The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the Book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 15, verses 13 through 21.

Tony Clark: All right, let’s dive into the Word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 15. We’re going to be looking at verses 13 to 21. Father, we are so grateful that You woke us up to see this day. And dear God, I pray that Your Spirit would teach us and move in our midst. Lord, give us the understanding, the sense of Your Word. Lord, I pray that You would anoint me to rightly divide it, Lord. Help us to understand Your heart in the Word of God today in Jesus' name, Amen.

Acts 15, looking at verses 13 to 21 as we continue go verse by verse in the Book of Acts on Sunday mornings. We’re making our way through Ruth and it has been just incredible time going through the Book of Ruth. And so, Acts 15:13-21, the title of this message is Jesus Plus Nothing Part Three. Now, in part one of this study, we saw how a group of men from Jerusalem came down to the church in Antioch saying, “Unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And we saw this in verse one.

Paul and Barnabas, who were leaders in the church, disputed with them about this issue. The church sent them in verse two up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders to get answers about this important question: is it Jesus plus nothing, or is it Jesus plus keeping the law of Moses? And we saw in part two how Peter rose up in verse seven to tell the group how God used him to first share the gospel with the Gentiles, referring to Cornelius and his family in Acts chapter 10. Now, someone else very important is about to speak.

Look at verses 13 through 18. It says, "And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, 'Men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: "After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name," says the Lord who does all these things. Known to God from eternity are all His works.'"

In these verses we see James stands up to speak in verse 13 after Paul and Barnabas just finished telling the council more stories of the miraculous things God did through them among the Gentiles. Now, who is James? This is James the brother of Jude and half-brother of Jesus, according to Matthew chapter 13, verse 55. He is also the author of the Book of James that bears his name, as well as the brother of Jude, who wrote the Book of Jude that bears his name.

Now, James the apostle who happened to be the brother of John, he was beheaded in chapter 12, verse two, so we know it couldn't have been this James. So this particular James, the other James, he stands up, who is the half-brother of Jesus. He stands up and confirms what Peter just said, how God first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name, verse 14 says. Now, I just couldn't let this pass without addressing it. When James refers to Peter, I want you to notice how he calls him by his old name, Simon.

Jesus had changed his name to Peter in John chapter 1, verse 42, which means rock. Oh, I'm sure when James called him Simon, Peter was probably thinking, "Why is he calling me by that name? I haven't been called Simon in years." It is like when you go back home and you know you were known by a certain nickname that everybody called you when you were growing up. And as soon as they see you, they still refer to you by that name. And I know you probably, like I have, responded by saying, "Boy, I haven't been called that name in years."

Satan, he always wants to remind us of our past. And whenever he does that to remind you of your past, just remind him of his future. James continues to speak in verse 15 about how God has always planned on saving the Gentiles, and even the scriptures confirm it. And he quotes Amos 9, verses 11 and 12. He does that in verses 16 and 17. He is quoting these verses to show those present that God had planned to save the Gentiles—notice, as Gentiles, not having them become Jews first.

By James quoting the scriptures, he is saying even the Word of God confirms what I am saying. James is giving us a beautiful example to follow. Whenever you're trying to prove anything, make sure that you can prove it with the Bible. This is so important in a time where people put their trust in their feelings, in their experiences, or their opinions above anything else. For us as believers, it doesn't matter how we feel, how we were brought up, or what your opinion is. What matters is what God has to say on the matter.

All opinions, feelings, experiences, and upbringing must bow before the Word of God. Oh, I say this because these Pharisees who were trying to bring these Gentile believers under the law of Moses had some strong feelings about the law of Moses. But their strong feelings had to bow before the Word of God James was quoting. And he tells them that it has always been in the heart of God not only to see the Jews saved but to use them to reach the rest of mankind. Verse 17 confirms this when James says, "So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things."

Did you know that those of us who are saved today are included in this verse? We are Gentiles that God made it possible for us to seek Him and to be called by His name. And according to verse 18, this has been the heart of God from all eternity. I just want us to be aware of something here. Did you know that God isn't in heaven waiting on something to happen? Did you know God isn't waiting for five minutes from now? Oh, He isn't waiting for tomorrow to come like we are. Known to God from all eternity are His works.

He knew the circumstances it would take for you to be saved. He knew the things He had to allow in your life in order to bring you to Him. He knew these things. He allowed those things. He knew what it was going to take to save you. Somebody's experience may be different, but known to God from all eternity are His works. This is why Jesus is described as a lamb slain from the foundations of the world. Because everything is right now to God. God isn't waiting on two minutes from now. God isn't—everything is now to Him.

