00:00: Let's talk about old things for a minute here at the beginning.
00:07: How many of you have used or owned a camera that required physical film?
00:15: Raise your hands.
00:17: Raise your hand if you've never had one of those, never owned one.
00:22: Young hands.
00:23: Yeah, that's what I thought.
00:25: How about this one?
00:25: How many of you have owned an 8-track player?
00:31: Yeah.
00:32: Raise your hand if you've never owned an 8-track player.
00:36: Young people.
00:38: How many of you have been traveling somewhere and stopped to ask directions?
00:46: Not a lot of guys' hands.
00:49: Yeah, and all the ladies are like, I get that one.
00:51: You almost never have to stop and ask for directions anymore.
00:56: You don't even carry an Atlas in your vehicles.
00:59: Some of you probably don't know what an Atlas is because it's become out of date.
01:04: We don't do that anymore.
01:06: Our cell phones are this ubiquitous presence that give us access to all this information, so we never have to stop and ask directions.
01:15: But long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we didn't have cell phones.
01:21: And so if you were going someplace with which we're not particularly familiar, you would get directions from somebody that knew.
01:28: And you would go and follow those instructions that they gave you.
01:32: And then as you got close, if you got turned around or you didn't know exactly what you're doing, you'd pull off the road, you'd find a random person, and you would talk to a stranger.
01:41: All the really young people are like, no, they're horrified at the idea of talking to a stranger directly with their mouths, right?
01:49: Well, maybe I'd text them.
01:51: You know, I posted on a forum, maybe.
01:53: But you'd go straight up to a stranger, and you'd say, I'm trying to get to such and such place.
01:57: Do you know how to get there?
01:58: Can you tell me?
01:59: And then you would remember with your brain as much of what they said.
02:03: And when you forgot, you'd stop and you ask somebody else, right?
02:06: This is how we got places.
02:08: If you were in Green Bay and somebody came up to you, they might say, I'm trying to get to Lambeau.
02:13: Can you give me directions to Lambeau Field, right?
02:16: And you would tell them how to get there.
02:18: You'd give them directions.
02:20: Now, as important as it was in generations gone by to ask directions when you were traveling, a more important ask for directions might go something like this.
02:33: How do I get to heaven?
02:35: Or how do I get to God?
02:37: Or how do I get so that I can avoid hell and get to be with God in heaven?
02:42: How can I live forever with God?
02:44: This is not a new series of questions.
02:47: In the time of Jesus, Mark 10, 17, a rich young man asked Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
02:55: Or in Acts 16, 30, a Greek fellow asked Silas and the Apostle Paul, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
03:05: These are all different questions that are really getting at the same question.
03:11: How do I get on God's good side?
03:14: How do I get away from hell and to heaven so that I can be forever with God?
03:21: That is the most important question that you will ever ask in your life.
03:30: Nothing else in your life is important as that issue.
03:34: If you were to ask 10 different people in Green Bay today that very question, you might get 10 different answers.
03:43: People don't always wrestle with this question as they should.
03:46: And even if they do, they don't always come up with the right answer.
03:50: In our passage in Acts 15, we see the same thing happening 2,000 years ago.
03:55: The earliest believers in Jesus were wrestling with the question of, how do I get on God's good side?
04:01: How can I be acceptable to God?
04:02: How do I get to heaven?
04:05: And different answers were being offered.
04:09: And part of the challenge was, do the instructions go the same way for everybody?
04:15: Is the directions to heaven the same for Jewish background people and non-Jewish background or Gentile people?
04:27: In our passage in Acts 15, the famous council at Jerusalem, we see people in those earliest days of Christianity offering different answers, and then the church leadership coming together to nail down a clear answer to that question.
04:43: Not based on what they thought the answer should be, not what they wanted the answer to be, but based on what God said the answer was.
04:57: Acts chapter 15 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible.
05:02: It is the chapter that tells us about the early church wrestling with this issue and coming to agreement and saying, this is how you get to heaven.
05:13: This is God's chosen path.
05:16: This is the road you must take.
05:19: Acts chapter 15, verse one lays out the problem, lays out the conflict straight out of the gate.
05:24: But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
05:35: And so they came down.
05:36: Jerusalem is about 2,500 feet above sea level.
05:38: It's up on the mountain range, kind of a ridge top city.
05:42: They came down to the city of Antioch.
05:45: That's where Paul and Barnabas are living at this time and doing ministry.
05:50: It's about a 400-mile journey away.
05:52: So these guys in Jerusalem took it upon themselves to travel 400 miles away with no cars, no trains, no planes, in order to tell these non-Jewish people who come to faith in Jesus, you better be circumcised or you're going to hell.
06:12: That's quite literally what's going on.
06:14: They said, yeah, yeah, believe in Jesus is good, but it's not enough.
06:17: You've got to do this circumcision thing or you cannot be saved.
06:23: Well, Paul and Barnabas object.
06:27: They are not okay with that.
06:31: Why?
06:34: Because they have been teaching something different entirely.
06:38: Paul and Barnabas have been saying, you turn away from your sin and toward Jesus in faith, and God accepts you.
06:48: Period.
06:49: Faith and Jesus plus nothing else makes you acceptable to God.
06:55: And these folks that have come down are saying, yay, Jesus, plus circumcision.
07:02: These are Jesus plus people trying to tell Jesus only people, Jesus is not enough.
07:09: You need to add something, namely circumcision.
07:13: Now, this is a big deal in that culture.
07:16: In that culture, every Jewish baby boy was circumcised on day eight.
07:22: And so everybody in the Jewish culture grew up, every fellow grew up circumcised.
07:28: And so when they came to faith in Jesus, that was already a done deal because it happened to them when they were babies.
07:34: But now they're saying, hey, if you're not Jewish and your parents didn't take care of that for you when you were a baby, now you've got to do it.
07:43: If you've ever thought evangelism today is hard, imagine if you had to tell people about Jesus and persuade them of that.
07:52: Worst outreach event ever.
07:54: Right?
07:55: It's this unbelievable thing, but it's not about the accessibility.
08:00: That's not really the issue.
08:02: The issue is, what does God require from you to be acceptable?
08:09: How do you measure up in God's sight?
08:11: And Paul and Barnabas are Jesus only guys.
08:15: They're not Jesus plus guys.
08:17: And so they have this conflict.
08:19: Verse two tells us that there was significant debate.
08:22: Literally, Paul and Barnabas had no small discussion and debate with them.
08:28: I like the way the amplified paraphrase puts it.
08:30: Paul and Barnabas disagreed greatly and debated with them.
08:35: They're like, oh no, them's fighting words.
08:37: We're not going to just agree to disagree on that.
08:39: That stuff we divide over.
08:42: Right?
08:42: Because this gets at the core issue of heaven and hell.
08:47: Eternity is at stake.
08:49: We cannot agree to disagree about the kind of thing that sends people to heaven and hell.
08:56: You can't afford to get this wrong.
08:59: Well, the church in Antioch, mostly non-Jewish background believers, they say, hey, Paul, Barnabas, we're going to send you, some other fellows with you.
09:08: You guys travel up to Jerusalem.
09:09: Make this 400-mile journey.
09:11: Talk to the folks in Jerusalem.
09:12: Talk to the other apostles.
09:14: Talk to the church elders there.
09:15: And work this out and get back to us.
09:17: So they go.
09:20: They get to Jerusalem, verse 4.
09:22: The Christians in Jerusalem welcome them.
09:23: Hey, Paul, Barnabas, and your buddies, welcome, right?
09:27: But right away, as the issue comes up, we see conflict arising there as well.
09:32: Verse 5.
09:33: Now, catch 5 because it's a little bit different than verse 1.
09:37: Verse 5.
09:38: But some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.
09:52: So now picture this.
09:53: Traveling Christians come to the local Christians.
09:57: And they begin talking about this.
09:58: And some of the local Christians, some of the local believers, it calls them, are from the party of the Pharisees.
10:05: The Pharisees were the Jewish group that was like ultra hardcore on rule keeping.
10:11: They were like really serious about following the rules and doing all the specific things required.
10:18: And they say, yeah, we're pro-Jesus.
10:21: But we're also pro-rules.
10:22: You've got to do all these Old Testament requirement rules.
10:25: Rules absolutely required.
10:28: Including, but not limited to, circumcision.
10:33: Make sure all the Christians are doing all the rule stuff.
10:39: Notice that this is an expansion of the problem in verse 1.
10:46: I don't go to the mall very often.
10:48: I don't know.
