Acts: The Offensive Gospel

What do you do when someone doesn’t like what you’re saying, or agree with what you’re sharing? More and more in our day and age this is taking place, but it isn’t anything new. In fact, throughout much of church history, but especially in the early days of the church, people didn’t like what they heard. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is quite often offensive to those who don’t know God, and especially to those who have some amount of power. For the apostles, the message of Jesus went directly against the religious leaders of their day, mainly because it was undermining the authority and power of the temple. The apostles were ordered early on in their ministry to stop teaching in Jesus’ name, but they couldn’t! How could they keep silent about what they’d experienced?! And so they continued to share the love of Jesus openly.

In our day and age people don’t like to be told that they might be wrong; the powers that they cling to are individualism and relativism – the belief that each person controls what is wrong or right for them, and that there is no moral absolute. And like the early church, the Good News of Jesus will be offensive to most. However, we are still called to share the Gospel, with love, grace, and humility, sharing with others the hope we have in Jesus. When we meet opposition, which we will, our approach needs to be like that of the early church who banded together, prayed fervently, and encouraged each other to hold fast to the truth of God.

This Sunday we will continue our summer teaching series in Acts, looking at chapter 4. Read through the chapter before Sunday to prepare for our gathering. And remember the summer challenge, at some point this summer to sit down and read the whole book of Acts in one or two sittings. You’ll be thankful you did!

We will also be celebrating Communion this Sunday. Hope you can join with us to celebrate our risen Saviour!

Pastor Mike