{"id":387,"date":"2006-11-20T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-20T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2006\/11\/20\/on-defining-the-church-sermon-summaries-111906\/"},"modified":"2006-11-20T13:29:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-20T13:29:00","slug":"on-defining-the-church-sermon-summaries-111906","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2006\/11\/20\/on-defining-the-church-sermon-summaries-111906\/","title":{"rendered":"on defining the church (sermon summaries 11.19.06)"},"content":{"rendered":"
The first message this Sunday had the pivotal chapter, Acts 15, as our text. The title I chose was ‘How Should Christians Live?<\/a>‘ The 15th chapter of Acts is the chapter that settled the Galatian question forever and really sealed the character of the Christian church for all time. The question the Judaizers were placing before the church was one of definition: What is the church? The answer was that the church is not a superior form of Judaism, nor is it simply another meaningless Gentile religion. It is an organism centered around faith in the living Son of God, separate from the world – the world that is Judaism and paganism at the same time.<\/p>\n The Old Testament religion of the Jews had long departed from God’s intent, first by centuries of dabbling with paganism pre-exile, second by a few centuries of idolizing the forms of religion itself through the rise of Pharisaism post-exile. Was there ever a pure Judaism? Only in the hearts of some individuals, sometimes more numerous than at other times, but really only on an individual, not a collective basis.<\/p>\n In Ac 15, we see the Galatian dispute arise in Antioch of Syria, after Paul has written the book of Galatians. He has no small disputation with the Judaizers, and the church in Antioch calls for a meeting of the apostles to settle the issue (the last meeting of the apostles as a group). In Jerusalem, once the dispute is engaged, Peter rises to testify in favor of Paul and Barnabas and the ‘anti-Law’ position. Peter does this, employing very similar language to that with which Paul rebuked him earlier (compare Gal 2.14-18 with Ac 15.10). Peter also points out that Jews will be saved by faith, just like the Gentiles (Ac 15.11), a not so subtle slap to the Judaizers, putting the Jews in second place to the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas then testify, followed by James the brother of the Lord, whose proposal carries the day. Four requirements are placed on the Gentile church: no food offered to idols, no fornication, no blood, no things strangled. The blood and things strangled are rooted in the Noahic Covenant (Gen 9.1-6) and pre-date the law. The point of the decision is this: The church is going to be an organization where the only entrance stipulation is faith in Christ AND it is going to be an organization that demands separation from the world (all four issues were pagan practices). Today, the church needs to come to grips with this. It is not Galatianism to insist on separation from the world. It is paganism to insist otherwise. Today’s church is a pagan church and needs radical reformation.<\/p>\n