acts part 19 - clarity for the mission

7/31/2019 Acts Part 19 - Clarity for the Mission

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clarity for

the mission

R W GLENNDATE: 5.6.2012

SCRIPTURE: acts 15:1-35

SERIES: acts series #19


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IntroductIon

I have an obsession with clarity. Im obsessed with being clear. Clarity in

general but clarity especially when it comes to the Christian aith. I want,

always, anytime I am standing behind a lectern or a pulpit to be clear onwhat Christianity really is. And I want to be clear about that to everyone who

listens to me. I never want any o you to leave scratching your heads with

some vague sense in your mind o the Christian aith. I cannot abide even the

IDEA that you would leave conused. I want there to be no doubt in your mind

about what the Christian aith really is.

Now you may be wondering why. Why am I obsessed with clarity on the

Christian aith? Well, heres the answer: your eternal destiny hangs on it.

Where you will spend your lie ater you die heaven or hell hangs in the

balance o whether or not youre clear on Christianity. So I never, never, never

want to leave you in a og about the Christian aith.

But more than that, i youre already a Christian, it is EXTREMELY easy

no matter how many times you think youve heard it, no matter how long

youve been connected to the Christian church, no matter how well you can

comprehend deep theological concepts it is EXTREMELY easy to become

oggy about Christianity. EXTREMELY easy.

Its like excessive exposure to Christianity can inoculate you to its message.

You know how an inoculation works, right? You get injected with a little bit o

the virus so that your body can ght it o whenever youre exposed to it. You

have just enough o the virus to keep you immune to it. Well, the same thing

can happen with the gospel. You can have just enough o the truth to become

numb to its message.

So unless were clear on the gospel, unless were near OBSESSED with clarity

about it, there is a high likelihood that we will lose our grip on the true nature

o the gospel. And losing that means losing everythingand everyone. Jesus

mission to save the world simply cannot be accomplished without it.

So as we come to the teenth chapter o the book o Acts, youre going to


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see the church in crisis over this very issue. People have started to get muddy

on the Christian aith, smuggling into it things that have absolutely no place

being there. And the church, because o whats at stake, goes into huddle

mode to make it absolutely plain what Christianity is all about.

Turn with me to A 15 and lets read 1-35.

But some men came down rom Judea and were teaching the brothers,

Unless you are circumcised according to the custom o Moses, you cannot

be saved. And ater Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate

with them, Paul and Barnabas and some o the others were appointed to

go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both

Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion o the Gentiles,

and brought great joy to all the brothers. 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. But some believers who

belonged to the party o the Pharisees rose up and said, It is necessary to

circumcise them and to order them to keep the law o Moses.

The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

And ater 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 o the gospel

and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by

giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction

between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by aith. Now, thereore,

why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck o the

disciples that neither our athers nor we have been able to bear? But we

believe that we will be saved through the grace o the Lord Jesus, just as

they will.

And all the assembly ell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as

they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among

the Gentiles. Ater they nished speaking, James replied, Brothers, listen

to me. Simeon has related how God rst visited the Gentiles, to take rom


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them a people or his name. And with this the words o the prophets agree,

just as it is written,

Ater this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent o David that has allen;

I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant o mankind mayseek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the

Lord, who makes these things known rom o old.

Thereore my judgment is that we should not trouble those o the Gentiles

who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain rom the things

polluted by idols, and rom sexual immorality, and rom what has been

strangled, and rom blood. For rom ancient generations Moses has had

in every city those who proclaim him, or he is read every Sabbath in the

synagogues.

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church,

to choose men rom among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and

Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among

the brothers, with the ollowing letter: The brothers, both the apostles and

the elders, to the brothers who are o the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and

Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out

rom us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although wegave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one

accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas

and Paul, men who have risked their lives or the name o our Lord Jesus

Christ. We have thereore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you

the same things by word o mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy

Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:

that you abstain rom what has been sacriced to idols, and rom blood,

and rom what has been strangled, and rom sexual immorality. I you keep

yourselves rom these, you will do well. Farewell.

