Summary:

After Paul spent 13 years telling Gentiles they didn’t have to be circumcised to be saved, some Jews said otherwise (v.1). Paul objected, so they sent him to Jerusalem to ask the apostles about it (v.2). Paul went (v.3) because the Lord revealed he should go “communicate” (Gal.2:1,2) his new gospel of grace to the 12 and the other Jewish kingdom church leaders.

Paul needed their stamp of approval on his new ministry, because God was not about to start a new church without telling his old church about it. So he left his home Gentile church in Antioch, and the church brought him on his way by walking him out of the city (v.3cf.21:4,5).

The “brethren” in Phenice and Samaria were Jewish kingdom saints (v.3cf.Acts 8:5,6;11:19). Verse 3 shows the Average Joe Jew rejoiced to hear about the conversion of the Gentiles, but the leaders might not (cf.Mark12:37,38). These leaders were saved, but even saved men don’t always accept dispensational changes like the one Paul was introducing.

The Jerusalem church gave Paul a hearing (Acts 15:4), but some saved Pharisees insisted his new Gentile converts had to be circumcised and “keep the law” to be saved (v.5). You see, getting circumcised was the first thing the law told a man to do, and it obligated you to do the rest (Gal.5:3). When Paul told the leaders Gentiles weren’t under the law (Rom. 6:15), they convened the council to decide (Acts 15:6).

The Lord told the 12 that the decisions they made on earth would be confirmed in heaven (Mt.18:28-30), and He had no intention of asking Paul to ignore that authority and preach grace without their approval. After the 12 and those leaders disputed about it greatly, Peter reminded them that God had earlier sent him to a Gentile in Acts 10 to break the ice for Paul’s ministry (Acts 15:7). Who better to introduce God’s new main apostle than His old main apostle, just as the last Old Testament prophet (Lu.16:16) paved the way for the first New Testament prophet (Mt.3:1-3 cf. Jo.6:14). If Christ needed a man to pave the way for Him, Paul needed Peter!

But God also used the Spirit to introduce the Lord (Mt.3:13, 16), and He used Him to introduce Paul too (Acts 15:8). Peter was “astonished” to see a Gentile saved without circumcision (Acts 10:44-46) because that meant God had purified their hearts “by faith” alone (Acts 15:9), without the law. That was astonishing in that it showed God put “no difference” (15:9) between Jews and Gentiles, whereas earlier He put a huge difference between them (Lev.20:26; Num.23:9).

When Peter reminded the council that the Gentile he ministered to was saved without the law, he was reminding them they already settled this issue (Acts 11:1-17,18). So Peter asked them why they wanted to put the “yoke” of the law on Paul’s Gentile converts (Acts 15:10 cf. Gal5:1-3). Obligating them to do the whole law meant doing it 100% perfect, 100% of the time (Gal.3:10cf.James 2:10,11). Acts 15:10 says that that would “tempt” or try God (Gen.22:1,2cf.Heb. 11:17). God tried Abraham’s faith in Genesis 22, and it’d try God’s patience to force Gentiles to be circumcised after God proved by His Spirit that they didn’t need circumcision.

Finally, Peter said, “You guys are trying to make Gentiles get saved like us Jews, by circumcision and the law. But we’re going to be saved like them, by grace” (Acts 15:11). They were already saved, but their salvation worked like yours does. You were saved when you believed, but the completion of your salvation will come at the Rapture (Rom. 13:11). Peter was saved when he believed, but the completion of his salvation—and the salvation of all the rest of the Jewish kingdom saints—will come when the Lord saves them by grace—“graciously” (Hosea 14:1-4), when He takes away the sin out of their lives when they enter the kingdom, just as He purified their hearts by faith when they believed.

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Paul’s Message Is Officially Reviewed” Acts 15:1-11

Summary:

These Gentiles thought Paul was a god, but Paul was “scarce” able to keep them from sacrificing an animal to him anyway (v.18). That’s religion for ya! Religion loves to worship God—as long as He doesn’t have the nerve to tell religious men how to do it! When He does, religion bristles—sometimes violently, as it did when they stoned Paul (v.19).

But why does verse 19 say they only supposed they killed Paul? Well, they were sure, but then they weren’t so sure when Paul got up and started walking around! Paul himself didn’t know if he were dead (IICor.12:2,3), but you don’t get to go to heaven unless you’re dead. Souls in heaven can wear robes (Rev.6:9,10), which makes you feel like you’re in your body. But Paul’s body was being dragged out of Lystra.

And all this was a type of something God wants to teach us. In Acts 14:8-18, Paul healed a lame Gentile to illustrate how the Gentiles could now “walk and please God” (IThes.4:1). But to do that, they’d need some instruction, and Paul received some when he heard words “not lawful” to utter (IICor.12:2,3). Those were words about the grace message, words which were against the law of Moses to utter. Paul started the chapter by saying he’d receive revelations (12:1), and then told us about having received some!

