Synod Emphasis article from The ARP Magazine, March/April 2023.
By: William VanDoodewaard
Many western Christians feel a sense of discouragement. Cultural degradation, celebration of evil, political decline, news of war, and economic struggles weigh on us. Marriage and family breakdowns and other troubles in the life of the church are discouraging. We know that these are symptoms of the reality of spiritual decline. We soberly realize that people once known for honoring God and delighting in his gospel have come under his judgements as they worship the creature instead of the Creator (Romans 1–2). Added to these disheartening concerns can be a fear of what living in a crooked and perverse generation will mean for children and grandchildren.
The book of Acts provides us with an antidote to the spiritual depression and fears that weigh on us in an increasingly pagan context. As we come, sit, and listen to God’s Word, it opens our eyes to see his sovereign glory and majesty—not only his mighty judgements, but also in his continuing work in the world.
By the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Luke relays to us that where the gospels record for us “all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day he was taken up” (Acts 1:1–2), Acts is the beginning of the record of what our Lord continues doing from his throne in heaven. The Father and Son have sent the Holy Spirit; Christ our Lord is advancing his salvation and kingdom into the kingdoms of this fallen world.
Pentecost marks a marvelous transition in Christ’s beautiful, ongoing work. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the small Jerusalem church has holy boldness, love, and joy in proclaiming the gospel in a hostile and dangerous place. Peter, who not long ago denied Jesus, now stands preaching in the center of Jerusalem to crowds which included those who cheered the crucifixion of Jesus. On that Lord’s day, three thousand are converted, brought from darkness to light and life in Christ. Just as he had commanded them, the church proclaims the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and on to the ends of the earth.
Even the fierce, persecuting hostility of the Pharisee community is no match for what the Lord is doing by his Word and Spirit. Stephen testifies of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, right to death. Saul, breathing threats and murder against the church, wants to chase down and eradicate the spreading Christian church. Stopped on the way by the Lord’s direct intervention, he is blinded, humbled, and converted. His salvation confounds opponents of the gospel and astounds Christians, who can hardly believe even this man has been converted.
Paul, the last one chosen by Christ to serve as an apostle, takes up the call of going to the “ends of the earth” in his missionary journeys through the Roman Empire. Evangelizing, planting churches, teaching, counseling, and visiting with a team of other ministers and believers, he is used mightily through suffering. Scripture makes it clear that these early Christians struggled with the same things we do: the darkness of the world, the threat of persecution, and the temptation to sin. But Scripture also makes plain that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6). Christ gives his people eternal life, “and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of [his] hand” (John 10:28).
The reality is not only that our Lord is faithful in his steadfast love to his people, but also that he delights to work through his people so that they strengthen and encourage each other. When someone struggles, the Lord sends others to help—a pattern we see throughout Scripture (cf. Ecclesiastes 4:10; Romans 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:11). We see this beautifully in Acts 14. Pursued by persecutors, Paul and Barnabas have been proclaiming the gospel from town to city. In the midst of ministry at Lystra, Jews from Antioch and Iconium catch up, and stir up mobs against them so that Paul is stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead (Acts 14:19–20). What happens next? Does the advance of the gospel come to an end? Do the fledgling churches of Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra wither away under fear and pressure?
No. Christ is not only strong to save and sanctify, but he is also committed to preserving his people and adding to their number from every tribe and tongue, and nation. In this case, he spares Paul’s life, gives him and Barnabas renewed strength and courage, and they go on to preach in Derbe, where many disciples are made (Acts 14:20–21). Another church is planted! And then we read that Paul and Barnabas, and the other Christians traveling with them, go back “to Lystra, and to Iconium and to Antioch” (Acts 14:21). What do they do as they come back to these cities, where spiritual darkness was deep, hostility real, and churches small? They “strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith” (Acts 14:22). They loved their fellow Christians, no doubt prayed with them, read Scripture with them, preached the Word to them, and worshipped God with them. They talked through the reality of suffering in this life, “saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Their ministry on these return visits was a ministry of encouragement and strengthening, enabling their fellow Christians to know God more fully in his goodness, grace, and glory.
The ministry that took place on the return to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, included ordaining men as elders, following the paradigm in the epistles to Timothy and Titus. These fledgling churches were not only encouraged but also equipped in ways they needed for continuing life and ministry in Christ. All of this was, and still is, Jesus’ ministry to his people. The apostles and other Christians knew it: on their return to Antioch, they shared “all that God had done with them” (Acts 14:27). Perhaps these realities were on Paul’s heart and mind when by the Holy Spirit, he penned Romans 8:31–32: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can stand against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him graciously give us all things?”
Hebrews tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8). Our God is the sovereign creator and ruler over all. Through grace in the Son, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken—a kingdom that continues to advance to the ends of the earth. Let’s pray that our eyes would be opened to this more and more so that by the Spirit’s gracious work, we would grow in courage and take up the call to encourage and strengthen our fellow Christians. “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24–25).
William VanDoodewaard is an ARP minister serving as Academic Dean and Professor of Church History at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Greenville, SC.