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LEADER GUIDE

HHIGHLIGHT: Acts 15:1-21

Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue. 3When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.

4When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

6The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter. 7After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them: “Brothers and sisters, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. 8And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”

12The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13After they stopped speaking, James responded: “Brothers and sisters, listen to me. 14Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. 15And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

16After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent.I will rebuild its ruinsand set it up again, 17so the rest of humanity may seek the Lord—even all the Gentileswho are called by my name—declares the Lordwho makes these things 18known from long ago.

19Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God, 20but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood. 21For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.”

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LEADER GUIDE

EEXPLAIN

Leaders: Feel free to use any of the “Explain” materials to guide discussion as it is needed or to expound on a certain area of the text as it comes up during your Life Group time, but the purpose of this section is to deepen your own personal understanding of the Word. Your members have access to all of this material as well.

The growing church faces one of its first major problems from within: to what extent were they to keep with the cultural tradition of Judaism? A number of the converts were Pharisees, and they thought that the newly converted Gentiles should have to conform to the standards set forth in the Law of Moses. James, Jesus’ brother and the elder at the church in Jerusalem, makes a ruling in the matter that is just, considerate, and compassionate.

v.1,5 We have to remember that, as we look back on this, Pharisees were being saved alongside Gentiles. According to Jewish tradition, Judaism always had a way for Gentiles to enter the fold: they get circumcised and come under the law of Moses, and Jewish tradition was all these Pharisees had ever known. They’d grown up in it, had every proud moment of their lives through it, and found their identity in relation to their adherence to the Law. It’s easy to look back with disgust at the constraints they wanted to put on people new to an Abrahamic faith, but we must also remember that they quite literally didn’t know anything other than this.

With that said, a lot of times we find ourselves in the same position as these Pharisees—we want to see Christians profess Christ and change how they dress or listen to different music or change their standard for what is “proper.” If we thrust external expectations on a new believer (or any believer for that matter) in order to live under grace, we are doing the same thing the Judaizers did. Salvation is Jesus + nothing else, for both Jew and Gentile.

v.13 The dramatic pause in verse 12 sets up the drama of this verse. First, understand these things about who is about to speak. James was known as James the Just, and it was said that when he died, his knees were so calloused from kneeling to pray that they looked like camel’s knees. He was also the brother of Christ—but he didn’t come to faith in Him as the Messiah until after His death and resurrection. Finally, he was a known ascetic who scrupulously kept the Mosaic law.

The Pharisees-turned-believers have been making a case for having new Gentile believers come under the full weight of the law, like they do. Then, some of Jesus’ apostles stand and argue the opposite. In the silence that preceded James’ standing to speak, the tension must have been palpable. It also carried an air of finality, since James was the lead elder at the church in Jerusalem. The Pharisees must’ve been convinced he’d take their side and veritably shocked when he didn’t.

v.20 James’ restrictions on new Gentile believers were actually extremely diplomatic. Sexual purity was expected of everyone, but James made a point to emphasize it since many Gentile believers came from a background of total sexual indiscretion. The restriction on food offered to idols was an effort to keep them from any form of or association with idolatry. The restriction on food had nothing to do with the inherent right-or-wrongness of eating a rare steak; it was so that they could enjoy fellowship with believers who still kept the Mosaic law. In all, James’ decision was extremely gracious and Spirit-led, and made an undeniable impact on the way the church would develop, even to today.

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LEADER GUIDE

AAPPLY Your Leader Guide will have material that the member guides do not have. The bolded material is what the people in your group will have, the other material is only for you to help guide discussion.

This guide can be as strict a script or as general a resource as the leader needs it to be.

1. What stuck out to you or challenged you in what you heard in the sermon or read in the text?

2. How do you react to disagreement? When is a time you’ve had a disagreement with someone else? How was it resolved?

3. Why do you think some Jewish Christians wanted to make Gentiles keep Old Testament laws? How do we sometimes put “requirements” on people before they can turn to God? If we don’t do this, should we? Explain.

For these Jewish Christians, the only way they knew to express their piety was through strict adherence to God’s Laws. They saw Christ as the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, so perhaps they assumed that they could demonstrate their allegiance to Him by continuing to keep those laws.

In the same way, we’re sometimes tempted to confuse personal preference with what makes a “good” Christian. What assures salvation is not a set of behaviors, but the grace of Christ! R. Kent Hughes wrote, “We so easily push our preferences on others. We assume they will either do things our way or they are unspiritual. We too often put others through the paces of our own heritage before we fully accept them as brothers and sisters. Sadly, sometimes a church will radiate more of this than the gospel!”

4. How would you describe “Christian culture”? What steps can we take to make sure what we teach is in line with Scripture, rather than just with the culture of Christianity?

Especially in the South, Christianity runs the risk of becoming a cultural identity rather than the description of a personal relationship with Christ. Cultural Christianity might involve using certain phrases, posting certain things on their social media, even advocating voting one way or another. In essence, it’s how a Christian might adapt to the culture around them.

Christianity is, however, in most ways countercultural. It advocates loving others more than we love ourselves; not seeking vengeance or holding grudges, but praying for those who persecute us; giving more than we take; obedience—to our elected officials, to our parents, to God’s sovereignty; clothing those without clothes, even if we think they’re gross; feeding those without food, even if we think they’ve made bad choices; forgiving even if we think we’re in the right, for God first forgave us even when we were terribly wrong.

Christianity is not a list of “do”s and “don’t”s, but a response to recognizing the grace Christ showed us while we were sinners, and living that grace out for the people around us to see.

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LEADER GUIDE

R RESPOND Take a few moments to respond like this:

• Pray for an opportunity to demonstrate grace to someone this week.

Encourage one another through email, text messages, or coffee dates throughout the week to build up and encourage each other.

5. How can we make turning to God less difficult for people in our community? How can we demonstrate the grace we’ve received from Him to others?

In today’s passage, we saw the Jewish Christians attempting to burden the new Gentile converts with things that, while they weren’t inherently bad, they weren’t necessary—and they betrayed a misunderstanding of what salvation is. Someone can keep Jewish laws and still be a Christian, but requiring someone to obey them implies grace and salvation is something earned. In truth, it’s the exact opposite: Christ gives us freedom because our salvation is not, nor could it ever be, earned.

A Christian will bear fruit of the Holy Spirit, but those things are much more all-encompassing than simple marks of Christian culture. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control stand independent of culture and take attention away from the work of the hands, placing it on the heart, instead.