God’s Plan for Missions 3

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So let’s grab our Bible and let’s get into the Word. We have been studying God’s plan for missions and this morning as we come to chapter 15 we come to the final part of this little series in the book of Acts.

We are reminded the book of Acts runs parallel to the great commission that Christ has given the disciples. If you recall in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 Jesus told them that they were to take the gospel to first the Jews Jerusalem and then they were to take it to Samaria and then they were to take it to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And as we study chapters 1 all the way through chapter 8 we see that they are doing a great job of reaching Jerusalem. And then we jump into chapter 9 where the Apostle Paul who at the time is Saul and he is converted to Christianity but he was the number one persecutor of the church.

But this led to the spreading of the gospel that as he would invade into the homes of believers that they would spread out and take the gospel. of Jesus Christ to Samaria. We remember that because Christ commissioned the disciples to take the gospel and the disciples now are flooding the gospel into this little region called Samaria and then we come to chapter 13 and we begin to witness how the church is embarking upon this great commission of taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth,

to every person on the planet and when we looked at chapter 13 we saw the calling to missions that in God’s plan for missions that he would call people within the local church to step up and to step out of the fellowship and to take the gospel to other places and other regions and other lands and we saw that Barnabas and Paul or who at the time was Saul they would take a team and they would go share the gospel of Jesus Christ and We learned so much about that.

Then we picked up last week in verse 6 of chapter 13, and there we went all the way through chapter 14, unbelievably. But the point is God’s plan for missions also has challenges. There are many challenges for missionaries, and there are many challenges for all of us who share the gospel of Christ.

There is deception. There is frustration. There is opposition. There is persecution. And we walked you through all those different challenges that are before the missionary. This is why it’s essential that you be a people who are praying for the missionary.

Now, when we come to chapter 15, our final section on this plan for missions, I call it the conference on missions. Amazingly, it’s been about 15 years since Jesus had died and rose again when we come to this text in chapter 15 of the book of Acts.

And what we see here is the first church council. Whenever the church had a problem throughout the history of the church, the leaders of the church would gather, they would debate, they would discuss, and they would deal with it, and they would come with an answer.

And this is what you are witnessing in chapter 15. And I want you to see first the dissension that takes place. The Bible says in verse 1 of chapter 15 that certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders about this question.

So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria describing the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.

of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law. Unfortunately what had taken place as we shared with you last week that there is always the challenge of false teaching and unfortunately some Jewish believers being misguided were insisting it was essential for the male gentile converts to be circumcised.

The Bible says in verse 1 that certain men they are referred to as Judaizers and they were teaching a doctrine that you must work your way to heaven. That the only way you can be saved is if you work your way to heaven.

You and I know different. The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God not of works. And so how is it that you and I are saved? By what Christ did on the cross for us, we place our faith in Jesus Christ.

He washes us and He cleanses us of our sins and He grants us a new life and He gives us a new beginning. But yet the Bible teaches us that in the early church, there was the challenge of teaching of salvation by works.

Now look down at verse four. The Bible says when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders. They reported all things. What were they reporting? They were reporting what God was doing, the evidence of God’s work in the life of the Gentiles.

Remember that I told you how the gospel was going out. It went to Jerusalem. People were getting saved. Remember that Peter baptized over 3 ,000 people on the day of Pentecost. And then you remember that Philip the Evangelist went into Samaria and you remember how many were coming to Christ, but specifically that there was a political leader.

He was a eunuch and he was a man of great means and great wealth. And yet he was wondering about this gospel. He was wondering about this Jesus and Philip explained to him the wonderful news of Jesus Christ and he came to believe in Christ and then was baptized.

It is those kinds of things they were sharing with the leaders of the church. Then we see the discussion in verse six and seven note. Now the apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter.

And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago, God chose among us that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

Peter is giving a defense that God had chosen him to take the gospel out far enough. he is reminding them of how God was converting souls. Jump down to verse 10 and 11. Now therefore why do you test God?

By putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear. Remember what is the yoke? It is that you have to be circumcised. You have to follow the Jewish law or you cannot be saved.

Verse 11 of chapter 15. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they. Meaning that God doesn’t have one plan of salvation for one group of people and then another plan of salvation for another group of people.

