What Must You Do to Be Saved?
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council, where Judaizers insisted Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses to be saved. Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James each testify that God has already accepted the Gentiles through faith alone, with no human addition required. Shrader closes by drawing five characteristics from the lives of those who risked everything for the gospel: love for people, acceptance of suffering, trust in God's sovereignty, freedom from the fear of death, and wholehearted obedience to Christ.
“A bridge to heaven that is built of ninety-nine and one hundredths of Christ, and even one one-hundredth of anything human, breaks down at the joint and ceases to be a bridge.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 14 min
Themes: salvation, faith alone, the gospel, grace, obedience, suffering, trust in god, fear of death, new believer, questioning salvation, struggling with legalism, seeker, feeling unworthy, young adult, doubting faith, missionary
Scripture: Acts 15:1-35, Acts 10:44-45, Galatians 2, Romans 3:23, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Peter 2:16, James 1:2, Amos 9:12, Romans 8:28
Theological Themes: soteriology, justification by faith, sola fide, legalism, covenant theology, gentile inclusion, works righteousness, atonement
Full Transcript
The Central Question: What Must You Do to Be Saved?
Open your Bibles to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15, as we resume our study of this book. Over the course of the last few months, we have taken a verse-by-verse examination of this book, the book of Acts, written by Luke. It is really the account of the birthing and the growth, and now the expansion of the church. As the church expands, the gospel is taken to the Gentile world, and it is that inclusion of the Gentiles that presents for us today a great issue.
The church has been persecuted. It has met with bitter and violent opposition. But it has not faced anything more serious than the challenge before them today. The struggle before us in Acts chapter 15 deals with a very simple, fundamental question that must be answered: what must you do to be saved? In a sense, what we are asking is, what is the gospel?
As this gospel goes out to the Gentiles, therein lies the tension, therein is the issue. There is a group who have come from Jerusalem, and they began to teach the church at Antioch — where Paul and Barnabas are — and here is what they said in answer to this question: you must be circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, and if not, you cannot be saved. We will find out a little later that these are mavericks who have come down from Jerusalem, not operating under the authority of the church of Jerusalem, not under the authority of James, the apostles, and the elders.
They come to the church at Antioch, they hear what is happening, they hear that the gospel message is now going out to the Gentiles, and here is what they say: you cannot be saved, you cannot become a Christian, until you become a Jew. It is painted very graphically and very quickly. They say, we are welcoming you into the family of God, but we are going to do it through the custom of circumcision and the law of Moses, and then you become a Christian. In their mind — and this is false teaching — Christianity is an extension of the Jewish faith and includes a continuation of observance of the customs from circumcision to the law.
Defining Salvation
You can imagine the strife this causes within the early church. These Gentiles who had been celebrating, who had been included into the body of Christ, who were rejoicing and singing songs of worship and praise, who were in the process of growing in their walk with Christ, now hear not only that they might not be saved, but that they are not saved.
Let us make sure we define the word "saved," because we use words like that so simply, and while most of us know exactly what we mean, let us be clear. When we talk about being saved or delivered, we are talking about the truth that Paul teaches us throughout scripture — laid out so perfectly in the book of Romans — that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that all of us have missed the mark, all of us fall short, and the result of that sin is death. We are separated from God by our sin.
Jesus Christ came, the only perfect person, and died in our place on the cross. In that death, He paid the penalty for our sin, so that now you and I can be united with the creator God of the universe through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are saved from the penalty of sin. No longer is death the final word for us — not that we will not die physically, we will — but spiritually we will never cease to be in communion and union with God the Father.
The Great Debate at Antioch
Now, these men say that to be saved you need to be circumcised, and as you would expect from a good shepherd and pastor like Paul and Barnabas, verse 2 tells us they had great dissension and a great debate with them. There is a Latin term, *odium theologicum*, which speaks of the heat generated by a theological battle. That is exactly what you have here in verse 2. One of the translations says there was "no small debate" — and that is because there was a very big debate. There was a great deal of arguing, and Paul had fought this fight before.
