The Pilgrim Path---Acts 15: 22 – 35

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, 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. 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 such 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.”

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

THEY REJOICED BECAUSE OF ITS ENCOURAGEMENT…

The gladness of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia is about past imagining. They received word from the Jerusalem Council that they might simply, “receive and rest in Jesus alone---as he is offered in the Gospel---for salvation.” They do not have to behave “like” Jews to be reconciled to Almighty God! I am sure they were transfixed and transformed by the “letter” that was read in their hearing. What a good word--- they were recipients of in the Church!

---there were people who went out speaking “authoritatively” who really did not represent the Church at all…we learn this from the episode at hand…

---there were people who troubled with words---and unsettled minds---Please Help us Holy Spirit---not to be unnecessary troublers…

---there are not enough people who encourage and instruct with the clear warrant of the Word of God…and the Power of the Holy Spirit…

---there is a great need of individuals---submitted to the Holy Spirit---who will “remove” the burdens of people---and not “add” to the loads they already carry…

---there is nothing quite like the JOY of people knit together in the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the LORD…

---there was such appreciation for the ministry of the Word: where the Word and the Holy Spirit meet---the LORD Jesus Christ manifests Himself. Think of all the times you have missed His arrival…

FROM HUGH MARTIN: If Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished,” and by his one offering forever perfected them that are sanctified, what more can be necessary to a perfect forgiveness than the sincere confession of sin? This glorious offering in all its preciousness and all its perfection is freely offered to you in the gospel. Not to you as contrite and confessing sin, but freely to you as a sinner of whatever magnitude or dye, this sacrifice is offered. Moved by the good Spirit, you freely receive it. You receive Christ and him crucified. You receive him by faith, since God gives him to you by his Word, and you cannot in such a case conceive of any other mode of receiving him than by faith. And, counting the Word of the LORD good and sure and true, you cease to find and difficulty in receiving by faith that sacrifice, that crucified Savior, whom, by his true Word, the LORD makes freely yours. You receive him because, convicted, burdened, weary with sin, you long for a place of repentance and confession. A refuge in Christ is altogether what you need. A union with Christ, made sin for you, suits all your wants…

FROM MATTHEW HENRY: The people were wonderfully pleased with the orders that came from Jerusalem (v.31): They rejoiced for the consolation: and a great consolation it was to the multitude, (1) That they were confirmed in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and were not burdened with that, as those upstart teachers would have had them to be. It was a comfort to them to hear that the carnal ordinances were no longer imposed on them, which perplexed the conscience, but could not purify nor pacify it. (2) That those who troubled their minds with an attempt to force circumcision upon them were herby for the present silenced and put to confusion, the fraud of their pretensions to an apostolical warrant being now discovered. (3) That the Gentiles were herby encouraged to receive the Gospel, and those that had received it to adhere to it. (4) That the peace of the church was hereby restored, and that removed which threatened a division. All this was consolation which they rejoiced in and blessed God for.

JOHN DUNCAN: Spiritual joy is a delicate thing; it is easily spoiled; it requires much tenderness.

HYMN

My sins, my sins, my Savior! They take such hold on me,

I am not able to look up, save only, Christ, to thee;

In thee is all forgiveness, in thee abundant grace,

My shadow and my sunshine the brightness of thy face.

My sins, my sins, my Savoir! Their guilt I never knew

Till with thee in the desert I near thy passion drew;

Till with thee in the garden I heard thy pleading prayer,

And saw the sweat-drops bloody and told thy sorrow there.

Therefore, my songs, my Savior, even in this time of woe,

Shall tell of all thy goodness to suffering man below;

Thy goodness and thy favor, whose presence from above

Rejoice those hearts, my Savior, that live in thee in love.

John S. B. Monsell, 1863

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason