Final Preach

October 5th was my final preach at New Community Church, a really intensely emotional moment for me actually. I cannot actually articulate why? I am one of those guys who feel things at a depth that it takes me a while to draw out the content of what is going on ‘in there.’ I have two more parts of my ‘Unleashing the Church’ series in Watford and then a final Sunday here at New Community on the 2nd of November; a stage of life is coming to an end.
Here is the skeleton of my final preach here:
We have started a preaching series through the book of Acts called ‘The Pioneering Church’ and I had the great privilege of preaching from Acts 3. I entitled it “The Message of the Pioneering Church: The Gospel.”
In Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, the church was equipped with the power to continue the ‘Mission of God’ (Missio Dei) which is our mandate as the church.
This is a mandate that we must respond to! In Acts 3 we the message of the mission is unveiled. In verses 1-11 we have described a powerful attention-grabbing miracle that would leave any contemporary Christian pleasantly satisfied.

Surely Peter could walk away pleasantly pleased at this powerful display of healing. NO! Peter is abundantly aware that the church’s participation in culture is not just the initiation of social justice; the church is more than a social help agent solving our societal ills. He must stand; he must declare the message of the pioneering church. He must declare the message that God has given the church to bring about the restoration of all reality and the reconciliation of relationship with the offended creator God and self-destructive mankind.

The gospel is our message for the mission, it is a stunningly beautiful multi-faceted jewel that the church is commanded to use and capture the attention and hearts of a lost world in which we are immersed.
Here are just 5 stunning facets of this message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, revealed in the verses 12-26 of this passage:

GOSPEL THAT MUST BE ANNOUNCED: We must notice that what Peter and John have just accomplished in the healing of this man was not enough for them. These men were filled with the Spirit of God and knew that this moment was one to be seized to announce the Gospel.
GOSPEL OF ANCIENT TESTIMONY- (Vss. 13, 18, 22-25)
This message is not a new message! This message is not one plucked out of thin air. This message is one with ancient testimony. Listen to what a commentator writes on Vs. 24, “From the inception of the prophetic office down through the whole order of the prophets, all had spoken of ‘these days’, which had found their ultimate fulfilment in Jesus Christ.”
GOSPEL ABOUT JESUS CHRIST- (Vs. 6, 13-16, 20) Tim Keller: “Irrevocably Christological”. Listen to Peter in Acts 4:12; Jesus Jn. 14:6; Rom 5:1,2 & 6-8
GOSPEL ACCEPTED BY FAITH- (Vs. 16)
There may be nothing more important to us than coming to understand this truth. If only Jesus’ righteousness and obedience and goodness is acceptable to God the father. Nothing, NOTHING we do or seek to achieve will achieve acceptability before God.
Note these verses Rom. 3:21-26; 28 ‘faith’, ‘faith’, ‘faith’.
GOSPEL APPROACHED WITH REPENTANCE- H S. 17-19; 23)
This is the extremely unpopular bit, this is a concept virtually unspoken of in current Christianity. But it is central to the gospel. Why? Because we don’t just have a loving God we have an offended God.
Check out these verses: Is. 55: 6,7; Mt. 1:17; Mk. 1:15; Acts 2:38; Acts 17: 30-31; Acts 20: 21; Heb 6:1 (‘foundational teaching of the faith’).

The Gospel: It is the best story ever told, the truest truth, the power of God to save; it is a stunning jewel.
Simon