Christ is Life Podcast

This chapter that we are going to look at today, in particular is one of the most important chapters, if not the most important chapter in Acts, and one of those in the entire New Testament of our Bibles. As a matter of fact, that's what some of the theologians, pastors and commentators have specifically said about this chapter. One theologian says chapter 15 is the turning point, the centerpiece. He says it's the watershed of the book of Acts. It's the episode which rounds off and justifies the past developments and makes those to come intrinsically possible. Another one says acts 15 is a central chapter in terms of both its location in Acts and the theological issue and significance it prevents. And then finally, one last commentator says it is a pivotal chapter. Listen to this among the most critical, he says, in the entire New Testament. And so what we are going to see in Acts chapter 15 today is of utmost importance. And I will tell you up front that what is at stake here, what is being addressed here in the early church, 2000 years ago, after the death, resurrection, ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit, well of Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. What is that message? What is the true message? Good News of Jesus Christ, and about salvation that we can experience through his finished work on the cross. And we see that right off the bat in the opening verse, with what Luke says here. So look at it. Acts. Chapter 15, verse one, Luke says certain people came down from Judea and Antioch and were teaching the believers, listen, unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. This is
the problem. This is what we're going to be addressing the entire chapter, or at least the first 35 verses that we're going to be looking at today. The question is, what are the specific requirements of salvation? What exactly is true and necessary to be saved, to know for sure without a doubt that we are going to go to heaven when we die. Well, what we're told here is, according to these certain people, and what we'll see later on in the chapter, I mean, he tells us here they came down from these areas, is that they came down from the church in Jerusalem. These are believers, people who have put their faith and trust in Jesus as the Messiah, and they're part of the church at Jerusalem, and they've come now to the church at Antioch, and they're saying they know, they know the truth about what the requirements of salvation are, and it is simply this that unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now, why are they saying this? Why are they suggesting or declaring that this is a requirement? Well, because these are Jewish believers. These are those who have grown up under the customs and the Law of Moses that he references right here. This was a command under the old covenant to be circumcised as a physical sign of being part of God's people. And they're saying, even though you guys are Gentiles, if you're going to become part of the people of God, you need Jesus and you need circumcision. And so just to make sure, we see what they're saying here, and we'll use this all throughout the message today, here's what they're saying, Jesus, belief in Jesus, faith in Jesus, plus circumcision, that's what equals salvation. There's the requirements, everything before the equal sign. You've got to believe in Jesus and what he did, He's the Messiah, but you also have to be circumcised to be part of God's people. So these are the requirements. This is the requirement to be saved. We'll look at how Paul and Barnabas respond to that. Verse two, this brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. In other words, Paul and Barnabas do not agree.
You're saying that unless they are circumcised, they cannot be saved. We couldn't disagree more, and it brought them into sharp debate. Now we're not told exactly what they believe here. We've read it in other places, but for the sake of time, I'll wait until we see what they're going to say in just a moment. But in other words, we have some who have shown up at the church, and they've said it's Jesus plus circumcision equals salvation. And then we got Paul and Barnabas starting on the other side and going, that message is not true, and they were declaring what they believe to be true. And so we've got this dispute. So let's see how they solved the dispute and what the church does. Verse three or as two continues. So Paul.
And Barnabas were appointed, along with some of the other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. Verse four, when they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders to whom they had reported everything that God had done through them. But then, watch this. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the Law of Moses. And so after welcoming them in from their trip, they get right into the debate. And now this group stands up, and it seems like they've gone a step further here than what these certain people were declaring to be true in Antioch, right? Because now it's what it's not just circumcision that is necessary, but they have to keep the law. These Gentile believers have to keep the 613
commands pertaining to the moral issues and sacrificial issues and ceremonial issues and the civil issues and all of the things that were written out in the law. In other words, what they were saying is this belief in Jesus, plus circumcision, plus keeping the Law of Moses, that is what truly equals salvation. And so this is how you know you're saved. You really want to know how you're saved. You really want to make sure you understand and know how you can make it to heaven, and you're going there without a doubt, is believe in Jesus, get circumcised and keep all of the rules.
How you feeling about your assurance at this point in time, about making it to heaven? Well, let's see how the church responds. I mean, this is what they're saying. Is true. This is what they're presenting as far as the debate, verse six says the apostles and elders met to consider this question, and after much discussion, Peter, the apostle Peter, got up and addressed them brothers. You know, he says that some time ago, God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe now, what is it that Peter is referring to here? Well, you may remember, if you were here several weeks ago, Acts, chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, Peter has this vision, and it's a vision about clean animals and unclean animals. And God says, wake up, Peter, kill and eat. And he goes, never, I'll never eat anything unclean in my life. And there were food laws that addressed this kind of thing in the Old Covenant and and God revealed to him, don't call anything that I've made unclean. And so to come to find out what God was showing him is about the Gentiles. The Jewish people referred to the Gentiles as unclean dogs, and so they weren't worthy of salvation. And so through this vision, through this message, what God was trying to show to Peter is that this message, this gospel message, right here, is a message not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well. And then you may remember that he sent him to a Roman centurion's house. His name was Cornelius, and Peter shares the good news about Jesus with Cornelius and all the other Gentiles there, and they all came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, that He was their Savior. And so look now at what Peter says about this when he goes to the Gentiles and declares this message, because this is absolutely key to his argument and the requirements that we're talking about. But look what he says in verse eight, Peter goes on. It says God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. Watch he did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts. Watch this by faith. You
see what Peter's saying here. What Peter's saying is that, Listen, guys, you know that whenever I shared the message with the Gentiles and Cornelius and those guys in his home, and they responded to the good news by putting their faith and trust in Jesus. Two things happened. Number one, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in them, giving them the Holy Spirit based on their response of faith. And then number two, he purified their hearts. He cleansed their hearts. How by faith? So now he didn't just send the Holy Spirit, but he purified, he cleansed their hearts. They were born again. They went for.
Being spiritually dead to then made spiritually alive. They went from having an old sinful nature to this new nature where they were again, regenerated and born again, and they were in spiritual union with Jesus Christ. They were justified. They were declared righteous. They were made right. They went from being sinners to saints simply through faith, all that happened, right? So what Peter's trying to say is, this is proof. This is proof. You're saying that it's Jesus plus circumcision plus obeying the law. And watch this before they were ever circumcised, before they ever started following the law fully, just by putting their faith and trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon them and cleansed their entire hearts.
This is what he is saying. It's by faith and faith alone, he goes on. He's not done. He's got more to say about this. Watch this verse 10. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have ever been able to bear? What's he talking about? He's got guys. Come on. You want to try to tell me this Jesus, plus circumcision plus obeying the law, have you not kept up with your own selves? You can't even keep the law. And look at our ancestors and all the ones that you can read about in the scriptures, they weren't able to keep the law. They just failed over and over and over again. And so he goes, You can't put this you can't follow it. Our ancestors hadn't followed it. You can't put this on them and go, Yeah, you got to follow in order to truly be saved. Because if that's the case, then you're not even really fully saved. It's what he's trying to communicate. So now he brings up the experiences and what he has to say here as an example to offer more proof that this is the requirement of salvation. So he just says it plainly, verse 11, no, we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. Yes, amen is right. In other words, he's saying, He's saying it's a gift. Grace means gift when he says, through the grace, it's the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, Listen, if we have to be circumcised, if we have to follow the law, Peter's saying, it is no longer grace.
It's no longer a gift. It's something that you've earned, or you've merited through your performance, through taking a step of circumcision and through obeying the law. What Peter is simply declaring here through this statement, is this that it is faith in Jesus plus nothing, and absolutely nothing else that equals salvation.
