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Acts Series Part 19: His Grace is Sufficient · Growing Together in the Gospel

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Acts 15 describes the church gathering to settle a crucial issue of doctrine.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: While it began with a debate about circumcision, underneath lay a deeper question Is the work of Jesus and his grace enough for anyone to be saved?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer to that question is a joyful yes.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: But some believers insisted that Gentiles must keep the law of Moses before they could fully belong to God's people.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Peter reminded the church that God had already accepted them, however, giving them the Holy Spirit and purifying their hearts through faith.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone, new believers and lifelong disciples alike, is saved through the grace of Jesus.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: His work is sufficient, and his welcome is a gift we receive, not a reward we earn.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: For those who feel that they fail too often, this brings hope.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: For those worn out by trying to prove themselves, it brings rest.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Our confidence rests in Jesus, in his death and resurrection, his love and in his faithfulness.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We do not have to begin each day wondering whether we've done enough to secure his welcome.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: We can begin with gratitude for what he's already done.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: From that place of assurance, obedience becomes a response of love, and serving God becomes an expression of joy.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Grace gives us both a secure place to stand and courage to move forward.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's listen to Dean.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 15, the council at Jerusalem, the first church meeting.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Trust me, it's more exciting than it sounds.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Certain people came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and were teaching the believers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debates with them with them.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: This news made all the believers very glad.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: No, we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, just as they are.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: When they finished, James spoke up.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Brothers, he said, listen to me.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Simon has described to us how God intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, that is as it is written, after this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Its ruins I will rebuild and I will restore it, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things, things known from long ago.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, and from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: A first meeting.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: What you've got to do is you've got to imagine, take you back, maybe this applies to you right now, but just take you back.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: You've grown up and you aren't a Christian.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: I know some of you grew up in the faith, and so it's tricky to stand outside that, but you imagine you hear something of God, you see something, maybe you saw a change in a friend or a family member, and you think, I'm gonna explore this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So what am I gonna do?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've heard of these things called churches, so I'm gonna go along to a church.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you get ready to go to church, and and immediately you hit an obstacle.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: What do I wear?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: How do people dress in church nowadays?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Is it suits and ties?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it is it smart, casual?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it I don't know, well what what do I put on?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you finally figure out something that you think might be quite respectable, and then you go, well, well, where is it?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Where is it that I've heard about these people and I've seen them sometimes, but but where do they gather?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: You find the address and you come along and you park outside and you see some people walking in and you think, are these my kind of people?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Does anyone there look like me?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Do they look friendly?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Does it look safe?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get out and you go, Well, where's the front door to this place?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's got like three front doors, so I don't know, how do we get in there?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then you come in and there's some welcoming people, and you think, well, what am I meant to do?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is there is it what what's what's what's happening?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And now where do I go?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then you come and sit in, you're like, Where's the toilets?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, how do I do that?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then then someone stands up and welcomes, and everyone stands up and you think, oh, well, I better stand up, everyone else has stood up, and then and then they sit down and you sit down, and then some people are praying, and you go, What's and there's all these things, and we don't tend to notice them because we've done it so long, but there are all these sort of barriers, these things that we are mostly blind to, but things that get in the way of people exploring and hearing, and you eventually get to the message, and then you've got hope that the guy at the front is going to talk about Jesus.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's all these things that can get in the way of someone meeting, experiencing, discovering Jesus for themselves.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or perhaps they've come to faith, God's as God seems to be doing at the moment, working in people outside of church, and they come along and they're like, So what do I do now?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I think Jesus is Lord and I want to follow him, but what's this church thing about?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're often very unaware of those invisible things that happen so naturally on a Sunday.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: But to outsiders, those coming in seem strange.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: There are traditions we have, patterns that we have, things that we do that we don't tend to explain, that are confusing and there can be a hindrance.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And here we find that this sort of thing happened in the early church and it brought one of the greatest discussions in any church meeting.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: The burden, though, is slightly different to the one we have today.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I've never seen a church agenda where it's you know, minutes and apologies.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Item one, circumcision.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Question mark.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is what this is all about.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: This church meeting comes because there are a group of people, verse one, certain people came down from Jerusalem and were teaching, unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Later on, they they reiterate the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: This was the idea.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Christianity started, it came out of Judaism, and so you had the whole history of Judaism, the whole history of the Old Testament, all that God had done and worked in their life, and then suddenly other people were coming to faith.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Gentiles, Greeks, and Romans, and people who weren't Jewish and didn't have that tradition.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And this was the first clash in the church, the first disagreement.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because we've got these traditions, and they are God traditions, they're not just stuff we made up.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: God gave us these patterns, these ways to think and act and live, and now we've got these ragtag bunch of Gentiles coming in all messy and believing all sorts of things, and and we're having to live together and stand side by side and worship the same God.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Surely there should be some parameters on this.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so what they came to is, well, we believe you should be circumcised.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Circumcision was a big thing for them, it was their sign, they were the people of God.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so surely, if you are going to become the people of God, that's the tradition we should keep.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's something we should hold on to.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And people should be circumcised, and then they add to it and follow the law of Moses so that you can be saved.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is what brings it, says Barnabas and Paul into sharp dispute to them.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: They take issue with this.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: They say this isn't really about circumcision, this is about something bigger.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: What do people need to do to be part of the people of God?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: What what what what burden should be put on them?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: What what but what restrictions should be put?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: What steps do they have to take in order to be saved?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so they start off with this debate and then they they get sent off to Jerusalem with this one question.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's meet everyone together, let's gather all the people.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem church, the HQ headquarters of the church, that's where it all started.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get them, get everyone together and let's discuss this matter.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's that question of what burden do we put on someone?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: What barrier should be in the way of someone coming to faith?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: For some people, it's it's a moral burden.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Someone coming becoming a Christian, and we we kind of think, well, if they're going to become a Christian, they should start to behave a certain way.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: They should start to act a certain way, they should be kind and they should not get angry and they should sort themselves out and they should get rid of certain things and leave some things behind.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's quite easy to put kind of a price on the on admission.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: But the price that we have is at the fruit of our maturity.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: We've been walking with Jesus, some of us a while, and God's done a work in us.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so we've been we've seen certain things, we've grown in certain ways, we've been able to throw off habits that aren't helpful, but then we look at others and we go, well, they should really be up here then.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we put a burden on people saying you should act a certain way and live a certain way before you can come in.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: The other side, perhaps more familiar, is the burden of tradition.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: We have traditions, we we we have traditions that are helpful until they are unhelpful.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And there are things that we do that that we've done for years that suddenly, if someone says, Why'd you do that?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: You go, I don't know.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you have that in your church?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And suddenly what it used to say doesn't say that anymore.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: The things that we used to do, and so we have to look at these things and say, Well, is this a burden?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is this a barrier?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is this adding something to someone that goes?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're just confusing me.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you're saying.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Are we still speaking a language that people could understand?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: What they do is they have this discussion and they're debating back and forth, what should we add to these people?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it says that as they met, this is what said, Peter stands up, Peter who's disappeared for a bit, but he appears for this moment.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Peter, who's the one given the vision, if you remember, that the Gentiles were to be included.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he stands up and he says, God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're debating whether these people should be welcomed or not.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter stands up and says, You're too late.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: God has already done it.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: You're too late.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit has already welcomed them.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: We can't take it back.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: God has already worked in his life.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: He's given them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: The grace of God has already come to them.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: We can consider this and debate it, but we've got to catch up because God's already done it.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: God is the one drawing these people.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're believing in this.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: God has accepted them before we have.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's us who have to align ourselves with what God is doing.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I often think we have an idea of God that He's the reluctant one.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: We want people to be saved.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: We want people to come to faith, and God's the one going, no, no, no.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, scripture presents it the opposite.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: He is the one who seeks, he is the one who reaches out, he is the one who says, go and sends us and gives the spirit that we can.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's us who perhaps are the more reluctant.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because certain people will then have to come to faith.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Certain people will then have to be brothers and sisters.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it gets messy as it does here, but it gets gloriously messy because the grace of God shows that it's everyone everywhere who can come to know the goodness of God.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I like how he puts it.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: He gave them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: He puts them first.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: They've got the Spirit, and we we had the same thing.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: What he's done for them, he has done for us.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: We are no different.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're not higher than them, we are not first.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: We are brothers and sisters now, alongside one another.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then he gives this line as he's sharing this, and this is the line that has changed, changed history, has changed lives, has brought revival, has brought renewal, has brought uh reformation in the church.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: This line where he says, We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now we've sung about this and we've already prayed about this this morning, that it can start to lose its shine, but that statement is just astounding.