Ancient Future: The Gap
Acts 15
Chris Seidman
Part of Ancient Future
October 10, 2021

Ancient Future: The Gap

Ancient Future Series
Chris Seidman, Sr. Minister, The Branch Church
Sunday, October 10, 2021


Acts 10:34-35 (NIV)
“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”


Acts 11:15-17 (NIV)
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think I could stand in God’s way?”


Galatians 2:11-13 (NIV)
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.


Galatians 2:14 (NIV)
*When I saw that were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,* I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”


Acts 15:1-2, 6-11, 13-14, 19 (NIV)
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

(vs. 6) The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them:

“Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.

“Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

(vs. 13) … James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.”

(vs. 19) “It is my judgement, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

Peter’s Experience With The Church In Antioch Reminds Us …

  • God uses people who aren’t finished products themselves.

  • Having our minds changed about something is one thing, living it out is another.

  • Sometimes the difference between knowing the truth and living it out is how conscious we are of what others may be thinking, instead of what God is thinking.

Communion

  • When was the last time God revealed that you were thinking wrong about something?

  • Is there something that you know to be right in your mind but you aren’t living it out? Take a moment and ask the Lord for the grace to walk it out.

  • Ask the Lord to increase the value you give to what He thinks and declares.