The Letter, The Road Parts and The Apostles Split | Acts 15.22-41

Reader : Jake Elzo Preacher : Jonathan Smith The council's letter acknowledges the unnecessary burden that had been placed on Gentile believers without their authorisation. Regarding their direction to abstain from certain things, scholars generally read their intentions in one of three overlapping ways: 1. Leviticus 17–18 background. The four prohibitions match, in roughly the same order, the requirements Leviticus lays on the "foreigner residing among" Israel. 2. Table fellowship. These are the practices most viscerally offensive to Jewish believers - the things that would make it impossible for a Jewish Christian to sit at a table with a Gentile one. 3. A clean break with paganism. All four items cluster around the pagan temple - idol food, ritual meat, and the sexual immorality that was woven into temple culture. The Gentiles receive the letter with joy (v.31), but the passage ends uncomfortably: a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, who'd deserted them earlier, is so severe they part company. Luke doesn't judge - he simply reports it and moves on. Red Door is an Anglican Church in Melbourne, Australia. We exist to be a community of people helping people make all of life all about Jesus.