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!