Acts 15

Acts 15 Study

 

This is the chapter where most Christians say following Saturday Sabbath and doing the Torah were done away with without ever having studied in depth the Torah.  Today we are going to dive into this and see point blank where understanding the Torah comes into play.   I will be using the Cepher and TS2009 translations for this study and it will include scriptures from other books so be prepared.

 

Starting in verse 1 it talks of the men of Judah teaching you must be circumcised first to be saved; I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is true and false at the same time.  Please follow my logic here there are two types of circumcision in the Torah one is of the flesh the other of the heart; see Deuteronomy 10:16 where the ISRAELITES were instructed to circumcise the foreskin of THEIR hearts and to quit being stubborn and also Deuteronomy 30:6 where Yah(God) promises to circumcise our hearts himself which is a prophecy of the New Covenant.  This is the circumcision that must take place first.  Lets use human logic here if I walk in and say hey if you want to be saved I have to lop off some flesh from your male parts to do it you would tell me to go to hell; the first circumcision that is supposed to take place is the circumcision of the heart or in better terms the submission of your mind and soul to the will of the almighty.  Basically you’re allowing the want to heart not the I’m not gonna heart.

 

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 

Deuteronomy 10:16 CEPHER

 

And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. 

Deuteronomy 30:6 CEPHER

 

 

We see Paul and Barnabus cause a ruckus about this and therefore the Jerusalem council was convened and the met there with the Pharisees that had come into belief and the Apostles.  In this meeting when things were getting hot and heavy Peter/Kepha stood up and told of his dream and gave the interpretation of it from Acts 10 stating no man was unclean.

 

And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Yahudiy to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but Elohiym has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 

Acts 10:28 CEPHER

 

Then Kepha opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that Elohiym is no respecter of persons:  But in every nation he that fears him, and works righteousness, is accepted with him. 

Acts 10:34-35 CEPHER

 

So now we see Peter again in Acts 15 gives the same interpretation of the same dream to these men.

 

And when there had been much disputing, Kepha rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago Elohiym made choice among us, that the other nations by my mouth should hear the word of the Besorah, and believe.  And Elohiym, which knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Ruach Ha’Qodesh, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye Elohiym, to put a yoke upon the neck of the Talmidiym, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?  But we believe that through the grace of the Adonai Yahusha Ha’Mashiach we shall be saved, even as they. 

Acts 15:7-11

 

The yoke Peter was speaking of were the oral traditions the Pharisees were trying to force on the converts or shall we say green card applicants. We see in Genesis that Abraham believed upon Yah before getting circumcised and that is where Peter was going with his speech.  Abraham was 90 years old before making the covenant of circumcision with Yah but his belief had started much earlier in his life but through his belief he obeyed what he was commanded to do.

 

NOW Yahuah had said unto El־Avram, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you:  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing:  And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12:1-3 CEPHER

 

 AND when Avram was ninety years old and nine, Yahuah appeared to El־Avram, and said unto him, I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be perfect. 

Genesis 17:1 CEPHER

 

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be Elohiym unto you, and to your seed after you.  And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, את the land wherein you are a stranger, את all the land of Kena`an, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their Elohiym.  

Genesis 17:7-8 CEPHER

 

We see Abraham obeyed therefore the covenant continued with Issac.

 

 And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto your seed את all these countries; and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Avraham obeyed my voice, and did guard my watch, my commandments, my statutes, and my Torah. 

Genesis 26:5 CEPHER

 

Peters words silenced them and this gave Paul and Barnabas the time needed to give testimony of the miracles and wonders that had happened on their journey and opened up for James to make his famous declaration first quoting Amos 9:11-12

 

In that day will I raise up the cukkah of Daviyd that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:  That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says Yahuah that does this.

Amos 9:11-12 CEPHER

 

So in James declaration he stated Torah commands to start the new converts off in the right direction, every command he gave was written throughout the first five books of your Bible.  Look these verses up if you want to prove it:

 

Exodus 20:4

Deuteronomy 16:21 through 17:1

Deuteronomy 23:17-18

Leviticus 17:10-16

 

Now verse 21 is where the racism of Christianity is evident because the that’s Jewish statement is the first thing that pops out of everyone’s mouth without realizing Messiah is from the tribe of Judah.  We see the word SYNAGOGUE in our English translations and without looking at history and understanding what was going on we scream JEWISH JEWISH JEWISH instead of thinking of the reasoning James had therefore declaring James an Apostle to the Jews only.  We must learn what he was getting at and since we’ve learned the context from the beginning of the chapter we must understand that the new gentile converts couldn’t walk into a book store and be like yo you got any of those Torah’s lying around that I can buy.  No normally the only place they could here Yah’s law aka the Torah would’ve been to go to the local congregation aka the Synagogue where it is read every Sabbath/Saturday in small portions.  Now saying this we must remember what our Messiah said about those who read from the “Seat of Moses” in the book of Matthew.

 

THEN spoke Yahusha to the multitude, and to his Talmidiym, Saying, The scribes and the Parashiym sit in Mosheh’s seat:  All therefore whatsoever he bids you guard, that diligently guard and do; but do not ye after their reforms and traditions: for they say, and do not.  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the tsiytsith of their garments,  And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,  And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Rabbi, even Mashiach; and all ye are brethren.  

Matthew 23:1-8 CEPHER

 

This could go for us to day as well, we need to quit listening to the doctrines of man and look at what the Word says, I mean it did become flesh and die for you after all.  We need to walk out our faith instead of doctrines and teachings of men.

 

We see in verses22-35 that what Peter and James had said was good in the eyes of these men and they sent Paul and Barnabas back out with a letter saying point blank abstain from these things and go to the local Saturday congregation aka the Synagogue in your local area to learn the path to righteousness.  You see when we aren’t letting the Set Apart/Holy Spirit open our eyes and we are letting what we’ve been taught our entire lives control our thought processes then we will never change and open up our hearts for the true circumcision of the heart to happen.  We let the stone to continue building up and blinding us leading on a dark path shrouded with false light.  Messiah told us HE IS THE PATH, He being the walking talking Torah, and we were pointed to it directly over and over again.  When we start walking in His ways with a circumcised heart then all the physical requirements of the “law” become easy and we want to do them and the curse of it being death or more accurately the second death is wiped away by the blood of Messiah.  Will we mess up and let anger take over or give into our worldly lusts from time to time, yes but don’t wallow in them let the Spirit guide your walk and the lust of the flesh will become a thing of the past.

 

Now go dust off your Bible and read it.