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  • A.D. 49 – the Council at Jerusalem

    A.D. 49 – the Council at Jerusalem

    Acts 15

    – a council of the Apostles in Jerusalem

    map of route between Jerusalem and Antioch where apostles sent missionaries into all the world of the gentiles
    between the Church at Antioch & the Council at Jerusalem

    Arrival of Paul and Barnabas from the Church at Antioch Syria

    4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 

    Historical context:

    In A.D. 49, nearly two decades after the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Christ Jesus, the Church has grown greatly by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    • Claudius had assassinated Caligula in Rome and is now Caesar of the Empire.
    • Herod Antipas, who had ruled Galilee and Perea was exiled and died ten years ago in A.D. 39
    • Herod [Marcus Julius] Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great, raised in Rome and appointed Ethnarch of Idumea, Judea and Samaria, had died in Caesarea Marittima, Roman port of access to Judea and beyond.
    What happened to Peter?
    King Herod Agrippa I Acts 12:19 .. he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.
    • A.D. 44, in addition to imprisoning Peter, Herod Agrippa had executed the Apostle James in Jerusalem and then traveled bank to Caesarea where he died.
    • Herod Agrippa II now governs Syria, Galilee and Perea
    • A.D. 49 The Emperor Claudius has just expelled the Jews from Rome (but not Christians)

    “Claudius saw the Jews as troublemakers who undermined his right to rule, and he expelled them from Rome. Gentile Christians, however, were not expelled from Rome, which amplified Jewish-gentile animosity in the early Roman church.

    Rose Guide to the Book of Acts, p.45

    A Council of Leaders addressing issues of Culture

     5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

    The Apostles and Elders of the church in Jerusalem had dealt with these issues. Peter has previously addressed the role of the Holy Spirit in accepting gentiles — even Romans of the army enforcing their government of Jerusalem in Roman Syria.

    The Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection, strained to enforce Mosaic LAW among the Jews throughout the Roman Empire long before the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of the Christ prophesied throughout Scripture.

    The political JEWISH party of the Pharisees chose what they believed was a defining issue of Jewish Law to present to their fellow leaders at this council in Jerusalem.

    Saul of Tarsus — Paul — had been zealous for the Law as a Pharisee and understood detailed application of the Law of Moses; but he and Barnabas had also been persecuted in Asia for their proclamation of grace through the blood of Christ in accepting gentiles into the worship of God Almighty, Father of our Lord Jesus who became the redemption for the sins of Jews and gentiles alike.

    6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 

    Church doctrine a line in the sand. - How will a leader or council of leaders choose what the Church will teach?
    How will a leader or council of leaders decide what the Church will teach?

    Illuminating the Authority of Church Councils

    (from the Greek) συνέδριον –

    We gentile Christians may not quickly make the connection of the importance and authority of this meeting from the Hebrew traditions of Jerusalem.

    I didn’t.

    Transliteration
    synedrion (Key)

    The KJV translates Strong’s G4892 in the following manner: council (22x).

    • any assembly (esp. of magistrates, judges, ambassadors), whether convened to deliberate or pass judgment
    • any session or assembly or people deliberating or adjudicating
      • the Sanhedrin, the great council at Jerusalem, consisting of the seventy one members, viz. scribes, elders, prominent members of the high priestly families and the high priest, the president of the assembly.
      • a smaller tribunal or council which every Jewish town had for the decision of less important cases.

    Obviously this group is NOT the seventy members of the Jewish Sanhedrin which condemned the Lord Jesus and now still decide religious issues twenty years later in similar gatherings of leadership on behalf of the Temple.

    The council of Jerusalem is a smaller group of Christian men with authority over the Church anointed by the Holy Spirit.

    Luke does NOT call this key meeting of Christian leadership in Jerusalem a synedrion or council (though it is).

