Route 66: The Book of Acts - The Ongoing Work of Christ

Well, good to see you this evening.

I'd invite you to take your Bible with me and go over to the book of Acts, the book of Acts.

If you're looking at the church Bibles, the Pew Bibles, you can find it on page 966.

It's been a delight to go through this series, route 66.

We will finish it up right at the end of the year, just before Christmas.

It will be at a completion and I think it's a great sort of corpus for us as a church to go back to from time to time.

We had our Membership Matters class this afternoon and one of the things that we do in that is introduce those who are considering membership to our Statement of Faith.

Obviously can't go through the Statement of Faith in a short little meeting like that, but able to cast them back to a series that Micah and I and a couple others contributed to called Defining Doctrines, which was about our statement of faith, and to be able to say to folks just sermon audio, Defining Doctrines.

There's 40 messages that will help you understand better what we believe as a church.

So in years to come perhaps you know for folks coming in saying I wonder what is in Zechariah or something like that, to be able to go back and say there it is.

I was talking to someone just a couple of weeks ago who's recently visiting our church and she's just beginning to read the Bible.

You're here, didn't mean to embarrass you, right?

And was able to say look, route 66 is perfect.

Listen to the message.

It'll introduce you to what you're about to read.

It might give you a helpful entry point to understand what's about to unfold for you as you turn the pages of the Bible.

So tonight we're in the book of Acts.

A couple of weeks ago well, a couple of weeks ago, a week and a tiny bit ago ago a week and a tiny bit ago, we celebrated in this room Good Friday, and we think about our Savior giving himself up on the cross.

One of the sayings on the cross is a Greek word, tetelestai, which means it is finished, right, and that word has a lot of meaning.

It is finished in that the work of redemption has been completed, scripture has been fulfilled, and so we often talk about the finished work of Jesus Christ.

That's a phrase you might even hear a number of preachers or teachers use the finished work of Christ.

Well, tonight we're going to talk about something the ongoing work of Christ and that's in the book of Acts.

So take a look at chapter 1 and verse 1.

As Luke continues from the gospel of Luke now into this second volume, and he says I wrote the first narrative, theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

So there's that sense of the beginning to do and teach.

But there's a second volume that Luke writes about.

And what is that?

But there's a second volume that Luke writes about and what is that?

After he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them, by many convincing proofs appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

So the rest of the book of Acts talks about the ongoing work of Jesus Christ, and tonight we're going to be able to discover more about that.

And one of the things that I hope we all recognize as we do so is that we're not just having a historical look at the early church, but to be able to find ourselves included in this ongoing work of Jesus Christ, because we're part and parcel of that story that's ongoing yet to this day and I hope it shapes our attitude and understanding about how we do participate in that.

One of the stories that I like to tell is a story about Sir Christopher Wren, who was the architect for the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

It's a beautiful edifice.

If you ever get an opportunity to go to London, I would highly encourage you taking some time to visit St Paul's Cathedral and, if you're not afraid of heights, to go up as high as you can go.

There's a little whispering gallery there where you can hear one another and if you're really daring, you can make your way through the see-through ladders up to the outer ring and get a nice view of London from the outside.

It's quite remarkable and one person was going through there and talking to some of the workers and he said what are you doing today?

And he said well, what do you think I'm doing?

I'm putting one stone on top of another.

He's like well, okay, let's kind of figure that out, but I thought maybe he'd give me a different answer.

Says to another person, another worker what are you doing today?

Well, I'm earning a wage to pay for my family's needs.

And then he talked to a third worker and said what are you doing today?

I'm helping Christopher Wren build this grand cathedral.

So three different perspectives about the same work.

One person, literally one stone on top of the other.

Another person thinking in a transactional way this is, I'm doing this in order to get what I need to take care of the things that I'm responsible for.

And then another person seeing the big picture I'm part of the building of this cathedral.

This is a monument that I am participating in the building of.

So today, you might be a member of New Hyde Park Baptist Church and we might ask you what are you doing today?

I'm showing up for a service.

What are you doing today?

Well, you might have something a little more noble than that to answer.

