SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2018
9:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to “The Discussion”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 15:6-18
Message of the
verses: The following SD’s that we
will be doing will consist of today’s introduction to the 2nd main
point from out outline from John MacArthur’s commentary and then we will be
looking at six sub-divisions under this 2nd main point. We may do more than one of these in a day.
“6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into
this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to
them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among
you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and
believe. 8 "And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them
the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction
between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 “Now therefore why do
you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which
neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 “But we believe that we
are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also
are." 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas
and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them
among the Gentiles. 13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying,
"Brethren, listen to me. 14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned
Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 15 “With
this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 ’AFTER THESE
THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS
FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, 17 SO THAT THE
REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY
NAME,’ 18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.”
I have to say first of all that this is one of the most
important sections of Scripture that is in the Word of God, especially the New
Testament, and as noted before Peter and all those who headed up the Jerusalem
church including James were certainly filled with the Holy Spirit’s wisdom as
they made these statements and later on sent the letter to the church at Antioch.
After all heard the message from Paul and Barnabas all
the leaders decided to have a private meeting.
To be honest I don’t know if Luke was there since he was a great friend
of Paul or if Paul later told him what happened in the meeting, at any rate we
have in this section some of the things that went on in this meeting with more
to follow.
Another thing worth mentioning is that it would be the
leaders and not the congregation who would decide what would happen in regard
with this topic. I am sure that later on
the congregation heard about what happened, but for now it was up to the
leaders. Perhaps MacArthur has some insight
that I did not have as he writes “Luke does not satisfy our curiosity by giving
us an account of that meeting. We can
only imagine what it must have been like, with learned and godly men
passionately pleading their cases. Luke
resumes his account with the entire congregation gathered to hear their leaders’
decision. That decision was announced in
a series of speeches by Peter, Paul and Barnabas, and James. Each expounded the truth that salvation is
wholly by God’s sovereign grace through faith, apart from any ritual or
law-keeping. Taken together, these
speeches constitute one of the strongest defenses of that truth in
Scripture. It has well been said that
Acts 15 is the Magna Carta of the Christian church.”
Now we will get our outline for the six sub-section from
the 2nd main section: “The
speeches of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, and James present six proofs that salvation
is solely by grace. Salvation by grace
is proven by past revelation, the gift of the Spirit, cleansing from sin, the
inability of the law to save, the fact of miracles, and the prophetic promise.”
As mentioned we will begin looking at these in our next
SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jordan” (Matthew 3:13).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which two of the 12 spies
said the Israelites could capture the land of Canaan?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/25/2018 9:51 PM
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