This Sunday we start a new series, called “Acting Out,” through the book of Acts. For the next ten weeks we’ll be studying the amazing work of God as the Holy Spirit transformed the early church from being a disorganized band of discouraged and defeated disciples into an unstoppable force that continues to turn the world upside down even today. They had a purpose and a power behind them that compelled them to love each other radically, to care about people that others abandoned, and to sacrifice for a vision that was outside the boundaries of normal thinking. The reality is they were simply acting out the commands and convictions they had learned from their teacher Jesus.
At the time, people around them thought they were crazy, drunk, or both, just like they thought of Jesus. Why else would anyone act in such God-honoring, others-focused, and selfless ways? Threatening the status quo, they were misunderstood by critics and eventually persecuted by society at large. The early church rejected conventional wisdom, acting out against religious traditions and hypocritical spirituality. They were driven and empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the same mission as their master Jesus, who said, “I have come to seek and to save the lost.”
Read ahead in Acts chapters 1 and 2 to prepare yourself to be amazed at the ordinary people God used to do extraordinary things. By God’s grace, we too will be acting out the same ways they did! Could it be we’ll be called crazy? Could we be called on to suffer? Could we experience the joy and world changing impact that they did?
Acting Out for Jesus,
Kurt