Reaching Out With The Good News Of Jesus Christ

‘Reconciled’ to God through Christ, we have received ‘the ministry of reconciliation.’ Saved by Him, we are to ‘work with Him.’ We are ‘not to accept the grace of God in vain’ by living for ourselves. We are to be ‘ambassadors for Christ.’ We must proclaim the urgent message of salvation - ‘now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.’ We must call men and women to respond to God’s message of salvation: ‘Be reconciled to God’ (2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2). If we are to be effective ‘ambassadors for Christ’, we must dedicate our lives to Him: ‘Let us cleanse ourselves… and make holiness perfect in the fear of God’(2 Corinthians 7:1). Without this heartfelt commitment to godly living, we cannot really serve the Lord at all. Our wrong lives will drown out our ‘right’ words. We need true lives as well as ‘true’ words.

Witnessing For Christ In Today's World (4)

What do we mean when we use words like “evangelism” and “mission”? If “evangelism” means no more than bringing people to faith in God, have we taken them any further than the deist who sees ‘God’ as the most rational explanation of the mystery of life. Surely, evangelism takes us beyond this by focusing attention on our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. When mission emphasizes the importance of being a “gracious neighbour”, we must surely take care to make it clear that being a gracious neighbour arises out of loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength (Luke 10:27). If, in our understanding of our work for the Lord, we emphasize the importance of both our words and our actions, I don’t think there is any great need to say that evangelism is one thing and mission is something else. Both words describe our commitment to serving the Lord in the whole of life.

The Promise of God And The Call To Mission

Acts 1:1-2:47
"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1). "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised ..." (Acts 1:4-5). In Acts 1:8, we have the promise of God and the call to mission. God's people pray (Acts 1:14). They are waiting on the Lord, trusting that He will fulfil His promise: "Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31). Notice that the Holy Spirit is God's gift (Acts 1:4). The disciples are not being rewarded for their commitment to prayer. They are waiting upon the Lord who sends the Holy Spirit as the gift of His grace.
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This is the first post in a series on "The Word of God and the Spirit of God in Acts 1-2."