Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch (in Syria, not Pisidia) and remained there “no little time with the disciples.”
Judaizers in the Church
Read Acts 15:1
- What were some in the Church insisting concerning Gentile believers?
Read Genesis 17:9-14
Leviticus 12:3: [The Lord told Moses,] “On the eighth day, the flesh of the baby’s foreskin must be circumcised.”
Also, we must remember Israel’s history during the time of the Maccabees. In 175 BC, the third of the Seleucid monarchs to control Judea, Antiochus IV, came to power. He wanted everyone in His kingdom to become Greek, not only in language, but also in culture and religion. Part of this included forbidding circumcision.
1 Maccabees 1:60-61 reads: “In keeping with the decree, they [the Seleucids] put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and the families who circumcised them, and hung the infants from their mothers’ necks.” Further, in the Old Covenant, Gentiles became part of God’s people through circumcision. So, what the “Judaizers” were demanding should not be surprising.
It is hard for us to understand how strongly embedded circumcision was in the Jewish mind.
- How long was God’s command to circumcise continue?
Colossians 2:11-12:
[In the New Covenant,] You were also circumcised in him [Jesus Christ] with a circumcision not done with hands by stripping off the corrupt nature when you were circumcised by Christ, when you were buried with Christ in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
- Remember, the Apostle Paul had not yet written Colossians. In what way were the Judaizers right and in what way were they wrong?
The Church’s First Council
The Council of Jerusalem is a climactic moment in the book of Acts, for in it the Church’s message is decisively extended to the Gentiles. The council reached conclusions on two related concerns: 1), how Gentiles are saved by Christ and 2), how they are to relate to their Jewish-Christian counterparts.
Read Acts 15:2-5
- How did Paul and Barnabas respond?
- Under whose authority do Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem to work out this theological issue in the Church?
Tasso: Luke uses the Greek word, tasso, to show that the congregation at Antioch had appointed, or placed, Paul and Barnabas to serve in such a way. In chapter 14, Luke used the word, cheirotoneo, to show that Paul and Barnabas had appointed pastors to serve in those recently formed congregations by the laying on of hands. Cheirotoneo has in its meaning “the stretching out of the hand”; tasso does not. So, Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem by the authority of the congregation at Antioch, but hands were not laid on them to do so.
- Why do Paul and Barnabas go to the Jerusalem Church?
Read Acts 15:6
- Who gathered to consider the theological matter of circumcision?
- Who was not part of this discussion?
Read Acts 15:7-11
- To what advantage was it for Peter to speak on this issue?
- What positive statement does Peter make concerning the Gentiles becoming Christians?
- What negative statement does Peter make regarding the Law of Moses?
- How are both Jew and Gentile saved?
Read Acts 15:12
- After Peter spoke, who then spoke on the matter?
- Why would Paul and Barnabas bring up God doing “signs and wonders” through them among the Gentiles?
Read Acts 15:13-21
- Who obviously was the leading bishop of the New-Covenant Church at that time?
- James was not an Apostle, but a pastor. What are the implications for the Church that even the Apostles recognized the authority of James?
- To what authority does James refer to help settle the matter of circumcision?
The way James dealt with the matter of circumcision was typical within Judaism, called “yelammedenu,” from the Jewish phrase, “Yelammedenu rabbenu,” “let our rabbi instruct us.” Yelammedenu involved a rabbi’s use of scripture to make sure that an action was in line with scripture. If so, then the rabbi used scripture to confirm the particular action one was taking.
- James adapts, paraphrases, and quotes Jeremiah 12:15 and Amos 9:11-12. What point does he make from the Old Testament?
- What four things does James tell the Gentile Christians to abstain from?
Excursus: Idols, Sex, Strangulation, and Blood
The four areas from which James told the Gentile Christians to abstain did have scriptural precedent. From the Old Testament, what James required applied not only to Israelites, but also to the Gentile resident aliens who lived among them (Leviticus 17:8-18:30).
Those four areas of the Mosaic Law also had application in the lives of those first, Gentile Christians.
- In the 1st-century Roman Empire, pollution from idols referred specifically to meat from animals that had been sacrificed to pagan gods. Christians could be tempted to eat such meat (1 Corinthians 8:1-13, 10:18-33, and Romans 14) because it was usually cheaper to buy. The problem with that was that eating such meat implied that one was in fellowship, in communion, with such belief and practices. This would cause what one did (his outward confession) not to match what he believed (his inward confession).
- Sexual immorality was also involved with worship practices at pagan temples, both in ancient times but also in some 1st-century worship practices within the Roman Empire. The Old Testament Apocrypha book of Wisdom helps us better understand the connection between sex and idolatry in the Jewish mind: “The beginning of sexual immorality was idea of making idols” (Wisdom 14:12).
- Eating what had been strangled and from blood. Both referred to consuming meat that did not have the blood properly drained from it. The Law of Moses forbade eating such meat because “the life of a being is in its blood” (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:13-14, 19:26). Again, animals sacrificed in pagan rituals were not done strictly according to the Law of Moses, even if the blood ended up being drained from the animal during the sacrifice.
For the Jewish Christians, James was easing them into a New-Covenant mindset by using Old-Covenant mandates only in a way that affirmed the New Covenant. For the Gentile Christians, James’ four mandates had two areas of application: 1) eating meat sacrificed to idols (things polluted by idols, from what had been strangled, and from blood) and 2), the sexual immorality involved in pagan worship. By decree, James was officially removing Gentiles Christians, not only from their former, pagan worship practices, but also that which was associated with such worship.
- Although a sound theological move, how was what James did also a shrewd, “political” move?
———–
The Council’s Decree is Disseminated
Read Acts 15:22
- Now that the Council had settled the theological matter of circumcision and how that decision would be lived out, who was then also involved on what was decided next?
- Discuss the roles of clergy (Apostles, elders) and laity, so far, in the book of Acts:
- Who decides and meets to resolve theological issues?
- Who is involved in calling and/or appointing clergy?
- What do clergy not do without the congregation’s authority?
Read Acts 15:23-29
This is basically a repeat of what the council decided, but in a letter format to the congregations.
- Verse 24 says, referring to the Judaizers, “we gave them no instructions” to do as they did? What does this say about authority in the Church?
- Verse 27 says that Judas and Silas were to confirm by mouth what the letter said. Why do you think this was the case?
- Verse 28 says, referring to the decision of the Council, “it had seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Discuss: How God the Holy Spirit works in and through Christ’s Church.
- What certainty do we have today about God the Holy Spirit working through the Church when there is no Church (at least organizationally) but churches?
Read Acts 15:30-35
- How did the church at Antioch respond to the council’s decree?
- What were the roles of prophets in that setting within the New-Covenant Church?
- Who went back to Jerusalem and who remained in Antioch?
- While in Antioch, what did Paul and Barnabas do?
- What does this say about the importance of both in the life of the Church?
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