Acts Chapter 15.

Acts Chapter 15.

Paul remained sometime at Antioch with the disciples.  14:28.   During this time a new problem arose.  Certain men came from Judaea and insisted that the new converts from paganism be circumcised and keep the Law so that they be saved.  They made it a vital issue, for they insisted that it was necessary for their salvation.

           

The Judaizing section were alarmed because the Gospel was preached to rank pagans.  They could be happy to recognize Christianity as a movement for revival within Judaism, but not as a new and independent religious movement.  They feared lest the Church become swamped with uncircumcised Gentiles.  They saw this as an obstacle to the conversion of their fellow-Jews.  The Church was being made wide open to Gentiles at the expense of making it an offence to the Jews.  So the Judaizers decided to put a stop to the rot and, if their policy had succeeded, then Christianity would have remained a Jewish sect.

           

The book of Acts tells us of the trouble about this issue at Antioch, but there is reason to think that the same issue troubled the Churches of Galatia at this time.  If this was so then at Antioch (14:28), or during the journey to Jerusalem (15:2-3), Paul wrote the Galatian Epistle.

           

Lightfoot placed the Galatian epistle during Paul's third missionary journey.  Many scholars support Lightfoot's opinion.  Lightfoot also took Galatia in an ethnic sense, that is, Northern Galatia, which was inhabited by Gauls.  It was Ramsay who advocated the Southern Galatian theory, that is, the Southern portion of the Roman Province of Galatia.  Ramsay held that this was the Galatia of Paul.

           

The Southern Galatian theory makes possible an earlier date for the Galatian Epistle.  We think the earlier date correct and would date the epistle 48.AD.  This places the composition of Galatians before the Council at Jerusalem in 49.AD.  B-D. 447-449.

           

The book of Acts records two visits to Jerusalem by Paul before the Council of chapter 15.  They are:-

The first visit.                  9:26-29.          About  35.AD.

The second visit.           12:25                    "      46.AD.

           

We suggest the scholars are right who identify the "visit" of  12:25  with that of Galatians 2.  

We summarize:-

a.  That the Galatia in Acts is the Roman Province of Galatia.  B-D. 446.

b.  That Ramsay's Southern Galatian theory is correct.  The Churches of Galatia were those evangelized during Acts chapters 13-14.  B-D. 448.

c.  That  Galatians is the earliest of Paul's Epistles which have come to us.

           

The Council of Jerusalem occupies a central place in the Book of Acts.  The writer gives great importance to it.  It forms a climax to which the whole preceding narrative leads.  At this stage, the Gospel had embraced every important category of mankind.  In principle the missionary order had been established, even if the work of evangelism had only begun in a practical sense.  The final step or stage of evangelism became an established order when the apostles were directed by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel to the pagans.  At the Council the apostles and elders at Jerusalem recognize this new movement and outreach of the Holy Spirit. They appoint the necessary conditions which would permit believing Jews and believers form paganism to live in harmony in the same church.

           

The Council confirm the final stage in the extension of the Gospel and expansion of the Church.  Though the Church spread throughout the world it cannot comprise others than Jews and non-Jews.  Considered from the Jewish viewpoint, these two categories comprise all men.  The recent missionary activity of Paul and Barnabas had been motivated by the principle that the Gospel is for all men.  The Council confirms that principle.  This is why Luke gives the Council a central place in his narrative.  It confirms the final turning point in the preaching of the Gospel as Luke understands it.  This final stage has been established by the recent mission of Paul and Barnabas.  The Church now included Jews, Samaritans, God-fearers and pagans.  There was now no other category of mankind to add to the Church, for it now embraced every division of mankind. 

           

The problems that arose at the close of this missionary journey providentially brought about the Council at the right moment.  It clearly established the unity and catholicity of the Church.  The Council is central for the construction of Acts.  B-D. 263.

           

The Church at Antioch send Paul and Barnabas and others to Jerusalem so that they may receive an authoritative ruling on the point at issue.  The delegation was cordially received by the apostles, elders and the Church.  But some believers who continued as members of the sect of the Pharisees insisted that the new converts from paganism be circumcised and that they keep the Law of Moses.