Let me encourage you to make a note and go and read Galatians chapter 2. When we come to our study of that book we will unpack this in depth, but even Peter had been to the church at Antioch. The church at Antioch had become renowned as God began to do these mighty things. According to Galatians 2, Peter was already there, eating and celebrating with the Gentiles — but when these men from Jerusalem arrived, they shamed him, and Peter began to pull away from the Gentiles. Even Barnabas pulled away. Paul says he stood toe-to-toe with him.
There is a great time gap in these first couple of verses — months are going by. And here is what the church at Antioch determines: they will send Paul and Barnabas and a couple of others to Jerusalem to go to the apostles and the elders concerning this issue. They understand that this must be resolved. They cannot live like this. This is the heart of the issue of the Christian faith. What is the gospel? There is nothing more central to Christianity than that question.
Joy in What God Is Doing
As they travel through Phoenicia and Samaria, Paul and his companions describe in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, bringing great joy to all the brethren. The people there, primarily Hellenistic Jews and Samaritans who had been converted, are filled with joy as they hear what God is doing. As Paul shares what happened in Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and Pisidian Antioch, and now in Syrian Antioch, their hearts overflow with gladness.
In verse four, they arrive at Jerusalem for a general meeting. The church is there, and they are welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders. They report to them all that God has done, and again there is that sense of joy — and that is exactly what there should be. When we hear what God is doing and where God is moving, there should be joy in our hearts.
Many of you may have been at the baptism service last Sunday evening at six o'clock. All week long, people who were there told me it was one of the most powerful times they had ever experienced in the church. It was a time of testimony, worship, and then baptism, and your heart is filled with joy when you hear it.
When you hear young adults and students talking about what God is doing in their lives — how someone came alongside them and shared the truth, how they ended up at church, heard the gospel, and made a profession of faith — there is real cause for joy. A common thread among many of them was that they had been raised in Christian homes. That is a great privilege, but in some ways it can inoculate a person against the Word. They began to take it for granted, and these students were saying, "I was raised in a Christian home," and while they honored their parents in every way, what they said was, "I never heard the gospel. With my ears, I never understood — and now I have come." There should be joy in that.
Guilt as a Barrier to Joy
I was sharing with someone about that service, and it seemed like a non-event to them. I wonder — how can there not be joy in that? There are probably many reasons, but I think one of them is this: for some of us, we feel very guilty when we hear those stories, because we do not see those same things happening in our own lives.
We hear stories here in the church of people who have been believers for a year or two, and God is already using them to bring others to Christ. He is giving them a zeal to talk on the campus, at the workplace, on the golf course — wherever they are — about Christ. Meanwhile, some of us have been around five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years, and we do not see that. Consequently, we do not feel that joy. Instead, we feel guilt.
That is something each of us needs to examine in our hearts. What is taking place this afternoon should fill your heart with joy, because it is a powerful testimony — not to East Valley Bible Church, but to God and what He is doing, to Christ and His atoning death, and to the Holy Spirit as He applies that truth to our lives.
The Jerusalem Council and the Question of Salvation
At this general meeting in Jerusalem, as in any meeting, there are two types of people who speak: those who have something to say, and those who have to say something. Both seem to be present here.
Then they get to the central issue in verse five. Pharisees who had believed — these are Christians — stood up and declared their answer to the question. They said it is necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised and to follow the law of Moses. In short, their position was that salvation comes first through becoming a Jew, and then through becoming a Christian.
This is so helpful to understand, even though we tend to take it for granted, and it is difficult to go back and place ourselves in their position. Donald Gray Barnhouse wrote these words about this issue: remember that in the year 55, there is no New Testament. Paul had never read John 3:16. There was no Gospel of John, no Matthew, no Mark. These did not yet exist. It is not until chapter eighteen in the book of Acts that Paul writes his first letter — the first letter to the church at Thessalonica.