Or you might say I'm a member of the body of Christ and I'm participating in the ongoing work of Jesus Christ.

You see how perspective changes a lot of things, and so today, I hope that we'll be able to catch that glimpse, not just an understanding of the historical account of the book of Acts.

So what we're going to look at are four aspects of the book of Acts, and in so doing, we're going to be going from front to back and front to back and front to back and front to back, because they're all intertwined.

It's not like one thing and then another, and another and another.

These aspects weave their way through the whole book of Acts, and so I'd like for us to get a flavor of all of them as we move, and I don't want to highlight each of them in a sort of chronological way.

I'd like for us to be able to catch it and understand the layers of what's being said here.

So we're going to look at the message of the church, the growth of the church, the focus of the church and then the breadth of the church.

The message of the church talks about the proclamation of the early church.

The growth obviously has geographical aspects, but there's more than just geographical growth going on in the book of Acts.

The focus of the church what is it that they were primarily about?

Obviously connected and a little nuanced from the message, but there's something there that we want to highlight that will help us in our day, I think.

And then the breadth of the church who's included in this kingdom that Christ is building?

So let's dive in.

Let's start with the message of the church, and the book of Acts captures the essential proclamation of the early church, centering first of all on an understanding that God has acted in a way to fulfill promises from the Old Testament.

So when you read the book of Acts and you catch a hold of the proclamation that's there, one of the things that you will see quite often are references back to the Old Testament and how those things that were promised some hundreds of years ago are now being enacted in fulfillment.

That's quite an important thing.

In fact, that was one of the things that really motivated me personally to begin to understand how the Old Testament and New Testament related to one another.

I'd always thought of it in a more flat fashion, but when I read the book of Acts and started noting how often the Old Testament was quoted and how often the fulfillment of the Old Testament was spoken about, I said I need to understand this better, and so I started going back into the books that the apostles quote and began to wrestle with why did they use this verse and this passage to elucidate the Savior?

It's not the sort of clear Isaiah 7, micah 5 kind of things that you hear right around Christmas time.

They went places I wouldn't have expected.

Why did they do that?

Why did they go there?

And so that drove me to really understand better how the Old Testament New Testament interact with each other.

But one of the things we'll understand is that they were determined to express, particularly to the Jewish audience in front of them in the early chapters of the book of Acts, that God had acted, through Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of promises made many, many hundred years ago.

So let's go to chapter 2.

You'll see that.

Chapter 2 and verse 30.

There's a lot of places I could go.

I'm just going to be very selective here, brothers and sisters.

Verse 29, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David.

He is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

And since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne and, seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah.

He was not abandoned in Hades and his flesh did not experience decay.

You turn over to chapter 3 and go to verse 19.

You will see something very, very similar.

Verse 17,.

Now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did.

In this way, god fulfilled what he had predicted through the prophets that his Messiah would suffer.

Therefore, repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out.

And then it goes on to and you can see a number of places where there are, perhaps in your edition of the Bible, bolded print face to talk about Old Testament quotations of Scripture.

So drop down just a little bit further in verse 24, right in that area.

Well, we could back up a little bit to 21.

Heaven must receive him until the time of restoration of all things which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.

And Moses said the Lord, your God, will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.

You must listen to him and to everything he tells you, and everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people.

So the Jewish people were saying you really need to listen to Jesus.

He is the one that God has sent to us.

A little further down in the same chapter, verse 25,.

You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors saying to Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.

God raised up his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.

What is the Abrahamic blessing to the world?

Repentance and the reception of the Savior.

That is how God blesses the nations.

This is reinforced.

We go to chapter 10 and we can find there in verse 43.

In verse 42 it says that well, I'm going to keep doing this.

Verse 40 god raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen, not by all the people, but by us, whom God appointed as witnesses who ate and drank with him.

After he rose from the dead, he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

All the prophets testify about him that, through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

Over and over and, over and over again, calling out the life of Christ, the message and the proclamation in fulfillment of prophecies given.

Message and the proclamation in fulfillment of prophecies given Paul in Acts.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

Chapter 26 makes mention of that.

