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Pastor Lud Golz
Pastor Lud Golz

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  Home | Transcript Archive | May | May 30, 2008

Friday, May 30, 2008

Today I would like to start a study of the 15th chapter of the book of Acts using the Focus and Amplify approach to the study.

To use the focus and amplify approach you read the chapter over a number of times and then decide what the focus of the chapter is.  When I did this the focus I came up with was: decision-making.

This chapter describes what took place at the first church council.  There was disagreement on what expectations to have of Gentile converts.  This conflict resulted in a sharp dispute and debate.

As you read on, there emerges an amplification of how to go about making decisions within a group so you can say about the decision: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”  Reading further you notice in verse 7 that they allowed for much discussion.  Everybody had an opportunity to share their point of view, their convictions and concerns.

This debate was then narrowed by asking Peter, and then Barnabas and Paul, who had experience regarding the issue at hand, to describe what was going on in the trenches.

It says in verse 13 that after this description was given of what God had been doing in the lives of Gentile believers, James, who oversaw the discussion as the head of the church council, provided a word of discernment based upon the Word of God.

So you had a debate that was going on, discussion that was allowed, then description related to the issues.  One with the gift of discernment suggested a decision that reflected what was discussed as well as what was found in scripture.  This decision was agreed upon by all and distributed to those who would be impacted by the decision.

 

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