When a church faces a controversial decision, how can it seek God’s will and reach unity? Acts 15 is one of the best places to find answers. This chapter gives us three principles to follow.
Where God Is Working
Henry Blackaby advises the church not to make its own plans and then ask God to bless them. Doing so can lead to both controversy and error. Instead, the church should look for where God is already working and join Him.
Paul, Barnabas, and Peter all testified about what God had done among the Gentiles. They saw God at work, and the church was being called to follow Him, even when it brought controversy.
The whole assembly kept silence and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the gentiles. (Acts 15:12)
What the Bible Says
When James spoke to the council, he referred to the testimony of Paul, Barnabas, and Peter. He then added Scripture to support their accounts.
“After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen;
from its ruins I will rebuild it,
and I will set it up,
so that all other peoples may seek the Lord—
even all the gentiles over whom my name has been called.
Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago.” (Acts 15:16-18)
God will not violate His Word. But when He gives us clear direction through Scripture and we see Him at work, we can be confident that He not only supports our decision but is also calling us to follow it.
The Witness of the Holy Spirit
The account in Acts does not mention a concerted time of prayer, but we can be fairly sure that much prayer went into the entire process. In the end, their final decision was written in a letter and sent to the Gentile churches.
What solidifies this decision-making process is that those gathered and the Holy Spirit were united in their decision.
For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials. (Acts 15:28)
The Process in Action
One joy of writing this blog is getting to look back on the years of ministry. At my first church, when I was clearly a young and dumb pastor, we met once a week to pray about whether to hold a revival meeting.
If you are not familiar with revival meetings, they were often held in the spring and fall. A visiting preacher would come, and the focus was mainly on evangelism. Some of my best experiences have been hosting another pastor as the speaker or serving as the guest speaker in one of these meetings.
If I remember correctly, we spent two months praying about whether God wanted us to hold the meeting. We believed He told us to have it, so we invited a pastor from a nearby church to speak.
That week-long service was one of the most Spirit-led and Spirit-filled meetings I have ever been part of. At the end of each service, I would tremble as I waited for people to respond to the gospel. Some of the best things in our church happened that week.
At that time, I could not have explained the process I outlined in my blog. But with the Lord’s guidance, we did a few things right. We sought His advice and waited until it seemed right to us and the Holy Spirit to hold the meetings.
I still remember the night I saw a man in a white shirt walking up the gravel road holding hands with his wife as they came to the church. He was not a believer, but that night, during the meeting, he found Jesus as his Savior.
A week later, he had a heart attack and died. At his funeral, I was able to comfort the family with the knowledge that he was in heaven because he had given his life to Christ.
This is one of many good stories that came from waiting for the Spirit’s leading and seeking His direction.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Acts 15:12-29 on YouTube today.
