August 18, 2019
Pastor Ricky Smith

Sermon Notes

We’ve been walking through the book of Acts together, and today, we come to Acts chapter 15. We’re going to do some work here today as we dive into the text. As we’re getting ready, though, I thought I’d just tell you a little bit about me, if that’s okay. I’m going to tell you my top four movies of all time. But before I give you the top four movies of all time, I’m here to confess that I cheat. 

So here’s my first top movie of all time: It’s the original Star Wars trilogy. I realize that you may consider that three movies; I count it as one for two reasons. One, it’s one story. Two, it allows me to squeeze more movies into my top four. So, number one would be the Star Wars trilogy. 

Number two would be Tombstone. Why, might you say? Because it’s awesome, and it’s a western and it’s great. So, that would be number two. Number three would be Rocky IV. Now, I realize that you may also think, “Well, that’s like a collection. That could all be considered…” No, there are many of them that are awful. But Rocky IV is just really, really good. It’s awesome. 

Number four would be a cheat again. It’s the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Again, I realize it’s three movies, but it’s really one story, and in fact, because it sets up a little bit of what we’re going to see in Acts chapter 15, I’ll only show you a clip from the first episode, The Fellowship of the Ring (clip shown). It’s as a story unfolds. What we see in this epic saga is good versus evil and the mission of this ring that depicts evil needing to be destroyed. 

What we see happening, even in this moment in the first movie is this collective fellowship that comes together for this mission. We see them realizing there’s a mission that needs to be accomplished. There’s an epic task that needs to be completed and a need for this fellowship, this collective group, to form for the purpose of carrying out the mission. And there’s power in that fellowship when we see a group of people come together as a collective power for a singular purpose. 

The reason that this comes to my mind when we look at Acts chapter 15 is, we see this council coming together to deal with this heavyweight issue to defend the integrity of the Gospel, and we recognized before, the main point was that the heart of the Gospel is worth fighting for and dying for. Then James stepped up and called for action, and we see this fellowship of sorts, being formed.

Last week, we were reminded that the Gospel is worth fighting for and dying for, but today what we’re going to see is that a unity of purpose results in a fellowship of action. Now, I think it’s important that you lean into that word that I just used because so many times in church vernacular, we use the word fellowship to describe gathering together for rest. 

Certainly that’s important. I fellowship with believers where I can know and be known. I’m doing that in LifeGroup, and we’re going to do that at a church picnic. We’re going to get together to fellowship. And so, we most often view that as a place of rest, and that’s good.

It’s not bad to stop there, but what I want us to understand is that fellowship together as believers, while it may start as a place of rest, it should call us into a position of action like, “I need to move from this rest, harnessing together as this fellowship of believers committed to advancing a mission that’s far beyond our own.” And that’s what we see here as we dig in to Acts chapter 15. 

This will be the first thing I would encourage you to write down that we’ll see in the text: 

I. Leaders among the church rise to the challenge.

Let’s read Acts chapter 15, verses 22 and 23. I’d love to make a couple of observations:

Acts 15:22-23a
22 Then the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. 23 They wrote this letter to be delivered by them:

We see this fellowship of four begin to be selected from among the church. A few verses before, once we heard the report from Paul and Barnabas and we heard the report from Peter of all that God had done and we had seen the Gentiles being ushered into the family of God. Then if you’ll remember, James steps up as the clear and present leader of the church and says, “Okay, this is the action that we’re going to take. We’re going to write this letter. We’ll send it to all the Gentiles so we communicate with them how they should live.” And they walked in unity. 

In fact, we’ll see a few verses later, in verse 25, that there was this unanimous call for them to work together. I would say, this common thread of unity was driven by the reality that they all followed the same leader. The leader was not Peter. The leader was not Paul. The leader was not Barnabas, and the leader was not James. The leader was the Holy Spirit, and in that common leadership submission, they all rallied around one cause. 

This is natural for us to do. People naturally connect with affinity. They naturally rally around a cause. I mean, we see this all over the place. There are the social justice causes that some may rally around because they believe in them. Others may rally around another cause  because they believe in it. I would say that there is this natural affinity in the way that God has wired us to draw around a cause to advance it forward. 

I’m not in any way implying that any of those social causes are not good. What I am saying is, we need to understand that God has wired us to rally around His cause, and that is the Gospel. What if the level of fervor that we have for other issues, we placed with the Gospel? What if the level of intensity of advancing the name of Jesus was always on our lips? Imagine what could happen. What if?

I would say this. I would say this lies within me, why I have such a heart and burden for the next generation. If you do research on understanding what drives the way a “generation Z” person, somebody 23 or younger, thinks, they have every intention to change the world. They’re committed to do it. I would say, what if we could captivate the heart of those young men and women for the Gospel? If we gave them the Gospel as their cause to fight for in their intent to change the world, that is a powerful army you could not stop. What if?

God’s mission, we must understand, though, is not dependent on man. God’s mission is not dependent on you. In fact, in reality, God doesn’t need you. God desires and invites you, though. He allows, He permits, He gives us the beautiful relationship and allows us to be His hands and feet. He doesn’t need us; He allows us. And here’s what we know: A Gospel-advancing mission that we’re committed to here at Calvary, one thing that God proves faithful in is, He is faithful to provide people to carry out His mission.

God is faithful to provide people to carry out His purpose.

We as a church, we’re committed to making disciples. We do that as everyday missionaries carrying hope to the valley and to the world, and God is always faithful to provide the people that He needs. What I think is important for us to note here in this text that we see is, it is from within the church that God provided and raised up people. Look to the person to your right and left and say, “And that might be you.” 

So, here’s what we recognize as the people of God called to be a part of the mission of God: He has planted you here for a purpose. You are not here by accident. I see that on one level you are not awake and breathing air by accident. God gave you this day to live for a reason. 

Even more so and more specifically, He has planted you here as part of this faith family at Calvary on purpose, and we say unapologetically around here that every member is a minister, and every minister should have a ministry. What is your ministry, and where do you serve? What is the place that you use to be a part of leadership rising from among this church to make disciples? 

II. Ensure another gospel is not presented.

As we serve (here’s the second point I want you to make note of today), we must ensure that another gospel is not presented. This ties in very connected to what we talked about last week. Let’s read verses 23 and 24. Here is the first part of the letter: 

Acts 15:23b-24
From the apostles and the elders, your brothers, To the brothers among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings. 24 Because we have heard that some without our authorization went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts,

He sends this greeting. “I’m writing this letter to you. Here’s the problem we’ve got to address. Someone has come and created some problems.” Don’t you appreciate those warnings? This isn’t an endorsement for this product. It’s only an illustration. 

In my household, we used the Ring video doorbell system. I’m not going to ask you for a show of hands of what you use. It doesn’t matter. That’s what we use. And one thing that’s cool about it is that it connects with other people in your neighborhood who have that same system. So, if something’s happening at their house, they can make an alert in the neighborhood. It’s kind of like this digital neighborhood watch program. 

So yesterday, our family was spending time with our extended family, and my wife says, “Hey, did you just get that alert?” It popped up on her phone and on mine that someone in the neighborhood had posted a video of somebody doing something suspicious in the neighborhood. We looked. We pinned it on the map,”Okay, that’s not our house. That’s not in our neighborhood specifically.” We just kept on going throughout our day. 

But isn’t it nice and helpful to get a warning that, “Hey, somebody in your neck of the woods is stirring up trouble.” That’s a beneficial warning to get, don’t you think? And in fact, having that information should create an appropriate level of a response from me. This is kind of what’s happening here. There is this warning that the church is sending out to the Gentile church from Jerusalem to Antioch saying, “Hey, you need to know that there are some people without our approval that have been coming into your neighborhood stirring up trouble.”

If you’re in the habit of writing in your Bible, there’s a word I want you to underline, circle or put a star next to. In verse 24 it says “went out from us and troubled you”. Underline or circle or put a star next to that word trouble because in the Greek, that’s actually a military word that’s used to plunder something. 

So, this is more than just somebody’s up in your grill or that somebody’s hurt your feelings. This is more than somebody has just looked at you the wrong way. No, this is someone who is intentionally trying to ransack your world and turn it upside down. That should be a cause for alarm. 

Therefore, that’s why this is an appropriate level of response that we, as a church, have met to discuss this issue, and now we’re here to help you. See, specifically, what was being plundered was the heart and integrity of the Gospel. Go back through the first 21 verses of Acts 15, or go back through the first several chapters of Acts. Everywhere Paul and Barnabas went, there were these Judaizers who would come and try to undercut, ransack, or turn over the truth of what they were trying to teach. 

When we get to the first few verses of Acts 15, it’s finally worded this way. “Hey, for someone to be saved, they must be circumcised, and they must keep all of the Mosaic laws. That’s not what the Gospel teaches. We’re not saved by our actions; we’re saved by grace. Faith plus works is false, or faith that is based on performance is a trap, and you and I must avoid this at all costs. We must be ready and in a position to defend the integrity, purity, and heart of the Gospel at all times. 

