PT-3 "The Dissension" (Acts 15:1-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/24/2018 7:03 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-3 “The Dissension”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 15:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."”

            We are going to look at the last verse in this section today and then give a couple of quotes that hopefully will help us understand this verse better.

            We have mentioned the Judaizers in an earlier SD from this section of verses and they were the ones that Paul and Barnabas were debating at the beginning of this section, but now when we get to verse five we see another group, the Pharisees who are basically saying the same thing and it all has to do with legalism.  Legalism is limited grace, and this is not what the Bible teaches:  “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom. 11:6).  John MacArthur quotes a man named Lenski:

“To add anything to Christ as being necessary to salvation, say circumcision or any human work of any kind, is to deny that Christ is the complete Savior, is to put something human on par with Him, yea to make it the crowning point.  That is fatal.  A bridge to heaven that is built of 99/100 of Christ and even only 1/100 of anything human breaks down at the joint and ceases to be a bridge.  Even if Christ be thought of as carrying us 999 miles on the way, and something merely human be required for the last mile, this would leave us hanging in the air with heaven being still far away. (R. C. H. Lenske).”

            Now as we look at the Pharisees of verse five we see that they were different than the ones who had a great hand in the crucifixion of Christ as it says “who had believed” and so as mentioned in our last SD they were holding onto something from their past life that surely needed to be changed.  Now these Pharisees were not arguing that circumcision was needed for salvation, but that believers were still obligated to keep the Law of Moses, and so they missed the point that Jesus kept all the Law and then died so that believers did not have to keep the law as a means of salvation.  John MacArthur writes “They were much like the weaker brothers of Romans 14:1-10, who held to dietary laws, rituals, and Sabbath codes for conscience’s sake.  They were convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah who died for their sins and rose from the dead.  That, however, did not immediately cause them to forsake keeping the Mosaic Law as a way of life.”

            If we compare the Pharisees with the Sadducees, the Pharisees believed in the literal interpretation of Scripture, a literal resurrection, life after death, and the existence of angels, however the Sadducees did not. Thus

They shared the basic convictions of the Christians (Pharisees).  Because of this they are sometimes in Acts found defending the Christians against the Sadducees, who had much less in common with Christian views (cf. 5:17; 23:8f).  A major barrier between Christians and Pharisees was the extensive use of oral tradition by the Pharisees, which Jesus and Paul both rejected as human tradition.  It is not surprising that some Pharisees came to embrace Christ as the Messiah in whom they had hoped.  For all their emphasis on law, it is also not surprising that they would be reticent to receive anyone into the fellowship in a manner not in accordance with tradition.  That tradition was well-established for proselytes—circumcision and the whole yoke of the law.  (John B. Polhill).”

            John MacArthur concludes:  “New Covenant believers are freed from the unbearable burden (Acts. 10:13-15; 15:10) of keeping all the Old Covenant ritual.  Yet they are not ‘without the law of God but under the law of Christ’ (1 Cor. 9:21).  There is no license to sin in Christian liberty.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Peter” (Acts 10:34).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did John baptize Jesus?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/24/2018 7:33 AM