Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through Acts 15:1-35, addressing the theme of handling conflict with grace. He emphasizes the importance of identifying the root of disputes, as seen in the early church's debate over salvation and the law. The sermon highlights that conflict can either divide or display God's grace, urging believers to seek unity without compromising the gospel. Practical applications include standing firm in truth and responding with grace, ultimately fostering a loving and unified church community.
Housekeeping and Introduction
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If you have a child that wants to be dismissed to Children's Church at this time, they can be dismissed with Mickey. And if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Acts chapter 15 this morning.
If you look ahead and you sort of see in our notes, today we're in Acts chapter 15, verses 1 through 35. So there's 35 verses we're going to cover today. It's a larger portion of Scripture.
And for sake of reading and for you guys to listen a little better, I've asked my wife to come and she's going to read the verses. You don't have to stand because it is so many verses. Just follow along. This account is one account of dealing with conflict.
And that's what we're going to talk about this morning is how to handle conflict with grace. And so if you'll turn on the pulpit mic, she's going to read for us. I'm also going to read for you as well. Let me slow the water.
So men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.
After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue.
When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.
When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.
But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter.
After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers and sisters, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe.
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples' neck that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to hear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.
Listening to Barnabas and Paul
The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul, described all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they stopped speaking, James responded, brothers and sisters, listen to me.
Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name. And the words of the prophets agree with this as it is written, After these things I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again.
So the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name declares the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.
Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God, but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality,
from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.
For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he has read aloud in the synagogues.
And the apostles and the elders with the whole church decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.
Judas called Mersabbas and Silas, both leading men among the brothers, they wrote, From the apostles and the elders, your brothers, to the brothers and sisters among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria and Sicilia. Yes, greetings.
Since we have heard that some without our authorization went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts, we have anonymously decided to select men and send them to you, along with our dearly beloved
Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we have sent Judas and Silas, who will personally report the same things by word of mouth. For it was the Holy Spirit's decision and ours not to place further burdens on you beyond these requirements.
That you abstain from food, offer to idols from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality, you will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.
So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, and after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter. When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. Both Judas and Silas were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and sisters, and strengthened them with a long message.
After spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord.
Prayer for Guidance
Thank you. Lord, we thank you for this day. We pray that you'll have your hand on the reading of your word. Help me as I preach this morning to have the words to say. In your name we pray. Amen.
Today, we're talking about conflict and how to handle conflict with grace. This is one of those topics as you get through the book of Acts. I mean, up until this point, thousands have been saved. They've been baptized. We're planting churches.
We've got missionary journeys going out. But then there's this instance where conflict arises.
Isn't this how it happens in our life, right? Conflict becomes to happen when we begin to see good things happen.
And it gives a good prescription here of how to handle conflict with grace, how to deal with conflict. And by very means, you know this is a touchy subject when we talk through this.
And so one thing that I want to say this morning is conflict is something that every single one of us knows well. Whether you've been here five years on this earth or 500 years on this earth or 5,000 years on this earth, you know that conflict is something that we know well.
If any time you get more than one person in a room, and sometimes if you get one person in a room by themselves, there's going to be conflict, right?
They're going to disagree with themselves on something, and it's going to be bad. This happens in our homes. This happens in our workplaces.
As school begins, and we pray over our students and our staff here in a little bit, there's going to be conflict on day one where people aren't going to agree. They're not going to like the seat they're sitting in.
They're not going to like the teacher they've got, and there's going to be conflict.
Even in our churches, we know there's conflict as well. I heard a story years ago of a small church that could not decide on the color of their carpet. Half of the church wanted blue, and the other half wanted red. In the end,
neither side won because the testimony of Christ was damaged because they couldn't decide, and they eventually went one way, and half the church left because they couldn't decide on the carpet. We know that.
We hear the stories of that, and we sort of laugh, but oftentimes in our life, we've experienced this as well. It's really not a joke when it comes to understanding how we live our life. We understand that conflict shows up daily in our lives.
Even within yourself, as you're riding down the road and you're deciding, what am I going to have for lunch? You begin to have these conflicting feelings of what you're going to do.
In your marriage, where your spouse sees something differently than you do, you want it done one way, they want it done another way, and all of a sudden, no one wants to back down, and so there begins to have conflict that happens.
Maybe it's at work where there's a co-worker that wants to determine to make life miserable for you, and now all of a sudden, there's conflict. Conflict is inevitable.
