Acts: The Gospel For All

Our culture is one that values security and safety. Recently on my computer an update came out for two-factor authentication — basically what that means is that there are now more steps for me to perform in order to make a change on my computer, which means it’s harder for an unauthorized person to change things. We like things safe and secure.

In this way we’re very similar to the Jewish people around the time of the early church. They had made rules upon rules upon rules in order to keep themselves safe and ceremonially clean. These rules were based on God’s law (sort of), but were taken to such an extent that they limited the Jews ability to live amongst others. For example, the Jews would not eat with a Gentile, not because it was prohibited by God in Scripture, but because it could lead to them breaking a law that was in Scripture. A modern example of this way of thinking took place just yesterday wit the solar eclipse. People were warned continually not to look up at the eclipse as doing so could cause permanent eye damage. Most people on any normal day don’t look directly at the sun, and so just going through their day as they normally did would be fine! But some wanted to make sure that they, and their whole household were safe, and so they stayed inside all day with their curtains drawn. At the end of the eclipse, both those who went about their day normally, and those who were locked inside, were still able to see just fine!

As followers of Christ our role is to make Jesus more accessible to those who don’t know Him. We do this by going to where those who need Him are, by using language that they’ll understand, and by letting them know that they can come as they are to Him. We do a great disservice to the Gospel message when we add rules, regulations, and expectations to it. As Paul said in his letter to the Galatians, “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” (Gal 1:9). Strong words, but necessary. If we add to the Gospel it stops being the Gospel.

This coming Sunday we’ll be continuing our summer series in Acts and will be looking at chapter 11. Be sure to read it before Sunday so that you’re familiar with it. Also, there’s still time to read the book of Acts in one or two sittings before the end of the summer!

Blessings,

Pastor Mike