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Same Gospel.docx
Biblical Exercises for Spiritual Health & Fitness in 2014 Series
The Discipline of Disciple-Making:
Sharing the Same Gospel & Mission
Acts 1:8; Romans 1:16-17
Transcript
If you take your Bibles and hold them for a minute, we’re going to open to Romans. But as you’re holding them, I want to underscore in your mind what you’re holding. This is the only definition of God that’s true. This is the only source of doctrine about God, about how we got here. Creation. About the purpose and the participants in marriage, about when life begins and when it should end. This is the only source of authoritative truth about God. Everything else in the world, all other truth is from God, this is the only source of truth about God. People can look at nature and be drawn toward a God they don’t know. This book defines who that God is. And only this book. Not experience, not public opinion, not ancient books that someone might find someday. And I’m always a little trouble when people come rushing up and they say, they just dug up another book in Egypt and it was written by Mary Magdalene while she had her arm around Jesus. What do you think of that? I said, I don’t care if they dig up 5 million books and the Virgin Mary herself wrote them. It doesn’t add one word of truth about God. This is the source. You have it. Jesus said, God has spoken many times and times passed on by the fathers, by the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken by His Son. Jesus is the one that affirmed that this is His Word and nothing else is coming. So, let them dig all they want, they’re not going to find… or let people have all the visions and all the ecstatic anythings. It’s not adding truth about God.
So, we could put it this way; the Bible is the only key to unlock truth about God. No matter what the new discoveries, they add nothing to what we know about God, and those new supposed insights are not from God. You understand that? God would not reveal something contrary to His Word, nor would He reveal something in addition to His Word because he’s already said that we are not to add to His Word. So, this is the final authority. And if you want to know about marriage and family and parenting and life and business and social interaction and any other topic, God says everything you need to know is here. Doesn’t mean everything that’s knowable is here. Everything that we need for life that pleases Him and godliness, knowing Him, and experiencing Him. And we need to clinging more and more to that, because do you remember… and someday, Lord willing, if we ever get done discipling, we’re going to get back to Revelation. But did you know the Anti-christ is going to be the nicest person, the nicest human that’s ever lived? He’s going to be the most winsome. He’s going to be so nice everyone’s going to think, finally Jesus came to Earth. The one we’ve always… the smiling, grandfatherly, never hurt of fly that we’ve always dreamed of he’s going to be here. He’s going to be the most deceptive, the most winsome, and the most deadly human that ever lived. If Christians do not adhere to the truth once and for all settled in Heaven, this book, then if it was possible, Christ said the very elect would be deceived by him, but it’s not.
Let it sink in that no matter what the next supposed prophecy, lost book of the Bible, or archeological or ecstatic experience or out of body event that you hear about, they add nothing to what we know about God. And those new supposed insights are not from God. And Muhammad of Islam didn’t get any true revelation from God, and neither did Joseph Smith of Mormonism. Neither has anyone else up to this day in all of history since John the last of Christ’s apostles. And that’s what the Bible says. And I hope that you build your lives on truth, in a world that is so quickly detaching from the scriptures. In fact, according to the pollsters, the majority of so-called Christians today, not only have never read the whole Bible, they have no regular study of God’s Word planned in their lives. The majority. That’s why Jesus said, when I come back, am I even going to find the faith on the Earth? The once and for all settled in Heaven, faith? The Bible connects us to God’s truth.
And first, we each hold a copy of God’s Word, the Bible, which has just led us to celebrate the greatest week in history. Christ’s death in our place, His burial for our sins, His resurrection for our justification. And that is an event that we share by faith so deeply we celebrate it like it happened yesterday because it’s so vivid to us today. You understand? That’s what God wants with His Word. He wants us to believe it and know it so deeply that we act like it just happened yesterday because it’s so real to us today. And if that happens, it would be much easier to talk about it. And maybe that’s why, largely, the Church is muzzled. We’re not going out every day to every person we meet in an everyday language talking to them about Christ. We hesitate to do that as a body as Christendom today. We know, we believe, we hold tightly unto the truth of Christ’s death, His burial, His resurrection. We know Christ. We believe God. We’ve experienced His Spirit. And those are the elements of salvation that have come to us through the Gospel.