The question is, is how we're going to face it. How are we going to handle the conflict when it comes in our life? How are we going to handle the matters that begin to ultimately,
if we don't handle it right, destroy the relationship that we're having or deepen them in our relationship with one another? You see, conflict does one of two things. It either divides God's people or it displays God's grace.
It divides people in a way that they see, hey, even the Christians can't get along, or the world looks in and they say, you know what?
Importance of Acts 15
They didn't agree, but yet they worked through that, and God worked out a great and miraculous thing in their life.
That's why I believe that Acts 15 is so important, because the early church-based conflict, and as Luke was writing this, he just didn't skip over it. He dedicated 35 verses to one account of conflict that is happening in the church because it threatened its very foundation. You see, this wasn't about preference.
This wasn't about the color of carpets. This was against the very fabric and the foundation of the gospel itself, how we come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior, how we come to know this saving grace that God has given us.
And this verse was given where it says, unless the Gentiles keep the law of Moses, they cannot be saved. They began to add some things to the gospel.
So as we walk through this passage today, I want us to think about the conflicts in your own life.
Maybe you're dealing with a conflict right now. Maybe there's a struggle internally, and you don't know how to deal with it. You don't know how to work through this.
We're going to give some sort of step into the counseling office this morning, and we're going to give some good counsel on how to deal with this. And begin to ask yourself, how are you handling the conflict in your life?
Are you dealing it from the side of pride where I've got to be right?
Are you dealing with it from the side of anger where I'm mad that I was wrong, or my ideas didn't work, and so I'm going to be fueled by anger?
Or sometimes it's this idea of fear that steps into our life, and we no longer are feeling like we have a voice in even the situation. Begin to ask yourselves, when conflict happens, how do we handle it?
And what happens when we respond differently with reconciliation and with the grace of God that begins to bring unity? So the first thing we see here is verses 1 through 5. We see the dispute happen. This dispute comes in. Conflict enters the church.
And some were insisting, just to give you the Cliff Notes version, that the Gentiles believers must be circumcised in order to be saved. And so this was not just a minor issue. This was what we use, the term that we use.
And I've used it a couple of times in my preaching. And I have a little podcast, I don't know if you know this, but I have a podcast that deals with legalism in the church. And I was in a legalistic church, and legalism is simply just adding to salvation.
It's adding to the way we can be saved and come to know Jesus Christ.
And so as the disciples began hearing this, it struck the heart of the gospel because it struck the heart of saying, how am I going to know Christ? Is it going to be just grace, or is it going to be grace plus works? And we'll talk about it in a minute.
So the first thing they do is they identify the conflict. The conflict is identified in verse 1.
It says, unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved. This is, as I just said, adding to the gospel.
So in our very lives, we can take this example, and we can say when conflicts arise, when there's a dispute, the first thing we have to do is get to the identification of what the conflict is.
Okay, you wanted to have Cracker Barrel, since it's in the news right now, and I wanted to have Chick-fil-A.
And so all of a sudden, there's this dispute, and three days later, you're still arguing, and you forget about what the dispute was.
Well, let's get back to the core. Let's get back to what the dispute is and say, okay, this is why we're arguing. This is why there's conflict.
And let's begin to identify that first and foremost so that we can deal with the root issue. The second thing we begin to see here is in verse 2. We see the conflict intensify.
We see that Paul and Barnabas, it says that they stood up and they debated sharply this issue, which tells us if Paul and Barnabas are getting up with heavy voice, with loud voices, debating this sharply, this is not a secondary issue.
This is something that's important. This is something that is about salvation itself.
And so when conflict begins to intensify in our life, we must ask ourselves, what is this issue and why are we even fighting about it? Why are we even arguing about something so insignificant?
Or it could be huge. It could be about salvation. It could be something that's going to break up the fabric of our marriage or our family or something that's huge. And so we need to identify and then understand why it's beginning to escalate.
And then the third thing we see here is in verses 3 through 5. We see the conflict begin to be investigated.
Now, I spent a very simple amount of time there, but I want to break it down like this. The church wisely began to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to settle the matter with the apostles and the elders. They said, listen, there's things that are wrong here. We need to work through this.
We need to understand and investigate what is the truth. They're saying this over here. They're saying this over here. We're young. Paul, you've only been a Christian for three years.
You've been on your missionary journey for a couple of years now. Now, let's go to the source.
