Introduction
      When Lorie and I were engaged many years ago, we went about the task that all engaged couples do of getting ready for married life. One of those tasks was selecting a stoneware pattern for our everyday dishes, and so one day we began looking in the home furnishing section of a department store. It wasn't long before we began to have a disagreement over the matter, and we couldn't agree on the pattern. Following our little jaunt to the department store, and our little tiff, I was back at the seminary cafeteria eating lunch with my fellow students, and I related to them the incident.  
      After listening to me fuss about the whole matter as I self-righteously described how I, as a modern man, thought I should have a say about the plates we purchased, one particular friend of mine listened for a while, and then he said, "Peter, when people come over to your apartment for dinner, and they sit down at your table for a nice meal, and they look at the table beautifully set, and they admire the stoneware on the table, do you think that any one of them is going to turn to you and say, ‘My, Peter, what a beautiful table setting this is!’? Of course not! They are going to turn to Lorie and say that, because the stoneware is more of a reflection on the woman than it is on the man. So get over it, and get a life!"  We got the pattern Lorie wanted.
      Making joint decisions can be difficult, even among Christians. This morning we continue in our study of the book of Acts, and today our passage takes us to a situation where the early church had to make a decision that was far more important than selecting a stoneware pattern. It had to do with the nature of the Gospel and the basis upon which we are saved. As we take a look at the passage, I would like for you to notice: the point at issue; the debate in Jerusalem; and the decision of the leaders.

I.  The Point At Issue
      The immediate occasion for the meeting in Jerusalem, which is called the Jerusalem Council, was the visit to Syrian Antioch by some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem and their teaching that circumcision was essential to salvation. These people became known as "Judaizers", for they sought to impose the requirements of Judaism onto new believers in Jesus Christ who were of Gentile birth and background. 
      You will recall from our previous study of the book of Acts that for about 10 years Gentiles had been brought to faith in Christ and were welcomed into the church simply by baptism. It began with Cornelius, the God-fearing centurion in Caesarea whom the apostle Peter led to the Lord. He heard the Good News, believed, received the Holy Spirit, and was baptized. Next came the remarkable movement in Syrian Antioch when unnamed missionaries "began to speak to Greeks also" (11:20), and a great number of people believed. The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to investigate, and he affirmed and confirmed the work of God there.  Barnabas sought out Paul, and together they built up these new believers in their faith. The third development which Luke chronicles was the first missionary journey by Paul and Barnabas. Wherever they went, both Jews and Gentiles believed. On their return to Syrian Antioch, the missionaries were able to report that "God... had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27).  
      It was becoming obvious that the Gentile mission was gaining momentum.  What began as a trickle of Gentile conversions was fast becoming a torrent. The Jewish leaders had no difficulty with the general concept of Gentile believers, for many Old Testament passages predicted their inclusion. However, a particular question was beginning to form in their minds: by what means did God intend to incorporate the Gentiles into the believing community? These Gentiles were becoming Christians without also becoming Jews. They were coming to Christ without first passing through Judaism, and they were retaining their own identity and integrity as members of other nations and ethnic groups. It was one thing for the leaders of the Mother Church in Jerusalem to give their approval to the conversion of Gentiles in general, but could they also approve of conversion without circumcision, of faith in Jesus without the works of the Law, of commitment to the Messiah without inclusion in Judaism? 
      The real question they faced was whether or not their vision was big enough to see the Gospel of Christ not as a reform movement within Judaism but as the Good News of God’s love for the whole world which would transition the church from being a Jewish sect to the new international family of God. Earnst Haenchan has written, "Chapter 15 is the turning point, the 'centrepiece' and 'watershed' of the book [of Acts], the episode which rounds off and justifies the past developments, and makes those to come intrinsically possible."[1]
      Essentially, the point at issue was that the Judaizers were telling Gentile converts that faith in Jesus Christ was not enough. Faith in Christ alone was not sufficient for salvation. They were saying that Gentile believers must add to their faith in Christ circumcision, and to circumcision observance of the Old Testament Law. In other words, they must let Moses complete what Jesus had begun and let the Law supplement the Gospel. You can see that this issue was huge, and what was at stake was the way of salvation. The Gospel was in dispute, and the very foundations of the Christian faith were being undermined. 
      There have always been people who have wanted to make the Gospel into a “Jesus plus” kind of equation. You can be saved if you accept Jesus plus circumcision. You can be saved if you accept Jesus plus live a good life. You can be saved if you give your life to Christ plus give up all your bad habits. You can be saved if you accept Jesus plus something else. 