So, now let’s open to Romans 1:16, and that’s what we’re going to read in just a moment. Paul calls these truths the Gospel. The word Gospel means good news. In the Early Church the apostles and Paul looked on Christ’s death, His burial, and His resurrection to save sinners as the good news that they were eager and longed to share with the people around them. You understand that? They thought there was such good news that they were just looking for people every day in their life to share it with. That was an overarching element in their life. That is not an overarching element in Christendom today. It’s amazing. The Lord in His Word has given us the Gospel truth. We need to connect to that.
As we’ll see, those 1st century believers believe the good news was unlike any other communication they could make. Paul explained the uniqueness of this message. He tells us that the Gospel’s good news comes surrounded by explosive power. I was reading, in fact, I don’t know how I got on the list, but I get Jane’s Defense News and before I erase him, if it looks interesting, I’ll read a little bit of it. And a while back they were talking about the ground penetrating, bunker busting, newest, we have all these BLM, whatever, missiles and bombs, but they’ve got the even bigger one now. And it can go through… and it, Jane’s was talking about how many feet of concrete and how much steel and how much reinforced and no matter how far it’s buried and it goes so far before it blows up. And it was just interesting. And I thought, and we carry around something far more powerful. That thing can only kill people and destroy things. We carry a good news that’s packed with, as it says in verse 16, the power of God, not a bomb, unto salvation.
So, from this Bible, the Gospel when shared as the good news of what God has done to Christ, for sinners to be saved, it is the very power of God onto salvation. When we tell people what God did to Jesus Christ so that they could be saved we have just put into them a loaded explosive that can burst into life change. And it’s not us. It’s not how loud we say it. It’s not how cleverly we say it. It’s not how… We get all these… A lot of people spend all their time; they just want to know everything and have every possible gizmo before they go out and share. And they don’t realize that all that is nothing. It’s the Gospel that is the power. It’s not the delivery mechanism; it’s the Gospel that’s the power of God. And that’s what we have to get to and share and unleash.
So, from this Bible, we can see clearly and hold deeply and believe intensely the truths of the death barrel and resurrection of Christ for sinners. And those events in the past connect to, clearly and powerfully, by faith to us today and they impact us. And from the same Bible we see the Gospel is not static. When we share the Bible, when we share the truth of the Gospel, the Gospel is prepackaged by God with this supernatural power. It doesn’t need us to add power to it. In fact, you remember Jonathan Edwards? You’ve all heard of Jonathan Edwards. Sinners in the Hands of the Angry God. That still is echoing around in history books. I learned about it in, Haslett High School in Colonial History. It came out it, I don’t even remember what they said, I just remember Sinners in the Hands of the Angry God. Did you know that Jonathan Edwards delivered that sermon in a monotone voice, without any expression, without raising his voice at all? And he just in a monotone voice read that. And as he read it, the people began to scream out and they were afraid they were falling into the fires of Hell. Do you think it was Jonathan Edward’s amazing, monotone voice? It was the power of God unto salvation. See, it’s not the tool, it’s who’s holding the tool and what we deliver, it’s the Gospel and it changes people.
All that to say the Gospel is the power of God and what motivated, amazed, challenged, and encouraged those early followers of Christ we read about in the Bible, was watching the miracle God did before their eyes every day. There’s a fascination for miracles. People will wait in line and go to the arena so they can see Benny Hin or whoever the latest showman is that does something. And whether it’s whipping his coat around and knocking everybody down, or booping them and knocking them on the floor, whatever he does, people are fascinated because people want to experience what they perceive to be the miraculous power of God.