He's saying it's by grace alone, through faith, alone in Christ, alone. It's a gift that we receive. There's nothing that you can do to earn it. So Peter has weighed in on the argument. You got the Pharisees who believe in Jesus as the Messiah. But it takes these other things, plus Jesus. You've got Peter showing up and giving his side of the argument. Well, guess who else was sent to the church,
Paul and Barnabas, the ones who were in sharp dispute in the church at Antioch that we were talking about earlier. So now, Luke tells us that they got in on the discussion. Verse 12, the whole assembly became silent. They were listening intently as what they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders that God had done among the Gentiles through them. So Peter gives these examples of the Gentiles how they received it by faith. And now they're just going on and on. I mean, we read about all of these experiences on Paul and Barnabas first missionary journey in Acts chapter 13 and 14, and they traveled over 1200 miles and over two years, telling people about the good news of Jesus, these Gentiles who just put their faith and trust in Jesus. They didn't get circumcised, they didn't follow the law. And all this was happening. God was doing all these signs and wonders. His activity was obvious and present, and he was working in and through them, just giving more and more evidence of what it is that Peter said to be true.
This is all we get about what Paul and Barnabas say. I'm sure there was a lot more, but he sums it up here. And then after this, we finally see how the church responds when they finished, James, the leader of the church at Jerusalem. This was Jesus' half brother, James, and he spoke up brothers. He said, listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for His name from the Gentiles. So he goes, Hey.
And Peter was talking about acts 10 and Cornelius, and knowing that we went to them, or he went to them, it was by faith that they were purified, and their sins were forgiven, and all of these kind of things, these things happened here. Then we're in agreement with that. Peter's described that right. And then he goes on in verse 15, it says the words of the prophets watch are in agreement with this. They're in agreement with what it is that Peter was saying in agreeing that it was by faith that they had now he uses prophets plural. I mean, so he's referring to all of these prophets in the Old Covenant. But who doesn't have time to go through all that the prophets have said? He doesn't have time in that moment? So he just gives one, and he quotes from Amos chapter nine by saying that, after this, I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent, its ruins. I will rebuild and I will restore it that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles gospels for them who bear my name, they're my people, says the Lord who does these things, things known from long ago. And so James is beginning to say, hey, look what Peter said, and his experiences aligns with what
Scripture,
the Holy Spirit, God inspired the prophets to hear His voice and then declare the message from God. And that message from God is in agreement with what it is that Peter said, and therefore it's in agreement with the experiences that Paul and Barnabas were sharing about as well. And so He's agreeing with him here. And then he goes on
and says, This is my judgment. It's my judgment, therefore that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. In other words, James is saying, Listen, if, if the gospel, if the good news of Jesus, is simply this, faith in Jesus, plus nothing equals everything, which is what I've said, the message of the prophets was in agreement of so if it's that, then we shouldn't be trying to add to it and make it difficult for them,
because there's nothing else to do, right? It's simply by faith. We shouldn't be adding to it. We shouldn't be trying to create hoops for them to have to feel like they have to jump through whenever we couldn't even jump through the hoops that we're even talking about as well. And so James simply confirms what Peter and Paul were saying here about the conditions of salvation, the requirements of salvation. It really is Jesus, faith in Jesus, belief in Jesus, plus nothing,
that equals salvation.
Now this after verse 19 declares, this is where things get a little bit weird. It's where a lot of people begin to get really confused. Because James says this, But then look what it is that he turns around and says in the very next verse here. So we'll have to unpack this instead. We should, instead of making it difficult for them, we should write to them telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, abstain from sexual immorality, abstain from the meat of strangled animals and abstain from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. And so as soon as we read that, the question usually is, did James just do exactly what it was that he says wasn't true. It seems like he was agreeing that it was Jesus plus nothing equals everything, and it was just through faith alone, in Christ alone and a gift that he received. So did he now turn around and say, well, actually, go back and tell them that it's Jesus plus abstaining from food polluted by idols. It's Jesus plus abstaining from sexual immorality. It's Jesus plus abstaining from the meat of strangled animals. And it's Jesus plus staying away abstaining from blood. Is that what message he's saying is true now? No, no, that's not what James is saying here, what James what James is referring to here, this is very important,
is the outworkings of salvation, the outworkings of salvation that we receive by grace alone, in the outworking that happens through grace alone. In other words, he's saying, Listen, go back and tell the Gentiles and say something like this to them. Hey, since you Gentiles are now part of the people of God, along with us, through faith alone, since you've been purified and.
Cleansed in this particular way. These are the things that the Holy Spirit will lead and empower you to not do, to avoid, as the people who are saved.
Now there's still a question of why, though, why would the Holy Spirit be leading them to abstain from these things now that they are a part of the people of God? Well, there's two things that we need to know here. There's two reasons. Number one, first and foremost, we're dealing with Gentiles. We're dealing with Gentiles who live in a pagan culture. We we saw some of that in Acts chapter 13 and 14. How pagan some of these cultures really were when we were looking at this over the last few weeks or so. But in these cultures, people were used to sacrificing food and blood to idols, to these false gods. Maybe even some of these Gentiles who had come to believe in Jesus had participated in sacrificing food and blood to these idols. They lived in a culture where it was common
to engage in sexual immorality. But not only was it common to engage in sexual immorality, but it was also common for acts of prostitution to be done as worship towards false gods and idols. And so first and foremost, James is saying, Listen, the Holy Spirit will lead you to separate yourselves from those people and those sinful, idolatrous actions now that you are a part of the family of God, the One True God that you've received and become a part of, simply by grace alone. It's not that you need to follow all these things to truly be saved. You are saved, and now that you are saved, here's how the Holy Spirit will work in and through you to lead you away from those things and into these new behaviors that are now in line with who you are. Here's the second thing that we're dealing with. We're dealing with Gentiles that we just talked about, and we're dealing with Jews, Gentile who believe in Jesus, Jews who believe in Jesus, and now they're what, in the same church. We're talking about Jewish people who have grown up under these food laws, very strict food laws, and we've got Gentiles who are like, we don't have food laws. We just eat anything and everything. And now they're all in the same church. How are they going to get along together? And so what James is saying here again, as part of the outworking of their salvation, that the Holy Spirit will lead them to abstain from food, some of these foods and the things that we're talking about here out of respect, out of respect for their Jewish brothers and sisters. And we know this to be true, even because of what we see Paul, who is involved in this discussion, we know when on these missionary journeys, we know he established churches, and then he wrote letters back to those churches to disciple them, saying, This is the gospel. This is what's happened to you, and here's the out workings of them. So go turn this afternoon to Romans, chapter 14. Go turn to first. Corinthians, chapter 10, and you're going to see Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing to these churches about food. And he's going to say things like, you're free to eat whatever it is that you want to eat. Meat sacrifice to idols is nothing. But listen, the Holy Spirit will lead you to self sacrifice and abstain from that freedom that you have to eat if it's going to offend another brother in Christ. And so even though you have the freedom to do so, the Holy Spirit's going to lead you to not do so out of respect for them, so that we can live in harmony with one another. And so these are the things that they are saying that James is trying to say, it's not a requirement of salvation, but simply an outworking of the salvation that you now have because of the culture that live, you lived in, the things that you were involved in, and the way that we're going to get along in the church. So now that he's mentioned this, they've got to get that message back to them, and that's what we see them do. Verse 22 says, then the apostles and elders with the whole church decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas called barsabas and Silas, men who were leaders among believers. Why?
Remember, early on the church at Antioch, Paul and Barnabas were the ones in sharp dispute. So now you just send Paul and Barnabas back, and they're going, hey, they said we were right.
Well, how do we know you're telling the truth? So we send other people, right, Paul and Barnaba or Judas, barsabas and Silas to meet with them and confirm it right. Verse 23 when, when with them. They sent the following letter the apostles and elders.
