Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

The Acts of the Apostles

And some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue (Acts 15:1,2). Alarmed by this teaching on Antiochene soil, Paul and Barnabas strenuously debated these Judaizing teachers. But because these Jew ish teachers were from Judea and claimed the church of Jerusalem as their home, and possibly as their authority (Acts 15:24), the church in Antioch decided to press the debate back to its home ground—Jerusa lem. And when they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them (Acts 15:4). “It was true wisdom, therefore,” states biblical commentator Will iam Kelly (1821- 1906), “to transfer the further discussion of the ques tion to the source from which the mischief had come.”4 It is essential to note that the decision to go to Jerusalem was a voluntary decision on the part of the church in Antioch. There is no biblical evidence to suggest that there was an established, supreme court in Jerusalem to which all Christian churches were answerable. Rather, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem needed to publicly clarify their position and policies regarding Gentile evangelization and fel lowship. So for the sake of unity among the churches, respect for Jerusa lem and the apostles, the future Gentile mission, and the defeat of the false gospel, the church in Antioch sent its key leaders to Jerusalem to further debate the issue (Acts 1522). Antioch, not Jerusalem, initiated the conference. This momentous meeting in Jerusalem in AD. 49 is sometimes called “the Apostolic Council.” This terminology might imply to some read ers that only the apostles deliberated together. This, however, was not And the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter (Acts 15:6).

126