Acts 20:1

You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, signs, and wonders... him being delivered by a determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God has raised up... Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? (Acts 2)

The unchanging mission of the church is to preach the simple gospel of Christ—and every believer is sent to do it.

The Acts of God in His Church

For several years we have been studying through the book of Acts alongside the epistles in chronological order—James, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians—and in just a couple weeks we will begin Romans, which Paul wrote while preparing to journey back to Jerusalem. Before we do, I want to reacquaint us with the book of Acts.

This great book, often called the Acts of the Apostles, is really the act of God in His church. Acts 28 leaves the story open-ended because we, the church of God, are still writing it. God is continuing to work throughout the world—here in North County, in China where our team just returned safely, with Luke and Kristen in Mozambique and Anna in Israel. There is far more going on than we know, even in our own church, because God is always at work.

Power, Opposition, and Radical Transformation

Acts is the story of how God works in and through His church to accomplish mighty things—the power of God at work through ordinary people to do extraordinary things. But it is also the story of the enemy seeking to oppose that work. When we come back into Acts 20, we will see a group of men, the daggermen, who made it their life's ambition to kill the Apostle Paul, even vowing not to eat until he was dead.

Throughout history the enemy has opposed the church through persecution. We experience little of it here, perhaps some verbal opposition, but at this very moment there are believers imprisoned, beaten, and killed for naming the name of Christ. According to Voice of the Martyrs, there are more martyrs now than at any other time in history. There has always been, and will always be until the Lord returns, opposition against the work of God.

Acts is also a story of radical transformation. God transforms individuals by the gospel, then takes those transformed people and makes them instruments of radical transformation in the world. Names like Peter, James, John, Saul, Barnabas, Silas, Titus, Priscilla, and Aquila were all radically changed by God and then used by Him.

Gospel Proclamation Is the Heart of It

There is no radical transformation without gospel proclamation. In His wisdom, God chose what Paul calls the foolishness of preaching to bring about salvation. Those who have been brought into the body of Christ and transformed by the gospel are then called, with the power of God resident in them, to go forth and proclaim the good news of the kingdom. From cover to cover, Acts is a story of gospel proclamation.

This is exactly what Jesus commissioned His disciples to do: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Acts is the early fulfillment of that command, and for 2,000 years it has been the work of the church. There will be no church without the preaching of the gospel.

God empowers every believer for this purpose. Everyone who has put their confidence in Christ receives the indwelling Holy Spirit. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts" (Acts 1:8). When the church was persecuted, they prayed for boldness to preach (Acts 4:31), and God gave it. Whatever comes against the church, it will never stop doing what it was sent to do—wherever the Lord takes us, from just outside these doors in Escondido to Africa or South America.

What John, Jesus, and the Twelve Preached

Throughout the New Testament, ordinary people did exactly this. John the Baptist "came preaching in the wilderness of Judea" (Matthew 3:1), and his message was simple: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (3:2). We can bog down the gospel with technique, but at the end of the day it is simply this: turn to Christ, because what you are pursuing cannot save you—only He can.

Jesus Himself was anointed by the Spirit and sent by the Father to preach. In Nazareth He read from Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor... to preach deliverance to the captives... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18–19). When crowds came seeking Him as a healer, He said, "Let us go into the next towns... for therefore came I forth"—I am here to preach (Mark 1:38).

Yes, Jesus did miracles and fed multitudes; He is God incarnate. But He did not come for that sole purpose—He came to preach. Many leaders in America today say we should focus on deeds and social justice rather than words. All of that is right and important, and our works should mirror what we preach, but we must never neglect the preaching of the gospel. "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). If that was good enough for the Son of God, it is good enough for us.

Jesus "ordained twelve that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach" (Mark 3:14). When He sent them out, He said, "As you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 10:5–7). This is the essential mission of the church. Before ascending, He extended it beyond Israel: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). And they obeyed—"they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them" (Mark 16:20).

The Daily Practice of the Early Church

In Luke 24 the risen Christ told His disciples that everything written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms concerning Him had to be fulfilled. Then He opened their understanding and said, "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:44–47).

This became the daily practice of the early church. Though the religious leaders commanded them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, "daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ" (Acts 5:42). And when great persecution came under Saul, it did not stop them—"they were scattered abroad, they went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). Persecution only scattered the preachers.

This work will continue until the end. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14). The Greek word often translated "preach" is euangelion, from which we get "evangelize." Words for preaching appear 134 times in the New Testament—37 times in Acts. Of course the church also did good works, healed people, and cared for widows (Acts 6), but the primary thing was preaching the gospel. We are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood... that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9)—and that calling rests on every believer, not just pastors and elders.

What They Preached

What exactly did they preach? The Scriptures show us. They preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Mark 1:4). They preached that men should repent—and that includes everyone (Mark 6:12). They preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus (Acts 8:12). They preached the word of the Lord (Acts 8:25). They preached Jesus (Acts 8:35). Saul preached Christ, the Messiah who had come (Acts 9:20)—and there are Jews still today longing for a Messiah who has already come in Jesus of Nazareth.

