that that apparently I need for my survival. One time, my brother, who any of y'all met, I probably could just end it there, but but he he's he's strange, so strange, he called me one time and goes, let's go to Iraq. This was during the war, and he goes, I've got we could fly on a Russian plane, go there, land, turn around, and come back. I was like, why?
Joel Brooks:
He goes, because it'd be cool. People will think you're cool. And I was like, David, people already think I'm cool. That was a little too much, Ben. A little too much, Ben.
Joel Brooks:
And I do have to watch this one because, this person doesn't know how to use a computer and podcast, but there's another member of my family who brings their own silverware to restaurants, and refuses to use the silverware that a restaurant provides, and it always has a lot of awkward moments at the end because you have to make sure the waiter doesn't take away your silverware. And, and, you know, I've been with him one time, and he has eaten everything on the plate. It is wiped clean, but he forgot to take the silverware out and put it in, his wife's purse. And now you know who it is. But, and so the waiter comes and says, can I take that?
Joel Brooks:
He goes, no. The waiter looks, and it's an empty, lit, clean plate. He goes, I'm I'm not quite finished with it. They're like, the waiter just looks at it and goes, okay. And then at least, I'm surrounded by dysfunctional people, and I know that you are as well.
Joel Brooks:
We have we we tend to have this idealistic view of the early church and think that it was without dysfunctions, that somehow we grow up in dysfunctional families, but the early church was perfect. The early church was not at all perfect. They had many of the exact same dysfunctions that we have. In some ways, I would say that the early church had it worse. I I mean, all you have to do is read 1 Corinthians, and you have a man who is sleeping with his mother-in-law.
Joel Brooks:
You have people coming who are getting drunk at communion. You have people who are eating food sacrificed to idols. And so, that's pretty dysfunctional church family. So much so that when Paul writes to them in 1st Corinthians, he says this. He goes, hey.
Joel Brooks:
Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth, but god called what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. And that's just another way of saying, hey, Corinthians, look at yourselves.
Joel Brooks:
Will you look at yourselves? You're not very smart. You're not very influential. None of you came up through a great family, okay? So, so let's, let's have an attitude of humility here is what he is saying.
Joel Brooks:
We see this dysfunction all through the book of Acts. We might look at this later next week, but next week, Paul and and Barnabas, they get in a huge fight. A huge fight, so much so that they have to split and they have to go their separate ways. This isn't, you know, just always a happy, lovey family. There's some serious dysfunction going on.
Joel Brooks:
I say all of that because there is a temptation when you read Acts 15 to say that this is the the pinnacle or this is the height of the early church dysfunction. This is when they start arguing all with one another. This is when they start debating over theological minutiae there and just that nobody really cares about. This is just when people's egos are getting in the way. This is when there's those power struggles within the church, and you're tempted to think about that, but that is absolutely what is not going on here.
Joel Brooks:
Not at all. This is one of the most crucial chapters in the Bible. The doctrine that they are discussing has enormous implications. You know, Paul and Barnabas, they're out on the mission field, and they actually left the mission field to come back home to discuss this. Can can you imagine us, you know, we have 3 members of our church who are in the mission field.
Joel Brooks:
We have Kate DeFuniak. We have Sarah Dunn. We have Lauren Howard. Can you imagine us telling them, hey. We need y'all to come back here.
Joel Brooks:
Okay? And, you know, come back from Uganda, from from Honduras and Spain. Come back here for a meeting. You know it's not gonna be to discuss the carpet. It's it's gonna be something of huge importance.
Joel Brooks:
The greatest importance. Let me tell you what the issue was. Since the gospel hit Antioch, Christianity is exploding in the gentile world, of which we are thankful of here in this room. But it's this took everybody by surprise. Even Peter was very surprised by it, and he was the one who was originally spearheading it.
Joel Brooks:
Remember he had to be given a vision, 3 times a vision that he used to go to the Gentiles. He's like, are you sure? Are you sure? I mean, it it took him by surprise that he was supposed to do this. And then he goes there and he preaches, and these Gentiles have this Pentecost moment.
Joel Brooks:
The holy spirit falls down. And then they're like, now what? I mean, do we, do do we explain to them now the the the Jewish customs, the Jewish laws? Do do we circumcise them? Now now what do we do?
