Trouble In Paradise
Steve Jones
ACTS 15
Intro: Todd Beamer, a passenger on the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning to rush the hijackers. Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Let's roll." Subsequently the plane crashed but all Americans are proud that THESE passengers went down fighting for their freedom, and ours.
Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
Anyone who is a Christian enjoys freedom in Christ. We enjoy freedom from sin, freedom from dependence upon law-keeping and works, and freedom from the fear of death. But one thing we learn from Acts 15...we have to fight to maintain our freedom. We have to be ready to roll.
I. OUR FREEDOM IN CHRIST GETS ATTACKED - 15:1
The nature of this attack is that there were people who had been converted to Christianity out of a Jewish background and others who were converted out of a non-Jewish background. Each side brought their religious "baggage" with them and that tended to make for some conflict in general. Paul's letters to the Roman, Corinthian and Galatian churches reflect that conflict.
But even more to the point, there were some converts to Christianity who had been Pharisees -- the strictest adherents to the Law of Moses. Just because they had been converted to Christianity didn't mean they had given up all of the Jewish traditions they'd been raised with for years. They didn't come up out of the waters of baptism and say ...
Steve Jones
ACTS 15
Intro: Todd Beamer, a passenger on the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat but was routed to a customer-service representative instead, who passed him on to supervisor Lisa Jefferson. Beamer reported that one passenger was killed and, later, that a flight attendant had told him the pilot and co-pilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded. Later, he told the operator that some of the plane's passengers were planning to rush the hijackers. Beamer's last audible words were "Are you guys ready? Let's roll." Subsequently the plane crashed but all Americans are proud that THESE passengers went down fighting for their freedom, and ours.
Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
Anyone who is a Christian enjoys freedom in Christ. We enjoy freedom from sin, freedom from dependence upon law-keeping and works, and freedom from the fear of death. But one thing we learn from Acts 15...we have to fight to maintain our freedom. We have to be ready to roll.
I. OUR FREEDOM IN CHRIST GETS ATTACKED - 15:1
The nature of this attack is that there were people who had been converted to Christianity out of a Jewish background and others who were converted out of a non-Jewish background. Each side brought their religious "baggage" with them and that tended to make for some conflict in general. Paul's letters to the Roman, Corinthian and Galatian churches reflect that conflict.
But even more to the point, there were some converts to Christianity who had been Pharisees -- the strictest adherents to the Law of Moses. Just because they had been converted to Christianity didn't mean they had given up all of the Jewish traditions they'd been raised with for years. They didn't come up out of the waters of baptism and say ...
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