We build up disciples, found churches and further the Kingdom.
When we study and preach or teach Acts today, we are struck by how distinctly unfamiliar yet strangely familiar it is. We are not first-century persons, hampered by all the physical and cultural limitations of a prescientific society. At the same time we have our own limitations: we do not live in the age of the apostles and do not have direct contact with those who experienced the ministry of Jesus immediately. It takes some work to “walk in the sandals” of those first Christians. Yet in some ways our post-Christian, postmodern world has come full circle. The worldview of many outside the church is not unlike the approach to spiritual things of pre-Christian first-century pagans. And the church faces similar challenges in communicating the changeless gospel message and in nurturing the faith of converts within an increasingly hostile environment. Luke would not be surprised that Acts can communicate the good news to the late-twentieth-century person who is asking, though in different words, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). After all, that’s why he wrote it. And for the Christian, Luke’s work provides an encouraging and challenging model of what God can do with a Spirit-filled people who are completely devoted to him.
BPC “New Life” – Svishtov
18 Tsar Osvoboditel Str.
5250 Svishtov
Pr. Timothy Awtrey
tel. +359895690141
email: tim@awtrey.me