Today and next week we will be considering the same event
with the same text. The topic is the council of Jerusalem. The leaders of the
Christian Church gathered together, perhaps about 20 years after Christ’s
ascension into heaven. They needed to discuss whether people who were from
Gentile rather than Jewish backgrounds needed to observe the regulations that
God gave in the Old Testament. This was the most important controversy
Christians had in the early part of their history. This issue is in the background
of much of the New Testament, especially St. Paul’s epistles. It is good for
you to understand it, so that you can read the Bible more easily and
profitably.
Since we have two weeks to look at the council of Jerusalem,
tonight I’d like to introduce the controversy by, first of all, looking at the
big picture. The essential element behind the question of whether the Old
Testament Law must be kept is faith. What God is being believed in?
This is a question that goes all the way back to the
beginning. Adam and Eve started out believing in God. They soon switched their
allegiance to a different god—the devil. They were obedient to him and his Word
rather than the God who had given them the command not to eat from this certain
tree. God restored faith in Adam and Eve by coming to them again with his Word
and promise, but ever since then mankind has been changed. We are more prone to
believe in all kinds of things besides the true God.
This happened with the first generations after Adam and Eve.
The descendants of Seth called upon the name of the Lord. They believed in him
and his word and his promises. The descendants of Cain, however, tried to make
a paradise out of this world. In so far as they made advancements and progress,
to that extent their heart grew cold towards God. They came to believe in
themselves and what they could accomplish with their smarts and technological
advancements. They believed that they would be better blessed by these things
rather than being blessed according to the Word spoken to Adam and Eve about
the Messiah.
This was a kind of idolatry that is similar to the idolatry
of today. Moses does not tell us any names of gods or goddesses that the
descendants of Cain believed in. He only speaks of their many and great
accomplishments. So it is also today. People do not think that they are
worshipping gods, but indeed they are. Whatever a person trusts in for blessing
or power or success—whatever that thing might be—that is a god for the person
who thusly believes. When we believe that we are going to be happy and
successful because of money or education or technological progress or any other
thing, then we are worshipping idols. It doesn’t matter that it is not formal.
Worship is more a matter of the heart than it is of particular services or
labels.
Eventually the idol worship among the descendants of Cain
developed these religious rites and ceremonies. The things that the people
trusted in came to receive names. Temples were built. Priests and priestesses
were inducted into them. Those who wished to have a good crop were thought to
be wise to go to the temple of Baal, just as today people believe that a
successful harvest is dependent upon the blessings of professors and
universities. The use of temples and priests had a lot of various practices
that came along with it. Depending on the god or goddess involved there would
be certain foods that were eaten or prostitutes visited or the sacrifice of
animals or even children.
In the midst of all this unbelief in the true God and belief
in idols, God chose a certain man and woman named Abram and Sarai. They would
eventually be given the names Abraham and Sarah. God said to Abraham that he
was his special, chosen one. He would be good to Abraham and give him happiness
and success. Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Princes
would be born of his descendants. All the nations of the world would be blessed
through his seed. In the fullness of time this would be fulfilled through Jesus
of Nazareth, who is the Messiah. As a sign of being God’s people he instructed
Abraham to be circumcised. All his male descendants were to be circumcised too.
This set them apart from all the other people of the world who engaged in all
kinds of other religious practices. It defined them as separate. They
worshipped the true God. Everybody else worshipped idols.
This separateness was further amplified about 500 years
later with Moses. When God led the descendants of Abraham out of Egypt, where
they had been slaves, he greatly increased the number of commandments and
statutes that his people were to observe. If you’d like to hear what these are,
you can easily find them by reading the second half of the book of Exodus and
the entirety of the book of Leviticus. In addition to circumcision, the people
of God were also to abstain from certain foods. They were to observe the
Sabbath day and several other festival days. They were to have a tabernacle and
priests. There was a morning and evening sacrifice. All of this was according
to God’s own instruction.
These regulations served for the descendants of Abraham in
several good ways. I’ll only mention a couple. First of all, these regulations
were a continuation of God’s prophesies that would finally be fulfilled in
Jesus. Jesus is the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He is
the one and only atonement, that the day of atonement points toward. He is the
true temple—the true dwelling place of God—who cleanses and gives us access to
God’s presence in a way where we will not be burned and destroyed, but rather
blessed. This was an important reason for God giving the Law. It served as a
teacher to the Israelites.
Another important reason why God gave the Law was to keep
them separate from the other nations. The Israelites were to believe in and
worship the only true God. They were not to go visit the temples of other gods.
They were not to seek the blessing of these other things. They were not to
visit their prostitutes or eat their food or in any other way deviate from
their allegiance to God. This was to keep the people from whom the Messiah was
to be born pure. But as you know from the Old Testament, the Israelites had a
devil of a time living up to this. They were always believing in other things
besides God. Nonetheless, this was something that the Law was supposed to do.
It served as a marker. Those who observed the Law believed in God. Those who
believed in other things for their blessing didn’t keep the Law. The one
believed in God. The other believed in demons.
Now let’s consider how things were at the time of Christ and
the apostles. The first Christians were all Jews. They were all descendants of
Abraham. The men were all circumcised. They all tried to observe the
regulations God gave to Moses. Their belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the living God, did not change these other things for them. Luke tells us that
even after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples still would visit the
Temple.
Something strange started to happen, though, as time went
on. The thing that was strange was that non-Jews, that is, Gentiles, started to
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. All the Jewish
Christians who heard this were very glad to hear that this was the case. It was
very good that these people who otherwise did not know or worship the true God,
but worshipped demons instead, should be turned away from their futile idols to
the living God. The question, though, was “Now what?” Do these Gentiles, who
want to be God’s people, now have to be circumcised and follow the laws that
were given to Moses?
I hope that by the way that I’ve introduced this question
tonight that you can see how difficult it had to have been to see clearly. The
Law was something good. It marked God’s people as being separate from
unbelievers. God himself gave it and told his people that if they wanted to
remain his people, they would have to observe it. Those Jewish Christians who
assumed that the Gentiles would have to follow the Law were not foolish or
unbelieving. It was just not possible for them to see how anybody could claim
to be a follower of God, but then not follow what God had commanded.
The one who had the clearest vision in these matters was St.
Paul. He was blessed by God to be able to see that what is important is faith,
not the Law. Faith in the true God and in his Son Jesus is the only decisive
factor for whether a person is a child of God or not. Furthermore, this is the
way that it has always been—all the way back to Abraham. Outward markers, such
as the Law provided, never saved anyone. It is Jesus Crucified who saves.
Believe in him and you are forgiven and righteous before God.
And so at the council of Jerusalem you have two groups of
Christians. One group says that the Law must be followed in addition to faith
in Christ. The other group says that faith in Christ is sufficient. The Law can
either be observed or not observed. This was a difficult question that caused
much discussion and debate. The outcome of the council of Jerusalem is that the
Christians determined that faith in Christ is sufficient for salvation.
This is enough for tonight. Next week we will look more
closely at the particular history that leads up to the council, Peter’s
argument, the letter that is sent to Antioch, and how this relates to the rest
of the New Testament.
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