Luke and Acts were written as part one and two of a single work.
Luke’s gospel tells us what Jesus did and taught, and his book of Acts tells us how the message of the gospel spread through the witness of the church.
It was written to a friend and probably patron named Theophilus…he likely covered the cost of publishing the books.
It was very expensive to publish in the first century.
Luke gives us an outline of his book in chapter one.
The people would first receive the Holy Spirit’s power, then they would be witnesses of the gospel in Jerusalem, then they would spread out geographically from there.
The Church was born when the Holy Spirit fell on the waiting disciples.
What followed was a reversal of the tower of Babel.
At Babel, God dispersed rebellious humans into linguistic disunity, but at Pentecost everyone heard the truth in their own language.
God was clearly at work, but there were three representative types of responses to God’s movement.
One group was confused; they had no idea what was happening.
One group was wrong; they thought was just human emotions (or worse…they were drunk)
Finally, there were those who understood that this was a work of God and responded.
These three types of responses will always be present when Christians give witness to the truth of the gospel…the confused, those who just get it wrong, and the open.
What is a witness, and why did Jesus choose this word as the main designation of our roles in the world?
A witness provides evidence or testimony about an event or a set of facts by describing what they saw, heard or know.
They were witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They were witnesses to the facts of the gospel.
We are to live as his witnesses.
We did not see Jesus physically rise from the dead, but we have heard the gospel, and we have God’s word.
We have been changed by the gospel, and we know God’s word is true.
We qualify as witnesses. We testify to what we know to be true.
What about all the miracles in the book of Acts?
Wouldn’t it help if we could see a few more of those to back up our presentation of the gospel?
No, not really…a lot of people saw miracles in the ministry of Jesus and the disciples and still didn’t believe.
Years ago, a man named John Wimber wrote a book called, “Power Evangelism.”
He had some unusual experiences of God’s power in the context of his own evangelistic work…I can personally vouch for at least some of his claims…I was with him when some unsual things happened.
But he took those experiences and tried, to a degree, to make them normative.
But the fact that they were unusual and interesting enough to put in a book indicates that they were not usual or normative.
You may get the impression that there was a miracle a minute in the early church, but they, like us, normally lived normal lives.
There are about thirty miracles of various types recorded in the book of Acts.
These occurred over about the first thirty years of the Church.
You can do the math on that.
There were probably more than were listed, just like there is more happening in the world now than what we are aware of.
However, the point was not, and is not, the miracles but rather the truth of the gospel.
The signs of Jesus pointed to the truth of his claims.
We don’t need miracles to prove the gospel is true.
Its truth is self-evident for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.
We are to be personal witnesses to the objective truth of the gospel.
The power of the gospel to save those who believe is miracle enough.
Aaron read Luke 1 a couple of weeks ago.
Luke was a careful researcher…who wanted to inspire certainty in the facts of the gospel.
Luke ends with Jesus, before his ascension into heaven, telling his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the empowerment of the Spirit, then they would be his witnesses.
Acts begins like this:
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
Luke then describes the birth of the Church and the Spirit empowered and persecution driven movement of the gospel from Jerusalem out to the wider world.
A lot happens in Acts; you can read it yourself but today we will jump to chapter 15.
We read there of what is called the Jerusalem council.
The early churches worked in close relationship with one another for missions, relief work, and theological training.
Association and cooperation are an important biblical realities.
Our Church’s association is with a group of churches called collectively “The Southern Baptist convention.”
We cooperate with about 55 autonomous churches in the metro area, 400 in Kansas and Nebraska and about 50,000 globally…for missions, relief work, and theological education.
We work together for youth camps in our state, where several thousand attend each summer…our cooperative efforts pay for and subsize the camp.
For college ministry on most campuses in our state
For world missions, we have sent many and currently have several on the field funded by our cooperative efforts…this has been much more than we as a single church could have done alone.
We train leaders for the church through theological education…super important for the long run health of the church…again, men and women train at a financial discount that is the result of cooperation.
We cooperate with theological unity centered in the gospel, a commitment to the Great Commission and a commitment to the full authority of God’s word.
We cooperate with diversity in styles and ethnicity…in our city our association of churches is very diverse, this is true across the convention.
