Today we’ll see Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem and the welcome in the church that he received there. We’ll also see the trouble in Jerusalem his presence would instigate just by him being there. And we’ll look at the plan they hatched to avert the trouble.

We’re going to see that the gospel of grace is the power that saves and unites both Jews and Gentiles in the community of faith.

We’re going to deal with two main questions this morning:

1) what is the relationship of Christian Jews and Gentiles to the Jewish laws and the customs of Judaism?

2) What are we willing to give up for the sake of the furtherance of the gospel and for the sake of the unity of Christians in the church?

This passage challenges each of us to confront that question. We want to deal with that question honestly, humbly, and with faith.

~~~