10:49: I used to go when I was younger all the time.
10:52: I thought it was the greatest place.
10:53: Now I hardly ever go.
10:53: I was sent to the mall recently for a pickup.
10:56: Order online.
10:57: Pick it up in the store.
10:58: I get there.
10:58: I park in kind of the rough ballpark where I need to be.
11:02: But I don't know where I'm going in the mall.
11:04: So right as I get in, what do they have?
11:06: The old people signs, right?
11:09: So you can say, you are here and the store you need is there.
11:12: And I get my bearings and then I can make my way where I need to go.
11:15: Let's do that right now.
11:16: Let's get our bearings.
11:16: There's three proposed answers on the table right now about how to get to God or how to get to heaven.
11:26: Option one, trust in Jesus.
11:28: That's what Paul and Barnas have been teaching.
11:31: We've seen that in the book of Acts to this point.
11:33: Option number two, verse one, trust in Jesus.
11:37: And if you're a fella, get circumcised.
11:40: Option three from verse five, believe in Jesus and get circumcised and keep all the other Old Testament rules.
11:50: Those are very different answers.
11:52: Those are very different answers.
11:54: This can seem abstract.
11:56: This can seem distant.
11:57: Like who cares?
11:59: Let me give you at least three reasons why this is a big deal.
12:01: Number one, I know people personally who have gotten misled by people teaching Jesus plus.
12:09: I know people who thought and believed fervently.
12:14: They had to believe in Jesus and keep a whole bunch of Old Testament rules.
12:19: And so they would celebrate various Old Testament festivals described like the Feast of Tabernacles and so on.
12:27: And they thought we absolutely have to keep the Sabbath, which under Old Testament rules means sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday night.
12:38: And therefore, they couldn't do anything during that time out and about.
12:43: So families like this, their kids could never go to a Friday night football game.
12:48: They couldn't play in pep band.
12:49: They couldn't go to their friend's birthday parties, etc.
12:52: If they were on a Saturday.
12:54: Because it's the Sabbath, right?
12:56: They would miss school for all these different festivals because, hey, we've got to go celebrate this festival.
13:02: And they looked at it and said, this is an absolute requirement.
13:05: So all these other people that say, I trust in Jesus but don't go to church on Saturday, they're going to hell.
13:12: That's what they believed.
13:13: Because they had been so misled by this Jesus plus Old Testament rules idea.
13:18: That's a big deal.
13:19: It was radically influential in their lives.
13:24: Number two, broken relationships.
13:26: When you have people that think Jesus only and other people who say Jesus plus, it creates all kinds of conflict between them.
13:35: I knew a fellow before I moved to Green Bay who was absolutely convinced, if you didn't get dunked for baptism, you were going to hell.
13:43: And you couldn't reason with this guy at all and say, well, wait a minute.
13:50: What about the guy on the cross that Jesus said was going to be with him in paradise?
13:54: Did Jesus lie or is that guy saved?
13:56: Because he didn't get dunked.
13:59: Right?
13:59: Whoa.
14:00: Whoa.
14:01: Right?
14:01: And he was so stuck on the rules because people had misled him.
14:04: And so he couldn't get along with anybody outside his local church because he was absolutely convinced Jesus plus rules.
14:12: Or God doesn't want you.
14:15: And here's the one that's probably most relevant to you personally.
14:19: What do you need to do to get to heaven?
14:21: What rules do you need to keep and how well do you need to keep them?
14:25: I don't want one of you standing before God, whether it's after a car accident this afternoon or in 50 years when old age takes you or whatever it might be.
14:36: I don't want you standing before God and saying, I hope I did good enough.
14:40: I hope I measured up and finding out that you didn't.
14:43: You need to know what God's standards are.
14:48: That's the problem.
14:50: That's the question that needs answering.
14:52: And the church answered it.
14:53: Verse 6.
14:54: The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
14:58: Well, I should think so.
15:00: Right?
15:01: And they talk about it.
15:03: Verse 7.
15:03: After they've had much debate.
15:04: So this debate goes on.
15:05: People are thinking this.
15:07: They're thinking that.
15:07: Oh, what about this?
15:08: Surely you can't rule that out.
15:09: Yada, yada.
15:10: And then things get going.
15:13: Simon Peter steps into the witness stand.
15:16: This is walk on water with Jesus, Simon.
