The Church of the Spirit of Truth
BY JOEL NEDERHOOD
Acts 15 I CAN UNDERSTAND why a lot of people have given up on religion, or even on Christianity. Sometimes I am tempted to do the same.
When I look around, I see the religious scene looking more like the entertainment scene everyday. The emphasis of religious leaders nowadays is on developing techniques, or tricks, to draw a large crowd.
And I see a muddle of contradictory ideas being promoted as Christianity by people who name the name of Christ all the time but are not in fact true followers of Christ.
Even within the Christian circle, I find long-time believers and short-timers alike waging vicious wars of words against other believers. Though they talk about love and humility, they give the impression that their greatest enemies are other Christians and that they alone have truth.
The result is that the mere mention of Christianity becomes very displeasing to the general public.
There is no simple way out of all this, I am afraid. But I believe we can find help from the Holy Spirit because Jesus promised just before His Crucifixion: "When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come" (John 16:13).
Biblical EXAMPLE
Before Christ came, the Jewish people had assumed that they were the primary candidates for salvation. And they customarily described their being saved as a result of keeping the law of Moses. One of the marks of their obedience to this law was the circumcision of their males.But when Jesus came, He threw all that overboard. From time to time, He made Himself very unpopular by declaring that the religion of the true God was for Gentiles as well as Jews. On many occasions, He also showed the Jews that the law they took so seriously should not be interpreted as they had interpreted it.
After Jesus had risen from the grave and ascended into heaven, He sent His Holy Spirit into the church, and many people became His followers. Most of the early followers were Jewish people, who had been keep
ing the law. The first Gentile to join the church was a Roman centurion whom Peter went to see and who received the Holy Spirit as Peter preached.
Paul's preaching. But the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles did not advance with great power until God stopped Paul in his tracks one day and made him an apostle. Paul had hated Christ, but after the Lord had confronted him, he became filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
As he preached in Gentile communities, many became believers. He told them that by believing in Christ, they would be saved. That's all they had to do. He did not tell them to keep the law of Moses.
This preaching caused some of the old Jewish stalwarts to accuse Paul of introducing heresy into the church. We read in the first four verses of Acts 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.As we read Acts 15 further, we learn that the dispute occurred again in Jerusalem. Those believers who were part of the sect of the Pharisees insisted that the Gentile believers be circumcised and submit to the law of Moses. Here's what happened next:
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" (vv. 6-11).
Everyone in the assembly was very quiet. Then Paul and Barnabas told what God had done through them in the form of signs and wonders among the Gentiles. When they were finished, James, the half brother of Jesus, quoted the Old Testament prophet Amos to show that what had happened had been foretold in the Bible. He said in verses 15-18:
"The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
"'After this I will return
and rebuild David's fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
that the remnant of men may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things'
that have been known for ages."
Then James told the assembly that, in his judgment, they should not make it difficult for the Gentiles to turn to God; the Gentiles should not have to submit to circumcision and keep the Mosaic law.
As a result, the church decided to settle the dispute by sending several representatives throughout the new Gentile churches with this message:
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things (vv. 28,29).
Principles Taught
We, who are overwhelmed nowadays by the religious confusion that swirls around us, can learn much from this account on how to settle differences. So, let's take a closer look at Acts 15 and examine the principles it sets forth.1. The church must be ready to face up to important religious issues.
Some religious issues, of course, are more important than others. Throughout the centuries, Christians have differed on questions of dress and adornment and on any number of other minor questions. Some Christians have been against dancing; others have said it was okay. Some have been against drinking any alcoholic beverages; others have said moderate drinking is okay. Christians differ on what may or may not be done on Sunday.Each of these matters is of some importance. But none of them is really a fundamental religious issue, such as the one that was brought before the as-sembly of religious leaders at Jerusalem.
When dealing with secondary issues, believers need a great deal of tolerance for one another. The Bible commands that we are to accept one another "without passing judgment on disputable matters" (Rom. 14:1).
A major issue, however, affects the core of the Christian faith. In the Acts 15 account, the underlying question was whether people were saved by works or by grace. Here, the doctrine must be absolutely Biblical.
Over the centuries, the church has met and synods have gathered to deal with such major issues as questions concerning the nature of God, the nature of Jesus Christ, and the way of salvation. And the assembly of leaders at Jerusalem was the very first Council ever to deal with an important, fundamental issue.
2. Major issues should be brought to those who have the special responsibility of making judgments for the general church body.
Note that Paul was an apostle hand-picked by Christ, and Barnabas was also called an apostle in Acts 14:14. Yet, they agreed with the Pharisee believers to turn their disagreement over to the apostles and the elders of the church. They wanted the church leaders of their day to examine the question.The church, you see, is not a democratic institution. It does not determine its doctrines and practices by taking a vote among its membership. The church is supervised and ruled by apostles and elders. Nowadays, the office of apostle no longer exists, but the office of elder does. That is why, when the church meets officially to conduct business, it is the elders who have the responsibility to examine issues and make judgments that relate to essentials of the Christian faith.
3. Jesus has promised that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.
That promise of Jesus applies, of course, to all of us believers in our daily living. But we experience a very special realization of this promise when church leaders meet to deal with matters of crucial importance.The Jerusalem Council realized that it was responding to a special work of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit had given the Gentiles faith. So, when the final decision was rendered, it began with the statement: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..."
This was not merely a nice turn of phrase; it carefully expressed the church's consciousness that the Holy Spirit was present among them.
All believers, then, ought to take the church's decisions about fundamental questions very seriously. Surely, the apostles and elders at the Jerusalem Synod were led by the Holy Spirit as they sought an answer to the question on hand.
The church, you see, is not a democratic institution. It does not determine its doctrines and practices by taking a vote 4. The Holy Spirit leads His church with the teachings of the Bible.
Most of the people at the Jerusalem Synod had been present at Pentecost or on some other occasion when the Holy Spirit had been made known in a recognizable way. They were well qualified to determine, therefore, that the subsequent outpourings on the Gentiles were authentic.
Nevertheless, ultimately it was the scripture from the Book of Amos that gave them the freedom to identify the result of Paul's preaching to Gentiles as an authentic work of God. The proof was the Bible's description of the way Gentiles would bear the name of God.
SUMMARY
From these four principles, we learn that whenever the church considers fundamental religious questions, it must do so in the light of the Bible. The Holy Spiritthe Spirit of truthis the One who leads elders to truth through His teachings in the Bible. Nothing the Holy Spirit tells the church will ever contradict what He Himself has written. The Word of God is always the touchstone of truth.This applies to the church today no less than it did to the church in the First Century. With so much confusion about truth around, we must stay ever so close to the Bible. When religious ideas of significant importance are brought to us, we shouldn't be afraid to ask, "Where is that taught in the Bible?"
And we should make as sure as we can that these people are indeed true followers of Christ. How does one tell the false prophets apart from the true ones? Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:16, "By their fruit you will recognize them."
It is terribly dangerous to be outside the church of Christ. Christians need each other to reemphasize the rules God laid down to keep them in the truth. The true church, acting through those who have been called to be its leaders and who submit to the Word of God, is able to help us. God, the Spirit of Truth, still leads His people into the truth that sets them free. Acts 15 assures us of this. o
Dr. Joel Nederhood is radio minister on The Back to God Hour. For broadcast information, write to 6555 W. College Drive, Palos Heights, IL 60463.