Your brothers to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. Greetings. We have heard that some went out from
out from us without our authorization, and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what I said. Remember earlier, we said these were men from the church at Jerusalem who came and said that, and we find out later that that's where they were, and that's that's that's where I got it from, because it was in the text. Layer on it says someone out from our church, they were telling you these little requirements of salvation, and they were troubling your minds. They didn't have our authority to necessarily do that. That's just what they were telling you, verse 25 so we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends, Barnabas and Paul men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we saw on their first missionary journey. Therefore, verse 27 we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. Verse 28 it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements, you are to abstain from food sacrifice to idols, from blood, from the meat, strangled animals, from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter, the people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Judas and Silas, who were with who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. And finally, after spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers, with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord. So, what? What is? What is that? What's the this is, this is important. But Paul and Barnabas remain there where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord. What's the word of the Lord,
the gospel message that was affirmed through the Council at the church in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were already preaching this gospel of of its its grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And so they went out and they continued to teach everyone that it is faith in Jesus plus nothing that equals salvation. They were teaching and telling other people this message, this this word that they preached was, listen, it's not even just salvation. It's not just that you get into heaven and then you live the Christian life by something other than grace. He would go on to write about the grace that we live by through all of these New Testament letters where he's saying things like, listen, you're just a branch and the vine. And Jesus talked about that. And so the fruit of the Spirit that gets produced from the branch Galatians five is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control. And it's not yours. It's not something you manufacture. It's something that's produced in you and through you. It's a gift. You live the Christian life by grace. He does it in you and through you. So that's the message, the word of the Lord, that they were preaching. As we already said, Romans 14, first, Corinthians, 10, what's the message they were preaching? The Holy Spirit outworking of your salvation is you're going to live self sacrificial lives. The Holy Spirit's going to lead you to sacrifice the freedoms that you have in Christ to be a benefit and a blessing to other people when those behaviors or those things or those actions that you have freedom in might cause some other people to stumble or to be offensive to them in some way, and so this is the message that they were already preaching, and they just went on and continued to preach it because it was affirmed through the church and the council in Jerusalem. So the question becomes now, after we've seen what happened 2000 years ago in the church in Jerusalem and the church of Antioch and the letter that got sent back to them. What does this mean for us today?
Oh, it means so much for us today. There's so many of the same things that it has for us today. Guys, we must, we must remain diligent about preaching and teaching in our Sunday school classes the message from this stage and renewing our own minds to this truth that it really is faith in Jesus plus nothing that equals salvation, that it is Jesus plus nothing as we live the Christian life that equals everything. It is him, In Him alone that is responsible for our salvation and growing us up into who he's already made us into through his finished work on the cross and the regeneration that we experience a work of his the moment we put our faith and trust in Him, we must continue to teach that. It must be the message you hear from this stage. It must be the faith.
You here in your Sunday school classes, it must be the thing that we renew our minds to the truth of. And here's why this is so important, because, because even though this is true,
the tendency is to for there to be a drift. It starts with grace alone, by faith, alone, in Christ alone. But at some point, there becomes this thing that you start to go, you know, I'm not sure that's really true. It doesn't feel like it's true. I don't really feel that different. I'm not really there's got to be something I'm doing. There's this tendency to start with the grace and then lead to self justification.
Our flesh wants something to be able to point to that we're doing on our own, or that we've done to prove our salvation, but in our in our own minds, before other people or before God. And so that's why you will hear.
That's why you will hear because there is this drift a number
of Jesus plus messages
in many other churches, in
many popular conferences, in evangelical circles,
many whom I've heard you quote before that I could mention by name that maybe you even love who, if you really listen to what it is that they're saying, are teaching a Jesus plus gospel in some way. Let me show you what I mean. This one may not be quite the thing, but I want to just talk about, okay, this is the message, but here's some misunderstandings of the gospel, and what were that are tied to what we saw in the church that just Jesus plus gospel. The first misunderstanding is Believe and be baptized. The requirements of salvation are faith in Jesus plus taking the step of water baptism, and then you'll know without a doubt that you are saved. And listen, baptism is great. Baptism is good. Jesus commands us to get baptized but, but this is an act that happens after a salvation experience. We put our faith and trust in Jesus. We're completely saved. We're guaranteed to be in heaven, and we take a step of baptism, not to to know that we're saved, but to show that we're saved, to show that this is what happened to me, because you can't see what happened on the inside of my heart just a moment ago, but in that moment, my heart was purified. My heart was cleansed. The old me was dead, buried and gone, and I've been raised up to this new life in Christ, and I don't know how else to show it to you, except to give you this picture of my sins having been washed away and the old dead, me being gone, and me having this new life in Christ. So it's a step we take. It's we've said it before. It's kind of like putting a wedding ring on to show that this is who we are, but married to Jesus now. And so it's important that we do it, but it is not a requirement of salvation,
not a requirement. Here's another popular, very popular, misunderstanding of the gospel, repent and believe. In other words, faith in Jesus plus repentance equals salvation. And when we use the word repentance, what I'm talking about is people using the language well, they really mean something and are saying something like this. Faith in Jesus is good, but it's not just faith in Jesus. You need to stop sinning. You need to turn from your sins and stop sinning. So it's faith in Jesus plus turning away from your sins to stop sinning, and then you'll know that you are truly saved. But listen to me.