    Many Bible translations accurately add a heading to ACTS of the Apostles 15:

    The Jerusalem Council [ESV], The Council at Jerusalem [NIV], The Council in Jerusalem [NASB]

    Circumcision – Not Really the Issue

    Recall that Peter, Paul and many leaders of the Church must address MANY issues at odds between the opposing cultures of the Jews and the Greeks, Romans — any gentiles seeking to worship the Lord God.

    Is the issue food?

    Who should worship the Lord?

    Where? When? What will our corporate worship gathering look like each week?

    How will gatherings of worshipers of different cultures agree as a ‘church’ to follow and teach only certain rules or doctrine?

    As a reminder to my fellow gentile Christians, a quick look at circumcision:

περιτέμνω - Lexicon :: Strong's G4059 - peritemnō
- cut off one's prepuce (used of that well known rite by which not only the male children of the Israelites, on the eighth day after birth, but subsequently also "proselytes of righteousness" were consecrated to Jehovah and introduced into the number of his people)

- since by the rite of circumcision a man was separated from the unclean world and dedicated to God, the word is transferred to denote the extinguishing of lusts and the removal of sins

    10:12 וְעַתָּה יִשְׂרָאֵל מָה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ שֹׁאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ כִּי אִם־לְיִרְאָה אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל־דְּרָכָיו וּלְאַהֲבָה אֹתוֹ וְלַֽעֲבֹד אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל־נַפְשֶֽׁךָ׃

    “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.. Deuteronomy 10:12 ESV

    10:16 וּמַלְתֶּם אֵת עָרְלַת לְבַבְכֶם וְעָרְפְּכֶם לֹא תַקְשׁוּ עֽוֹד׃

    Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

    Deuteronomy 10:16 ESV – the word of the Lord through Moses

    The issue presented to the council is not the actual symbolic act OR the Law of Moses OR one culture being cleansed to become as the flesh of another. Circumcision is NOT the issue, but the underlying stubbornness of the hearts of believers and worshipers to agree.

    Peter’s Leadership of the Council at Jerusalem

    The church at Jerusalem is now being led by James son of Joseph and Mary.

    It has its own elders as well as deacons anointed by the Holy Spirit to serve under the Twelve (which now includes Mathias).

    Peter understands that in these times of persecution other Apostles will also be killed as was the James the greater by Herod and other leaders such at Stephen.

    We learned during the first mission trip of Paul and Barnabas how they modeled leadership of the the local churches after the church at Antioch Syria, not actually the church in Jerusalem where this council has gathered.

    An Antioch Blueprint of Church Evangelism
    Antioch Syria where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians became a model for church leadership in Asia and Greece.

    Simon Peter’s Instruction to the Council

    ACTS 15:7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,

    “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. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

    10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

    But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

    12 And all the assembly fell silent..

    Here is true leadership by the Apostle, even though technically Peter has no active role in leadership in Antioch, any of the Asian churches or even the Apostle’s own local gathering in Jerusalem.

    What else could this diverse group of leaders do? They fell silent, withholding their former opinions and cultural differences concerning worship.

    NO, circumcision was not really the issue — other than the circumcision of their own hearts which the Apostle has just cut to the quick.

    Therefore the council now listens to the evidence presented to them (which Luke has already outlined from the recent first mission of Paul and Barnabas) with ears to hear.

    .. and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

    A Pastor’s Response

    NEXT we will take a look at the leadership of Jerusalem’s Pastor James after Paul and Barnabas finished speaking.

    ACTS of the Jerusalem Council TO BE CONTINUED, God-willing…

  • Distinction between the Kingdom and the Church of Christ

    Distinction between the Kingdom and the Church of Christ

    Kingdom OR Church?

    Is distinction lacking in the Gospel of YOUR Church?

    WE like to think that OUR Church has a great vision of Gospel grace, but do we PREACH any distinction between DOCTRINES and the WORK of evangelical ‘christians’ from OUR stages of worship?