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: What's the requirement for you to be a person of God?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: What is the requirement for you to have the embrace of God the Father?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: What is it for you to be able to enter into his throne room and speak face to face with God with no fear, without being turned away, without having to cower and hide from his holiness and his beauty?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: What means that you can climb into his lap and know his embrace?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: What means that you can have the Spirit to fill you with his love and his compassion, that it warms you and stirs you and shapes you?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: The grace of God.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing that you do but the grace of God, and it is through that, not through behavior, not through tradition, not through upbringing, not through the fact you've been part of a church for however many years you've been, not through achievement or accomplishment or knowledge or understanding or wisdom or any other way, but the grace of God, and that is how you are saved.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so it starts with circumcision.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Peter and Barnabas discern this is more than circumcision.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: That it could be anything.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: It could be you've got to eat popcorn to go to church, it could be you've got to wear a hat to go to church, whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: The point is you have robbed us of the grace of God, which is enough.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: You robbed us of Jesus, who is enough.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus plus anything starts to rob you of life.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus plus nothing is salvation, they say.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that is why they they they have a meeting.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I say, not carpets, not curtains, not what we're gonna spend our money.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: This this is worth gathering over.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is worth thrashing out and and and having a debate over.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is worth getting right, because if we miss this, all of history is different.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: But if we get the grace of God, the world will be changed.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it did.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: The church lost this for years, and the churches always lose it, Christians always lose this.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: We go from one to the other, but when the grace of God takes center stage, what we have is a man called Martin Luther who brings down an entire system and relaunches the gospel that spreads to the ends of the earth, that the grace of God is how you're saved.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Revival after revival comes where people get weary of we're trying to make this happen, we're trying to do this, but God, we call on your grace, and suddenly fire starts.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Lives are transformed when it's stripped us of all our ability, all our performance, and finally it's the grace of God who makes it possible, confirmed by the Spirit that says, You have it, it is yours.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: See, the Pharisees, they they had an understanding of the Old Testament, but it was a misunderstanding.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's a misunderstanding that a lot of Christians have.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: We tend to think the Old Testament is God gave a load of rules, and you had to obey those laws for God to love you.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: But the New Testament, Jesus came along and he's much nicer.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: He said, No, you don't need the rules, you only need grace.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: But that isn't the story of the Bible.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, there's a thing called the Ten Commandments.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Have you heard of them?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't have, because the Ten Commandments don't exist.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: What it says is the words of the prophets agree.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so you go back to the words and you get to Moses.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: It says God spoke these words.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say commandments, it says words.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Statements almost.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't, the the Bible doesn't call them commandments.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: We call them commandments because we can't get our heads around grace.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we come up with commandments as an understanding.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we say, God spoke all these commandments, but it's actually words, and there's not ten, there's eleven, but we'll come on to that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So he spoke these words.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: What's the first word?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: What's the first commandment?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so we've got there.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: You shall have no other gods than me.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that, isn't it?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: We don't really know.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, we're all wrong.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: The first word is this.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, it's not that.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let me put it in.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: The first word is, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: If you see any list of the Ten Commandments, they all start with, You shall have no other gods before me.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: That isn't what the Bible says.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Tear it down or do it nicely, point it out.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: But that isn't the Ten Commandments.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: The words from God, the first word from God is not you shall, the first word from God is I am the Lord your God.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: I brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: The first word is grace.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: The first word is you did nothing.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: You were slaves, you were under Pharaoh, you could you're crying out for help.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I reached in, I rescued you, I delivered you, I set you free and delivered you from that oppression, I made you my people.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I did.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, here's a life that you can live with me.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And yet, the Pharisees and nearly every Christian did the same thing.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Delete that first line, because it's not a commandment, so we don't like it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Get a bit of it.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And let's just have the commands.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let's try and live good lives, let's try and be good people.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: But in doing that, we miss the most important one.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, there's eleven, and ten of them are you shalls, and one of them is I am.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if you miss out the I am, the you shall are pointless.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's what he says.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: You couldn't live under this burden.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's what Peter says.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: You're trying to put a yoke on people that even you couldn't do, and you couldn't do it because you took out the I am the Lord your God, and you you preached it as command, you preached as you should and you must and you have to.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that isn't how the Old Testament was ever intended.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's how people used it, it's how the Pharisees used it, and the people in Jesus' time used it.