THE BLESSING OF ENCOURAGEMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul—men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

Acts 15:22-35

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

An agreement had been reached, one that everyone could live with. It was an agreement grounded in debate and then collaboration and compromise.

The Pharisees wanted the new Gentile Christians to be circumcised as a condition of salvation.

Paul asserted that God had opened up the opportunity for salvation to the Gentiles with the only condition being that they had to place their belief in Jesus as Savior. No other requirement was involved.

In the end, the Pharisees dropped their demand for circumcision but asked that new Gentile Christians be told to “abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” The intent was to hopefully create an environment where Jews and Gentiles could integrate and function as one Christian body without any barriers to fellowship. Ultimately, the requests, presented in a letter to the churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, were anchored in the matter of respect. The Jews would respect and honor the Gentiles right to salvation and in turn, the Gentiles would refrain from prior practices that would be deemed offensive to their fellow Jewish Christians.

And so as we continue to look at Acts 15, we find the Christian church in Jerusalem dispatch Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch, sending two of their own representatives, Judas and Silas, along. They hand carried the letter drafted with the proposed demands for abstaining from certain acts that would be repulsive and objectionable to the Jewish Christians.

As you look at the text of the letter, note the key elements that made the letter a blessing of encouragement to its readers.

First, there’s an apology issued at the letter’s start. The Christian church in Jerusalem confesses that some of their members traveled to Antioch without their knowledge and created a disturbance, troubling the minds of the Gentile Christians by their statements.

When a wrong is committed, the proper way to start making amends is to apologize. It’s okay for a person to admit they were wrong because no one is perfect and we all make mistakes. This is what the Christian church in Jerusalem was doing at the beginning of their letter and it set a proper environment for what was to follow.

For note that the Jerusalem church didn’t just send the letter with Paul and Barnabas. No, they made sure that two leaders within their church, Judas and Silas, hand-carried the letter and then spoke on it once in Antioch, confirming “by word of mouth” the validity of what had been written. They also made sure that the Christians in Antioch knew that the Jerusalem church considered Paul and Barnabas to be friends, honoring the Gospel work they had done, worn where they “risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The last thing we find in the letter is the Jerusalem church letting the other Gentile Christian churches know that the demands they were making had come from the Holy Spirit. In other words, it wasn’t the Jewish Christian believers imposing their own opinions on how the Gentile Christians should live. Rather, the guidance was coming from the Lord Himself by way of His divine Messenger, the Holy Spirit which advised that no other burdens should be placed on the Gentile Christians except for avoiding the following practices dictated in the letter:

You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

I’m sure the Gentile Christians would have noticed right away that circumcision was no longer being asked for. It had to be a great relief to the Jesus followers who the scriptures tell us were glad when they read the letter because of “its encouraging message”. Judas and Silas, who we learn were also prophets in the Jerusalem church, added messages in support of the letter and strengthened the Gentile Christians through their words, before departing Antioch and returning home. In what was a beautiful sign that unity was beginning to take root between the Jewish and Gentile Christians, we read where the Antioch church sent Judas and Silas off with the “blessing of peace” after they had received such a blessing of encouragement from the two representatives of the Jerusalem Christian church.

As for Paul and Barnabas, the scriptures tell is that they “remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.”

The Gospel work of Jesus, one that called all Christians to work together as one body for one cause, had taken a big step forward through the reconciling work of the Holy Spirit who brought the blessing of encouragement to the Gentile Christians, a blessing of encouragement that built a new bridge of unity between two factions that were anything but united before.

Thanks be to God for the work of His Holy Spirit in the lives of His people.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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