Let's go to the elders. Let's go to Paul and let's, I'm sorry, Peter and James and the guys in Jerusalem. And let's begin to figure out what it is. This is how I want you to understand it like this.
Medicine is a very helpful thing in our day and age. If someone comes and they're sick and you go to the doctor, they give them amoxicillin, penicillin. If you have drugs, you need answers, go see a doctor or me. One of the two, they'll help you out.
And they begin to help you in this area. They begin to give you medicine.
Now, if you take too much medicine, if you take too much of a good thing, it can actually hurt your body. We've seen this with Darlene who's not here.
All of a sudden, she was having problems about a year or so ago, six months ago. And they gave too much antibiotics and that began to counteract her life.
But when we begin to take something that's pure, such as a glass or a bottle of water, and if I were to take one drop of poison and put it in this bottle of water and give it to someone, that one drop of poison that once this was life-giving, now becomes life-taking.
And this is what happens when we have false teachers that are mixing poison with the gospel. It's an addition to something that is causing people to not understand the gospel clearly.
Jesus says it very clearly, the disciples say it very clearly, that it is only through the faith and the grace of God that we have salvation. Oftentimes in our life, this is how I was raised.
So I'll take you back into my story. You become a Christian, and this is what was said as I was growing up, once you get saved, then the outside will begin to match the inside.
And it was this, you gotta cut your hair, you gotta have all the external looking right so that everyone looks at you and says you're a good Christian, you're a good boy, you've got all the right attire, you've
got all the right good things that are going on in your life, and when you go to the movies, when you wear shorts, when you do these things, well now you've taken away from the gospel. You don't have a salvation anymore.
And this is what we begin to add, Jesus and works. And we're here to tell you today that it is only through the grace of Jesus Christ that we have salvation.
Maybe you're here this morning and you say, you know what, I'm not good enough to know Jesus. Well that's a great way to start because none of us are good enough to know Jesus. The Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And it is only through the grace of Jesus Christ that we have this salvation through Jesus.
I've been on this kick lately of watching documentaries of Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing, and I was talking to a friend of mine, he said, you know, it's reported that at the end of Timothy McVeigh's life, he came to know Jesus.
And you think about this, you think about, man, he destroyed lives, he destroyed buildings, he destroyed these things that were going on, and yet God through his mercy and through his grace can redeem someone even like that.
And we have to understand, are we adding to the gospel, or are we simply giving the gospel clearly to others? And how do we respond when our truths are challenged?
Today's day and age of social media, constantly the truth of Christianity is challenged back and forth. Why do you believe this? What's going on?
As our students go off to school this week, and some have already started with college, they are going to be bombarded with thoughts and challenges to their faith.
Now, I hope that our children, our young people are so foundation in their faith that they're able to have a conversation and say, you know, this is what I believe and why I believe it.
And hopefully that goes back to us as a church of discipling and small groups and parents who are working together so that our young people can give the gospel as they go into this lost and dying world.
Defense of the Gospel
So there's the dispute first. And then we get to the defense and the grace that's displayed.
And I believe this portion, which is the longest portion, we begin to see three people that have a defense of what's going on.
And I think it's important that we understand this because it's in scripture and it's important for us to understand as well, but there are times when conflict happens and it's how we respond in those conflicts that truly say who we are. And so Peter gets up first,
as always, the defense from Peter, Peter gets up and he's got to be the first to say something. We see this all throughout scripture where Jesus says something and Peter's the first to question it.
Jesus says something about he's walking on the water and Peter goes, hey, if it's really you, let me step out there with you, right?
So this is Peter's attitude. He's got to be the first. He's got to be the one that's sort of going out in front of everything. And so he steps up first and he says, you know what? Listen, church, I want to remind you that even in my ministry,
there was a man named Cornelius who we've looked at before summertime where I went to Cornelius who was a Gentile, who was an unbeliever. And even in that area, I was preaching and he got saved. He came to know Jesus, which is a reminder that salvation is through grace alone, through faith.
It's not by works. It's not through the works of the law, but it is clearly through what Jesus has said and done. And he makes this statement. He says, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
And Peter steps up and he says, listen, church, there's some things that are going on here.
There's some problems that we're dealing with, but the main thing has got to be the main thing. And that is the gospel of Jesus Christ must be preached and must be given clearly and effectively that only through the grace of God can we come to know salvation. It's almost like this.
It's almost like a judge stands up in a courtroom and he says, you know, we've got a law system and our law is really good and it's there and effective, but the law can't save someone. You broke the law.
