How will the Jerusalem Council judge Gentiles according to the Jewish Law of Moses?
Acts 15
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
Simon Peter has testified.
“Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
Acts of the Apostles 15:7b ESV
And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.
Acts of the Apostles 15:12 ESV
Response of Jerusalem’s Pastor James
13 After they finished speaking, James replied,
“Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.
Leaders and Witnesses of the Jerusalem council
Let’s be clear who is speaking and which leaders have witnessed the truth of events leading to a church meeting about the gentiles.
Simon Peter.
In verse 14 the King James and English Standard versions translate Συμεών from the Greek as Simeon; however the NKJV, NIV and other versions use “Simon” while the NLT uses the most familiar identification of the Apostle, “Peter.”
Barnabas and Paul
Their mission journey has brought about this council and clearly both are leaders in their testimony of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles and leadership of the church at Antioch Syria.
James
And let’s not miss who now speaks a the representative pastor and leader of the local church at Jerusalem where the council meets.
It is none other than James brother of Jesus who was raised with the Lord, yet did not believe that his half-brother was the Christ, the prophesied Son of God until after Jesus’ resurrection at which time James became a faithful disciple called to lead the Jerusalem Church.
Witness of the Prophets
James refers to the Prophet Amos from ~760 BC and Samuel Prophet of David three hundred years before that.
“Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
16 “‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,
17 that the remnant[a] of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’
In A.D. 49, James witnesses the promises of God to David a thousand years before. Now it seems that the kingdom promised to David is all but defeated.
The Temple of Solomon was destroyed, the Jews were captured and taken to Babylon and Persia. The distant hope witnessed by Amos and the Prophets seems near to slipping away once more at the hand of Rome (which will again destroy Jerusalem and Herod’s temple in A.D. 70).
Yet Scripture is true and God’s word comforting to those faithful few who wait for the Lord to save — for the Lord to redeem the captives who hold to His Name — saving them from God’s judgment of sin and eternal punishment and granting His true worshipers the glory of the kingdom of the root and the son of David. Yes, even the Nations of the world beyond the hills of Jerusalem.
Amos 9:
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the LORD.
“For behold, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
This was just one judgment of Jerusalem!
Amos had prophesied it.
Twenty years earlier, the Sanhedrin of Herod which meets in this same Jerusalem as today’s council had crucified Jesus Christ, brother of James and Son of David. The leaders of a semi-captive Israel disregarded the revealed will and written word of the Lord God.
The Jewish council of Herod’s Temple had also slain the Apostle James by the sword, another politically expedient death which it thought would prevent the sword of Rome from overtaking their city of sin.
It didn’t. (For as most of us know Rome would destroy Jerusalem just twenty-one years from this time of the Christian Council in Jerusalem.)
Amos 9:11-12 (to which James refers)
“In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the LORD who does this.
It is a remnant of Edom. Yes even a remnant of Judah and Israel after these many centuries — only a remnant who remember the Lord their God and look for the redemption paid on the Cross for “all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD.”
Judgment for the Gentiles
You have probably never thought of James, brother of Jesus, pastor of the Jerusalem church and author of a New Testament letter to the church as a Judge.
But this is his role here with the Council at Jerusalem.
The accusations (concerning circumcision) have been presented. Several witnesses have presented evidence about the truth of events where gentiles have interacted with Jewish witnesses (including the Apostles).
A defense of the truth by Barnabas and Paul recounts incidents for which some Jews have accused them of breaking the Law of Moses.
Pastor James, head of this Christian Sanhedrin gathering of Apostles and other leaders has even preceded his decision as Judge with Scriptural prophesy of their very actions concerning the gentiles. So here is his verdict speaking on behalf of this council at Jerusalem as its leader:
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God
Acts of the Apostles 15:19 ESV – Verdict of the Council of Jerusalem pronounced by James
The verdict pronounced by James on behalf of the Council at Jerusalem, however, is conditional. Addressing the concerns of which Gentiles have turned to God by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, he continues with clarification of what the Council must do to go into the Gentile world with the Gospel.
NEXT, God-willing, we will join James and the Council of Jerusalem as they take action by way of a letter and messengers sent on another mission trip to the Gentile Nations.
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