15:18: This is the guy who speaks first and thinks second while following Jesus.
15:25: He gets up in front of this gathering of the leaders of the leaders and says, here's what I know.
15:32: Verses 7 through 9.
15:34: Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you.
15:40: That by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
15:44: And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.
15:52: And he made no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by faith.
16:00: What is Peter talking about?
16:03: Now when Luke wrote this down, he doesn't give us all the details.
16:06: Because he already wrote about it in detail.
16:08: It's Acts chapter 10.
16:09: What happened, for those that don't remember Acts chapter 10, is Peter's in town.
16:16: And he's standing with this guy named Simon.
16:18: And God gives him a vision.
16:20: Three time vision.
16:21: This giant she, animals.
16:23: It's a weird kind of dream thing.
16:25: But the point of it is, Peter, don't you dare call unacceptable anything or anyone that God says is acceptable.
16:36: That's the gist of it.
16:36: And then meanwhile, as this is going on, God has given a Gentile man named Cornelius, like a two day walk away, given him a vision and said, Hey, go fetch Simon.
16:50: He's in this town standing with this guy.
16:52: Go send some guys to get him.
16:53: Have him come talk to you.
16:55: Right?
16:56: And so Cornelius has sent a couple messengers.
16:58: Peter has his vision.
17:00: He's like, what are you up to, God?
17:02: And then immediately, two guys come.
17:04: Hey, Peter here.
17:05: We're supposed to fetch Peter.
17:06: They explain the background.
17:08: Peter's like, okie dokie.
17:10: And so he goes with them, travels to visit Cornelius.
17:12: Cornelius has all his household, friends, and family all gathered together like, God said to listen to you.
17:17: So we're here.
17:18: We're all excited.
17:19: Talk to us, Pete.
17:20: And Peter lays out the gospel.
17:23: And I love this.
17:24: Peter doesn't just tell them about Jesus and then say, well, do you want some Jesus in your life?
17:31: And I'll pray for you and I'll lay hands on you or anything like that.
17:35: Peter doesn't even finish talking.
17:39: He hasn't shut up yet.
17:42: And the people are so on board.
17:44: They're so believing that God's like, ok, Peter, I'm not waiting for you to stop talking.
17:48: Boom.
17:48: And the Holy Spirit comes upon them.
17:50: Ok?
17:50: God unleashes the Holy Spirit on these non-Jewish people who have now believed in Jesus.
17:57: And it happened in such a way that it was immediately perceivable in the context.
18:02: Probably much like what we saw in the very beginning of the book of Acts.
18:07: And Peter's like, well, I guess I'm done now.
18:11: Right?
18:11: And so he's recounting this and saying, I didn't give him the Holy Spirit.
18:17: God did it.
18:18: And he did it simply by them believing.
18:21: I didn't baptize them first.
18:23: They didn't get circumcised first.
18:25: They didn't start following the rules first.
18:27: God just did it.
18:28: God accepted them by faith plus nothing.
18:34: And so Peter is not presenting his idea of what the answer should be.
18:37: He's simply testifying to what God has already demonstrated the answer to be.
18:43: Ok?
18:44: So that's what Peter has to say.
18:47: Then, the apostle Paul and Barnabas get up.
18:51: And their testimony, verse 12, is basically the same sort of thing.
18:56: They say, hey, here's what we've been up to.
18:58: Here's how God's been working.
19:00: We have been sharing Jesus plus nothing.
19:05: Faith in Jesus alone.
19:06: That's how you get to heaven.
19:07: And God has been doing all kinds of amazing stuff as we've been doing that.
19:11: God's been confirming that message and bringing people of faith in Jesus left and right and doing miracles.
19:16: And that's got to be what God's on board with.
19:23: Verse 11, as Peter finishes his part, is such a clear description.
19:27: Peter says, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as they will.
19:39: There is a mountain of information in that simple sentence.
19:43: We will be saved this way.
19:44: They will be saved this way.
19:46: We Jewish people will be saved this way.
19:48: They not Jewish people will be saved in this way.
19:51: What way?
19:52: The grace of the Lord Jesus.
19:54: Grace.
19:56: Undeserved favor.
19:58: The word grace can literally be translated gift.
20:01: It is not something you earn.
20:04: Right?
20:04: If I go to the store and buy a new TV, I don't come back and say, hey, Carrie, I spent $500 on this TV.
