As we seek to put feet to our faith, what can we learn from the Book of Acts? The Book of Acts is the inspired account of the origin and initial expansion of the Christian Church throughout the Roman Empire. In Acts, we see Christianity full of energy and power in action, conquering the pagan cultures of Asia Minor and Southern Europe. As the sacred history book of the early church, Acts is a missionary and an evangelist manual. Acts is the second part of a two-volume history. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells of all Jesus began to do and teach. The second part, Acts, tells us of what Jesus continued to do through the power of the Holy Spirit. The size of Acts and the size of Luke are the absolute maximum of a scroll. It couldn't be any bigger than that. So that's why it had to be two volumes. And that also limits what's in there, because they're about the maximum size of a scroll. Psalms is five scrolls, by the way. Written before the death of Paul and written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, because it makes no reference to either major event, Acts is a powerful account of the mission to the ends of the earth. Luke clearly shows how the events recorded in Acts were brought about by the will and the purpose of God in fulfillment of the scriptures and the prophecies of the Old Testament, as directed by God himself, confirmed by signs and wonders, that this mission is his work. The gospel of Luke ends with the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is where Acts begins. You could summarize Acts as the Lord went up, the Holy Spirit came down, and the disciples went out. And that would be a good thing for the church to always be doing, lifting the Lord up, seeing the Holy Spirit come down, and going out. The first call is to come to Christ, but the next is to go for Christ. Acts 1 verse 8 summarizes the progression in Acts. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to other parts of the earth. That is actually the structure of Acts. Acts 1 verse 8 is the key verse. Acts records the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria, to the Gentiles of Syria, Asia Minor, Greece. The account starts in Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the world, and ends in Rome, the secular capital of the world. Super significant. There are five summary statements that mark off sections in Acts. And notice what's common to each of them. So the end of the first section of Acts is Acts 6-7. And the word of God spread. The number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. A great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. That's the end of the gospel going to Jerusalem. And then at the end of Acts 9 verse 37, the end of the gospel going to Judah and Samaria, then the churches around all Judah, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. There's that word again. Then going towards the uttermost parts of the earth, Acts 12 verse 24, but the word of the Lord grew and multiplied. Acts 16, verse 5, so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. You can see as they're getting further and further in the uttermost parts of the earth, Macedonia and Cornwall. Acts 19, 20, so the word of God grew mightily and prevailed. These five statements mark transitions in ministry between ministry amongst the Jews in Jerusalem, the Hellenists and Samaritans, the Gentiles in Antioch, Asia Minor, Europe, and the final section being Rome. So Acts abounds with transitions. It's a transition from the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth to his chosen apostles, from the old covenant to the new covenant, from Israel to the church. Acts provides the vital link between the gospels and the epistles. Key people and places. mentioned in the epistles cannot be understood without the Book of Acts. If you want to know what happened in Corinth, how the church got planted in Corinth, and why the letter to Corinth is saying that things are, you've got to go back to Acts to see what happens with the planting of the church in Corinth. Same with the Galatians and the Colossians and the Philippians and so on. So the Book of Acts is critical to understanding the epistles. While the phrase baptized by the Holy Spirit occurs in all four Gospels and in 1 Corinthians, only in Acts is it explained what really happened and what it means to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. While the church is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, Acts explains how churches were planted, how apostles appointed elders, what the relationship was between the apostles and the churches they founded. Acts explains how churches conducted their services and their outreaches. It's a manual. So, here's an outline of Acts. There's the preparation for the disciples for witnessing, and then there's witnessing in Jerusalem, then there's witnessing in Judea and Samaria, and then witnessing to uttermost parts. Acts documents what a biblical church involves, most of which, by the way, were in homes. Bible teaching, worship, intercession, breaking of bread, fellowship, caring and sharing, evangelism, missions, caring for widows and orphans, responsive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, transforming lives and communities, applying the Lordship Christ to all areas of life. That's what congregational worship is. The Christian message is universal. It's for all people of all generations of every nation on earth. Christ himself commanded his church to cross all boundaries, cultural, religious, geographic, and linguistic, to make disciples of every nation. In missions, we speak about E1, well, E2, E1, E2, E3. Basically, E0 is evangelism, missions, geolocal, language, culture, geographic area is E0, you're not crossing any boundaries. You're witnessing to people who speak the same language, live in the same area, there's no boundary. E1 is you're crossing a boundary, like you're going to