So, jumping right to the back or near the back, verses six and seven, where he's on trial, and he says this now I stand on trial because of the hope in what God promised to our ancestors, the promise our twelve tribes hope to reach as they earnestly serve him night and day.

He said this is the fulfillment.

They're looking for something, but they're not looking in the right place, and the place is the designated place of Jesus Christ himself.

So the apostles understood that the arrival of the Savior was the culmination of God's promises given in the Old Testament.

So what was the message and it's something we're very familiar with, and I thank God that we are what did the early church emphasize when they preached Christ?

Did they emphasize his example?

Did they emphasize the fact that he was a great teacher, philosopher?

Did they emphasize that he was a wonderfully moral man who stood before us as an example of how to live a just and good life?

What did they emphasize?

Yeah, they emphasized the crucifixion for one.

So let's jump back to the very front end of this book.

So let's jump back to the very front end of this book Acts, chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It wounded us to know that the death of Christ was not some accident, but done in the determined plan of God, in Acts, chapter 2 and verse 23.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge.

You use lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him, and then it says that God raised him up from the dead.

So there is very clearly a statement about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, chapter 3, verse 13.

Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this?

Why do you stare at us as though we had made him walk by our own power of godliness?

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him.

You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you.

You killed the source of life whom God raised from the dead, and we are witnesses of this, of this.

Chapter 4, in verse 11,.

It tells us here that Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.

And again back in the book of Acts, in chapter 26, paul confirms in verse 23 that Christ's suffering and resurrection were meant to bring light to both Jew and Gentile.

He says this to this very day.

I've had help from God and I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would take place, that the Messiah would suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.

So what is the message of the early church?

It is a message of fulfillment that has at its center the crucifixion of Christ, and you've probably already gathered there's more to it than just that right.

We've not only talked about the crucifixion, but we've also talked about the resurrection.

I would dare say the book of Acts speaks as much, if not more, about the resurrection of Christ than even it does the cross of Christ.

Let that sink in for a minute.

The resurrection of Christ is a greater emphasis in the apostolic preaching than even the cross.

There's something going on there that we, some 2,000 years later, need to pay more attention to.

I won't take you back through those passages.

You heard them but let me just quickly state a couple.

Acts 2.24, it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him, so Christ was going to rise.

Acts 2.31 and 32, peter explains that David foresaw the resurrection and affirmed that Jesus was not going to be abandoned to the grave and his body was not going to see decay.

Acts, chapter 3 and verse 15, the people by the apostolic preaching are told you killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

And there's something more so, not just the death of Christ, not just the resurrection of Christ, but also the ascension of Christ.

So let's go back to Acts, chapter two, for a second Verse 33.

God has raised this Jesus.

We're all witnesses of this.

Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.

For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says.

The Lord declared to my Lord Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

So there is a very clear proclamation of the ascension and exaltation of Jesus Christ.

I don't know if you caught a little bit of what was just said there, but there's a little phrase that connects to the passage of Scripture we looked at this morning in Isaiah, chapter 32.

Isaiah 32 · chapter mention

It talked about the coming kingdom and the flourishing of new life when the Spirit is poured out on us.

And how do the apostles here express what's happening in the book of Acts, in chapter 2?

When the Spirit is poured out on us.

It's almost the exact phrase us.

It's almost the exact phrase.

So the promises from the book of Isaiah, in chapter 32, that talk about the righteous king and the right realm that's full of justice and equity, has been inaugurated by the exalted Lord Jesus, who's poured out his spirit into this world through the proclamation of the apostles, chapter 3 and verse 13.

The God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant.

Jesus has glorified his servant Jesus More.

That's preached there, not just the crucifixion of Christ, not just the resurrection of Christ, not just the ascension and exaltation of Christ, but also his return and judgment.

Acts, chapter three, verse 20 and 21.

So just a little bit further down from what we just read, it says in verse 19, repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you, as the Messiah.

Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things.

And then it keeps on going and talks about judgment.

The Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me, from among your brothers.

You must listen to everything he tells you, and everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people.

What is the ultimate judgment of humanity?

