Acts 15

STUDY NINETEEN: THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL – ACTS 15:1 – 35

In Acts 1 we read about the ascension of Jesus Christ. In Acts 2 we read about the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell all who believe in Jesus Christ. After these two events, what Luke wrote in Acts 15 is the most important, the most crucial, of all his reports. Here in Jerusalem, as the apostles and elders met with Paul, Barnabas and others from the church in Antioch, the gospel is either affirmed or denied. Grace is either upheld or discarded. Freedom is either preserved or replaced with bondage.

A. THE PROBLEM

The people who had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ in Antioch and the surrounding areas had four distinct prior racial/religious identities:

Some had been Jews by race and religion.

Some had been Gentiles by race and Jewish by religion. Leaving behind their multiple gods, they had come to believe in the living God, they had undergone ritual Jewish baptism (mikvah), and, if male, had been circumcised. They were known as ‘proselytes’ (newcomers), and were considered to be fully Jews.

Some had been Gentiles who, like Cornelius in Caesarea (Acts 10:2) were known as ‘God-fearers’; they had put aside their pagan gods and worshipped the God of the Jews, but had not become ‘Jews’ – they had not gone through the Jewish rites of baptism and circumcision. (Peter had been criticised for going into Cornelius’ house and eating with ‘uncircumcised men’ – Acts 11:3.)

Some had been Gentiles by race and by religion.

People from each of these four groups now believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; there were ‘circumcised’ believers (the first two groups above), and there were ‘uncircumcised’ believers (the last two groups), all meeting together in the name of Jesus Christ; all worshipping him and following him as their Lord.

A.1 Notes on circumcision:
Here is the Old Testament background of circumcision:

[1] In Genesis 17:1 - 14, God appeared to Abram, and, changing his name to Abraham, introduced the circumcision as a sign of his covenant. As well as affirming his previous promises, God required Abraham and all males in his household to be circumcised. Failure to be circumcised meant breaking this covenant. The seriousness of this is indicated by verse 14: ‘Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.’ But circumcision was merely the physical, outward sign of the covenant; it was meaningless without a heart submission to God – ‘walk before me and be blameless’ – 17:1.

[2] Exodus 12:44 – 49 excludes males who were not circumcised from eating the Passover. Any foreigners living among the Israelites and wanting to eat the Passover, had to be circumcised.

[3] Joshua 5:2 – 8: Because none of the males born during the forty years in the desert had been circumcised, God told Joshua to circumcise the Israelites on entry to the promised land (Joshua 3 & 4),

[4] The term ‘uncircumcised’ was used to refer to non-Israelites in a derogatory way – 1Samuel 17:26, 36; 31:4.

[5] The term ‘uncircumcised’ was applied to Israelites who did not listen to the word of God – they had ‘uncircumcised’ hearts or ears – Leviticus 26:41; Jeremiah 6:10.

[6] Jeremiah 9:25, 26 – Similarly, it is possible to be ‘circumcised’ in the flesh, but ‘uncircumcised’, that is, living a godless life, even though physically identified as God’s by circumcision – ‘even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart’. Physical circumcision did not exclude a person from God’s punishment.

[7] Ezekiel 32 (multiple verses) – is a lament about various nations and their leaders who will ‘die uncircumcised’; this is portrayed as part of God’s judgement on them.

[8] Ezekiel 44:7, 9 – ‘no foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary’.

This Old Testament background of circumcision was known to all Jews, and by Gentile proselytes to Judaism.

A.2 How this problem impacted the early church
We have already seen in previous chapters:

Peter had to be convinced by a special vision that it was okay for him to go to an uncircumcised man’s house, and preach the gospel to him and his household – Acts 10:1 – 34.

Peter was criticized by ‘circumcised believers’ for associating with ‘uncircumcised men’ – Acts 11:2,3.

So critical was the acceptance of uncircumcised believers into the fellowship of believers, that God confirmed his acceptance of them with observable phenomena – Acts 10:44 – 48.

It was this observable evidence that convinced Peter that it was okay for him to baptize these uncircumcised believers (10:47), and that Peter later used to justify both his associating with them and baptizing them (11:15 – 17).

At the time, that satisfied the circumcised believers in Jerusalem – 11:18.

But now the same issue is again raised, in a different situation and a different level:

The different situation: Cornelius, an uncircumcised Gentile, although not a proselyte, ‘was devout and God-fearing’ and ‘prayed to God regularly’ (10:2), before he believed in Jesus Christ. But the Gentiles from Antioch and the surrounding area who believed in Jesus Christ were converted directly out of their pagan beliefs.