20:12: What grace?
20:13: No, because I had to pay for it.
20:14: I had to give something to get it.
20:17: But if I say, hey, I went to the store and they just gave it to me.
20:20: It was amazing.
20:22: How?
20:22: How?
20:23: What a gift.
20:24: Right?
20:24: Because I didn't contribute to get it.
20:28: By the grace of the Lord Jesus.
20:32: We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.
20:36: We, Jews, they, Gentiles, the same directions to heaven in either case.
20:43: Gift of salvation through Jesus, period.
20:46: There's nothing at all that you have to do on top of trusting in Jesus to be accepted and forgiven by God.
20:55: Paul and Barnabas have the same testimony.
20:57: And then James steps up to the microphone.
21:02: This is James, the brother of Jesus.
21:05: And he steps up and goes all biblical on him.
21:10: Right?
21:10: He says in verses 13 to 15, James replied, brothers, listen to me.
21:18: Simeon, alternate way of saying Simon, Simon Peter.
21:22: Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.
21:31: And with this, the words of the prophets agree.
21:35: He's like, hey, you heard Peter's testimony.
21:37: How God showed up to get these other peoples, these other ethnic type people into the people of God.
21:47: And what Peter has described seeing totally matches what God wrote down in the Old Testament scriptures for us.
21:55: With this, the words of the prophets, plural, agree.
21:59: So he's referencing multiple Old Testament prophets here, which would almost certainly be from multiple Old Testament books.
22:08: Now, Luke only writes down one of his references, namely to the prophet Amos.
22:14: And the point James is making here is this.
22:17: God announced hundreds and hundreds of years ahead of time he was going to do this.
22:22: That God wanted non-Jewish people in the people of God the same way he wanted Jewish people in the people of God.
22:31: And now Peter and Paul and Barnabas are seeing God do exactly what he promised to do.
22:39: So God has testified in his word and God has testified in how he's acting in our day.
22:45: And they match.
22:47: That's the answer.
22:49: The church is not devising an answer.
22:52: They're simply recognizing and affirming the answer that God has already determined and given.
23:01: Salvation is by faith in Jesus.
23:08: And so James' summary is climax, verse 19.
23:12: Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.
23:19: If this is how God's working, let's not bug these people.
23:22: Let's not make their life hard.
23:23: Let's not make their life difficult.
23:25: What's he talking about?
23:26: In what way?
23:27: In the very way that we've been talking about.
23:29: Are we going to require a bunch of rules of these guys?
23:31: No.
23:32: God doesn't expect them to do all these things.
23:34: So why would we demand that of them?
23:36: No.
23:40: I want to be very, very clear with you this morning.
23:42: You have failed to be perfect in your life.
23:50: That's not news, right?
23:51: Every one of us knows that we've had failures in our life.
23:55: That we have not measured up.
23:56: There's been times we've had bad attitudes.
23:58: Some of us have had those this morning.
24:01: Every one of us has said things that we wish we could take back.
24:05: We were mean.
24:06: We were nasty.
24:06: We were selfish.
24:07: We were arrogant.
24:08: We were tearing someone down.
24:11: Whatever it might be.
24:11: You've said some things that you would not be proud to have on video replay.
24:17: And all of us have done things that we're embarrassed of.
24:22: That we know better.
24:24: We should never have done that.
24:26: You have failed to be perfect.
24:30: Perfect.
24:31: And God's standard is ultimately himself.
24:34: Perfection.
24:34: You're supposed to be perfect.
24:38: If I bake cookies, and the recipe calls for three eggs, and I use three eggs.
24:45: Two good ones.
24:47: Maybe even a good one that has a double yolk.
24:48: But the third egg is rotten.
24:51: You don't want my cookies, do you?
24:54: It's mostly right, but it's got that one part that's not right.
24:58: You want my cookies?
24:59: No.
25:00: You want all good eggs in those cookies, or you don't want to eat it.
25:05: God's standard is perfection.
25:08: And you and I don't measure up.
25:12: Our only hope of acceptance is that somebody else provides the cookies.
25:18: Somebody else gets it right on our behalf.
25:22: That's Jesus.
25:24: Jesus came.
25:26: God became a human being.
25:27: He lived the perfect life that we should and don't.