But there is one gospel, there is one Lord, and there is one baptism, there is one salvation that we find and it is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have a question here to consider this morning.

this declaration has been made that we shall be saved in the same manner and that manner is that we must believe in Jesus Christ in what he did on the cross for our sins and the question I want you to consider this morning is how is faith acquired how is faith if I am called to believe how is this faith acquired if I am called to trust how is this acquired look at Romans 10 17 on the screen it says so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God how does God ignite faith in the hearts of your children how does God ignite faith in the hearts of your friends and your family how does God ignite faith in your hearts let me tell you through the hearing of the Word of God now God has not only chosen his message and he is not only ordained his message but he is ordained the means by which it would come about and so I want you to jump back to verse 9 and I want you to see this that as Peter is making the case that it is salvation by faith that he says in verse 9 and made no distinction between us and them meaning there’s no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles purifying their hearts by what by faith they were forgiven of their sins their hearts became pure before God not because of what they did not because of all their efforts or achievements but rather by their faith in what Christ did on the cross for them God is the one who purifies our hearts he uses the instrument of faith to bring us to forgiveness and to find the true salvation that’s in Jesus Christ many of you have burdens for your friends for your children and for your family members that do not know Christ the key to understand is that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God there is a dynamic to this kind of faith that changes the heart.

Did you see that in verse nine? Purifying their heart. It is not only that God changes us within, but He progressively changes us without. That as God has intrinsically changed us and forgiven us and cleansed our hearts, that He outwardly begins to shape our lives and to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ, that we might reflect the glory of God.

That’s why behavior modification, it isn’t sufficient to save this nation. Trying to get everybody to be moral and to do the right thing will not save this nation. The only way that this nation will turn around and come back to God is if they put their faith and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it would make sense. Because Christianity is rooted in Judaism, it certainly would be understandable that there might be some who are misguided in thinking that we must follow the Jewish law. But I want you to remember this.

Jesus Christ, when he sat in that upper room, and there’s nothing distinct about the upper room, I went to the upper room, it was just upstairs. It said the upper room, I thought it was gonna be special, but it was just upstairs.

But Jesus was up in the upper room, and there he sat with the disciples, and he told them that the old covenant was completed in him and that he was instituting a new covenant. A new covenant, when we take communion together, we celebrate what Christ has done in that he has not only paid for our sins, but he is fulfilled, and he has completed all that the Jewish law required.

And now, my friends, we live under a new covenant that is rooted in what Christ did on the cross. What we could not do, this yoke of burden of trying to keep up with the law and follow all the commands and do all the ceremonies that they required that could not be fulfilled in our own flesh, and our own effort was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And now we have a new covenant, and those ceremonial laws, and all the Judaism of the practices and the rituals, it is all faded away. Why? Because Christ fulfilled it all. Every once in a while, I run into believers, and they say, well, Pastor Mike, you’re not really doing it right.

You’re meeting on Sunday, and really, you’re called to meet on Saturday. And I say, well, I can’t meet on Saturday, I gotta mow the lawn, but I’m just saying, they say Saturday’s the Sabbath. But listen to me, friends, under the old covenant, yes, Saturday was the Sabbath, but it was fulfilled in Christ.

The church meets on Sunday, because this is the day that Christ rose again. We come and we begin our week. This is the first day of the week. Look at your calendar. This is the first day of the week, not Monday, but Sunday’s the first day of the week, and we dedicate this week to God, and we worship Christ, and we begin our week with Him, and we ask for His strength, His grace, His forgiveness, His goodness to be a part of it.

on us so that we might reflect Christ in every relationship, in every activity, in every situation that we find ourselves. And that’s why we understand that we are not under the old covenant, but rather we are under the new covenant that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Peter is explaining all this in verse seven through 14 that God is calling the Gentiles and the Jews out, and He is calling them to be believers and that this is the new church and that this is God’s people and it doesn’t matter their ethnicity, it doesn’t matter the color of their skin, it doesn’t matter what their education level is, it doesn’t matter where they came from or where they’re headed to,

what matters is do they know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior? The gospel is not an invitation for you to be more religious. But the gospel is an invitation for you to have a real relationship with Jesus.

And when you get that all messed up, and sometimes parents, we gotta be careful that we don’t mess our kids up thinking that the gospel is about rules and religion and what we really need to help them understand that the gospel is about being connected to the Father and that we have a relationship with the Father and it is through Christ that that is made possible and that relationship purifies our heart and changes our lives from here on out.

I want you to see in verse 19 through 29, and we don’t got time to read every verse, and that is the decision that was finally made. They had this debate, they’re laying it all out there, Peter’s making the case, Paul is making the case, Barnabas is making the case, and they’re all saying, look, God is working and people are being saved and we’re not gonna put this yoke of burden on people.

