Decisions Acts 15:1-36 | Make Acts 15:1-5 | Discuss Acts 15:6-12 |
Scripture Acts 15:13-18 | Decision 15:19-21 | Council Acts 15:13-21 | Communicate Acts 15:22-36 | Acts 15 Video Making Significant Decisions
Purpose: The Bible exposition Making Significant Decisions on Acts 15:1-36 helps us see how the Lord shaped the identity of the early church through the way the Jerusalem Church Council resolved some key theological issues such as salvation by faith and not by works. At the same time it gives us a model on how to solve disagreements (Part 1 of 7).
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The church in its two thousand year history has faced many significant issues. Some of them had to do with persecution. Whether it was the Moslems systematically eliminating them from North Africa or more recently in China under the rise of the communistic power.
The threats are many but the most serious are those divisions within in the church. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Acts 15 describes the way the Spirit of God led the church leaders to rightly handle a dangerous situation that could unravel the early church. Instead of becoming a point of critical loss, the early church through the Spirit’s guidance was strengthened and continued to expand throughout the world. Key decisions are often those points where we can either retreat or go forward. In Acts 15 they went forward and therefore serves a great model of how one solves disagreements.
We will look at two major sections of Acts 15:1-36:
A) Making Important Decisions (1-21) and
B) Communicating Important Decisions (Acts 15:22-36).
Go > Read the five part series on Acts 13:1-3, The Antioch Church: A Model for Our Churches