           

As a result, a meeting of the Council was convened.  The proceedings of the Council were:-

*   Peter's speech.  15:6-11.  Peter declares that he was the first to open the door to the Gentile.  He relates his experience in the house of Cornelius where the Holy Spirit fell on them that believed.  This action of the Holy Spirit was the decisive proof that God accepted the Gentiles.

           

*   The Testimony of Paul and Barnabas.  15:12.    They testified how God had wrought among the Gentiles through them.  Visible signs and wonders took place.

           

*   The Summary of James.  15:13-21.   James, the Lord's brother was president of the meeting.  See B-D. 597.  "James 3."   James upholds the mission to the Gentiles from the words of Holy Scripture.  He quotes Amos.9:11-12. LXX.  The phrase, "a people for His Name"  is a standard idiom in the Paletinian Targums.  B-D. 1238.  The mission to the Gentiles had Biblical authority.  This was important and conclusive.

           

*   The Decree.  15:22-35.   The Church agrees to the proposal of James.  There is nothing in the passage that would suggest that the apostles, elders, the Church as a whole, were opposed to the Gentile mission.  James was clearly a staunch supporter of the mission.  Certainly a section of the Church was suspicious and would oppose the policy of Paul and Barnabas.  But in face of the evidence they were silenced, if not wholly convinced.

           

It is unlikely that Paul would regard the Decree as the final answer to the relationship of Christianity to Judaism.  A study of Romans 14 and 1st Corinthians 8 suggest that his own approach to some of the items of the Decree was different.

           

The Decree seems to indicate that the question of food-laws and customs were the major problem.  However this was bound up with the larger question of justification through faith in Christ, or by circumcision and law-keeping.

           

Paul would welcome the Decree, for it vindicated their work among pagans.  It offered a temporary solution to the controversy that threatened the unity of the Church, as well as the mission to the pagans.  It was beneficial in that it promoted harmony.

           

The Decree was not the final solution, but it met the present crisis.  Its aim and effect was conciliatory.  The chief points had been won: Gentile Christians were not required to be circumcised, nor compelled to keep the customs of the Law.  But they were to abstain from certain specific things, especially those offensive to the Jews, so that it would be possible for Jewish and Gentile Christians to eat together and have fellowship in the Church.

           

But the Decree would not be for Paul the final answer to the problem of the relationship of either Jew or Gentile to the Law.  The Epistle to the Galatians testifies to this.  In that epistle the message is that Christ sets one free from the Law.  Neither the Jewish nor Gentile Christian are under the Law, but have been set free, that they walk in the Spirit.

           

However, the structure of the book of Acts, as Luke understands the purpose of God in the expansion of the Church, the Decree is of considerable importance.

           

Evangelism.

           

The Decree was a rebuff to those who would load the Gospel with burdensome demands and rules.  Paul knew, from his own experience in the Synagogue, that Circumcision deterred many God-fearing men from becoming full proselytes.  To have loaded the Gospel with such demand would have greatly hindered its progress.  It is still possible to hinder the progress of the Gospel by loading the Christian life with demands that deter people from accepting it.  While it is true - that conversion is a personal commitment to Jesus Christ who demands total allegiance - this must never be watered down. The claims of Jesus Christ are not formulated with petty rules and legal demands.  It is possible to do this by insisting upon a certain pattern of living for Christians.  We do much damage to the cause of the Gospel when we laden it with petty rules of our own devising.

The Second Part of Acts.   15:36-28:31.

From now on, Paul is clearly marked out as the leading man.  It also becomes more clear that the Gospel is to be preached from Jerusalem to Rome.    This point in the book of Acts is the beginning of the "so called"  Second Missionary Journey.  Though Menoud rejects the scheme of dividing Paul's missionary activity into three or four journeys. 

           

Paul and Barnabas quarrel over Mark.  B-D. 785.   The quarrel may have come as a climax of a growing difference of approach.  Paul may have favoured a more vigorous approach to Gentiles.

           

Paul chose Silas, see B-D. 1186, also known as Silvaus in the Thessalonian Epistle.  They travelled through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the Churches.  There must be consolidation as well as extension.  The building up of the Church is not a one-sided thing.