AMC
4th March, 2012
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 15:6-22
Main Idea: Salvation by the grace of Jesus Christ
Objectives: a. To teach the doctrine of grace.
b. To correct the grave misunderstanding of grace.
c. To teach on how to experience the grace of Lord Jesus Christ.
A. Introduction
- Grace is word/ term which is greatly misunderstood by a lot of Christians. This misunderstanding has caused us very dearly.
- I attribute the misunderstanding to the church imbalanced teaching on grace.
- I shall preach to you the misunderstanding later on but for the early Christians in Acts, particularly, based on the passage today, many of them totally could not understand grace.
- Let us see how they miss the doctrine of grace.
B. The doctrine of Grace
- Some Pharisees who were converted to Christianity still held on very much to the Mosaic Law in terms of circumcision. In this very crucial meeting in Jerusalem which involved apostles, elders, and believers and even the whole church (verse 12), they had decided once and for all, that the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised in order to become Christians. What happened?
- In verse 1 of chapter 15 today, we are informed there were some men teaching salvation can only be obtained through circumcision. This put Apostle Paul and Barnabas into great disputes with them. You can imagine the heated argument that happened in that Jerusalem. The author Luke did not record all those angry debates.
- The author Luke only recorded the arguments for the Gentiles who were not required to be circumcised. A few groups of people spoke convincingly and in unity. They were all consistent with one another. Thank God for their great courage to believe in a new doctrine of grace. They even claim that God wanted it that way.
- First of all, in that crucial meeting, Apostle Peter stood up to speak. Some who insisted on circumcision might have expected him to speak for it. But, he did not. He gave his most crucial testimony of how God directed him to Cornelius and his household (chapter 10) and he preached to them and they believed; and bestowed them the Holy Spirit. God made no distinction in giving the Holy Spirit to both the Jews and the Gentiles (verse 8). God purified the gentiles’ heart by their faith (verse 9). If Jewish Christians insisted on circumcision, then, they were putting God to test (verse 10). Peter concluded his argument by saying both the Jews and the Gentiles were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord, not at all by being obedient to the Mosaic Law.
- Secondly, Barnabas and Paul claimed and gave testimonies in verse 12 that God used them to do miraculous signs and wonders among the Gentiles. If God rejected the Gentiles, why did He use Paul and Barnabas to perform miracles on them?
- Thirdly, James, the brother our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the testimony of Simon Peter. Then, he went on to quote from the prophetic book of Amos that said it was the desire of God to rebuild David’s tent, the Jews, to bring them back to God; and also to call all the Gentiles back to Him (verses 16 to 18). He also concluded that the Gentiles must not be burdened with circumcision. But they need to live a holy life by abstaining from food offered to idols; from sexual morality; from eating meat of strangled animals and from blood (19 to 20) as a respect to Mosaic Law which still applied (verse 21). Then, the meeting concluded with the above decision and they asked Judas called Barsabas and Silas (who were leaders) to accompany Paul and Barnabas to go back to Antioch to report to the Gentile believers in a letter (verses 22).
- What is the doctrine of grace of Lord Jesus Christ? What is the meaning of saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which Apostle Peter claimed so much? The basic idea behind this doctrine of grace is this: each human being, no matter who, he or she is entitled to salvation, forgiveness of sin, all on God’s term. A human being cannot do anything to earn that salvation. In the early Christian case, not even circumcision or being obedient to Mosaic. Apostle Peter and other apostles were united in teaching that the entrance qualification into the kingdom of God is the grace of Jesus Christ.
C. Grave misunderstanding of the doctrine of Grace
- I believe a lot of pastors (me included) of the Methodist of Sarawak and Sabah made this mistake of teaching like this. We have pushed the doctrine of grace to the extreme; and we have blown it out of proportion. We have done a lot of damage to the spiritual life; the personal relationship between Jesus Christ and His disciples in the Methodist Church. What do I mean?
