(This outline is provided so that those attending Oasis Church can read ahead, pray, and prepare their hearts for the upcoming sermon.)

The Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, and the gospel began spreading to both Jews and Gentiles.

And it didn’t take long for the question to arise: Are we saved by grace alone, or do our works have something to do with it?

And this was the central question of the “Jerusalem Council”, a gathering of the leaders of the church who came together to determine how (or if) Gentiles could be welcomed in as part of the Christian community.

Central verse: “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (Acts 15:11)

I.  THE QUESTION: (15:1-11)

Posed to the Jerusalem Council: “Should Gentile Christians be required to be circumcised?”

-Judiazers / legalists: Yes. Gentiles must be circumcised in order to keep the Law of Moses.

-Peter: No, evidenced by the fact that God poured out the Holy Spirit on uncircumcised Gentiles already. “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

-Paul and Barnabas: No, evidenced by the miracles and salvation that God has done among the Gentiles, showing He’s with them.

II.  THE RESOLUTION: (15:12-29)

-James doesn’t just lean toward the best argument, but he goes to Scripture, (Amos 9:11-12)

-James refers to Gentiles, not just as a “nation” (those apart from God), but as a “people” those who belong to God.

-James / the apostles and elders rule: “No circumcision required for Gentiles.” In order to help the Gentiles have a good witness with the Jews, they were advised to abstain from food dedicated to idols and from blood.

III.  THE RESULT: (15:30-35)

-It was established and made clear – salvation in Christ is by grace alone.

-The early church clearly defined that no works of the Law were required to follow Jesus.

-Gentile believers rejoiced and were encouraged.

-Was still an ongoing battle for the early church, as seen all through Paul’s letters. And it’s still an ongoing battle today.

-By grace, we are saved and sustained.

-By grace, we relate to other believers.

-By grace, we reach out to the lost.

Jesus is enough. The Gospel is enough. That’s why Jesus plus something equals nothing. But Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

(This outline is provided so that those attending Oasis Church can read ahead, pray, and prepare their hearts for the upcoming sermon.)

Text: Acts 14:1-28

Key verse: “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” (Acts 14:3)

As the gospel is faithfully preached, there will be different responses. Believers are called to faithfully preach the gospel and trust God with the results.

At least four things that will happen when the Gospel is boldly and faithfully preached:

I. There will be division. (Acts 14:1-7)

-When Paul preached the gospel boldly, “the people of the city were divided…” (14:4)

-When the gospel is preached lines will be drawn. (Those who believe Christ, and those who reject Christ.)

-As Christians, we are to seek unity around the gospel, but to expect division between those being saved and those rejecting Jesus.

-That division often brings persecution.

-For us: Expect division – God first divides us from our agreement in sin before He unites us agreement with the Savior.

II. Idols will be exposed. (Acts 14:8-18)

-When the gospel is preached, what we worship is revealed:

a. Idols / false gods  – (Our own will, comfort, plans, the approval of others, envying others)

b. The One True God – (Creator, Savior)

-God’s care of unbelievers, even in their idolatry, is common grace. This shows His kindness and mercy to men.

-As the gospel exposes idols, we will either destroy them or defend them.

-For us: In sharing the gospel, walk in:

a. Humility. People will not always appreciate idols being exposed. But we all have idols that need exposing and removing. Show, see Christ as the treasure, and everything else will be seen as loss.

b. Courage. Exposing the idols we worship isn’t pleasant. Persecution may come. Trust God and speak the truth in love.

III. We will face persecution. (Acts 14:19-20)

-The people of Lystra were already embarrassed and their pride was hurt.

-Some unbelieving Jews came from Antioch – from 100 miles away – just to interfere with Paul preaching the gospel.

-they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. (v.19)

-Paul gets up and returns to the city. What courage!

-For us: There will be persecution. But have courage. Not in spite of persecution, but through the suffering and trials, God is growing us and maturing us and working in us His good and perfect will.

IV.  God will save sinners. (Acts 14:21-23)

-In every city, God saved some.

-Sometimes we will be persecuted for preaching the gospel and we’ll see God save. Other times we will simply see God save.

-In persecution or peace, trust that God is doing the saving.

-We are called to be faithful to the message and mission of the gospel.

-For us: Be encouraged – some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. Don’t judge your faithfulness to the gospel by the response of others. Love the lost. Boldly share the truth in love. Watch God change hearts.

And unknowingly this family was in the midst of suffering. Matt had been fighting an ongoing battle with a brain tumor. We witnessed him go into surgery, recover, and their family walk through many dark nights. Yet, we witnessed the sustaining grace of God in the midst of suffering, pain, and uncertainty. We observed a hope that flowed through reliance upon God’s power and His Word.

I want to share their story with you. One of Helen’s recent blog posts points directly to Joseph (where we are in our current sermon messages) and it being a reminder of God’s nearness in our trials. I encourage you to read it. He still faces ongoing dangerous seizures, and is heading into another brain surgery. Their story has greatly impacted our lives – and pray it would do the same for you, to build your faith in a good God, who’s immeasurable love can be trusted even in our dark days.