Do you know why people weren’t running around going to Benny Hin shows 2,000 years ago, because each one of them were experiencing the greatest miracle in their lives. What is that? When they shared the Gospel, they saw the power of God, the explosive power of the Gospel unleashed before their eyes in the life of the person that believed what they said. And they saw God at work. The early followers of Christ watched the miracle before their eyes every day, the miraculous transformation of individuals that were brought to life by the Gospel of salvation. That were cured of spiritual blindness by the power of God unto salvation. That were healed completely of the horrible leprosy of their sin by faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ’s death in their place. The one miracle that has never ceased to be displayed in the true Church of Jesus Christ from day one onward to today is the miracle of the power of God onto salvation for everyone who believes.
And that’s what we’re going to read this morning. So, let’s all stand together and we’re going to read our text. And you have your Bible and you can check it against mine because you have a translation of the same Bible that I have a translation of. And your Bible says something very similar to this and what will be wonderful is this morning for us to realize as we stand here, we have the same Gospel that they had back then. And by the way, we have the same mission that they had back then. To in every possible way, communicate… And by the way, they communicated the Gospel verbally. I’m a tract giver. I’m an internet sharer, but the single most powerful tool God has promised to bless is for us to tell people about the Christ who changed us completely. Who saved us from all of our sins and fears and doubts and chains and at all the evil that were sinking us into Hell. And we know Him and we walk with Him and we love Him and can I tell you about Him? His Word says… and we just go right into it. That’s the Gospel and let’s read about it together.
Romans 1:16-17 says this, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Let’s bow together. Father, I pray that we would understand and embrace and invite Your power to make us sharers, witnesses, of the good news. And I pray that You would encourage some saints of this fellowship by letting them see the miracle before their very eyes of You turning someone from darkness to light, of seeing someone turn from the power of Satan unto God, of someone who receives an eternal inheritance by faith in You and are sanctified. And that’s a miracle. And oh, how that gives us amazing confirmation because we see You are alive and at work just as in us, in others. Thank you, in the precious name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. As you’re seated. I want you to know that when you go through life and when I go through life, we’re sharing the same Gospel. Now, remember I said that this is the source of truth. Do you want to know how the Church is supposed to be run? If it doesn’t match up with what the Bible says, it’s not being run correctly. Do you want to know how counseling is to be done? It’s done the way they counsel in the Bible. You want to know how soul winning is to be done? It’s not finding what the latest denominational whatever is. How did they share the Gospel? Did you know that there are actually dozens of times Jesus shared the Gospel. That’s how it’s supposed to be shared. Did you know that there are exactly 22 times in the book of Acts that we see the Early Church articulating the Gospel. That’s how it’s supposed to be done. We don’t need to hire someone to package and make something new. See that’s the whole thing that we’ve gotten to. It’s this, we’re in the cult of new-ness. It’s got to be the latest iteration. And God says, seek out the old paths, that’s where you find rest for your souls. And some of the iterations, the upgrades, the updates have gotten so completely removed from the source file that they’re really not connected anymore.
We share the same Gospel. Each of us here today that are saved, have been saved in the very same way the disciples were saved. We have been saved in the same way that the Church born with 3,000 coming to Christ on the day of Pentecost were saved. We are saved the same way Paul was a few years later. We’re all saved by the same Gospel. In fact, everyone we read about in the New Testament from Acts to Revelation we’re all saved by the same Gospel that saved us. We are sharing with others the same Gospel they shared. And the simple truths they knew we also knew/know, and we also should share.
And what did they share? They shared the Gospel that Jesus Christ came and died and rose and offers them something. Jesus Christ came as the promised Messiah. He came as the perfect human. He came as 100% God in human flesh. He came as a virgin born Son of God. Jesus came. And that’s what they were absolutely convinced of and told people. Jesus Christ died. He died as the Lamb of God. He died as an innocent sacrifice. He died as a substitute for sinners. He died as a target of God’s wrath to purchase sinners with His own blood. Jesus died and He died because I’m a sinner and you’re a sinner, and if you know you’re a sinner, you can be saved. See, we just, we roll right into the Gospel. Jesus Christ rose. He rose as a fulfillment of God’s Word, as a proof of His deity, as the conquer of death, as the completion of all of God’s plans.