So when they were sent o, they went down to Antioch, and having

gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when

they had read it, they rejoiced because o its encouragement. And Judas

and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened


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the brothers with many words. And ater they had spent some time, they

were sent o in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. But

Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word

o the Lord, with many others also.

Tonight I want to unpack this passage with you under our headings (all o

which ollow the order o the story): (1) the crisis; (2) the debate; (3) the

resolution; and (4) the response.

the crIsIs

Put simply, the crisis is this: a small but persuasive minority in the church

began to put orth a compelling addition to the gospel. Here it is: in order

to be saved, you need to believe in Jesus Christ (his lie, death, burial,

resurrection, and ascension), but you ALSO need to be circumcised and keep

the Law o Moses.

Check out 1:

But some men came down rom Judea and were teaching the brothers,

Unless you are circumcised according to the custom o Moses, you cannotbe saved.

And 5:

But some believers who belonged to the party o the Pharisees rose up and

said, It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law

o Moses.

So believe in Jesus, they would have said. For sure. But you have to add

to that being circumcised and keeping all the laws o the Old Testament (the

law o Moses) rom the Ten Commandments to the regulations regarding

inectious skin diseases. Or we might put it this way: to be Christian you also

have to be Jewish.


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Now just a moment ago I said that this was a compelling addition to

the gospel. Im sure youre wondering, how could anyone could nd this

compelling?

Well, maybe this illustration will help:

Lets say youre NOT a U.S. national. Your whole lie, rom your country, you

wished to come to America to make a lie here or you and your amily.

Citizenship was your dream. You wanted to have the opportunity to vote and

make a positive contribution to your community.

But you also know that becoming a citizen here would cost you something.

Youd have to leave your homeland, suer lack, and become a minority. And

not only are the personal costs high, but in order to become a citizen, U.S. law

(or the sake o the argument) requires that you complete a series o tests

and receive a passing grade as well as engage in activities that show your

commitment to the country beore you can become a ull-fedged citizen.

All this youve learned rom an administrator rom the INS, who has explained

to you this law, which, he explained, had been in place since the ounding o

the nation.

Well, ater considering the cost, you decide to go or it, making the necessary

sacrices to become a citizen.

Now imagine that a dierent administrator rom the INS comes to you

explaining that there is a new law that says that there is nothing you must

do in order to become a citizen except pledge your allegiance to America.

How would you eel? Youd be thrilled. Youd be totally blown away. Youd

be psyched. You thought youd have to go through all these hurdles, but it

turns out that you can enjoy all the privileges o citizenship with a simple (but

sincere) pledge o allegiance. Awesome!

Well, this is very similar to how Gentiles (non-citizens) responded to the

message o Christianity as they heard it coming rom Paul and Barnabas.


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Their entire lives they would have been told that the only way to be welcomed

into Gods amily was to transer their citizenship to become Jewish. To

be circumcised, to make an oering at the temple, to renounce their closest

relatives as unclean, to essentially transorm themselves into a oreign

ethnicity.

But i it meant being included in the amily o the true and living God, the

sacrice would have been worth it. There is no benet in worshipping an idol.

Enter Paul and Barnabas, the new INS agents, with a new criteria or joining

the amily. Turn rom your idols, your alse gods, and give your allegiance to

Jesus Christ.

Trust in him: his perect lie o success traded with your imperect lie o sin

and ailure, his death on the cross in your place, his resurrection, conquering

death, hell, the devil and sin itsel, and his ascension his return to heaven to

give you the git o his Spirit to change you rom the inside-out and cause you

to live in a new way. Simply trust in Jesus the Jewish Messiah and you will be

part o the amily as i you were BORN into it!

No quarantining yoursel rom your amily. No temple sacrices. No dietary

restrictions. No clothing restrictions. No regulations regarding inectious skindiseases. No circumcision! Simply trust in Jesus and youre in! How excited

would they have been? Youd have been THRILLEDjust like the Gentiles here

in Acts.

So then, when these men came back to Antioch and started saying verse 1,

Unless you are circumcised according to the custom o Moses, you cannot be

saved, can you see why this would be compelling?

Judea is the mother ship. Its where Jerusalem was. Its essentially the INS

headquarters.

So its like a new delegation rom the INS has come down to inorm these

citizens that the other agents didnt have the right inormation. Listen: I know

that this is what they told you, but they were wrong. Its true that you need to


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pledge allegiance in order to become a citizen, the old law still appliesall the

hurdles to citizenship are still in placethe exams and the community service

all o it.

Do you see why I used the word compelling? They would have said tothemselves, These are men rom the mother ship. They are Christians like

me. And since Christianity was birthed rom Judaism, these Jewish Christians

MUST know what theyre talking about. I KNEW it seemed too easy. I knew it.

Simply trusting? This makes WAY more sense.

So heres whats happening, heres the crisis: a small but persuasive minority

in the church is presenting a compelling addition to the gospel. In order to be

saved, you need to believe in Jesus, and you ALSO need to be circumcised

and keep the Law o Moses.

And what makes these circumstances rise to the level o a crisis is ound in my

second point: the debate.

the debAte

The key to understanding the crisis o the debate is ound in 7-11.

And ater 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 o the gospel

and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by

giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction

between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by aith. Now, thereore,

why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck o the

disciples that neither our athers nor we have been able to bear? But we

believe that we will be saved through the grace o the Lord Jesus, just as

they will.

Do you see what Peter is saying here? Hes saying that these men arent just

ADDING to the gospel; theyre ALTERING it.


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Why do I say this? Because o the nature o the grace that Peter talks about

in verse 11 (We believe that we will be saved through the GRACE o the Lord

Jesus). This addition is not an addition. This is alteration. Thats what makes it

a crisis.

Grace means that your welcome into the amily has nothing to do with your

race, your achievements, your merits, your record, your accomplishments, your

successes, your morality or your religiosity. Grace means that your acceptance

with God has absolutely nothing to do with who you are or what youve done.

Thereore, when these people started adding requirements to the simple

aith that Peter talks about in verse 9, they have moved away rom grace in

the direction o works. And when this happens, the very oundations o the

Christian aith are at stake.

Every other religion in the world is rooted in your perormance. Do these

things and youll achieve salvation or nirvana or paradise or a blessed aterlie.

Keep these rules and your god will accept you. Be a good person. Be nice. Or

even believe in God and be nice, and God will welcome you into his amily.

This, emphatically, is NOT Christianity. And in this text, Peter proves it. And he

proves it in two ways. First, he says, look at the Gentiles. And second, he says,look at us Jews.

1. Look at the Gentiles 7-9:

And ater 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 o the gospel and

believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving

them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us

In other words, when the Gentiles simply believed the gospel, God gave them

the Holy Spirit just like he did or the Jews, which means that they had the

same experiences o Gods presence, the same transormations o character

as the Jews.1 This is huge! Because what Peter is saying that the Gentiles

1Timothy Keller, Evangelism: Studies in the Book o Acts (Redeemer Presbyterian Church,

2005), 129.


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WITHOUT circumcision and WITHOUT keeping the law were brought into

the amily. They just believed, and when they believed they had all the same

eects in their lives as the [Christian] Jew did. Thereore they MUST be saved

by grace through aith. They got all the results without any o the works.

So, Look at the Gentiles, Peter says. They prove that Christianity is all about

grace. They were saved APART rom their religious perormance, simply by

aith in the message.

The second thing he says to prove that Christianity is about grace is

2. Look at Us Jews 10:

Now, thereore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on

the neck o the disciples that neither our athers nor we have been able to

bear?

Here we have a clear admission that the Jews THEMSELVES couldnt keep

the Law. And by admitting this, Peter is saying, How can you demand that

the Gentiles be saved by keeping the rules when weve never been able to

do it ourselves?! We werent saved by keeping the rules. We broke them all! I

we are saved, we must be saved APART rom keeping the law because wevenever been able to live up to it. So like them, we must also be saved by grace

and not by rules.

So many people think that the Christian aith is about living according to a set

o rules. That is not true at all.

Christianity is about grace 11: We are saved through the grace o the

Lord Jesus, pure and simple. The Gentiles prove it (God saved them by aith

apart rom circumcision and law-keeping). And we prove it (God saved us by

aith even though we ailed to keep the law). Christianity is all about grace.

This is why, when these men say in 5, It is necessary to circumcise them

[they must be circumcised] and to order them to keep the law o Moses

its why when they say this, Peter doesnt see it as a benign addition to the


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gospel, but as a malignant alteration to it. A non-gospel. An anti-gospel. The

antithesis o Christianity.

This is why the debate was so signicant, why this was a crisis in the church:

the very oundations o Christianity were at stake. Are we (as Peter puts itin verse 10) saved through the grace o the Lord Jesus, or are we saved by

keeping rules? Is the Christian aith undamentally about what you do or God,

or about what God has done or you in Jesus Christ? Those two things are

worlds apart.

Well, the church answers that question with a clear and decisive emphasis on

grace what Im calling the resolution.

the resolutIon

Read 13-14.

Ater they nished speaking, James replied, Brothers, listen to me. Simeon

has related how God rst visited the Gentiles, to take rom them a people

or his name.

Here is what James is saying: believe Peter. We shouldnt ignore Peters

testimony. Peters experience with the Gentiles shows that God saves us by

grace.

But more than Peters experience by itsel, James appeals to the Bible. Peters

experience with the Gentiles, he says, is exactly what the Scripture teaches

15-17.

And with this the words o the prophets agree, just as it is written, Ater this

I will return, and I will rebuild the tent o David that has allen; I will rebuild

its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant o mankind may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes

these things known rom o old.


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James is quoting rom the Old Testament prophet, Amos. Amos says a

day is coming when a Davidic king a king like David is going to rebuild

the temple. James says Gods promise to rebuild the tent o David IS what

happened with Peter and the Gentiles. People who are not Jews are welcomed

into the amily by grace alone. James is saying that is what the promise isabout. It is not about a building in Israel. It is about the building which is the

people o God made up o people rom every tribe and kingdom all by grace,

not by ethnicity.

James is saying, rom these competent authorities (Peter and the witness o

Scripture), that this is true its by grace.

From here, he draws an inerence and oers a compromise in 19-21.

Thereore my judgment is that we should not trouble those o the Gentiles

who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain rom the things

polluted by idols, and rom sexual immorality, and rom what has been

strangled, and rom blood. For rom ancient generations Moses has had

in every city those who proclaim him, or he is read every Sabbath in the

synagogues.

Since this is the case, that Gentiles are saved by grace, lets not make ithard or them. Lets not add stu to the aith. At the same time, a lot o

Jewish Christians are getting all worked up into a lather over more and more

Gentiles coming into the church. We need to do something so that we dont

unnecessarily get them in a tizzy. Lets just have the Gentiles ( 20)

abstain rom things polluted by idols, and rom sexual immorality, and rom

what has been strangled, and rom blood.

Isnt that a great idea?! Abstain rom things polluted by idols, and rom sexual

immorality, and rom what has been strangled, and rom blood! Its exactly

what I would have thought o! I Im thinking o a compromise at this point, Im

thinking o that.