The Danger of Legalism
So these men are working without a completed Scripture, and this church in Jerusalem, primarily Jewish, begins to revert to earlier ways — the law. Before long, it becomes a form of legalism. You can see that tendency in your own life, perhaps not in something like keeping kosher, but suddenly your Christianity becomes defined by a list. Here is what I do, here is what I do not do. And that can be fine for you personally — until you begin to define salvation that way.
When you start setting down stumbling blocks that are not biblical but are simply personal preferences, and you bring those into the mix, you have crossed a line. That is exactly what we have a tendency to do. God says to love your neighbor as yourself, to love God with all your heart — and those are genuinely difficult. So we say, "Give me five things to do. Give me ten things to do. Tell me what to do." But He says, "Here is what I want you to be."
We even define our spiritual condition this way. Someone asks, "How are you doing spiritually?" and the answer is, "Great, I just read this book." Here is a challenge: have you applied any of it to your life? That is precisely what is happening in this passage. It is a natural human tendency, and yet here God is delivering His word to them, and into that vacuum they declare that these Gentiles must be circumcised.
Breaking Down Barriers
Let me emphasize that from the text we can build a case that these are believers who are saying this. God is spreading this word out, and with it comes the challenge: who is going to get in? We hear that question even as students come in. We had a young man in here who had a ring, looked like he had fallen on a tackle box — rings and noses and things everywhere. We are delighted that student felt comfortable coming here. It doesn't matter. We watch God work in people's hearts, and He changes even the way they begin to look physically. But that isn't the issue. It doesn't matter to God, and it ought not matter to you.
We don't need artificial barriers. That is what is at issue here. It's not just what they did. It's a racial issue. It's an ethnic issue, and we are continually building those. Jesus said, "No — I came to break those barriers down, not build them up."
The Jerusalem Council Convenes
In the midst of this, verse six tells us that a private meeting takes place. The apostles and the elders come together to decide the matter. It is interesting that they don't solve this problem by saying, "Let's take a vote, let's see how everybody feels." They get the leadership together, and after much discussion, they look into this matter for a long time.
In verse seven, Peter stands up. Somewhat uncharacteristically — we tend to think of Peter as someone who, the moment there is a pause, steps right in. But Peter doesn't move quickly here. He was probably still licking his wounds from his confrontation with Paul. He probably understood that he had been exactly wrong on this issue, and it was likely hard for him to come down on these men, because not long before he had been in the same camp they were in.
There is another thing worth noting. As we study this passage, it is clear that Peter is not in charge of this meeting. Those who would want to hold Peter up as a first pope or first leader of the church should note that at this first council, Peter plays a role to be sure, but he is not the one in charge. He is not the one who issues the final verdict and edict in the matter. He plays a role, but that role is not supreme.
Peter's Two Points
Peter stands up and says, in effect, "I have two points." The first is in verse seven: "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe." He is reminding them that his assignment was to take the gospel to the Gentile world. Verse eight continues: "And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith."
The second point comes in verse ten: "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 were able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as they also are." That last statement is fascinating. He doesn't say the Greeks are saved like the Jews. He says the Jews are saved just like the Greeks.
Peter's first point looks back to Acts chapter ten. God had arranged a meeting between Peter and Cornelius through a dream — a dream that, in essence, told Peter to break down these barriers, to set aside the dietary law, and to take the message to the Gentiles. As he was sharing with Cornelius, Acts chapter ten verse forty-four records: "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening." Verse forty-five adds: "All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also." That is what Peter is pointing to here. He is saying: I took this message to them, and God bore witness that these people are acceptable to Him by giving them the Holy Spirit.
His second point is equally direct. He asks what they think they are doing by placing the law on the Gentiles when neither the Jews themselves nor their fathers had been able to fulfill it. Christ came to set us free from the law. The law was never given as a means of salvation, because God understood that none of us could keep it. No one is perfect — no, not one. God gave the law as a tutor: first, to show us how we should live, and second, to give us a measure of how we would never get there on our own.