The different level: It is not an apostle (Peter) being criticised for associating with uncircumcised men, as in Acts 11, but a group of circumcised believers from Judea deliberately and persistently teaching the uncircumcised believers in Antioch (Syria) that they could not be saved unless they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses.

Answer these questions:
Who were these Christians who were corrupting the gospel, and what did they say?
15:1

15:5

How do these requirements interfere with the sufficiency of the death of Christ to save us?

How does it interfere with ‘grace’?

How does it interfere with ‘justification by faith’?

The church in Antioch in Syria was a well-established, missional church.

What do you learn about the church in Antioch from these verses?
Acts 11:19, 20

11:22 – 24

11:25 – 26

11:27 – 30

13:1

13:2, 3

From these verses we learn that the church in Antioch (Syria):

Had already been approved by the church in Jerusalem.
Valued solid teaching.
Gave compassionate help to those in need.
Had several recognised prophets and teachers in their congregation.
Engaged in worship, prayer and fasting.
Were sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.
Sent Paul and Barnabas out on mission.

This is the church to which men from Judea came, and, without any authorisation from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, told the congregation ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved’ – 15:1. This was not said just once, but was on-going (indicated by the Imperfect Tense of the verb – ‘were teaching’).

The ‘sharp dispute and debate’ between these men and Paul and Barnabas focused on the second most important doctrine of the Christian faith. (The most important is the question ‘Who is Jesus?’). This second central question is ‘What did the death of Christ accomplish?’ Is his death all that is necessary for God to save us? Or, do we have do contribute some personal merit to both gain and maintain our salvation?’ ‘Are we saved by grace, or by keeping the law of Moses?’

A.3 Grace and the church at Antioch
Of the eleven references to grace in Acts, six have some connection with the church at Antioch.

Acts 11:23 – Barnabas, sent to Antioch by the church in Jerusalem, ‘saw the evidence of the grace of God.’

Acts 13:43 – Paul and Barnabas, sent on mission by the Antioch (Syria) church ‘urged’ the many Pisidian Antioch Jews and Gentile proselytes who followed them to ‘continue in the grace of God’. The English translations do not reveal the meaning of the Greek text, which reads that ‘Paul and Barnabas, speaking with them, were persuading/convincing them to continue in (that is never let go of) the grace of God.’ The verb translated ‘continue’ is an intensified form of the verb translated ‘remain’ in John 15:4. In this verse, Jesus is speaking about himself as the place where we live – he is our habitual dwelling place: we live in him. Here in Acts 13:43, Paul and Barnabas, missionaries from Antioch, were convincing the Jews and the Gentile proselytes, to live, to dwell, in the reality of God’s grace. To never let go of grace.

Acts 14:3 – The message preached by Paul and Barnabas, sent out from the Antioch (Syria) church, is summarised as ‘the message of his grace’. God himself confirmed their message ‘by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders’. [See Hebrews 2:4 for a similar statement about this role of the miracles as God’s affirmation of the message.]

Acts 14:26 – The church at Antioch (Syria) had committed Paul and Barnabas ‘to the grace of God’. This is probably means that they had prayed for, and trusted, God in his mercy to look after them and their missionary work.

Acts 15:11 – In response to the law-based teaching of the men from Judea who troubled the believers in Antioch (Syria), and in contradiction of what some Pharisees said (verse 5), Peter strongly affirmed that ‘we believe that it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.’

Acts 15:40 – Paul and Silas, setting off on a mission trip from Antioch (Syria), were ‘commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. (Compare 14:26, above).

God freely gives complete salvation to all who believe in his Son. That is, we are saved by grace, by God’s gift. Paul understood that task the Lord Jesus had given him was ‘testifying to the gospel of God’s grace’ – Acts 20:24. But these men from Judea, and then some of the believers in Jerusalem, taught otherwise.

B. HOW THE PROBLEM WAS SOLVED

B.1 Paul and Barnabas confront the men from Judea – 15:2a
We have previously seen Paul valued the truth of the gospel so highly that he was committed to defending it (see Acts 13:6 – 11, where he confronted Elymas – discussed in Study 17). Here in Antioch in Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas could not let the men from Judea go unchallenged. Luke reports that what these men were teaching ‘brought them into sharp dispute and debate with them’ – verse 2. And that is not at all surprising. As preachers and teachers of the message of God’s grace they had to strongly disagree with these men; they had to tell them the truth about the role of grace, the centrality of grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they didn’t, the cross of Christ would be rendered powerless.

