Standing in God’s Way, Acts 11:1-18
- Mission: Sent to speak and respond to God’s work of redemption
- Mission 805
- Recap last week, A Man, A Message & a Manifestation (Tell story)
- Eating with them? Not that they got baptized but he ate with them.
- Peters recounts the story
- Read verse 18, sounds awesome, right?
- 9 years later in Acts 15 we are having the same conversation. Legalism did not go away
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Acts 15:1
But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” Acts 15:5
- Circumcision is never a party!
- Spoiler alert, they decide NOT to make converts get circumcised. Men, this is really good news. It changes evangelism A LOT! Faith in Christ, Baptism, and… “ready to become a Christian?” This would also keep anyone from coming to Jesus for the wrong reasons!
- Standing in God’s way, vs. 17
- Example (walk around someone) As people stand in God’s way (people=church) so a church can stand in God’s way.
- As your Pastor, I will do my best to make sure this doesn’t happen.
- Even Peter continued to struggle.
Turn to Galatians 2:11, page 972 in the Pew Bibles (read 2:11-3:3 & 5:1)
- What is legalism?
“Legalism is looking to something besides Jesus Christ in order to be acceptable and clean before God” Timothy Keller
- How serious is legalism?
Turn to Matthew 23:13, page 828 in the Pew Bibles (Read vs. 13-15 / 23-33)
- Trina quoted to me Chuck Smith who said, “It’s amazing how horrible our sins look when somebody else is committing them.”
Turn to Luke 18:9-14, page 877
- Repentance / Prepare hearts for communion / Lead into Pardon