Judea. Same people, same culture, same language, but it's geographically further away. Samaria is a different culture, not far away. That's E2. E3 is uttermost parts, like if you're going to Saudi Arabia, will you be crossing geographic boundaries, cultural barriers, religious barriers, every barrier possible being crossed. So that's E3. So in missions, if you're an evangelist in Cape Town, You might be doing E0, but maybe you're doing E2, because you could be ministering to Muslims in Borkop. It's geographically close, but you're crossing a cultural and religious barrier, and so on. So you could be in Cape Town involving E1, even E2 as well. because we've got so many cultures and religions all around us and languages. You can be doing ministry to people who speak French, Portuguese, Swahili in Cape Town. You can have Indonesian sailors coming past Table Bay. So you can do all kinds of evangelism in Cape Town and missions. It is God's will that God's people be for salvation to the ends of the earth. The word witness is used more than 30 times in Acts. Holy Spirit is mentioned over 70 times in Acts. Some have said it shouldn't be called the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Holy Spirit, which is also true. God is named over 100 times in the book of Acts. The Greek word translated witness is martyr. So Acts demonstrates how costly witnessing for Christ can be. Witnessing cost the deacon Stephen his life. And witnessing was the cause of the imprisonments of both Paul and Peter. And later they martyred him too. The hated Samaritans respond to the gospel. An African, an unclean Gentile, a Roman soldier centurion at that, a woman turned to Christ and are used by her in ministry. All prejudices are confronted. No one is barred. Everyone is welcome. God's grace knows no bounds. Notice the three remarkable conversions in Acts. Acts chapter 8, the Sudanese treasurer, the treasurer of Queen Candace, the so-called Ethiopian eunuch, although people get confused because there's a country today called Ethiopia. But remember, it was called Axum in the days of the Bible. It was called Abyssinia until very recently. Only after the Second World War did Abyssinia and Eritrea join, and they were called Ethiopia. But Ethiopia used to mean anywhere south of Egypt in Africa. And so Ethiopian is a very general term. And he was the treasurer of Queen Candace. And Queen Candace was of the kingdom of Meroe, which is what today would be northern Sudan. So I prefer to call him the Sudanese treasurer, although most people call him Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts chapter 9, you have the persecuted church Saul converted. In Acts chapter 10 of the Roman centurion, Cornelius converted. So those are three remarkable conversions. The descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, representing the three main races of mankind, are all converted in the book of Acts. Ham, Shem, Japheth. Very significant symbolic importance showing the gospel is for all cultures, all races, all people. The message is clear. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the message. What about the messengers? Acts clearly shows that the church, composed of both Hebrews and Gentiles, is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The apostles, in their preaching, often quoted from the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms. Peter spoke of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers. He quoted from the prophets. He quoted from Moses and David, from Joel and the Psalms. He preached in the temple, and he proclaimed the Messiah. When Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin, he clearly showed that Christianity is completely in keeping with the faith delivered to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets. The disciples addressed the crowds as fellow Israelites, descendants of Abraham, proclaiming Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. The method that the disciples used was, they were to be witnesses to the ends of the earth, and when the Lord was commanding them to go to the ends of the earth, he promised them supernatural power to accomplish their mission. Deunomos. Acts 2 records the fulfillment of that prophecy, when God poured out the Holy Spirit upon them. Now in God's sovereign will, the circumstances surrounding that event undermined the purpose of God's blessing. The day the church was born was Pentecost, the harvest festival, which is always held seven weeks after the festival of first fruits, which is Christ's resurrection from the dead, when the wheat was harvested. So Christ is the first fruit and Pentecost the birthday of the church. On that day, the great missionary psalm, Psalm 67, would be sung. May God be gracious to us and bless us. May your ways be known on earth, your salvation amongst all nations. May the peoples praise your God. May all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy. Then the land will yield its harvest and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. They were singing this when the Holy Spirit came down on that day. This is exactly what God did on the day of Pentecost. He blessed the waiting disciples, and he made them a blessing to the peoples, to all the peoples gathered in Jerusalem from the various nations. The land yielded its harvest. 3,000 were converted to the faith on that first day of the church. From that harvest were people from Europe, Mesopotamia, Persia, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Arabia. Just to remind you, Mesopotamia is Iraq today, Persia is today Iran. So countries that are still in the news today were amongst the first converts. Not only did the Holy Spirit empower the disciples, but they were enabled to miraculously speak in the many Gentile languages represented by the crowd gathered in Jerusalem. The people heard the gospel in their own languages. the Lord to make it clear, we're not called to be buckets, we're called to be hosepipes, we're called to be channels. We're not just to receive God's blessings, we're to be channels of his blessings. You're saved to serve, you're converted in order to bring other people to Christ. And so the Holy Spirit's not just there to make us feel good, it's to empower our evangelism and our witness. In the context of the Lord's great commission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, the giving of miraculous ability to speak Gentile languages had missionary purpose. The power of God's Holy Spirit is given for world evangelism. Whenever Jesus promised the power of the Holy Spirit and whenever that power was given, it was always in connection with proclaiming the gospel and making disciples of all nations. There was much opposition to the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles, and God had to initiate every stage of its early development. An angel of the Lord led Philip to the Ethiopian treasurer, the Sudanese treasurer to Queen Candace on the road to Gaza. The Lord himself appeared to Saul to commission him to be the leader to the mission to the Gentiles. An angel instructed the Roman centurion Cornelius to call for the apostle Peter. The Lord gave Peter vision three times to prepare him for the mission to the Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit guided the church at Antioch to send out Barnabas and Saul, their two best, on a mission to the Gentiles. Paul was given a vision by God to lead him to take the gospel to Europe, Macedonian call, come over and help us. The Lord instructed Paul to testify in Rome. So unquestionably, the Lord wanted the Gentiles evangelized. Maybe the book of Acts was written to persuade the church to get out there into missions because that's the result of it. God not only guided the mission to the Gentiles, he poured out his blessings on every aspect of it. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Samaritans in Acts 8 in a similar way to the day of Pentecost. The Gentiles in Cornelius's house received the Holy Spirit in the same miraculous way. They get Pentecost blessings. They were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Lord was with the Gentiles in Antioch. A great number were converted, and they showed much evidence of the grace of God. Now, Antioch was a Gentile city. And you quickly see Antioch becoming more important for the spread of the gospel in Jerusalem. And so there's transition continually. God put a seal of support on the first mission to the Gentiles by performing many signs and wonders during the outreaches. Notice the missionary setting model of the church in Antioch, Acts 13, one to three. They've got a praying and fasting congregation, which sends out two of its very best leaders, Paul and Barnabas. I know when I first got started in my theological studies to get ready for missions, I was told several times by leaders and lecturers at the college, don't waste your time in missions. You can be a pastor in a local church. This idea that missions is like for the second race. It's for losers. If you've really got talents, you should be serving the church. The church in Cape Town is more important than the mission field across the border. We, as a mission, sacrifice to send two of our number to local Bible colleges and to seminary in town. And both of them were pressured by even the principal of the college to give up on going back to missions. But now this is somebody who had recruited Naomi, brought to the Lord, got him called to missions. He had worked three years for us before we sent him to college to get more training. And they tried to talk him into becoming a lecturer in the college upon graduation. I mean, how's that for treacherous? Why would you want to send your missionaries to theological colleges if they're going to try and talk them out of missions? And some of them did get talked out of it. But the idea, you shouldn't be wasting your time on missions. You could be leading a church locally. And I just looked at that as this is a temptation from the devil. God has called me. I'm not going to be sidetracked. But notice, The church is fasting and praying, and the church leaders come to Paul and Barnabas and say, God has called you. Now, what normally happens now is some enthusiastic youngster goes to church elders saying, God's called me to missions, and then the church leaders try and discourage him from going. But the model is the church leaders are meant to be looking for their best and saying, God's calling you to go into the field and we'll support you. But then that suggests that the church must support the missionaries that go out from their number. So generally what you find is church leaders trying to persuade their members not to be missionaries, not to respond to the call. That's not the model that you see in the Book of Acts. In the Book of Acts, the church leaders are thrusting the people out in the field. Notice it was at Antioch the believers were first called Christians. The power base of the church shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Peter to Paul, from Hebrews to Gentiles, and the child quickly outgrows the parent. The early church had advantages we don't have. There was a common language, a lingua franca. Greek was the common language, so much so that there's strong evidence how Lord Jesus did his preaching in Greek. Now we know this because even Matthew Levi wrote Matthew's gospel which was written primarily for Jews in Greek. Now if Jesus had preached in Hebrew, it would make sense that the gospels would be written in Hebrew. But for the same reason that you've got Afrikaans Christians preaching the gospel in English today, it's not because English is the home language, it's because English is the lingua franca of today to reach many more people, or in some places it would be French or Portuguese. or Arabic in some place, but the fact that even