B.2 A delegation sent to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem – 15:2b – 4
Paul, Barnabas and others from the church in Antioch were sent by the church to the church in Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders there about this question. On the way they told the believers in Phoenicia and Samaria about the conversion of the Gentiles; people were glad to hear that news. Arriving in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles and the elders. They reported to the church everything that God had done through them.

[B.3 – The issue became even more difficult – 15:5
Rather than praise God for saving the Gentiles, some Jerusalem believers, who were also Pharisees, stood up in the church and said ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required (= commanded) to obey the law of Moses.’ The question ‘should the Gentile Christians be circumcised?’ had now become even larger ‘Must the Gentile believers keep the law of Moses?’]

B.4 How the apostles and elders responded to this – 15:6, 7
The elders and apostles met to discuss the question. Whether this was in the hearing of the congregation, or a separate meeting is not clear. Verse 6 makes it appear to be a separate meeting, but verse 12 seems to infer that quite a large number of people were present. Paul and Barnabas were included – verse 12.

B.5 What Peter said – 15:7 – 11
Luke does not report the content of the lengthy discussion; but he does tell us Peter’s strong contribution:

[1] Peter reminded them that God chose him, from among the apostles, to preach the message of the gospel to the Gentiles, so that the Gentiles would hear the gospel and believe.

[2] Peter explained how God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted these Gentiles –

God gave them the Holy Spirit, just as he had given the Holy Spirit to the apostles (this was evident because they spoke in languages, just as the apostles had ‘at the beginning’ – see 10:44,45; 11:15, 16).

God made no distinction between ‘us and them’.

God purified their hearts by faith.

[3] Peter considered that to require the Gentile believers to keep the law of Moses was actually testing God – he asked ‘why do you try to test God …’ – verse 10.

The word translated ‘test’ is the usual word for ‘tempt’; the gospel writers used it to refer to the devil’s tempting of Jesus, and of the times when the Pharisees and teachers of the law put pressure on Jesus, trying to trap him by some sticky question. In its various uses it has a sense of pressure being applied, of pushing or provoking someone to do something.

Peter is accusing these men of putting pressure on God by their beliefs … in effect, putting pressure on God to agree with them and undo the grace of the gospel.

[4] Peter made a radical statement about the law of Moses – that ‘neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear’ that ‘yoke’, which these men were putting on the Gentiles. Peter understood that keeping the law of Moses was impossible. While the Pharisees believed that they were right with God because of their keeping of the law, the truth was that, in practice, no-one did. But here were these men telling the Gentile believers that they must.

[5] Given this impossibility of keeping the law, if anyone is going to be saved, whether Jew or Gentile, it can only be by ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’ – verse 11.
Peter’s input shows clear understanding of both human inability and salvation by grace alone, through Christ alone. He also clearly understood the implications of demanding the keeping of the law as necessary for salvation.

B.6 Barnabas and Paul’s report – 15:12
Interestingly, verse 12 does not include reference to Jews and Gentiles coming to faith in Christ; all that is mentioned is ‘the miraculous sings and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them’. And perhaps it is wise to ask ‘Why?’ Why is there no mention of all the ‘souls’ that were saved? Wasn’t that the whole point of their mission trip – to so preach the good news that people would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved?

Paul mentioned the miracles because the miracles confirmed the message. The message of grace which Paul and Barnabas preached was extremely radical, contrary to all human religions, and contrary to the Judaism of that era. All human religions require that we have to merit, earn or deserve whatever the desired goal is in that religion. Judaism, as taught by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, had the same mindset – that a person had to keep the law of Moses to be saved – to be accepted by God.

But the message which Peter preached to Cornelius, and which Barnabas and Paul preached and taught in Antioch and on their mission trip, was a message of grace, a message that turned religious thinking upside down. A message that was being rejected by those men from Judea, and some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisees’ party, in Jerusalem.

Just as God had accredited Jesus by the miracles, signs and wonders that he did, and just as God had affirmed the salvation of Cornelius and his household, by giving them the observable gift of speaking in languages, so God had affirmed the message taught by Paul and Barnabas by doing miraculous signs and wonders through them – verse 12.

