Because He Lives – Change bring us to the end of the Easter season, but not the end of our sermon series. Next week we’ll finish it off with the Festival of Pentecost.
During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
A Vision In The Night
This was Greece! Different foods, different culture, and yes, different gods. It’s in this neck of the woods where Paul observes an altar to an unknown God. One thing that wasn’t different was the language. The whole Roman empire spoke koine Greek. That was the lingua franca, or common tongue. I’m not well traveled by any means, but I believe these days English enjoys a similar standard. 1.5 billion people out of the 8 billion or so can speak it.
Rescue Mission
The thoughts of a rescue mission remind us of our rescue. You see God never intended there to be sin or death in the world, but his plans changed. The crown of his creation rebelled and now death was a horrifying part of life. We all needed to be rescued from sin and eternal death. This mission to rescue mankind did not begin with Paul or even with the words of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). It began in eternity when God laid out an elaborate plan to save our lost and fallen race, even when we weren’t calling for help. The rescue mission included the sending of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who lived the life we could not live and paid the price for sin we could not pay so that we and all men might have salvation by God’s grace in Christ. The rescue of mankind was accomplished on the cross and at the empty tomb. All other spiritual rescue efforts are only efforts to announce to others that they have already been rescued.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s message from our series, Because He Lives – Change.
Book(s): Acts
Series: Because He Lives
Tag(s): Easter, evangelism
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg