1 Acts 15 No more living under the frown of God The word grace Grace. It s a simple elegance or refinement of movement It s what loan collectors might give you if feeling particularly happy that day It s the name of every other Baptist Church in the Bible Belt. It s a word we use when we say thanks for the food It s a word that I say nearly every week and sometimes with a hushed tone to make it appear more powerful. Because, well, it s an overused word and as such, has stopped having an impact Do you understand grace? Do you understand the freedom of the gospel? The liberty that comes with the cross of Jesus? Or are these just cool words with no real power? Does the gospel light you up? When you hear the word freedom in Christ, do you feel, well,... freedom? Like you are free and soaring and just needing to cry out your praise to Him who has granted it? Do you feel like you have gotten out of a prison? Released from your manacles? That the whip on your back will never be felt again? Or do you feel a burden? A list of rules. Do you feel like this whole God thing is... difficult oppressive ruins fun? Three weeks before Jesus was killed I wonder what Jesus was doing three weeks before he was killed. The chronology of the gospels isn t all that clear because they are more thematic than chronological, but I am sure of this: Jesus was inviting people to come to him. He was proclaiming the good news that they were free from guilt and shame and darkness and misery and rules and the world. He was offering his hand in gracious love. He was freeing us from our checklists and being the right kind of person. He was loving the ones who weren t part of the incrowd and offering freedom in a way that had never been experienced before. I have a verse I want to share with you today and it s in Acts 15:19 we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Are we making it difficult for people to come to God?
2 I want to talk for the next four weeks from the book of Acts, kind of a whirlwind tour of the second half of the book (remember, we have only finished through chapter 14) to talk about freedom and conclude on Easter. Freedom from the law Freedom from fear Freedom from darkness. Acts 15 is about freedom from the law. Freedom from the burdens. Freedom from having a list that we have to follow and rules that keep us down. Let me pray for us before we look at it. Prayer Have any of you seen the new show Living Biblically? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drg8cvomww0 [up to the 30 second mark] Acts 15 council This is what has happened in Acts 15. What is the issue? There are some guys who were living biblically. They wanted the new Gentile converts to get circumcised. Look at 15:1 NIV Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." So, now the fledgling church is struggling. What do we do? So, they send Paul and Barnabas to a conference about the subject. And the conference begins with the Pharisees (see vs 5) "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses." How does Peter deal with it? So, the apostles and elders start talking and eventually Peter stands up. Yeah, that Peter. You can imagine everyone is listening. He says that the Gentiles are believing and God is granting them the Holy Spirit just like he granted the Holy Spirit to the Jews. Then look at verse 10: 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." Why are we burdening the Gentiles with things we haven t even been successful in? Why are we burdening them at all? Things need to change. The gospel is freedom. It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved. There has been movement change It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved.
3 Grace. There is that word again. So overused. But grab hold of his argument. Because it is this which makes Christianity so distinct from every other religion. If you want to become a Christian, you don t do anything. There are no burdens on you. You don t have to go to church 4 times a week or be circumcised or wear skirts that cover the knee. If you are waiting to become a Christian until you can get your behavior right then you are missing the whole point. The only fitness he requires is to feel your need of him. Remember that song? Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream; All the fitness He requireth Is to feel your need of Him. Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Lost and ruined by the fall; If you tarry till you re better, You will never come at all. We dare not put any burdens on those looking for Jesus. We dare not put anything in the way of their finding him. We don t get to tell them they have to shape up, they have to act a certain way, they have to jump through our hoops. How do Barnabas and Paul deal with it? Let me get back to the text because while their discussions were theoretical and abstract and Peter is logically making an argument, now Barnabas and Paul stand up. They don t make any logical arguments, for them this wasn t simply a matter to sit and discuss like we would a theorem or postulate or some other mathematical formula. This was a matter of life and death. They told stories. These were real people and God was doing miracles in their midst. God isn t denying them anything, why are we? You know who Peter, Barnabas and Paul are don t you? Peter, Paul and Barnabas are... liberals? They are the liberals. Yep, I said it liberals The conservatives were saying they needed to keep the status quo, they had to get circumcised. They had to keep wearing the ties and WWJD bracelets. No wearing tattoos or lip rings because they didn t do that when I was a boy. They had to keep emphasizing the things that made them special and elite. But Peter and Barnabas and Paul are saying that God is doing something different. He is kind of progressive. They don t have to follow these laws anymore.