And just because you abide by the law, it doesn't save you. It is only through the pardon of a king or through the pardon of a president can you be saved. And this is what Peter is proclaiming.
He is saying, listen, there has been a pardon given from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that salvation is to all who believe if they'll just simply put their trust and faith in Jesus. The question is, do we live our life that way?
Do we live our life in a way that people look at us and they say, you've got the grace of God all over you. You are living a way that is graceful, that is loving, that is caring and I can see God in you.
Or are we feeling that we live a way like, well, if I continue to perform well, then God's gonna love me more.
You see, God says that all is done on the cross and we now just live for him. There's no way we can secretly get more love from God by doing more. It is simply by just serving and doing what God has called us to do.
Then in verse 12, we see that Paul and Barnabas stand up and they give a defense. Paul and Barnabas, they stand up and they say,
listen, there's been signs and there's been wonders among all the Gentiles that we went to. And God himself has been doing these signs and wonders and he says it like this. He says, he's doing this as a stamp of approval that the gospel's going to the Gentiles.
A lot of people ask, well, why are there so many signs and wonders and what happens and why do they stop? They were there for a reason, for a purpose, to give authority, to give approval of what is going on.
It's like if you go outside and you plant a fruit tree, an apple tree, and you come back three years from then and then all of a sudden there's beautiful apples that are on this tree and you harvest
them and you make an apple pie and you bring it to a Sunday night fellowship and I open up and I cut open that pie and Darlene makes that wonderful apple pie ice cream, homemade ice cream.
And I take a dollop of that and I put it on there. We can begin to say, hey, this tree, this apple tree produced something and now we get the enjoyment of this fruit, right? Make anybody hungry this morning? Right, this is what happens.
They stand up and they say, listen, there's proof to what we're doing. There's been evidence that God has been blessing through this, that God has been working through this. And look at what is happening in our lives.
The question we have to ask ourselves is, what fruit of grace are we displaying in our life that people are able to look at us and say,
yeah, I can see grace. Yeah, I can see mercy in them. Yeah, I can see the goodness of God in their life and I can see God's power working in their life. When difficulties come, their faith didn't waver.
They just continued to trust in the Lord. When difficulties come, they just continued to trust. They continued to be faithful. They continued to trust in what God was doing. And then we get to, I believe, one of the best defenses. I know Peter does well and Paul Barnabas does well.
But then James, and I may be partial just to his name, but James' defense gets up and he begins to wax eloquently, the Bible basically says, as he begins to tell them about what is going on. Verses 13 through 19, James, which is the pastor of the church in Jerusalem.
This is Jesus' half-brother. This is also the man who wrote the book of James, where we get the modern New Testament version of Proverbs,
wisdom scripture from. And he stands up and he gives a defense that it's from scripture.
Amos chapter nine, you can go and read that on your own. But Amos chapter nine is where he gets this from.
And he makes this statement where he says, after these things I will return and I will rebuild David's fallen tent and I will rebuild the ruins and I will set it up again so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles.
And he gives this wonderful explanation of how God from the foundation of the world had planned for the Israelites to not just be the only nation, but that the Gentiles be included in this wonderful act of salvation.
This is where we get brought into the church. And he says, how is it that we can stand here and say that this is exclusively for us when the world has been,
that God sacrificed his son for the world so that all could come to know Jesus.
Almost in a concluding statement, he says this, we should not trouble those who are trying to turn to Jesus. We should not trouble those that are trying to come find Jesus. We shouldn't put roadblocks and barriers and things in their way.
They're just coming to find the grace of God that we all seek. And we just need to give a beautiful picture of them to come to Christ. It's almost like this. If you ever notice,
if you've ever been to a hospital, the roads leading to the hospitals in most of the area of the world, especially in America, are some of the best roads that you're going to find. There's no potholes. The roads are in immaculate condition. Unless you go to South Carolina, then all roads are off.
But in North Carolina, and especially around here, you're going to North Wilkes. There's no potholes. They make, the roads are wider for the ambulances to get through. Why is that?
It's because they are on purpose trying to make it as easy as possible for that ambulance that is transporting this wounded, this person that's on the brink of death, to get to the hospital as easily and quickly as possible. The potholes are filled in.
The roads are made right so that they can get there and they can get the help they need. James is saying, don't put hot potholes in the way of people coming to know Christ.
