This weeks Sermon May 11th @ First B Jackson
First B Jackson
2025-05-11

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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And things. When I approach a holiday, think, what did I say the last time this rolled around? So, I made a list and it struck me as funny and I'm going share it with you. 2013, my first Mother's Day here. I blew it.

I didn't mention it at all. 2014, I sang a Leonard Skynyrd song to close the book of James. 2015, I went to Guatemala on a mission trip. 2016, missionary spoke. 2017 was a debacle.

All of the records have been destroyed. Actually, it goes on like that for a while. The one that I was going to describe my mother was in where 2021 and I gave a fairly detailed description of my mother and how there how she met my dad and all the different stuff, you know. Body cast and Vietnam and all kind of stuff. I can I can share it with you if you want to hear?

But the text was revelation and I said, happy Mother's Day and now turning to the seven bowls of the wrath of God. It's comical. 2024 was on repentance and that fits, right? A lot of us have really good advice that our mothers have given us all of our lives and we walk against it and against it and against it and we love her but at the same time, we just kind of go against it and that was like, wow, that was that actually is fitting. Well, that's what the text said.

So here we go. We're gonna turn to the text. If you see Mother's Day in there, tell me afterwards. But here we are at Acts fifth oh, this is this is to remember. These are the bands that I've quoted from this stage.

And there are various group and I was gonna do one this morning and thankfully I left the left it on the printer and you don't have to go for that. It was Doug Stone who grew up fairly near me. Doug Stone is famous for, I'd be better off in a pine box on a slow train back to Georgia. But his lesser hit was don't tell mama. And I think we all kind of have that when we're walking against what our mama has shown us.

We have a bit of that. I know not every mama is great and gives good advice. I know that but don't tell mama I was drinking. I couldn't leave this world knowing mama I met Jesus with whiskey on my breath. Now, the theology of it actually is pretty good.

It ain't the drinking that keeps you out, right? And mama was directing and he was like, he was ashamed and embarrassed but at the same time, he knew where he was headed. Right? Anyway, I yeah, spared you that one. Remember that Jesus said, will build my church.

Would you do that? Remember that Jesus said, I will build my church. So, in the process of Acts 15 today which is the Jerusalem Council. Remember, that Jesus said, I'm working on this. Actually, you know, the church is the bride of Christ.

If you think about it that way, it's a little weird if you're a guy. It's a little weird, you know. But no one can have God for his father who has not the church, capital C for his mother, right? So, that's an angle and since Pentecost was the birth of the church, right? Pentecost is the birth of the church and then, we're growing up.

The church is growing up and we've seen the first missionary journey. That's where we left off last week. We left off in Antioch. They had made the loop. What I said was so cute.

I mouthed it like seven seven times and then I changed over into Spanish and I was like, this isn't making any sense. So cute. So, Antioch is where we are and some men came down from Judea. Now, if you look at a map and you see Antioch and Jerusalem which is the center of Judea, you might look at that and go, that's up. Well, that's the way we think.

Our maps tend to be north up. There's tend to be east west oriented anyway but they go more by elevation in the scriptures and so, Jerusalem is like the top of the pass, the comparison and then Jericho is 3,500 feet below that and Antioch is even below that. Antioch is only two twenty feet above sea level. So, that's about 300 miles. Some men came down from Judea and they began teaching the brothers in Antioch, unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

Now, what have we been seeing in Antioch? We have been seeing the growth of the church, the body of Christ is growing, and people are accepting it and on Paphos, we see Sergius Paulus, a Gentile believe and then up in Pasidian Antioch, it says that some Jews believed and some Gentiles believed and then down in Lystra, Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles, it's a mixed bag. Unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. That's the message. And after Paul and Barnabas had a heated argument, no little argument, literally, from the Greek.

No little argument. It was not a small argument. And a debate with them where they were both kind of throwing scriptures at each other. After that, the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem. Again, there's that.

So, it's 300 miles for the guys to get there to start spouting heresy. Then, it was 300 miles for Paul and Barnabas to go back to Jerusalem to the apostles and to the elders concerning that issue. Listen, what is it that we believe? What is it that we preach? Are we preaching a gospel of grace or are we preaching the same old covenant works that we've been preaching?

Looking forward to a new covenant that will come but we don't understand that. So, we're just going to do, you know, the old thing about, well, you just tell me what to do. You give me a list and I can do it. You tell me and you tell me what to do and I can hit that. Anything that I can aim at, I can eventually hit but that's just not the case.

If you have broken the law in one bit, you've broken the whole law and so by the time you figure out what it is you're aiming to hit, you've already broken it. So, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were going to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and that was therefore, after being sent on their way by the church, they're passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria and Phoenicia is just North of Galilee and then Samaria is just South of Galilee. It's on the way during that 300 miles. It's the latter portion of the trip but what it says that they were doing through Phoenicia and Samaria was describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles. Now, Phoenicia would have been a mostly Gentile area.

Even Galilee is Galilee of the Gentiles and so when they're coming back through, these folks would have been familiar with the message of Jesus. They would have been familiar with the fame of Jesus but for Paul and Barnabas coming down from Antioch and passing through and describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles. They were bringing, it says, great joy. There's joy in the house of the Lord, right? They're bringing great joy to all of the brothers and sisters and it says all of the brothers and sisters in sort of an emphatic way and it's not making a distinction between Jewish or Gentile believers.

They're bringing joy to everyone who knows Jesus. So, when they arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church, by the apostles, and by the elders and they reported all that God had done with them and I imagine they were very very excited. It's sort of a a first missionary journey. The next thing we hear about is these folks spouting heresy and then they're going to go down to Jerusalem to get this cleared up. If you're in the men's study down the hall, we covered Galatians two this week.

I I believe that Galatians two is about this very meeting. The Jerusalem Council is what it's come to be known as and so, you can read a separate version in Galatians. I'm not going to go into that one today but it'll probably come up from time to time. So, they reported. They received by the church, the apostles, and the elders and they reported all that got it done with them but some and it's not all, okay?

Don't paint it with a broad brush that it says some of the sack of the Pharisees who had believed. So, these are believers. They're people who've trusted in Jesus but the way that they have lived their life for their whole life is in a pharisaic tradition. And we hear that and we go, oh, that bad. Well, it was the holiest people that they had going.

It was the people who really cared. These were the church folk. Okay? These are the ones who considered a personal practice, if not relationship, a personal practice of Christianity was something that the Pharisees really really believed in and so some of that sect of the Pharisees who were believers in Jesus, now they're Christians and they're saved by the blood of the lamb. So don't don't get it mixed up.

It'll be clear but some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said, but yeah, it is necessary. It's absolutely necessary when God came and he gave the law to Moses. It it was that and you know, we gotta do that. We've been doing this our whole lives. How is it that that doesn't matter at all?

And so, they were arguing the point. The same point that the guys came up and started spouting in Antioch. And so now, there are, they're believers. Don't just throw them to the wolves. Okay?

Don't think that these are all wretched, horrible. These are well meaning people who have a holy life that they practice, I would say, intently and with good with good intentions, let's say. And they say it's it's necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to keep the law of Moses. After they believe, bring em in. Bring em in and show em.

Bring em in and teach em how to act, right? It's for me a parallel here. If you grew up in church, if you grew up in a a staunch church, let's say, you might have a history of this where you know the way to act in church. You know the way to act because you've been taught how to act but when you believe, it becomes a a different thing. It's because it's not based on works that were saved.

Right? But some of us hang on to these things and insist on these things. Oh, seersucker on Mother's Day. Lennon after Easter. It's just sort of a thing, you know.

The traditions, I mean, it's necessary to circumcise them. It's necessary to direct them to keep of the law of Moses and the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. Wherever two or three gathered in my name, they are mine in the midst. The apostles and elders said, we do need to consider this. Now, I'm standing over here because the legalistic ditch for years and years, I've been saying, you've got a legalism that is not the gospel and you've got licentiousness over here that's not the gospel and you've got the gospel and it's the answer for both but it's not in between the two, okay?

It's the answer for both of em. The apostles and elders came together to look into this matter, and there had been much debate. Have you all ever been to a business meeting? Or an elders meeting, or board of trustees meeting? We're supposed to debate.

We're supposed to. We are fallible human beings who gather in the name of God and pray to be led humbly by the spirit of God. We need to debate this stuff. We need to. So, after there'd been much debate, Peter stood up and he said to him, brothers, y'all know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

They already knew Peter's story from Acts 10, his meeting with Cornelius. They knew it because when he came back to Jerusalem, he had to defend himself. They knew Peter's story from when Peter and John went to Samaria and they went to Samaria because the Samaritans had believed and when the apostles got there, God had delayed and gave them the Holy Spirit. Peter says, just as he had given us the spirit. Exactly the same way.

And so, brothers you know, early on, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and they're believing. By the way, Gentiles with a capital g here, Gentiles is everybody else. It means the nations. It's anybody that is not of Jewish descent and belief. And God, who knows the heart, Peter goes on, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as also he did to us, in the same manner that he did to us.

And so, Peter and John saw it and then Barbasons, Paul, we've been following now and we're seeing the same thing happen with them. If you go to Galatians two, you'll see that the apostles in Jerusalem doing this and Paul doing this outside like in Antioch and Cyprus and up in Cilicia and all over. That those were separate events but they're both led by the same lord and in Galatians two, Paul's reason for going down from Antioch to Jerusalem, he says, I want to make sure I'm preaching the right thing. I got it directly from Jesus but I also want to be on the same page. Unity in the body of Christ is incredibly important.

It is what Jesus prayed for in the garden. On the night he was betrayed, when he was arrested. He was praying that we would be unified and so our unity is important enough to have the debate, to pray humbly together, to get together, and come to an agreement to what is acceptable behavior. God, who knows the heart, testify to them given the Holy Spirit just as he also did to us. That was an act earlier.

I didn't put that in apparently. But I've already told you about it. Cornelius's house and in Samaria. And he made no distinction between them and us. Actually, when the sheet was lowered from heaven in Acts 10 and it was filled with all types of animals, take Peter, kill, and eat.

That whole thing at Cornelius before Cornelius' house. He says, make no distinction. What I've called clean, you don't call unclean. And so Peter got that and he resisted it. Three times.

And then he got the message. And as soon as he kinda got the message, knock knock on the door. There are these folks from Cornelius' house. He goes back and then he finds himself, good Jewish boy, walking into the home of a Gentile. Oh my goodness.

Like, God made no distinction between us and them. We are to carry the message to them. That's it and he says specifically, Peter says, by my mouth. He made no distinction between them and us. That's Acts 10.

Cleansing their hearts by faith. Now, Paul hadn't written Ephesians at this point but we know that we are saved by grace through faith. It'll go on to tell us that here. He made no distinction between them and us. Peter says, and he cleansed their hearts by faith.

Since this is the case, they had no works. They were not circumcised on the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, all that stuff. They weren't. They didn't have the works. So, since this is the case, that he saves by faith, that he makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile.

Since this is the case, why is it that y'all are putting God to the test by placing upon the neck of these new learners, disciple means learner. These new learners, why are you putting a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear? Have you all read the Old Testament? Oh my goodness. So, we're in Kings, second Kings right now in the first B in the Bible and it's amazing to watch and just hear so and so was made king when he was this many years old and he served for three months and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

So and so was king for this long and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not do anything to stem the tide of idolatry. They failed over and over and over. The truth is all of us fail. All of us have failed.

Why is it that you're putting to the test, putting God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear. Peter says this, but we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? It is by his grace. It is unmerited favor.