But Jesus rose to be available to anyone anywhere at any time. You see the resurrection liberated Christ from being localized. During His earthly ministry He was localized. He was only in one place at one time. After the resurrection, He could be everywhere all the time with anyone. So, Jesus Christ offers to forgive anyone. He offers to cleanse anyone of anything. He offers to comfort anyone through any troubles. He offers to guide anyone all the way through life. And He offers to welcome anyone who comes simply by faith in His death for them as sinners to a place He’s prepared in His Heavenly Father’s home.
Do you see why the Early Church thought this was such good news? Because it was simple. They knew it and they had experienced it, and they didn’t want to let anybody go through life without at least having the power of God onto salvation presented to them. That’s why Jesus said, go into all the world and deliver this good news to every creature. Go to every human and tell them.
So, we also have to realize, not only are we supposed to share the same Gospel but we share the same mission. In fact, turn back to the Book of Acts. Let’s look at the launch of the Church. Acts chapter 1. And I want to show you the mission. Today, we’re each just as called as they were back then. In Acts chapter 1, we see the 1st century Lord Jesus Christ, who saved those believers, those disciples, those early converts to Christianity. Jesus in the 1st century asked them to go through life communicating the Gospel. Now see, it’s in verse 8. See what it says? But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and everywhere else. So, in the 1st century, the savior that saved them said, I want you to do something. I have a mission for you. I want you; you’re going to have to support yourself, and you’re going to have to earn money, you’re going to have to live somewhere, and you’re going to have to keep it clean, and prepare food, and clean the dishes but that’s just to keep yourself alive. What you’re living for is not to get a bigger house in Jerusalem with a better view and more art to put on the walls and finer softness to surround yourself. That is not why you’re here. You’re here, look at verse 8, to be My witnesses. Witnesses to Me, is actually what it says in the New King James. We’re supposed to go to through life witnessing to Christ. He’s there. He came. I know it. He died. I know He died for me. I know He rose. I know. I’ve met Him. He offers. He’s… I know because I’ve gotten it. I have what He offered. You ever met someone, they found out about some deal, there’s this link and you can download something for free and you go, oh, I want to know about it. You’ve downloaded it? Show it to me. Wow. What’s the link? That’s the Gospel. It’s a link to God and we can connect them to the power of God. That’s what He left us here to do.
In the 21st century the same Lord Jesus has saved us also has asked us to go through life communicating the Gospel. How did those early believers do? We have a 1st century record. That’s phenomenal to think about. Acts 1 starts at the ascension of Christ on a Sunday, six weeks after He arose. And if you look at the last words to the disciples, think of the impact verse 8 had. They heard this and the very next Sunday they were there on the day of Pentecost and the Church was born. And what do we find as we analyze all 28 chapters of the carefully scripted events recorded for us by God in the Book of Acts? We could summarize the whole book of Acts in one little phrase: Christians verbally communicating the good news about Jesus. How did they do it? Look at verse 8. You shall receive power. It’s the Holy Spirit who energized them into action.
The Book of Acts is not about the apostles. The printers put in “The Acts of the Apostles”. That’s really not the name of the book. It’s the Acts of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit of God that energized them and gave them the power to see people transform. If you let all the key players drop off the screen for us. You can actually look at the rank and file average nameless Early Church members who were right there through these momentous times. What did normal people… if John and Peter and all the other galaxy of apostles are off the scene, what did the normal people do? Did they sit back and just watch them on television witnessing? No. In fact, turn to chapter 8. I want to show you something fascinating. And the book of Acts is very picturesque. In chapter 8, verse 4, it’s interesting. What verse 4 of chapter 8 tells us, answers the question, what did the normal everyday believers see as their priority of life back then at the start of Christ Church? And what we see in verse 4 is, therefore those who were scattered.