First of all, how, how could you ever do that anyway?
What did Jesus have to come for? If you could just stop sinning, if you could turn from it and stop it because so some people will go okay to avoid that. We're not using that language. They'll make it sound more like this, right here. So what we're saying by repentance means making a commitment to not sin like like we need to see the faith that's there, the belief in Jesus, and we need to see and understand that you are turning to your sin by meaning that you're committing to no longer sin, and so now, do you see how that is adding to the gospel? Now the equation becomes faith in Jesus plus your commitment to not sin equals salvation. So it's not just a work that Jesus is doing. It's your commitment to stay away from sins that's going to make sure that you are now saved. It's self justification. It's the drift, it's Jesus. Isn't enough people we see, you know, it's a reaction. We see people who believe in Jesus, and it doesn't seem like their lifestyle has ever really changed. And so let's make sure when we're presenting the gospel.
Well they understand that it's faith in Jesus and turning from their sins and committing not to sin in any way so that their behavior is different. We don't have all these Christians out there acting like they're not really saved in some way, but it is not necessary, and it confuses the simple gospel message. I mean, seriously, how can I ever really know I'm saved? If that's true,
tell me, how do I ever How much do I have to have stopped sinning before I know that I'm truly saved? How much commitment Do I really need to have had in order to show that I'm saved? Sometimes I'm going to feel really good about it.
And there are a lot of people when they hear that Gospel preached, and it resonates with something in their flesh and goes, Yeah, I knew my parents were all wrong about that simple gospel message and whatever else. It's about my commitment and all the things that I'm doing and trying to do these kind of things, and you're going to feel really good about all the things you're doing for Jesus and staying away from sin and feeling good until the next time you sin, and
then you sin again, and you go again, and you go, oh, shoot, it's Jesus, plus my commitment to not sin. And I, I keep singing, seeming to sin here. And so I guess I don't have enough commitment, and I'm not really, I'm probably not really saved, and so I need to, I need to truly repent and believe this time it's Listen, what we're getting now to is a misunderstanding of the word repent.
I'm not going to say it's not there. The end of some, sometimes it's there. All right, it's not always there. Acts chapter two, Peter gets through preaching the gospel to the Jewish congregation who believed one thing about Jesus and he wasn't the real Messiah. And then he says, Repent and believe. That's the response to what it is that they should do. Well, repent. Look it up in Strong's is, is a change of one's mind. So you didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. So repent. Change your mind about believing who Jesus is, and put your faith and trust in Him. Faith in Jesus, belief in Jesus, plus nothing equals everything he's saying the same thing in that moment. And if it doesn't just mean change your mind and repentance really means turning away and committing not to sin, then why doesn't that happen every single time we see a passage about salvation? How come in John 316, Jesus didn't say, you know, believe and make sure that you've really committed to not sin anymore, and know that you have eternal life, even though he says repent, and sometimes he doesn't say it. At other times, we didn't see it. One time, in Acts chapter 15, he said it was through faith that the Gentiles came to know him, not through faith, and some act to commit to not sinning anymore, simply through faith, it was, and so it muddies up the water, and we see that this is just another popular way of trying to cling to self justification and the things that we're doing rather than what it is that Jesus has done. I've got one more. The last one is believe and surrender. This is a popular misunderstanding of the gospel. It's faith in Jesus plus Lordship, surrendering to Him as your Lord. And in Romans, you know chapter 10, and you go, well, confess Him as your, your your Lord. Well, what are you doing when you believe? You're believing that he's deity and he's the only one that can save you in that moment, right? We're, we're not talking about this is a very popular message.