That's how we're saved. The unmerited favor of God. Amen. Thank you. I thought you're going to add something about Mother's Day.

Many of our mothers are very gracious. No, sorry. We believe that we're saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus faith. Lord Jesus and it's by faith that says above that. In the same way as they also are.

He says, it's gotta be by grace through faith. It has to be. That's the only way that it happens and so, since he's making no distinction, how are we saved? In the same way, both of us, whether you're Jewish or you're Gentile. And all the people kept silent.

Just linger in that for a moment. All of the heated argument and debate and Peter kind of silenced the room. The Holy Spirit silenced the room. They kept silent and they were listening. They were listening now to Paul and to Barnabas as they were relating all of the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

We talked about those over the past couple of weeks. At Lystra, the healing of the lame man that caused such a stir that the priest of Zeus came in and I'm sure they were telling them all the details about what God was doing through them among the nations and after they stopped speaking, James, James, James the brother of Jesus, after they stopped speaking, James responded saying, brothers, listen to me. Simeon, this is interesting. When you see Simeon right here, there are couple of different simians in scripture you think, oh, was that the same Simeon that said he could die in peace now that he had seen Jesus? No, that was a long long time ago.

I think he died in peace. Was it Simeon like Simeon the the one who is called black from our earlier study up there in Cyprus? No. This is Simon Peter. But it's the most Hebrew way you can say it, and they're in Jerusalem, and that's who he's talking to.

James has a very Hebraic character about him. If you read his book, you can see that. But Simeon, Simon, Peter, has described how God first, sorry, God first concerned himself about taking a people for his name from among the Gentiles and he says, James knows his Old Testament and he is going to do sort of a salad of Old Testament prophets here and this is not the way that I would do it. I'm going to say but I am not writing a holy writ, you know. I'm not led by the Holy Spirit in the same way that he was to have revelation for all of us forever but he says the the words of the prophets agree with this.

Just what Peter was saying goes along with this. After these things, I will return and I will rebuild the fallen Tabernacle Of David. I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it. He's building up David's throne basically. So, that the rest of mankind may seek after the Lord.

I am making a way for the Gentiles to know and so that all the Gentiles will who will be called by my name, says the Lord who makes these things known from long ago. Now, again, I wouldn't do it the same way James did it but I'm not James. He takes from Amos nine right here. I will raise up the fallen shelter of David. I will rebuild it as in the days of old.

Jeremiah 12 and I will bring them back. I will restore. And Amos nine twelve and then all the nations who are called by my name. He's reaching out. He could've gone to a lot of other places that say, you are supposed to be a light to the Gentiles.

It's as plain as day that that's what they were supposed to be but Jesus ends up fulfilling that where they had in various degrees of success but still failed. Isaiah 45, who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? So, all of those things mixed together give us what James says right there in sixteen, seventeen, and 18. He's saying, not only is this our experience in the right now and in the early time in Samaria and in Cornelius' house and all this like Peter is saying.

It's not just that. God already told us that this is what's going to happen. He could have used Joel which Peter used on the day of Pentecost. He could have used other places from Jeremiah about the new covenant. He didn't have to.

But getting through there, he says, therefore, because of that, it's my judgment. James was the one that was sort of in charge. It's my judgment that we do not cause trouble for those from the Gentiles who are turning to God. Peter just said, if you put that yoke of the law on em, it's it's that's too heavy to carry. There's too much.

You, he, they just met Jesus and now you're going to give em all of the law and sit that on top of him. The whole book of Galatians is basically, listen, you believe by faith. Why are you walking away from faith and going back to a life of law that you cannot hit? Faith is on Jesus. Law is on you.

Therefore, it's my judgment that we don't cause trouble for those from the nations who are turning to God but that we write to them, that they abstain from things contaminated by idols. Because that's absolutely, absolutely too difficult for a Jewish person to get over. Idolatry is, I mean, the first commandment, right? No other gods before me and so, if we're going to survive Jewish and Gentile and we're part of one church, there's some things that just make a a Jewish believer want to gag and that's one of them. Don't eat meat offered to idols.