Who were those who were scattered? If you read verses 1, 2, and 3, it’s the occupants of that super charged, excited just amazing fellowship in Jerusalem. The church where you could go to church and you could meet the apostles themselves. And you could meet our Lord’s mother. And you could meet people He raised from the dead Jesus. And you just, it was so exciting to go to church, and nobody wanted to leave. They were just… And Jesus’ brother was the pastor, James. Wow! Who wouldn’t want to go to church there? And so, Saul the Persecutor is unleashed in verses 1, 2, and 3. And he starts going house to house, dragging Christians to their death. And so, it became so intense that, look at verse 4, therefore those who were scattered. Those who were a part of this fire of excitement of the Gospel in Jerusalem, when the heavy hand of persecution came, poof on the fire of what the Lord was doing there, what happened to them? Like sparks, they radiated outward.
And what did they do? They went into hiding, right? They got a bunker and they got their Y2K supplies and they laid low, right? Is that what they said? No. Look what it says. They went everywhere. And these are nameless rank and file normal churchgoers of the 1st century. They went everywhere preaching the Word. The word is declaring as heralds the good news, the Gospel. They are just like tornado horns. When we lived in Tulsa, there were all these tornado horns. And when they pushed one button every horn made the same noise in that part of Tulsa. Arrrrr… or whatever it was, I don’t remember because we always ran and got our mattress, got in the bathtub, and put it over us. Isn’t that great? When you have a tornado coming, an F5 that levels houses and uproots trees, the emergency management system says, take your family, get in the bathtub, put a mattress over the top of you and lay there. What happens if you have so many kids they don’t fit in the bathtub? I didn’t even fit in it. And so, we’re all… with a mattress, I can’t. But when the tornado came, all the horns gave the same message. When persecution came, all those sparks of everyday normal believers landed and the message started playing. They went everywhere, proclaiming the Gospel.
When we are walking in the Spirit. We will be talking in everyday terms to everyday people about the most extraordinary event of all time. Jesus becomes a part of our everyday life. Yeah, that’s what He saved us to do and to be.
Believers shared God’s Word. In fact, if you want to analyze the book of Acts, you’ll find that there are 31 different Greek words that explain the 160 scenes in the book of Acts where the norm of the Christian life is, that they found ways to verbally communicate the Gospels. Did you catch that? There are 160 scenes in 28 chapters, of normal people talking about Christ. And they use 31 different Greek words. They exhaust the Greek vocabulary for how to start a conversation about Christ. They tried every one. It’s amazing to see how everybody knew what they were for.
If you look closely, most of the words in Acts are used for both local church leaders and unordained average normal believers. In other words, we could say personal witness was the norm in the 1st century. And we could also say personal witness is not the norm in the 21st century, and that’s what’s so hard. No matter how you read the 28 chapters of Acts, you see that believers operated quite similarly in their desire and in their effort to tell, in every way possible, the good news of the Gospel. Wow.
They heard the mission from Christ, that it was to work as a team where everyone played. Everyone. There was no spectator section of the Early Church. Everybody played, everybody was on the team. Everyone knew that the goal was to go out and to share the Gospel. And they heard that Gospel and they heard that mission and they did it. That’s the 1st century Church. Now, not perfectly, not completely, not sinlessly, not without problems, but it was really clear what they were there for.
A pastor in Wheaton, Illinois, R. Kent Hughes, wrote this… he said, the comprehensiveness of the Early Church’s outreach from their homeland and out to the ends of the Earth forbids the evangelistic schizophrenia that we easily fall prey to today. And what he says is, the Church has a split mind. One side we lavish our attention on foreign missions while neglecting our neighborhoods. And that is an off balance church. They’re just pumping every dime. And they just are proud of; we got one gazillion out there. While nobody has personally walked out the front door of the church to every adjoining property and looked them in the eye and shared the Gospel since who knows when. And that’s not a balanced church. And the other out of balance church is the opposite. They attend to the immediate needs around us and spend everything on the people that are right there. Their socially and feeding and clothing and everything while millions overseas have never heard about Jesus. He said this, we need balance. We need to reach our neighbors and the world with our Gospel witness, with our social witness, with our money, with our time, with ourselves, with our offerings, we must pull and put all we have into the hands of Christ and allow Him to use it in His way, in His time for others salvation and for His glory. That’s what the Early Church was about.