So this miracle occurs here to symbolize how Gentiles who could now walk and please God must look to Paul for instructions as to how to do it. The whole chapter symbolizes how we should live in the dispensation of grace. After we learn we should take our instructions from Paul, verse 23 typifies how we should confirm Christians with Paul’s gospel, by ordaining elders to teach it (v.24). That’s why this miracle of Paul’s resurrection happens here, as the age of grace began to unfold, to outline how it should unfold.

How did they confirm those saints? With words (cf.15:32).

That strengthens them (cf.Isa.35:3-5). Of course, Isaiah confirmed Jews with spiritual strength with the words of Moses he was quoting (Deut.31:6). But today, we’re strengthened with Paul’s words. I find it encouraging to know I’ll enter the kingdom of God, don’t you (Acts 14:22)?

But why’d Paul have to tell them they’d enter it “through much tribulation?” Who doesn’t know Job 5:7? The answer? Jews under the law, who were exempt from troubles like sickness and poverty if they obeyed God! Paul was saying there’d been a dispensational change. That change included not being saved from our enemies like Jews under the law, something these Gentiles needed to hear, for God’s enemies persecuted them after Paul left their towns. Unless Paul told them they were no longer under that law that said things like Isaiah 54:17, they’d think God didn’t keep His promises! He told the Thessalonians the same thing (IThes.2:14,15;3:3,4).

Paul didn’t ordain elders (Acts 14:23) when he established those churches because some qualifications for leadership take time to surface (ITim.3:2-7). When he did ordain them, he didn’t commend them to the other Lord the 12 preached (IICor.11:4), but to the Lord “upon whom they believed.” The Lord of the 12 told them to teach the law (Mt.23:1-3). These Gentiles believed on the Lord Paul preached. Pauline grace is the only thing to commend a leader to (Acts 20:32).

How did Paul know he’d “fulfilled” the work the church in Antioch gave him to do (14:26)? The church had evidently told him to preach the gospel, then go back and confirm the souls of the saints and ordain elders among them. When he did that, his work was fulfilled! And we have the same agenda here at Faith Bible Church. We preach the gospel of grace by expounding the mechanics of salvation when we expound the great doctrines of forgiveness, justification, redemption, sanctification, etc. And we confirm the souls of the saints by teaching them the spiritually strengthening words of the Apostle Paul.

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Sacrifice That Didn’t Happen” Acts 14:18-28

Summary:

The healing of this lame Gentile that comes at the beginning of Paul’s new ministry among the Gentiles is a type of it. Before Paul, Gentiles couldn’t walk in a way that would please God (IThes.4:1) because only Jews could be saved. But this miracle typifies how that had now changed. In time past, if a Jew wanted to walk in a way that pleased God, he had to hear the words of Moses (Deut.11:22). But today, Gentiles must hear Paul, as typified with this lame man.

The Lord also healed a lame man to symbolize His new ministry among the Jews (John 5:2,3). He’d been lame 38 years, something pictured in Deuteronomy 2:1,14. God actually made the Jews wander 40 years until that generation died off (Num.32:13), so why’d Moses focus on 38 of them?

Well, the 40 years the Jews had to wait to enter the Promised Land typified the 40 generations they had to wait to enter the kingdom. Matthew 1:17 says it was 42 generations until Christ came to give them the kingdom, but there was no Israel until the third generation of Jews came along in Jacob, whom God renamed Israel. But instead of receiving their kingdom, the people of Israel crucified Christ, and God was ready to cut them down. But on the cross, the Lord asked God to give them one more year (Lu.13:6-9) when He prayed, “Father, forgive them.” And God did give them an extra year in Acts 1-7. But they stoned Stephen in response at the end of that year.

But at the beginning of that year, Peter healed a lame man to symbolize his ministry among the Jews (Acts 3:2-8), a man who was 41 (Acts 4:22). That would account for the extra year God gave Israel. That’s when God gave Paul a new ministry among the Gentiles, typified by this healing.

These Gentiles worshipped the planets and stars (Acts 14:11,12, and they had ever since Genesis 11:1-4. That was a religious tower with the zodiac on top, designed to help them “reach” heaven by worshipping the stars. That was a perversion of the religion God gave the Gentiles in the stars before the Bible was written. The story of Christ in the stars starts with Virgo to represent the virgin Mary, and ends with Leo to represent Christ reigning as a lion-like king in the kingdom (Rev.5:5). The sphynx, a monument with the head of a woman and the tail of a lion, was built in Egypt to help men remember how to read the circle of the stars.

After the Gentiles forgot how to read the stars, they made themselves priests to sacrifice to the stars, then point to them to tell men what the stars said to do (Acts 14:13). That was another perversion of the religion God gave Gentiles like Adam, Abel and Noah. He told them to sacrifice to Him and look to the message He put in the stars. But the Gentiles perverted that into sacrificing to Jupiter and Mercury, and looking to the zodiac to learn from it. They wouldn’t listen to a preacher who pointed to the Bible to deliver a message from God like Paul did. But this lame man did! That’s how Paul perceived he had faith (Acts 14:9).