4 How does James deal with it? But here comes the conservative. James. The brother of Jesus. He wouldn t easily sponsor a new idea. And he stands, (vs 13) Brothers, listen to me. Now James is the bishop of Jerusalem, not to mention the brother of Jesus. His words are weighty. "Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, (Act 15:13-15 NIV) Then he quotes Amos to prove it and makes his judgment: we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. (Act 15:19 NIV) It s surely not wholehearted agreement. But he isn t standing in the way. Peter s point is sound and James is persuaded. We can t make it difficult. There can t be added burdens. Circumcision is too much. Grace and grace alone. Let me ask you. Do you make it hard for others to come to Jesus? Do they have to live up to your way of doing life? Do they have to share your beliefs? Do they have to have your set of ethics? The liberals seem to be changing things. Or rather, they are just accepting the changes that the gospel brings. They don t have to live the way we have. They don t have to agree with us on this stuff. Well, mostly. But James does add some things in here that are kind of confusing honestly. I wish I didn t have to talk about them, but they are there. He says you don t have to be circumcised, but... They can t eat food polluted by idols They have to stay sexually pure They can t eat meat with blood in it. But why then do they add burdens?! Wait, what happened to no burdens? What s going on? What s going on is a compromise. A compromise between the conservatives and the liberals. A compromise that isn t theologically sustainable.
5 In other words, they were headed in the right direction, then they weren t. Wait, what? Are you disagreeing with the Bible? Let me ask you this? Don t you want me to? After all, if you can t eat meat with blood in it, well, that means no more rare steak, or even medium. Because that s the way they ate their meat in the Old Testament. And doesn t Paul himself tell the Corinthians that it s okay to eat food sacrificed to idols since idols aren t really anything anyway? They are just trying to figure out how people who are so different can live and work and love together. Here is what I think is happening. Paul and James don t fully agree. The Pharisees and Barnabas aren t on the same page. They are trying to figure this whole thing out. And the Gentiles have some habits in their life that aren t great at least not from the eyes of the Jews. And it s causing problems. So, they compromised. If you want to come to Jesus you have to take seriously these things,... but not these things. Coming to Jesus or living together in a church? But that s not fully it either. They are having a debate about what it means to be accepted into the church. Not what it means to come to Jesus. None of that stuff is required to come to Jesus. None of it. You don t have to purify your body, you don t have to eat the right way, you don t even have to stop having sex with your boyfriend. You don t have to fix it before you come A man went looking at real estate. The current owners realized that the property didn't look that good and assured him that they would do it up before he took possession. "Forget it", he said. "I don't want the building. I want the site." God isn't interested in our trying to fix up the building before we come to Him. He's interested in the site. Then He can build what He wants on it. So coming to Jesus requires nothing of you. He will make you what he wants. Sure, they should have said, We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Period! That s all. No requirements. Because grace is freedom. And this is what most of Paul s letters are going to be about. Grace. Freedom. Unity.