What do you do with Jesus?

That is the ultimate statement of judgment.

What are you doing with Christ?

Acts, chapter 10, verse 42.

Acts 10:42

He commanded us now, this is Christ, after he's risen from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be what the judge of the living and the dead and all the prophets testify about him that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

How do you escape the eternal judgment of God?

By fleeing to Christ.

That's how this one, who has come as a savior, will come again as a judge, and he will not be offering mercy on that day.

He will be executing judgment.

And the only way to be free from that judgment is to be in Christ himself, to flee to the one who has the power to hold you eternally responsible for what you've done with him.

And so, intermingled with all of this, not only a declaration about Jesus, but a call, and you've already heard it from me so I'm not going to repeat.

It is a call to repentance and to faith, and there are many places through the book of Acts where that happens.

They don't just declare the facts of Christ, they press Christ on the conscience, they press it home to Jew and Gentile alike that this person is not just simply a religious figure that you might be benefited by paying some attention to.

This is the Lord of the universe and he has offered salvation to undeserving people, and the only way to be free from your guilt and free from your sin is to acknowledge him in repentance and faith.

Acts 2, verse 38, repent to be baptized.

Acts 2:38

Acts 3, 19, urging the people to find forgiveness and renewal in the restoration of all things.

Acts, chapter 10, that we looked at in the baptism of the Gentiles who had believed, just like the Jewish people had done.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 17, verse 30,.

Acts 17:30

In the apostolic preaching, god has commanded all men everywhere to repent.

So the message of the early church, which ought to be the very central message of the current church, is this very simple and yet very profound message that God has fulfilled his promises through the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension, the exaltation and the coming judgment of Jesus Christ himself.

He's victorious over sin and death and he offers salvation to the undeserving.

He has come to save the unsaved.

He's come to declare life where death reigns.

The question is, all of us need to ask ourselves how am I responding to him?

So that's the first of four points, the message of the early church.

Now we're going to look at the growth of the early church, and there is remarkable growth.

What begins in Acts, chapter 1, with what seems to be a rather timorous group, as someone put it this way, the book of Acts transforms the locked door of the upper room in Jerusalem and brings us to the very portals of Caesar's palace.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Right, I think that's a great way to look at it.

So, geographically, there's quite a transformation there, and also a transformation about confidence and boldness.

So I want to give you a blueprint for that growth, and you can find it in Acts 1.8.

You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, which we discussed in Acts 2.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth, judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.

Now there seems to be just a few stages there, but I want to offer sort of six expansive stages of geographical growth.

And at stage one is in Jerusalem.

And you go to book of Acts.

In chapter two you see them proclaiming the gospel in Jerusalem itself.

In Acts, chapter six, as they continued to preach in Jerusalem, the scriptures say the word of God continued to spread and the number of disciples in Jerusalem grew larger and larger and a great number of priests accepted the faith.

And so there's no geographical movement yet, but there is growth of numbers and even reaching into those people that were entrenched in the Jewish religion, the priests.

Stage two Palestine.

So let's go to Acts, chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Verse 31.

It says there so the church throughout all Judea, galilee and Samaria had peace and was strengthened, living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

It increased in numbers.

So there's expansion, geographical expansion, numerical expansion.

Just turn over a little bit to Acts, chapter 12 and verse 24.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

And there we find it moving not only from Jerusalem, not only into the regions of Palestine, but also into Antioch and beyond.

In Acts, chapter 12 and verse 24, the word of God spread and multiplied.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

It spread and multiplied.

So regionally, geographically and numerically it's growing through the regions of Antioch and beyond.

So in Acts, chapter 16, we can turn to verse 5.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

It moves beyond these regions into Asia Minor.

It moves beyond these regions into Asia Minor.

Acts 16 and verse 5, it says this so the churches were strengthened in faith and grew daily in number.

And you might be able to see at the very next verse in the heading over that in my Bible says evangelization of Europe.

Right, and that's the next stage.

And that's the next stage it moves from Jerusalem into Palestine, up into Antioch, into Asia Minor and then into Europe.