Saying the gods had come down in the likeness of men (v.11) is another perversion of God’s gospel in the stars (Phil.2:7). Remember, this lame man couldn’t walk “from his mother’s womb” (v.8). Paul’s mother’s womb was a perversion of the religion God gave the Jews (Gal.1:13-15). This lame man represented how the Gentiles couldn’t walk and please God ever since they perverted the religion God gave them. They called Barnabas “Jupiter” because he was bigger than Paul. (“Paul” means small.) “Garlands” were given to kings, not gods, but the stars taught them that when God came down in the likeness of men, He’d be a king in the kingdom!

God lets people make idols out of the stars (Acts 14:16), even His own people (Hos.4:16,17). He stopped talking to Gentiles, but never stopped witnessing to them (Acts 14:17cf.Ps.19:1-3; 36:6,7).

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “A Gentile Who Walked The Walk” Acts 14:8-18

Summary:

After the Gentiles in Antioch heard and believed the gospel, they glorified the Word (v.48) by believing it (cf.IThes.3:1). And since “glorify” means praise (cf. Ps. 50:23), you glorify and praise the Word when you believe it as we teach it at our church. And since “glorify” also means worship (Ps. 86:9-12), we worship God when we teach doctrine (ct. Mt.15:9).

Before Paul, only Jews were “ordained to eternal life” (Acts 13:48 cf. John 4:22). But now Gentiles were also ordained to it. The dictionary says “ordain” can mean prepare, as it does in Psalm 7:13 and Isaiah 30:33. “Tophet” (v.33) is a name for hell, which was “prepared for the devil” (Mt.25: 41). But if men got saved in the Lord’s day, they could go to another place God prepared (Mt.25:34). But the kingdom was the place God prepared for Jews (I Chron.17:9).

God began to prepare that kingdom for the Jews “from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25:34). That’s also when He began to tell the Jews about the kingdom (Acts 3:21). Com-pare that to how Paul tells us Gentiles that God “ordained” the mystery for us “before” the world began (ICor.2:7), and didn’t talk about it (Rom. 16:25). That means God having mercy on whom He will (Rom. 9:18-24) means having it on Gentiles as well as Jews, as that passage clearly says.

“Publish” (Acts 13:49) means to make something known that was unknown (Amos 3:7-9). And when God made known the mystery to Paul, these Gentiles published it. But “devout” women opposed it (Acts 13:50). Devout is the noun form of devoted. They were devoted to some god, but not God. So unsaved Jews here were getting unsaved Gentiles to do their dirty work—as they did when they got unsaved Romans to crucify the Lord. But Paul shook their dust off and left (Acts 13:51) as the Lord told the 12 to do (Mt.10:14). And the new “disciples” in the Body of Christ were full of joy and the Spirit (Acts 13:52), i.e., they spoke in tongues (cf. Acts 2:4). God gave Israel’s gifts to members of the Body during the transition from law to grace.

Paul “so spake” that a multitude believed (Acts 14:1). That sounds like they believed because he was a polished speaker, but he wasn’t (cf.IICor.11:6). Those Gentiles believed be-cause God was now offering them salvation, and those Jews believed because Paul wasn’t doing what Peter did. Peter blamed them for the cross, saying, “You did it, now you must repent of it to be saved” (Acts 2:38). Paul told them, “God did it—for you! And now you must believe it to be saved.”

The Jews in Iconium also stirred the Gentiles to oppose Paul (Acts 14:2); “therefore” he spoke boldly (v.3)! The Lord testified to his words with miracles, but He testifies to our words with greater miracles (Col.1:9-11). God’s “glorious” power (Col.1:11) was seen in miracles like the Red Sea crossing (Ex.15:4). Now it’s seen when His glorious power makes us patient (Col.1:9-11). Mere men can overcome the force of nature like God did at the Red Sea. We did it when we reversed the flow of the Chicago River, and built the Hoover Dam. It takes more power to overcome the force of human nature in us. And that miracle testifies to our words!

Because Paul didn’t preach politics, the people weren’t divided over politics (Acts 14:4). He taught grace, so they were divided over grace. It’s okay to divide people. The Lord did (Lu.12:51-53; John 7:43; 9:16; 10:19). When truth divides your family, do what the Lord did and rejoice in your spiritual family (cf. Mt.12:47-50).

“Assault” (Acts 14:5-7) means to throw a punch. It becomes battery when the punch lands. Paul became aware of the as-sault on him the Jews were planning because he was a prophet, and the Lord saved him from it (IITim. 3:11). But today there are no prophets, so God uses members of His Body to warn each other of such attempts. That’s more proof that God now uses us to do things He used to do with miracles!

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Hearing is Believing” Acts 13:48-14:7