Pandemic

• Series: Pandemic
• by: Adam Sheffield 04/06/09

The book of Acts is a historical and accurate account of the birth of the early church and how it immediately grew from a small group of people meeting in one place in Jerusalem to thousands and thousands and thousands of people all over the Mediterranean world before even 100 years had passed since Jesus’ death and resurrection. Acts also shows how mere mortal men, weak and flawed, were gripped by the Holy Spirit and used to transform the world. Their actions and beliefs continue to ring through the halls of history today.

Just think how the world would be different if the 11 remaining disciples hadn’t stayed in Jerusalem and received the Holy Spirit but instead returned to collecting taxes and fishing as broken and disillusioned men. Or what if Paul felt betrayed by God after some Jews tried to kill him with stones and left him for dead and so went back to Jerusalem and died a bitter old man harboring resentment towards God? Over half of the books in New Testament would be missing!

Their obedience to God changed the world. And so does ours which is one of the reasons why we’re going through the book of Acts in our next sermon series, Pandemic: The Gospel Unleashed. We can’t recreate the day of Pentecost or the threats of death which forced the early Christians to be so genuinely powerful, urgent, and passionate in their faith and their acts. However, by studying Acts we’ll see what it means to truly be a hardcore Christian, to face real persecution for your beliefs that most of us will never know, and we’ll see what undying devotion looks like as each of the disciples (besides John) and Paul drink from the cup of martyrs. We’ll see their fervent passion to speak of Jesus Christ in every opportunity they received because they understood that as Christians, we have the responsibility to take the Good News about Jesus Christ to the ends of the Earth. Sometimes that starts with your neighbors just one door down, but in each of our lives it has to start somewhere.

We invite you to join us every Sunday as we read verse by verse through the book of Acts in Pandemic: The Gospel Unleashed. Don’t let the past tense of the word “Unleashed” fool you, though. The Holy Spirit is very much alive today and working in the lives of believers worldwide. Our hope is that by going through Acts, we’ll see how it doesn’t matter that we’re not great leaders, or well versed orators because all we’re called to do is to allow God to lead us and allow Him to give us the words to speak. Nor does it matter how much money we have or how smart we are because everything in this world is God’s and His wisdom makes mankind look foolish. These are the exact things we will see the Apostles learning, and more, as they discover the joys and heartaches that come with living for Christ as they are swept up in the pandemic that begins taking over the world in their lifetime and continues to do so in ours.

Live for Christ. Unleash the Gospel. Spread the pandemic.