Advent Archive: Acts 15

Acts 15:26 gives an excellent description of what faith looks like in our testimony. The passage says of Paul and Barnabas, two men of the faith, that they had “hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is truly what faith is about: treasuring God, and the Kingdom of God above all else, even life itself. The church leaders had seen these two men exhibit their faith in their reckless abandonment of what everyone else held so dear. Self-preservation is a natural human instinct. However, when it comes to faith, the call to hazard our lives for the sake of the gospel is sometimes what separates the little leaguers from the varsity crowd. This is the difference between the dinky dinosaur ride at the theme park and the massive gut-wrenching barrel-roll filled roller coaster. Stepping out from the kiddy rides takes serious faith. This is the same thought here. That serious faith is needed to hazard one’s life, and admittedly not everyone has that kind of faith. However, these men had a testimony that said they had that kind of faith. They were willing to lay down everything for the cause of Jesus. They saw that He laid down His very life for them, so what was the difference for them to hazard their own for Him. Oh, that we would have young people of reckless abandon for Jesus, who view Him as their ultimate treasure and not their own life.
Food For Thought: Read what Paul says in Acts 20:24. What phrase from that verse shows the “throw it all on the table” kind of trust in God that he had?