Acts 15:1-5 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching 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 and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 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. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
Once again we see the devil’s work in the Pharisees. Even though some of them now believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God, they also championed the law as THE WAY to please God. This opposition to the purity of faith in Jesus Christ alone as the message of salvation troubled Paul and Barnabas. They had just traveled over one thousand miles to tell people of every kind that Jesus was the ONLY WAY to earn God’s favor. They were always under the threat of persecution and death in their journey. This Good News that Jesus Christ has made a way for all men and women to obtain eternal life was central to all they taught in every community. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8) Many in these Greek communities accepted this message of eternal life for them as precious as gold and silver, but others, especially the Jews, found this message to be abhorrent to Judaism and to their lifestyle. For them, Moses’ law was paramount in knowing God, no other avenue to God is needed, only obedience to the law makes people right with the Eternal Creator. Now, the disciples supposedly home with believers who accept Jesus and the cross as the only way to God, find themselves attacked by Jewish believers who are still entangled with the idea of obedience to the law. Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas had faced too much violence and threats of death in the Greek communities to allow these supposed believers to corrupt the truth of the Good News. This perversion of the THE WAY brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. The Holy Spirit had exposed Paul to the mystery of salvation that was hidden in God’s heart from the very beginning. Paul was not going to back down from the truth the Spirit had shown him: all people can be right with the Creator through faith in Christ’s works and not by their own effort or works. As a learned Rabbi he understood how Abraham was right with God. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:1-3) Abraham had not been circumcised when he first received God’s promise of blessing to him. God’s blessing came to him not because his flesh had an outward sign of being sold out to God but that his heart was right with God. Abraham believed God would fulfill his words to him, a necessary component in knowing God. Paul and Barnabas now face criticism by these pharisaical believers for not stressing circumcision as the way to being right with God. But Paul and Barnabas would not recant their message of faith alone in Christ, for they believed strongly that Abraham’s faith in God’s words are the key to knowing God, and that same faith is necessary in all believers. Abraham was fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:21-25)
Paul understood that God from the very beginning wanted a Father’s relationship with his created. Adam and Eve were made to be a blessing to God. They were to have faith in God’s words, trust him as a child would trust his father. But they broke that relationship of trusting the goodness of the Father’s words; they chose their own direction in life. Paul in his ministry declares the necessity of people to believe and trust God’s words about redemption and eternal life. He ministers about Jesus, Son of God, coming to earth to connect people to their Creator. Jesus pays the price for men and women’s rebellion to the authority to God. This rebellion is sin and it has separated men and women from a righteous, holy, eternal God. But because of the grace and mercy of God, Jesus becomes the ransom paid by God to deliver men and women out of their darkness, their captivity to sin. No man or woman can boast about delivering himself or herself from the captivity of sin. Salvation from sin comes to mankind because of the grace and mercy of God. The death of Jesus on the cross demonstrates God’s love for men and women; God’s Son pays the complete price for the sins of all people. However, if we won our personal redemption through law, we could boast about it. But Paul counters this self-willedness of men and women to earn their place of righteousness by their own efforts by talking about boasting. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. (Romans 3:28-31) The Jews who troubled the believers in Antioch opposed this belief of faith in Jesus as the only way to God. They claimed works has to be part of the redemptive plan. We see the opposition to the disciples in Jerusalem with the same message of works. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” They adamantly opposed the purity of the gospel: faith in Jesus Christ and his works. Jesus knew well the hypocrisy of these Pharisees. He castigated them, criticized the way they lived, called them hypocrites, even said their father was the devil. Paul says that a person who is truly circumcised is one who has a circumcised heart, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile. Outward circumcision means nothing. A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. (Romans 2:28-29) A major problem with circumcision and the law is that salvation is placed in the hands of humans and not in the purview of God. He alone is good, not men or women. If He alone is good, He alone knows how to make a sinful creation good and that comes from his works and not mankind’s work. Paul and the early church were now being troubled by this adverse idea to the pure gospel of faith.
As we see Jesus riding on a colt into Jerusalem, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:38-40) Jesus knew who he was; He was the Son of God. He knew absolutely the rocks would cry out praise to him if the people would not. For the Creator God is the receptor of all praise of everything He created. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and women old men and children. (Psalm 148:7-12) Everything that ever was created will praise the Lord; the rocks were created so they too would praise the Lord. Jesus knew there is continuous praise to God from all the natural elements of the world and the heavens; the stars sing God’s praise. So, He knew the rocks would cry out praises if humans would not. But then we see Jesus weeping for Jerusalem. Most of Jerusalem rejected Jesus as being the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. Jesus knew their rejection of him as the Messiah would cause them much pain and calamity in the future. He knew the Romans would come and demolish Jerusalem, killing thousands of them, leaving the resting place of God, the Temple, in total ruin, not one stone on top of another. He understood much blood would be shed in that Temple before it is destroyed. All of this would happen only thirty years after his death. Therefore, Jesus wept. The leaders in Jerusalem were holding adamantly to their way of worshipping God: the law. The law was not bad, for it reflected the holiness of God. In fact it was perfect in revealing God’s perfection, his absolute righteousness. But the complete fulness of the law was bound up into two laws: love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and secondly, love others as you love yourself. These two tenants of the law escaped the Pharisees' way of living. They lived lives disciplined to the law, but they did not feature love and mercy in their lives. Jesus wept because they had not accepted the peace and mercy that He came to give them. He was the Messiah, He was the Son of God, and He did come to give them release from their bondage to outward rules and regulations. Paul’s ministry of Jesus alone was given to him by God. God promised him on the road to Damascus that he would teach Paul many things, the mystery of salvation, hidden from the world from the beginning of time. Paul was faithful to his message even though it brought him many threats of death. We found in the last century, the Nazi government sought the final solution to what they considered the Jewish threat to the world; of course the final solution was extermination. The devil’s solution to everything is death. But Paul came to bring another final solution and that was life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17) Paul dedicated his life to this final solution. He encourages us to do likewise, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:56) Dear friends around this breakfast table, nothing you do for Christ is ever wasted. Even under stress as we see in our above focus, Paul and Barnabas were zealous in defending the truth of the word of God. No matter where you are in life, happy or sad, defend the gospel. Be happy you have breath to voice the truth to the world. Live in God’s will not your own will as Adam and Eve did. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Rejoice today that you have the message of life and not of death. The true FINAL SOLUTION is Jesus Saves, the opposite of death.
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