I.
We find some tension here – “… certain individuals came down from Judea … others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem …”

But it is not merely a tension in geography – “… were teaching … unless you are … no small dissension … discuss this question with the apostles and elders….”

So it ranges all the way from “teaching” to “dissension” to “discuss this question with …”

Take time to not only read this passage but also to sense the tension, the argument, and the importance of this matter to those on both sides of the argument.

II.
Acts 15:1-11 (NRSVue)

Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers,you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

III.
Why was it important for those “certain individuals who came down from Judea” to make the journey and teach what they were teaching?

What do you think they thought was the danger in what was happening in Antioch?

Do you think they wanted to halt the teaching of the Gospel to these folk or was it something else?

How do we decide what is so important it must become a matter of dissension among the disciples of Jesus?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}