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: But again and again, we're shown the first word of God is grace.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: The first word of God in your life is grace.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: The first step that you will ever take towards Jesus is because of grace.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's anything else, the enemy would love you to believe it is anything else because it will rob you of joy and peace.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: It'll rob you of the life that He wants for you.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: You see, I don't think the enemy, most people aren't at risk of the enemy lying to you by saying, Here's something really evil that you should do.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's possible, but my my experience in church circles is that isn't what he does.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: More often than not, his temptation is here's something really good that you should try and strive to be.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if you do that, what will happen is you'll either become really good and be proud and no longer need God, or you'll fail in despair and then not want to run to God.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Either way, you've disconnected yourself from God and He's one.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: The enemy's lie to most believers is try, strive, obey, do, and then you have what God wants for you.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it is a lie because the first word of God is grace.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: The meeting that meets here, it's not about circumcision, it's about whether grace is the first thing that we should believe, the first thing that we should hold to.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And thankfully, their conclusion was what we've already seen.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: It is by the grace of Jesus that we are saved.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if they hadn't decided that, then we would have been in for years of misery, of striving, of never being sure, of always watching over our shoulder, trying to work out.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: But here we find that they they settle on this, and then James, I love James, stands up then, having heard this and says, Well, if this is the case, we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: If grace is all that they need, why do we keep adding so many other things?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let's make it, and I love this as a principle for church life, let's just make it as easy as possible for people who want to discover God.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we speak in a language they don't understand?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we do things that don't make sense?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we hold on to traditions that we enjoy but no one else even understands what they're about?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we just make it as easy as possible?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that, that's their North Star.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: What a guiding principle for a church.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just not make it difficult for people.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do things in a way that they can, let's help them, if they can't find us, let's go to them.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: If it's difficult for people to come to church, which for many it is, then let's go to them.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: If they can't understand what we're saying, then let's speak in a way that they can.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Let's become all things to all men, as Paul talks about, that we're by any means possible we may bring some to a knowing faith, a saving faith in Jesus, who did not stand at a distance, but Jesus himself made it as easy as possible.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: People could find him, they could reach him, they could touch him, they could see him, and because of that, many were saved.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Lives were transformed because his grace does not create any barrier.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the price of admission.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: They come in through the front door of grace because it is wide open.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now you may be saying, and you should be saying, Well, if we do that, then we'll get all sorts, all kinds of behavior, we'll do all sorts of things.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: That is a good question.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's a question that Paul brings up in the book of Romans.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's celebrating grace, and then he says, Well, shall we carry on sinning then?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because this grace is so wonderful.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, No, don't be silly.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: That might be a logical conclusion, but you're missing out.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: That the grace that saves you is the grace that will make you look at Jesus and go, I want to be like him.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: The grace that brings you to him makes you see him and go, there is something beautiful about him, something attractive, something beautiful, and his spirit in me compels me to want to grow into his likeness.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, you could carry on sinning because grace will abound, but the grace that saves you warms you to his face that you want to grow into his likeness.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so they do give him these instructions, and it kind of is confusing at the first.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: It says, let's tell them that it's by grace, but let's also tell them not to eat food polluted to idols or sexual immorality or eat meat from strangled animals or from blood.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in the first instance, it means, well, you're not happy with circumcision, but you've got all these other rules then.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: But the this is a different thing going on now.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: They're now saying, okay, it's grace that you're saved, but.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: You are going to live with other people.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you are, as you follow Jesus, you're going to want to love them because loving them is how you love God.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And to love these people, here's some tips.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're Jewish and they've had the scriptures all their life.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're not going to change them overnight.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to live in peace with them, in harmony, if you want to love your brothers and sisters, then don't eat the food offered to idols.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: They don't like that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't drink the blood because they don't like that either.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Don't drink the from, don't eat strangled animals because the blood for them is important.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And sexual morality, that's that's going to tear down relationships.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you're going to do these things, you're going to cause turmoil.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: But these aren't entrance points.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: These flow out of if the grace of God has reached you, if the love of God is in you and you want to love your brother and sister, here's some advice on how to do that.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you understand the grace of God, it all comes down to I've been saved by grace.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I love God.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that love of God compels me to love my brother and sister.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a million applications of that.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: One of them being don't eat blood around Jewish people.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Don't eat strangled animals because you're going to cause upset.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: You can live at peace, you can forgo these things.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're not the most important things in the world.