We talked about that more last week. In fact, we even looked at an action plan or a tool in our weaponry belt that we can use that James utilized. He used Scripture, and we talked about the importance that I must filter what I hear and what I say with what God says and allow that to be a filter that I can use to guard and protect, because what we want to avoid is this performance trap.

Faith that requires work is just religion.

The reality is, faith that requires work is just religion, and I didn’t sign up for that. I’m not interested in being a religious person. I want to walk in relationship with the Creator of the world. I want to stand in who I am and my identity be rooted in Jesus Christ and the way He’s called me to live. And I know that’s the relationship that you want to have, too. 

And what we need to understand is that God has invited us into relationship, and that is a relationship that is continually inviting others to be a part of that relationship. It’s not something I keep to myself. It’s something I share freely with other people, and because of that, my faith and my actions do matter. In fact, that’s the third thing. Know that our actions make a difference.

III. Know that our actions make a difference.

See, there’s this letter that’s being passed, and Paul and Barnabas have been tasked with delivering this letter. It gives this warning. “Hey, be aware that everything you’ve heard may not be in line with Scripture. We want you to understand the truth, but we also want you to know that your actions do matter.” 

Have you ever been in that place where you have to take a letter from one person and hand it to the next? Maybe it was fourth grade. It’s that time where boys start noticing girls and girls start noticing boys, and somebody from the third row has this folded up piece of paper and they reach it across to you on the second row and they say, “Hey, pass this to that person on the first row.” 

You’ve been in that transition place, right? And was there ever a moment that you wanted to open up and see what the letter is? -thinking, What’s being said here? How can I know? Well, that’s important. One, because I’m curious to know. But I also want to make sure that the information that I’m transferring is good. 

So here, Paul and Barnabas, they are commissioned as part of this fellowship to pass on this letter, along with Judas and Silas. Let’s read in verses 25 to 29, what is the content of the letter? We’re passing it from row three to row one. We’re going to open it up and see. You’ll find that this is somewhat repetitive to what the council said in the first 21 verses. So let’s read, beginning in verse 25:

Acts15:25-29
25 we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul, 26 who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will personally report the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it was the Holy Spirit’s decision—and ours—to put no greater burden on you than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.

See, we recognize fully that my actions do not determine my eternal destiny. My salvation is made possible through the finished work of Christ, and it is complete through the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. My actions do matter. My conduct does make a difference. And in fact, I believe the heartbeat of the Apostolic Decree, these four things, as they are commonly called, I would break them down into three lump categories.

A. Fellowship Matters

Here’s the first one: The essence of what this letter is trying to communicate is that fellowship matters. If you’ll remember, we talked about this last week toward the end of verses 18, 19, 20, and 21 that the purpose was to try to allow the Jews and the Gentiles to be in fellowship together. We need you. Although you realize you may come from cultural differences, you’re following the same Jesus. 

You’ve been brought into relationship with God through the same power of Christ. I need you to fellowship with one another, and it matters. Community matters. Fellowship matters. It’s for the sake of that fellowship, and we see in verse 28 that unity comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who guides and directs every one of us individually.

I would say it this way: While I am deeply concerned with what we as a body of believers live and do as a group, I’m more concerned with what you do as an individual, because here’s what I believe: If, say, Lawrence is faithfully pursuing Jesus and following in the rhythm of the Holy Spirit and if John is doing the same and Jim is doing the same and we’re all collectively as individuals pursuing, following after Jesus, walking in rhythm with the Holy Spirit, do you know what happens? We all start falling in line with the same cadence. Why? Because we’re following the same leader. 

Christ is the chief shepherd. He is in charge, and we see the Spirit of God affirming to them over and over again, they were unanimous, they were walking together because the Spirit of God led them. And I’ll just throw this out there for you. This is one of those red flags you can throw up in life. Husband and Wife, if you’re both chasing after Jesus and there’s division, it may be that division is because you’re not really following the Holy Spirit. If we’re following the same leader, we should land in the same place. I’ll let you process that, and we’ll talk later. 

B. Boundaries Matter

Here’s the second thing: Boundaries matter. See, here’s what the Jerusalem church acknowledged and realized. The Gentile church was being rescued from an idolatrous past. There was a lot in their culture that was ugly and dark and dirty. They were being called to walk in holiness, and they were being called to follow the Holy Spirit. 

There’s this desire that the Gentiles be rescued from that idolatrous past and can walk in unity with the Jews who, we could argue for many of them, walked in a Pharisaical, legalistic past. There’s this desire that we’re all following the Spirit, we’re all walking in rhythm together, and we’re all walking in unity. We’re all fellowshipping together, and to facilitate that, boundaries matter. 