      However, the good news of the gospel is that there is nothing we can do that will add to the salvation God has already accomplished for us in Christ. You don’t have to be circumcised, you don’t have to be a Presbyterian, and you don’t have to kneel and pray or memorize the Apostle’s Creed to be saved. You don’t have to enjoy a Bach cantata or contemporary praise music, and you don’t have to contribute 10 percent to the church to be saved. Salvation is complete and finished in Jesus Christ and His atoning death on the cross for your sins and mine. It’s Jesus plus nothing else. This was the point at issue.

II.  The Debate In Jerusalem
      In verses 5-18 of our passage we read of the ensuing debate over the matter. In Jerusalem some Christian Pharisees, in support of the Judaizers, insisted that circumcision and observance of the Old Testament Law were essential for salvation. So, the passage tells us, "the apostles and elders met to consider this question" (15:6).   Decisive speeches were made successively by the four apostles and missionaries involved - Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James. In the course of their comments we see a pattern develop for biblical decision-making in the body of Christ.
      Peter began by reminding the council of the way in which God had brought Cornelius, the Greek centurion, to faith ten years before. Then the passage relates that the whole assembly listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. It was a report not of their successes but of how God had acted, and its implication was that by His acts God had revealed His will. Finally, James was the last to speak. This James was James the Just, as he came to be called because of His piety.  He was one of the half-brothers of Jesus who came to faith in Christ after the Lord's resurrection (1 Cor. 15:7), and he was the leader of the Mother Church in Jerusalem. 
      James affirmed what Peter, Barnabas and Paul had said, and then he went on to confirm his statement by demonstrating that what they said was in agreement with the words of the Old Testament prophets, and he quoted Amos 9:11,12. In doing this, James, whom the Judaizers claimed as their champion, declared himself in full agreement with the other three apostles. The inclusion of the Gentiles was not a divine afterthought. Rather, it was foretold by the prophets. Scripture itself confirmed the facts of the missionaries' experience, and there was agreement between what God had done through His apostles and what He had said through His prophets. This correspondence between Scripture and experience, between the witness of the prophets and apostles, was for James conclusive.
      Here we see a pattern emerge for discerning the mind of God. First, there is a reminder of God's work in history through their personal experience. Second, there is the appeal to Scripture, God's revealed Word, which for us Presbyterians is the only infallible rule in matters of faith and practice. And finally, there is the appeal to reason. James said that it made sense. What had happened in the Gentile mission was in accord with the Scriptures, in accord with their experience, and in accord with reason. All three are means through which God reveals His will to us, and they serve as a check and balance with Scripture being the primary and dominant influence. 
      I think that it is important to note here that during this period of biblical history in which miraculous signs and wonders were taking place on a regular basis, when through prophetic utterances God set apart Paul and Barnabas as missionaries when they were in Antioch, God chose to reveal His will to the council in Jerusalem by means of Scripture, reason and experience. There was no prophetic utterance; there was no handwriting on the wall to be interpreted supernaturally. It was through Scripture, reason and experience that God revealed His will to the body. I believe the most common way in which God reveals His will to His people even today is through these means.
      All three of these sources need to be held in balance and should serve as a check in the believer's life. We should not use one source to the exclusion of the others.  All three must be held in tension with the others, and all three must inform the others. I can remember hearing about a young Christian who was praying about what God wanted him to do with the rest of his life, and so he decided that he would open the Bible with his eyes closed, place his finger on a verse on the page without looking, and whatever it said, that would be God's will for his life. Well, he closed his eyes, opened the Bible and put his finger on Mt. 27:5. He opened his eyes and read, "Judas went out and hanged himself."  This disturbed the young man, and so he decided to try again. This time his finger landed on John 13:27. He opened his eyes and read, "'What you are about to do, do quickly.'"  This young Christian decided that perhaps this wasn't the best approach to discerning the will of God! 
      I have developed a five step process that takes these principles and expands them a little which I use in making decisions and seeking the Lord's will. The steps are:
            1.  What does God's Word say?
            2.  What does God's Word suggest (in principle)?
            3.  What does the Holy Spirit confirm (inward testimony)?
            4.  What do God's people confirm (the voice of God throughout the centuries, the counsel of brothers and sisters in Christ)?
            5.  What does my sanctified common sense say?
      Using these five questions has been a good exercise for me to look at the major decisions that I face in life and seek the mind of the Lord. Maybe they will help you, too.

III.  The Decision Of The Leaders
      On the basic issue that brought the members of the first ecumenical council together, James refused to side with the Judaizers. He listened for the voice of God in the voice of others, and he sensed that Jewish Christianity should not take any stand against the promotion of the Gentile mission. In so doing, he swept aside the obstacles that had arisen to the Gentile mission of Paul and Barnabas among some of the believers in Jerusalem and left it free for further advances in the world. 
      Still, there was a practical question which needed to be dealt with. There were many Christians in Jerusalem who were troubled about the question of fellowship between Jews and Gentiles in the church, and many felt that tolerance for the scruples of others should be urged. James had a pastor’s heart, and his advice was that a letter be written to the Gentile Christians. He suggested that this letter should urge them to abstain from food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and from blood (15:20). 