6 It s about not putting burdens on It s about saying Jesus + nothing = everything. You can t add anything to Grace. You can t add anything to Jesus Look, I can t spend any more time talking about how law and gospel work together. It s a huge topic. I would rather focus on the things that we all probably agree about, but don t do very well. Making the gospel free from burdensome requirements. Showing it as beautiful and filled with grace and freedom. But it s the other side of the cross that worries me too. It seems like maybe we Christians make it too hard to stay Christians sometimes. Here is what I want to say I am not a good little Christian. I don t follow all the good little Christian rules. I used to be and some of you would have liked me way more then. Growing up conservative I grew up in a pretty conservative home politically, relationally, what we wore, how we talked. Reagan was the greatest president ever I couldn t listen to rock music or watch anything other than Disney. We had devotions every night We questioned whether dinosaurs ever existed. Guys shorts were short and girls skirts were long. And I remember my dad having a rather heated meeting when the boys gym shorts got a little longer and looked kind of like a skirt. No way his boy was wearing that. America was started by people who were all Christians just like us, so I wore an American Flag tie to my Christian school every day And church, oh boy We were in church on Sunday morning and evening, Tuesday and Wednesday of most weeks Ties for guys and dresses for girls Hymns of course and some of those hymns, like Just as I am, were literally sung 15 times because the pastor had a feeling that someone was holding something back. KJV only because it was the authorized version. My pastor screamed a lot about hell and how messed up the rest of the world was. And sometimes about what sinners we were for missing Tuesday night service. We followed the rules, we copied the guy who did stuff right, we followed our ritualistic duties and were shamed into being good little Christians. Honestly, I barely noticed any of this stuff. I was young and there were girls to abuse and soccer to play. But my parents remember it and still hurt. And as I grew up, some of those things stayed I my thinking. That we were different better than the non-christians and even better than other Christians. That there was a list of things that I had to do and God was keeping track.
7 Those little Chick tracks scared me. One day God was going to review my life on a big movie screen and he knew when I fantacized about that girl in class or when I looked at that magazine or heaven forbid when I went a little too far physically. Yes, the trailer for my movie was basically all sexual sins. But I can t live in that world. I can t live thinking that God is constantly frowning at me when I don t measure up. We live under grace; freedom from the law. It s not hard to come to Jesus. You don t have to behave to get in. And its not hard to stay in Jesus. You don t have to behave to stay in. The old ways are gone. Circumcision is not required Neither is ditching your bloody food. You don t have to abide by dress codes or t-totaling or KJV only or figuring out just how far you can go when you are dating. we surely don t come to Christ through the law, but neither do we Christians live under the law Stop living like you are under the law. Stop expecting others to live like you. Can I grant you three free sins? Go and sin today and know that Jesus still loves you. Clarifications The Cross calls us to obey Of course, I need to say don t go on sinning that grace may abound. Don t do that. Of course, we are called to live like Jesus. Of course, only those who overcome will inherit the crown. The Cross calls us to compromise And I need to say that for the sake of unity, we might need to compromise. That was one of the points here I think. I didn t have any alcohol when I lived in Kenya. It was seen as the mark of a non- Christian. No cigars either. But here, well 95% of the church has moved past that. Today in this place, if we required people to give that up, we would be putting an unbiblical burden on them. I took down three pictures in our church this last month and removed a book I used for research because they offended some people. And I don t care what some of you are thinking about people being too sensitive, snowflakes, blah blah blah. We are all at different places and it wasn t important enough for me to stand hard on. So yes, we compromise to show love sometimes
8 But I need to call you to be free from the rules. I am asking you guys to stop holding onto your requirements and just let Jesus worry about them. Sure there may be wisdom in considering how far you should go before marriage and whether you should drink or smoke or dance or go to Vegas, but I am not going to put any of these burdens on you. If you want to come to Jesus, just come. The Cross calls you to repentance Now don t get me wrong. You are a sinner and you need to recognize that. But my guess is all of you know that already. If you believe in any kind of God at all, you are already convinced you don t measure up. I am not saying your sin doesn t matter. I am saying, you don t have to get rid of it before coming to Jesus. You don t have to fix things first. You don t have to make sure you have read the Bible and set your car radio to a Christian station or buy a jacket for church. Just come And Christians, please don t let Grace become an irrelevant word. Get rid of the checklist and let Gods love for you flow over you. Dear Family, Like some of you, I grew up in a pretty conservative home. We didn t say bad words, we didn t listen to rock music, women were kept in their place, and we lived under the constant scrutiny and frown of God. There was a list of rules and we followed them or at least tried to. And the weight almost killed us. In these few weeks before Easter I wanted to remind us, from the book of Acts, of the freedom we have in Christ. I want to remind you of the character of God. I want you to see his grace. Take a look at Acts 15 and key into especially verse 19 as I talk about the burden of living under the law. Can t wait to share this with you and just to be with you Sunday. Invite a friend.
9 Next week Jesus as the king Hosanna what is he saving us from? Destroying the evil forces (Acts 19) Freedom from law Freedom from fear Freedom from darkness