Leaders make decisions, often with huge consequences.
Spiritual leaders make decisions, often with eternal consequences.
As spiritual leaders, when Scripture is clear we can be certain with the decision. When Scripture is not clear we make decisions with more humility and less certainty, yet we still must make decisions.
The apostles and elders in Acts made massive theological decisions, not with certainty, but what “seemed” would please the Holy Spirit.
When we’re not scripturally certain, our decision is based on what “seems” good to the Holy Spirit.
TRANSCRIPT
This morning, as I was reading Acts chapter fifteen, I noticed something that is an excellent guideline for spiritual leaders, as we make decisions. Now, some decisions we make are very clearly laid out in Scripture, and it’s really not that difficult. If we know the word, we know what decision to make. But most decisions aren’t cut and dry, black and white in Scripture. And so there’s an idea that I ran across this morning. I think if we apply it to decision-making, it could help us. And these are apostolic decisions. This is Acts 15. It’s the gathering of the apostles and the elders. So these are the highest-level spiritual leaders in the new church, and let’s see what guided their decision, and let’s see how they made that decision, and what was the underlying principle, or concept, or idea.
Here we go. Verse 22. “Then it seemed good to the apostles and elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: ‘The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers, who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good’”—There’s that phrase again—‘“it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.’”
The apostolic council—the elders and apostles have met. They’ve made some decisions, some doctrinal decisions. They’ve clarified their theology about justification and sanctification, and they’re applying it to the Gentiles. And they’re no longer making it difficult for Gentiles who are coming to faith in Christ with a bunch of man-made religious rules. And they’ve just pared it down to the basics here about stay away from idols, stay away from immorality, and a few other things. But how did they come to that?
There’s this phrase in verse 22: “it seemed good to the apostles and elders and the whole church.” And then that phrase is repeated in verse 22: “it seemed good to us.” Who’s “us”? This is a small group. I think in modern language, maybe we would say the executive committee, if we use business language. It’s a small group of these apostolic elder leaders. So it seemed good in verse 22 to the leaders and, it says, the whole church. In verse 25, “it seemed good to us,” this group, the highest level leaders who are sending this letter. And then the clincher is verse 28. It says, “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit.”
And this idea of “seemed.” I was thinking about this—sometimes there’s a high level of confidence and certainty. And we’re absolutely sure when scripture’s clear. It’s not just like it seems good, it absolutely is good. There are things in scripture that are absolutely clear, and there’s no sense of “this seems like what we should do.” No, no, no. This is absolutely, unquestionably, no compromise, what we should do.
But most of life is not like that. Many times, there’s not that level of certainty, and if we approach every decision with a level of apostolic, scriptural authority level of certainty, we’re going to make some wrong decisions and we’re going to elevate things higher than they should be.
There are certain things we need to be absolutely certain about. But so many decisions are not certainty. So many decisions are “it seems like.” And this word “seems” that keeps showing up seems to be telling us to walk in humility as leaders. There is a time for certainty, but there’s a time of, It seems like the right thing to do. Maybe I’ll figure out down the road that it wasn’t. And using that kind of language, I think, is a wiser way to make leadership decisions.
So if we’re making decisions as spiritual leaders, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been at this, it doesn’t matter where you are, whether you’re the bishop, or whether you’re the brand new small group leader, or whether you’re the senior pastor, or whether you’re the newest staff member. I think the guideline of making decisions is, Does it seem like it would please the Holy Spirit?
And ultimately, what they said is, This seemed good to the Holy Spirit. No matter what the decision is, the question is, Does my attitude seem good to the Holy Spirit? Does the action I’m taking seem good to the Holy Spirit? Does the motive seem good to the Holy Spirit? Do the words I’m saying in communicating, in discussing, in debating this decision, do those words seem like they please the Holy Spirit? I think a good way to make a decision—good guidelines when we’re not scripturally certain—is to look at and move toward what seems to be good to the Holy Spirit.