This is a very popular message in evangelical Christian conferences. It's ones that's very popular that our young people and our young adults would go to and a message that a number of popular evangelical preachers and teachers will stand up and they will say something like this.
Many of you who are here tonight, this conference that we're having at night, many of you who are here tonight. In the past, you've walked down an aisle at church somewhere, and when you walk down that aisle, you prayed some prayer of faith where you came to believe in Jesus. But here's the deal, you didn't really surrender your life to Him in that moment. And if you did, you didn't really surrender all of your life to Him. In other words, right now, many of you think that you're saved because you walk down an aisle and you put your faith and trust believing in Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, but you didn't fully surrender your life to Him, it's therefore you're not really saved tonight, but tonight, God's calling you to really get saved. And so guess what happens? A mass number of people stand up and they walk down front to they go, I've never really fully surrendered to Jesus. Why? Because we still deal with sin in this fallen world that we live in, and that's going to happen even if you've had a real salvation experience. So you can get a number of people to commit and be saved in that moment, and to make sure that that is happening, and it's a very popular message, give all of your life to Jesus. You're not really giving everything that you have.
Have I love what Paul ends says about this in the moody Handbook of theology, he says, Lordship, the idea of Jesus being your Lord, right, is important, but it cannot be a condition for your salvation, because that is adding to the gospel. He says, discipleship always follows salvation. It is never part of it. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. It's
no longer a gift. It's about your ability to surrender all of your life to Jesus. Jesus is good, but you've got to be able to surrender everything to him in order to know that you are truly saved. Making Jesus or allowing him to be the Lord of your life in all areas of your life is a discipleship issue
that is taught about the new life that you have in Christ and all that changed about you, and how the outworking of what it is that he's going to do as you renew your mind to those truths and see it and what it is that he's doing, you become available to all that he's going to do by grace. But in this particular case, grace is no longer grace. It becomes a
Jesus plus message. In other words,
I hope what you are seeing is that what the early church was dealing with in Acts, chapter 15, 2000 years ago, is still very alive in our churches today, very alive within popular evangelical circles today, it is still a struggle. It has found its way back into things, and many, because it is so popular, will try to take what I am declaring in this moment today and what we proclaim to be the truth. Many will look at this and they'll go, well, that's just easy believe ism.
So that sounds like hyper grace. It doesn't sound like you're really serious about sin around there, and you're just promoting this easy believe ism gospel. Let me tell you guys, it is way easier, way easier to believe that there is something that I have to do in order to justify God letting me into heaven, than believing that it's all on Jesus and it's simply offered to me as a gift.
But because that's the message we get everywhere. Do these steps? Work hard, and you'll get here, and you'll do this, and people will love you, and you'll get to where you want to be. That's an easy message to receive. The hard message is to trust Oh my gosh. You mean like, like, I can push all my chips in on Jesus and just receive what he's done, and it doesn't depend on anything that I've done or will do.
Like, I can't go that far. That's too hard to believe. I'm going to have to hold some chips back on my repentance, my total commitment to not sin, my Lordship, and the things that I'm doing and the things that I can cling to around that. So listen, it is way easier. There's a there's a narrow road where, where it's it's really difficult to believe and accept just grace and it's something we see. And there's a wide road that says, do all these steps and achieve all these things and look to all the things that you're doing to justify yourself and your salvation, even if it is by grace, and we're promoting all of these things. And so what I'm saying Guys,
we cannot let that creep into our own lives, and we cannot let that creep into our church. What we saw today in Acts, chapter 15, Peter says that the Holy Spirit came into people's lives simply through faith that he purified and he cleansed their hearts. He made them into brand new creations, simply through faith that he is going to grow them up only by faith. He says in verse 11, we believe it is through the grace of our Lord that we are saved. And so this is the scandalous message of grace. It truly is a gift, and it is the message that Jesus, plus nothing really does equal everything. Let's pray