the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's gospel is all given in Greek suggests Jesus probably was preaching gospel in Greek. And it wouldn't make sense for later they had to translate Matthew into Hebrew. If Jesus first preached in Hebrew, then you would think the words would be in Hebrew. But at any rate, that just should make you think. There was this convenient language that was known widely, which was Greek. And there was Roman peace, which is nice when you don't have... You can imagine how complicated it is to preach a gospel in Ukraine and Russia right now, or in Iran, or Israel, or Gaza, because war makes things difficult. But the Roman peace, the Pax Romana, served the cause of the gospel. There were good roads. It really helps when you've got good roads and bridges. And the Romans built roads and bridges to connect the empire. There was a reliable postal service. And the epistles could be written, because there was a Roman postal service that safely, reliably delivered these to every part of the empire, whether you're talking about Philippi, Colossae. You could have the epistle to the Romans, epistles to the Corinthians, because there was a good postal service. Now, they had difficulties. There were so few of them, only 120 to start with. They had no learning, virtually no learning. Matthew might have been better educated than most of the rest, but most of the apostles had very, very basic, minimal learning. I mean, how much education did a fisherman have? And they had no organization. Obviously, there were no printing presses, no radio stations, no films, tapes, digital technology that we use today, obviously. But they did have problems bigger than what we often face today. They had to contend with tremendous racial barriers, tremendous class structures, religious pluralism, extreme decadence in society. There was persecution from the Jews initially, political persecution from the Romans, general cynicism of the pagan society. The people had lots of gods, but they didn't believe in any of them. Yet the Christians succeeded in conquering the Roman Empire because they lived their message. They were transformed by it. Their dedication, their willingness to obey, no matter what the cost, was obviously impressive. Their obvious love for one another. Jesus said, by this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. And they did. They were enthusiastic. They had a joyful sense of discovery. God has acted. God has come into the world. Emmanuel, God with us. Christ has fulfilled the prophecies. He's risen from the dead. exuberance in their proclamations. They endured. They had obvious concern for widows, strangers, and orphans, so much so that, for example, the Romans at that stage had the practice of throwing unwanted babies to the wolves. If you didn't want to raise your child, literally raise the child, unless the Roman man picked up his child and literally physically raised it, that child wasn't legally his. And so he could say he didn't want the child for whatever reason. Parents could legally abandon their children outside the city walls. That's where the term abandoning them to the wolves or throwing them to the wolves comes from. Rome was even founded by Romulus and Remus, twins who were abandoned by their mom, and a wolf raised them. So sometimes you had wolves showing more compassion than the mother. Can you imagine? And Rome was founded by that, but it didn't stop them from abandoning babies to the wolves. And Christians adopted many of these kids, which is illegal, by the way. They adopted many of the kids that had been legally thrown for the wolves to eat. And the church, it said, grew more by adoption than by evangelism at one stage, because there's so many kids being thrown away, and the Christians would adopt them and raise them. Now, this was impressive. Even the pagans could look and say, wow, these Christians, goodness me. And the priorities of the elders at that stage was prayer and the word. This is evidence of the overflowing, life-changing, character-transforming power of the Holy Spirit. And because the apostles were so busy with prayer and the word, the deacons were appointed to take care of the administrative matters of the church so that their leaders could spend more time devoted to prayer and the word, which was to the benefit of everyone. They exiled in every member ministry. They had shared leadership. It wasn't one leader of the local church. There were multiple leaders in every local church. And because there was shared leadership, it wasn't an overwhelming burden of only one person. Every member of the church was involved in some way. There was dynamic, fresh, varied worship. They emphasized teaching and obedience to God's revealed word. But every member was involved in regular evangelism. The scripture makes clear that all the believers were spreading the word wherever they went. It was spontaneous. It was natural. It was continuous. It was joyful sharing of the gospel. The church didn't grow through evangelistic rallies run by Peter and John. It grew from every single member being involved in daily evangelism. to the fishmonger and the baker and to the people in the town, the carpenters, soldiers, whoever was around on a daily basis, the Christians were sharing their faith. And this spread the gospel very quickly from Jerusalem to Rome and to that's when it was part of the earth. They worked from where they were, Jerusalem, outwards in ever-widening ripples. Like you throw a rock into a pond, you're going to see those ripples go right to the edge ultimately. They started by concentrating on the God-fearing fringe. Now, there were a bunch of Gentiles who were attracted by the monotheism of Israel. They didn't want to get circumcised. They didn't become Jews. But they were God-fearing Gentiles. And that's where they started with, because obviously, they'd be more responsive. They had more understanding of the Old Testament prophecies. So