25:31: Then traded places with guilty people, with failure people, when he went to the cross and said, God, punish me for their failure.
25:41: and that's what God did on the cross.
25:41: He punished Jesus for all the bad stuff I've done and for all the bad stuff that everyone who trusts in Jesus has done, will do, is doing, the whole package.
25:56: Jesus took credit for it at the cross and it's a two-way trade.
25:56: He didn't just take credit for my failures and your failures if you trust in Jesus.
26:03: He gives us credit for his successes.
26:12: God looks at those who trust in Jesus and says, I see you as having credit for Jesus's perfect life.
26:20: That's really cool.
26:20: Think about it.
26:20: When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you read about Jesus speaking with brilliance and wisdom, refusing Satan's temptations to sin.
26:25: When you see him healing the blind and the mute and the lame and casting out demons and always submitting to God, God says, I look at you, Brian, and you, Dylan, and you, Don, and you, Nancy, and I see you as though you did those things.
26:49: You get credit for that.
26:49: That's astounding.
26:49: That's the good news that Jesus has given us credit for his good and taken credit for our bad.
26:55: And so God looks at us and says, two thumbs up, come on in.
27:01: You are welcome.
27:01: Your stuff is forgiven.
27:01: Your baggage is gone.
27:09: But here's the catch.
27:09: The catch is not that you need to add to that.
27:09: The catch is not that you need to have Jesus's gift and then add something to it.
27:16: No Jesus plus.
27:16: You just need Jesus's gift.
27:23: You need to receive that gift.
27:23: If you're here today and you're still trying to be the boss of your own life, you have not received that gift.
27:30: To receive that gift requires us to say no to self and yes to God.
27:37: We essentially, at the depths of our heart, say to God, please forgive me.
27:37: I don't deserve it.
27:45: But please give me credit for Jesus's good and let Jesus take credit for my bad.
27:45: I'm yours.
27:53: Have your way in my life, God.
27:53: I'll follow Jesus.
27:53: Help me to do that.
27:53: That's how we receive Jesus.
28:01: It's a heart level turning away from ourselves and our sin and being our own bosses and following Jesus.
28:09: I would imagine that almost every parent and grandparent in here has had a kid or a grandkid who reached that age when they think they've got it figured out and they start using the word no, right?
28:21: How many parents and grandparents remember when their kid or grandkid started saying no and wanting to do things their own way?
28:26: And they start stomping their feet like this.
28:31: Some of them maybe even continued that into their high school years, right?
28:31: You remember that stage?
28:37: Spiritually, that's our fault.
28:37: We are those little kids.
28:37: And it's when we say, yeah, I'm sorry, Father, please forgive me.
28:45: Help me to quit being a knucklehead and doing my own thing.
28:45: Follow Jesus.
28:53: God's like, now you're talking.
28:53: Come on in.
28:53: Bring it in.
28:53: If you're here today and you haven't turned that corner and surrendered yourself to God, do not leave this building today without doing that.
29:05: Don't let that opportunity pass you by.
29:05: If you're confused about this, if you're not sure, if you want somebody to walk you through it, come talk to me after church.
29:10: I will ignore everyone else in this room to talk to you about this.
29:15: I'm not exaggerating.
29:15: I want to help you make sure that you know how to get to God.
29:21: James and Peter and Paul and Barnabas and the others, they come to the right answer.
29:29: Jesus plus nothing gets you right with God.
29:29: But there's still a problem.
29:29: There's still a problem because you've got these Jewish background people who are into the rules and doing these certain traditions and stuff.
29:39: And you get these Gentile background people who are like, we don't do none of that.
29:42: And we're not looking to start doing any of that.
29:42: How do they do life together?
29:42: How can they be Christians together part of the same churches without stepping all over each other's toes?
29:54: So James proposes a solution, verse 20 and 21.
29:54: But we should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual morality and from what has been strangled and from blood.
30:06: For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues.
30:12: What is that about?
30:12: He proposes, James proposes that they lay three Jewish rule things and one broader thing and say, hey guys, pay attention to these issues.
30:29: The point is not, is not that you got to do these things to be saved.
30:29: The point is there's Jewish people in all these cities where churches are popping up and some of these people are becoming Christians.
30:41: How do they do life together?
30:41: They're going to be really offended if the Gentiles are doing some of this stuff and it's going to create tension and conflict and we don't want that.
