Wow. I just spent some time reading Acts 1-13 - so challenging and inspiring. So many things to think about - here are some ramblings and reflections (apologies for the inevitable length of this post)...
Acts is an unfolding of the apostles trying to carry out the Great Commission that Jesus commanded them, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that he has commanded (Mt 28:18); the apostles hold on to this command, as when Peter says to the Gentiles that "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" (Acts 10:42). Reading Acts, I find myself thinking: proclaiming the gospel is a command of Christ - it is not an option, not something that is subordinate to good works and service, that we don't really have to do or can choose to shy away from. It is a positive command, an imperative. Jesus has commanded us to make disciples and teach people the gospel way of living.
This emphasis is shown throughout Acts and the movements of the apostles. Wherever they go, they actively and boldly (amazingly boldly!) proclaim the word of God, the gospel message, and what God has done for his people. I was really struck by the power of the gospel they proclaim (crowds instantly believe and are transformed, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, healing and signs and miracles), and how the apostles never shirked from opposition or persecution, or minced their words, even when the ways in which they preached the gospel were often quite harsh and would be deemed totally un-PC today. So Peter, speaking with such courage and conviction to the Jewish authorities, explaining the means by which a lame man was healed, basically tells them that it was accomplished through the power of Jesus who they crucified, and "there is salvation in no one else." (Acts 4.12) And when Peter is speaking to Simon, a recent convert and ex magician, after he wrongly wants to buy with money the ability to give people the Holy Spirit, he doesn't hold back in condemning Simon's behaviour - "Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon responds with repentance!(Acts 8:20-24)
The apostles were not scared when they proclaimed the gospel. They were not worried that what they were saying would not be inclusive or PC enough. They were aware of the truth, power, and scandalous offensiveness of the gospel, they had such faith in the gospel and what God wanted them to do, and wanted to share this earth-shattering message of hope and salvation with everyone. And they proclaimed the gospel out of their love for God and to share the love of God, not for self-centred reasons or out of a desire to exclude. And they accomplished great things with the help of the Holy Spirit.
I feel so challenged by this. I know that I and many people find it hard to share faith and preach the gospel because of fear, fear of other people's opinions or feelings, of being rejected or appearing to reject others. It is a valid worry in a world where the Christian message has been distorted and expressed to people in harmful ways that have nothing to do with the gospel and the love that Jesus wanted us to show towards others. I know that many Christians and communities consequently find themselves in a place where they avoid preaching the gospel, focusing their energies on other things and inadvertently or deliberately downplaying the necessity of evangelism and teaching.
There is nothing wrong with these other things in themselves - service, striving for social justice, good works... These are good things commanded and encouraged by God. The life of the Acts community engaged in these things too, selling their possessions and distributing financial aid to widows and people in need, providing relief to those who needed it. But these things were never done in isolation from sharing the gospel with those who had not heard it or did not believe it. Sharing the gospel was always an emphasis, and the life of the community was always a continuation and expression of the faith that they had, transforming their lifestyles and making them servants of the gospel in all areas of their life.
Have a look at Acts 6. Here a situation arises where some widows in need are being neglected and not receiving enough aid in the daily distributions. The apostles respond to this by picking seven strong and faithful disciples to serve in this way, while continuing to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, saying that "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables." (Acts 6:1-7)
What does this mean for us? The apostles tell the Christian community that "it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables". Preaching the gospel is something that cannot be dispensed with or given up and replaced with something else. At the same time the apostles delegate the duty of service to certain chosen disciples, affirming its vital importance and the different gifts and callings that different followers had.
I note all these things because for a while I have believed, in reaction to many frustrations I have had with some hardline conservative evangelical approaches to the gospel that have one-sidedly stressed evangelism and the Bible over against all other vital aspects of Christian life and mission, that preaching the gospel overtly was somehow something that wasn't all that important in community and church. In being swept away with the negativity of past experiences in other Christian communities, I have become reactionary in my view of evangelism, failing to come to terms with the reality of the Acts community and way that the church of the apostles operated.
I believe that we need to find a way to preach the gospel that is powerful and accessible and makes sense to the people we live with today. When the apostles shared the gospel message with fellow Jews, they explained how Jesus fit into God's salvation history and was the fulfilment of Old Testament hopes and expectations as expressed in scripture. Stephen's speech in Acts 7, his defence of himself and the gospel, is amazingly powerful, and must have been even more so for the Jews who heard it. The apostles explained the gospel in ways that made sense to the people who were listening to them. I believe that we need to learn how to do this; we need to know and understand what people's hopes, dreams, fears, and expectations are in the 21st century context in which we live, and figure out how to live and speak out the truth of the gospel message in ways that will make sense to our contemporaries.
I also believe that maybe in our culture we have lost the sense of the power of the gospel. The apostles and Acts community saw and were channels of real gospel transformation around them because they really, truly knew and had faith in the power of the gospel themselves. Stephen was stoned praying to God for his executioners to be forgiven. Reading Acts, I found myself constantly doing double takes and asking, Do I believe the gospel this much? Do I have that kind of faith and intimacy with the Holy Spirit? Because I think that if I genuinely believed the gospel in the way the apostles did, out of such a deep, deep place in me, I would talk about it and proclaim it a lot more than I do. So this is a challenge to ourselves and our faith just as much as it is an ecclesiastical / missiological challenge.
I think we are comfortable, too. Not just in terms of socio economics, but also in terms of our culture and the way we relate to one another. What I mean is that for the average Christian in the privileged/developed world, to follow the Jesus way isn't really a path of suffering and persecution. In our interactions we are afraid and worried even of saying things that might not please the other person, so explaining the gospel to a non Christian is so difficult. So in our culture we feel the need to scale down the scandal of the gospel, the inherent offensiveness and discomfort of it to those who don't believe. Maybe we sacrifice the scandal of the gospel for comfortable inclusiveness, because we fear upsetting people, and we fear that we will lose the popularity and social gain that we so desperately desire for ourselves.
In many ways it is easier to be nice and servant-spirited to non Christians than to actively explain to them in truth and love why we believe the gospel and why we think Jesus wants them to love him too. The two things aren't mutually exclusive, but I think that maybe some people justify the (inadvertent or deliberate) separation of preaching the gospel and living the gospel on grounds that they think are theological and moral but are really more down to our human fears and insecurities and shortcomings.
I am not just affirming one side of the dilemma, saying that we should preach the gospel and everything else is secondary or dispensable. I think that they cannot be separated - to live the gospel is to preach it in word and deed. And as the apostles rightly acknowledged, different people will have different gifts that they can use to serve God and people - as it says in Corinthians, some people will be preachers, others will be pastors, teachers, prophets, etc... But the point is that as a church we are one body that is seeking to represent Jesus and his message to the world, and all of us are required to encourage the sharing and spreading of the gospel in any way possible. In relationships on the day to day level this will involve serving with acts of love and explaining the hope that we have.
All things that we all need to reflect on.
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