In Acts 15 representatives from various local churches had gathered to discuss an important theological issue that threatened to hijack the gospel if not handled correctly.
Early on the church was made of mostly Jewish converts to Christ.
As was always God’s plan, the gospel was taken to the non-Jewish world, and many came to faith in Christ.
This was a problem for some of the Jewish background believers.
We want to give these folks some slack; they were trying to get their heads around what was happening…they were kind of building the plane as they flew it.
At the same time, Paul, in his letter to the Galatians gave them no slack…because if the ones called the Judaizers had their way, the gospel would be lost.
This is not about arguing over theological minutia…it is about the core of the gospel.
It was about leaving the freedom of the gospel and returning to the bondage of the old life of the law and the flesh (sinful human nature).
It came to a head at this council in Jerusalem about 15 years after the resurrection of Christ and birth of the church.
The issues centered on two questions:
- Do Gentiles first have to become Jews before they can become Christians?
- Do Gentiles have to observe the Mosaic Law after they become Christians?
How are you saved and how do you stay or act saved?
Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia (Turkey) address these same issues.
I’m going to read parts of Acts chapter 15, then we will focus one important principle or reality.
Here it is: The foundational unity of the church is the truth of the gospel.
15 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”
So, some were saying that non-Jews had to become Jewish converts first then they could become Christians.
Now, this seems like a no-brainer…that clearly this is wrong…but remember the church was 15 years old, all the leaders would be to a degree somewhat young believers and the New Testament was being written, we now hold it in our hands.
The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
Then everyone listened in rapt silence as Barnabas and Paul told them of their missionary experiences among the Gentiles…they could not doubt what God was doing.
Then James, the half-brother of Jesus, who had a lot of influence, spoke up and told them how this all aligned with what the prophets had written.
“It is my judgment, (He said) therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
His verdict and the verdict of the council was that nothing should be added to the gospel that would keep people from Christ.
The rules about food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, and certain kinds of meat are discussed more fully by Paul in his letters to the church at Corinth.
These are not about rules for salvation but principles for maintaining unity in the early church…and biblical principles for how Christians should behave…for instance, sexually purity.
No, you don’t have to become a Jew to be a Christian…but don’t flaunt your freedom and don’t use your freedom to sin…defer to your brothers and sisters…don’t be knuckleheads about this stuff.
The council sent a delegation that included Paul and Barnabus with a letter to the churches to lay out their conclusion…the gospel must not be altered, no human barrier to faith in Christ would be allowed.
OK…This proves it!
The early church was practically perfect…they always got along, they easily came to agreement, unlike the contemporary church that can’t get along.
Not so fast.
First, make sure you read Paul’s letters, they were largely addressed to Christians and churches who were having a lot of trouble getting along.
And this decision by the council was unpopular among many at the time…this issue was like a Zombie; it would not die.
There were plenty of knuckleheads in the first century church, just like there are in the 21st century church…Paul, and Peter addressed them in their letters.
The knuckleheads didn’t and must not keep churches from cooperating for its larger mission.
Churches that isolate from larger associations of churches lack accountability and they greatly lessen their reach and impact.
So, no the church was not perfect then or now.
Let’s keep reading in this same chapter.
Sometime later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia (southern Turkey) and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Joseph, was a Jewish convert to Christ who had been given the nickname Barnabus, by his friends, which means “Son of encouragement.”
You can read some stories in Acts that show why he had been called this…he was that kind of guy.
He and Paul went way back.
When Paul first became a Christian and the other believers were rightly afraid of him, because he had been putting Christians in prison, Barnabus took a risk and vouched for him.
The church later sent Barnabus and Paul out to be the first missionaries.
These two men were clearly close and spent a lot of time together…they had been through some really rough times…experiences that bond hearts together.
But on one trip, they had taken Mark, Barnabus’ cousin, to help them during their arduous journey.
Halfway through the trip, Mark abandoned them and went home…leaving them in a lurch.
We are not told why he left…but it clearly bothered Paul, he probablyy didn’t trust him.
Now when Paul and Barnabus made their plans for another missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to give Mark another chance and Paul insisted that he not go with them.
The disagreement was so intense that they each went their own way.
The result was that their missionary efforts were doubled…two teams went out instead of one.