Don't hinder people that are trying to seek the gospel, that are trying to come to know Jesus. Let's not put our man-made stipulations,
our man-made roadblocks when people are just trying to come to know Christ. Because I promise you, if you live your life in a way that is an example of Christ, people will begin to ask questions.
Why do you live that way? Why are you doing that? Why are you giving time to go to church and spend time at a Wednesday night Bible study and giving your money to the church? Why are you doing these things?
This is not what the world says to do. And all of a sudden, people begin to ask these questions and we get to share the gospel with them. But then we begin to see grace displayed.
Oh, this is the grace of God displayed through this church and through us as well.
Here, they write a letter and they emphasize that the grace that is also asked to the Gentiles to avoid some specifics, some broad generals here, idolatry and immorality and the blood to preserve the fellowship with the Jewish believers. This is us to take care and to take notice of others who are struggling.
And maybe we can adapt our lifestyle to preserve the unity of the fellowship of what is going on. You see, grace leads to freedom and freedom must be used in love. Grace leads us to have the freedom that we have in Christ.
Galatians 5.1, for freedom Christ has set us free, not to be under the yoke of bondage, but to live for Christ.
And what he's saying is we have this freedom, but it must be used in love.
We have this freedom to live a certain way and to do some great things, but how are we doing that in a way that is loving toward others? The question I want to ask this morning is, do you use your freedom to love others
or do you use your freedom to just please yourself?
Are we using our freedom to show love toward others in a way that is crazy and awesome and people ask that question of, why are you showing love to me?
Why is it? And I go to often with my kids, I go to Romans chapter 12, where it says, if your enemy hungers, feed them. For in doing so, you're going to heap lumps of coal in their head. Brody often will quote that verse, Dad,
had a guy a day at school and he was being mean to me and so I just was really nice to him. And you know, the Bible says, if I do that, I'm going to heap lumps of coal in him.
I don't really know what that means, Dad, but I'm just going to keep doing it.
And what it is simply saying is, listen, when you're nice, you're going to kill them with kindness.
Just continue to be nice, continue to love them, continue to give grace to them, even when they don't deserve it, because you yourself didn't deserve the grace of God.
And yet God, through his mercy, through his infinite knowledge, sent his son to die on a cross for us so that we could have eternal life, so that we could have this grace that is so beautifully displayed in Christ as we go through here.
And now we begin to turn to, and I'm going to be quickly here in these last couple of verses, the grace verdict. The grace verdict. Verses 22 through 35, we begin to see grace shown in ways that we had not yet seen in the book of Acts.
And as we begin to look through this, we begin to see two main things. And these two main things are things that sort of add a munition to us when conflict happens, when we understand the dispute.
Now we understand the problem, we've investigated it, we know what the situation is, but now how can grace come in, and how can we live our life in a way that is going to glorify God and is going
to help the church in a whole, help our family as a whole, right? When you have a problem in your marriage, you have a dispute in your marriage, you want to find the best way to solve that solution, to solve that problem that is there.
And oftentimes it's going to individuals, get marriage counseling, you've got a child that's astray, there are ways that we can begin to grow closer in this.
And these are the two ways that I see in these last couple of verses that we can begin to build up the body of Christ in a massive way. The first one is this, never abandon the grace of God.
Never abandon the grace of God. Now I've mentioned the grace of God all throughout my sermon today because this is constantly what has been shown and proved all throughout this dispute. All throughout this conflict, they constantly go back to God's grace.
Grace and Salvation
Peter says, hey, don't forget, Jesus came, he died on the cross, his grace is sufficient.
Paul and Barnabas, hey, God's grace is great. James stands up and he says, hey, we can only receive salvation through the grace of God. Constantly grace is coming back up, and we ourselves must not forget the grace of God. Oftentimes our own preferences can come in,
our own situations can come in, and what the grace of God, it begins to ground us back on what truly matters, the main thing, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. They sent this letter.
I think it's very important. They sent a letter because they didn't want their words mixed up. They sent this letter affirming salvation by grace alone. The verdict protected the gospel for generations to come.
The verdict here protected the gospel for us. All of a sudden, if this dispute wouldn't have happened, all of a sudden, this false narrative of the gospel would begin to be spread, and we would have this grace and works and all the other things that are
added on to this, and all of a sudden, we would be confused in the gospel. We sang the song by Martin Luther, How Great Thou Art,
and I want you to, I think Martin Luther, I don't know why that came to me, but Martin Luther made a quote. He said, we must continually beat the gospel into our heads. If we lose grace,
we lose the gospel. We must continually beat the gospel in our heads. If we lose grace, we lose the gospel.
