With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. -Acts 4:33
I want you to pay close attention to what this verse says: "with great power the Apostles continued to testify of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." This is the crucial area in which they came together in full and unquestioning agreement. Jesus Christ arose. We are called to come together as followers of Christ in this shared witness to the resurrection of our Lord. If someone cannot agree with us as to the R of Jesus, then that person is yet to come under the ark of salvation. What I’m saying is, you can’t be a Christian unless you believe the resurrection. This was the heart of the early church’s message.
Do we think that religious movements and religious groups that spring up and come and go are something new? No, that sort of thing has been around since time out of mind. But here comes this group of people proclaiming something that had never been proclaimed before: The Lord has come into the world, we beheld His glory, the Word became flesh, and He died for the sins of the world, but He rose on the third day and in so doing overcame death and hell forever. This was unlike anything the world had ever seen or heard. And you know something? It still is. The world still listens to the message of the gospel and people continue to think that it’s unlike anything they have ever seen, heard, or experienced.
The Scripture also says that great grace was upon them all. The idea is that the people were experiencing an outpouring of the God’s Spirit that was different from anything they had ever seen. The Old Testament Jewish people knew something about God’s Spirit, but now the Spirit of God was abiding in the hearts of people – common people like you and me. The vilest sinner can find forgiveness in God’s eyes and be saved from sin, hell, and death. This is where we come face to face with the scandalous nature of God’s grace. Here’s what I mean: If someone is accused of a crime, all the evidence is against him, and it looks obvious, at least to us, that he did it, but then the jury find him innocent, then what do we say about that? We say that it was a miscarriage of justice. It was scandalous. A guilty man has gone free. We are scandalized at such a verdict and rightly so!
This is why the grace of God appears to be so scandalous in the eyes of the world. The most wicked and vilest sinner can be forgiven. And not only forgiven, but adopted by the Father and given a full inheritance – that is being forgiven by God and granted life eternal. For many people they look at that and they reason that it’s just too much to take in. And I say they are correct. It is too much to take in. That’s why we take it by faith, not by sight or reason.
Christ has come to save sinners and to bring hope to a lost and dying world. The message for the troubled soul is that there is hope in Jesus Christ. He will bring you through whatever storm you are facing. Trust in Him today.
