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.
“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.
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.
“But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—
“I say to you, get up, and, picking up your stretcher, go home.”
Good News of Luke 5:44
Of course, a paralyzed man obeying Jesus’ command to ‘get up and walk’ is a miracle to the man who can now stand up and walk AND a sign of God to those who witness it!
Who can say such a thing to one born handicapped?
And immediately he rose up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. And astonishment seized them all and they began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying,
And it happened that one day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.
After having healed others as well Jesus answered the Prophet John who had been baptizing in the wilderness of Judea with Good News sent by his messengers:
“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.
Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” - Gospel of Luke 7:22b-23, LSB
But of course, these signs from the LORD God to the Jews were done by JESUS the Messiah.
These signs for the Jews where witnessed in regions of Roman Syria AND that had been years ago.
It’s about two decades later that Paul and Barnabas will enter Lystra.
But when Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him, he said, “Look at us!” – Acts 3:4
And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And leaping up, he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were recognizing him, that he was the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. – Acts of the Apostles 3:
More recent signs from God
Keep in mind that Luke's two-part account of these events is recorded for a Roman-Hellenist world after A.D. 60,
+ some thirty years after Jesus' resurrection [~A.D. 30],
+ perhaps twenty-five years after Saul's encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus,
+ about seven years [~A.D. 40] after the Apostle Peter baptizes a Roman Centurion in Caesarea Syria.
It’s a command of some significance — a command by faith also used by Peter and the Lord Jesus. And it is part of what the Apostle Paul is about to say to the lame man in Lystra.
to rise, stand up
of persons lying down, of persons lying on the ground
of persons seated
of those who leave a place to go elsewhere [of those who prepare themselves for a journey]
of the dead
GOD’S signs have many witnesses among the gentiles by the time Barnabas and Saul enter Lystra.
And at Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.
This man listened to Paul as he spoke, who, when he fixed his gaze on him and saw that he had faith to be [made well] said with a loud voice,
“Stand upright on your feet.”
Acts 14:10 of Paul commanding a lame man in Lystra
And he leaped up and began to walk.
And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language,
“The gods have become like men and have come down to us.”
Acts of the Apostles 14:11b – LSB
In fact, these Lycaonian pagans were partially right.
For the Gospel of Paul and Barnabas would reveal that the One God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ sent his only Son down to us for redemption of sins for those who have faith to believe — even pagan gentiles.
“Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
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