People come from all kinds of different backgrounds and life experience. Yet what unites all of us is that we are sinful and lost and desperately need a Saviour!
The great news is that God who made us has come in the person of His Son the Lord Jesus to do just that by dying in our place on a cross and proving it worked and giving us living hope by rising again from the dead. Jesus is alive!
That same risen Lord Jesus is building His church – and as we saw last Sunday morning from Acts chapter 13, His church has the potential to be THE great means of uniting people from all kinds of different backgrounds and situations: in ancient Antioch the church was a great example of what happens when people pay attention to what Jesus says. It led to a vibrant Christ-centred, God-honouring body of believers who were determined to put the Word of God into practice. It’s no surprise that they were led to send some of their leaders to people who didn’t know the Lord Jesus so that they could hear all about Him and come to know and love Him for themselves.
The result was Paul’s first missionary journey and many people coming to know the Lord.
Is any of this relevant to us in the 21st Century? Definitely: as we commissioned Klaas-Jan to go to be the Pastor of Fernwood Church, our goal is the same:
That he might:
- ‘be set aside the work’ the Holy Spirit has called him to (vs2)
- ‘proclaim the Word of God’. (vs5)
…. and many people might believe.
Let’s pray for Klaas-Jan & family that the Lord might bless them and their work in the days to come…
Spencer Shaw