Now, I realize that we in this room, maybe we don’t come from an idolatrous past like some of these Gentiles did, but the principle I think we can still learn is that guard rails in our life, they matter. Boundaries of conduct matter. They matter for our own safety. They matter for our own holiness, and they matter also for the sanctification of others. 

I would say this: Maybe one way that we could live out Christ-like boundaries is learning to ask a different question. See, so often we’re taught that we need to walk our lives understanding what is right and what is wrong. I would submit, maybe that’s not always the best question to ask. Parents, I would tell you that’s maybe not always the best question to teach your kids.

Perhaps a better question than what is right and what is wrong is, what is wise? In this situation, what is the wise thing for me to do? Let’s filter it even further. In light of my past circumstances, what’s wise for me to do? In light of my present situation, what’s wise for me to do? In light of my future hopes and dreams, what’s wise for me to do? Learning to ask that question of what is wise? should drive us to begin to establish boundaries that matter, that are in line with the Holy Spirit under His leadership and authority, that even brings us closer together in fellowship.

C. Covenants Matter

Here’s one thing that I see in this Apostolic Decree: I see fellowship, I see boundaries that matter, I see that covenants matter. See, there is this covenant relationship. There is this agreement. He even put it in the letter to say, this is how we’re going to choose to interact and live life together. For the purpose of unity, for the purpose of fellowship, we’re going to walk in covenant. Covenant is much different than a contract. 

See, a contract may be that I signed a paper with you, and I’m saying my part; you’re saying your part, and we’re going to agree to operate that way. A covenant invites God into the equation, and a covenant says, “I recognize that this is God’s part. Therefore, this other part is my responsibility.” Now, the beauty of this covenant relationship is that it takes on different forms. 

Marriage in and of itself is a covenant relationship. We’ve invited God into the conversation, and we’re choosing to align ourselves with Him and the way He wants to live. Our salvation is a covenant relationship, and what’s beautiful about this is that God’s part desires us to be in relationship, but it required blood to be shed. And the beauty of that salvation is that God Himself stepped in, and He fulfilled that other responsibility on our behalf. He shed His blood for our sins so that we could be right with God, and we’re the recipients of that grace. That’s beautiful. 

Here in the body of Christ, we see the Jews and the Gentiles in the Spirit and desire for unity and fellowship, entering into this covenant relationship of sorts for the desire of community, of fellowship, of being on mission, unified for the Gospel. Here’s what I think that means for us: We walk in liberty in who I am in Christ. Read the book of Galatians; it’ll describe this. Read Romans; it describes it again and again. I am walking in freedom that has been made possible through Christ, But I need to balance that with the responsibility that I am here to hold you accountable for your sanctification. 

I need to do my part to help you grow to be the person God has called you to be. Let me illustrate it this way. In fact, you can read it later; just write this reference down: 1st Corinthians 10, verses 23 to 28. It illustrates this responsibility and covenant with one another that we have to help each other grow. I’ve got to be guarded that sometimes me acting in my liberty may create a stumbling block for you. 

Let me illustrate it this way: Is it wrong to eat homemade peach ice cream? No, it is not. It is a beautiful gift from God. Can I get an amen? However, I may unintentionally create a stumbling block for my brother in Christ who may be dealing with a diet, and I’m going to say, “No, no. You really need to eat this. It’s delicious.” And I’m taking my liberty and pressing it on you and creating a stumbling block for you. 

I realize that’s a very surface-level illustration, but we magnify this over and over again where I may take something that I am exercising my freedom and my liberty in Christ, but I’ve got a balance that with my responsibility for you, that you be sanctified as you follow Christ. So this covenant matters. 

The ultimate desire that God is trying to do with his people that we see unfolding here in Acts 15 is recognizing these two dramatically different cultures that He wants to bring together with a unifying power for the Gospel. So, there are some actions that matter for the sake of fellowship and for the sake of boundaries and ultimately for the sake of covenant. And here’s the beauty of this: 

When I begin to be concerned with your sanctification, I begin to be concerned with where you are personally with Christ and how you’re growing in Him. I have to take on a position of humility, then. It immediately begins to take away this unwritten “levels mentality”. -that I’m a super elite Christian because I do X, Y and Z, and I’ve got to help drag you along. No, this begins to go away when we are mutually committed to the responsibility together to pursue Christ and to be like him. Pride goes away.

The more one knows, the more one knows he does not know.

In fact, the more a person knows, the more one knows that he doesn’t know. The more I understand about God, the more I realize I don’t know anything, and I just become more and more hungry, more and more thirsty, more and more desiring to know more about Him and carrying others along as we go.