Joel Brooks:
Now that we're all together, now that we're all family, what do we do? And it became a huge issue. The the family was quickly becoming very dysfunctional as they were butting heads over this. So the question is this, since we know that god is the one who formed the Jewish people, god is the one who then made a covenant with the Jewish people, that Jesus himself was a Jew. That his disciples were Jewish men.
Joel Brooks:
That the earliest Christians, they were the ones who worshiped Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Does it now make sense that in order to be a Christian, you must first become a Jew? In order to become a Jew, you have to first be circumcised. Verse 5 sums up the argument well. Says, but some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and order them to keep the law of Moses.
Joel Brooks:
Don't think negatively about the Pharisees. These were people who devoted their whole life to studying the law. Likely, this probably allowed them to recognize Christ. It was through their, very devoted life to studying the law. And now, all of a sudden, these gentiles are coming in, and do we keep the law?
Joel Brooks:
Do we not? This this is an identity question for them. You you take away the law, and they they no longer have an an identity. And on the other side of the issue, you have these Gentiles. Grown Gentiles who obviously don't want to be circumcised.
Joel Brooks:
That's part of it. They really don't. And they also don't want to pick up the additional things like dietary laws. Do we have to to keep all these religious days? Are we not allowed to touch certain things?
Joel Brooks:
It it would radically change their whole life. And so what's the verdict? The question is, how exactly are people to now be saved, to be part of this new community, this new family? Is it through the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ and works, or is it just through the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ? And there's a whole lot of discussion.
Joel Brooks:
Peter then gets up, and he tells his story about how the holy spirit fell down at Antioch. Look at verse 1011. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear. But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the lord Jesus, just as they will. These 2 verses are the key verses to the book of acts.
Joel Brooks:
I I don't think it's hyperbole to say that these are 2 of the key verses to the entire bible. So much of the bible leads up to to this proclamation here. That we believe that we'll be saved through the grace of the lord Jesus, just as the Jews will, just as they will. Just as the Gentiles will. After Peter says this, he bows out of acts.
Joel Brooks:
We don't hear from Peter anymore. Peter never speaks again. These are the last words he says. And I tell you, as I was reading through this and studying it this week, I I really I got emotional as I was reading this. It's like, I mean, the great apostle Peter.
Joel Brooks:
This is it. This is what his life was building up to really is is this declaration. And then he just kinda he bows out. We don't hear from him anymore. We will be saved through the grace of the lord Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Peter knew, knew that one was not saved by works. He knew he wasn't saved by works. Because he had failed Jesus over and over and over again. The law, the commands were were were a yoke on top of Peter that he could not bear. It it really it it just wore him down.
Joel Brooks:
And I kept thinking as I read this of, one of the last conversations Jesus had with Peter when he was restoring Peter after Peter had denied him. And he asked, you know, Peter, do you love me? And he says yes, and he goes, feed my sheep. And three times it says, Peter, feed my sheep. And here we see Peter feeding his sheep.
Joel Brooks:
He's like, this, you you wanna eat something? You You want something that's gonna nourish you? You wanna you want something that's really gonna grow you into faith? This is it. This is Peter feeding his sheep at the best.
Joel Brooks:
When he says we believe that we'll be saved through the grace of the lord Jesus just as they will. He doesn't tell them what to do. He doesn't give them a new law. He says, this is the true meat that you need to eat right here. There are 2 types of religion, 2 types of people, I guess you could say, in the world.
Joel Brooks:
And I'm always leery of any time somebody, you know, simplifies things into just there's 2 types of people. There's 2 types of people here. There's those who, when thinking about their salvation, they think, and God, and there's those who think, but God, when reading scripture. There's those who think, and God, and then there's another group that thinks, but God. Now, let me just kinda work that through.
Joel Brooks:
There's there's some, the and God people, they think, do your best and God will take care of the rest. So you, you put in your part, and God will do the rest. That's one camp. And the other is the but god. And we see this in Romans 5.
Joel Brooks:
For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we've been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from him saved by him from the wrath of god? Doesn't say and god shows his love.
Joel Brooks:
It's it's a drastic turn, but god. You you get Ephesians 2, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit, the the spirit who is at work with the sons of disobedience. Among whom we once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our body and of our mind. And, by nature, we were children of wrath.
