Acts Session #6 -Tradition Challenges Innovation: The Jerusalem Council

Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and his original disciples were all circumcised Jews who kept the Jewish law. When Gentiles came to faith in Jesus, many Jewish believers assumed that these Gentiles needed to be circumcised as Jews and keep the law too. They didn't see the law as an alternative to faith in Christ (faith vs. law); rather, they saw the law as the correct response to faith (faith plus law).

However, when Jewish Christians in the city of Antioch reached out to Gentiles, they told Gentile converts that they didn't have to become Jews in order to follow Christ. Saul/Paul was one of the leaders in Antioch who taught this new view. He said Jesus had fulfilled the Jewish law, and now the law was a cultural option, not the required response to faith.

For believers in Judea and Jerusalem, this was an outrageous idea. So the apostles and elders invited Paul, Barnabas, and other leaders from Antioch to Jerusalem to discuss and resolve this debate. Their meeting is called the Jerusalem Council. (video segment is 7 minutes)

This video session covers Acts 11:19 - 30 and includes session outlines (sermon starters).