So whats this all about? Its actually pretty simple when you understand the

historical context. Things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, what has been


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strangled, and blood reer to our dierent activities that were known or

believed to [take place] in pagan temples.2

So basically what James is saying is, Lets just tell them to make sure they

stop going to temple easts. Our Jewish brothers are going to think thattheyre doing all kinds o lthy and unlawul things in there and its going

to create controversy where there is none. It is not in order to be welcome

into the amily, but because you are welcome into the amily, love the Jewish

neighbors and not go into those places anymore. Lets ask the Gentiles to love

the Jews well by avoiding them.

So then, whats the resolution? The Gentiles do NOT need to be circumcised

and keep the Law in order to be saved. But precisely because the Gentiles

have experienced that grace, they ought to love their Jewish brothers and

sisters by staying away rom places that will oend them. So what the

resolution is saying in essence is that Christianity is all about grace. Grace

received rom God and grace given to other people.

the response

Well, with this resolution in hand, the church drats a letter explaining it andsends a delegation back to Antioch to share the councils decision. Thats what

we read about in verses 22-29.

Then, in 30-31, we get to read their response, which is my ourth point.

Weve seen the crisis, the debate, the resolution, and now, the response.

So when they were sent o, they went down to Antioch, and having

gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when

they had read it, they rejoiced because o its encouragement.

Every time I read this story and get to verse 31, I always laugh. They rejoiced

because o the letters encouragement. What would encourage you and bring

joy to your heart more than to hear 29?

2Ben Witherington III, The Acts o the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerd-

mans, 1998), 464.


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But the reason I laugh is because Im orgetting the context. They are not

rejoicing because all they have to do is avoid pagan temples. They are thrilled

because this letter has put them at ease.

They are thrilled because it is a conrmation that their relationship with Godis not predicated on their race or attention to religious detail. They are thrilled

because this letter and the presence o this delegation is a rearmation that

they are saved by grace and not works!

[Beore the letter came,] they were disturbed. They were really bothered.

Check out 24.

Since we have heard that some persons have gone out rom us and

troubled you with words, unsettling your minds

They were troubled and unsettled. They were anxious and insecure. And

let me tell you, that this is always what happens when you compromise the

gospel, when you veer o rom grace. You create all kinds o insecurity in

peoples minds and hearts.

I mean, just think about it. How good are you at keeping rules? ANY rules?

You cant even stay on a diet or more than like 15 minutes! As soon as youintroduce your own perormance into whats required or a relationship with

God, you begin to wonder whether or not he accepts you. And because youre

a perennial ailure, a consistent poor perormer, youll be consistently insecure

in your relationship with God. Youll be unsettled all the time. Sometimes the

reason why youre so insecure and unsettled is because youre starting to

think your relationship with God is about what you do or God. It is a veering

o rom grace.

So when the Gentiles in Antioch get this letter, theyre thrilledbecause it

means that salvation is not by works but really is through the grace o the

Lord Jesus (as Peter puts it).

Do your remember my INS story? Well, now these non-citizens hear with an

ocial letter and ocial delegation rom the headquarters that the NEW


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law, the allegiance ONLY law, is the TRUE law, that salvation really is by grace

alone through aith alone in Christ alone. Plus or minus NOTHING.

Thats good news. Thats encouraging. Thats worth getting a little excited

over, dont you think? And so they do in verse 31, they rejoice over thatletters encouragement.

So then, weve seen the crisis, the debate, the resolution, and the response,

all o which are really making one point: that Christianity is all about grace.

And i I can be even more specic, the point is that salvation is by grace alone

through aith alone in Christ alone.

WhAts the poInt?

But now, in light o this, I need to ask a question. And its a really important

one: Why does Luke (the author o Acts) eel the need to emphasize this

or us? Or we could even go bigger than that, Why did God eel the need to

inspire Luke to include the events o Acts 15 in a book that the church would

use or nearly 2,000 years?