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to love your brother and sister, because the grace that has won you now compels you to want to love these people, not to be at odds with them, not to submit to their demands, because that's not right either, but to live in love with them so that you can be the people of God and stand in the grace that is both for you and for them.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: The gospel says you come to Jesus through his grace, and then because you do, you receive the life that he gives, and as you follow him, he will change you.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: As I say, for many of us, the enemy's lie doesn't come through failure or evil, it comes through we're just not we're not good enough.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're brand new to this, let me say it clearly: you are invited to Jesus.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know your story or your background, and I apologize that as a church we can put so many things in your way.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure I have today.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: I know I won't mention who, but this week I did something where I tried to explain something, I completely complicated it and made it far harder than it should have been.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I went too far and had to go back right.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let me make it simple because I I've put too much, I've added too much.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm tempted to do that.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're all tempted in some way to do that.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: But we're sorry where we have.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let me make it very simple for you.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: God in Jesus has loved you, He has displayed that love by sending his son.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: His sin die Son died for you and rose again.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he invites you to follow him that your past may be wiped clean, that you might be in his love, that you might become his child.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: He wants you.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: And all he says is, Come to me.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you come, you will have what they say in this verse.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: The Spirit will fill you and will equip you to know that love and walk in it.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: You will have the grace of no more than me, no more than anyone else, or no less.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: The grace of God will bring you to himself.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: You will be his child, you will have life in you, and you will be able to walk with him.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's the invitation for those who are exploring or those who are new.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I also want to speak to those who've been doing this a long time.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because we are equally in danger.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Not as an entrance point, but because somewhere along the way we we just left behind the grace of God.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: We took the Ten Commandments and forgot the eleventh one.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: We started making it about how we live and what we do, and gradually we started to believe I don't know if God loves me.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not living out of that love.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know whether He wants me.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know whether He delights in me because I haven't done very well recently.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've dropped my quiet time.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really pray that much.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: If I do, it's because I'm in trouble.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: I come to church and I don't feel anything, so I'm just I just feel distant.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's the grace of God that says none of that matters.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: You come to me, and when you have the source, all that will come.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to make it happen, stop trying to earn it, stop trying to prove it.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: I know perhaps you think, well, I should be further along than I am, and we beat ourselves up, I should be more mature, I should know more of my Bible, I should be able to, I should, I should, I should.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is by the grace of God that you are saved.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that grace that saves you is the grace that sustains you.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when you understand that, that is where life will come from.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: When you return to that place, that's where delight, that's where salvation is found.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: The church should never make people earn the welcome that Jesus has already paid for.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And what we try to do is we try to pay for it, we try to try to prove it, but Jesus has done it so that you can come or so that you can come back.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so they write a letter to the church.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: They write it and says, We've heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you feel troubled today, because somewhere along the way you forgot grace, or someone communicated something.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: We can do that.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: You can communicate something other than grace.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so they say, We have agreed this, that you should live by grace.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And they were very thankful, particularly the men in this instance.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: But more than thankful, the first church meeting settled the most important thing in Christianity.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: As I say, it's the thing that has led to reformation, it's the thing that has led to revival, and it's the thing that today, if you receive it, will reawaken your love for God, will restart a smouldering wick if you feel like that, will reignite a fire if cold water has been poured on it.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: The grace of God for you and for me.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so they say this, and I love this line: it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: The church decided it, but it was the Spirit who led it.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because the Spirit's heart that you would know the grace of God.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that it wasn't just one person speaking something, it was a debate, it was a discussion.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we think when the Holy Spirit speaks, he's gonna do it in a loud voice, and then that settles it.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: But they had to wrestle with this.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: They tossed it back and forth, and they they then they concluded, no, we have seen what the Spirit has done.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so it seems good to him to welcome you, well, it seems good to us too.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna give you this command.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be burdened, don't be crushed, don't be weighed down.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is one that's meant to be a light yoke, an easy yoke, a place of rest and renewal.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And if it is anything other than that, if it feels heavy, if it feels burdensome, then I would invite you just to question whether it's what Jesus really invited you to.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Whether grace has gone missing.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so we go back to the person just coming to church, trying to work out what it takes to belong.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we as a church need to be asking: are we communicating the grace of Jesus?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: Or is there anything, any attitude, any practice, anything that we do that subtly communicates, yeah, there's grace, but there's also because we don't want that.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't want that in the early church, and it it took this meeting to drive that out and say once and for all, no, no, no.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: We aren't doing that.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: It is grace upon grace upon grace, all the way down to the very bottom and beyond, all the way into eternity and forevermore.