they were a logical place to start. You start with the people who are responsive, our friend Small Paul, who does the Chalk Talks eventually, he says, if you're a fisherman, where do you go to fish? Where the fish are biting or where they're not biting? He said, well, where there's more fish and where there's more chance of catching fish, that's where a fisherman goes. It does make sense. What would you think of fishermen who, well, I haven't caught any fish, but I've influenced a few. I mean, a fisherman doesn't catch fish, he's not a fisherman. An evangelist, he doesn't win souls, he's not an effective evangelist. And so it's a bit sad to find this. I know whole missionaries, missionary organizations even, where they haven't won a single soul to Christ, where they're all busy with all sorts of things, but they're not winning souls. Somehow or another, you can be busy with a lot of spiritual and religious activity without winning souls, but that's the heart of the gospel. They ran a lot of home meetings, and these were informal, relaxed gatherings for evangelism, fellowship, prayer, communion, and follow-up. The early church you'll see regularly, to the church that meets in a house of so-and-so, all these different churches, whether you think of Philippi and so on, they were meeting in somebody's home. They often held discussions on neutral grounds, because You just think, well, even myself, how did I get converted? I was brought up in a secular family. I was not converted by going to a church. I wouldn't go to a church any more than I'd go to a private club. Down the road, we've got the Kelvin Grove. I don't think any of you here would go to Kelvin Grove unless you were either a member or a member had invited you. And you'd feel a bit nervous going into a private club where you're not a member. I would never have walked into a church, ever. But after my conversion, a local Christian family came, collected me from my home on Sunday morning, and drove me to church and walked in with me. Absolutely essential. I would say when you brought someone to Christ, take them to church the first time. It's very intimidating for some new convert to go into a church. When you're not brought up in a church, it's so intimidating. If they were planning an evangelistic rally in an advertised church venue, people like me would never have gone. But I was converted because the local church hired out a local cinema. Nothing threatening what going to cinema, feel at home in a cinema, you know, as from a worldly secular background. So you hold an evangelistic rally in a Neutral venue, school hall, town hall, cinema, something like that, tent. People feel freer to go. But if you do your evangelistic rallies only in a church building, you're going to scare away the average lost person. So neutral grounds. They wrote and used scriptures and literature. That's why we've got the New Testament. Because they were writing epistles and scripture, literature, in order to follow up the convicts. They engaged in missionary journeys, the Apostle Paul being a classic example. They relied on personal conversations. You can see there's a lot of personal conversations in the Bible. Never underestimate that. I remember being in the army at one stage after we'd had our big route march all over the place, compass things, and a few of us got back to base in time for the chaplain's period, that was every Wednesday. There were only about 60 or 70 of us back at that stage by the time the chaplain's service came in. The chaplain came there, stood at the entrance, smoked a cigarette, threw it in the ground, stamped it under his foot, under his boot, and then he walked away saying, I'm not going to waste my time on a few people. There were only about 60 or 70 of us there, not the whole company. And he walked away from the chaplain's period. My first opportunity to preach in the army, because the pagans, they didn't want to lose their chaplain's service opportunity to sleep. Because if they weren't in chaplain's service, they'd have to be training, which meant running at the double, marching, things like this. So the pagans thought, Hammond, give us a sermon. Yeah, you know, I'm the local religious nut. A saltivy is like a soul mechanic. So, you know, you're the saltivy. So, you know, Jesus freak, give us a message. So, okay, I stood up and I knew they're going to fall asleep. They're not interested in what I've got to say. So I started by insulting them. And I stood up and said, you know, you've got names for us, well, we've got names for you. Pagans. Heathen, lost, you're like a drop of water on a wave, you're like a piece of grain in the wind, up, down, back and forth, you've got no stability, you're not rooted down there, you're aimless, you came from nothing, you're going nowhere, life is meaningless. And I was with this bunch of mostly Afrikaans guys, so I said, you speak about the Kafirs. Well, you know what Kafir means? It means unbeliever. You're the real Kafirs. You don't believe in Christ. You are religious, yes. I said, the black people are entering into heaven ahead of you because you are trusting in your religion. There's no salvation by skin, the problem's not skin, the problem is sin. You're not saved by race, you're saved by grace. And I just insulted the guys, and I just kept insulting them. These guys were screaming and shouting, but nobody was sleeping, that main thing. So I just stood up there and I just threw insults at them, and these guys were all, but smack, smack, smack. And at the end of it, well, we had a chapter service. But why? The chaplain scorned speaking to just a few people. He walked away from 60-odd people. He didn't want to waste his time with such a small chaplain service. Jesus gave some of his best to one person, one woman at the well, Nicodemus, came by night. And I've had sometimes, I've been in big churches, and there's been a congregation of two or three. And there's one time I'm thinking, Whereas up in one place, the three included my fellow college student and our host, and his wife was the pianist. That was the congregation. And full-on service, but I felt an obligation as untold to give my best. It didn't matter who was there and who wasn't there. I said, sometimes we must remind ourselves not to be distracted by who's here. Today we must not be distracted by who is not here. We're here for the Lord, and we should give our best to whatever the small group is that God's given to us. And I've had the privilege of preaching to some of the biggest churches and to some of the smallest. And sometimes you can find the small congregations, the remnant, is where you have the greatest blessings. Numbers are not the thing. Faithfulness is everything. The Apostle Paul taught in Athens. Now, look at the creation evangelism. Now, in Athens, he wasn't speaking to God-fearing Gentiles. He wasn't speaking to Jews who knew the gospel and the scriptures. He was speaking to pagans. So he stands up and he begins with creation. God is the creator of the whole world and everything in it. Sounds a bit like the message that Anthony was given. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. God created all the races of mankind. God commands all men everywhere to repent. God will judge the whole world. So clearly Christianity is for the Gentiles because they too must be saved. This is creation evangelism. In order to communicate the gospel to the ends of the earth, the gospel has to overcome many obstacles. There's geographic obstacles and distances to travel. The apostle Paul ends up in the ocean on a few shipwrecks too. There's languages to learn. There's customs to understand. There's cultures to penetrate. There are racial differences. There's political divisions. There are tribal loyalties. All these need to be understood. Cultural misunderstandings have to be cleared up. Confusing aspects of the message must be explained. In many ways, the greatest obstacle to the spread of the gospel is the cultural barrier. are people in Eastern Europe saying, you know, you talk about passing the Bible like this king, and you'd get these communists screaming, you know, monarchy and, you know, kings are evil. Okay, you know, and this man owned many sheep or he had vineyards, oppressive bourgeois, Why is it not nationalised? Why is he having private ownership property? So they're getting stumbled on that. Now, he could be in Papua New Guinea and he's speaking about, though your sins be escorted, they shall be as white as snow. Well, what's snow? What's a sheep? They don't even know what a sheep is. So some people have tried to speak about pig, which is more known. But can you say Jesus is the pig of God? No, that doesn't work very well. The lamb of God, you've got to teach the concept of a lamb in some places. Amongst many of the tribes, you don't knock on the door unless you're a thief. To say, behold, I stand at the door and I knock. Well, you only knock if you're a thief. You want to see if there's somebody there. You knock to hear if there's movement. If you're honest, you'll say, behold, I stand at the door and call. Hello, this is Peter here. Is anyone here? Or who's home? No, is John here? You would speak so they could recognize your voice. But to knock suggests that you're dishonest and you're a criminal. So when they proclaim the gospel in some of these places, they don't use, behold, I stand to knock, but behold, I stand to call. It's still communicating the same thing. Though your sins be as scarlet, yet shall be as white as the kernel of a coconut. They don't know what snow is, but they know what the kernel of a coconut is. Would that be acceptable? And so you've got to think, how do I overcome this barrier? Aksh records the problems caused when people saw the gospel as a threat to their culture. They brought them to the magistrates and said, these men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city. They teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. Those people at Philippi saw Paul and Solace of a different race, another religion, advocating foreign customs, and this they fought against. The charge against Stephen was he was trying to change the customs of the Jews. A riot was caused in Ephesus when the people felt their idol worship was being threatened by the preaching of Paul. You know, just imagine if you're making idols and people are coming to buy, like, Corinth, the Temple of Diana, and they are wanting to preach against idolatry, will you destroy my business? You can also imagine drug dealers aren't going to be too thrilled if you're coming into the area. And you're going to, of course, be getting people sober and off their product, not good for their business. And so the idol worshipers were extremely threatened by the preaching of the Christians. The Apostle Paul described some of the cultural obstacles that he encountered in this way. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. To the Greeks, foolishness. Now in Acts 5, we see the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who engage in deceptions that seem to be more spiritual to the church. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Here you see the seriousness of sin. The principle here is not, as some claim, socialism. There's a world of difference between voluntary Christian generosity, what's mine is yours, giving, and compulsory communist or socialist coercion and confiscation, what's yours is mine, and taking. The apostle Peter declared, while it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. To Sapphira, Peter said, how is it that you've agreed to test the spirit of the Lord? So you can see the seriousness of sin, and the gospel affects every area of our life, even our money and our possessions. Imagine if God struck dead every member of our churches who engaged in some form of deception. We'd have a lot of funerals. The issue in Acts 5 is pride and deception. Peter declared that they'd lied to the Holy Spirit, they'd lied to God. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things, and I'm not surprised. In fact, I've come across a few cases like this. There was someone who I knew. I knew well. I met him in the field and was involved in missions. Uncle asked me what I knew about this person. was reticent and he sort of put on the thumbscrews and extracted from me more than I had wanted to say, which basically was this person had engaged in some pretty serious deception. I was then taken out for the day to get to see some of the battle sites and historical things, Alundi and so on. Uncle Olu organized for me to travel around Zuland for some historic things one day. When I came back that night, I saw this very man being carried out into a hearse. He had died that day, just fallen dead. And I felt terrible because I'd just been saying some bad things about this chap earlier in the day. And Uncle Olu said, took me into his lounge and said, Peter, revivals are frightening things. I said, this has happened before. And he warned me again over the fact that people come to a place where there's revival, don't think that it's all just wonderful, outstanding, tingling sensations and all of that, people get struck dead in a revival. It happens. And so great fear did come upon the church. I mean, when God moves in a church, you can imagine if God's disciplining his people, you could see some pretty terrifying things happening. God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. and you see some amazing conversions and acts. The Ethiopian treasure was led to Christ through the reading of the scriptures. Do you understand what you're reading? Saul of Tarsus was confronted by Christ as a blinding light. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He said, well, I'm not persecuting you, I'm persecuting those Christians. Well, whatever you did unto one of these, my brethren, you did it to me. Lydia, the first convert in Europe, responded to the proclamation of the gospel. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. Remember, people we win on the streets need to first be won on our knees in prayer. It's praise the power. We can't save anyone. It's the power of the Holy Spirit that regenerates souls. So the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. The Philippian jailer was struck in fear by the earthquake that struck the foundations of the prison. He fell down between Paul and Saint-Saëns. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, bear in mind that if the jailer had allowed his prisoners to escape, he could have been executed for allowing it. The Philippian jailer. And the fact that when he The prison foundations are shaken, the doors are wide open, the gates. He could have easily escaped, but he comes and he finds Paul's house is still sitting in a cell. His life is saved. So what must I do to be saved? He obviously understands something special is going on here. So they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Now, I think this is often misunderstood or missed, this you and your household. Some people are suggesting that this is where you must bring your babies in arms to be baptized as well. But there's no mention about the ages of the household. I mean, these could have been teenagers who the gospel has explained. The whole household believed and were baptized. This doesn't give us a reason to assume that this include babies who did not understand the gospel. they could have all been pretty grown. Like I've got children but they're all grown adults right now. And so you say you and your household will be saved. Nevertheless, I do believe we should not raise our children assuming they're pagans and that it's up to them to decide. We should bring them up as Christians but let them know they need to make the Lord their own Lord. God does not have grandchildren. And so got to be every generation applying the Lord to their own life. Nevertheless, we shouldn't just think of ourselves as a whole bunch of individuals. As families, there's covenants too. And when a man comes to Christ, he should bring his wife and his children to the Lord as well. But to put them under church Christian discipline from the beginning is wise. Now the kingdom of God is spiritual in nature, but it's international in membership and it's relentless in expansion. The disciples moved out with a zeal that could not be quenched and with the courage it was unflinching. And I mean, imagine this, these Jews from a second class citizenship in a oppressed remote part of the Roman Empire, them and the gentile converts won the whole Roman Empire until the entire Roman Empire became officially Christian. That's an extraordinary achievement. Notice the Book of Acts shows salvation includes repentance from sin, faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, a public confession of faith, which includes baptism, daily discipleship, prayerfully following, worshiping, and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ. That's normal Christianity in the Book of Acts. Culture does not need to be our enemy. It can often be used as an ally. The Roman peace throughout the Roman Empire gave the believers unprecedented opportunity for cross-cultural evangelism throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean world. Under Roman rule, Paul, Bonobo, Silas, Timothy, and others could evangelize without the problems of tribal warfare or political boundaries. Acts also records several cases of Paul being protected from Jewish mobs by Roman officials. So in the book of Acts, the Romans were not as much of a problem yet. That became later, and in their own song. But initially, the Romans were protecting them. The Roman civilization provided excellent roads, many of which are still there. They spread the gospel message and the postal service was used for the distribution of the apostolic epistles