The gospel is about the grace of God, and as we begin to have conflict, if we can just get ourselves back to the gospel and put ourselves aside and say, I don't know what's going on. I don't know why this is here.
I don't know why my preferences are stepping up. I don't know why these things are happening in my life, but let's just take a moment and just allow the grace of God to influence in this moment.
I've been through more conflicts in my life than I care to even talk about or think about with family and with church and with friends and anything you can think of, and if I gave you the time, you can stand up here and you can say, you know, Pastor,
I've had just as many conflicts. Some of them have ended in a way where I'm no longer even friends with that person. Some, through the conflict, our relationship got stronger.
We begin to grow closer and better to each other, and this is the thought when we continually love each other through the gospel and we're passionate about protecting the purity of the gospel. As the other church was, we begin to say, okay, is this a gospel matter?
Is this something that is going to affect my salvation or affect my walk with God? If it's not, then we can deal with it a different way, but if it is, we've got some bigger issues that we can handle.
Preserving Church Unity
And then the second thing I want to point out here is in this passage, specifically in verse 31, they begin to lovingly preserve the unity of the church. They lovingly preserve the unity of the church. The letter was read and received with joy.
In the midst of the conflict, in the midst of what is going on here, it says that Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas, they stood up and they read this letter and it says that the church received it with joy. Oftentimes, this would not be the traditional Baptist church.
The letter would be read and there would be dissension, there would be conflict, there would be feelings that were heard and there would not be joy in the situation.
But we see here in this first church because they were so consumed with being unified for the sake of the gospel that grace not only saved them, but it kept them unified.
This is why I think it's so important that when we have started our small groups on Wednesday night, when we have began to just sit around and open scripture and read scripture and sit around in a circle with
our young people, with our older people, as we begin to go through different studies, that we begin to work through our faith.
We begin to work through the questions that so often we have and it begins to bring us closer together.
That's why I challenge you as we go through our announcements, hey, be here on these small groups and maybe you've never given it a try.
Come and grow and begin to learn what each other's going through and the struggles and the conflicts that we begin to go through so we can handle it with grace and we can grow closer to one another.
When the church is unified and closer to one another and our faith begins to spread and our neighbors begin to see that our lives are different and we live a different way, all of a sudden they're like, hey,
I want to know what's going on. What's going on over there?
Why are there so many cars gathered on a Wednesday night at seven o'clock when there's crazy things going on? We've got sports and we've got practices and we've got dancing. We've got all these other things going on. Why are you spending your time there?
I just want to be closer to my church family. I just want to be closer to God. I want to be closer so that when hot conflict happens, I have a group of people to go to. More times than I can count, there has been a difficult situation come up
and I've pulled out my phone. As I mentioned this morning, we have phones and we're constantly connected to one another and I'll make a phone call or I'll send a text and someone will call me within minutes and they'll encourage, they'll help, they'll begin
to counsel, they'll begin to help me because we are connected to one another and this is what the fellowship of the church does.
When you're in a small group together and a Sunday school class together and an issue arises, now you're able to go to a group of people that are going to be able to pour into your life that's going to be able to help you in a way that you will never understand before.
You see, we don't like conflict. If I were to poll every single person here individually, do you like having an argument? Yes or no? 99% of you are going to say no. I don't like arguments.
I don't like conflict. I don't want to be around it. I want to be the peacekeeper. There's that 1% that live for arguments, that live for debates, that live for the conflict that's going to happen but 99% of us are going to say, I want to avoid that but what happens is conflict
comes. Conflict is like this. When I was September 11th, 2001, the 9-11 happened, right?
Schools got canceled and shut down and all of us went home and my mom and dad, they were still working and we were jumping on a trampoline. My brother was out in the backyard of a friend's house and he was playing on a clothesline.
Now, why you would play on a clothesline, I don't know.
He was fifth grade and fifth graders do really weird things and so he was up on the top of this clothesline. He fell off of it,
tried catching himself with his left hand and snapped his bone in two places, two bones there in your forearm, snapped him in two places. Mom and dad was at work. There was no such thing as cell phones so I'm the only brother that's home and so we rush him to the hospital.
A neighbor picked us up. We get there. I'm in the hospital. No parents around. They're like, hey, we've got to set this bone. So they put this death trap on his fingers and they drop his arm and it sets. He screams bloody murder. I'm there.