IV. Fellowship that accepts truth will experience encouragement and peace.

Here’s what’s beautiful: We see here in the text, then, the positive impact of this letter and the fourth thing. Fellowship that accepts truth will experience encouragement and peace. See, this letter is delivered. It’s now passed from row three through me on row two, to row one. They hear the good news of this letter, and they respond positively. Let’s read verses 30 to 35, and you can see for yourself: 

Acts 15:30-35
30 Then, being sent off, they went down to Antioch, and after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter. 31 When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 Both Judas and Silas, who were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and strengthened them with a long message. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch teaching and proclaiming the message of the Lord.

There was an intentionality in this long message. We want to take the time to unpack the truth and make sure that you understand it. It’s worth the investment of that time, and we see their response as they were encouraged. They walked in peace. That brings hope for me and for you as we work together to become the people of God on mission for Him. We all long for that sense of peace. 

We all want to be encouraged. Truth be told, when someone gives you an “‘atta boy”, high five, pat on the back or encourages you along the way, you stand up a little straighter. Maybe you kick the shoulders back a little bit, chin up.You walk with a little more swagger, don’t you? -because I feel encouraged. I feel affirmed. I feel validated. We all need that! And I would just encourage you, as fellow believers, let’s look for opportunities to encourage each other. Look for opportunities to celebrate one another. Look for opportunities to affirm one another in the Gospel. 

As the recipients in Antioch heard this letter, why were they encouraged? See, they had known for a while that God had redeemed them. They were the people of God. Now, for the first time, they’re truly experiencing acceptance from the people of God. This conflict, the barriers, the hurdles that were being held and hoarded over them, now they begin to experience this release from this pressure and say, “Okay, we can do this. We can walk in fellowship together with one another, and it’s a beautiful picture of God’s love.”

Now the body of Christ begins to reflect the true picture of who Christ is. We, as God’s people here, we’re invited to be a part of God’s mission. We, much like these people, have been given a letter. -a letter to carry, a letter of hope, a letter of peace, a letter of encouragement. It’s not some folded up square that’s going from the third row through us to the first row. It is God’s Word.

This is His love letter, given through the power of the Holy Spirit, written over thousands of years in its perfect, infallible beauty. With authority, we’ve been given this love letter, with the challenge and an expectation to give this to the world, broadcast it to the world, share it with the world. -because in this letter are the words of hope, the words of peace, the words of encouragement, the words of affirmation. Life-giving, life-changing words.

See, it’s in this love letter not only that I read and learn how to have a right relationship with God, it’s in this love letter how I learn to be a husband and how I learn to be a father and how I learn to be an employer and how I learn to be an employee. It’s how I learn how to be a good citizen. It’s how I learn to live life and reflect the glory of God in what I do and what I say. 

And this has been our mission as we carry hope to the world. -that we see this love letter is our responsibility to share. And in that, we as a church, we as members of this church, we walk in a covenant relationship with one another, committed to one another’s sanctification, committed to helping one another grow, committed to hold one another accountable as we walked together as imperfect people serving a perfect God. 

Now Church, what are we going to do with all this? Where do we go from here? We see in Acts, this commitment to go through great lengths to make sure that others are invited into fellowship. You and I need to do the same. Sometimes it’s really easy because the person may be sitting next to you. Sometimes it’s more intentional. I may have to walk all the way across the room to show encouragement, intentionally, with each other. 

I may have to reach beyond the walls to somebody who’s not here today and I haven’t seen in a while and make sure they understand the love of God and that I care about them. I want them to be encouraged and experience the peace of God because as we, as a body of believers, walk in unity under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we’re committed to advancing His name and carrying His letter to the world.

Then, here’s what happens: It becomes a beautiful picture for those outside the body of Christ to start asking questions. “Why do you love each other? How do you have peace in the middle of all that you’re dealing with right now?” It’s a contagious love that we want the world to see. 

Next Steps

• I rise to the challenge of leadership and am ready to serve.
• I choose to walk in fellowship with this faith family.
• I commit to establishing boundaries in my life to promoting unity.

Discussions Questions

1. Acts 15:23-29 warns us of the danger we face when the Gospel is contaminated with required works for salvation. Compare this with Ephesians 2:8-9, and discuss the importance of guarding the integrity of the Gospel.
2. While works are not required for salvation, our actions do matter. Read James 2:14-28, and discuss how our actions impact our relationship with God and with others.
3. Acts 15:29 suggests boundaries in the Christian life are beneficial in order to promote fellowship and unity. How can life boundaries help us better exercise good judgment and promote healthy relationships?