Peter's conclusion is plain: this issue is settled. We, the Jews, are saved just like the Greeks. Verse twelve records that the multitude kept silent. There was nothing left to say.
Paul, Barnabas, and the Evidence from the Gentiles
Paul had already made clear that he was Exhibit A in the argument that the message could go to the Gentiles without circumcision. Now Exhibit B steps forward in verse twelve. Paul and Barnabas relate the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. They describe what happened when they went out — people rising from the dead, men who had never walked getting up and walking. Those miracles and signs and wonders were not the central issue; they were confirmation of the message. They confirmed that salvation by grace, and grace alone, was God's message.
James Steps Forward
When all of this settles, James begins to speak in verse thirteen. After Paul and Barnabas had stopped speaking, James answered. William Barclay gives us a little background on James — a brief resume and spiritual pedigree. James is the leader of this...
James's Authority and Character
James's leadership was not formal in nature. He was a moral leader, and his authority was conceded to him because he was an outstanding person. He was the brother of Jesus.
For some of you, that may be new. You may come from a background that says Mary was a virgin at the time Jesus was conceived and that she remained ever a virgin. That is not what the Bible teaches. As we study the Gospels, we are introduced to Jesus' brothers and sisters. James is a half-brother of Jesus — same mother, Mary, but with Joseph as his father. The Father of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.
James had received a special resurrection appearance that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15. When Christ was on this earth, James had rejected Him, did not believe in Him, and did not accept Him as Lord and Savior. But after the resurrection, James's heart was changed and he was converted. He became a pillar of the church.
His nickname was "Old Knees," a name given to him because his knees were disfigured and swollen from hours and hours of prayer. You begin to get a sense of why this man was the leader of that church. Barclay closes with this: "He was a good man — in fact, he was called James the Just. Furthermore, and this is most important, he was a rigorous observer of the law. If such a man, James, could come down on the side of the Gentiles, then all was well." And he did. He declared that the disciples should be allowed into the church without any hindrance at all.
James's Two-Part Argument
Here is what James says. He says that Peter has related how God first concerned Himself by taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name, and second, that the words of the prophets agree with this. His argument has two points.
First, he notes that those urging circumcision as a requirement have come in saying the Gentiles cannot be saved without it — yet God has already saved them. They have already received the Holy Spirit. There has been a clear demonstration of this, and there is no question from the testimony of those present that the Holy Spirit has come upon these people. Who receives the Holy Spirit? Those who are saved, those who are indwelled, those who are all baptized by one Spirit, the Spirit of God. James is saying, in effect: you are in an interesting position, because you are claiming God cannot do this thing — and He has already done it. You are overruled.
But it is not just experience that concerns James. He says this experience is confirmed by Scripture, and then he quotes from the prophet Amos, speaking about — I believe — not just Christ's second coming, but also that first coming, when the Gentiles would be included. Look at verse 17: *"In order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old."* James declares that this is the fulfillment of what was told in the Old Testament.
The Answer: Nothing to Add
So James's answer to the question "What must you do to be saved?" is: nothing. There is nothing to add. "Therefore, this is my judgment, that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles with anything." He does not mention circumcision. He says it is nothing.
This still applies today. We live in a time when people want to add something to the gospel. Have you been baptized? You need to be baptized to be saved. I ran into a woman in the information center this week who was picking up one of the little *Foundations of the Faith* booklets. She was going to meet with a girlfriend and go through it together, convinced that this friend had become a Christian. She told me that her friend had called that week and asked, "To be saved, do I have to walk down in front of the church? Do I have to walk an aisle?" The answer was no. Why was she asking? Because at her church it is strongly implied — almost stated outright — that if you have not come forward, you have not come to Christ.