30:46: So essentially he's telling them, Gentiles, please don't do these three things that are going to really alienate you from your Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ.
30:57: And then there's this sexual morality thing as well, which we'll come back to.
31:05: Why?
31:05: It's going to create conflict.
31:05: Paul, the apostle Paul is going to give basically the same advice in first Corinthians when he talks about what Christians can and cannot do.
31:17: And he says, basically you can do all kinds of stuff.
31:17: You're free in Jesus.
31:17: You can't just do sin, but apart from sin, you can do what you want to do, but you don't do those things when it's going to mess somebody else up.
31:30: You don't do those things when it's going to lead somebody in a wrong direction.
31:34: If you want to drink a beer here in Green Bay, Wisconsin, drink a beer if you're of legal age.
31:41: But don't do it at an AA meeting.
31:41: We can laugh about that, but that's totally inappropriate because you're in a context where that's not going to be good for the people you're with.
31:51: And it's going to create a problem between you and these other people.
31:51: It's going to be a bad influence on them.
31:55: You want to eat a triple decker double chocolate fudge cake, big old slab of it.
32:03: Go for it.
32:03: But don't do it when your spouse is having his or her buddies over from Weight Watchers.
32:11: Right?
32:11: That's not the time for it.
32:11: That's going to be bad for the relationship stuff.
32:11: That's not the time for it.
32:17: You want to have that chocolate cake?
32:17: Bake it, come over to my house, and I'll eat it with you.
32:22: Okay?
32:22: That's the time for it.
32:22: It's relationship issues.
32:22: They're situational to keep the peace kind of rules.
32:33: We know that also because when Paul talks about it later, he says, you can eat meat that was sacrificed in this, that, or the other temple and then sold at the market.
32:38: That's fine.
32:38: A hamburger is a hamburger.
32:42: Who cares?
32:42: But if you've got somebody that's all hung up on it, and they're like, ooh, this is a hamburger for Allah.
32:47: Well, then don't eat the hamburger for Allah if that's how it's being advertised because you're going to confuse people about who you worship.
32:53: But other than that, go for it.
32:58: A burger is a burger.
32:58: Okay?
32:58: What about the sexual immorality thing?
32:58: Sexual immorality is out of bounds for anyone.
33:06: But some people are going to struggle with that more than others.
33:06: Right?
33:11: There are people in this room who are tempted to certain temptations more than others.
33:11: This person might be tempted more on sin A, this person on sin B, this person on sin C.
33:18: Right?
33:18: Different struggles.
33:25: Picture it like this.
33:25: The Jewish background people had really strict rules about sex and sexuality and that whole realm.
33:31: So if that's your background, you already know kind of the marching orders in that realm.
33:37: But the Gentiles, they were pagan background and they had all kinds of stuff that was considered inbounds that was not okay.
33:44: Right?
33:44: And so they're reminding these guys, hey, you're following Jesus now.
33:50: You're going to have to make some changes in that regard.
33:50: Let me give you a modern illustration.
33:56: You've got two groups of people who've heard about Jesus and have come to Christ.
33:56: The first group is like Amish and Mennonite folks.
34:02: They're really straight-laced.
34:02: They've got their suits.
34:02: They've got their formal wear.
34:08: These are not the folks who by and large have been flaunting a whole lot of skin.
34:16: These are not the people that have been having keggers and one-night stands and doing stupid stuff in the sexual realm.
34:23: Right?
34:23: That's not their default area of temptation in that background.
34:23: The other group is a bunch of young adults coming out of public high school and UWGB.
34:37: They might have some different issues in that realm.
34:37: Right?
34:37: They might need to be reminded like we don't do hookups no more.
34:42: That's not for you anymore.
34:42: Right?
34:42: They're going to have to get a bigger shift in thinking about what's sexually inbounds and what's out of bounds than the folks coming out of the Amish Mennonite background.
34:57: Right?
34:57: And so James is saying these guys are going to need a little extra reminder on that.
35:02: Right?
35:02: Because if they don't it's going to be awkward.
35:02: I kid you not years ago when I was a pastor elsewhere in Wisconsin before I moved to Green Bay there was a young couple that began coming to church professing believers and they didn't know the difference between a church sanctuary and a hotel room.
35:25: It was real hard to preach because there was things happening in that row that I should not have seen happen anywhere let alone church service.
