Acts 15:1-35

FIRST GENERAL CHURCH COUNCIL

This lesson is one of the most important in the whole historical part of the New Testament. It is the record of the first general council of the church, called to settle the fundamental question as to how a man may be just with God. We have become acquainted with “they of the circumcision” who, at chapter 2, objected to Peter’s fellowship with the Gentiles in the case of Cornelius. The party was strong and growing stronger. As Jews of the stricter sort they could not understand how Gentiles could become Christians without in a sense first becoming Jews. Their theory is expressed in Acts 15:1 . Some of them, who have come to by styled “Judaizing teachers,” had followed Paul and Barnabas to Antioch and sought to undermine their work there. The immediate result is given in Acts 15:3-4 . The second of these two verses should be read in connection with Paul’s account of this gathering in Galatians 2:0 . The appearance of Peter (Acts 15:7-11 ) is his last in this book, and it is remarkable that as an apostle of the circumcision so-called (Galatians 2:8 ), he should have been used by the Holy Spirit to reprove the error of the Judaizing teachers. He does so by a plain relation of facts, an interrogative argument and a statement of belief. The preciousness of that statement is enhanced by a recurrence to the later dark ages of the church when its momentous truth was obscured by the sacramentalism of the papacy.

But the settlement of this great doctrine is not the only feature marking the value of this Council, since we have in the inspired words of James following (Acts 15:13-18 ), the Divine program for the whole of this age and the following. Here we have the great truth of the dispensations so necessary to the understanding of the Bible, and so little appreciated by many Christian teachers today. How different would be the work of our large denominational gatherings if the facts here alluded to were taken into consideration? Here is the order of events: First, God is now in this Christian age visiting the Gentiles “to take out of them a people for His Name.” This, in other words, is a time of outgathering of an elect number from the nations to form the church or the body of Christ (see Ephesians 3:6 in the light of its context). Secondly, “After this” Christ “will return” (Acts 15:16 ). The feature of the return of Christ here spoken of is not that for the translation of the church which is his body (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 ), but His visible return in power and glory of which the Old Testament prophets speak. This is that second feature of His second coming to which reference has been made before in these pages. It follows the rapture of the church synchronizing with the threatened judgments on the living Gentile nations and the deliverance of Israel from her great tribulation. Thirdly, following this event will transpire the building again of “the tabernacle of David” (Acts 15:16 ), in other words the restoration of the kingdom to Israel (compare Luke 1:32-33 ). Finally, during the Millennial Age “the residue of men” will “seek after the Lord” (see Isaiah 2:2 ; Isaiah 11:10 ; Isaiah 60:5 ).

The divine program enunciated by James is followed by his “sentence” (Acts 15:19 ), which is, in effect, the judgment of the whole assembly now reduced to writing, and to be transmitted to the churches by a committee of the brethren named in Acts 15:22 . All that the Gentiles are asked to abstain from are those things more or less associated with idolatry (Acts 15:20 ), and which were not distinguished as Mosaic prohibitions, but based on the earlier covenant of Noah (Genesis 9:4 ), binding equally on Gentile and Jew. Nevertheless, Acts 15:21 , indicates that in the abstinence therefrom they were to show a suitable respect for their Jewish neighbors who were instructed in these things in the Old Testament scriptures, of which the Gentiles until that time were ignorant.

QUESTIONS

1. With what event does this lesson deal?

2. What question, or doctrine, was now settled?

3. What was the contention of the Judaizing teachers?

4. In what epistle does Paul refer to their false teaching?

5. What is the nature of Peter’s address on this occasion?

6. What other feature gives an outstanding character to this chapter?

7. What is the divine order of the ages as indicated here?

8. What was the final sentence of this Council?