- We often teach that Jesus saves us unconditionally; Jesus forgives our sin unconditionally. What a terrible mistake? A mistake that requires us to ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness. It is a terrible mistake, owing to this teaching, a lot of us begin to become very lenient and free in our life. It affects terribly because at the back of our mind now, we believe that we have all the freedom to sin and Jesus will forgive us anyway. Jesus Christ becomes our instrument to be manipulated. His teaching is no more the authority of our lives. He is no more our master or the Lord of life. In fact, when we misunderstand grace, we become our own master. Jesus is our servant.
- We ended up preaching the cheap grace, a grace that does not require any sacrifice of Jesus at all. Let me now say the opposite of the normal teaching. Jesus forgives sins on condition that He died a sacrificial death. He paid the great price of the crucifixion in order for your sins and my sins to be forgiven. Please take note of this expensive price before you ask Jesus to forgive your sins based on the ground of grace. Yes, He is most willing to forgive your sins, but, bear in mind, it is done not without a price!
- Therefore, this grace given to new believers and all of us is done with a great price. A lot of time, we neglect it, and as a result, we do not strive to live a life of holiness in our speech, thought, attitude, heart and a life of social concerns. We do not live a life of holiness, Jesus forgives our sins anywhere. We really need the season of Lent to remind us the suffering of Jesus and how He has done for us fon the cross.
D. How to experience the grace of Jesus Christ?
- I pray that what I preach here is not only for your information only; it is very much for your transformation. That means for your understanding and action.
- Please do not misunderstand me. I never preach to you today that you need to live a holy life in order to deserve salvation in future.
- Now that you have been saved, through the expensive grace of Jesus Christ offered to you and you accepted it, you can continue to enjoy that grace. How?
- Firstly, after you are saved, born again, you must continue to live a life of holiness in order to experience increasing grace of Jesus Christ. Take for instance, as you live a prayerful life, you hear Jesus more and more clearly; you will avoid more and more bad decision, attitudes, emotion. In doing so, you experience grace of Jesus Christ. The grace of Jesus here is you get to avoid bad decision or a sinful decision. Not the other way round, you took the liberty to commit a sin, you called on the grace of Jesus and ask for His forgiveness. Yes, there is grace of Jesus but have you counted the cost of the grace.
- Secondly, you experience grace of Jesus when upon conviction of your sin (whatever), you come to realize how wrong, how sorry, how regret; you are not only willing to confess to Jesus, you are also willing to say sorry to people; willing to repent. The forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ out of His grace for you will be deep and powerful; life transforming. We Chinese need this grace very much because culturally we do not like to say we are wrong as we need to take care of our face. As a result we suffered spiritually. We are haunted by guilt and very much the accusation of our conscience. The devil also make use of our so called hidden sin to immobilize us and make us feel ashamed of ourselves so that we feel that we are not qualified to serve Him and make disciples of all nations. Will you say sorry to your husband, wife, children, parents, colleagues, and people whom you have offended? And repent? So that grace of Jesus’ forgiveness can come upon you. Your sorry is not a means to earn the grace of forgiveness. Somehow, spiritually, mysteriously, in the spiritual realm, when you say sorry, it breaks down the devil’s hold on you; it breaks the authority of the devil over your life. Jesus says let your yes be yes, your no be no, if you speak more than that, it comes from the devil (Mat 5:37). How you ward off the devil’s influence in your life, take a deep look at your inner life, is the devil holding you/ influencing you in anyway? Saying sorry really ensure the grace of Jesus coming upon you. You will not want to reject that grace, won’t you?
E. Conclusion
- I pray that you realize the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not cheap, it is expensive.
- To enjoy, the way is not to sin as much as possible, but, to live a holy life. Holiness in living is not earning it but it is a channel of Christ’s grace.
F. Discussion Questions
1. After knowing Jesus had paid the highest cost for the forgiveness of your sins, how does it affect your life of holiness?
2. Share your experience of Christ’s grace in your life? You may like to email (lawhuiseng@yahoo.com) your answers to me so that I can respond to you.