Let me make a suggestion. Because you (and I) are thick headed. You (and I)orget it so easily! Grace is the essence o the Christian aith, and yet over and

over and over and over again, you slouch back toward works. Over and over

and over again you turn the Christian aith into a system o achievement, a

ladder o perormance with rungs leading you up to God. The reason why you

need Acts 15 is that unless youre repeatedly reminded o it, you will lose your

handle on grace.

Let me give you an example o how quickly we can orget the gospel.

Youve seen Peters argument or grace alone in verse 11 (But we believe

that we will be saved through the grace o the Lord Jesus), so ervent and

earnest and insistent, right? And youve also seen Barnabas in verse 2 ercely

arguing or salvation by grace. Well, with that in mind, I want you to read what

happened perhaps less than a year later.3 Turn with me to Ga 2:11-14.


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But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his ace, because

he stood condemned. For beore certain men came rom James, he was

eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated

himsel, earing the circumcision party. And the rest o the Jews acted

hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by theirhypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth

o the gospel, I said to Cephas beore them all, I you, though a Jew, live

like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you orce the Gentiles to live like

Jews?

So there you have Cephas (the Aramaic version o Peter) and Barnabas,

even ater contending or the gospel o grace, so quickly abandoning the very

gospel they argued so strenuously to maintain. Paul describes their behavior

with such an excellent image in v 14: Their conduct was not in step with the

truth o the gospel. They were out o step, out o sync with the gospel.

And what is the gospel? What is the essence o that gospel? Look at 16.

we know that a person is not justied by works o the law but through

aith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be

justied by aith in Christ and not by works o the law, because by works o

the law no one will be justied.

Do you see what Paul is doing here? He is saying three times the exact same

thing. Its justication by aith. Justication = declared not guilty in Gods

courtroom. It means to be given immunity rom prosecution; it means to be

acquitted. That acquittal is by aith, not works. And by aith as opposed to

works = not because you earned the right to an acquittal, but simply because

you trusted in Jesus. That is ALWAYS how it is. You are declared not guilty

simply by aith in Jesus. When you start introducing other things, you are

saying, I can earn my acquittal.

3I am amiliar with the arguments that suggest that Gal 2:1-10 is not reerring to the events

o Acts 15, but to a prior and private meeting o Paul with the pillars. At this point, I am

not convinced. Instead, I side with the majority o commentators who believe that Gal 2:10

is reerring to Acts 15:1-35. For a helpul treatment, see Moises Silva, Explorations in Exeget-

ical Method: Galatians as a Test Case (Baker, 1996), 129-39.

At the same time, I will say that whether or not one identies Gal 2:1-10 with Acts 15:1-35

does not undermine the point Im making, as Peter would still have been guilty o quickly

abandoning the gospel o grace so soon ater his experience with Cornelius.


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slouchInG AWAy from JustIfIcAtIon

And what you need to see through the example o Peter and Barnabas is

that your deault posture is QUICKLY to slouch away rom justication by

aith. I do not mean just a year later. I mean that earlier today, I was operatingon the basis that I knew that I was not accepted by God on the basis o my

perormance and then ve minutes later Im acting like I am. It moves THAT

ast.

But what you have to understand here is that you never slouch away

rom justication by aith to NOTHING. Whenever you slouch away rom

justication by aith, you slouch toward SOMETHING; namely, a million orms

o sel-justication the things you look to instead o Jesus to be acceptable

to God.

For Peter and Barnabas, their behavior betrayed a belie that it was by

keeping the Old Testament law that Christians would be acceptable to God.

This is the source o the crisis in Acts 15. They were looking to their nationality

instead o Jesus ALONE to be justied beore God. In the absence o the

justiying work o Christ, you will look to anything you can to justiy yoursel

even your ethnicity.

Now maybe youre not guilty o this particular maniestation o sel-

justication. But that doesnt mean youre not guilty o ANY.

Let me see i I can help you nd your spheres o sel-justication by asking

you one simple question: What do you do when you eel guilty? Youre eeling

guilty or something you said or did or even thought what do you do with

that guilt?