This outcome was good, but what are we to make of these two leaders in the church having this level of disagreement?
How could two good and godly men, both normally led by the Spirit, come to such drastically different conclusions?
Was Paul being hard-headed and holding a grudge, when he should have forgiven Mark?
Was Barnabus being unwise to trust Mark again, showing foolish favoritism to his cousin?
“Maybe they were both right, Terry”
It doesn’t work that way.
They both were seeing some things right and some things wrong…but in terms of their essential disagreement…down is down and up and up.
Someone got this right, and someone got this wrong…we don’t know who…it is not the point.
God used their disagreement…but better if they had not disagreed.
Paul eventually came around on Mark and worked with him again (2 Timothy 4:11).
We have no evidence that Paul and Barnabus didn’t disagree in a civil manner.
However, the Bible says that their disagreement was “sharp”…the word means “severe, irritating, exasperating.”
I doubt that they came to blows over this…it would be shocking if Paul and Barnabus got into a fist fight.
Even though I know for a fact that has happened in some church business meetings…not ours thank God.
If it had happened, I think Luke would have told us…because the Bible doesn’t gloss over human folly.
What we do know is that neither was willing to concede his position.
Both were absolutely convinced that he was right.
Let me restate our key principle
The foundational unity of the church is the truth of the gospel.
This doesn’t mean that everyone will agree on everything, it does mean that we must agree on the main thing.
To be a Christian you must believe the gospel in its clear and simple form.
Who is Christ, what has he done, and how are we saved?
To believe something else about these things means you have developed another religion…the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, or churches with Christian in their names but who deny the biblical truths of the gospel…they are not Christian…they are some else.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we should be arrogant or belligerent about our differences, but we must not be unclear about them either.
In order to be a member of River you must believe certain core doctrines, why?
Well, because we believe that they are true…we didn’t just make stuff up in order to exclude people.
We believe certain things are true and so we hold them tightly in order that people may become followers of Christ and walk in the light of his truth.
We are committed to the full authority of the Scripture, it is God’s inspired, inerrant word…we don’t think we are perfect in how we understand or apply it…but we believe it is perfect and so we aim for perfection in our direction.
So, Terry, what if someone disagrees with you? What are you saying?
I would say that we disagree…and what happens from there depends on the nature of the disagreement…and on each of our responses.
Is the disagreement on the authority of Scripture? The gospel? On essential doctrines?
We can be friends, but we won’t be able to be members of the same church body.
How could we be? What we believe shapes what we value and what we do.
I believe this is true…I cannot disbelieve it.
Maybe it’s on issues that are important but not essential for being a Christian
I have friends who are Christian but have different beliefs than I do related to other issues in life and the church.
We can be friendly we can work together for the gospel; we can work against evils like abortion, or human trafficking.
But again, depending on the issue, we aren’t going to be able to fellowship together in the same church body because we don’t believe the same things, and some of these things have practical applications…things that must be put into practice.
This shouldn’t be controversial…it should be common sense.
If I show up on a basketball court with a helmet and shoulder pads, carrying a brown, oblong ball and not an orange round one…my friends are not going to “accept me”…they will tell me to leave the court.
They will say, “Terry you can’t play, not like that.”
If we try to “get along” we will neither play football nor basketball…and the result will be chaos…certainly not fun.
If you want to make up a new sport called footamabasketball…it’s fine…but be sure of this…it’s neither basketball or football…it something else entirely
It is a very benign illustration…because we aren’t talking about a game but reality itself.
Peter wrote this in his second letter:
For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2 Peter 1:16
As Rich Mullins sang in his song Creed, “I did not make it, no it is making me, it is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.”
Indeed…we did not make this, it is making us.
What about those who are in the same church body, who believe the same core doctrines and disagree like Paul and Barnabus did?
Then we must disagree in a Christ-honoring way.
There are diverse views in this room on President Bush, Obama, Trump, vaccines, Charlie Kirk, as well as the temperature in this room, the volume of the music, and the food we have at church gatherings.
There should be no disagreement among believers regarding the sanctify of life, the exclusivity of the gospel, the need for leaders with character…things that are clear in Scripture.
But there will be disagreements.
