Grace and Truth

I wan to invite you to open your bibles with me to the book of Acts, and find with me chapter 15. Certain individuals came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This is pretty serious. If you’re If you are unfamiliar with this term . . . Just know this, that was a high standard.

It meant that salvation came through surgery. And it was an old standard. There was a controversy over whether or not, new gentile believers would need to be circumcised. And people were fighting over it. You think people in the church fighting over carpet, or how something is moved or anything else… try being in a church that says, you can only be saved if you have surgery. So watch what happens.

Verse, 2. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. This was a hard issue for them. Because Paul had been teaching salvation came by faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son . . . rose from the dead. That’s it! These gentile were having genuine and authentic salvations moments. Hearts were being changed. People were being saved. So, Paul and barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to speak about this question on circumsision.

Verse 4.. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church (here is this word e ̇kklhsi÷a again ) and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. 5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” Right, so they had to change.

Right.. the laws required these gentiles to change everything. There were ceremonial laws, and original laws, and laws how to dress, and laws how to eat and laws how to behave. And to be honest, it was all of this outward appearances of holiness, but they were forgetting the fact that the heart of these people were changed. Can you imagine what it would be like to change instantly everything about your life, in one day.

It would be overwhelming right? V. 7,. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. Theres Peter again… giving good truth.

Peter knows all about this.. earlier he was sent to a gentiles home and witnessed first hand the grace within the heart of this man. V. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Is it possible to have a changed heart, but still live with bad habits? Perhaps. I think Peter thought so. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” There’s the gospel. You are saved by grace through faith. IU just think its funny, heres Peter giving the gospel, to those there. And then James chimes in. Look with me in verse 19.. 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” Three laws are given here…. Two of which are what? For the unity of the church. One was for sexual purity.

So what do they do.. well look in verse 30.. 30 So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. I wan to ask everyone soemrhign… Do you believe that a church can have controversy? That we can disagree? Do you remember what was the early churches first big controversy was?

And its not just a one time controversy, it would become a controversy that would surface in every church, and in every generation, and even surfaces in our own generation, today. The controversy was this… How good does a person have to be in order to be a part of the church? Just this week, Every morning of family camp, I meet with two other pastors who are my closest friends, and we had the same conversation come up.

How perfect does a person need to be, to be a member of the church of the Nazarene. And heres the other part of that controversy. Who is the church for? Most of us know the story, but if you do not, Saul was persecuting the church. And its wasn’t just a man picking on people. But he was going farther, he was putting Christians in prison, and putting them to death.

He was sort of like a bounty hunter, and he was hunting Christians. And in the middle of all of this, Jesus appears to him and He got saved. But heres the thing, not only did he get saved, but he did something that was frowned upon… he took the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles. So heres the issue. These gentiles, they weren’t Jewish. They didn’t know the traditions. They didn’t know hardly anything about the temple, and the laws, and the procedures of church.

They came from lives where they didn’t act int her way as their jewish brothers and sisters. They were literally people living in utter and total sin, and having and experiencing a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, the controversy was, Many Jews assumed that since Jesus was Jewish and fulfilled Jewish prophecy, then to become Christian you must first become Jewish. Now heres my hunch… this can very easily be found in the church today.

If you've had a bad experience with a church, it might very well have been related to this issue. In this moment, you had jews who knew the truth. But you had gentiles that needed a lot of grace. And what we recognize is this. How do we navigate within the church the crossroads where grace and truth collide? Theres a book called, the grace and truth paradox which was written by Andy Alcorn.

And Andy helps us understand what happens when truth and grace can become one sided. He says, “Truth without grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ. What Andy is saying is this… when it comes to truth without grace, we can become legalistic. Do this, don’t do that, and if you fail, you’re out.

Thats what the pharisees did. They created over 600 laws to follow. You broke them, you’re out. Now, let me ask… Are you a truth person? Truth people are easy to admire. They have convictions and principles. They believe in right and wrong. They set standards. They speak out against injustice, oppression, and evil. But without grace, telling the truth can become an excuse for being abrasive and even abusive to others who are not following the standard that they live.

On the other side, Are you a person of grace? Grace people without truth are pleasant to be around, but we wonder if they really like us or if they are just trying to be liked. Grace people are really easy going people. They are very tolerant of right and wrongs. Grace people are people who may not take a stance on a issue. If you are a grace person you are most concerned about being loved.

If you are a truth person you are most concerned about being right even it means being unloved. But In the church… where does grace and truth collide? It collides with Jesus. Where Grace and truth was embodied. John tells us in John chapter 1, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” It’s not 50 / 50.

It’s not 50% grace and 50% truth. It’s 100% grace and 100% truth. 100% all the time, in Jesus. Jesus was all grace and all truth. He welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate with them. He had compassion on the crowds when they were hungry and far from home. He let children be children. He healed, he loved, he laughed. But He was also truth. He condemn the hearts of many leaders.

He told many, this life following me isn’t going to be easy. Amen. Is anyone here living an easy christian life? Jesus prophesied judgment on Jerusalem for their unrepentant hearts. We need grace, we need to hear “come to me those of you who are weary and I will give you rest, and we need truth, where Jesus says, the truth will set you free. And he tells us, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin…But if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed” We need truth.

We need grace. We need Jesus. And so, heres what is happening in the early church. There was this great controversy over outsiders becoming a part of the insiders, the gentiles becoming a part of the Jewish Christians, and together, both groups becoming a part of the body of Christ. There arises within this crossroads of grace and truth, a real danger to the unity of the local church… Whats the danger?

Well The danger is… When it comes to the drift, The church will tend to drift towards those who are insiders and away from those who would be considered outsiders. Have you ever watched little kids play soccer? It’s fun, but as a competitive person, it can become just as frustrating because as you watch those 5-8 year olds, they have a tendency to do what? They have a tendency to clump together.