Do you see how we still do this? We are saved by grace through faith. We add nothing to that. Our salvation is entirely a work of God, from beginning to end.
A Bridge That Cannot Break
R.C.H. Lenski writes this: "To add anything to Christ as being necessary to salvation — circumcision or anything else — is to deny that Christ is the complete Savior. It is to put something human on par with Him and make that, indeed, the crowning point. It is a fatal mistake."
Here is his illustration. A bridge to heaven that is built of ninety-nine and one-hundredths of Christ, and even one one-hundredth of anything human, breaks down at the joint and ceases to be a bridge. Even if Christ be thought of as carrying us nine hundred and ninety-nine miles of the way, and something merely human is required for the last mile, this would leave us hanging in the air, with heaven still far away.
We are saved by grace — beginning to end, the work of God. God the Father chooses us before the foundations of the earth. His Son, Jesus Christ, dies on the cross and pays the price for the sins of those who come to Him in repentance and faith. The Holy Spirit applies that to us.
But don't we have to exercise faith? Don't we have to believe? No — He does that in our lives. Our faith itself is a result of the grace God has given us. We do nothing on our own. He does everything. We are saved by grace.
See how freeing that is? For a long time I lived differently. I thought Jesus Christ saved me — God did the saving — but I had the faith. I produced the faith. If you believe that you did even one one-hundredth of it, I cannot see how that builds you up. To me, it only diminishes what God has done.
Saved by Grace Alone
I took for granted it was a little puny mustard seed, but I did it. And this says, no, Tom, are you nuts? You can't even do the mustard seed thing. You can't do anything. You're dead, and you're saved by grace, and it's all of Him, and there's nothing that is added to that. It's all His work.
James looks at these Gentiles and he says, we're not going to add anything to that. And maybe you're here today from a background that has been adding to that, bringing things in. Listen to the freeing message. Come to Christ in repentance and faith. There's nothing you need to do. There's nothing you need to join.
Does that message appeal to you? Do you find in your heart — maybe you never have before — God drawing you? You know what that is? That's God working in your life. That may well be the beginning of saving grace in your life. So what do you do? You run to Him. You believe that Jesus Christ is who He said He was, and will do what He said He was going to do. That's the whole message. That's the whole issue.
Freedom and Fellowship
Now, having said this, here's what He says in verse 20: "But we write to them that they abstain from the things contaminated by idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood." Well, wait a minute. I thought we didn't have to do anything. Now you're telling me — what is that? It says, "Moses, from ancient generations, has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogue every Sabbath."
Here's what he's saying. He has settled the issue of salvation — I'm saved by grace, nothing you need to do. He's not talking about salvation now in verse 20. He's talking about fellowship. He said, do you understand that there are those Jews, believing and unbelieving Jews, who gather every week in the synagogue? He said, I want you to understand something. As you continue in these things they find despicable — the eating of food that's been sacrificed to idols — nothing is wrong with it in God's mind, but in the conscience of the Jew he's saying, I can't do that. To him it is repulsive. It is blasphemous.
And here's what he's saying to the Gentiles: hey, guys, use your head here. You have fellowship with them. You have the freedom to eat this. You have the freedom to engage in many of these things, but what I want you to understand is that your behaviors become a stumbling block to these Jews. These Jews are the weaker brothers at this point. The same principle applies to us.
Here's what Peter says in 1 Peter 2:16: "Act as a free man. Do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond servants of God." So you're free. You have great freedom in your life. But you also begin to restrict your behavior because there are those around you for whom they don't feel that same freedom.
A Practical Illustration: The Miller Lite Moment
Drinking is a great example. Are you free to drink? Can you have a drink? Can you have a glass of wine with dinner? Let's get the issue right down to its core. Can you have a beer and a shot while you watch the game? The answer is sure. Now, I don't drink for a whole variety of reasons, but one of the compelling reasons is that I know for some people it's an issue.