    For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him for “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

    Romans 10:12-13 LSB
    That's very nice - a good glance at WHO could be part of the church. 
BUT the Bible bids us to make some distinctions.

    So you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

    For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them aflame,” says Yahweh of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

    Malachi 3:18-19 [4:1]

    What are the distinctions of Denominations?

    • ARE SOME ‘christian‘ churches the chaff of wicked false teaching?
    • Is the gospel of YOUR church drawing in sinners while making no distinction of sin?
    • SHOULD some DENOMINATIONS be sifted as anathema to Christ’s Church?
      • (So they want to leave PROCLAIMING their SIN proudly?
      • Let them go!)

    WICKEDNESS is nothing NEW in any 21st century church OR limited to the Old Testament.

    • Do SOME lead worship or TEACH a class you attend NEVER ASKING:
      • Do YOU make any distinction?
      • between
        • the damned of the world
        • and the repentant sinner SAVED by CHRIST JESUS?

    Listen to Paul’s approach to making distinction between gifts and their usefulness to believers of the church:

    .. what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?

    For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?

    The Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth 6b-8

    Listen to the trumpet! SOME in the church are chaff!

    FOUR Distinctions of Church Doctrine

    As we continue discussion from our last Saturday Post just a reminder here that teaching is doctrine. (And so is preaching doctrine, as well as what doctrines which we neglect to preach. – RH)

    LLOYD-JONES book makes distinctions that the church is an expression of the kingdom of God but cannot be equated with it.

    The theologian Lloyd-Jones outlines

    What are the distinctions of Denominations?

    The First Distinction

    The essential difference between the church and the kingdom of God is that the church is an “expression” of the kingdom, but cannot be “equated” with it.

    The church is an expression of the kingdom “wherever the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as Lord.”

    D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – source

    The Second Distinction

    The Distinction between the Spiritual, Invisible Church

    AND

    the Local, Visible Church

    FROM Paul and all the brothers who are with me,

    To the churches of Galatia: – Galatians 1:2

    ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ho ekklēsia –TO: The Churches

    Paul and his Christian brothers write to the churches. They are not claiming to write to everyone in Galatia or Corinth or EVERYONE anywhere else in the idol-worshiping gentile world.

    Is that OUR approach?

    • Isn’t it nice to watch some preacher online (or on T.V.) and conveniently claim to the culture that you are ‘a christian?”
      • ARE YOU?
        • Simply because YOU watched some christian preacher saying graceful things?

    Lloyd-Jones declares that Paul speaks not of “one unit divided into local branches” but of individual churches or a plurality of units in Galatia.

    Of course we’re talking about the SPIRITUAL INVISIBLE CHURCH here.

    Which ‘christian’ are YOU?

    • Spiritual Christian of the Invisible Church PLUS a Local MEMBER of a Visible Church
    • NOT a member of Christ’s Invisible Church, BUT a visible MEMBER of YOUR LOCAL church
    • NOT a Spiritual Christian OR a MEMBER of any visible Local Church
      • (YOU just ‘go to church’ occasionally.)
    • Spiritual Christian of the Invisible Church, BUT invisible worshiper NOT a MEMBER of ANY LOCAL CHURCH.

    The Third Distinction

    Biblical Unity or Ecumenical Unity?

    ‘The ecumenical movement has tended to minimize doctrinal definitions of what makes someone a Christian.. ecumenical unity is a far cry from Biblical unity.’

    “..believers cannot have church unity without unity around the apostle’s teaching..

    Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

    If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 2 John 1:9-11 ESV

    “..the Doctor explains:

    The significance he [John the Elder] attaches to doctrine and to truth is so great that he says, in effect, ‘You mustn’t receive the man into your house because if you do you’re encouraging him. If you give him a meal and send him on his journey you are encouraging his false doctrine. Don’t do it.’”

    Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things

    If there are spiritual and doctrinal marks that make one church true and another church false, then those marks must be clearly stated and explained.