When you read the little Old Testament Book of Ruth, you find a treasure trove of reminders of God’s sovereignty and goodness – especially in the midst of suffering.

Ruth, a foreigner, showed amazing faith and trust in the God of Israel, in the midst of her own personal struggles and tragedy… (the death of her father-in-law, her spouse, and certain poverty).

But here’s one lesson we learn from Ruth: Suffering fertilizes our faith.

Tragedy caused Ruth to trust God in a way she never would have. Tragedy can either cause our faith to grow or cause us to be bitter.

When my wife and I first got married, we planted some little azalea bushes in the front yard. One day, while we were at work, my dad came over to fertilize our lawn. In the process, he scattered the ferilizer pellets on our new bushes, which eventually killed them. What was meant to bring growth — misapplied — brought death.

Just like that fertilizer, suffering will either grow our faith or diminish it. And that depends on what we believe about God.

Rom. 5:3-4 “…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”

Suffering well means learning to trust God in our suffering. Rejoice because God is at work in your circumstances to grow your faith, to strengthen you, to produce endurance and character and hope — all for His glory AND for our good.

1. We’re forgetting about eternal life, or …
2. We’re temporarily blinded to the goodness and grace of God in this life.

Whatever the case, our sin always has a way of distorting reality.

Then we read Bible passages like this. …

Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 9 – “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?… What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Solomon (in the lineage of Jesus) is writing God’s inspired word, telling the depressing truth of the sum of all life were it not for redemption. We live, we pay taxes and we die. As my crazy uncle used to say, “Thrills and bills – that’s what life is all about.”

Left to himself, the height of man’s existence on this earth is like a bad weather report – mostly cloudy with scattered moments of happiness and a 100% chance of futility.

But we know for those in Christ, this life is not all there is. The raw truth of no purpose in life outside of Christ should serve as a gracious reminder today of how merciful and good God is in rescuing us from a pointless existence by reconciling us to Himself in Christ. Through Jesus, we are called to glorify God. And only because of Jesus, we are saved … from our sin, from God’s wrath, and from a meaningless wandering in the wilderness.

My sinful heart is still tempted to aimlessness at times. But praise God for His word that reminds me that my purpose is His glory, in Christ Jesus. Praise His name forever.

Deuteronomy 8:11, 17-18 – “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statues, which I command you today…Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant with he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God. … Beware lest you say in your heart …”

… that it’s because of your hard work that you have blessings in your life. Imagine sitting down with your family to eat, and praying this prayer: “Lord, I worked hard for this meal. I provided for my family. Now we are going to eat the fruit of my labor.” No one would ever pray that, right? But if we could hear the sinful attitudes that our hearts often have, that’s exactly what our prayers would sound like.

I know for me, it’s so easy to look around at anything good in my life and think that it came to fruition because of my efforts and my diligence. Then, I can look at things that are not so good and think, “God, why haven’t you fixed those things yet?” How sinful and man-centered and blind that is.

But God is gracious to remind me often of HIS grace and mercy – that HE is the one who has caused everything that is good to be good. I am learning (slowly but surely) to see the evidences of grace in my life and in the lives of others and to be constantly reminded that nothing good has come from my hand. It is all God’s work, by God’s power, for God’s glory in Christ Jesus.

So what really causes us to be hopeless?

Some would say it is because of our desire to change, but we can’t. Some would say we are hopeless because we don’t feel like we matter, that we don’t have a purpose in life. Some feel hopeless in a bad marriage, in a dead-end job.

Although all of these can cause us to feel hopeless, none of them are the real cause.

But if we remove all the layers and get to the heart of it all, there are two sources of hopelessness (and they’re connected). The two greatest sources of hopelessness in this life are sin and death.

1. SIN – The most hopeless thing about me is my sin. But if my hope is in Christ, I know He has cleansed me of my sin. There’s no more condemnation for me, and that means that sin can no longer steal my hope.

Paul says:

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:8-11)

2. DEATH – God made life, but because of sin, death entered into the world. Sin brings death, but Christ gives life. And if Jesus did not raise from the dead, we are still dead in our sins, and there is no hope.

Furthermore, Paul says:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:17-22)

The kind of hope I’m talking about is not diminished by death. That’s because the hope that Jesus gives does not find its greatest importance in this life. My hope is rooted in eternity. What Jesus accomplished in life was only fully realized in his death and resurrection. That’s why His life gives us hope – hope that assures us we are forgiven in Him, saved in Him, and will live forever with Him.

Sin and death are the greatest sources of hopelessness in this life, and Jesus has defeated them both. Those who trust in Him have their sins forgiven, and the promise of our own resurrection from the dead and eternal life with Christ.

Because Jesus lives, I have hope, because through faith in His death and resurrection, I am given new life. I am given hope!

And while believers are filled with the Spirit, we still deal with indwelling sin. That means the Spirit is perfect, the gifts He gives are perfect, but we are not. Therefore, how we function in these gifts is not perfect.

No matter how “gifted” we may be, or how effective the spiritual gifts are, there will always be sinful motives that want to contaminate the righteous use of that gift.

