The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-35)

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The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1–35)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 15, 2025

 

Junior Church

The truth matters.

We must be informed:

Bubba goes to the revival and listens to the preacher. After a while, the preacher asks anyone with needs to come forward and be prayed over.

Bubba gets in line and when it’s his turn the preacher says, “Bubba, what you want me to pray about? “

Bubba says, “Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing.”

So the preacher puts one finger in Bubba’s ear and the other hand on top of his head and prays a while.

After a few minutes, he removes his hands and says, “Bubba, how’s your hearing now?”

Bubba says, “I don’t know preacher, it’s not until next Wednesday.”

C.S. Lewis, some years ago, wrote not a very well known article called “Man or Rabbit.” In it, he was dealing with this. He says some people will say, “All I’m interested in is leading a good life. I’m going to choose beliefs not because I think they’re true but because I find them helpful.” See, now that’s very typical. What people say is, “I don’t know whether something is true or not. I want to know what works.”

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”[1]

My theme;

The Jerusalem Council meets and frees the church for evangelism. In doing so, they affirm that the Gospel is for everyone (verse 14), which means they decide not to make it difficult for non-Jews to become Christians (verse 19).

A simple application: We must not make it difficult for a nonbeliever to become a Christian.

Okay, now let’s talk about this. Let’s break it down.

  1. First, what is the Jerusalem Council?
    1. This was an official meeting of the church. They had to decide on a doctrinal position. We will get into that. We are going to skim over this passage.
    2. You know how, when you fly in an airplane, you see things, but it is not in great detail? That is what we are going to do with this passage. I am going to pick out some mountains, but for the most part we are going to give you the theme and some applications. What was the theme?
    3. The Jerusalem Council reaffirmed that the Gospel is for everyone. (verse 14). That is the simple theme. They decided not to have barriers, or great barriers, in front of Jewish people who become believers.  
  2. The problem erupts in Verses 1-5:
    1. Acts 15:1–5 (ESV) But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 3 So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
    2. Tim Keller shares:
    3. You have to remember how successful Paul is. Paul has taken off. He is in the middle of an incredibly successful career. In fact, it’s ridiculous to realize how successful he was. Do you know how successful he was? I mean, after Jesus Christ, he was the main architect of the greatest, most influential, and largest human movement in the history of the world.
    4. Here’s a way of measuring career success for you. If 2,000 years from now millions of people every single week are meeting to study your writings, and they even study every word of the writings … Two thousand years from now, millions of people are studying your writings. I think you could call yourself a success then. That’s what Paul is!
    5. He had one of the most successful careers in history, and yet here he is in the career. He is doing his job. Why didn’t he say, “I’m too busy and important to go to Jerusalem to have a theological debate. Who wants to get into doctrine and dogma and all that? I know what I’m doing. I’m seeing success. Things are really going. I’m changing the world”?
    6. No, he stops and goes and has a theological discussion. Why? Because he knows how important it is for his theology to be right, for his doctrine to be accurate, how important it is to make sure the truth of the gospel is accurately held and understood and grasped. This is hard for us to understand because we live in an individualistic culture. In an individualistic culture, what matters is how I feel about things.[2]
    7. Okay, so we see a low-level fly-by showing us that some people are trying once again to mess with what the Lord is doing.
    8. The NIV notes that since they were from Judea, they were given a hearing. Not that they correctly represented the apostles, they may not have.
    9. They were probably Pharisees from verse 5.
    10. Paul and Barnabas had a great debate with them about this.
    11. Therefore, Paul and Barnabas are to go to Jerusalem to consult with the apostles and elders regarding this matter.
    12. They passed through Samaria and Phoenicia, sharing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and this brought great joy.
    13. John MacArthur shares: Throughout its history, the church’s leaders have met to settle doctrinal issues. Historians point to 7 ecumenical councils in the church’s early history, especially the Councils of Nicea (d. 325) and Chalcedon (a.d. 451). Yet the most important council was the first one—the Jerusalem Council—because it established the answer to the most vital doctrinal question of all: “What must a person do to be saved?” The apostles and elders defied efforts to impose legalism and ritualism as necessary prerequisites for salvation. They forever affirmed that salvation is totally by grace through faith in Christ alone.[3]
  3. In verses 6-11, Peter gives his testimony.
    1. Acts 15:6–11 (ESV) 6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
    2. This was no small issue. There was much discussion.
    3. John MacArthur study note: Peter gave the first of 3 speeches at the Council that amount to one of the strongest defenses of salvation by grace through faith alone contained in Scripture. Peter began his defense by reviewing how God saved Gentiles in the early days of the church without a requirement of circumcision, law keeping, or ritual—referring to the salvation of Cornelius and his household (10:44–48; 11:17, 18). If God did not require any additional qualifications for salvation, neither should the legalists.[4]
    4. Peter refers to this experience (Acts 10 Cornelius) as the early days.
    5. Peter says they are putting God to the test by giving the Gentile disciples a burden that the Jewish Pharisees and their fathers couldn’t bear.
    6. They couldn’t keep the law.
    7. The law was given to show them that they were sinners (Romans 3:20).
  4. In verses 12- 21, we hear Paul and Barnabas’s testimony, and James makes a ruling.
    1. Acts 15:12–21 (ESV) 12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, 16  “ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;  I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17          that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,  and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’ 19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
    2. I want to fly higher at this point to emphasize the theme.
    3. Paul and Barnabas talk about signs and wonders. The signs and wonders would confirm to the Jews that God is truly behind what is happening.
    4. Then we see that James makes a ruling. This James is the same James who later wrote the New Testament epistle of James. He is Jesus’s half-brother. It seems obvious that He is the man in charge. He is the spokesperson for the group. We would think Peter would be in charge, but he is not. It is James. We would think Paul, but he is not it is James. James was not an early disciple, but he was pastoring the Jerusalem church, and he was in charge.
    5. In verse 14, he states that God intended to choose a people from the Gentiles for His name. That is extremely phenomenal. The Jews were God’s people, but now this wraps the Gentiles in as well. This is a special verse for today. He is saying that the Gospel is for everyone.
    6. Then James quotes an Old Testament passage regarding Gentiles.
    7. Then he says we do not need to get in their way much more.
    8. See Acts 15:19: 19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
    9. Keller:
    10. This is a church historian talking about Tertullian, who was one of the early church fathers but who he thought slipped back into legalism. Listen. This is what the historian says. “When the church loses its way, which it often does, and teaches believers they are justified not by grace alone but by being sanctified …” See, when the church starts slipping back, saying, “Well, you’re not justified just by grace, but you also have to be holy in all these ways; otherwise, God won’t love you …”
    11. He says then what happens is it produces “… an unconscious need for lists of clean and unclean activities and a rebirth of Pharisaism. Hard-line fundamentalists like Tertullian ruled out many intellectual activities: the theater (because of its origins in pagan worship), the dance (because it might inflame ill-controlled sexual passions), and cosmetics (if God meant you to smell like a flower he would have given you a crop of them on your head!).”
    12. The point is Christians are always losing their spiritual freedom, always slipping out of the idea, “We are saved by grace, and they’re saved by grace.” That’s not the only issue here. It’s linked, because not only was spiritual freedom the issue here but also cultural freedom. Think about the Levitical laws. When I say cultural freedom, the Gentiles were being told, “If you want to become a real, saved person, you need to become culturally Jewish.”[5]
  5. The ruling:
    1. Make sure they stay away from food sacrificed to idols.
    2. Stay away from fornication.
    3. Stay from what is strangled by blood.
    4. Now, then James has a letter written which Paul, and a few companions will send, and this starts in verse 22. The letter will explain this and provide them with more contact information for the churches.
    5. The end of this chapter marks the beginning of Paul’s next missionary journey.

Close:

Acts 15:19 (ESV) 19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God…

Look at:

Acts 15:27–29 (ESV)

27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Notice how they said, “Good to the Holy Spirit”?

I like what Tim Keller shared:

Look carefully what it says. It’s fascinating. “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us …” That’s almost hilarious. How did they know? How did they know what the Holy Spirit wanted? Did they sit and listen for a voice? No. What did they do? They studied the Bible together in community. When they agreed on what the Bible taught, they said, “That’s what the Holy Spirit is saying.”[6]

Do you know why we don’t need all those Old Testament Laws? Jesus fulfilled them. All the blood and the sacrifices were pointing to Jesus. Jesus became the scapegoat. Jesus became the sin substitute.

Do you remember Lady Macbeth walking around, going out of her mind with guilt? She goaded her husband to kill somebody, and once she did, she couldn’t live with her guilt. She literally went insane. She went around. She saw blood on her hands. There was no blood on her hands, but she saw blood on her hands. Remember? “Out, damned spot! […] All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

She went crazy, but you don’t have to go crazy. Do you know why? When you believe in Jesus Christ, all the damned spots go out. All the damned spots of your life are purified. Do you see the importance of gospel accuracy? Because it leads to gospel liberty, it leads to gospel community, and it leads to gospel purity.[7]

Keller: The Levitical laws were pointing to had come. They were a shadow. The reality has come. Jesus himself![8]

Secondly, now believers are not only Jews, but all tongues, tribes, peoples, and nations. Christians are going to be out everywhere taking the Word of God everywhere. What that means is, if you’re a Roman, you don’t have to become culturally Jewish. You don’t have to become culturally anything. If you’re Asian, if you’re African, if you’re Roman, if you’re Greek, whatever you are, you become a Christian where you are.

You don’t have to leave and become culturally something else in order to become a Christian.[9]

Now, all tribes, tongues, and nationalities can follow Jesus.  

Have you ever been to a church from a different culture? I have been in multiple different cultural worship services. They are not like us. When I was in the Dominican Republic, they were not nearly as focus on time as we are. They all valued worship, but it wasn’t focuses on time. It was not focused on the time it would begin or end.

We are all different and we criticize them, and they criticize us. We all bring different expressions of worship.

When I was serving a church in Alliance we had a monthly men’s breakfast with a black church. We would rotate speakers. They invited me to speak at their revival meeting. I loved it! The are all active in their worship service.

Tony Evans writes:

One of the great experiments when it comes to nationality is the American Experiment. The American Experiment is unique because of its intentionality to bring people from all walks of life, from every nation, under the banner of a single flag and to intentionally seek to bring across to these shores people from all kinds of other nations who would make up a union called the United States of America. This Experiment brought people together who would pledge allegiance to a single flag even though their backgrounds were different, unique, and dissimilar. We acknowledge our differences by annotating our original heritages to our current nationality with terms like Irish American, Swedish American, Polish American, African American, or Hispanic American. The introductory phrase cites the uniqueness. The last word cites the unity. Whatever I am uniquely based on regarding culture, history, background, or previous location, I am that under the American Banner. There was in this Experiment an attempt to have a United States even though the people seeking to be unified were totally different. What the American Experiment represents from a cultural, historical, and geographical perspective to this nation, the church of Jesus Christ was meant to be for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, all pledging allegiance to the cross.1016,[10]

Review:

The Jerusalem Council meets and frees the church for evangelism. In doing so, they affirm that the Gospel is for everyone (verse 14), which means that they decide not to make it difficult for non-Jews to become Christians (verse 19).

First, is your heart right with Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

 

[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 15:1–30.

[4] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 15:7.

[5] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[7] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[8] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[9] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[10] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 336–337.

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