Joel Brooks:
That's how it is. By nature, we were children of wrath. But God. But God. But God.
Joel Brooks:
Who is rich in his mercy. Because of his great love for which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. By grace, we are saved. That's the but. It's not the, you were dead in your sins.
Joel Brooks:
You were by nature enemies of God. You were, you were nature children of wrath, and God did this. It's buts. It's the gospel. We saw a great picture.
Joel Brooks:
I didn't get to unpack this last week. A great picture of the gospel last week, when we were looking at Paul getting stoned. When Paul was stoned, if you remember the story, they they dragged his unconscious body outside of the city, because they thought he was dead. That word dragged there means exactly what you think you would think it means. It it means it's like dragging a a a lifeless deadweight.
Joel Brooks:
That's what drag means. Other times in scripture that word drag can mean, you're pulling somebody who is kicking and screaming. Jesus told his disciples, they were gonna drag you before the kings and the governors. Paul was dragging the Christians into prison. You're being dragged against your will.
Joel Brooks:
You're not wanting to go, but somebody is forcefully pulling you. That's what this word drag means. But Jesus uses it in a theological context. And it's a very familiar verse that that that probably your translation doesn't pick up on it, is John chapter 12. He says, when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.
Joel Brooks:
That word draw is the word drag. I will drag people to me. Now, there's there's other words for draw you can use. You know, James does the draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Different draw.
Joel Brooks:
There is the, we can draw near to the throne of grace. That's a different draw. The word that Jesus used is dragging a lifeless body. Dragging people who will resist me. I'm going to I'm going to be lifted up, which is talking about his crucifixion and his exaltation.
Joel Brooks:
When I am lifted up, I will drag those people to me. And so, when Jesus is being dragged before the before Pontius Pilate, when he's being dragged and beaten, what's actually happening is he is dragging us to himself. When Paul was dragging Christians to be thrown into prison, what's happening? What was about to happen? Was Christ was about to meet him and drag him into the kingdom.
Joel Brooks:
When Christ is lifted up, he will drag, he will draw all men to himself. That's what but God means. It's not, hey, I'm gonna do do my best. God's gonna come alongside me, and he'll do the rest. No.
Joel Brooks:
The gospel is God will take your lifeless body or your, by nature, enemies of god, children of wrath, and he will drag you to himself. I just realized, I said I was just gonna walk through this passage and not really preach. I just preach. I'm gonna calm now now. How can he not preach through that?
Joel Brooks:
How how can how can you? Alright. Let's let's quickly look through the rest of this passage. I'll use my calm voice. I'll just point out a few things, and we'll have our q and a time.
Joel Brooks:
After Peter talked, then Paul and Barnabas talked, and then James chimes in, and he quotes from Amos chapter 9. And when you look at that, James James essentially is saying this. Hey hey, guys. We we've just heard what god's been doing. Alright?
Joel Brooks:
We're not here to dictate to god what he's allowed to do. We don't dictate to god what he what he's allowed to do. What we will do is discern what God is doing. And so, that's the difference. We're not gonna tell God what he's allowed to do.
Joel Brooks:
Let's just discern what he's doing. Okay? We've seen the spirit fall in the gentiles. Alright. How are we gonna discern this?
Joel Brooks:
And he goes to scripture. He goes to Amos chapter 9. Which is what we do. When we see or experience god at work and we wanna figure out what's happening, we wanna discern what's going on, we go to scripture. The reason that, god didn't send an angel to this council, the reason he, you know, didn't send visions to this council is because they had everything they needed in the word.
Joel Brooks:
They had everything they needed. And so after James quotes from Amos 9, and basically says, hey. Look at this. God says he's gonna establish his kingdom again after David, he's going to establish this and there's going to be Gentiles called by his name in this kingdom. They're not going to be everybody's Jews.
Joel Brooks:
There's gonna be Gentiles called by his name. He's like, end of discussion there. And people agree. And so the discussion ends. And I just wanna say that once this issue was decided, it was decided.
Joel Brooks:
There wasn't any room for debate, and they didn't take a vote. You know, let's everybody voting. It was no. This this this is reality, and God gave them an incredible unity in regards to that. There was no dissension after this.