Did you know when they gathered, do you know what they talked about? They said you wouldn’t believe the miracle I saw. The former, this person and they were the most… and Christ changed them and here they are. Can you imagine that? Bringing to church these transformed, radiant. And the believers that heard that wanted to go out and see it happen again? See, they saw this miracle of the new birth. And they loved it and they were infected with it, and they realized they had the power of God packed Gospel, and all they had to do is let it out. And they realized that they had the mission. Christ said, this is what I left you to do and they did it. And it’s the same for us.
Notes
The only trustworthy, reliable, authoritative explanation of God is right here in our hands: it is God’s Word the Bible.
The Bible is the only real key to unlock truth about God, thus it is: the only sure doorway into His salvation, the only official map that leads to God, the only trustworthy reference book that defines and reveals God, the only verified classification guide to explain what God does, and the only navigational chart that leads us to the True & Living God.
Let that sink in.
No matter what the next supposed prophecy, lost book of the Bible, archaeological find, ecstatic experience, or out of body event that you hear about: they add nothing to what we know about God, and those new supposed insights are NOT from God.
Mohammad of Islam didnāt get any true revelations from God, neither did Joseph Smith of Mormonism; and neither has anyone else up to this day in all of history since John the last of Christ’s Apostles.
As Hebrews 1 says, God spoke in many ways over the centuries, but His final revelation was through Christ. The Revelation of God’s Word is completed; and Jesus closed the Book on all authorized, inspired truth from God; and there is no more continuing, ongoing stream of new doctrinal information coming from God. God has finished speaking His Word, and the Book He sent is complete. When you hear about any new, amazing, fantastic claim about visiting with God or angels: those new supposed insights are NOT from God.
This morning connect some vital truths in your minds with me.
The Bible Connects Us to Godās Truth
First, we each hold a copy of God’s Word the Bible, which has just led us to celebrate the greatest week in history: Christ’s death in our place, His Burial of our sins, & His Resurrection for our justification (Romans 4:25). That is an event we share in by faith so deeply that: we celebrate it like it happened yesterday, because it is so real today.
We know, believe, and hold tightly onto the truths of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, right? We know Christ, believe God, and have experienced His Holy Spirit. Those are the elements of salvation, and that has come to us through the Gospel.
Second, please open with me to Paulās summary of that message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in Romans 1:16.
Paul calls those truths the Gospel. The word Gospel means āgood newsā. The early church, the Apostles, and Paul all looked upon Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to save sinners as the āgood newsā that they wanted to share with people around them.
God Has Given to Us the Gospel Truth
But as we will see, those in the 1st Century believed that the āgood newsā was unlike any other communication possible. Paul explains the uniqueness of this message. Paul tells us that the Gospelās āgood newsā comes surrounded by an explosive power from God.
The Gospel, when shared as the Good News of what God has done to Christ for sinners to be saved: is the very power of God unto salvation.
So, from this Bible, we can see clearly, and hold deeply, and believe intensely the truths of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sinners. Those events of the past connect so clearly, and powerfully to us by faith: that they impact how we live today.
From this same Bible we see that the Gospel is not static, when we share it: this Gospel comes pre-packaged by God with supernatural āpowerā. All they were asked to do was to share this good news where ever they went, and where ever they lived. Share the Gospel and watch God do the powerful, miraculous work of salvation.
The Gospel is the Power of God
What motivated, amazed, challenged, and encouraged those early followers of Christ was watching the miracle God was doing before their eyes each day. The miraculous transformation of individuals that were brought to life by the Gospel of salvation; cured of spiritual blindness by the power of God onto salvation; and healed of the horrible leprosy of sin by faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christās death in their place.
The one miracle that has never ceased to be displayed in the true Church of Jesus Christ, from day one onward to today is this miracle: the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. That is what we get to hear from Romans 1:16-17. Please stand and hear from God’s Word:
Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, āThe just shall live by faith.ā
Pray
Sharing the Same Gospel
Each of us here today that are saved: have been saved the very same way the disciples were, the same way the Church born with 3,000 coming to Christ on the Day of Pentecost were, and the same way Paul was a few years later.