So look at verse 19 of chapter 15, therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things that are polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood, we’ll explain that here in a second, for Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath,

that it pleased the apostles and the elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Barsebus and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and of course they then write a letter.

Now what’s going on here? What is going on? A decision has been made, and here you’ll note in verse 19 that he says we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. The word trouble has the idea of throwing something in someone’s path to annoy them or to trip them, and what…

Peter is saying look let’s not do this let’s not throw something in the path of a new believer that frustrates them or confuses them and messes them up in their understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You and I as believers we have to be careful about this that we don’t become so legalistic in our faith that we throw something in the path of a new believer that not only annoys them but trips them up and causes them to become distant in their fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Moms and dads you need to be alert to this that the things that you prefer are not always the principles of God’s word. Some of you are more worried about the hair of your children than you are the heart of your children and you’ve got to stay alert.

Listen as a believer I have preferences in my life I have things that I like I have things that work for me in my discipline in my habits of walking with the Lord Jesus Christ but it’s not necessarily that it’s in the Bible it’s not necessarily that it’s spelled out in the Bible and so I don’t project those on you.

I don’t sit there and tell you, you gotta do A, B, and C. What I try to do is get up and teach the Bible and principles to you and tell you through the power of the Spirit of God and the wisdom of God and the mind of Christ that you would live out your faith as God has called you to do.

I don’t have a long list of do’s and don’ts. I just don’t. I mean, I tried to make the list, but I started looking at the list and said, Mike, I can’t live up to this, so why make this list? I crumbled up and threw it in the trash, amen?

And what I want you to know is don’t ever put in the path of another believer something that will trip them up in their faith and always distinguish between the difference between what is a principle and what is a preference.

But anyways, my point is to you that you have preferences in all areas of your life. Don’t make them a requirement that causes new believers to stumble. That’s what Peter is trying to teach us. Now, they made it clear in their decision that salvation came through God’s grace, that it wasn’t circumcision, it wasn’t religion, it wasn’t rituals, and the Gentiles did not have to become a Jew to be a Christian.

Now get this, you don’t have to become an American to be a Christian. That in every culture, all Christians have different things that they like in their culture, but that doesn’t mean they’re not Christians.

What you have to do is come to Christ and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be a Christian. And it’s not just that you’re born an America that makes you a Christian, you must make a personal decision with the Lord.

You must confess that you’re a sinner, acknowledge that he is the Lord, and believe in him that he died for your sins. Now the Bible tells us in verse 20 and 21 that they laid out four little guidelines for them.

They laid out these guidelines for them, and they asked them as new believers to not participate in some of these things. because it would be a stumbling block to the Jewish believer. Look at verse 21.

For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read, meaning the Torah, the law, the first five books of the Bible, the Old Testament, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.

So as Jewish people were coming to Christ they are saying to these new believers don’t be a stumbling block. They’re saying to the old believers don’t throw something in their way that causes them to be annoyed or trip up in their faith but to the new believers they’re saying look you need to be careful what you do where you do it and how you do it.

It’s not that you’re a hypocrite but you don’t want to cause the Jewish believers to be a stumbling block. And so I want you to understand something church that there are things as believers. that maybe we understand that our forefathers and our people that came before us, that maybe it was important to them, that there were certain things that were important to them and that we might abstain from those things when we’re around them because we don’t wanna be a stumbling block to them.

We don’t wanna hurt their faith. This is what we have in Jesus Christ. We have this freedom, not only that we can live for Christ and that we can obey Christ, but we also have this freedom that gives us the wisdom of when we apply how we live our lives before others so that we don’t become a stumbling block.

There are many things that I would be free in Christ to do, but yet when I think about nearly 500 students up there at that school and over another hundred some online, there are things that I do not do because I don’t wanna be a stumbling block to those children.

I wanna be an example to them. I want them to think of Pastor Mike as someone who was an example of how to live the Christian life. And so we’re alert to these things. We try to be understanding and you must be willing as a believer to be mindful of these things.

Remember in Revelation chapter two and verse 14, remember that as Jesus was speaking to the churches, he said to the church at Pergamos that I have a few things against you because you have some there who hold the teachings of Balaam, who kept teaching Bala to put a stumbling block before who?

The sons of Israel, meaning the Jewish people, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Certainly sexual immorality is part of the new covenant of being things that we should abstain from.

But the apostle Paul would later teach in 1 Corinthians eight that it would be okay to eat meat offered to idols, that the new believers would eat meat offered to idols, not because they were worshiping God, but just because the meat was cheaper.

