THE HEART OF THE CHURCH

"Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38) 

Read: Acts 2:14–41 

The early church united around the Gospel, the good news of Jesus. They listened to the apostles unpack what it meant for Jesus to be Lord and how forgiveness should change their lives. That’s the message of the section of our Bible known as the epistles. These are letters written to the early churches in places like Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica and other cities. As the church grew, the apostles wrote letters to help the new communities of followers of Jesus know what it meant to follow Jesus. 

The early church needed to know what they believed because it was so counter-cultural. They experienced social, political and family pressure to turn away from Jesus. The way of Jesus was so radically different from their previous lives that they needed help knowing how to do it. We still face some of the same issues even our culture has more of Christian history. There’s growing pressure to leave the socially inconvenient beliefs of Christianity behind. Many of us have grown up in homes where following Jesus wasn’t a priority. Like the first followers of Jesus, the more we understand and are overwhelmed by the Gospel—the less likely we are to cave to social pressure to abandon it. 

ON THE COUCH OF GOD TODAY 

Ask yourself whether you’ve ever accepted the free forgiveness Jesus offers. If you haven’t, start by acknowledging that you need forgiveness and telling God that you give him the rest of your life because he is God, and you aren’t. If you’d like to have a conversation about what it means to follow Jesus, we’d love to hear from you. If you’ve already accepted God’s offer of forgiveness, thank Him for forgiving you and ask him to let the depths of his love for you overwhelm you.