Lessons From the Acts 15 Ministerial Conference

So, I just returned along with Cottie from the General Conference of Elders and also the Council of Elders. After a total of 21 years, 6 years straight, and then I took about 4 years off, and then this has been 15 straight years. I had the privilege to serve the Church in this way, and so it's nice to have a break. And as we were there, and also Howard and Tina were there for the first time, they can tell you a little more about the experience, wonderful camaraderie, and we have 400 elders, and of those we had around 300 elders that were able to attend. So, we're very thankful for that. And I can't help but think, on the Acts chapter 15, the first ministerial conference, which is recorded in the New Testament, and the similarities there are with what we are doing now. And so, I'd like to be able to use and highlight the Acts 15 general conference of elders that they had in Jerusalem at that time. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. Hebrews is a letter probably written by the Apostle Paul. We certainly believe there's no other person that writes the same way and is qualified. He talks about Timothy, who he was training in the last chapter of Hebrews. But here, there isn't even an introduction, as many places the epistles are that way. This epistle was written as an urgent letter because Paul was focusing on the primacy of Jesus Christ above Moses, above anything that was previous to him, and that God has worked with his leaders in different ways until the crowning achievement when God the Father spoke directly through his Son here on earth. Notice Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1. Talk about God the Father. It says, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power. That's what keeps the atoms spinning, matter, energy, all of this. Do you know how long they have calculated that a little tiny atom will continue spinning through time? They calculate its 10 to the 34th power, which they calculate is a hundred trillion times more than all the time of this universe, according to, of course, the speed of light and all of this. We don't know, but it's like 13.4 billion. We're not sure, but multiply 13.4 billion by a hundred trillion. That's when the little atom will finally, the proton, will deteriorate just like that gyroscope that I've shown, and it finally will separate. So it says that he sustains all things by the word of his power when he by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty of high, talking about sitting at the right hand of God the Father. And so God has used different ways of governing his people.

And God the Father and Jesus Christ are always on their throne, and no one can unseat them. They will reign forever and ever. So, as Mr. Armstrong once said, I've read at the end of the Bible, and brethren, we win! We're on the right side of history. We will prevail one day. God's ways. And so let's look first how God spoke in the Old Testament.

First, what is called the patriarchal period. In other words, the head of families that God used at that time. Well, that includes Adam. He was the first one. Unfortunately, he disqualified himself as far as spiritual leadership goes. But then one of his sons followed God, Abel. So God used him as a testimony of his way of life. Enoch, it says, walked with God. God was with him. But you see, there wasn't truly a church at that time. He used specially designated persons along with the family that they had at that time. Then we go further to Noah, and he was one of the patriarchs. He was there before the flood and after the flood. And then later on, we see the leadership from Abraham that goes to his descendants, Isaac and Jacob. And from Jacob, it passes to the 12 tribes, the 12 sons that he had. And that group grew in Egypt to be a nation. It was loosely run before Moses and Aaron by elders of those different tribes. Let's look at Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3.

When Moses was talking to God, let's start in verse 15. It says, Moreover, God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt. And then it says in verse 18, Then they will heed your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt. So you see how elders really run through a lot of this period of time. Now it wasn't just a family with a head of the family guiding, but now it had multiplied. So now you had the leadership under the elders of the tribes. And then God put Moses and Aaron in charge to lead them out of Egypt. And they assumed two leadership roles that God gave them. One was civil, government, and the other one was religious government. Moses was in charge of the civil part, general governance, but it was exclusive of Aaron and his sons and the Levites who would be in charge of the religious part. So you see how God never had just one person in charge. It's just too much power, and it's very tempting to abuse that power. And of course, God put certain parameters and also that they should stay in their lane of conducting things. Moses shouldn't be in the lane of Aaron. He shouldn't be the one that does the sacrifices and taking care of the tabernacle. No, that's Aaron. And Aaron shouldn't be taking care of the daily governance of the people. But throughout time, people cross over to the other lane. You know how it is when you're driving, somebody just pulls in front of you. How annoying that is. Well, here it can happen also. And we see in Numbers 12, you don't have to go there, but there in Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam complained that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman, and they talked against Moses, and the whole congregation got stirred up about it. And so God went down and through the tabernacle spoke to Aaron and Miriam. Stay in your lane, not Moses' lane. He has a duty to do, and basically struck Miriam. It seems like she was the one that egged Aaron on because he didn't have the biggest backbone in the world. You remember he made that golden calf and everything else. But Miriam turned leprous. And so it was a lesson when the religious side gets into the civil side. And then we have the famous King Uriah, who tried to take a censor and go in and become kind of the priestly role. And he picked up the censor to just remove the leadership of the priests, and his hand turned leprous, and then he became a leper. And so again, important lessons. Stay in your lane.