In Acts, chapter 19 and verse 20, it says this.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

It says in this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.

And then, when you get to Acts, chapter 28, the very last chapter of the book of Acts, in verse 31, it says Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and welcomed all who visited him.

Acts 28 · chapter mention

And where is he?

He's in Rome itself.

And it said he proclaimed the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus.

Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

We started off in Acts, chapter 1, lacking boldness and feeling completely hindered.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And now we are at the end of the book of Acts with full boldness and no hindrance, and we've seen the development geographically, as it's moved from Jerusalem to Rome.

There are other things that we could talk about.

That talk about the kind of growth.

So there's geographical growth, there's numerical growth, but there's also a growth of confidence in the proclamation.

This is something for us to understand.

Now there were barriers there.

Right, there were all kinds of barriers that they had to get past.

They passed over cultural barriers, geographical barriers, religious barriers, and yet the gospel grew beyond every one of those hindrances.

We should have the same sense of confidence that the gospel can cross over geographical, cultural and religious barriers.

It can overpower every one of those.

When God is going to move into an area, he is unstoppable.

The third thing we want to look at is the focus of the church.

The focus of the church and I think it is easily seen in that very last verse of the book of Acts is easily seen in that very last verse of the book of Acts.

What is the apostle Paul doing?

He's proclaiming the kingdom of God in Rome.

He's teaching about Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

I think there's a lot to be said there.

Early in the book of Acts there were all sorts of theological constraints, ethical constraints, and when you get near to the end of the book of acts you're starting to realize that there's some political and religious constraints, not just from the jews but also from the gentiles and the roman powers themselves.

And yet here at the end of it, you see that this freedom has surpassed the political dimension, it's surpassed the religious dimensions, and what it's telling us is that the focus of the church is not to intertwine itself with any of those things, that there was no earthly system, not even the most powerful empire in the world at the time, was going to stop and silence the gospel.

And so the apostle Paul was careful to distinguish and to keep focused on the message of Jesus Christ and not to turn it into some sort of quasi-political effort.

As he preached the gospel and others preached the gospel, they were scrutinized by Jewish and Roman courts and constantly they were found innocent of any effort of starting or maintaining a political insurrection.

Do I need to repeat that?

Because there is a danger in our generation and in our country of intermingling the Christian faith with a political movement, intermingling the Christian faith with a political movement, and the only ones that are going to lose in that effort are the Christians and the gospel.

But the Apostle Paul was careful to maintain his integrity and his focus on the gospel so that there was no way they could ever say that he in some way was intertwining with some political insurrection against the ruling powers.

And they weren't good people.

They certainly deserved to have their opponents and even their opposition, but Paul wasn't going to be a part of that.

He had one thing to talk about the kingdom of God.

He had one thing to talk about the kingdom of God, jesus Christ, and to be able to do it with boldness and without limitation.

So he stayed on message and while Rome symbolized the highest human authority at that time, through the gospel and the focus on the gospel, paul was able to show an infinitely greater power, one that challenged not just earthly dominions but spiritual dominions and conquered them through the resurrection and life of the gospel.

What does this tell us?

That, as believers, our kingdom is not of this world.

That needs to be our focus, that we need to live our life radically different from the political maneuverings of our day, and we need to stay a hold of that, because we're not here to overthrow earthly powers.

It's tragic.

Even today I was reading an article that just sort of enmeshed Christian belief, evangelical Christian belief, with political powers.

I thought what is going on here?

In Acts, chapter 26, paul explains that, as he proclaimed the fulfillment of what Moses and the prophets had said, that he was bringing a message that brought light to the Jew and to the Gentile.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

It transcended ethnic, national, political barriers.

26, chapter 26, verses 22 and 23.

So we need to be sure that we stay focused.

We don't allow the political parties to shape the contours of who we are as God's people.

We're not simply a small part of one political party's influence, nor can we think that God's work and will will be accomplished through them either.

It goes both directions.

Let's the last part.

We'll look at the breadth of the church and all of these, like I said, are a bit intertwined and as you go from Acts 1 to Acts 28, you can see all of them brought together in all these different places.

