IS JESUS ENOUGH? (34 OF 56)
Scripture: Acts 15:1-21
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Is Jesus Enough? (34 of 56)
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 15:1-21
Read Acts 15:1-21
R. Kent Hughes recounts a story told by Winston Churchill that is worthy of our consideration.
Winston Churchill told of a British family that went out for a picnic by a lake. In the course of the afternoon the five-year-old son fell into the water. Unfortunately, none of the adults could swim. As the child was bobbing up and down and everyone on the shore was in a panic, a passerby saw the situation. At great risk to himself, he dove in fully clothed and managed to reach the child just before he went under for the third time. He was able to pull him out of the water and present him safe and sound to his mother. Instead of thanking the stranger for his heroic efforts, however, the mother snapped peevishly at the rescuer, ''Where's Johnny's cap?''
That's a jarring little story that makes a crucial point: it is a travesty to be unable to celebrate great things because of a fixation on lesser things. I offer this story to you because I think it might help us understand what is happening in this amazing fifteenth chapter of Acts. If we were to use the story as an allegory for Acts 15, we might interpret it along these lines: the little boy drowning in the lake represents the Gentile world which was lost and drowning in sin, death, and judgment. The man who dove in and pulled the boy to shore would represent Paul, Barnabas, Peter and, indeed, all those within the early Church who felt that they should take the gospel to the nations and call all people to salvation in Christ Jesus. The mother on the shore missing the greater good news because of a fixation on the boy's cap would represent those Jewish converts within the Church upset that the Gentiles who were being saved had not embraced the external rite of circumcision.
The events of Acts 15 are crucial because the very future of the Church hung in the balance. At the heart of this debate and t ...
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 15:1-21
Read Acts 15:1-21
R. Kent Hughes recounts a story told by Winston Churchill that is worthy of our consideration.
Winston Churchill told of a British family that went out for a picnic by a lake. In the course of the afternoon the five-year-old son fell into the water. Unfortunately, none of the adults could swim. As the child was bobbing up and down and everyone on the shore was in a panic, a passerby saw the situation. At great risk to himself, he dove in fully clothed and managed to reach the child just before he went under for the third time. He was able to pull him out of the water and present him safe and sound to his mother. Instead of thanking the stranger for his heroic efforts, however, the mother snapped peevishly at the rescuer, ''Where's Johnny's cap?''
That's a jarring little story that makes a crucial point: it is a travesty to be unable to celebrate great things because of a fixation on lesser things. I offer this story to you because I think it might help us understand what is happening in this amazing fifteenth chapter of Acts. If we were to use the story as an allegory for Acts 15, we might interpret it along these lines: the little boy drowning in the lake represents the Gentile world which was lost and drowning in sin, death, and judgment. The man who dove in and pulled the boy to shore would represent Paul, Barnabas, Peter and, indeed, all those within the early Church who felt that they should take the gospel to the nations and call all people to salvation in Christ Jesus. The mother on the shore missing the greater good news because of a fixation on the boy's cap would represent those Jewish converts within the Church upset that the Gentiles who were being saved had not embraced the external rite of circumcision.
The events of Acts 15 are crucial because the very future of the Church hung in the balance. At the heart of this debate and t ...
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