Acts 15:12-35 Last week, Paul and Barn came back from 1st trip.

v.1- Men were trying to rob the new believers of their salvation. They were seeking to bring the new believers into bondage. The Jews had worked hard to keep the law for 15,000 yrs. Now how can these Gentiles who have done nothing, gain salvation? These false teachers were saying you can be saved by Jesus plus keeping of the law. Get circumcised! Paul and Barn had it out with them. It was determined that they go up to Jerr. to set the record straight. v.3 (Joy to all the brethern)
People that understand the grace of God bring Joy where ever they go. People that don't understand the grace of God bring Joy when ever they go! They're always trying to lay their trip on you. Faith plus! God saved these uncircumised gentiles! They wern't religious people! They never kept the law. Faith is what counted, not works. What the Jews ate, wore and did was to gain salvation! They were on a tread mill & it wasn't getting them anywhere! The Jews trusted in their self righteousness. Always doing and never getting anywhere. . It's like a religious choke hold! No one has ever brought up the subject of how Gentiles can be saved! Peter concludes @ the council in v. 11 We will be saved as even they are saved Grace!
12 And all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul (can't talk and listen at the same time!) as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

They sat in silence after Peter was finished. H.S. had their attention.

Peter, a Jew, spoke on what God had done in the past. God had called Peter to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Peter witnessed gentiles being saved. Through FAITH alone! Paul & Barn have their undivided attention and will speak on what God is doing in the present. Grace alone had been preached and God had honored thiir message with proof through miracles. (Acts 13-14) Gal 3:5 Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Now James will speak on what God is planning in the future. All 3 testimonies agree. They are woven together by the H.S. James is the 1/2 bro. of Jesus. He didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurection. John 7:5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him. James wrote the book of James. James was a leader in the church of Jerrasalem. He was a native born Jew & understood the Law. James was a skeptit & now a believer. James was somesone they would listen to.
13 And after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren, listen to me. 14 "Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. (Wisdom in using Peter's Hebrew name, debate centered around Jewish issues.)

James called these saved Gentiles a people for His name (v.17) For centuries the Jews had that special title! Favorites! Deut 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. EX: I call my kids all my favorites!
15 "And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16'After these

things I will return, And I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, And I will rebuild its ruins, And I will restore it, 17 In order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,' 18 Says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.

James quots Amos 9. verses that won't be fulfilled until the mullinenal kingdom. Jesus will return & astablished His throne in Jerr. Then the gentiles of the world will go and worship Him. God has always had a plan for the gentiles to be saved! Now we're seeing this happening! God is reaching out to the Gentiles & extending his Grace to them. This is God's work that He knew from the beginning. It was a mystery to them. This is not a mistery to God! Nothing takes God by surprise! v.18 Rom 11:25-26 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,When the time of the Gentiles is over, the Lord is going to turn again to the nation of Iarael and all of Israel shall be saved. Notice that this is after the time of the Gentiles. At the end of the Gentile age = the Rapture! James didn't want to just silence the Jews. He wanted to open their eyes. The Gospel reconciles us to God. It also reconciles us to our fellow man. . We are 1 family in Christ. We aren't Jew and Gentile. Let the walls fall down James was a Jew and understood the Jews! In James, he makes at least 10 references to the law. He knew 1st hand it was a hard transition to go from law to grace. Remember this is before the book of Romans, Galations, Heb. This was new to these Jews. God was showing them! James wanted the Jews to come along and enjoy the Grace of God.

James didn't end it there. Now he poses a suggestion.

19 "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,

Quit biggen these new believers!

20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. 21 "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath."

James suggested compromise. He is not asking the Gentiles to abandan their freedom in Christ. He wants the Jews to catch up the the gentiles. Pres. Eisenhower called the right kind of compromise all the usable surface. The extremes, right or left, are in the gutters. Where is the comon ground? Use it! He didn't compromise the truth. He looked for a way to bring the Jewish brothers into the truth. James, in wisdom, found the middle ground. The usable surface! 613 laws were in the laws of Moses. He got rid of 609 of them! This wouldn't make them more right with God BUT it would help their Jewish brothers. It would give them opportunity to fellowship. In the New test. Paul says all things are lawful for me.
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, They

started out going in different directions! Now look at what wisdom did! It brought unity. to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas-- Judas called Barsabbas (Barsabbas means sun of the sabath. God sent the son of the Sabath to tell the gentiles they don't have to keep the sabath!), and Silas, leading men among the brethren, 23 and they sent this letter by
them, Men of proven character, men they trusted accountabality.

This is the official document:

"The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings. 24 "Since we have heard that some of our

number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls 25 it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 "Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28 "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: 29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell. "

What great Wisdom! How important to have leaders to seek God for wisdom. God has not poured out His Grace upon you because of all our good works. You're rich because someone that loves you died for you! He just wants you to receive it & be thankful and have a relationship with Him.
30 So, when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 And Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message. 33 And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out.

The result of this decision is: 1st it strengthend the unity of the church and kept them from splitting. 2nd it made it possible for the church to present a united witness to the lost. 3rd this decision brought blessing as the letter was shared with the various Gentile congregations. Today we learn from this. Our problems (what we see as obsticles) are opportunities for growth. We need to work together and take time to Listen, Love and Learn. How many hurtful fights could be avoided if only some of God's people had given the Spirit time to speak and work. Christians need to learn what really matters. It's not the color of the

building. It's not if we have drums or not. We need to know what really matters and compromise when it is right to. Give up your rights. Is it worth it? We need to go back to 1 Cor 13 and love. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.