To abstain from acts of sexual immorality. Paul calls it, he says, all all sin's bad. He said, but there's a certain kind where you're sinning against your own body and sexual immorality is that type. It's just not good for you. You have liberty in Christ, you have freedom in Christ, this is not good for you.

And, from what has been strangled, that's a part of the it is a part of the old law, but again it's one of those things that would just cause someone to wretch. And if we're going to be together, you don't want be serving stuff that's going to make your guest wretch ideally. I've got lots of missionary stories about that. And both ways actually. We had friends one time who were eating something and they found it to be so detestable and they're you're supposed to eat whatever is put before you.

And so they're eating it and they're just kinda knocking it back. Honestly, they had it was blood. That was part of it at least. And so as they're eating it, they're like and so they're they had it. As anybody turns around, they kind of put it in a little container and took it with them.

They invited the same folks over to their house. They had ham sandwiches, mayonnaise, mustard, ham sandwiches, and that's what you, you know, it's a casual Sunday afternoon. On Monday, I lifted up a couch cushion and found half of a ham sandwich. It was the grossest thing those people had ever eaten. Anyway, I'll get back to this because it's gonna come back up on us.

So, from for from ancient generations, this is this is James' reason for saying, these four things are in their own special category. It's really so that we can get along. Right? When Paul says later on, Paul will say, you know, think of others ahead of yourself. Jesus has said, think of others ahead of yourself.

Don't put a stumbling block in their way. That's a part of this. For from ancient generations, Moses, who has those who preach him in every city, no matter where we go, we've already have this group of people that we should start with them because they ought to know and recognize and we don't want to have a practice that would just gross them out. And we don't want to have a practice that's going to cause us struggles. The sexual immorality was rife in the Gentile population all around.

Different sexual morays for different cultures, but sexual immorality is something that people recognized even if they didn't practice it. So, times, Moses had been preached every city. He's in the synagogues, every Sabbath, and this is a good starting place for us to go. There's a lot on this slide right here. So, it's words are small, smaller than I usually do.

Then, it seemed good to the apostles and to the elders. It seemed good. Does that sound spirit led? Yes. They're gathered in his name.

We're gathered in his name. We as a church and as a group of elders and as a body, we have to decide who's going to paint the fence. We have to decide the mundane stuff of life. You know, what are we going to what are we gonna do? Lord, show us how you would have us spend the money.

Right? Show us how you would have us spend our time. Show us how you would align and ordain our services. It seemed good to the apostles and elders with the whole church to choose men from among them to send to Antioch. So now they're in Jerusalem.

They're going to send people 300 miles again back up to Antioch and these were the ones. With Paul and Barnabas, they sent Judas who was also called by Sabbath. How would you like to have the name Judas in this time? Pretty tough. Judas.

Oh, yeah. We call him for Sabbath. And Silas. Silas and they were lead and this is the Silas that Paul is going to be with in the second missionary journey. Spoiler alert.

That leading men among the brothers and they sent this letter to them. So, James said, I think we ought to write a letter and so this is the letter. The apostles and the brothers who are elders to the brothers and the sisters in Antioch and in Syria and in Cilicia, up here, Antioch. It's Turkey nowadays on Taqia, Turkey, Cilicia, and Syria is north of Antioch. Who are from the Gentiles?

Y'all who are from this place, who are from the nations, greetings. Since we have heard that some of our number, folks from here, the epicenter, where this thing got started. Since we have heard that some from our number to whom we gave no instruction have confused you by their teaching and they have upset your souls. It seemed good to us having become of one mind. We got together until we decided on it, right?

I'm not a political guy. I really really appreciate people who can get together and decide on stuff that matters especially when it's favorable for everybody. It seemed good to us. Having become of one mind, Men who to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul that y'all sent us. These are men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They can be trusted. Therefore, we've sent with them Judas called Barsabbas and Silas who themselves will also report the same things by word-of-mouth. I don't want you to be confused about this stuff. I want for you to know. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to lay and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials.

