https://youtu.be/g2Ulnsozcrg

A

Letter of Encouragement     (Acts

15:22-35)

- In the Book of Acts, chapter 15, we’ve seen that some of

the Jewish Christian believers have gone out to the Gentile churches teaching

them that they have to be circumcised to really

be saved.

- This distressed and confused the new believers who were

taught that salvation is thru Jesus alone.

- Paul and Barnabas disputed this new claim, and took it

to the Apostles in Jerusalem for a ruling.

- Peter and the rest of the Apostles agree that the

gentile believers have been saved as evident through receiving the Holy Spirit,

and Paul and Barnabas testified to this.

- God, having saved

them by grace through faith, the Apostles saw no reason to add to the

gentile’s burden, and only required them to:

- Acts 15:20, but that we write

to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from

things strangled, and from

blood.

- The Apostles wrote a letter to the churches to straighten out this issue for the Gentile believers.

-

Read Acts 15:22-35

1.

Who is your truth source?

- I had a boss who used to say, when people began getting

upset about a rumor, go talk to your “truth source”, the person you know can be

trusted to tell you the accurate story. (It

wasn’t him!)

- Verse 24, “Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled

you with words, unsettling your souls, saying (that) you must be circumcised…”

- These Jewish believers, at minimum, misled the gentiles

into thinking they spoke a message with the authority of the elders/apostles,

which they did not. Every good lie has a

measure of truth!

- Example: 10 years ago, Rush and NPR reporting same story with

different “facts” and conclusions. The conclusions they drew were to influence my

opinions and actions.

- So much CLICK BAIT, and seemingly

credible articles on social media, that are designed to get you to freak out,

and fear that if you don’t listen, bad

things will happen to you.

- How do you know who is

really telling the truth?

- With the gentile’s salvation seemingly on the line, no

wonder they were unsettled.

- The truth: circumcision WAS the symbol given through

Moses for God’s chosen people. So, if the gentiles were now grafted into God’s

people, then they should have this symbol too, right? WRONG!

- Gal.

6:11-15, 11 See

with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand! 12 As

many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you

to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross

of Christ. 13 For not even those who are circumcised

keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in

your flesh. 14 But God forbid that I should boast except

in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by [b]whom the world has been crucified to me,

and I to the world. 15 For in Christ Jesus neither

circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

- The Jews tried to elevate their own customs and beliefs

above the cross of Christ, to make themselves more holy, more important, more

valuable to God. (like Star-bellied

Sneetches)