And He knew what it was going to take to get you saved. He knew He had to allow so often hurtful situations to come in our lives in order to break us down so where we can cry out to Him: "Save us from our muck and mire and our sin." He knew what He had to do to get you to come to Him. Now, look at verses 19 to 21. It says, "'Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.'"

Now, the word "therefore" that starts verse 19 means because of what was just said, James says, "I judge." This is a huge statement because it shows that James held a high position in the church in Jerusalem. We see this according to Acts 12, verse 17. Now, according to church tradition, Clement of Alexandria said that James received this position from James and John. He was what we would call the senior pastor of the church in Jerusalem. Paul would later write in Galatians 2 and verse 9 that James was one of the pillars in the early church.

See, everyone else gave their opinions and even argued, but James said, "I judge." That Greek word for judge is *krino*, and it means to judge judiciously, conclude, or to resolve. James is giving a definitive statement here. He's not giving his opinion of what he thinks or how he feels; he's giving a definitive statement: "I judge." He is saying don't you trouble these Gentiles. Oh, I have to draw your attention to the word "troubled." *Parenochleo* is that Greek word and it means to harass further, annoy, or trouble.

In other words, James is saying stop harassing and annoying and troubling these Gentiles about keeping the law of Moses. He said we couldn't keep it, our fathers couldn't keep it, why are we going to put a yoke on these Gentiles that neither we nor our fathers were able to keep? And James said stop annoying them and troubling them about keeping the law of Moses. Oh, I love that, because so often we can do the same thing with our children and our teenagers. We can trouble them and annoy them by trying to make them keep a bunch of religious rules and regulations that are not rooted in scripture.

It’s just a bunch of legalistic things that you're trying to do to try to keep them from straying, and it's not biblical. You think so, because these very people, I'm going to show you, these very people that have been brought under this sort of heavy-handedness as soon as they're 18 and go to school, they go buck wild. Go crazy. Because you've had them under—because you have troubled them, you have annoyed them to keep these religious things that you set them up in your home for the very purpose of trying to keep them from straying, and they became a yoke around the neck of your children.

Oh, I'm not saying that our homes should be lawless and we should have just a bunch of fooling around going on in our home. No, our homes must be governed by a biblical order, but make sure it's biblical. Make sure it's rooted in scripture. Oh, I used to remember when my kids were home before they went to school. I got up before them and I would always, first thing I would do, I would always go through the Proverbs. There's 31 chapters corresponding with the 31 days of the month, and I would read a Proverb every day.

And whatever day that was, there's a scripture that stands out, I'd put it on a little post-it sticky thing—y'all remember what those were, you know, the little sticky thing—and I'd write the scripture out and I would plaster it on their mirror. So when the kids wake up and go to school in the morning, go boom, there's that word right there. Because see, when you establish your home on the Word of God, because see, you can't be around them all the time to annoy them with your heavy-handed religious rules.

But what can be with them is the Word of God. The Word of God can be with them, so when they think about doing crazy things, that word that was sticking on their mirror, the first thing in the morning, will come back. God's Word does not return void; it's going to accomplish that which it was sent out to do. Now, now that my kids are grown, we hear some of the stories that they did while they were in school and I just can't believe some of the tomfoolery they've done. The thing is, I couldn't be with them eight hours in school. I couldn't be with them there, but that Word could.

And we made sure that it was the Word that kept them; it was the Word that convicted them; it was the Word. Oh, we had rules in my house and sometimes they were dumb and silly. And I look back at them now and I'm just like, oh come on. Of course, I'm grandparent age now, that's why I look at them as dumb and silly. But my kids, they laugh at them today. But the thing is, make sure that you're not annoying them and troubling them trying to keep some of your religious rules and regulations that have no root in scripture at all, but in some religious tradition you came up with or something or you've been raised yourself.

Those kids go buck wild when they get out of there, out of the house. Allow the Word of God to govern them because that is the only thing that will not return void is the Word of God. Now, James goes on to say that they should not trouble those believers turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. Now, these commands refer to the eating habits of the Gentiles, which were very offensive to their Jewish brothers and sisters that they are now in the church with.

So no, they were not bound by the law of Moses, but don't miss this—but they were bound by the law of love. This is critical here. The law of love says don't unnecessarily offend your Jewish brothers and sisters in and out of the church. See, these things were important for the Gentiles to stay away from because if they didn't, there would be major discord, arguments, and strife inside of the church. See, the Gentiles would offer up meat to their idols and then they would sell that meat in the marketplace for cheap prices. It was some good meat, some good filet mignon kind of good meat.