We have, over the years, had people who disagreed about how certain interpersonal relational events have unfolded.
Both sides have been convinced that they are right and could not concede because they were convinced…doesn’t mean they were arrogant, just means they were convinced.
You can’t pretend you are not convinced if you are.
I’ve had, many times over the years, people become unhappy with me from both sides of a single issue…they were convinced.
I did too little, or too much…on the same issue…for them.
I can’t say that I love any of that…but I can say that I am not surprised by it.
Look, if the guy who wrote a good bit of the New Testament and the guy whose name is “Encouragement” had a serious disagreement, I would be unreasonable to expect to avoid them myself.
We have had people join River from other churches and people leave for other churches, this year.
Earlier this year a friend told me with tears that he was going to leave River, I patted him on the back and said, “It’s okay, we are good.”
He didn’t shake the dust from his feet and cry out “you are all dead to me.”
I didn’t say, “You are leaving the one true church.”
We said to each other…”I love you” and he left and with tears went elsewhere.
It’s okay.
But here is what I told him as he said he said that he was leaving.
“We believe what we believe and we cannot and we will not change.”
He said, “I know, Terry.”
He didn’t disbelieve the gospel…it was around others issues.
Unity is important but unity around the gospel is essential.
It is never unity at all costs.
It is always truth at all costs…but it need not be, must not be “mean, grumpy, combative truth.”
We ought to be happy about the truth, and joyful in it.
We are to strive for unity, Paul wrote, whenever possible, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all people.
But what others choose, well that doesn’t depend on us, it depends on them.
*The strident, angry cultural moment is such that if you disagree with me on anything…you are a fool, subhuman, ignorant, evil or both.
My good friend was working with a long-time customer in his business two weeks ago and suddenly this customer began to bark profanities, raged on and on, questioning how my friend could not hate this person and hate that thing…he was enraged.
It was shocking and came from seemingly nowhere…my friend, gently tried to turn down this man’s wrath…but this is how it is out there.
This must never be how it is for us.
On essentials, we must have unity.
On non-essentials, we will have diversity.
In everything, we must have charity…or love.
This is not just for those who we disagree with on ideas, or doctrine…but for those whose lives do not align with the gospel…we need not be mean, but we need to be clear.
I have another good friend of 40 years, whose son has lived for many years in a homosexual lifestyle.
He told me recently that they have a good father/son relationship…and that he and his wife pray daily that their son would repent and be saved…and he is not unclear with his son about what they believe.
Now his son could turn away from his dad, but my friend will neither turn from the gospel nor his son.
It is most often framed like this…You will accept me and all I do or you are rejecting me.
Nope…I will not accept what you do and believe and you are my son.
It is simplistic and takes no effort or intelligence to put everyone into two buckets.
You are right and good…you agree with me.
You are wrong and bad…you disagree with me.
It is complex and it takes effort and spirit-empowered intelligence, and good understanding of Scripture… to navigate relationships well.
To live with conviction and clarity and humility and charity.
This takes so much work…that many, if not most…are not willing to do it.
So… they have an unhappy, and unsustainable…two-bucket life.
In just this past month I had conversations with two people whom I respect very much…but who came at the same issue from totally different directions.
Our unity is the gospel and the authority of Scripture…we don’t have to agree on everything…but we must agree on this essential thing.
What amazes me is NOT that Christians disagree as much as we do…it is that we get along as well as we do.
People sometimes refer to the “early church” with a kind of longing nostalgia: “If only the modern church was like the early church.”
Unfortunately, it is.
The fact is that the church in Acts was made up of normal Christians just as the contemporary church is.
It is troubling when the church acts just like the world and becomes belligerent and petty in relationships.
However, we must not miss the fact that faithful churches are very unlike the world around them.
In the church, as in the world, relationships are never perfect, and there are many interpersonal problems.
But like Paul, Barnabus and Mark and very much unlike the world, faithful followers of Christ forgive each other…they keep the main thing, the main thing.
Faithful followers of Christ learn how to continue to fellowship and work together in peace.
The mark of a Christian is not that they never disagree, but that they always love.
And that love isn’t hung in midair…it’s not based on emotions and good intentions.
That love is founded on the objective truth of the Gospel…
We love because he first loved us.