But the book of Acts documents for us an unfolding realization that the gospel is for all nations.

I had a friend of mine write me a note a little over a year ago and he asked me what I thought was a rather perplexing question.

He said this.

He said do you think that Jewish people who believe today are part of the church?

And I know what he was driving at.

He's kind of a.

His eschatological view was getting ahead of his biblical understanding, I think, and what he was asking was a question that had to pertain to schemes of eschatology.

And instead of jumping into that argument, I just wanted to make him think a little bit.

I said it's a rather interesting question that you ask.

I think it's a question that would have been completely baffling to the early church, because it was the opposite question that they were asking.

They weren't asking could a Jewish person who believes be part of the church?

The question they were asking was could a Gentile be part of the church?

Because they were convinced that what they were believing in Jesus Christ was exactly what the Old Testament promised they should be believing.

Hopefully.

Well, I haven't heard from him since, so maybe Actually I have, but hopefully it provoked a little bit of thought on his part.

But what are we doing here?

It's a question that in the book of Acts was asked as Jesus is about to ascend into the heavenlies.

What's the burning question that his disciples have?

Are you, at this time, going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

What does Jesus tell him?

This is none of your business right now.

Right now, there is something for you to hold on to, and he doesn't get into the discussion the way they wanted to discuss it, but he answers their question Proclaim the gospel question.

Proclaim the gospel, bring the message of Christ all over the world, and you might just find the answer to your question.

And so the breadth of the church is the gospel is for all peoples.

It's an expansive movement that embraces the Jewish people, embraces the Samaritans, embraces the idol-worshiping Gentiles, and it's a message that continues today.

This is not an American gospel, this is not a Western European gospel.

This is a gospel for all peoples, and if God's providence leads there to be a greater influx of belief in Christ in South America than in North America, so be it.

If he means to expand the church in Asia and we find ourselves, little by little, declining influence in the world in Christian circles, let them have it.

This is how God operates.

He is not bound to be a blessing to a particular group.

He is going to be a blessing to all peoples, just as we looked at right at the very beginning, that blessing comes in the repentance of sins, the reception of forgiveness and the belief on Jesus Christ.

The early church wrestled with this, as you know.

They wrestled with this question.

They thought the gospel was for the Jewish people and they were astounded to find it moving into Gentile circles and it took them a long time to try to understand how to interact with one another.

Wonderfully and eventually they did.

And we may find ourselves wrestling with how the gospel interacts in different ways with different cultures that we meet and move into with the gospel.

I loved what one of my friends did.

He was part of an evangelistic group and they headed up the prayer breakfast for California, for the governor of California, and one year they're asking themselves who isn't at this prayer breakfast?

And of course there's a lot of all the political people and everything.

And they said you know who's not at this prayer breakfast?

Gang members.

And they thought how can we, as people who are operating the governor's prayer breakfast, find a way to be able to reach into the gang members of California?

And the year that I went to the governor's prayer breakfast there was about 10 guys that were the meanest, orneriest looking fellows you've ever seen in your life, and they had already come to faith in Jesus Christ and were there as kind of a reunion, because these men thought let's reach out beyond our comfort zone to move into a place that's completely different than who we are, to bring Christ to them.

And here these guys were converted to Jesus Christ and at the prayer breakfast that I happened to attend, and talking with the same degree of love and excitement about Jesus Christ as anybody else there who was a believer.

So let us not be afraid.

We have a wonderful message to proclaim.

God is going to bring gospel growth to it in so many different ways.

All we need to do is stay on focus and not be ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for how wondrously the gospel has brought life.

Here we are, some 2000 years later, and still speaking with wonder and excitement that a savior has come, and we're grateful that he's come to us, and we long to see him brought into the lives of others so that they might join with us, not only now, but in that eternal day when we are free from all the bondages of sin and any of its effect and we can live our lives fully and completely in your presence with great joy.

Father, help us to keep our focus.

There's so many ways that people seek to maneuver and to manipulate your people and your message.

Lord, help us to keep centered on Christ in his person and his work, that which he did and that which he is still doing.

And, lord, we ask this in Christ's name, amen.