St. Barnabas 29. Parting of the Ways. God the Holy Spirit, with the Apostles and Elders of the Church, had now clearly spoken that Gentile believers were full members of the Church without circumcision and without the burden of the entire Jewish Law.  We are told “Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also” ( Ac 15:35 ). We know the Church at Antioch of Syria was rich with prophets and teachers ( Ac 13:1 ), and in the roughly nine years since St. Barnabas was first sent to Antioch ( Ac 11:22 ) and Euodious appointed second Bishop of Antioch (after St. Peter), no doubt the Church continued to grow with these “many others” teaching and preaching as well. But the Letter from the Apostles and Elders was not just for the Antiochian Church. It was also for all the Gentile Churches which Barnabas and Paul had previously founded in the couple years prior. So it is no surprise that St. Luke writes, “After some days ...

St. Barnabas 28. How the Jerusalem Council Decree Was Understood.       The “beloved” ( Ac 15:25 ) St. Barnabas and St. Paul left Jerusalem, accompanied by Judas Barsabbas and Silas, and bearing the letter for the Church in Gentile lands from the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem ( Ac 15:22-29 ). Arriving in Antioch of Syria, they gathered the Church, read the letter, and the congregation “rejoiced at the exhortation” ( Ac15:30-31 ).       Recall that the issue was whether the Gentiles who became believers in Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, had to accept the entire Jewish law, including its ceremonial and dietary provisions. This was an enormous question which Barnabas and Paul had dealt with over and over again.       Now the decision of the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem, as written in the letter, was: “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” – note the authority: God the Holy Spirit (consistent with the do...

St. Barnabas 27. The Jerusalem Council. It is now April of 49 AD. St. Barnabas, St. Paul, and “some others were appointed” by the church at Antioch “to go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and the Elders” about the question of whether Gentiles who became Christians had to keep the entire Jewish Law ( Ac 15:2 ). You may recall that Barnabas, Paul (then Saul), and Titus had also gone to Jerusalem a few years previous at the time of the famine in Judea. They had discussed their preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles with the Apostles Peter, James, and John, and had received the “right hand of fellowship” to continue evangelization of the Gentiles. ( Ac 11:29-30 ; Gal 2:1-10 .) Precisely because their missionary work was bearing so much fruit, some Jewish Christian sensibilities were aroused to insist that Gentile converts had to keep the entire Jewish Law. We saw last week that Paul and Barnabas strongly countered that assertion ( Ac 15:2 ). So now Barnabas, Paul, and company were ...

  St. Barnabas 26. Dealing with a Difficult Question.       We saw last week that certain Jewish Christians had insisted that Gentile Christians had to follow the ceremonial laws of Judaism for salvation. St. Paul wrote his Letter to the Galatians – that is, to all the believers in the churches that he and St. Barnabas had formed on their recent missionary journey – to re-assert that salvation, “justification,” is solely based on faith in Jesus Christ. The letter was likely written early in 49 AD, perhaps not even a year after their return.       Paul’s passion expressed in this letter is brought out clearly in J. B. Phillip’s 1958 translation:       “O you dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the Crucified so plainly, who has been casting a spell over you? I shall ask you one simple question: Did you receive the Spirit by trying to keep the Law or by believing the message of the Gospel? Surely you can’t be so...