Chaos and Grace by Mark Galli

Author:Mark Galli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

In this part of this book I want to look at our contemporary situation, at ourselves as individual believers and as members of Jesus’s church. I want to suggest how in various ways we subtly turn the gospel of liberation into a religion of control. More importantly, I want to suggest ways in which I believe the Spirit is calling us back into a life of freedom. I can think of no better way to suggest the startling contrast between what we are tempted to become and what we can be than by looking at how the Holy Spirit shaped the early church in the book of Acts.

For instance, one of the most startling things about the preaching found in the book of Acts is how little interest the apostles show in meeting people’s needs. Not one sermon by Peter or Paul or Stephen starts off by articulating a felt need of the listeners. Few preachers today would dare begin a sermon without first talking about what listeners are feeling or thinking or wrestling with. But the apostles seem indifferent to their listeners’ life situation.

Nor in Acts do we find sermons about how to have a better marriage, how to raise Christian kids, or how to be a better Christian at work. No preaching on how to share your faith or how to change the culture. No jokes. No come-ons. No cute stories about one’s kids or wife or what the preacher did on his vacation. The early church did none of these things to win a hearing.

Instead early preachers talked about the story of the Jewish people, interpreted from the perspective of the recently murdered Jesus. They talked about the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, followed by a call to repent. For example, note the end of Peter’s first sermon, which summarizes these themes:

Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. . . . Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:29–33, 36)

While the call to repent is a regular feature in the apostles’ sermons, the spiritual needs or wants of the listeners is never the focus. It’s not about their fulfillment or their duty. It’s not about their calling or destiny. The sermons are about Jesus Christ.

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