Is baptism the new circumcision? Today we're going to look at the Jerusalem Council, Acts 15, a big, big deal in the early church, and it was all about circumcision and what was going to be required of the new Gentiles that came in. And along the way, I will give you what I think is exactly what Paul's thorn in his side was. Big mystery, lots of different ideas, but I think I can tell you what his thorn in his side was, and as well, in Acts 15, what I consider to be the dumbest mistranslation in the New Testament, perhaps the entire Scriptures. Hi, I'm Sam Hunter. This is 721 Live, the media arm of 721 Ministries. I'm glad that you're with us. Thank you for joining us. If you'll take a moment, just hit that subscribe button, then you'll get these podcasts, these videos as soon as they come out. Just hit that subscribe button and then everything we do will be coming right at you. Okay, I'm fascinated by this Acts 15 Jerusalem Council. I always have been. It was a big gathering of all the church leaders, and we really shouldn't use the word church, the family of followers of Jesus. It was about 50 AD, so let's call it 15 plus years after Jesus' crucifixion. And the whole idea was what to do with these Gentiles who are not Jews, therefore not circumcised for the most part. There were nations that practiced circumcision, but as a general rule, only the Jews, mostly the Jews. And so what do we do with them? And I want to pause for a moment and let me just read from the very beginning of Acts 15, and then we'll come back and work our way back to Acts 15. I think we're going to find some really interesting things in this lesson today. I'll start with Acts 15. Some men came down from Judea to Antioch. This Antioch is where Paul and Barnabas are. They've returned from their first missionary trip, which we read about in Acts 13 and 14. Some men came down from Judea, which means they came from Jerusalem, to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, the believers, the Christians, the new Christians, unless you were circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. That's some serious stuff there. And I want you to think about what in modern day, in the modern day church, might fit into that sentence. Unless you do this, unless you are this, you cannot be saved. Now when anyone says unless this happens, you cannot be saved, we wanna pay attention to that to find out if that's true or not. And if you think about it, I think the most likely candidate would be baptism. You cannot be saved unless you're baptized. Now, I don't know, maybe you hearing that think that's utterly absurd. I have heard just as many people say, no, that's part of it. You have to be baptized. You cannot be saved unless you're baptized. I've heard this many, many times. And I understand why someone may think that way, but let's just boil it down to the nuts and bolts of salvation. It's by grace. Anything, anything that you do to add to it to gain salvation is obviously a non-starter. It obviously cannot be, because we are saved by grace through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast. That's Ephesians 2 way. We're saved by grace through faith, not by works. by grace. So if you think you must be baptized, or if you think someone else must be baptized, or if you have some list of things that someone must do to be saved, you're going to come right into conflict with Paul and Barnabas as they go down and meet with James and Peter and the leaders of this new family of followers situated in Jerusalem to sort this out. But why was this such a big deal to Paul that he would go 300 miles from Antioch down to Jerusalem to say, we gotta get this straightened out? Why was this such a big deal to him? Well, in Acts 13 and 14, we see Paul and Barnabas' first missionary trip. They first go to Cyprus, that's Barnabas' home island, and then they head over into what we would call Galatia, southern Galatia, and they go through several villages. And then when Paul returns back, Paul and Barnabas return back to Antioch, they stay there about a year, and then this comes up. But Paul writes a letter back to the Galatians, and in his letter he is so upset because somebody has come in to this area, to these villages, these cities where he has gone through, he and Barnabas, and established these gatherings, this new family of followers of Jesus, and they've come in behind him and they said, no, no, Paul is giving you part of the gospel. Yes, it is Jesus. It is salvation through Jesus. But Paul's not giving you the whole gospel. You must be circumcised. And that sends Paul up into, when he hears this, he just has a fit and he writes the letter of Galatians. So it's important for us to see what he's saying in Galatians. and how this leads up to Acts 15. But before we do that, I wanna read to you from 2 Corinthians 11, what Paul has gone through in these missionary journeys of his. And I think you'll find this to be somewhat eye-opening. He says, I have worked, this is 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and exposed to death again and again. Now listen to this. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Five times he was flogged. Now if you saw the Passion of Christ, what happened to Jesus happened to Paul five times. Three times I was beaten with rods. That's pretty much like being flogged. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I had been constantly on the move. I had been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country. Think about this. In danger at sea and in danger from false brothers. Paul was the energizer bunny of all apostles. You could not knock this man down. He traveled almost 10,000 miles, mostly on foot, and we just saw what happened to him during those times. Flogged five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned, shipwrecked. Practically died several times, but he wouldn't stop and I want to pause but as we move through this and ask you to consider Why wouldn't he? Say this is not working. This is He was in the index 13 and 14 in his first trip through Galatia. He was stoned. We read that and We read that he was stoned. What we don't read is he was flogged on the island of Cyprus in Pathos. There's a pillar, Paul's pillar, where tradition has that he was flogged there. Now, when he tells us he was flogged five times, we don't see that in the Scripture, so we can assume that was one of them. He also was banished from one of the villages. When you are banished formally, you're beaten with rods. And again, we don't see where he's beaten with rods elsewhere, so we can fill in the gaps. Now, if I'm Paul, I'm stoned on my first missionary trip. I'm stoned, I'm flogged, I'm beaten with rods. I think I'd come home and say, you know what? I don't think this is God's plan for me. Obviously, this is not working out. And you may recall that Paul and Barnabas, and they took John Mark, young John Mark, who was Barnabas's, either his nephew or his cousin, he's related. They took him on the trip. Once they got off the island of Cyprus, he went home. It starts to make a little more sense when you think about Paul being flogged and young John Mark watching that. So Paul has a lot of skin in the game, literally and figuratively. He is compelled. And I'll tell you what I have to believe is what compelled him. Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but it's Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's personal. He loved me and he gave himself for me. Do you feel that way? Do you feel that personal connection with Jesus that he loved you, not loved the world, not gave himself for the world, not was crucified for the world, but loved you and gave himself for you? That's what motivated Paul, and he would never stop. He was so loyal. In return, his gratitude, in return, he was so loyal and so full of love that he just went on and on and on to share that gospel. But the gospel was that it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast about adding anything. Let's go to Galatians and just start with the very first chapter, and we'll go to verse six. This is Paul writing back to the Galatians. People have been coming in, men have been coming in. telling them of what I said earlier that that's you know half the gospel but now we got to get circumcised for the full gospel I am astonished that you so quick you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all evidently some people there you have it evidently some people are throwing you into the confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ some people Some people are following Paul around. And I will tell you, as a hint, that is what's gonna be the thorn in his side. Some Judaizers, that's what we would call Jewish Christians back then. These are Jews, some of them are Pharisees, and they have turned their life to Jesus. And I don't blame them for thinking that circumcision was required. They could just point to the Older Testament, to their scriptures. They wouldn't call it the Older Testament. They'd say, let's just look at the scriptures. You must be circumcised. It's a sign of the covenant. But Paul has been freed from that. Remember, he describes himself as zealous for the law, that he was performing. As a matter of fact, he says, I was faultless in my execution of the law. But when he found Jesus, or Jesus found him and moved into his heart, his eyes were opened, he realized it's by grace. None of this other stuff matters, or certainly you don't have to do it. Yes, it's important to live this way, but none of this contributes to salvation. So he was so energized by this, it was a visceral response for him. As we move on in Galatians, Galatians 2 when Cephas now this would be Peter. That's his Aramaic name when Cephas came to Antioch I Opposed him to his face because he stood condemned verse 12 for before certain men came from James Okay, certain men coming from James would be these Judaizers and I'm gonna build a case that there was a group that followed Paul around went to the places where he had gone to say It's not the full gospel For before certain men came from James, from Jerusalem church, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the, don't miss this now, circumcision group. That's who's following around, certain men from Jerusalem that would be called the circumcision group. Now, you may say, and I may say, well, Paul, it's not that big a deal. Paul saw the big deal. Remember, we are just formulating what the gospel looked like. There's no real scripture. There's no New Testament. Everyone's working their way through this, trying to understand it. Peter, just in a previous chapter, chapter 11 in Acts, had his eyes opened when Cornelius, when the vision that said, don't you take anything, let me back up. Peter's up on the roof of a house. He has a vision. God drops down a sheet with all kinds of animals that Jews are not supposed to eat. And God says, eat these. And Peter says, no, I would never do that. I'm a devout Jew. I would never eat that. These are unclean. And God says to him, do not call anything that I have given you unclean, anything I've created. Don't call it that, no. The Jewish laws about dietary laws were for a certain reason for a certain time. But when Jesus came, those laws no longer applied. Peter understood that. He had to go through that vision and then meet Cornelius. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a Gentile, and his whole family received the Holy Spirit. So Peter's now trying to work his way through it. Paul's trying to work his way through it. And one thing he knows, circumcision cannot be part of it. We've got to nip this in the bud. We've got to shut it down before we ever get started. He is so voracious about this. This is chapter 5. Mark my words, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Wow, that is strong language. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. Now that is some serious, serious statements that Paul is making. You've fallen away. If you allow yourself to be circumcised, it wouldn't be that great of a sin, would it? Come on, Paul. I mean, it's not that big a deal. Paul says, yes, it is, because you're thinking in terms of things I have to do. I have to perform. Paul says we can't have that. He keeps going, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. We could read verse 6, for in Christ Jesus neither baptism nor unbaptism, not being baptized, has any value. We could read through this, take communion. We could take anything that we value in our church existence and say it has no real value when it comes to salvation. No, they're wonderful things to do. Being baptized is wonderful. All Christians should do it. It's an outward expression of an inward change. We go down into the water, we die to self, we come out living with Jesus. But it is not required. Verse 10, I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. Now here we go again about men. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. Can you see that Paul is always each time addressing that someone, people, Maybe even though someone is the leader of the Judaizers that are following him around, going to the places where he's gone, and turning his gospel upside down. Can you see now that he's talking about people that are doing this? Individuals, men. Well, that takes us to the thorn in his side. This is something I've heard so many explanations. It was a physical problem It was his regret and remorse over having persecuted the church. It was I've heard over and over and over Only thing that really makes sense and when we understand the greek is let's just go to second corinthians 12 now the backdrop for second corinthians 12 is that he has Had a vision where he went to the uh to the third heaven and he says because of these surpassingly great revelations Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." Now, what have you heard over all these years? Is this thorn in his side? Let me tell you what the actual Greek reads. A messenger of the adversary, that he might, Buffet, harass me. A person, a messenger of the adversary, Satan, that he might, Buffet, harass me. It was a man that followed him around, maybe the leader of a group of men, that kept undermining what he was doing. That was the thorn in his side. Thorn in your side was a Jewish idiom for enemies of God. Not some symbolic, but people that were enemies of God. And we can pick this up in Numbers 33-55. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your side. Paul had a thorn, the thorn in his side was the people that followed around and undermined his gospel. Now, all of that is to set us up for the Acts 15 in the Jerusalem Council. What happens is Paul and Barnabas, as we read at the beginning, some people came down from James and they said, you must be circumcised to be saved. And Paul said, that is not going to happen. Let's just read a little bit and then we'll talk some more about it. Well, let's go back to Acts 15, 1. Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. Now, imagine Paul and the debate, the sharp dispute from this energizer bunny. He had just spent two years presenting the gospel in Galatia. He'd been flogged. He'd been stoned. He'd been beaten with rods. The whole thing would have looked like a disaster. Matter of fact, in the letter to the Galatians, he says, I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. I've been flogged, I've been stoned, I've been beaten with rods, and I am not going to allow someone to come behind me and give a false gospel. I gave my life for it. I'm not going to allow it. As a matter of fact, Galatians is considered to be the freedom letter because Paul talks about the freedom that we have in Christ. Over and over, the freedom that we have, we don't have to perform any longer for salvation. It's grace. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them, so Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and consider this question. The church sent them on their way as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria. They told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders. Can you just see that? Here come Paul and Barnabas and a little entourage, and James is there, Peter's there, I'm assuming John is there, maybe Matthew. And they all come in and they're greeted, and then they reported everything God had done through them. They gave them the whole story of their trip into Galatia. Read it in Acts 13 and 14. starting in Cyprus and then into Galatia. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees, the circumcision group, stood up and said, the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. And we've talked about that. I understand why they would say that. But this has got to get sorted out early on. Here we are. They said they've got to be circumcised. The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them. Remember, Peter in Acts 11 had this same experience with the Gentile Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his entire family. Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving them the Holy Spirit. So Peter stands up, one of the pillars of the family of followers, and said, I've already experienced this. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No, no, we believe it is through grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are. The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul tell the whole story of their trip. James, who we come to see as the leader of the Jerusalem church. He's the pastor of the family of followers in Jerusalem. He's been listening to all this. And I don't know what kind of emotions were flying around in this room. Maybe they all did it calmly. I would tend to doubt that, knowing Paul and his personality. But James has taken it all in, and he stands up, and he gives a talk, and he realizes that Paul and Barnabas and Peter are right. that this, we cannot put this on Gentiles, we cannot put the Jewish laws on Gentiles. So he goes through this conversation, he discusses this with the people, and then he says, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna write them a letter, and we're gonna outline only the three things that we want them to do. Everything else, they don't have to consider, any of these other Jewish laws, but there are three things we want them to do. Now, Before I read to you the dumbest mistranslation in all of Scripture, perhaps, what would you put in that letter if there were three things you wanted to send to the Gentiles? Now, let's just maybe consider the Ten Commandments. What are some of the Ten Commandments? No idols, no idols before God. You could say consider the Sabbath, but that's not really going to apply to Gentiles. Honor your father and mother, well, you know, that's not one of the tops. I mean, if you're going to take three, only three out of the Big Ten, what would you say? Would you put murder in there? I think you would. Would you put no idols in there? Would you say no sexual immorality? Those seem to be things that pop up over and over in the letters in the New Testament. No sexual immorality, no idols. but you couldn't leave out murder, right? Well, let's just look at verse 20 of Acts 15. This is James. Instead, we should write to them telling them to, just watch this, to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, okay, they got that one right, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. How ridiculous is that? Jesus himself said it's not what comes in the mouth that makes you unclean is what comes out of the heart Peter had just experienced and just told them about the vision he had with God saying don't call anything unclean And yet they come in and they say, abstain from food polluted by idols. In 1 Corinthians chapter six, Paul works through this and says, look, we know that there is no such thing as these gods. So an idol has no value, no power. Eat whatever you want. See, back then, in the culture, in the context, you would offer your food, your meat, to an idol, then you'd eat it. But it had been offered. You may take it home and serve it to guests. So in that context, if you're a new Christian, and you go to one of your friends' houses, one of your neighbor's houses, who is serving meat, and they say, now this was, or you know it was offered to idols, they were wondering in Corinth, what do we do? And Paul said, it doesn't matter. That food offered to an idol means nothing. But now, if it bothers your conscience, don't do it. Or if it bothers a new Christian's conscience, don't do it. But other than that, Do whatever you want when it comes to that. There's no such thing as idols. There's no such thing as these false gods. So meat offered means nothing. But here we find it in the top three. And then, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. I'm sorry. Is that not the dumbest translation you've ever seen? But here is exactly what the Greeks said. Now, I'll give you the backdrop. Where the translators got mixed up is the Hebrew word for murder includes shedding of blood. So they looked at the Older Testament law that had so many things about shedding of the animals and the blood in the animals and all of that, and they got mixed up. Nobody's ever bothered to correct it over all these years. Here's what the three were no idols. No sexual immorality. No murder Top three no no idols. No sexual immorality no murder And that's what they sent out and all the rest of the New Testament letters unpack everything around this but nothing beyond this, because it is by grace we have been saved, through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast. You cannot add anything to this. So I'll stop and ask you again. Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? And if you have surrendered your life, we don't make a decision for Jesus. We don't choose him. We don't accept him. We surrender our life to him. And that's all is involved in salvation is truly surrendering your heart and your life to him. I want you to be in charge, Jesus. I want you to be my king. I want you to be master. I'm tired of being in charge of my own life. I'm off the throne. You're on the throne of my life. And when you truly do that, the Holy Spirit indwells you And from that point forward, it's not a got-to world, it's a get-to world. I don't got to do anything, I get to do things. I get to, as St. Augustine said, we are saved by grace alone, we're saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. We're saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. There will be actions and works that will emanate, that will flow from your salvation, but nothing else has to be done. And since there's nothing you can do to earn it, there's nothing you can do to lose it. That's the grace that we have from Jesus. So I hope this has been interesting. The thorn in Paul's side almost assuredly were these men that were following him around, probably one man who was a leader. The translation in Acts 15 should have been no idols, no sexual immorality, no murder. And it's a fascinating glimpse into the struggle of this new family of followers to see what it is to follow Jesus. And it hasn't changed that much in our world. It is by grace. It's the greatest gift you could ever hope for. And it'll change your life. Because there's more. And you know there's more. In your heart, you know there's more. Come, follow Jesus, and you'll find.