Joel Brooks:
They, they were all in agreement. And this is amazing because this was a dysfunctional family in which people were just at odds and they were going away from each other, and then they go and they look at the scripture and they come together and they they discuss this and then God pulls them together, and they're united in this. Another thing I want you to to look at to notice from this is this was likely against James' personal preference. James, we know from other extra biblical sources, James was a devout Jew, remained a devout Jew his whole life. He was known as camel knees because he was always in the temple praying, and his knees had huge calluses on them.
Joel Brooks:
He, all he kept up the dietary laws. He, always was there for the Sabbath. Kept the food, you know, the food restrictions. He kept he kept everything. He was actually known as James the just by by the Jewish people because he was a man of such integrity and they held him in such esteem.
Joel Brooks:
And I think James's preference would've been that let's get the gentiles to keep the law. That's what James wanted. But then James understood, no. No. It's the gospel and it's nothing else.
Joel Brooks:
And he put aside his personal preference for what was important. As I was reading this, I I remember when we started this church. Several of y'all were there in the living room at our house. And I think it was the first thing I said to the handful that was there. I said, you know what?
Joel Brooks:
I want all of you to know that none of you get the church you want. Okay? None of you are gonna get the church you want. I'm starting this church, and I'm not gonna get the church I want. So let's just lay that down right now.
Joel Brooks:
Because I, you know, I might want a church to do this, have this type of music, do all these kind of things, but really, God might want us to go this way. The the only thing that there needs to be, an absolute unity in is we're gonna proclaim the gospel. This is going to be a church that is centered on the grace of Jesus Christ. Outside of that, we we really need to hold things loosely. And I don't know which way the Lord will take us.
Joel Brooks:
I was talking with some worship leader and he said, hey. You know, make sure at your church, your congregation, or at least some people at your church hates 1 out of every 3 songs. Because if they don't hate 1 out of every 3 songs, if they love every single song you do, you are hitting just a particular preference, and you're excluding people. And, I wish you could see us when we have our worship planning time. There is all I don't know forever unanimous when it comes to a song.
Joel Brooks:
There's someone who's like, I, hey. If I hear that song one more time, I'm gonna blow up. And I was like, I love it. And we're like, oh, okay. We'll yield to that.
Joel Brooks:
It's not a gospel issue. Okay? We we wanna all be unified in the gospel. The other things we'll hold loosely. One final thing before we have our little q and a.
Joel Brooks:
You might think it's odd. You should think it's a little odd That right after James puts in his word, you know, we're we're gonna be saved by grace. He then says, therefore, my judgment is you need to do all these things. Did he did he pick that up? Kinda reads like the book of James.
Joel Brooks:
Yes. We're studied by grace, but you gotta do these things. First off, none of those things are in regards to salvation. That's not what he's talking about. You you you can't eat, you know, meat that's been strangled.
Joel Brooks:
That's just meat that has all of its blood in it, because then he won't be saved. He's not talking about that. What what's at the heart is table fellowship here. It says now that we are united in our doctrine, we need to be physically united as well. We gotta eat together.
Joel Brooks:
And so if if these Jewish Christians wanna keep practicing all their dietary restrictions and and the gentiles don't, how how are you gonna have table fellowship? And so really, these three things, even the sexual immorality is about table fellowship if you understand the culture at the time. Without getting too graphic or anything, but sexual entertainment was a part of of dinners in the society. They would have the after dinners, the sexual entertainment. It's like, no, we we don't do those things.
Joel Brooks:
We can't eat with you if you're going to do those things. And we can't eat with you if you have all these, you know, if you're eating eating food sacrificed to idols or if the food's got the blood in it. It says there are very minimal restrictions that they could agree on so they could have table fellowship. Because that's what they want. It's like, now that we agree in doctrine, we got to be together.
Joel Brooks:
We gotta be in each other's homes. We've gotta be eating meals together. We've, we've gotta be celebrating with one another. This has got to happen. And that's why when the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced.
Joel Brooks:
They rejoiced at these minimal this minimal minimal restrictions because they knew now they could eat with their fellow Christians. I wanna close here. Let me let me pray for us before we get started with the q and a time, and, and then we'll we'll start. God, we thank you for your word. I pray I brought clarity to it, not confusion.
Joel Brooks:
There's so much there. God, I pray what we would walk away with tonight is the but god. God, we thank you for saving us. That we are saved by grace through faith. We pray this in the name of Jesus.