We're going to we're going to ask you to follow this stuff. I think it's for practical reasons again I say. We decided on a time when we would meet. Right? There's a time here at 09:00 in the morning or somewhere thereabouts where we get together and at eleven.

So it's we decide on stuff that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, That you abstain from blood. That's used in a lot of Gentile cooking not at all in Jewish cooking or in Muslim cooking by the way. From things that were strangled or from acts of sexual immorality. Those are the essentials. Those are just these four things and they don't just stop there and say, it's a matter of salvation.

You have to do this this way. God can't save you if you no. It's none of that. It says, after that, if you keep yourselves free from such things, you'll do well. It's about the advance of the gospel.

It's about getting along and getting together. One of the things that I like the most about the seminary I attended is they set out at the beginning that you kind of signed off. You weren't going to quibble over the minors. You're going to major on the majors and you you're going to allow for people matters of conscience and you're to allow for different denominational slants and you're not going to argue over these things. They called it evangelical unity which I really appreciate.

Then farewell. I love the greetings and farewell. Dear so and so. Truly yours, James. So, when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch.

Again, elevation down 300 miles to Antioch and after gathering the congregation together, delivered the letter. What do you think the response to that letter was? When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. Now, we might look at it and go, there were four things that they left. Those things are, those are things in the law.

Can you believe that? They, no. They had six thirteen really difficult things. Wool and cotton together. I mean, all the different six thirteen laws but they just had these four that are probably, it's going to go well for you if you go there.

When they'd read it, they rejoice because of its encouragement and Judas and Silas also being prophets themselves. They encouraged and they strengthened the brothers. This is somebody coming from one place to another place. Oh, good news from a far country. We love it.

To get together in Kenya or Uganda or South Africa recently and just be of the same family. I have more in common with with those folks joining together with them on a Sunday morning. It's immediate. It's just like that. Then, I do with lots of folks that live within a mile of me.

This is fun for a preacher too. Judas and Salas, also being prophets, encouraged and strengthened them with a lengthy message. After they'd spent time there, they were sent away from the brothers and the sisters in peace. There wasn't an aggravation. There wasn't a, okay, is it going to be Antioch or is it going to be Jerusalem?

Tune in next week. No, it's none of that. They're in peace. They have settled the question and it really is about grace and anytime we get together and we try to make it about anything else, we're backing up from the Jerusalem Council and I don't care what your denominational affiliation is or what your particularities are that you feel like is gotta be the way that's gotta be. No, it doesn't.

They left in peace and they left to those who had sent them out. So, again, there's a time where a missionary goes out to do a mission and then they come back home and that's kind of cool. Back to Jerusalem, go Judas and Silas and maybe a few others but Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch. They were teaching and they were preaching the word of the Lord with many others also and that's it. That's the that's the message.

With his spirit is, how many holy spirits are there? There's one. There's one spirit. If you are in disagreement, if you're in a disagreement with a brother or sister in Christ, at least one of you is not listening to the Holy Spirit. It might be both of you.

Okay? Unity in Christ is possible. It's only possible by his spirit and that's what we saw happen in there today and I know that there's been news this week. There's an American pope and there's all kinds of stuff and they said, what does that have to do with me? I'm baptist.

Well, the unity of the body of Christ is incredibly important and we are incredibly divided and so, I say, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, would you allow us to hear the still, small voice that guided these guys that can guide us now if we will humble ourselves. Lord God almighty, would you do? What only you can do? In Jesus name, amen. Would you stand with me?

And we're going to sing. You've already won. That is the cool thing because Jesus is building his church. He know, we know he's going to win. We know that the church triumphant.

That is all believers of all times will will go forward. So, in In Christ Jesus name, we pray. Lord spirit, would you fill us with exactly what we need to go forward today. In Jesus name, amen.