Sunday, July 22nd
Read: Acts 28
“‘I asked you to come here today so we could get acquainted and so I could tell you that I am bound with this chain because I believe that the hope of Israel—the Messiah—has already come.’ They replied, ‘We have heard nothing against you. We have had no letters from Judea or reports from anyone who has arrived here. But we want to hear what you believe, for the only thing we know about these Christians is that they are denounced everywhere’ (vs.20-22).
Love is our greatest weapon because it never fails. This can translate into evangelism, and this can lead to persecution, suffering, and martyrdom. Many people consider this teaching to be very extreme. Most “normal” Christians would say that being tortured for Christ’s sake is only something which is set apart for “extreme Christians.” Perhaps this teaching is not extreme but, rather, normal. Perhaps this suffering should not surprise us as Christians, and that those who claim to love Christ but sit in their pews and never get persecuted for what they believe are actually the abnormal ones.
Two definitions of the word “extreme” suggest “Most remote in any direction; outermost or farthest” and “Extending far beyond the norm.” So, in order to understand the meaning of extreme, we need to discern what the norm is. The apostles, whose lives and ministries are recorded in Acts, were some of the very first Christians. The book of Acts is a history of the grass roots of Christianity. Here, we can learn the basics and the standard.
This was the early Church’s experience—people being healed, the dead being raised, people having demons kicked out of them, persecution, martyrdom, and people getting saved every day. This is generally not your experience in church today. Why is this the reality today? Has God’s agenda changed? Or has the Church’s agenda changed? There is still so much we can learn from the early Church and it all is very extreme.
In Acts 28 Paul meets some guys who have heard of Christians. Their reputations were extreme and they were denounced everywhere and were bound in chains because of their beliefs. This is the normal. Being tied up in chains for Christianity is normal. Being persecuted and kicked out of a town for your faith in Jesus is normal. Hundreds of people getting saved every day is normal. God’s normal is extreme! Are you willing to be a part of it?
Process:
– What is your experience? What do you consider to be normal? What do you consider to be extreme?
– What is something that goes back to “normal” Christianity that you find very different from your own experience?
– Do you believe that God is working or can work today the same ways he did in the book of Acts? What might that look like in our world today?
– What from the book of Acts has encouraged you to live a life of radical Christianity?
Youth Department