to the churches. In the same way, we can look at the internet today as an opportunity for us to spread the gospel on paths that are so easy. So great was the influence of the Greek culture upon the Roman Empire. Believers were able to use the Greek language to spread the gospel and the scriptures throughout the civilized world. Not only was Greek one of the most widespread languages in the world at the time, it was one of the best mediums for communicating theological thought. And by the way, that's thanks to Alexander the Great for conquering so much of the world. He prepared the way for the gospel because he spread the Greek language. He was not thinking of the gospel, of course. I mean, Alexander the Great just doubtless a polytheistic pagan idolater, but God used him to prepare the way for the gospel in the way of spreading the Greek language. Much use was made of synagogues. Diaspora Jews had established throughout the Mediterranean world. It was Israel who first established a synagogue after the return from Babylonian exile, and that became the foundation model which congregations followed later, where teaching is the primary purpose of the local synagogue. Paul used these as initial basis for many of his missions. Persidia, Iconium, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, Ephesus, other places. He started with the local synagogue. And the influence of the Hebrew religion prepared many people for the message of God's salvation through Christ. Luke focuses primarily on the apostles, Pete and Paul. It's not the acts of all the apostles. mainly a few of the acts of Peter and some of the acts of Paul. While both are distinctly different individuals, there's some startling similarities between the apostles, Peter and Paul. I don't know if you've considered this. They were both filled with the Holy Spirit. They both performed miracles. They both saw visions. They both presented powerful sermons. They both proclaimed the word of God with courage and boldness. They both proclaimed the gospel to Jews and Gentiles, and both Peter and Paul suffered for the faith. They were both imprisoned. They were both miraculously set free. They both healed the sick. They both cast out demons. They both raised the dead. They both declared God's condemnation on false teachers. They both refused worship when converts started to worship them. They both died in Rome, although Paul, by being beheaded, and Peter by being crucified upside down, because Paul was a Roman citizen, so he got the benefit of a beheading instead of a crucifixion. Paul was ideal for cross-cultural missions to the Gentiles. Few men would have been better suited to bridge the gap between the Judaic traditions and the Gentile world. Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee. He was a son of a Pharisee, thoroughly trained in the law by the famous Gamaliel, zealous for religion, yet brought up in a prominent Hellenistic university city of Tarsus. He would have been exposed to its cosmopolitan life, its Greek philosophy, and its literature. Paul's Roman citizenship was a tremendous help in his mission to evangelize and disciple Gentiles. Paul became all things to all men in order to win them to Christ. He was a Hebrew to the Hebrews. He was a Greek to the Greeks, a Roman to the Romans, a Gentile to the Gentiles. And often we've got to be like that too. Paul turned the obstacle of culture into an opening for communication. Here's one example to close with. Three ancient writers, Dionogenes, Laertes, Philostratus, and Porcellanus, recorded a plague around 600 BC that struck the city of Athens, decimating the population. Even though the people of Athens offered sacrifices to their thousands of gods, begging them to intervene and stop the plague, the people continued to die in their thousands. In desperation, the elders of the city sent for a Greek hero, Epimandes, asking him to help them. Now addressing the situation, Epimenides concluded, there must be some other more powerful god who didn't consider himself represented by the thousands of idols in the city. And so he reasoned that any god who is great enough and good enough to do something about the plague would probably forgive the ignorance, if they openly acknowledged the ignorance, of him. So he called the people to bring a flock of sheep to a sacred plot of ground in Athens called Mars Hill. And there he sacrificed the sheep to the unknown god. And all three writers confirmed that the plague lifted immediately. Men of Athens, Paul said when he got to Mosul, I perceive that in all things you're very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an ultimate inscription to the unknown God. And there it is. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you. In effect, Paul's saying foreign gods know that God, I proclaim to you, is the one who did what none of your thousands of futile idols could do. He saved Athens from the plague. God now commands all men everywhere to repent. Here's Apostle Paul using the local culture and history in order to bring the gospel of repentance to the people of Athens. So Acts boldly proclaims that Christianity is for every culture, every race, every nation. Culture can be an obstacle, but can also provide an opening for the communication of the gospel. Maybe you've heard or seen the Peace Child, which showing how in Papua New Guinea, or Erinjara, God revealed to Don Richardson, a missionary there, a way to show that Jesus is the Peace Child, which is something they use culturally to settle wars between the different cannibalistic tribes, and that Jesus is the Peace Child. And so he's saying in every culture, there's some redemptive analogy you can use to reach them. And as Anthony was saying, look for that Achilles heel, look for that spot. Where's that weakness? Where's that opening that you could use or exploit in evangelizing anyone? We're called to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.