The Council at Jerusalem

Voices are rising in a crowded room in Antioch. Some visitors from Judea have just said something that has turned joy into worry. Unless you do what we do, they say, you cannot be saved.

The church in Antioch is a new kind of family. Jewish believers and Gentile believers, people from all sorts of backgrounds, worship Jesus side by side. Paul and Barnabas have just come back from a long journey, telling everyone how God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Then the visitors arrive from Judea, teaching that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, as Jewish men did. Paul and Barnabas disagree strongly. There is no small argument. So the church decides: let's not split. Let's send Paul and Barnabas and some others up to Jerusalem, to talk it through with the apostles and elders.

On the way south, through Phoenicia and Samaria, Paul and Barnabas tell the believers how Gentiles have been turning to God, and everyone is overjoyed. In Jerusalem, the church welcomes them. But some believers who had been Pharisees stand up and say it plainly: Gentile believers must be circumcised and told to keep the law of Moses. So the apostles and elders gather to consider the question. There is a long discussion. People speak their minds. Then Peter stands up. He reminds them how, years before, God chose him to tell the good news to a Roman soldier's household. God, who knows the heart, gave them the Holy Spirit just as he gave it to us. He made no difference between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

Peter goes on. “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” The whole room goes quiet. Then Barnabas and Paul tell of the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finish, James, the brother of Jesus and a leader in Jerusalem, speaks. He says the words of the prophets agree, quoting Amos: God would rebuild David's fallen house, so that the rest of humanity, all the Gentiles, might seek the Lord. And James gives his judgment: we should not trouble the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Instead, James suggests a few things they should keep away from: food offered to idols, sexual sin, the meat of strangled animals, and blood. Simple guidelines so that Jewish and Gentile believers could share a table in peace. The apostles, the elders and the whole church agree. They write a letter and choose two respected men, Judas called Barsabas and Silas, to carry it back with Paul and Barnabas. The letter says, “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.” In Antioch, they gather everyone and read it aloud. And the people rejoice at the encouragement. Judas and Silas stay a while, strengthening the believers with many words, before they are sent off in peace.

Antioch, where this argument began, was no small town. It stood on the River Orontes in Syria, and the Jewish historian Josephus called it the third city of the Roman world, after Rome itself and Alexandria in Egypt. Acts tells us it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. A great, mixed, international city was exactly the place where the question of Jews and Gentiles together would come up first.

The council at Jerusalem. You'll find it in Acts chapter fifteen, verses one to thirty-five. A church that disagreed deeply, but chose to listen, to look at what God was doing, to search the scriptures, and to welcome newcomers by grace. So here is a question to carry with you. When people disagree in your family or church, how can you help them listen to one another and to God?