Thoughts on Acts

This week I decided that I was going to spend some special time in the book of Acts. I divided Acts up into four parts (7 chapters each) and began reading one part each day. Before I started I had decided to read Acts with specific lenses on – that is, read looking for specific details. Those specifics were evangelism and discipleship. Having just started my new position as Associate Pastor of Discipleship, I decided to turn to the best manual ever written about discipleship…the Bible. I learned so much this week I thought I would share my findings.

What I was most powerfully impacted by was the content driven message of the gospel. I recorded over 20 times that Luke, the author of Acts, gives a description of the content of the message that Peter, Paul, and the other apostles proclaimed (and depending on how you look at it, you could probably find more).  

So what were the apostles proclaiming in their sermons, evangelism, and discipleship? Most importantly, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. It was who He is and what He had done. Often the message of the Person of Jesus Christ is started way back in the Old Testament so that the speaker could build to Christ’s work on the Cross followed by His resurrection. The content of the gospel message also includes sin and judgment – not just for the purpose of rubbing peoples’ noses in their sins, but in order to offer the gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins. This leads to what an angel from the Lord calls the “Words of Life”: eternal life in the Person of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross. This is also why the message speaks often of a resurrection. When we have new life in Christ we can look forward to a resurrection. Someday Christ is returning to earth and the believers who remain will be resurrected at the Rapture. If we are already absent from the body and therefore present with the Lord, then our resurrection will also be at the Rapture – and we’ll get to go first, before any other believers who are alive on earth! What a glorious hope!

I have been challenged by reading the evangelistic messages of Acts to make sure that whenever I preach, witness, or disciple my message must be filled to the brim with biblical content. Too often Christian says, “I have no need to share with words, because I am allowing my good works to ‘shine before men!’” True – but I think this is too often more of a copout than a proper defense against verbal proclamation of the gospel. Though it is so important to have your testimony supported with good works – it should by no means end with people simply watching these works. People need to be saved from their sins. God has called us as believers to be His messengers carrying this gospel message which has eternal impact on the hearer.  This is the manner in which the apostles spread the Good News of Jesus Christ – why should we do it any differently?

Would you please pray for me that I might have such boldness to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in my community? I’ll do the same for you! 

April Read: "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges

If you have never read “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges, it is certainly a must read for all Christians. It is impossible to read that book without feeling like you are being raked over the coals though – so be prepared! Jerry Bridges definitely does some “sanctified meddling,” if you will.

The book confronts the sins that Christians tolerate in their lives to the point that believers don’t even view them as sin any longer. Hence, they become “respectable.” While living our lives trying to serve and glorify God, believers are careful to keep their lives free from sin…at least those big, terrible sins that everyone else in the world is committing – but never us. You know: murder, adultery, and the like. And then we begin to feel pretty good about ourselves, forgetting all the while that we are blindly and shamelessly committing other, more subtle sins (yet no less gross before a holy God). Anxiety, frustration, discontentment, pride, impatience, anger, envy, and irritability are just a few of the “respectable” sins addressed.

The one “respectable” sin which I found most challenging was that of ungodliness. That may seem odd to categorize ungodliness as a subtle, respectable sin. Ungodliness is normally equated with wickedness, and therefore, Christians would most often not consider themselves guilty of such a sin. A Christian acting ungodly? That is exactly why it is a subtle sin.

It is commonly taught that pride is the most foundational of all sins; that when you get to the root of any sin, it is usually found to have pride at its center. But Bridges suggests otherwise. He contends that it is ungodliness – not pride – which is the root of our sin. I agree. Let me explain why. Bridges defined ungodliness as “living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God” (p. 54).  

As you can see, ungodliness can be very simple for anyone – even believers – to commit. This definitely grabbed my attention, and over the last weeks, I have tried to be more conscience of my own ungodliness. I desire to live consciously of living before a holy God all the time, 24/7. Let me tell you: It’s hard. It’s hard to actually do it, and it’s hard to live with the reality of that fact. When we are aware of being constantly in God’s presence, it’s so much harder to live in any type of sin. Oh, by God’s grace, I desire to live a godly life so that I would be free from all of the respectable sins. And as I grow closer to Christ, I hope to see my acceptance of these sins diminishing and my affections for holiness growing.

[I feel like I could keep going – but instead, I’ll just encourage you once again to read this book. Prepare to be challenged.]"