Look again at these verses, that state that the miracles and wonders done by the apostles affirm both them and their message:
Acts 14:3

Romans 15:15 – 19

2Corinthians 12:12

Hebrews 2:3, 4

Paul and Barnabas preached and taught the message of grace. The fact that God did miracles through them was God’s confirmation of that message, a message that was now being threatened by some of the believers.

B.6 James’ suggestion – 15:13 – 21
James stated that Peter’s description of how God used him to bring the Gentiles to faith was in agreement with the Old Testament prophets. He quoted only Amos 9:11, 12, which sees the inclusion of the Gentiles as the purpose of God which had been known for ages. He then expresses his judgement:

That they should not make it difficult for the Gentiles (and Peter had just stated how difficult, actually impossible, keeping the law of Moses was). This judgement relieved the Gentiles of the demand by some that they had to be circumcised to be saved.

That the Gentile believers should ‘abstain from food polluted by idols’ (note that, outside of Israel, most of the meat sold in the markets had previously been offered to idols).

They should abstain from sexual immorality (which was commonly practised both in Gentile culture generally and in the idolatrous worship in which the Gentile believers had previously been involved).

They should abstain from ‘the meat of strangled animals and from blood’. It is considered by some Bible teachers that blood offerings were included in some of the idolatrous practices formerly engaged in by the Gentile believers. The law of Moses clearly outlawed eating blood – Leviticus 17.

Notes on these recommendations:

Clearly Peter, Paul and Barnabas convinced James that God accepted uncircumcised men, and that Jewish believers should therefore also accept them.

The recommendations to abstain from three types of food, and from sexual immorality, all had some relationship to practices involved in idolatry.

The food recommendations are considered by some Bible teachers to be a compromise of some sort aimed at making it easier for Jewish believers and Gentile believers to eat/fellowship together. [These recommendations may explain the problem Paul wrote about in Galatians 2:11 – 14. Paul found it necessary to write at length about the issue in Romans 14:1 – 15:13 and 1Corinthians 8:1 – 11:1.]

B.7 The letter – 15:22 – 35
The apostles, elders and the whole church agreed with James’ judgement, and decided to put it into a letter to be taken from them to the Gentile believers, by two of their recognized leaders, Silas and Judas, who accompanied Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch (15:22 – 29). The letter was addressed ‘To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.’

In addition to James’ recommendations, the letter contained:

A statement that the men from Judea who had told them they had to be circumcised did so without authorization from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. This statement released the Gentile believers from the false teaching that circumcision was necessary for salvation.

An acknowledgement of Paul and Barnabas and their dedication to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A reference to the Holy Spirit not burdening the Gentile believers with anything beyond the four ‘abstain from …’ actions mentioned in the letter.

The Gentile believers were encouraged by both the letter and by the preaching of Silas and Judas.

Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and, along with many others, taught and preached the word of the Lord.

C. ON-GOING PROBLEMS

[1] As we have seen, the problem appeared to be sorted out in Acts 15; an official letter was written by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, distancing themselves from what had been said by those men from Judea. Silas and Judas were also sent back to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas to reassure the uncircumcised believers there.

However, Paul’s letters to various churches reveal that the acceptance of uncircumcised/Gentile Christians by Jewish Christians continued to be a major issue in the churches. You can read what Paul had to say about this in the following passages: Romans 1:18 – 8:17; 1Corinthians 7:17 – 24; Galatians 1:6 – 5:26; Ephesians 2:1 – 3:13; Philippians 3:1 – 11; Colossians 2:6 – 3:11; Titus 1:9 – 11.

It seems that a significant number of Jewish believers, although saved because of their confession of Jesus Christ as Lord, found it very difficult to let go of a law-based mindset, which, according to Paul is a flesh-based mindset, which locked believers in a necessity to conform to the expected level of personal righteousness (law-keeping), and effectively denied the liberating impact of God’s grace, diminishing the peace and joy that is every believers’ inheritance in Christ.

But, while recognizing this problem in the early church, we need also to look at our churches today, and when we do, we realize that a very similar problem exists, in which some kind of ‘keeping the law’ is deemed necessary for salvation. The grace-denying attitudes and beliefs that Paul found necessary to address in his various letters mentioned above, are just as relevant for the church today as they were when first written.

Read this study for more discussion of grace.

[2] The problem of meat that had been offered to idols also continued, as referenced in Paul’s letters to Rome and Corinth – see ‘notes on these recommendations’ in B.6 above.

For a timeline showing when the Jerusalem council occurred, and various letters were written, go to this webpage .