And so they would buy it on the black market. because it was the aftermarket, and it was what they could afford because they were experiencing so much famine and poverty in the lands, but it was upsetting the Jewish believers.

And Paul said, when I’m around the Jewish believers, I don’t eat meat offered to idols. But when I’m by myself, it’s no big deal because we know that there’s only one true God, Jesus Christ, amen. We know there’s only one true God.

So he is asking us to use the wisdom of the spirit that we know what we should do, when we should do it, so that we are not a stumbling block. And this is what Jesus addressed to the church at Pergamos, that they had become a stumbling block before the sons of Israel.

This is what you and I have to consider in our faith that as we’re out there, we have to be sensitive to what might be a stumbling block. And so Barnabas and Paul, they were standing up for the Gentile believers.

helping everyone to understand that they have equal access to the gospel, they have equal blessings of the gospel, and this is what God wants. Now we come to the final section of chapter 15 in verse 30 through 35.

I want to read this to you because it’s so beautiful, that after having heard this decision the Bible says, so when they were sent off they came to Antioch and when they had gathered the multitude together they delivered the letter, but the letter certainly includes verse 23 all the way to verse 29.

And when they had read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. What a blessing because the message was don’t be a stumbling block and the message was don’t throw anything in the path of a new believer that annoys them or trips them up in their faith.

It was that we’d be willing to deny self and take up the cross and follow Jesus. That’s the essence of the letter. And when they read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. Verse 32, now Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

Verse 33, and after they had stayed there for a time they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However it seemed good to Silas to remain there, but Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others.

There’s a lot of significance in chapter 15. One of them you may not notice, but all of a sudden Saul is now referred to as Paul and from here on out he’ll always be referred to as Paul. A reflection of not only his new life in Christ but his new ministry in Christ that God had given him.

His old life he was a persecutor of the church. He was one who dragged people out of their homes to be brought before the Jewish courts and to be condemned for their faith in Jesus Christ. But now there was a new direction for the church and this new direction is that the church would understand that God accepts all people of life.

of all racists that God saves those who repent of their sins, who turn from their sin and turn from their self, and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Romans 10, 13, the apostle Paul would write later that whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Seems like a settled matter for us, but I want you to understand something, church. It wasn’t always a settled matter, but praise God it became a settled matter, but I want you to know the devil is still fighting today, trying to twist the word of God, trying to twist what it means to be saved, trying to confuse new believers, trying to trap people into false doctrine and false faith.

That’s why it’s important for us to remember our mission. What is the church’s mission today? It’s real simple. Our mission is to announce the good news to people in every neighborhood and every nation that they can be servants in Christ’s kingdom.

if they will transfer their allegiance from this world to Jesus Christ, if they will believe by faith that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, then my friends, they can leave the world’s kingdom, which will one day pass away.

And there’s a new kingdom. It’s the kingdom of Christ, and the Bible tells us it’ll be a place and a season where there will be no sadness, and there’ll be no sorrow, and there’ll be no suffering, and Christ will rule and reign on this earth with righteousness and peace.

Our hope is not in politics, though we work hard because we’re just trying to keep the freedoms to tell others. But our hope is in Jesus Christ, and therefore we are missionaries. All of us are missionaries.

We all have our part in this world to spread the gospel. We all have the responsibility to be world Christians who are reaching to the ends of the earth. We understand that God loves every person on this planet, and we understand that God is calling us to believe, to belong, and to proclaim his good message.

Jesus, over 2 ,000 years ago, said, I am the way, the truth, and the light, and no man comes to the Father but by me. And before Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he gave his high priestly, heavenly prayer to the Father, the inner Trinitarian prayer that blows the minds of Bible scholars that God would pray to God, that the interaction that we witness in John chapter 17, but at the conclusion of this great prayer,

Jesus said to his disciples, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. Church, we ought to help them find the way to Christ, help them define the way of salvation by being fully engaged in the plan of mission.

The Book of Acts traces how the Holy Spirit moves the church outward in its witness. The church in the early days began to kind of focus inward, and so all of a sudden God is working through persecution to push the church out to Samaria and to the othermost parts of the world.

And that’s what we’re witnessing, and we’re seeing that great plan unfold in chapter 13 through 15. So I hope it’s been a blessing to you and it’s been an encouragement to you as you understand how God is working.

I want to remind you that our website, Hopeworthhaving .com, has a lot of good information, a lot of ways for you to keep up with what’s going on in the ministry of Hopeworthhaving, and I hope you’ll take advantage of that.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.