Starting the 18th July 2021, Salt Church will be focusing on Acts 1-8!
The history recorded by Luke shows again and again the intense opposition and persecution God’s people face, yet how the message they preach continues to go out and cannot be stopped. They carry the news: ‘God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah’, and ‘Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved’ (2:36, 4:12).
That news rings out to the ends of the earth, and it is unstoppable. The big message of Acts is the gospel is unstoppable. God will save through the message of Jesus, the Church will grow and be strengthened in spite of seemingly overwhelming persecution and potential divisions.
This growth is inevitable because God cannot be stopped; His promises have been fulfilled; His heart is for all nations to respond; Jesus is governing his church by his Spirit; and the Spirit empowers believers to witness to Jesus, even in the face of hardship and persecution. Incredible pictures of the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church come as summaries all throughout Acts:
‘About 3000 were added to their number that day’ (2:41)
‘So the word of God spread’ (6:7)
‘Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace’ (9:31)
‘The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord’ (11:21)
‘So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers’ (16:5)
The book ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome, which is the centre of the Gentile world. Luke tells us: ‘For two whole years Paul stayed there… and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance!’ (Acts 28:30-31). In 1 sense, the gospel has reached the ends of the earth: from the Jewish capital Jerusalem to the Gentile capital Rome. But in another sense, the work has only just begun…
We’re on the same mission, with the same message, same Spirit, as servants of the same Lord Jesus Christ. In our current culture it seems that the church is under fire, numbers are declining, Jesus is less and less relevant to our culture, and it’s hard to be on Mission. So we need to see from Acts that the message we believe, and the news we hold out to the people of the Illawarra, is unstoppable.