So through Moses and Aaron, then you have Joshua. He stayed in his lane pretty well. So did the descendants of Aaron. After two had been struck dead, they took it real seriously after that. Two of Aaron's sons were struck because they did not take proper respect of their position. And so then after Joshua, we have the book of Judges. That was kind of a chaotic administration, because everybody just followed their own opinions about things. And then you had kings and prophets.

Prophets were mostly in the religious side of things, to check when the king crossed over to the other lane or to warn the king when he had done something wrong. As you can see with David, Nathan had to do that. And then with Solomon also. So God always has checks and balances so that not one person feels like they are over everything. And then in the New Testament, we have the administration of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.

And he named apostles and others as disciples. And he gave them a commission to be the ones that would be in charge when Christ left. And they would assign and elect elders to be under them. And so now we come to Acts chapter 15. And there are five lessons I would like to present to you. Acts chapter 15. Because you see, it tells you about how they were being governed.

It wasn't Pope Peter. And so let's see what lessons we can learn. Acts chapter 15 in verse one. This is when the problem started, the controversy. It says verse one, and certain men came down from Judea, probably Jerusalem, because that was the head of the church at that time, and taught the brethren. This is from the ones who were living in Antioch. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

So basically, they had to become like a proselyte, a Jewish proselyte, that has three things they must do. One of them is to take a purification bath. They have to be circumcised, and then they have to offer a sacrifice. Those are the three things. Now you're all a Jew. And so this is what they're saying to the Gentile Christians. Well, yes, it's great that now we have baptism instead of these purification rites, but you still have to be circumcised.

So that was a big controversy. Verse 2, Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, so here you see Paul and Barnabas, they were gentle, converted, dedicated men. But here was a biblical principle that they could not compromise with.

And so they had to confront them because the Gentile Christians depended on them defending them, or it was just going to become another Jewish religion, Jewish Christian religion, where all the Gentiles were just going to be incorporated with the rituals and with all the ceremonial laws that they would have to do. They would have to go to the temple. They would have to go inside, just like a Jew. You know that Gentiles were not allowed inside the general temple area until you were circumcised. And in archaeology, they found one of those signs that was put there where you had the Gentile court and then you had the court of the Israelites.

And before you could go in there, it said, so pain of death, if you come in and you're uncircumcised, there'll be one sentence, you will be immediately killed. And even the Romans accepted that. That was a warning. So you can imagine what a big problem this was. And so they had no small dissension and dispute with them. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders about this question. Who did they go to? Did they go to a pope?

No. Who was taking care of the church? The apostles and elders. So being sent underway by the church, they went through all these areas, verse four, and when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders. See, it was a group of ministers, and they reported all things that God had done with them.

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, in other words, these were Pharisees that had repented and became part of the church. But they insisted it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And, of course, the law of Moses, not talking about the Ten Commandments, that was general for everybody. But it was the ceremonial parts that had to do with circumcision and ritual purification laws and all kinds of sacrificial laws that they had to do. And so, verse six, the first lesson is, as you can see, there was no pope. There was no one person. They didn't go up to Jerusalem to talk to Peter.

No, it was all the apostles. Also, the elders were involved. So it was a collegial type of governance that was there. Verse six, it says, now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. So again, you see that it's not just one person. It wasn't even the apostles by themselves. Now they had multiplied. They had elders, and they wanted all of them to have their opinions heard to be involved.

There was a lot of humility at this time. Now, the apostles could have just said, well, we're in charge. We don't need any elders to tell us what to do. We'll make the decisions here. But you know, Christ had told them, you will not rule as the gentile nations do, where they are kings and they impose their way. You shall be servants. And so that was the humility that you saw here. In verse seven, so the second lesson was that it was not just apostles.

There were also elders where humility reigned and that the main topic was not about keeping or not God's laws, but about circumcision, purity rituals, and table fellowship. There's a New Testament commentary, international New Testament commentary, on Acts by F.F. Bruce. Anybody have that commentary? That is an excellent commentary on the book of Acts.

And F.F. Bruce, this famous British scholar, hit the nail on the head about what topic it was dealing with the Jerusalem Conference. He said, this is talking Bruce here, the Council of Jerusalem is an event to which Luke attaches the highest importance. As he reports it, the Council was a meeting of the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem Church, convened to consider primarily the terms on which Gentile believers might be admitted to church membership, with special attention to the question of whether they should be circumcised or not.

In the second place, it was the means by which social intercourse and especially table fellowship might be promoted between Jewish and Gentile believers. It didn't have to do with Ten Commandments. It did have to do with a Sabbath or not. But what was hindering the Gentile Christians was that they weren't circumcised and they needed to also be purified, follow the purification laws, and also to be part of the sacrificial system.

