Session 74: Acts 15-16

1) 15:5-25 The Church, with Peter as the head, made the Council decision  that circumcision and most Jewish dietary requirements no longer needed to be observed.  They didn’t go by “Sola Scriptura” (“The Bible Alone”).  In fact, they went AGAINST Levitical law.  They exercised the “binding-and-loosing” power given Peter in Mt. 16:17-20.

2)The disagreement, and separation, of Paul and Barnabas ultimately caused the Universal Church to grow! (God can use seemingly negative events to affect positive growth.)

3) Timothy set his rights (to not be circumcised!) aside to eliminate an obstacle toward sharing the Gospel with Jews.  (What rights do we have that we can we set aside to spread the Word?)

4) 15:16-24 “No good deed goes unpunished”, or so it seems sometimes in the short run.  Paul cast out a spirit from the slave girl, and was imprisoned for it!  (The slave girl’s owners were more interested in the money she had been making for them than for her or their spiritual condition.  Don’t fall into the same bad priorities!)

5) 15:25-35  Yet, because of what happened during Paul’s imprisonment, the jailer’s family came to faith in God.
(See #2 above in parentheses!)

6) Baptism!  And perhaps for small children! (We don’t know how old the jailer’s children were, but the whole family was baptized at the same time.)  They didn’t wait until they each could make a “decision.”  The seed of the Holy Spirit should be planted ASAP.

Map - https://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CNM19-Pauls2ndJourney.gif