The coach puts them on the field, and they are spread out, but once one kid kicks the ball and the game starts, all the kids on the field clump together around that ball. And As a parent, you keep trying to tell them, spread out. pass the ball to one another. Work together to make a goal. They drifted from being spread out, into a clump. And lets be honest..

we know that’s not a healthy strategy. Its the same way for the local church… Listen, A church doesn’t drift into greater health or better focus. It doesn’t. You’ll never see a church or any organization for that matter. just drift into goodness, and unity, and love. It takes sacrificial leadership. It takes service and commitment and a willingness to listen. When grace and truth work together, what we tend to see is a breathing church.

A church that expands, but also contracts. Grace keeps us ;ovine and compassionate… Truth keeps us grounded in what is right and wrong. And when grace and truth is at work together in the local church it creates a community that is both loving and accountable. Because heres the issue. Not only is there a danger of drifting inward, but we also tend to drift more towards truth than grace within our circles it creates within.

Look with me in verse 9, He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. I remember in my own life before Christ. I lived in sin. I lived in darkness. I lived how I wanted, and did what I wanted to do. And Do you wanna know something… God changed my heart way before he changed my habits. And itsthe same with you, “God changes your heart way before he change your habits.” And I began by coming to Christ by faith.

I didn’t walk in His statues right away. I didn’t become entirely sanctified within a few weeks of my salvation. I got saved in December of 2002, and baptized in March of 2003, but I still lived for many years in my old habits. And to be honest, I didn’t want to give up my swearing at first. I didn’t want to give up tobacco. I didn’t want to love and forgive others that were mean to me, or hurtful towards me.

My heart needed to be changed and it took truth and grace over a period of time. We can become so inward focused in the church, that often times we can look at new Christians and go they are no where near where I am. They don’t look like my holiness, or sound like my holiness or act like my holiness… but yet we can forget we too were once lost and learning as well.

We can forget where we began. We can forget that we too once needed grace from God and grace from others walking with us in this journey of holiness and faith. In my own life, With time, as I learned truth, through discipleship and being honest about where I was, ya know, repenting and turning from those convictions in my life, and believing God loves me, and is sanctifying me each and every day, I had to learn that if the truth was going to set me free, grace was the key to the shackles that prevented me from growing.

The truth was, I was a sinner. The truth was, apart from Christ I can do nothing. The truth was, I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. But it was by grace, that I was forgiven. For it is by grace I have been saved, through faith—and this is not from myself, it is the gift of God.

Grace is what gave me the ability to move forward, to grow, and to become more like Christ. Otherwise all I would ever do is sit in my sin that I was freed from. And listen church, we can put so much emphasis on truth that we forget to even be in the conversation with others who are needing grace. Listen, none of us will ever outgrow our need to receive grace, and God’s plan for us to give grace to others.

We have such a natural drift to forget where we began ourselves and we tend to take truth and force it on others who need grace. This weekend, we spent the week at family camp and I cant begin to tell you how amazing family camp was. But, we got to go to the beach and if you’ve ever been to the beach, you know, that there’s three things. Sun, sand and waves.

I didn’t go swimming this year. I’m not a big fan of sand either. Perhaps, clams can get a sand grain lodged in its mouth and create a pearl… and its beautiful and valuable. But when I get sand lodged into places, it doesn’t create pearls. Its uncomfortable. So, I tend to sit in my chair and watch the kids play. But I was watching Grace and Abby on their boogie boards while riding the waves.

And You could see how they would be out there in the waves, facing us, and before long, they would be so far from us, we’d haft to kind of get their attention and tell them, “Hey! You need to get back up here in front of us.” And they would sand up, and walk up the shore where it was easy for them to walk, and then they would head back out into the waves, and before long, they would end up off course again and down the beach.

And I remember, the first day we were out there, Grace had gotten out of the waves, and she was walking away from where we were seated. She was so off course, she was bitterly going the wrong way. And so, I walked patiently behind her until I yelled out, Hey grace, Behind you! And then she turned, saw me and, we walked together to where everyone was. We need to remember, that as a church we can very easily take our eyes off of Jesus and drift.

We can make programs and turn inwardly, and focus more on preserving than advancing. We can become consumed with doing things our way, and not being careful where we are going, or what were doing. Sometimes, just like our kids out there in the waves, we need to adjust ourselves to be back on course. Sometimes, just like grace, she needed to hear a familiar voice helping her find her way.

Isn’t that just like Jesus? That often times we get off course, he calls us by our name and leads us back on course, and he leads us into the community. Sometimes, we’ve got to work hard to swim agains the current. And We have to work hard not to be a church where grace and truth conflict, but coexist. SO heres three challenges I have for you this week.. Let’s be concerned with not only with those who we are keeping, but also with those who we’re reaching as well.

Ok? Lets make sure were not too inward focused that we forget the outward call to go and proclaim the gospel. Secondly, when we tend to lean toward what is truth, lets not forget that we also need to lean towards grace. Remember where you began in your faith journey. Remember your testimony and what Christ has done in you over the years, and remember that people need to start somewhere.

When it comes to truth and grace, make the commitment to journey with others.. do you know what walking with others require? It requires a commitment for longevity. To being and staying in the conversation with others. And thirdly, lets remain openhanded towards all people. Ya know, James was a pretty smart guy. James in our Scripture today in verse 19 said, we shouldn’t make it difficult for those who are turning to God.

When people are with us.. when God draws people near us… By His grace perhaps they will experience both the grace and truth of our Savior. You see, generosity is more than just giving material things, its also being available. Amen? *