We were in Prescott one night — this is years ago. Susan and I and the girls went out to dinner with a friend of ours, one of those places with the metal plates. So we order, and the guy I'm with has a Miller Lite and I have a Coke. The girls had Shirley Temples and Susan had iced tea or something. The drinks come, and — absolutely true story — I pick up the Miller Lite, and as I turn it around to give it to my friend, Carol Webb is right there. Some of you know her. She's standing right there. She plays piano. At that point I didn't know her very well, didn't know Bob very well, but I know they know me well. All they see is, it's Miller time.
So I turn around and I say, "Who had the Miller Lite? I had the Diet Coke." Now I have great freedom to enjoy a drink if I want to. But I don't know them very well, and I know that for many people — maybe not them, but for many — that could be a stumbling block.
Restricting Freedom for the Sake of Others
That's what Paul says. When I'm with a Jew, I'm a Jew. When I'm with a Gentile, I'm a Gentile, that some might be saved. He said, listen, I'm not going to fight for my rights over these preferential issues. Even if I want it, I'm going to set it aside. Even if it's the best beef that's been sacrificed to these idols, I'll eat something else — because it's not an issue of food. It's how do I reach these people? And I understand that participation is an issue for them.
And he says to these Gentiles: guys, if you're going to fellowship with these Jews, and if you're going to reach out to unbelieving Jews, you need to understand that your participation and the way you handle your private life is an issue for these people. You have the freedom to do it, but you slave yourself to Christ. That's the issue. There are a thousand issues like that.
The Letter Is Sent
Now he writes the letter. He makes a determination in verse 22. He said it seems good to the elders and the whole church to choose men to go with Paul and Barnabas. He chooses two men, Judas and Silas. All we're told is they are leading men. We never hear of this Judas again. Silas becomes a companion of Paul's and is also the scribe for Peter's first epistle.
And they send this letter — from the apostles and the brethren who are the elders — to the brethren at Antioch. You catch that? There's something significant right there. He writes to the people at Antioch and he calls them brothers. He is saying right from the beginning, I want you to understand something: you are already in the body of Christ.
Risking Everything for the Name of the Lord
Verse 24 reads: "We have heard that some of our number, to whom we gave no instruction, have disturbed you with their words, and they've unsettled your soul." The word "disturbed" means to greatly perplex. The word "unsettled" is used nowhere else in the New Testament. In Greek literature, it is used to describe a military force plundering a town. What the letter is saying is this: you received instruction, but understand it was not from us. It greatly perplexed you, filled you with fear, and plundered your hearts.
It seemed good to them, coming to one mind, to select and send Judas and Silas alongside Barnabas and Paul — men who had risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They sent Judas and Silas so that these men could report the same things by word of mouth. The reasoning was sound: the church at Jerusalem knew that when Paul and Barnabas arrived with only a letter, people might question whether that truly represented what Jerusalem believed. So Judas and Silas, leading members of the Jerusalem church, were sent to give verbal testimony confirming the letter.
From verses 30 through 35, they go on their way and begin spreading this word broadly. Paul and Barnabas, ultimately, stay in Antioch — teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others.
What It Takes to Live on the Edge
I want to go back to verse 26, which tells us there were men who risked their lives for the name of the Lord. Here is the application: How do we live with a mindset that says, "I will risk everything for Him"? And what I want to make clear is this — it is not about what you have to *do* to live on the edge. It is about what you have to *know* to be able to live there.
**First, they truly cared about other people.** I am fully convinced that the reason most of us are not actively involved in evangelism is that there are people around us going to hell, and we do not really care. What else could it be? In some cases, we are not even troubled by it. There are people heading toward eternity without Christ, and it simply does not matter to us. Even among fellow believers, even within the church, dealing with people can feel like a hassle.
But God tells us to be salt and light — to people. Not to a post, not to a tree — to people. Paul loved people: not just those in the church, not even just those who were friendly toward him, but the very ones who were persecuting him. We must develop a love for people and begin to see them as human beings made in the image of God, not as obstacles to our own agenda.