      Three of the four matters appear obscure and confusing to us today, but they should be viewed as dealing with certain practical concerns of a sociological and cultural nature. James argued that since Jewish communities are to be found in every city, their scruples, which were born out of the restrictions of the Old Testament Law, should be respected by Gentile believers in some measure, and sensitivity should be expressed to those who had come out of the Jewish foundations of the Christian faith. The council agreed with James, and a letter was written and sent to all the Gentile converts. This is contained in the passage we will consider next week.
      This passage reminds us that no follower of Jesus should ever use their freedom in Christ as an excuse to run roughshod over another person’s conscience. Scripture teaches us that we are called to be sensitive to one another, and we should be careful not to put a stumbling block in front of a fellow believer by our lifestyle choices or the decisions we make. Paul extends this argument in greater detail in 1 Corinthians 8 when he writes, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating [meat] in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”
      From our perspective today, we can see the crucial importance of this first ecumenical Council held in Jerusalem. Its unanimous decision liberated the Gospel from its Jewish roots into becoming God's message for all humanity, and it gave the Jewish-Gentile church a new self-conscious identity as the reconciled people of God, the one body of Christ. However, in setting the Gospel free from the heavy restrictions of the Old Testament Law, the council nevertheless urged sensitivity to Jewish believers so that their personal scruples would be respected. Freedom in Christ has its limits, even for us today.
      What decision do you face this morning? Does it have to do with business? a personal relationship? a question regarding money? a problem with a co-worker or family member? What decision are you facing, and how will you go about making that decision? God has given us His Word, His Spirit, His people and our sanctified common sense to help us make decisions, and He has given us the body of Christ to help guide us. Let's use them. It doesn't mean that all the decisions will be easy, but God promises to lead us in the way we should go if we commit our way to Him.  Sometimes this means that we have to walk by faith and not by sight. Sometimes we can only step into the ring of light He has shown us for the next step on the path. He will be faithful to guide us, if we ask Him. What decision do you face this morning? Seek God's will in it.

Conclusion
      This passage is about the priority of grace, and the decision by the leaders of the Mother Church in Jerusalem was for grace. The question with which they wrestled, and with which each of us needs to wrestle is this: is our vision big enough for the work of God in the world? The Judaizers wanted to limit what God was doing and the way in which He wanted to do it. They were troubled by the growth that was taking place and the new (different) people who were coming to faith. What do you do when things begin to rock your preconceived ideas of how things ought to be?  The grace of God is always busting out of the boxes in which we try to put it, and it will always go against the grain of legalism. But it also has the power to transform our lives and take us into the very heart of God.    
      I close with this. Victor Hugo wrote a marvelous novel, which has been made into a great musical and a movie, called Les Miserables.  In the opening of that novel, there is a young man named Jean Valjean, who had been unjustly imprisoned for a 19 year sentence. He came out of prison with a rage and anger in his soul. He is shunned and badly treated as he tries to make his way after being released. But an amazing thing happens. One night Jean Valjean goes to the home of Father Bienvenu, the Monsignor and bishop of the local area. Jean Valjean is given a meal there, and the priest invites him to spend the night. And while all are asleep in the house, Jean Valjean sees some silver candlesticks and silver tableware, and he steals the silver tableware and goes out into the street into the night. However, as he goes out the police catch him, they see the cutlery and recognize it as belonging to Father Bienvenu, and they bring him back to the priest's house. But then Father Bienvenu says the most surprising thing. "Jean Valjean, you didn't take the candlesticks. I told you to take them, too!" The police answer, "You mean he didn't steal this silver?" and the Monsignor answers, "Oh, no.  I gave them to him." 
      I want to close by reading to you the incredible portrayal of that scene. "Jean Valjean was trembling all over. He took the two candlesticks distractedly with a bewildered expression. 'Now,' said the bishop, 'Go in peace. By the way my friend, when you come again you needn't come through the garden. You may always come by the front door. It is only closed with a latch day or night.' And then turning to the gendarmes, he said, 'Messieurs, you may go.' The gendarmes left. Jean Valjean felt like a man about to faint. The bishop approached him and said in a low voice, 'Do not forget, Jean Valjean, that you have promised me to use the silver to become an honest man.' Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of any such promise, stood dumbfounded. The bishop had stressed these words as he spoke them. Then he continued solemnly, 'Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you. I withdraw it from the dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.'"[2]
      My friends, that is what our Lord has done for us, and that is what we can do for others. Christ brings the possibility of new hope and new life, regardless of the ways in which you and I have blown it in our lives. I am here to tell you this morning that there is forgiveness in Christ, there is healing in His name, and there is wholeness in the love of Jesus. Thanks be to God! Amen.