Do you blame-shit? Do you make excuses? Do you become deensive and

irritable? Do you gossip? Do you compare yoursel with other people who are

in worse shape than you are? Where are you looking or justication when you

do that? To Christ? No you are looking to yoursel.

And that last one, I think, really nails our sel-justiying tendencies justiying


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yoursel beore God by looking down on other people. Luke 18 contains the

story o the Pharisee and the tax collector. Luke says that Jesus told this story

to people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked

down on everybody else (Luke 18:9). In other words, trusting in your own

righteousness ENTAILS looking down on everybody else.

So, what are the kinds o people you look down on? In the absence o Christ

justiying you, you will try to make yoursel eel superior to someone else at

some time. I you can gure that out, you can discover how you engage in

sel-justication.

Do you look down on people who smoke, who watch rated-R movies, who

read Harry Potter, who believe in evolution, who have tattoos and piercings,

who dont serve enough in church? Single moms? Poor people? Muslims? Gays

and lesbians? Minorities? Mormons? Scientologists? Actors?

I youre part o the Christian church, do you look down on people whose

doctrine is weaker or whose understanding is weaker or whose behavior is

either silly or sinul?

Do you look down at narrow-minded, ignorant, racists? I you are a minority,

do you look down on the dominant race, thinking youre nobler because ohow youve suered?

Do you look down on people who are less educated than you are? People

whose tastes are less rened?

Or maybe you look down on none o these people. Maybe youre like me: you

look down on people who look down on people.

Go to your perch o superiority. Thats the place where you justiy yoursel. Its

the place where you are saying in essence: I am acceptable to God and other

people on a basis OTHER than the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when that happens, you are not living in step with the truth o the gospel.


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overcomInG self-JustIfIcAtIon

And yet, its so easy to do! Too easy. How can we overcome it? How can we

overcome our pervasive and powerul sel-justiying tendencies? Well, there is

only one way: you and I need to be continually reminded o 16:

a person is not justied by works o the law but through aith in Jesus

Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justied by

aith in Christ and not by works o the law, because by works o the law no

one will be justied.

That, in one sentence, is the message o Acts 15.

You and I cant hear enough that God does not accept you on the basis o

your works, but only through aith in Christ. Listen. I you are a Christian, you

have NOTHING to prove to ANYONE! You are walking around with the record

o Christ. It is a perect record. It is a perect resume. We need to hear this

over and over and over again. You cant hear enough that Christianity is not a

moralistic system o achievement, but a living relationship with a savior who

accepts you completely in spite o the kind o person you are.

Martin Luther has said, The gospelis the principal article o all ChristiandoctrineMost necessary it is, thereore, that we should know this article well,

teach it [to] others, and beat it into their heads continually.4

conclusIon

So you and I need to be clear on the gospel. And that gospel is this: we are

saved through the grace o the Lord Jesus. Sheer grace. Grace alone through

aith alone in Christ alone on that basis alone are you welcomed and stay

welcomed in the presence o God.

The church had to get this clear in Acts 15. The church had to get this clear

again in Galatians 2. The church has ALWAYS had to get this clearbecause

without it, there is no Christianity. And i there is no Christianity, there is no

4Martin Luther, A Commentary on St Pauls Epistle to the Galatians (Miller & Burlock, 1860),

206.


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mission, the world cannot be reclaimed, and all is lost.

So where are you at tonight? Have you been relying on your perormance,

the act that youre a good, nice person to gain your welcome into Gods

amily? Can I encourage you tonight? Relax. Rest in what Christ has done. Putyour trust in Jesus Christ. Alone. And your salvation is orever secure. Always

secure. Amen.

r W G

pii: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in

anyormat provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a ee

beyond the cost o reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is

preerred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Redeemer Bible Church.

Please include the ollowing statement on any distributed copy: By R W Glenn. R W Glenn.

Website: redeemerbiblechuch.com


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acts part 19 - clarity for the mission

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