And so that's the second lesson that this theme was not about God's laws in general, but about the ceremonial laws.

Let's go to the third lesson. Let's go to Acts 15 verse 7.

It says, and when there had been much dispute, why? Because there was humility. There wasn't just one person dictating things. And with us in United, we have points of views that are going to be heard. We have a whole system to protect the brethren. If a minister abuses his authority and suspends somebody for some reason, and that person believes that that's not fair, that's not proper, they have a right to appeal. We have an appeal committee that is separate from anybody involved in the Council of Elders or the administration of the church. So they're usually local elders, but also there are some pastors to be able to see more independently was there abuse or not. And if there was, the minister will be reprimanded, and that suspension will be lifted. And I've seen it happen. And boy, I'll tell you, you didn't see that back before 1995, that usually that was the case. There were no checks and balances. We do. And so it's a healthy, vigorous debate that we have.

And what happened after that? It says here, and when they had had much dispute, verse seven, Peter rose up. So Peter rose up. Why? Because he was in charge? No. No, because God had used him to baptize and lay hands on the first Gentile Christian who received God's Spirit without being circumcised, without the purity laws or sacrifices. You remember Cornelius? You can read that account in Acts 10. And so Peter rises up because he was a witness to what God had done. And so he rose up and he said, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us without being circumcised, without going through ritual laws. He says, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. That term purifying is a term used for ritual purity. And basically it said God purified them without having to do the purity laws. Purifying them by faith, belief in Christ and his sacrifice. He says, now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Because not only did you have all of these purity laws that you had to keep and also the sacrifices and you had many times sacrifices because you broke one of these purity laws. And also, remember, in the first century the Pharisees were the ones that established thousands of additional laws. And so Peter was saying, look how the people are just burdened by all of this oral law, what they call the Talmud, and the Pharisees basically became obsessed with legislating righteousness. There was one law for just about everything you did. It was, you want to hear a ridiculous law about the Sabbath day? They had 1520 of them. One of them is, okay, if you need to use the bathroom on the Sabbath day, can you rip a little sheet of some type of paper or whatever it is to clean yourself? The Pharisee said no. You have to cut them before the Sabbath because you are working if you break that whatever it is. So just ridiculous. You talk about burdensome. Just read Matthew 23. It explains very well. So anyways, the point was that there was a robust debate among the ministry. We respect each other. We respect what Howard says. We respect what Homer says, or we have here Roy and Lincoln, and we take them into account. Guess what? They helped elect the Council of Elders, the new Council of Elders, and the old one was the one that by the GCE, using them as representatives, the Council of Elders chose the new president. And so it's a collegial. It has checks and balances. It's not just one person calling a shot. Back in 1994 and 95, we had one man who dictated everything, and he decided to go back into the world and to Protestantism. He disregarded God's laws. And you know what? He fired just about everybody that wanted to maintain God's laws. Including me. I was fired in 1995 because I would not go along. I said, I have to obey God before man. And so that was it. So we don't ever want somebody doing that again for the sake of the brethren and the sake of the ministry. So we have these protective measures in place. So then the third lesson was for a robust debate. The fourth lesson, Acts 15-13 through 20.

So it says after Paul and Barnabas, they gave their witness after Peter did.

And it says verse 13, and after they had become silent, so everybody was respectful, everybody took their turn, James stood up and answered, saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Now James had become an apostle by this time. And he really was one of the ones that, the other James had been killed. So there were 11 apostles. And there's a good indication he made the 12th one, because in Galatians 1 and Galatians 2, James is called an apostle. He's one of the three main pillars that was still in Jerusalem alongside Peter and John. And so he stood up, but he stood up because he was a presiding pastor and elder in Jerusalem. That's what the apostles had given him, the responsibility. And they respected that. It says, James answered, saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Simon, who was Peter, has declared how God at first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree. I'm going to skip over that scripture. But then he goes on to say in verse 19, he confirms what Peter and Paul and Barnabas had said. He summarizes and he says, therefore I judge. So yes, he was the one that made the decision that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. And so the fourth lesson had to do with James presiding as the elder in Jerusalem, gave a summary and also the decision. And the rest of the apostles and elders and brethren agreed. The ruling was that Gentile Christians would not have to be circumcised or keep purity laws and rituals reserved for Jewish Christians. The Jewish Christians still were to continue doing this. If they had children, they would circumcise. He said, but the Gentile Christians would have to keep certain laws that could be classified as more ceremonial. Although, see, he's saying these are not ceremonial laws. These have to be kept, such as the food laws. No meat is to be eaten, sacrificed to idols. No food should be eaten without the animal first being drained of its blood. And you're still not to eat blood. And then you should keep the laws dealing with marriage laws, especially what is Leviticus 18, where you have all of these that you can't marry your cousin, you can't marry someone too close of kin.