Suffering, Sovereignty, and the Sufficiency of Grace
**Second, they understood that suffering is part of the deal.** James writes in chapter one, verse two, that we should count it joy when various trials come into our lives, because suffering produces perseverance. Paul understood suffering deeply, but he also understood that God's grace was sufficient. Whatever is coming into your life — and suffering will come — God's grace will be sufficient for it.
**Third, they knew that God is sovereign.** We know that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." You can look around at the world and feel that things are out of control. You may even feel that your own life is out of control. But here is the distinction: things may be beyond *your* control, but they are never out of *God's* control. Everything that comes into my life, God has either caused or allowed, and He will always give me the strength to endure it.
You may have looked at a situation and said, "I could never endure something like that." And then God placed you right in the middle of that very situation, and somehow you got through it. You know how you got through it? God will never test you beyond what you are able to endure. So when we say, "I cannot take it anymore," we are calling God a liar — because He has said you have the strength, you can do it. He is sovereign and He is in control.
Death Is No Big Deal
**Fourth, these men could risk their lives because death held no power over them.** Paul says he is torn between two things: if he dies, he is absent from the body and present with the Lord — and that would be unbelievable, that would be terrific. If he stays, he is with the brothers, preaching the word and sharing the gospel with the lost. It is a win-win. Death is no big deal.
I was reading — I believe it was J.I. Packer — and he was writing about dying and about heaven. He described how great heaven is: these old bodies gone, no more tears, no more sorrow. But at the end of it, he said this: "In heaven, I'll be no safer than I am here on earth." I had to read that again. Hear what he is saying. He is not safer in heaven because he is already in God's control here. God is in absolute control. Be anxious for nothing. The clouds and problems are real — but God is going to deal with those.
Obeying Christ at All Costs
**Fifth, their deepest concern was to obey Christ at all costs.** There are certain churches now preparing for Lent, and some of the customs in those traditions involve giving something up or doing something special during that season. But here is what I believe with all my heart: what God wants from you more than anything else is obedience to Christ — complete, unconditional obedience — whatever the cost.
What God Wants: Obedience
He wants you to do what's right. That is why He left you this word, the Bible. It is good for teaching, for proof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Here is how we remember that: the Bible tells us what's right — teaching; what's not right — proof; how to get right — correction; how to stay right — training. God wants from us our obedience in all that we do.
Do you want to be a person who can live on the edge? Do you want to be a person who can give everything to your relationship with Christ? To do that, you need to know five things. You need to know, first, that you must have a love for other people — why would you risk all this if you didn't care? You need to understand suffering, understand that God is in control and sovereign, understand that not even death needs to be feared, and understand that what God wants from you is your obedience.
Five Things That Set People Free
The testimonies from baptism, what comes out of small groups, the places where God is clearly moving — it all points to people who are grasping those five things. They are cultivating a love for people, they understand that suffering does not disqualify them, and they have settled the truth that God is in control. What a great message to live by.
Back to the Work
So what do these men do after all of this? They come back. They get through everything — and this is about the gospel, it does not get any bigger than this — and they do not say, "We need to go find ourselves" or "Let's take a break." They go back to verse 35: they teach and they preach, and they do it all over again. Why? Because that is what God called them to do. There is no way you will do what God has called you to do successfully if you do not understand those five things.
Looking Ahead
Next week, Paul says to Barnabas, "Let's go do this again. That experience at Lystra where they stoned us — let's go try that again." That is exactly where we pick up next week.
Father, help us see that. Help us understand this truth. God, I thank You for the men and the women and the students who are here and who are living for You. Put that in our hearts. Fill our hearts with a desire to see You work. We cannot wait to see what You are going to do through us. As we develop a love for others, an understanding that we will suffer but that You are in control, we fear nothing — including death. God, all we want to do is obey You. Make us like that. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.