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Acts 15 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to five minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament in each episode we take just a few minutes to focus
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  on one chapter of the New Testament, exploring the truths
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  God is teaching us through his word and expanding our view of
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  who. He is.
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  Before you listen, make sure you've gone straight to the
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  source, either by reading today's chapter of the Bible
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  yourself or listening to today's read along episode in this
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  podcast feed. If you haven't done that yet,
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  feel free to pause and do that now.
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  And when you're ready, let's dive into God's Word together.
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  In Acts chapter 15, we see that as the Kingdom advances to the
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  Gentiles. There's discord.
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  Specifically, some Jews want to require Gentiles to follow the
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  ceremonial law of the Jews, in other words, to become Jews in
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  order to become Christians. Paul and Barnabas disagree and
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  ask for input from the apostles at the church in Jerusalem.
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  The response serves as a powerful template for making
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  peace and for walking in unity with our brothers and sisters.
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  Listen to that letter from the church at Jerusalem, written as
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  a response, the apostles and the brethren who are elders to the
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  brethren in Antioch, in Syria and Cilicia, who are from the
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  Gentiles. Greetings.
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  Since we have heard that some of our number, to whom we gave no
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  instruction, have disturbed you with their words, unsettling
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  your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind,
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  to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and
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  Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord
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  Jesus Christ. Therefore we have sent Judas and
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  Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word
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  of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy
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  Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these
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  essentials, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols,
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  and from blood, and from things strangled and from fornication.
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  If you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well.
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  Farewell. In other words, for the sake of
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  your Jewish brothers, adhere to a few specific guidelines, but
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  on the whole, let the main thing be the main thing.
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  Follow Christ. A German Lutheran theologian
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  named Rupertus Meldinius wrote this in the 1620s.
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  In essentials unity, in non essentials liberty, in all
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  things charity. That's it.
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  That's the message to these 1st century believers.
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  And that is the message that we as the church need today.
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  We need to know what the non negotiables are.
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  Those beliefs where there is no room for compromise, like the
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  fact that we serve a triune God, the reality that Jesus was
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  sinless, that he died in our place and so that we might be
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  forgiven and made whole. Or the truth that he's one day
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  returning to judge and to reign in essentials unity.
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  And once we know those non negotiables, we must know that
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  there are practices, there are beliefs that faithful Christians
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  have disagreed on for centuries, not because one group is
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  faithful to the Scriptures and the other isn't, but as a matter
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  of interpretation. For example, we said one of the
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  non negotiables is the reality that Jesus is returning to judge
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  and to rule. But faithful Christians have
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  long held to a handful of different orthodox beliefs about
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  the order of events surrounding his return.
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  There is room for. Healthy.
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  Gracious. Disagreement here in non
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  essentials liberty and in all things charity, in all things
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  love. The worst case scenario in our
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  chapter today would have been if hatred and bitterness had welled
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  up between Jews and Gentiles. We are one people, one family,
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  brought together by the blood of Christ in all things charity.
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  Whether we agree or disagree with our brothers and sisters,
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  let our love for them be stronger than any like or
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  dislike of their opinions, and the unity and love in Christ
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  Church will be a testimony to the world of the beauty of the
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  gospel and the glory of our great God.