The Work Goes On

The Work Goes On

Acts 1: 1-4 New Living Translation
1 In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach
2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit.
3 During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

   The opening words of the book of Acts gives us insight into what Jesus was doing for the forty days after Easter until He ascended back to Heaven.  He talked to them about the Kingdom of God.  I wish we had these words but the Holy Spirit chose not to record them.
   The author tells us that his first book, we presume it was the Gospel of Luke, told all that Jesus began to do and to teach.  Here, we see the end of His time on earth and He is still teaching His followers.  But His ascending back to Heaven was not the end of His ministry, it was only the beginning.
   In His earthly ministry, He only could inter-react with a few hundred people.  With the aid of the Holy Spirit and through the work of His followers, the Gospel has been taught for over two millennia and to literally billions of people.  Think of this!  You are a link in a great chain of faithful witnesses stretching back to the Disciples.  In that same chain are names like Peter and James and John, Paul and Priscilla and Aquila and Barnabas and Silas and Timothy.  Think of the evangelists of modern times who preached in tents and stadiums.  You are linked to them all.
   You have wonderful and deep roots in the church.  You are spiritual descendants of true heroes who offered and, in many cases, gave up their lives for the Gospel.  There is a lot bad happening in the world around us, but we still have a mission field to work and the Gospel message to teach.  The Gospel is needed as much today as it ever has been in history.  For everyone who is in any way spiritually aware, Jesus is still teaching and still doing.  We ourselves are testimony to the power of the Gospel.  We learned of our sin and we asked the Lord for forgiveness and prayed to Him to save us as a result of someone’s prayers and faithfulness in witnessing.  I have never met a Christian who spontaneously “popped” into existence.  We all are the products of someone presenting the Gospel to us.
   So I urge you, O Christian, get out of your laz-y-boy and shut off the TV and go share your testimony with someone.

Stephen Cram                            April 14, 2013                  
I have a Bible study posted online on ustream.com.  http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/31176739  Its long but, I hope, not too boring.
(I’m the gray-haired guy on the left; the guy on the right is our Pastor, Jon Rhinehart.)

Colossians 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.