35:33: They just had no sense of boundaries.
35:40: They were young people.
35:40: There was hormones and it was awkward.
35:40: Okay?
35:40: And so they needed folks to kind of help them come along and say that's not for you right now in this context.
35:46: This is creating awkwardness between you and the people around you right now and help them understand how to live that out.
36:00: These kinds of issues apply today.
36:00: There are things that are inbounds and things that are out of bounds for you.
36:10: The main things that are out of bounds are sin obviously.
36:10: But some of the stuff that's fine for you to do you need to willingly voluntarily in love say but I won't do that right now because I know it's going to be a stumbling block for the people around me.
36:27: I know it's going to create conflict if I do that right now.
36:32: Right?
36:32: In theory I happen to be a teetotaler.
36:32: I don't drink alcohol.
36:37: It's just me.
36:37: You can do that not do it.
36:37: I don't care.
36:37: I happen to not drink.
36:37: But suppose I decide to have a beer.
36:43: I'm not going to get in trouble for that.
36:43: There's no problem with me doing that.
36:48: But if I decide to have a beer some Wednesday evening and I decide you know I'm going to finish it while teaching youth group I'm going to get phone calls from parents.
36:53: Right?
36:53: That's not going to go over real well nor should it.
37:00: That's not the time and the place.
37:00: And so while I'm free to drink a beer I need to restrain myself from that when I'm doing youth group.
37:04: Right?
37:04: You need to say I am willing to give up my freedom for the sake of unity with the Christians around me and not turn it into a conflict.
37:19: That's what we're talking about here.
37:28: Salvation.
37:28: Faith alone in Jesus.
37:28: Nothing else.
37:28: Doesn't matter who you are.
37:28: No Jesus plus.
37:28: Just Jesus.
37:36: Think about it this way.
37:36: Jesus plus means Jesus isn't enough.
37:36: How many of you would like to say Jesus is not enough to get me to heaven?
37:43: Any takers on that?
37:43: Then no Jesus plus.
37:43: Just Jesus.
37:52: But you got to live this out in a way that gets you along with others.
37:57: As you get older it gets harder to memorize things.
37:57: But even the oldest of the old who are here today I'm going to give you something to memorize right here right now and I'm going to quiz you on it later.
38:05: It's six words.
38:05: My sister Pat are you ready?
38:12: Faith alone.
38:12: Grace alone.
38:12: Christ alone.
38:12: Those are your six words.
38:12: Faith alone.
38:12: Grace alone.
38:12: Christ alone.
38:23: Every one of you.
38:23: Faith alone.
38:23: Grace alone.
38:23: Christ alone.
38:23: Say it with me.
38:23: Faith alone.
38:23: Grace alone.
38:29: Christ alone.
38:29: Christ alone.
38:29: It means we're saved by faith in Jesus plus nothing.
38:29: You don't add anything to believing in Jesus to be accepted by God.
38:36: It's by grace alone.
38:36: You don't have to work to earn it or deserve it.
38:41: You don't do anything to make God accept you.
38:41: And it's Christ alone.
38:41: You trust in Jesus and just Jesus.
38:47: You don't trust in your church.
38:47: You don't trust in some other religion.
38:47: You don't trust in sacraments or ordinances.
38:52: You don't trust in baptism.
38:52: You don't trust in anything but Jesus.
38:59: Say it with me again.
38:59: Faith alone.
38:59: Grace alone.
38:59: Christ alone.
38:59: Amen?
38:59: Let's pray.
38:59: God help us to remember that Jesus is enough.
39:08: That on the cross when he said it is finished he didn't lie.
39:08: He got it right.
39:18: Everything was accomplished for us that needs doing.
39:18: Help us to believe day by day, moment by moment, hour by hour that Jesus is enough.
39:26: Your grace is enough.
39:26: And all we need to do is trust Jesus.
39:34: And you accept us.
39:34: You forgive us.
39:34: You want us.
39:34: You welcome us.
39:34: The road to heaven is faith alone, grace alone, grace alone, Jesus alone.
39:41: Let us rejoice in that and stick with it.
39:41: Even as we do life together with people from all different backgrounds, all different hangups, may we have that one thing in common.
39:55: We trust in Jesus plus nothing.
39:55: It's in his name we pray.
39:55: Amen.