    The Doctor’s Doctrine, p. 106

    The Fourth Distinction

    As if dealing with the previous three distinctions was not already enough to consider, Lloyd-Jones now adds an even more challenging look at THREE marks of a TRUE CHURCH.

    The Distinction between Right and Wrong

    Of course by now we must NOT be asking once more, 'What is truth?' as if truth or 'right and wrong' are a matter of subjective personal opinion rather than an objective Biblical standard by which Christians may claim God's Word as Good News to those who will believe.
    1. the Word is truly preached
    2. the sacraments are truly administered, AND (look out, here..)
    3. discipline is truly exercised

    Right Preaching and Wrong Preaching

    The church is “essential to believers,” because conversion means they are “born as babes in Christ” and desperately need to be “instructed” and “warned against error and safeguarded against heresy.”

    Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things
    Do you really believe that? doctrine - a line in the sand [picture of Jesus kneeling down to draw a line with his finger
    Of course since I am NOT a preacher, 
I could say anything I want IF subjective truth 
rather than Biblical truth was our standard of 
right and wrong.

    But by the standard of doctrine rooted in Biblical truth NO theologian (even Lloyd-Jones or your preacher) should take subjective liberties in preaching the Gospel.

    2 Timothy 4:

    I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:

    • preach the word;
    • be ready in season and out of season;
    • reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.

    And what does the Apostle Paul prophesy to his disciple of the way, the truth and the life as REASON ENOUGH to remain faithful to Scripture?

    For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

    Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 4:3-4 LSB

    ARE WE THERE YET?

    Preaching in the last days

    Again, the standard isn't mine (IF you accept the Doctrinal line in the sand of Scripture.

    .. in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts..

    The Apostle Peter reminds the church in is final letter, The Day of the Lord Will Come:

    The Lord .. is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

    But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up].

    Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way,

    what sort of people ought you to be…

    What sort of men and women proclaiming Christ Jesus OUGHT WE to be?

    READ more from 2 Peter 3:11-

  • Divinity, Doctrine and Denomination

    Divinity, Doctrine and Denomination

    As I pointed out in our last Saturday Post WE, the church, seem to have some differences dividing our approach to divinity.

    Denominations / Why can’t we all just get along?
    ~800 MILLION Protestant Christians [37% of the world population] can be divided into < 40,000 denominations

    What does it mean to be called a “Christian?” 

    Who are all of those ‘denominations‘ that call themselves, ‘Church?’

    And what do doctrine and divinity have to do with it?

    Divinity

    GOD IS HOLY text of Deuteronomy 6:13

    God IS God! (and WE are NOT)!

    Anyone who denies THIS has a humility problem!

    Look it up:

    ĕlōhîm – אֱלֹהִים

    θειότης – theiotēs From θεῖος from Godhead

    For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

    Romans 1:20 LSB

    Doctrine

    This entire Saturday Post series (including Church) addresses doctrine. READ MORE: What is Doctrine?

    Do you really believe that? doctrine - a line in the sand [picture of Jesus kneeling down to draw a line with his finger

    But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.

    Titus 2:1 Legacy Standard Bible

    Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

    Galatians 6:7 LSB

    For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.. Romans 1:18

    Denomination

    Martin Luther originally gets much of the blame for his PROTEST against false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

    Luther’s theology stood on the truths of Scripture and faith.

    For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

    For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH.” – Romans 1:16-17 LSB

    Denominations / Why can’t we all just get along?
    Scripture tells us how false teachers leaven the Church and the faithful must discern the dangers of false preaching.

    Church DE-NOMINATIONS seem to be doubling-down lately into divisions over SOCIAL issues.

    AND this phenomenon of churches redefining themselves is not limited to any particular denomination.

    What does it mean to be a church?

    RE-fitting YOUR church vision to accommodate changing cultural mores doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with divinity or sound doctrine rooted in Scripture and proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    As you have seen in my previous Saturday Posts, although gaining downhill momentum toward the pit of destruction, this trend is nothing new.