So that shows that God's laws that have to do with the Ten Commandments, the extension of those commandments, they're not rituals, they're not ceremonies. And then we come to the fifth lesson, Acts 15, 21. This is a scripture that hardly ever is focused on, but is very important. Verse 21, James says, and he is saying, now we're going to give you these guidelines just to be sure that you respect the food laws, you still respect the marriage laws, and also about the blood and not eating blood at that time. And then he says in verse 21, For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. Well, James was not talking about, hey, you should be going to the Jewish synagogue. No, at that time they already had Christian churches. And so it's talking about that the Gentile Christians will go every Sabbath, and they will learn more about God's laws and how to apply them. He's giving just the guideline. And so he just says that the rest of the details about God's laws would be received by Gentile Christians when they attended services in their meeting places or synagogues. In James 2, verse 2, James uses the term synagogue for a Christian assembly, what we call church. Because remember, at that time all these things had not really been separated as much. They had their own services by that time. And with that declaration, the issue was resolved and a letter was sent to the Gentile brethren. What did that letter say? We have the whole decree here. This is called the decree, the Jerusalem decree. In verse 22, it says, then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church. So actually, must have been that they talked about the church. Well, you've heard all of these things and everybody was very supportive. They'd seen the miracles, the Gentiles coming into the church. To send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brethren. And this is the Jerusalem decree. They wrote this letter by them. The apostles, the elders, and the brethren. It wasn't Pope Peter.

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some who went out from us, who are those? Those were those that had gone to Antioch from Judea, and they claimed to have the authority of the apostles and James and others. And so James clears the situation up. He says, we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law. Now, at that time, the law was one whole thing. Not like today that we talk about ceremonial law, the purity laws. No, it was all. So you have to know what law he's talking about. He's not talking about the Ten Commandments. He says, and here he says, which which are those? He says, you must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment. So these people went over there. They were unauthorized to claim this.

So it says, it seemed good to us, being as assembled with one accord. See, they came to a consensus about this. There was humility. Wherever there's a humility, it works. It works in the same way in a marriage, where you should consider your wife's advice and opinion and your children, too, before making a big decision. And this is the same way here. Being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same thing by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, talk about the Holy Spirit in them, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. And again, it has to do, you have to abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Things strangled, talk about animals that are killed with all the blood in them. And from sexual immorality, because of course the seventh commandment says you shall not break and become adulterous. Not talking about the seventh commandment, because then he would have to say, and you shall not kill, and you shall not lie, and you shall not rob, and things like that. So it's talking about more marriage relations, because the Gentiles just got married. They could marry their sister, they could marry a man, could marry his mother, whatever. It was just wild.

He says, if you keep yourself from these, you will do fair. Well, so that's the fifth lesson, is that they attended services in the meeting places. These Gentiles would learn more. The decree was not a one-hole encyclopedic materials. It was here are the main points, and then you go to church and then say, okay, well, of course, you don't eat pork either, and you don't eat all these other things. But you see, it was so obvious to the Gentile Christians, you didn't eat pork. But the problem with blood, oh, maybe that was more, maybe they said, well, I'm eating good meat, but it's not been drained of blood. So they're saying, no, that's still part of the food laws. We have to respect that.

So our system of government is not so far off from what was done in the Jerusalem conference. Of course, the difference being was that the apostles presided over all the church, but once they died, none in the following centuries, all those elders, all those pastors, they were called bishops, none dare take the title of an apostle. Only until the fourth century, where Pope Leo V in 1440, and you can read it, Pope Leo I lived from 440 to 461. That's when he reigned, is credited with formally using the title, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. Of course, they think Peter is the Prince of the Apostles. He's the successor, but nobody dared in the first four centuries to claim that title.

He used it to emphasize the Pope's position as the head of the church and Peter's representative. And so Pope Leo V, who just got elected about two days ago, or was it yesterday? Was it two days ago? He took Leo's name as well, and also assumed the eight titles, lofty titles, of which none are in the Bible, to rule over that church. So I hope this helps to understand better the system of government we have. It is not perfect. Certainly, even the best system can be perverted, and sometimes the worst system can work because people are all giving. And so it just depends on the people. We certainly look forward to another system in the future. First, in Revelation, it mentions that there will be two witnesses that will be in charge of the church for the last three and a half years. But we look forward even more to working, being instructed, and mentored by Jesus Christ in the coming kingdom, because He never makes mistakes. We do. So please be forgiving, be loving, because that's what we're looking for. That's my joy and happiness, the kingdom and Christ's coming in establishing His kingdom of righteousness on this earth. Have a wonderful Sabbath.