I don't know what's going on. I'm just in seventh grade and the doctor looked at me. He said, we're going to cast this. He said, your mom and dad will be here soon. He said, but this bone is going to be stronger now that it's been broken than if it were never broken.
The bond that the bone brings afterwards is going to be able to handle strength in a way that it wouldn't have been able to handle before this.
And oftentimes, conflict happens in our life so that we can become stronger and more unified when other conflicts begin to come and happen because we've went through that experience.
Think of a husband and a wife who have been through the problems, who've been through the difficulties of life and now another difficulty comes and they're stronger now than they were before because they went through the hard times.
And oftentimes, church, when we go through conflict, it is not there for pride or stubbornness, but it is there for a reason for us to grow in the grace and the love of Jesus Christ. And how are we handling that conflict when we begin to go through our life?
As Terry comes and plays, I've got some concluding thoughts because I want us to ask ourselves just a couple of questions. As I said at the very beginning, conflict is inevitable.
We are going to go through conflict. It's inevitable in church. It's inevitable in your marriage. It's inevitable with your family. It's inevitable with your kids. There is going to be conflict in our life.
Standing Firm in Truth
The problem is, is how do we handle that and how we handle it matters. Acts 15 shows us three basic things. It shows us to stand firm in the truth of the gospel.
When things go awry, when things don't go the right way, begin to step back and begin to say, is this the truth of the gospel or is this compromising the truth of the gospel? If it is, then that's a whole different argument.
That's a whole different story. But if it's not dealing with the gospel, then the first thing we have to do is we have to speak with grace. Understand the other person and understand this situation that we're going through and speak with grace.
Begin to lower the temperature and the number two, seek unity without compromise.
Begin to seek reconciliation and seek unity because these are the things that when we go through life, if we don't seek unity, if we don't seek reconciliation,
it's just going to continue to drive a wedge that is deeper and deeper in our life. I want you to imagine, just for a moment, a symphony.
The Philharmonic Symphony is one of the most famous, but maybe you've been to a young person's band concert and they get up and they're warming up and all the different instruments are playing and it just sounds like chaos. Have you been there before?
I used to play the instruments and I used to be in the band and it was just chaos and all of a sudden the conductor would get up and tap the podium and say, okay kids, we're ready. And then in one motion they would begin to conduct all these instruments
in one unified moment and the sound went from chaos to complete awesomeness because they were unified, they were together, they were ready to begin to harmonize together.
And Christ is our conductor and he stands up with all of our different instruments and all of our different gifts and he says, okay church, now is the time.
Now is the time where the world is watching, where things are going to go crazy, but just keep your eyes on me. As I say often, Hebrews 12, looking into Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith,
look to me and allow grace to be the key that we begin to harmonize together in.
Yeah, we're not always going to get along. Yeah, someone's going to mess up in that orchestra. Someone's going to say something wrong, but as Christ the conductor can begin to get us back to where we need to be. You see, conflict comes
and we've got to take away the noise that is around us and begin to yield our voice, our mind, our thoughts to the conductor and say, God, what is it that's going on in my life?
Invitation for Reflection
Now, I don't know the reason why I'm preaching on conflict this morning. I don't know of any conflict in this room. Me and my wife's marriage is pretty good from everything I can tell. Me and my kids are really good.
But what I do know is God ordained us to go through this passage for a reason.
Maybe because you're in conflict or maybe because there's conflict in the room or maybe because there's conflict in your workplace and you just needed some assurance to understand, okay, I need to get back to God.
I need to get back to the grace the Lord's given me and extend that grace to other people. Whatever it may be,
quietly in your own seats this morning. We're not going to have a response to come down. I'm going to keep you seated. And in the quietness of the hour, begin to ask yourself,
Lord, is there something in my life that I need to have worked on in my life? In this moment, every head bowed, every eye closed, maybe you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus.
Maybe you're here this morning and you don't, you've never accepted the grace of God. You've never accepted to the goodness of what God's done in your life. And maybe today,
after the service, you come to me and say, Pastor James, I want to know Jesus. I want to start a relationship with God.
Maybe you're here today and you said, you know, our marriage isn't right, our family isn't right, I'm having conflict in my work and I just need more of God's grace. Maybe in this moment you begin to understand
and identify what that is and begin to just say, God, give me the grace that I need. The quietness of this moment just begin to reflect in your own mind.
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