“It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us“
Acts 15:28
In Acts 15, the early church is faced with the question of whether Gentile converts to Christ need to keep the law of Moses in order to belong to the people of God. This question is decided at what is known as the Jerusalem Council, where Paul and Barnabas meet with the apostles and elders. This is the biggest decision that the early church will make, and it is absolutely crucial for how the gospel will be preached and practiced throughout the world and throughout history. It was also a difficult decision with no small amount of controversy and disagreement amongst them. So how did they go about making such a decision? Acts 15 does not say that they all went to prayer in order to hear the voice of the Lord on the matter. Their’s was a different process.
It began with “much debate”. Then Peter shared about his experience with Cornelius in Acts 10, which he has already shared in detail with the council in Acts 11 when he is criticized for eating with Gentiles. Then Paul and Barnabas “related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.” Finally James proposes a decision based on what had been shared and an understanding of God’s plan for Gentiles to also be His people revealed in “the words of the prophets” in Scripture. The result is that they all come to one accord, which allows Gentiles to be the people of God without keeping the law of Moses.
If this was not in Acts, I can imagine that a lot of Christians would be critical of this process of decision making. There is too much human wisdom and understanding that is involved. James introduces his solution with “my judgement is” (15:19). The phrase “it seemed good to us ” is repeated three times in explaining the decision. All this language of human discernment and no language of listening for or hearing God’s voice on the matter. Many would find this to be a poor model for spiritual decision making. Prayer is not even mentioned in the whole process!
Yet, the voice of the Lord has played a big role in this decision, only it occurs in chapter 10, not here in chapter 15. Cornelius is visited by an angel in a vision and is instructed to send men to find Peter in Joppa. Peter has a roof top vision of unclean animals in which a voice tells him to “Rise, Peter; kill and eat” and when he refuses, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happens three times and then “the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” There is a lot of direct communication from God happening to set up this encounter between Peter and Cornelius’s household.
When Peter is told to accompany the men “without hesitation”, he is being told not to exercise his judgment on the matter. This is because his current understanding is that it would be unlawful for him to visit with a Gentile (10:28). And that is primarily because a Jew is not to eat of the unclean foods that a Gentile would serve them. To do so would be to make himself unclean (Lev 11:44). This is so much a part of Peter’s understanding that he initially refuses a direct command of the Lord to eat unclean animals! It will take a lot to help Peter to a new understanding. But a vision repeated three times, an angelic visitation to a Gentile believer, the coincidental matching of what Cornelius is told and what Peter is told, and finally the Holy Spirit filling the Gentile believers even as he is sharing with them does the trick. This gives Peter a new understanding which he uses to make a decision that Gentile believers should not be required to keep the law of Moses.
My main point is that the voice of the Lord in this story did not tell the disciples the right decision at the Jerusalem council. It did not tell them what seemed good to the Holy Spirit. Instead, the voice of the Lord was needed to change their understanding of how God viewed Gentiles in Christ so that they would make the right decision. So that what seemed good to them was the same as what seemed good to the Holy Spirit.
To be continued….
I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.