They preached peace by Jesus, Lord of all (Acts 10:36). They preached that Jesus was ordained by the Father to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; John 5). They preached the Lord Jesus (Acts 11:20), the word of God (Acts 13:5), and forgiveness of sins in Jesus (Acts 13:38). And simply, they preached the gospel (Acts 14:7)—which contains all of these: forgiveness in Jesus, peace through Him, His lordship, His role as Creator. If a church does not preach the gospel, it is not the church, for preaching is the essential mission He commissioned us to do.

Why We Preach: The Foolishness of Preaching

First and foremost, we preach because we were commanded to—and that alone would be sufficient. But consider Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 1. "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (1:17–18).

Many in our 21st-century Western culture call preaching ludicrous and outdated. But people have been calling it foolishness for 2,000 years. "After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1:21). Here is a vital truth: you cannot find God inside the box of creation—not through astral projection, transcendental meditation, or scientific observation, because God exists outside His creation. Creation points to Him—"the heavens declare the glory of God"—but He must reveal Himself to us by His Spirit.

Our culture prizes knowledge and wisdom; consider the staggering student-loan debt. We are very much like the ancient Greeks, enamored with the mind. "The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called... Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1:22–24). The foolishness of God is wiser than men. If man could figure out God, God would not be God—so He chose a method the world calls foolish to bring salvation.

The Power of God Unto Salvation

In Romans 1, Paul, indebted to preach, says, "I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth... For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:15–17, quoting Habakkuk 2:4).

This matters because the majority of the world's people are trying through their own means—meditation, self-denial, good works, intellect—to attain enlightenment or salvation. The Bible reveals there is nothing we can do to achieve it ourselves. Righteousness and salvation come only by putting our faith and confidence in God. That is why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel: it is the very power of God to save everyone who trusts Him.

There is an old saying, often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words." It is poetic, but the reality is that preaching the gospel requires words. Our lives should back up what we say, but the gospel must be spoken. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved... How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?... So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:9–17).

The Simple Gospel Defined and Defended

This is the essential mission of the entire body of Christ—not just pastors, evangelists, and elders, but every believer, empowered by the Spirit, in the face of opposition, to bring radical transformation through gospel proclamation. When confronted with this, many feel fearful, because it means we have to actually speak. To some in this room, talking to a neighbor or co-worker about Jesus feels as terrifying as being stoned in Iran. Yet Jesus promised His power, and Paul speaks of a debt to declare the gospel to those who have not heard or received it.

What is that simple message? Paul defines it in 1 Corinthians 15: "I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you... by which also ye are saved... For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (15:1–4).

Even skeptics will admit a man named Jesus lived and died 2,000 years ago. But the potent reality is the next three words: Christ died for our sins—as a payment, in fulfillment of prophecy, most notably Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53: "By his stripes we are healed." He was buried, because you only bury the truly dead. And He rose again the third day. The death and burial mean nothing without the resurrection.

The gospel is then defended by eyewitnesses: "he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, of above five hundred brethren at once... after that, of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all... of me also" (15:5–8). The veracity of the gospel rests on the resurrection. "If Christ be not raised, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain... ye are yet in your sins" (15:14, 17). But because He is risen, He is the atoning sacrifice for all humanity.

Sent Forth to Proclaim

You cannot preach merely about the gospel without preaching the gospel itself. The Scriptures make it clear: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23); we exchanged the glory of God for idolatry (Romans 1:23). Ten out of ten people sin, and the wages of sin is death. But "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And so Paul told the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31)—putting trust no longer in self, good works, intellect, or meditation, but wholly in Him, for "he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him."

We gather on Sunday mornings to confess our sins and receive the Lord's forgiveness, for the gospel matters for our whole Christian life. But then we are sent back out to declare it to co-workers, friends, fellow students, neighbors, and family. This is what we are to do in North County, and wherever the Lord may take us. You may say, "I'm afraid, I can't." Then you deny the word of the Lord, who promised to make you a witness by His Spirit. So, like the early church facing real persecution, let us pray for boldness.

Closing Prayer

Father, we ask right now that You, by Your Spirit, would give us boldness—the ability to step outside our comfort zone and ourselves and share the simple truth, to say to people who are lost and dead in their trespasses and sins, who will stand before You one day because You are the judge of all, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here, awaiting you to lay hold of it by faith and trust in Jesus Christ." Lord, enable us to boldly say this.

I pray for all my brothers and sisters in this room that You would not let any of us go through this week without being confronted with someone who needs the gospel. Bring into our path this week someone at the grocery store, the gas station, at work, or at school who needs Your grace, and challenge us by Your Spirit to step out and share. Help us in our day and culture to do what the church has done for 2,000 years. Thank You, Lord, for Your enabling power.

And if anyone here has not yet put their trust and confidence in Jesus for salvation, but has been confronted with the reality that you have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and you see how much He loved you—demonstrating it by dying for your sins—and you want to receive by faith the precious gift of salvation today, I want to give you that opportunity. God desires all men everywhere to be saved. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Amen.