For example, consider the gift of discernment: the ability to distinguish good from evil. Those with discernment often have a better “read” on a person or situation. It is a helpful gift to the Body of Christ.

Now consider how a believer – a sinner saved by grace – who has discernment, can fall into temptations connected to the function of their gift. This can be true of every spiritual gift. But for sake of illustration, consider some “dangers of a discerner:”

1. A discerner can confuse discernment and judgment. The gift of discernment is given to help us determine true from false, true gospel from false gospel, real from fake. Discernment is not given so that we can play God Junior, pronouncing judgment on others. Spiritual discernment will be seasoned by spiritual fruit, such as love and joy and self-control.
2. A discerner can hold a grudge and struggle forgiving. Seeing truth can be a blinding thing. We can see what someone’s failings are, and forget to forgive. Our perspective on a person or situation can be skewed when we let self-righteousness guide us instead of grace, forgetting the grace we have been given.
3. A discerner can speak truth, while forgetting “truth in love.” The statement, “I just call things like I see them,” biblically translated, can really mean, “I love my perspectives more than I love people.” When we speak the truth, it should be wrapped in grace, motivated by love, in hope and faith in Christ, knowing that He is at work.
4. A discerner can become a Pharisee instead of a “watchman.” It’s easy to take the gift to see the truth, and become “sin police.” Pharisees were notorious for using a microscope on other people’s hearts, while being blind to their own. We are to be watchmen on the wall, (Ezek. 33:7-15; Titus 1:9-13), keeping our eyes on the cross so that we can rightly discern our own hearts first, always through the lens of grace.

Let us remember the inspired words of Paul. I can have all gifts and power and understanding, “but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2b).

Distracted heart – Busy. Spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder. Fractured affections. Hobbies, recreation and entertainment become central. Cares of the world get bigger. Desire to pray, but “no time” for prayer. Want to read scripture but affections are placed in other things. Spiritual hunger is pacified by other things. Distraction leads to complacency.

Complacent heart – No longer motivated to pursue God, to pursue righteousness. Passion turns to sloth. Forward movement becomes stagnant. Zeal is quenched by boredom. And because the soul still cries out for spiritual food, we are left hungry and hurting.

Hurting heart – When an animal is hurt, they become vulnerable. For animals, being vulnerable is not good. They see everything as a threat, and respond with aggression, or with pulling away. In people, hurt also leads to vulnerability. This can be good in causing us to confess our sins to each other and lean on God’s grace. But if we don’t, being vulnerable means we will become more easily hurt, seeing everything and everyone as a threat, and eventually pulling away from those whom God sent to help us. Hurt that is not given to God turns inward and becomes bitterness and selfishness.

Selfish heart – Now it’s about survival. The heart is self-absorbed and convinced that this is just the way life is going to be. Serving others is not a desire. Even being with others becomes a burden. Gratitude gives way to complaining. When others try to help, pointing to the cross, a selfish heart often turns rebellious.

Rebellious heart – A person who once knew the truth begins to make excuses not to follow the truth. They may even be able to quote Bible verses that apply, but there is no desire to submit their hearts to instruction. Instead of repentance of sin, there is defensiveness and blame. And rebellion that is embraced leads to the hardened heart.

Hardened hearts – No longer affected. No longer moved. No longer worshipful. No longer convicted. And sadly, no longer grateful. A hardened heart can be surrounded by the gospel, yet will be unaffected.

Do you see yourself somewhere in this downward spiral? Did you sense the Holy Spirit prick your heart and say, “That’s you?”

I know it’s ugly, but don’t turn away from this. Because if you can see yourself today, it means that you’re not blind. If you can see sin, it means that God is opening your eyes. That’s an evidence of God’s grace.

But seeing is not enough. Do you want your heart to be changed?

When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, the hard hearts of the people were broken, and they cried out, “What must we do?” The first thing Peter said was to “Repent.” Turn from your sins.

You say, “But I’m already a believer.”

Believers still need to repent of sin. Our hearts can become cold to God and the things of God. Scripture becomes boring and prayer is a chore.

What we need is to humble ourselves before God, and repent. See the cross of Christ afresh today. Consider the amazing love and mercy of a God who sent His only Son to die in your place, to take the wrath and punishment our sin deserves.

And ask Him to change your heart – as only He can.

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called into one body. And be thankful.”

This verse hit me today – peace “ruling” in my heart. I don’t usually think of peace in the same way vein as authority, dominance and ruling. But that’s what Paul says.

“Let peace – the peace provided by Christ – forcefully take authority and rule your heart.”

This is a violent peace, one that is a result of bloodshed and battle. That’s because my sin does not go quietly or easily. No sin of my heart has ever been defeated by dealing with it lightly or passively. My sin must be exposed and battled. My flesh must be mortified, my thoughts taken captive, and my sin nature brought under submission by the power of God’s grace revealed in the cross of Jesus.

Peace is not the absence of battle, but peace is the result of the battle won.

And while the battle against sin still rages – every moment of every day – the war is won. Jesus is our Victor. The cross His victory. And the cross is our victory.