In fact, everyone we read about in the New Testament from Acts to Revelation: were all saved by the same Gospel that saved us.
We are sharing with others the same Gospel that they shared. The simple truths they knew, we also know:
Jesus Christ Came: as the Promised Messiah, as the Perfect Human, as 100% God in flesh, and as the Virgin-born, Son of God. Jesus Christ Came.
Jesus Christ Died: as the Lamb of God, as an Innocent Sacrifice, as the Substitute for Sinners, as the Target of Godās Wrath, to Purchase Sinners with His own Blood.
Jesus Christ Rose: as the Fulfillment of Godās Word, as Proof of His Deity, as the Conqueror of Death, as the Completion of Godās Plan, and to Be Available to Anyone, Anywhere, at Anytime.
Jesus Christ Offers: to Forgive anyone, to Cleanse anyone of anything, to Comfort anyone through any troubles, to Guide anyone all the way through life, and to Welcome anyone who comes simply by faith to Christ as Lord and Savior, to a place prepared in our Heavenly Fatherās House. See why the Gospel is such good news?
Ā
Sharing the Same Mission
Today we are each just as called as they were back then.
In the 1st Century the Lord Jesus Christ that saved them, also asked them to go through life communicating the Gospel.
In the 21st Century the same Lord Jesus Christ that saved us, also asks us to go through life communicating the Gospel.
How did they do in those early days of the Church?
The 1st Century Record
Acts 1 starts at the Ascension of Christ on a Sunday, six weeks after He rose.
Look with me at Christ’s last words to the disciples that open the book of Acts. Think of the impact His words had on that 1st generation of our family.
Start with me looking at Acts 1:8:
Acts 1:8 (NKJV) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.ā
The next Sunday was the Day of Pentecost, and the Church was born.
And what do we find as we analyze the 28 chapters of the carefully scripted events recorded for us by God? Here is one way to summarize Acts: Christians verbally communicating the Good News about Jesus.
It is the Holy Spirit who energized them into action. This book is not the Acts of the Apostles; but is actually the Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT!
Now, let the key players drop off the screen for us and join me looking at the rank and file, the average, nameless, early church member who was right there through these momentous days. What did normal, everyday believers see as their priority in life back then at the start of Christ’s church? We can see a good indication of that in Acts 8:4:
Acts 8:4 (NKJV) Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
When we are walking in the Spirit we will be talking in everyday terms to everyday people about the most extraordinary event of all time. Jesus becomes a part of everyday life.
It was appeared normal in the early days of the Church that just about all:
Believers Shared God’s Word
The Book of Acts has thirty-one different words, used to explain the over 160 scenes in the Book of Acts: where the norm of Christians is that they find ways to verbally communicating the Gospel.
Of these scenes, some of the words āevangelize, or preach the Gospelā suggest what might be thought of as a formal delivery.Ā Yet those formal words represent less than a third of all the usages of speaking words.
Plus, if you look closely, many words are used in references to both church leaders and un-ordained average, normal believers. In others words, in the 1st Century Church we could say that:
Personal Witness Was the Norm
There are at least a dozen examples of PERSONAL WITNESS IN ACTS:
We first see the Apostles after Pentecost, represented by Peter and John out soul winning in Acts (3:1-16);
We find the personal soul winning account about Phillip in Acts (8:5, 26-40);
Then Peter is also witnessing in his exchange with Simon (8:9-24);
Paul is an effective soul winner in his exchange with Lydia in Acts (16:13-15);
Paul even takes the spiritual challenge of witnessing to the Demonized Girl in Acts (16:16-18);
Under great personal pain and peril we find Paul the soul-winner leading the Jailer and his family to the Lord in Acts (16:19-40);
After a violent confrontation Paul is undaunted and shares a witness with Sergius in Acts (18:6-12);
Paul wins a fellow Jew to the Lord named Crispus in Acts (18:7-8);
Paul patiently instructs, reasons, and then wins two seekers named Aquila and Priscilla in Acts (18:24-28);
He goes on to win a mighty servant for the Lord named Apollos in Acts (18:24-28);
Then he leads to salvation some who were ready but only had gotten as far as being disciples of John the Baptist in Acts (19:1-7);
Finally, in spite of shipwreck, near execution, near drowning, snake bites, and criticism Paul has a witness to fellow passengers and Roman Sailors in Acts (27:9-44).
No matter how you read the 28 chapters of Acts you see that believers operated quite similarly in their desire and efforts to tell in every way possible the good news of the Gospel.
Wow, they heard the mission from Christ was to work as a team where everyone played, and they knew that the goal was to go and share the Gospel.
They heard and they obeyed!
Ā
āThe comprehensiveness of the early churchās outreachāfrom their homeland and on out to the ends of the worldāforbids the evangelistic schizophrenia to which we so easily fall preyālavishing our attention on foreign missions while neglecting our neighbors, or attending to the immediate needs around us while millions overseas have never heard about Jesus.
We need balance. We must reach our neighbors and the world with our gospel witness, our social witness, our money, our time, ourselves, our offspring.
We must put all we have and are in the hands of Christ and allow him to use it all in his way, in his time, for othersā salvation, for his glory.ā[1]
We have the Same Savior & Mission
We have the same Risen Christ as they did.
We have the same indwelling Holy Spirit that they did.
We have the same clear Mandate that they were given. But what has happened to us?
Two generations ago, an Episcopalian Rector lamented his denominations slide from the Scriptures by writing a piece that has spread far and wide, and is just as impactful today as it was back then. Let me read to you what he wrote over 60 years ago.
“On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks were frequent, a crude little rescue station was built. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted crewmen kept a constant watch over the sea. With no thought for themselves, they went out day or night, tirelessly searching for any who might need help. Many lives were saved by their devoted efforts.
After a while the station became famous. Some of those who were saved, as well as others in the surrounding area, wanted to become a part of the work. They gave time and money for its support. New boats were bought, additional crews were trained, and the station grew.
Some of the members became unhappy that the building was so crude. They felt a larger, nicer place would be more appropriate as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with hospital beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.
Soon the station became a popular gathering place for its members to discuss the work and to visit with each other. They continued to remodel and decorate until the station more and more took on the look and character of a club. Fewer members were interested in going out on rescue missions, so they hired professional crews to do the work on their behalf. The rescue motif still prevailed on the club emblems and stationery, and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club held its initiations.
One day a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in many boatloads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty, bruised, and sick; and some had black or yellow skin. The beautiful new club was terribly messed up, and so the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside, where the shipwreck victims could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the clubās rescue activities altogether, as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted on keeping rescue as their primary purpose and pointed out that, after all, they were still called a rescue station. But those members were voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives they could begin their own station down the coast somewhere.
As the years went by, the new station gradually faced the same problems the other one had experienced. It, too, became a club, and its rescue work became less and less of a priority. The few members who remained dedicated to lifesaving began another station. History continued to repeat itself; and if you visit that coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.”[2]
The Gospel is the Power of God
What motivated, amazed, challenged, and encouraged those early followers of Christ was watching the miracle God was doing before their eyes each day.
Sharing the Gospel brought the miraculous transformation of individuals that were brought to life by the Gospel of salvation; cured of spiritual blindness by the power of God onto salvation; and healed of the horrible leprosy of sin by faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christās death in their place.
The one miracle that has never ceased to be displayed in the true Church of Jesus Christ, from day one onward to today is this miracle: the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.
In the 1st Century the Lord Jesus Christ that saved them, also asked them to go through life communicating the Gospel.
In the 21st Century the same Lord Jesus Christ that saved us, also asks us to go through life communicating the Gospel.
As we turn our hearts to commune with our Risen Savior & Lord, these questions should be on our minds: āAm I doing the mission Christ left me to do? Am I speaking to the lost for Him?ā
[1] Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word: ActsāThe Church Afire, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books) 1998, c1996.
[2] MacArthur, John (2001). Pg. 111-112. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Chicago, IL: Moody Press, paraphrasing Episcopalian rector Theodore Wedelās āParable of the Life Saving Stationā, 1953.
