Acts 15:22-35--The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers

Acts 15:22-35
English Standard Version

The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

​30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33 And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

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Let's recap a bit from last time since I wasn't able to say everything that I wanted to last time.  The Pharisees and those loyal to them have been following Paul and Barnabas around and causing trouble for them in every city they went to, stirring up both the Jews and the civil authorities.  Upon their return to Antioch, the ones in Antioch who called themselves Christians and tried to follow the teachings of the Pharisees thought they needed to add their own righteousness to the righteousness of Christ (much the same way that you'll hear most Roman Catholics and Mormons argue that the blood of Jesus is necessary, but not sufficient for salvation.  This is a false gospel--just see the book of Galatians if you have questions about that).  Specifically a debate arose about if Paul and Barnabas were preaching a different gospel than the apostles in Jerusalem.  Because the apostles in Jerusalem had only been preaching the gospel to Jews in the eyes of these Pharisees (we know they had been at work among the Samaritans and Cornelius and his family as well, but these Pharisees had selective memories), then they assumed that it was Paul that was in error to tell Gentiles they could be come Christians without first being Jews (becoming a Proselyte).  This argument is quickly dismantled by Peter, Paul and Barnabas, and James the half-brother of Jesus.  James then takes the Pharisees back to the Old Testament to remind them that the only covenant that the Gentiles are under is the Noahic Covenant.  They never were under the Mosaic covenant unless they choose to live in the land of Israel or even visit the land, for it was their responsibility if they travelled into or through the land of Israel to know its Law and obey it.  There are several places that the Law says it is the same for any sojourner (someone "just passing through") or a native of the Land.  Since all the people in question are neither Jewish by birth nor do they live in the Promised Land, they are not subject to the Law of Moses, though James would argue that they should know about it because the Jews openly talk about the Law (and the Prophets) on a weekly basis during their Sabbath meetings at the synagogues.  It should not be hard for the Gentiles to know what makes the Jews distinct and different, and it is the responsibility of the Gentile Christians to follow the instructions of God given through Scripture and repeated through these leaders at the Jerusalem Council so as to not be an offense to the Jews--for God wants the gospel to go to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles, but the Jews would not listen to a message preached by a messenger who was engaged in rebellion against God by worshiping idols, living in sexual immorality, eating or drinking blood or to eat meat that had been strangled instead of being exsanguinated.  It seems clear at this point in history that the leaders in Jerusalem are now thinking that it will be the Gentiles who will be sending the missionaries to the Jews and that they Gentiles may need to sacrifice some of their "rights" for the sake of the consciences of their Jewish brothers or the Jews they are trying to witness to.

This message was one that the church leaders and all the members of the Church that were gathered at the Council thought important enough that they wanted to send a letter to all the churches in the area signed by all of them showing that there was unity in faith and mission in this matter and that there was but one true gospel and that anyone preaching a "gospel plus" message was a false teacher.  They wanted it to be clear what they asked of the Gentile believers with regards to their witness towards the Jews, and it seems that they specifically wanted to be clear that they affirmed the message and the work of Paul and Barnabas.  The Church in Jerusalem sent Judas Barsabbas (this is the same family name of one of the men considered for being the replacement for Judas Iscariot in Acts 1--it's possibly either the same man who went by many different names, or maybe a brother or other close family relative of him) and Silas as their envoys to carry the message back to the Church in Syrian Antioch.  I will post the entirety of the letter here (for it is rather short and Luke wrote the entire letter into the record for us).

“The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

​You don't get much better than that.  the message called the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia their brothers (meaning they recognized them as being of the one true faith).  They said that some of the party of the Pharisees falsely claimed to have gone out with authority or a message from the Church in Jerusalem to upset the Gentiles and trouble their minds--the leaders in Jerusalem had not sent out anyone with any such instructions.

Notice the phrase "of one accord" that we see used again here that we saw early on in the book of Acts to speak of how everyone was of one faith and one mission.  They desired this again now, and it is for that reason they wanted to send this letter to affirm Paul and Barnabas and their work, and to affirm their Christian brothers from among the Gentile nations.

They asked only the few things that James mentioned at the end of the Jerusalem Council which are all things that we see being restrictions that God had given to the entire world in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis either during the covenant made with Noah when he came off of the Ark or prior to that so that all mankind was accountable for them--don't eat or drink blood, marriage is the only place for sexual relations and it should be a covenant between one man and one woman that is an unbreakable union, and there is only one God and He is the only one worthy of our worship--worship of any other thing is idolatry and this is an abomination to God.  If the Jewish and Gentile brothers could agree on these basic things, then the Holy Spirit would take care of the rest.  Notice that the Council did not say that the Law was bad and we needed to get rid of it (Jesus clearly said that not the smallest part of it would pass away), nor do they condemn anyone who is a Gentile who after becoming a Christian loves the Law because they see in it the ways in which God's people are supposed to show His invisible attributes to the world by how they live, but this will set up an argument for later in the New Testament that there are many parts of the Law which were meant to be prophetic in that they pointed to a fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and there is no longer any need for Jew or Gentile (but especially the Gentiles who were not under the Law) to practice those parts of the Law which have been superseded by the work of Christ.  That is largely what the book of Hebrews is all about and we have studied it before, but as an example, there is no longer a need for sin offerings to be offered at the Temple in Jerusalem because Jesus was the Sin Offering once and for all for all of us.  Jesus' offering of Himself does not delete the righteous requirement of the Law that a clean, blameless, and perfect sacrifice must take on the sin and guilt of the sinner and die in his place in the prescribed manner of sacrifice, but Jesus did all this for us.  That is what it means when He said, "It is finished."  There is nothing more that needs to be added to this--not even circumcision or the Mosaic Covenant which we cannot fulfill--He fulfilled it completely for us.  However, that is not to say that the grace we receive is then a license to sin.  We've talked about that argument already in Romans and 1 Corinthians and several other places.

Back to the passage at hand, The envoys from the Church in Jerusalem delivered the message and they also stayed and delivered words of prophecy and encouragement to the believers in Antioch to strengthen them.  After this, they were sent back to the Church in Jerusalem, but Paul and Barnabas continued to stay in Antioch and minister there to preach and teach the Word of God alongside many other brothers who are not named here.

We are going to see Silas again very soon as he will become Paul's next travelling companion.  Remember how John Mark went home after only going through Cyprus with Paul and Barnabas?  This is going to lead to an argument between Paul and Barnabas about if John Mark should join them on this second missionary journey where they need to take the message of this letter to all the churches they have already visited and maybe even to some new areas.  Barnabas will take John Mark with him to Cyprus and Paul and Silas (one of the envoys sent by the Church in Jerusalem in today's passage) will travel through Syria and Cilicia--the two areas mentioned by name in this letter from the Church of Jerusalem.  It seems fitting then that God would send one of the envoys meant to carry that message with Paul so that there would clearly be a united message as Paul was seen as being from the Church in Antioch, and Silas would clearly be recognized as being from the Church in Jerusalem (it seems that his reputation probably proceeded him from his description in today's passage).  We'll look more at the separation next time and how God uses for a greater good.