He Tented Among Us

I Will Rebuild the Tent of David

(Acts 15:12-18, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 9, 2012)

[12] And all the assembly fell silent,

Paul and his ministry companion Barnabas had experienced in person the turning of the ages. The movement from Old to New Testament was not just turning the page in a book for them. They saw it happen in Galatia. It was glorious, but it was also hugely controversial among Jews.

That controversy was not only between Jews that rejected Jesus as the Messiah and Jews who embraced Him as Savior and Lord. It was also within the group of Jews that believed in Jesus. In that group there were some who thought that the authorized pathway of salvation in Jesus Christ had to include circumcision and the keeping of all the ceremonial traditions of Judaism that they thought of as the Law of Moses. Paul strongly disagreed. This is what led to the Jerusalem Council, the “assembly” described in Acts 15.

and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. [13] After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. [14] Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. Prior to the verses we are considering here, Peter (Simeon) had argued from the events that had taken place in Acts 10 and 11 that God Himself had put an unmistakable mark of inclusion upon uncircumcised Gentiles (non-Jews) by pouring out His Holy Spirit upon a gathering at the home of Cornelius. Now Paul and Barnabas added more eyewitness evidence of how the Lord had done great signs and wonders through them during the mission in Galatia. That mission included distinctive signs of the coming of the resurrection age, signs that had characterized the ministry of Jesus prior to the cross in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies.

Jesus explained these signs by referencing the words of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” These were foretastes of the coming day of the fulfillment of the resurrection era. The greatest foretaste of that day came in the resurrection of Jesus Himself from the dead.

In John's gospel the Lord's signs of who He was began with Him turning water into wine. Those signs ended with Him taking up His life again after he had laid it down for our sake through His death on the cross. James, a son of Mary and Joseph, and a key leader in the church in Jerusalem, was an eyewitness to the resurrection body of Jesus. According to 1 Corinthians 15, after Jesus appeared to over 500 people at once, he then appeared individually to James.

[15] And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,[16] 

“‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,

When James spoke to the assembly in Jerusalem, he did what Jesus did. He grounded the experiences of the New Covenant age in the words of the Old Testament prophets. He did not use Isaiah, but the prophet Amos.

Amos was a prophet who largely wrote about the judgment of God upon Israel. For almost the entire nine chapters of this book, the Word of God through Amos was a devastating indictment against Israel for the nation's disobedience against the Law of the Lord. The last five verses of the book formed a very striking contrast since they were a prophesy of a coming era of outrageously abundant blessings.

Those five verses began with the words, “In that day.” According to James, the resurrection of Jesus, the resurrection signs through Peter and Paul, and the inclusion of non-Jews in the covenant promises of resurrection blessings, were all part of what God promised through Amos. “That day” had come in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the blessing of the Holy Spirit given not only to Jews (Acts 2), but also to Gentiles (Acts 10, 11, 14:3). James quoted Amos 9:11-12 with his own inserted comments of interpretation so that the assembly could connect the signs and wonders reported by Paul and Barnabas with words of the prophets concerning the nations of the world coming to the God of the Jews.

What you might miss is the reference in Amos 9:11 to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is vital to see, since the apostolic message that God had blessed with these resurrection signs and wonders in Galatia was the message of the resurrection of Jesus the Jewish Messiah. The gate to salvation for the world was not the ceremony of circumcision. It was the resurrection of Jesus.

Amos 9:11 prophesies, “I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen. There are three points you must see in these words: 1. Something is going to be raised up. 2. The booth is a tent, a word which the Scriptures frequently use to refer to a physical body that can be filled with the presence of God. 3. The David that James is counting on is not the one whose body had been in the grave for so many centuries by this time, but the long-expected Son of David who rose from the dead on the third day.

The rich heritage of tabernacle, temple, and living church would be worth considering now from the Scriptures, but we need to get right to the heart of the matter. When John wrote about God dwelling with us to save us, this was his exact message: “And the Word became flesh and tented among us.” He went on to say, “We have seen His glory.” The glory he was referring to was the glory of the resurrected Jesus, that glory that confronted Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and sent him forth for the rest of his life preaching the resurrection of Jesus to the nations.

[17] that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things [18] known from of old.’

God raised up Jesus, James said, using Amos 9:12, so that the remnant of mankind might seek the Lord and find him. Some of that remnant who would call upon the name of the Lord would be circumcised Jews, but many others would be uncircumcised Gentiles.

In the resurrection of Christ we have the good news of the cross displayed for the world to see. The Lamb of God was slain, and his sacrifice was acceptable. The victory of the resurrection was the key. We preach that resurrection everywhere to everyone. We also look in hope for the fullness of the resurrection era, particularly when we don't know how to fix this broken world, the people that we love here, and even our own souls. We hear the remaining words of Amos 9, and we cry out, “How long, O Lord?” Our souls long for the sure fulfillment of the whole Word.

1. What is the context of this passage? The problem? The opinions? The earlier testimony of Peter?

2. How do the signs and wonders that God did through Barnabas and Paul among the Gentiles relate to James' understanding of Amos 9:11-12?

3. What is the story of tabernacle or tent throughout the Scriptures?

4. What is the purpose of God rebuilding the tent of David according to Acts 15:17?

OT Passage: Psalm 84