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Grace upon grace that comes through Jesus.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so, what will people hear?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Will people hear Jesus has welcomed you, Jesus has provided for you, or will they hear something else?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do they hear it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Or do they hear, yeah, there's grace, but there's also obstacles?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of us who've been here for years, what is it that you need to put down?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: What is a burden, a thought that says there's grace, but that grace depends on.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: And today is a chance to put that down, to come and return to Jesus, to cast your burden on him, for he has carried it, he has borne it on his shoulders, he is bear, he carries that weight for you so that you don't have to.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Grace upon grace.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Before we sing, I just want to give all of us a space just to respond to this.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: You may want to close your eyes or simply sit quietly.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to ask you is there a burden that you've been carrying as though it's it's a condition for Jesus welcoming you?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Something that perhaps sounds like in your head, something like, unless I can sort this out, or unless I become better at, or unless I'm certain about this, then I'm outside of his love.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Then there is something wrong.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you find that that voice, then you need to hear Peter's words again.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: You can come to him.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps for some of us, there's a burden that you have placed on someone else.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a conviction that you grew into slowly, but you've expected them to hold immediately.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Something that God has done in your life that you are expecting someone else to have realized, or a custom that feels natural to you, but maybe making it harder for somebody else to see Jesus.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we ask for the spirit for patience, for wisdom to see what may need to change, to realize that the way we like it may be a barrier to someone else seeing clearly.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're someone who's just, as we said at the start of the service, you've forgotten about grace.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many other things to be concerned about, so much more to do that that grace no longer has the shine it once had.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's no longer amazing.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay, Grace.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, I know that already, Grace.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: But a grace that wows you again.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: There is nothing I add to the cross of Jesus.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: There is nothing I bring, but I receive all that he has.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: There is nothing I have done, but he has done it all.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: There is no claim on his love, but his love has been lavishly poured out into my life.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: There is no demand that I can place on him, but he has given me all things in his son.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, we recognize that so often.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: That grace becomes familiar.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Today we ask that it would wow us again.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: That it would astound us again.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: We have what we have by the grace of Jesus, and what we have is incredible.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: We have life in his name, and we have forgiveness in his name.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have hope and eternity in his name, we have strength and power in his name.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have the love of the living God because of him.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so, where there is anything that would distract us from grace, anything that would subtly eclipse that grace or cause us to doubt it.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, may you may you today come by your spirit, as you did to these first believers.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Would you work in us?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Would you give your Holy Spirit so that it could be sealed in our hearts that we are purified by faith?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: We are loved by faith.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: We simply trust you and you do everything.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: And would you lead us, Lord, that we would make it as easy as possible for those who are turning to you.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh Jesus, we just thank you.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you set the bar not just low, you removed the bar altogether, and you opened your arms to us.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that we don't have to make ourselves worthy to come to you.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you know our hearts and our questions.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: You you know our failures and you know our desire to follow you.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, we thank you that you are present with your church.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Give us wisdom to see where we've placed burdens on others.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Give us wisdom to hold on to what is true, patience to help one another grow.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Give us humility to change what has begun to obscure Jesus.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, teach us to live as people shaped by grace.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: And by that grace, may we be led into holiness and love and a deeper life together.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: We want to honor you, Jesus, and there's no better way to honor you than to say it is all of you.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have done this.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps a reluctance.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever reason, reluctance, that what you want is us to be able to skip and sing and uh to be lightened.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so would you again, Lord, we just invite you to come and lift burdens from shoulders, lift expectations, silence the voices, remove the voice that says that we failed and whatever it is.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: We feel like we fail at work, we fail in relationships, we fail as parents, we fail as children, we fail as followers of you.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that becomes the predominant voice.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: Our failure, our failure.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Help us to hear Jesus again speak over us.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: My grace is sufficient for you.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: My grace is sufficient for you.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: So may we receive that word, Lord.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Before all that we can do for you, before the commandments, there is a better word, the word of grace.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: May we hear it today.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: You are the Lord our God, who brought us out of slavery.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: You brought us to yourself by your grace.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Speak that to our hearts, we pray.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on Growing Together in the Gospel.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's teaching today and encourage you to feed back to us any questions or reflections that you might have.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can do this by clicking on the feedback link, which you'll find in the podcast description.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Alternatively, if you live locally, please feel free to give us a call or drop by.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to answer your questions.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to meet you.