The old phrase "we've got trouble with a capital T" applies to Chapter 15, but the word begins with a P and ends with an S. Pharisees!! The Judaisers were not going to stop and the following scripture shows to what extent they would go to stop the message of Jesus and the Cross. Acts 15: 1 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, 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.” 2 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 Pharisees, also known as trouble, followed Paul and Barnabas around to refute what they were teaching, even though they professed saving faith in Jesus. They wanted to mix their "law", including circumcision, with the gospel Paul was preaching, and they were confusing the Gentiles with a bunch of rules. It chaffed them to think there could be an actual relationship with Jesus—nothing personal, just religious. Many believers today are missing out on deepening their faith walk because all they know is a religous belief and nothing else. Religion is the cause of the deadness in the churches of today, and manmade traditions have gone their course. It is time for those traditions to be replaced with the truth of God's Word and nothing else.
Here is the way the church there dealt with what was going on. Acts 15: 1 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers[a]: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. You will always find these two fighting for the message of Jesus and they physically paid the price for it. 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. They got with other believers who could be trusted and the Holy Spirit led them to a final conclusion. Keep on preaching the good news!!
When they went to Jerusalem, they testified all that God was doing, and the believers there rejoiced. You would think any "true" believers would rejoice when hearing God was doing great work. Not so. I have been around some believers who get mad when I tell them something God did during a particular ministry time. They would say I was boasting, and they were right: boasting in the Lord. The Pharisees were jealous also, and their jealousy caused them to sow dissension among the ranks, but that did not deter Paul and Barnabas from remaining on mission. We don't do what we do for our glory. We do it for God's glory, which is why He blesses the results.
When they heard all that God was doing, James, the head of the church in Jerusalem, said in verses 19-21 19, “And so I judge that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood. 21 For these laws of Moses have been preached in Jewish synagogues in every city on every Sabbath for many generations.” James would not undercut their preaching of the Gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles, but he put normal and fair restrictions on those new converts. Those restrictions did not restrict the gospel but pointed those new converts in a new life-changing direction that would not confuse them in the early days of their conversion. This was some of the first "discipling" of new believers after the Jerusalem council met. Preaching the Gospel was protected, and Paul and Barnabas continued on the next missionary journey, and the troublemakers are silenced. God came through again with His almighty power.
Vesselogical Out,
David Warren
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