    But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. .. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words..

    These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been kept. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by sensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error..

    Second Letter of the Apostle Peter to the Church 2:1,3,17-18 LSB

    In the beginnings of the first century Church the Apostle Peter mentions an earlier fall of Israel as an example of the ever-present danger of false teaching.

    Can we be a ‘church‘ without doctrine?

    Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach..

    “My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God..

    Gospel of John 7:14b,16-17a LSB

    TEACHING IS DOCTRINE!

    Is the Doctrine YOU hear in YOUR church from God?

    If YOU think the preacher of the church YOU ‘attend‘ doesn’t have some ‘NON-NEGOTIABLES’ of Doctrine, it’s time for you to listen closer (and think for yourself).

    • What DOESN’T he/she say — EVER?
    • What Truth will the man or woman with the mike REFUSE to PREACH from the pulpit or have you hear in the good-feeling lyrics of the amplified sounds of worship?
    • Which Bible verses have to be bent just a little to connect to OUR audience?
      • DARE WE EVER preach REPENTANCE before grace?
      • Let’s bring Christ down from heaven just a bit, so he feels closer to OUR audience just for an hour (and only on Sunday).
    




    What makes a CHURCH Christian?
    




    NO Christology a study of creation without Christ
    

    • Have BIBLE verses evaporated from the wall of worship behind the stage of OUR worship service?
    • Does OUR pastor hesitate to mention Christ Jesus?
    • Is a pressing social issue important to the growth of our church?
    • Can OUR church be BOTH christian AND other?
    

    




    Although I am a lay theologian; that is, I study God and I study Scripture and I study Jesus Christ, I must once again point you toward the teaching of a most respected Christian theologian. 
Although I will add my comments here, seek your own answers about the church you belong to locally. 
(And once your read this and think through the doctrine YOU hear, why not ADD your COMMENTS to this post?)- RH
    




    




    Divinity, Doctrine and the Christian Life
    




    “The great divorce of doctrine and life will destroy the Christian life.
    




    Lloyd-Jones on the Christian Life: Doctrine and Life as Fuel and Fire
    Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson By Jason C. Meyer, Series edited by Stephen J. Nichols, Justin Taylor, Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson
    




    Doctrine and life are fuel and fire, not oil and water.
    D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
    




    




    THINK DOCTRINE, EMBRACE TRUTH, ACT ACCORDINGLY
    




    1. doctrine comes to mind
    2. truth captures the heart 
    3. which then moves the will to act
    




    The Bible starts with God the Father always, everywhere and we must do the same — because that is the order of the blessed Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
    D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
    




    “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 
    “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
    “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
    “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
    Gospel of John 17 – from the High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father
    




    ..theology must first concede that the finite cannot fully know the infinite. Therefore, theology is sometimes an exercise in negation. 
    Lloyd-Jones pictures theology as the act of building a fence around the incomprehensible mystery of God.
    Jason Meyer
    




    • Does the world HATE you because of any witness of Jesus Christ you claim by faith?
    • WE are in the world, so do we recognize the evil one?
    








    Have you even heard your pastor caution his/her church about the evil one?
    




    • Jesus did.
    








    • Do others worshiping the Lord alongside you recognize that Christ has set YOU, me and members of His Body the Church apart for salvation?
    




    Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. – Hebrews 4:14 LSB
    




    EMBRACE this TRUTH: 
    




    Sinful man CANNOT intercede with the HOLY GOD (who WE are NOT) without accepting our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Perfect Sacrifice for our sins – the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
    




    Our partial knowledge of God is real knowledge, but it falls far short of comprehensive knowledge.. God alone is
    “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
    Jason Meyer, quoting the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 4:8b
    




    




    NEXT, God-willing, we will continue with Jason Meyer's overview of the doctor of doctrine Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his prescription for this brief moment of our our Christian lives.