The Jews were told to stay away from idols and idol worship, so they would be offended to see Gentiles eating meat that was once offered or once used to worship their idols. So they were offended by that, so they were told to stay away from that. The next thing they were told to stay away from was sexual immorality. The Greek word is *porneia* and it means all forms of illicit sexual practices and this is where we get our English word pornography from. So James is instructing these Gentiles to stay away from all forms of deviate sexual behaviors that are laid out in Leviticus 18, which includes sex with close relatives, siblings, aunts, uncles, sex with animals, and homosexuality.

Stay away from these sexual practices, something that the Gentiles were involved in and didn't see a problem with but would totally offend the Jewish believers. These sexual practices were a normal part of Gentile pagan worship. They worshiped one of the goddesses, Aphrodite, the goddess of love. And every temple to Aphrodite, they had male and female temple prostitutes. Every form of Gentile worship had some sort of deviate sexual practice associated with worshiping their gods.

In the city of Corinth, they would have 1,000 prostitutes come out at the end of the day to seduce the men of the city of Corinth to be involved in these sexual practices, all in worship of Aphrodite and these other gods that were there. And the way that you knew these temple prostitutes at this particular day in Corinth, they would shave their heads. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul talks about, "Hey, a woman's hair is her glory. You don't want to shave your head and you get mixed up as one of these temple prostitutes." That's why he was saying these things.

This was normal in the Greco-Roman empire during this particular time to have these temple prostitutes. And these Gentiles were very—they were like, "Well, what's the big deal?" you know. But now that they are saved and coming into church with other Jews, oh, this was a huge deal. They were to stay away from these things. They were to stay away from blood, according to Leviticus 3, verse 17, meaning the meat had to be properly bled. Why? Because Leviticus 17 and verse 11 says the life of the flesh is in the blood.

But they also said from things strangled. What does that mean? The strangulation of animals, it would keep the blood in the circulatory system and thus cause the person to eat the meat with the blood still in it. Jews would find that very offensive, so do not do it. So for the sake of fellowship and getting along with one another, the Gentiles were told to stay away from these things. So for the sake of love, the Gentiles laid down—don't miss this word—they laid down their rights to do a certain thing in order to not offend his brother and sister in Christ. Oh, this is key here.

This is what Paul had to tell the believers in Rome in Romans chapters 14 and 15 and the believers in Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapters 8 through 10. Yes, you may feel like an idol is nothing but a piece of stone or wood, and the eating that meat that was offered up to that idol is nothing. But for the sake of your Jewish brothers and sisters who knew where that meat came from, lay your right to eat this meat, lay it down for their sake. Oh, this goes for drinking alcoholic beverages or anything that will stumble or offend someone.

Lay it down, not for the sake of law, but for the sake of love. See, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 13, listen to what he says. He said, "Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat again, lest I make my brother stumble." Now, somebody may say, "Well, why do I have to live this way?" Because of the law of love. You don't want to stumble your brother. "Well hey, that's their problem, not mine." Well, listen to these two verses that's right above the verse I just read. 1 Corinthians 8, verses 11 and 12 says, "And because of your knowledge"—meaning of your knowledge of your Jewish brothers and sisters, the way they feel about these things—"shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? For when you thus sin against your brethren, you wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ."

This is huge here. Now, let me just break it down a little further. There were those, just like people today, saying, "Well, I'm at liberty to eat and drink what I want. If someone has a problem with it, that's their problem." Whoa, wait a minute. For example, if someone came out of alcoholism, sees you drinking, and you respond by saying, "I'm at liberty to drink," this person sees you and starts back drinking again and falls back into alcoholism. Watch this: you wounded their weak conscience and thus sin against Christ.

You cause your brother, your sister, your children, or neighbor to sin because of your liberty. Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 8:9, he said, "But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak." And so James told these Gentiles to stay away from these things as to not cause their Jewish brothers and sisters to stumble or fall. This is huge here. The law of love is greater than any law. Paul would later say, let everything be done, be done in love.

And we have to understand because of the law of love, what you think you may have liberty to do, you won't exercise that liberty because it may make someone stumble. I've told many people several times because they've said, "Well, you know, what I do I do it at home in the privacy of my home." And I always respond by saying, "Do you have a spouse? How about children?" Woe be it unto little Johnny or Sally have to push past the six-pack and the wine bottles to get to the juice or the milk for their cereal.

And you know and I know little kids are curious and they see you drink it and they imitate. That's how they learn, through imitation. And they say, "Oh, they're going to have a sip of that." Many of you are drinkers today and you don't realize that your parents stumbled you.

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